Hip Hop Class

So after weeks of walking by the 7 PM Hip Hop class on Thursday nights at LA Fitness, Robin and I finally said, "OK, we're trying this!" The class is usually pretty packed. I was so nervous haha! But it ... was ... A BLAST! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. If there's a class at your gym you've been wanting to try, just get over your fears of looking stupid and go do it!

We are totally doing this class together every Thursday now. The instructor has moves for each song and they're so easy to catch on to as he switches up everything, no need to explain steps or anything like that. It had us moving and sweating so that's good enough for me! Plus we probably burned an extra 100 calories from laughing so hard. It's a good mix to the routine because by Thursday night, I've been feeling like, "OK...which cardio do I do tonight?"

I really want some sort of guidelines I can stick by, because I feel like I slacked off on eating again this week. Didn't eat anything TOO terrible, except for Wednesday morning...was running late to work and we had a LONG production day ahead of us. So I swung by McDonald's and picked up a sausage and egg biscuit...AKA, a 600 calorie, 33 g fat BOMB. Was so kicking myself for that one.

Still, I worked out 5 times this week: Twice on Monday, Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Friday morning. Going to try and get some in on Saturday too.

TGIF!!!

Back to life, back to reality

Work was so crazy today! Always is when coming back from time away from the office. Catching up on phone calls, sorting things out, figuring out what needs to be done - lots of chaos! I also had an additional 17 scripts fall into my lap which of course did not all get completed. So I'll be working on them after I finish this blog and probably will need to go in early tomorrow.

I didn't work out on Sunday because there was too much to get caught up on after my trip and more scripts to write for work. I decided to just start fresh on Monday.

Woke up at 5:45 this morning and had my old pre-workout standby: reduced fat peanut butter on 1/2 of a whole wheat English muffin. I did some weights:

2 sets of biceps curls, 15 reps with 15 pound weights
2 sets of triceps raises, 15 reps using 1 15 pound dumbbells
2 sets of chest flys, 12 reps using 25 pounds resistance

Then split up my cardio:
15 minutes on the Stairmill, level 10-12
15 minutes running on the treadmill, resistance at 1.5 and speed 5.8-6.0

Food for the day:
Breakfast - 1/2 container plain Greek yogurt with strawberries and Kashi Go Lean Crisp

Snack - 8 honey wheat pretzels with Athenos red bell pepper hummus
- 100 calories of monterey jack & cheddar cubes

Lunch - Lean Cuisine Parmesan Crusted Fish

Snack - rest of the Greek yogurt with Kashi Go Lean Crisp

Dinner - Small piece homemade lasagna (no idea how to quantify this haha)

Went to Boot Camp and it was a great class, lots of arm resistance moves.

Daily Plate Totals: 1,390 calories consumed. 45 grams fat
Calories Burned: 485

Alright I have tons of work to do. Later!

Back from Florida

Took some time off and went to Ft. Myers Beach, Florida with my aunt for a few days, Wednesday through Saturday. I'm ridiculously tan now! : ) Here are a few pictures, the rest are on Facebook:




LOVVVVVVE this dress I found at shop in the area!!





Overall, it was a nice time. A bit annoying that I had some amount of work to complete EVERY day that I was out there. This wasn't something done by my boss just to be a jerk; we have a production date coming on Wednesday and of course clients send the script material at the last minute. I have to get the drafts to them Monday morning, so it had to be done. Do I love my job? Yes. Am I appreciative of my job? Yes. However, do I still have the right to be annoyed about working on vaycay? YES. So please, no preaching about being happy to have a job! With my dad out of work right now I'm well aware of that. But like I said, it was still an annoyance!

Last week I went to the gym Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Don't even remember what I did haha, but they were good work outs! I brought some work out stuff to Florida but only went running once - mainly because I forgot my iPod and it's really difficult for me to work out without music. I ran Thursday along the beach at dusk, I know it was at least 2 miles. It was my first time running on the sand, it was tough! My aunt and I got a lot of exercise by walking everywhere, anyway.

It being vacation and all, I of course indulged - cheeseburger, coconut shrimp, beer, rum runner, fries, ice cream. Worth it!

The warm weather REALLY has me excited for summer, and even more motivated to keep up with the workouts and healthy eating. It felt great to feel comfortable and confident no matter what I was wearing (most of the time!). It was nice to have a break for a few days, but now I'm excited to get back to my workouts.

Well, I have a lot of laundry to take care of and more work to wrap up too. Later!

Post-Challenge

Alright, so here I am on Easter Sunday, the day before starting the 2-week challenge:




Was not feeling great or happy with that picture. Felt great this past Saturday though after being able to fit in some jeans that I bought 2 years ago and could never fit into : ) So here I am, post-challenge:





Feeling healthy and happy and excited to keep this trend going!

14 Day Challenge: Days 12 - 14

The challenge is done! Yay! I took some "after" pictures yesterday but left my memory card reader in my desk drawer at work, so can't upload any photos till tomorrow. You'll have to wait ; )

Kind of went missing from my blog the last few days, here is a quick recap. Workout wise, the last few days haven't been anything special.

Day 12: Went to the gym for a morning workout. Did my 2 sets of arm reps (same ones I've been doing every other day just about) and then did 30 minutes on the crossramp. Took it easy since I exercised 3 times the day before!

My dad also did a "shadowing" at a restaurant on Friday night, we are really praying for a phone call tomorrow! This company has moved things along quickly from the beginning and everyone he's spoken with there has been very nice and excited to talk to him. The managers he met with and shadowed on Friday liked him a lot and said they want him to speak with their boss right away, so here's hoping he gets good news this week!!!

Day 13: Had a garage sale on Saturday and we did pretty well, made almost $200. If you have a garage sale make sure to post it on Craigslist with an overview of what you're selling! That seemed to bring us more traffic than usual, and one man showed to purchase an old TV set of ours that I listed in the description.

Though I haven't been logging my calories on the Daily Plate, I've been doing a good job with portion control. I can tell my stomach has shrank some, because I've been eating really small portions lately. The only "bad" food I had all weekend was a hot dog and some fries last night - Nels, my friend Lisa and her hubby Joey were REALLY craving hot dogs so hey, have to give in sometimes!

Day 14: DONE! Even though it's only been one day since I was last at the gym, today was a bit of a struggle because I felt really weak and tired when I got there. I still pushed through weightlifting for my arms and then did 2 sets of 20 side crunches with 10 lb weights. Then I did 30 minutes on the Stairmaster starting at a level 6 for 3 minutes, bumped it up to 8 for another 10 minutes, and then went to a level 10, maintaining it for 10 minutes until bringing it back down to level 8.

While flipping through the Target ad this morning, I caught this new flavor of Kashi cereal on sale for $2.75 - plus I had a $1.50 coupon. SCORE! I decided to go pick it up to mix in with my plain Greek yogurt, since Nels won't be able to bring me more Hyvee strawberry granola till next weekend:




This stuff is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! I am totally addicted and craving more right now actually. Gotta be careful with it though, because 3/4 cup serving is 190 calories, which is rather high. So it's a good thing I'm not actually using it as a cereal but just using about 1/4 cup as a mix-in with my plain yogurt. Seriously, go pick up a box, it's SO yummy.

I also went to Trader Joe's and got some plain sea salt pita crackers and some tomato basil hummus to try. Hope it's good! I also picked up a large container of plain fat free Greek yogurt - it has 22 grams of protein, the highest I've found yet! The first time I tried plain yogurt last week, it took some getting used to. But with granola and strawberries mixed in, it rocks!

Alright so now that this 14 Day Challenge, is finished, here's my reflection on it.
The Results: I didn't follow this challenge exactly to a "T," but pretty darn close, and I definitely saw results! I've been stuck at 141 pounds for about a month now and wanted to get below 140 before my Florida trip. I've been holding steady at 139 for the last few days now, hooray! I also lost an inch off my hips, which is great. The proof is in the pants - Saturday night, I wore a pair of jeans out that I've pretty much never been able to fit in - at least not in a way that looks good! I was so scared to put them on but had a good feeling about them, and sure enough, they fit!

The other great part about doing this challenge was that it put an end to my excuses. Ready for the list?

1. I can't wake up to work out in the morning. I woke up at 5:45 a.m. to work out before work 4 out of the 5 weekdays for two weeks! Now that I'm used to it, I actually really enjoy the morning workouts and feel much more energized throughout the day. I also have to admit it's a lot easier to get out of bed and out the door when it's not 20 degrees outside : )

2. No time to prepare something for breakfast that isn't cereal and milk. I made scrambled eggs (with Egg Beaters) or a granola-yogurt parfait every morning before work. Just takes a few extra minutes.

3. I don't like hummus, or shrimp, or plain yogurt. These are some of the new healthier food choices I've tried recently, and I love them!

4. I must have sweets after a meal. I was having a brownie or cookies regularly and always needed something chocolatey after each meal. I've really used that willpower the last 2 weeks and am proud to say that in this 2 week time span, I've only eaten 3 of my mom's brownies and 4 chocolate chip cookies.

There were more excuses, I'm sure, but those are the ones I can remember for now. I'm going to try to keep up with going to the gym twice a day most days, but not going to force myself if I'm not feeling up to it. For now, I feel healthy, happy, more toned, and a lot stronger than I did before starting this. I'm happy to have confronted my excuses and challenged myself to step it up!

14-Day Challenge: Days 10 & 11

Woooo almost done with the challenge! : )

Day 10 turned out to be a rest day. I slept in in the morning because my body really felt like it needed the rest - and hey, I did 5 workouts in 3 days so I needed some! For the most part my eating was healthy. I did have a Malibu and pineapple drink at a networking event I had to attend for work. My co-worker Laura and I also had to do a "grab & go" for dinner, which I'm not a fan of, but it happens. We went to Jimmy John's and I avoided the chips and just got a turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce & tomato. I hate mayonnaise so never have to feel like I'm sacrificing there ; )


Day 11: Woke up and got to the gym around 6 AM. Did my upper body stuff today:
2 sets of 20 biceps curls, 10 lbs
2 sets of 15 triceps kickbacks, 5 lbs
2 sets of 15 side and front shoulder raises, 5 lbs
2 sets of 15 rear deltoid lifts, 5 lbs
2 sets of 20 side crunches, 10 lbs

Then I did the crossramp at an incline of 12, resistance of 10 for 30 minutes.

I had agreed to meet my friend Robin at the gym at 7;30, but when I got off of work I really wanted to go for a run outside because it was so nice out. I had my PB English Muffin combo and...definitely didn't wait long enough between eating and gulping down some water. My stomach wasn't feeling too great the whole time, so I only made it 2 miles.

Then...I still met Robin at 7:30! Yes, I exercised 3 times today. If you don't believe me I have Robin as my witness for both gym workouts and my dad for my outside run! Haha! I'm not trying to be all exercise crazy, it just kind of happened today. At the gym we did a few weight machines and then did 10 minutes of rowing followed by more running on the treadmill. I mostly ran at a pace of 6.0 at an incline of 1, and made it another 2 miles. So 4 total miles today! Yay!

After that last workout, I tried a Boca cheeseburger which Robin recommended. It was actually really good! I didn't even put it on a bun, just threw some ketchup on it, reminded me of meatloaf.

Food:
Pre-workout: 1 tbsp reduced fat Jif on 1/2 Aunt Millie's multi-grain English muffin

Breakfast: Kashi Heart 2 Heart warm cinnamon oat cereal with FF milk

Lunch: Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic stir fry
Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt, Strawberry

Pre-run: 1 tbsp reduced fat Jif on 1/2 Aunt Millie's multi-grain English muffin

Dinner (post-workout): Boca cheeseburger, Special K

I barely ate at all today. The way I ate and exercised today is actually really bad, I know that it only slowed my metabolism or stored everything as fat. My schedule was just really weird today. Was busy all morning at work so didn't have any sort of snack; ate lunch around 1:30, then when I came home I ate that PB English muffin for energy for my run. I intended to eat after that but wasn't feeling hungry so I didn't eat dinner till after the gym at 9 at night. AHHH...this is bad and I'm not feeling very happy about it, but there's nothing I can do except go get some rest. Goodnight.

14 Day Challenge: Day 9

Didn't sleep well last night (woke up once or twice, thanks cat...) so I'm feeling pretty rundown today. Still got 2 workouts in though. Muscles definitely aching (in a good way) from boot camp last night, so only did crunches today. 2 sets 40 bicycles and 2 sets 20 lifting crunches.

Morning workout:
30 minutes on the elliptical, started level 8, moved up to level 10 about 12 minutes in.

Evening workout:
30 minutes on the treadmill alternating every 3-4 minutes between a 3.8 mph walk, incline of 8 and then run at 5.8/6.0 at an incline of 1.

Hit an awesome running high and did a full on sprint to one of my favorite running songs- Avenged Sevenfold's "The Beast and the Harlot." Really weird coming from a huge Britney fan, right? Haha I like different stuff!!! I've actually had this song on my running playlist for a few years now.

Anyway if you're into running PLEASE try this song out! It's about 5:43 long, and so I have it near the end of my playlist because it keeps me going. Then right at 3:28 this great guitar part hits and the way everything comes together - the increasing intensity and speed of the vocals - it's just SO great! I was running at 7.2 mph on the treadmill at this point!!! The great part lasts till about 4:16, so brings a great 45-second sprint on. Then I usually hold my rewind button down on my iPod and let that portion play a few more times. OK I think I'm done obsessing over this song...seriously, try running to it!

Food for the day:
Pre-workout: 1 tbsp Jif reduced fat on 1/2 Aunt Millie's multi whole grain English muffin

Breakfast: 1/2 cup Egg Beaters with some shredded Cheddar
1/3 cup strawberry granola mixed into what was left of yesterday's Greek yogurt (plain)

Lunch: Lean Cuisine Ginger Garlic Stir Fry w/Chicken

Snack: 8 honey wheat pretzels with roasted red pepper hummus

Dinner: Cup of Barilla whole wheat spaghetti with Ragu, some parmesan cheese, and 1 Pilsbury grands biscuit that I gave into...stay away from all those Pilsbury rolls, they are so bad. 190 calories for that one biscuit. Ugh.

My totals from The Daily Plate after my workout calories were deducted:
1,050 calories
40 grams fat
220 grams carbs - WAY high today...
31 grams fiber
79 grams protein

Lesson learned for the day: Stay away from my family's meals...!!! Thank goodness I cooked myself some wheat pasta, I wish I could get my whole family to switch over too. It tastes so much better anyway. =/

I noticed this article on Yahoo's home page last night about "bad" carbs and heart disease. Interesting, especially because some things can be confusing when you look at them on the glycemic index. I would explain more about that but I have a bird cage to clean and laundry to put away, so just read the article : )

http://health.yahoo.com/featured/94/eating-the-wrong-kind-of-carbohydrates-increases-heart-disease-risk/

14 Day Challenge: Day 8

Now that I am getting used to waking up in the morning to workout, I think I'm going to keep it up after this challenge is over. Maybe not every day, but still going to try and do a lot of 2-a-days workouts. I am feeling amazing and more in shape just after one week. My clothes are feeling looser. Love this feeling! The challenge is also reminding me how important it is to incorporate strength training regularly, an area I was slacking in beyond my weekly class.

This morning I went and did my strength training:
2 sets, 20 biceps curls with 10 lb dumbbells
2 sets, 20 triceps kickbacks with 5 lb dumbbells
2 sets, 20 front and side shoulder raises with 5 lb dumbbells
2 sets, 20 rear deltoid raises with 5 lb dumbbells
2 sets, 20 side crunches (20 per side) with 10 lb. weight

Then I had a great run on the treadmill, kept it at a slower pace (5.7 mph, 1% incline), ran for about 26 minutes then did a cool down walk at 3.5 mph on an 8% incline.

I had my regular reduced fat Jif PB on 1/2 a slice of multigrain English muffin before my workout. I tried some new English muffins this week (since the grocery store was out of my Thomas's ones) and these were VERY filling. The brand is Aunt Millie's and it's the multigrain muffins. They're only 100 calories each, too and since I only eat half at a time they're great.

After my workout, I still felt pretty full from that so I decided to make a granola parfait! I missed the one I ate at the hotel in San Diego, so I tried to recreate it:




It was so good! I bought some strawberry flavored granola at the HyVee in the Quad Cities. Man I wish we had HyVee's out here! They're an awesome grocery chain with a HUGE health food section and all this granola to pick from! I only bought about 1/4 of a pound, I'll have to get more next time I visit Nels out there. Then I just paired it up with plain Greek yogurt. YUMMY!

I don't think I did so well with dinner, but not really sure. It was a home-cooked meal so hard to gauge. I tried to keep my portions small. I had about 3/4 cup of potatoes, just 1 1/2 slices of meatloaf, and some green beans. Then caved into a very SMALL brownie - seriously, for a brownie addict it was like the smallest brownie I've ever had!

Boot camp class didn't feel as hard tonight as it usually is. My muscles feel worked, but not dead.

My dad is completing yet another online assessment for a possible job at the moment. We can't wait until these things are over. The math portions suck, and then the barrage of questions for the psychoanalysis part are ridiculous - here is a REAL question that appeared on this test: "You would enjoy spending the whole day watching animals at the zoo. Yes, No, or Don't Know." What?? What does that have to do with anything?? And then the ones that ask the same question 5 different ways to see if you contradict yourself...UGH. He had 2 successful second interviews today and we should hear something soon, which is desperately needed since his previous employer is still fighting the unemployment =/

Well, that's all I got. Night!

14 Day Challenge: Day 7

Was on a great runner's high this evening, even now almost an hour after leaving the gym I'm still feeling pumped up!

This morning I tried to get Nels to go for a run with me - which was very much needed since I don't know my way around his hometown at all! He hasn't worked out in quite some time so we didn't make it very far. I tried to run ahead and signal to him "Right or left?!" while he was walking behind me. I'll bet that I didn't get to run more than 3/4 of a mile before he made me go back in the house, haha! At least I got some exercise in earlier in the day.

Tonight I went to the gym and started with my strength exercises:

2 sets of 20 squats

2 sets of 20 step-ups, 20 lbs. resistance (20 step-ups for each leg)

2 sets of bicycle crunches, 40 reps

2 sets of lifting crunches, 20 reps

35 minutes on the Arc Trainer, ramp set at 12, resistance set at 10

10 minute mile, speed 6.0

My food today:

3 eggs (bad at a restaurant, I know...)

Rye toast with grape jelly

Ham

Rold Gold Honey Wheat Pretzels, 8 sticks

Athenos Roasted Red Pepper Hummus - YUM!

Subway 6" turkey on wheat with lettuce, tomato, and pickle (this location didn't have any spinach, damn it.)

Pre-workout:

1 slice whole grain white bread (was all out of my English muffins)

1 tbsp Jif reduced fat PB

Didn't eat any dinner, just had a small mug of FF milk after my workout.

Totals: 1,120 calories, 41 grams fat (high due to eating breakfast out), 130 grams carbs, 64 grams protein

My biggest challenge this week? Avoiding the darn brownies my mom made over the weekend!!!!! Man they look so good too. It is so hard to live in a house with sweets around me, if I was on my own I wouldn't make/buy the stuff so as not to be tempted. Now that I even mentioned them in this blog, I'm starting to think about them...ahhh...stop!!!

Going to be lazy with my lunches this week and mostly eat Lean Cuisines. I wasted 1/2 of the chicken I bought last week and 1 of the turkey burgers also. It's hard for one person to eat up fresh food before it goes bad...

14 Day Challenge: Days 5 and 6

Day 5

Considering it's the weekend, I've been doing a pretty good job with food I think!

Friday morning (Day 5 of the challenge), for my morning workout I decided to swim some laps just to switch things up. I wanted to swim for a full 30 minutes, but I was too drained. I made it a little over 20 minutes. I didn't eat anything before I went and I'm wondering if that affected my energy level. I'll try eating next time. I really need to get some goggles because right now I'm keeping my head above water and it messes up my whole form making it harder to swim. I took the laps really slow, but at least I kept my heart rate going.

Breakfast - 1/2 cup egg beaters on 1/2 a double fiber honey wheat English muffin

Snack - High fiber brown sugar oatmeal

Lunch - Turkey burger (no bun because I burned my last one in the toaster at work haha!) with colby jack cheese

Snack - apple

For dinner Nels and I had Thai food. I got some chicken pad thai, which from what nutrition info I could find online, it wasn't too bad. Around 500 calories, 10 grams of fat or so.

Then we headed over to his cousin Heather's house to meet up with her and his cousin Beth who's visiting from Seattle. Forgot my camera this weekend so had to do some Droid pics:

I love his cousins, they are so nice and fun to be around! We were thinking of going out but ended up staying in at Heather's, talking, drinking & playing games. Beth makes really good margaritas : ) . Heather's house is so cute, I loved it. Her husband basically gutted the whole thing and fixed it up himself, he did an amazing job. It was so funny how Heather kept putting food out, it was mostly healthy food though! I had some pretzel sticks with a hummus that I actually liked! Athenos red bell pepper. It tasted like taco dip. Totally buying some of that stuff when I get home! Also liked her basset hound Ozzie, he's a sweetie:

Day 6 - Rest Day

The challenge said to make Sunday the rest day, but I'm swapping it out. Getting 2 workouts in on a Saturday when I'm out of town? Yeah right! I'll go running around Nels' neighborhood tomorrow morning and then do my evening workout at my gym when I get home.

Today is the "Eat what you want in reasonable portions" day. We met his mom and stepdad at Culver's for lunch. Proud of myself because I just had the Flame Roasted Chicken Sandwich, which is only 309 calories and 9 grams of fat. Woo hoo!

After that Nels and I went for some ice cream at Whitey's and I had one scoop of White Tiger Paws - basically cookies and cream with a fudge swirl. Yum! I've drastically cut back on my sweet tooth this week so it was nice to indulge. We had a nice walk around the river in downtown Davenport, IA and are now heading out to dinner with his dad and stepmom. We're going to a Mexican restaurant - yay tacos!

14 Day Challenge: Day 4

Went a little off course with my food today, but nothing too horrible and my calories and all that are still in check.

Pre-workout:

1/2 double fiber honey wheat English muffin

1 tbsp Jif reduce fat peanut butter

Breakfast:

1/2 double fiber honey wheat English muffin

1/2 cup Egg Beaters

1 slice Colby Jack cheese

Morning snack:

Gala apple

Lunch:

Butterball turkey burger

1 slice Colby Jack

Spinach

Kaiser Roll

Dinner:

1 Sloppy Joe (took all my willpower to just have ONE!!!)

Baked red potatoes - ate a little more of these than I should have

Treat:

1 cup FF milk

1 chocolate chip cookie (small)

I realized today that I've only had 3 cookies this whole week. Considering my sugar addiction, that's a huge reduction in sugary treats!!!

I'm going to bed early tonight because I'm really tired. Woke up this morning and did:

2 sets 20 squats

2 sets 40 bicycles

2 sets 20 crunches

2 sets 20 step ups

30 minutes on the Arc Trainer

When I went back this evening with Robin, we tried something new she read about - a staggered workout. I don't know how I feel about it, because I like to sweat it out for a solid session and see my time at the end. But this was still a good mix-it-up workout:

Glute machine, 55 lbs, 2 sets of 12

10 minutes rowing machine

Side crunches with a 10 lb weight, 2 sets of 20

10 minutes arc trainer, Incline 10, Level 10

Tricep press, 2 sets of 12

10 minutes StairMaster, Level 8

Tomorrow is my last early wake up, woo hoo! I made it every morning except Wednesday. I think I'm going to swim tomorrow because I've been doing a lot of heavy leg cardio all week, and the machines are getting a bit boring as the week comes to an end.

I'm going to the Quad Cities to see Nels this weekend, so I won't be able to do a Friday night workout or a double Saturday workout. But we're definitely going jogging around his neighborhood on Saturday!

14 Day Challenge: Day 3

Couldn't wake up this morning. Just couldn't do it! I'm glad I slept in the extra hour though. My body really needed some more rest and recovery from my 2-a-days workouts. The only thing I missed out on was 30 minute cardio this morning, I wanted to squeeze in an hour tonight to make up but since it was getting late, ended around 45 minutes.

At the gym tonight I did:

2 sets chest press with 20 lb dumbbells

2 sets of 20 bicep curls with 10 lb dumbbells

2 sets 15 tricep kickbacks with 5 lb dumbbels

2 sets 15 side & front shoulder raises (5 lbs)

2 sets 15 rear deltoid lifts (5 lbs)

10 minute jog on treadmill, 5.7 speed

35 minutes on Arc Trainer, HR average 156. Incline 10, Resistance 10.

Food today:

Breakfast - 1/2 cup Egg Beaters with pinch of shredded cheddar on 1/2 a Thomas' Double Fiber Honey Wheat English muffin

Morning snack - Quaker high fiber instant oatmeal - maple & brown sugar

Strawberries

Lunch - Lean Cuisine Sesame Stir Fry with Chicken - didn't have any other food on hand and this seemed to be ok - whole wheat vermicelli, chicken, broccoli and edamame.

Dinner - Butterball turkey burger on a Kaiser roll with one (thin!) slice Colby Jack cheese. I was disappointed by these burgers. Usually I buy Jennie-O, but I only had time to swing by Jewel on the way home and the Butterball ones were best price. Stuck with the remaining 3 of them now...

Daily Plate Totals:

1,232 calories

34 grams fat

140 grams carbs

23 grams fiber

77 grams protein

Net carbs after workout: 798

14 Day Challenge: Day 2

Whew, I'm spent!!!!! The hardest part of this challenge is getting up early in the morning to work out. Not sure how I'm going to feel when that alarm goes off tomorrow morning...

My body wasn't feeling too hot this morning after boot camp last night, so I took it easy and just did 30 minutes on the elliptical, level 8, heart rate around 150.

I really want to go to sleep so my food information won't be as detailed as yesterday. I pretty much ate the same stuff today except for dinner I had some whole wheat spaghetti with plain Ragu, and post-workout I had a bowl of Kashi Heart to Heart Cinnamon cereal. Once again, I logged all of my food at The Daily Plate. I wish there was a way to import/share my daily logs from the site!

My totals for the day are:

1,354 calories

32 grams fat

190 grams carbs (I know this sounds like a ton but my RDA is 197 grams)

37 grams fiber

94 grams protein

I was definitely feeling the energy from my whole wheat pasta for my work out. First I did the recommended strength training for today, 2 sets of:

20 squats (piece of cake thanks to boot camp!!!)

20 step ups (did these on an adjustable platform the gym has with 25 lbs resistance)

15 calf raises (did on machine with 65 pounds. Didn't really feel it with the machine the way you do with dumbbells...)

40 bicycle crunches

20 lifting crunches - did a variation of these to incorporate the lower abs.

Then I did cardio like a crazy person. 25 minutes on the Stairmill, Fat Burner program setting, Level 8. I was sweating like a mo fo. Haha, seriously, I don't know how else to put that! There was a layer of water all over me and I was dripping from head to toe. I finally couldn't take it anymore and finished up by running 1 mile on the treadmill (10:20 minutes), because at least with running, the fast pace keeps my mind off the sweating! Post-workout shower felt so darn good tonight.

Well, I really have to get some sleep, I'm exhausted and so is my body! I think I'm going to just do a swim tomorrow morning, if I even wake up...hope so!

14 Day Challenge: Day 1

Did well with the challenge today, but that's to be expected - first day is easiest! It's keeping it up after today that is the tough part.

I decided to do this challenge for a few reasons. First of all, it's very exercise focused. I'll exercise all day long - it's the "diet" part of being healthy that I have trouble with. I did make it to the gym 5 times last week, but my eating was terrible. I want to use this challenge to force me to get back on the right track. The foods encouraged with this challenge are mostly ones I like, so I feel like I can stick to it for the 14 days. Nothing like "Eat only grapefruit" or something crazy.

Second of all, I really want to get back into waking up early so that I can start working on swimming and running in the morning for the mini-triathlon in August. Since this plan emphasizes both morning and evening workouts, it's a good way to do that!

Morning Workout

I set my alarm for 5:45 this morning and got to the gym a little after 6. I decided to get the strength training part over with because it's easy for me to lose my focus on it. Outside of a class setting, I give up way too easily on it.

Today's agenda was 2 sets of:

15 push ups. I'm TERRIBLE with push ups. I was watching myself from the side in the mirror as I tried to do them, and why does the lower half of my body reach the ground before I'm even halfway down?! For the first set, I only did 10. I did the second set the "girl way" on my knees and was able to complete all 15. Ugh, I hate push ups, I don't get why they're so hard!!!

20 bicep curls with 5-pound weights. I used 10 pound weights because I've been doing 12 reps with 15 pound ones for awhile now and the 5's would be way too light. These higher reps are for endurance conditioning, so you want a bit lower weight with more reps.

20 tricep kick-backs with 5-pound weights. Definitely used the 5's this time. My triceps are WEAK.

20 front and side shoulder raises with 3-pound weights. I used 5's again, these get pretty tough half way through!

20 rear deltoid lifts with 3-pound weights. Again, used 5's. These were killer to do after the shoulder raises.

Then I did the Crossramp machine for 30 minutes, alternating an incline of 10-12 with a resistance of 8-10. My heart rate was in the range of 154-165 throughout the workout and I burned a bit over 300 calories.

Meals

Pre-workout (6 AM): 1/2 of a Thomas' Double Fiber Honey Wheat English muffin with 1 tbsp of Jif reduced fat peanut butter.

Breakfast (8 AM): 1/2 cup Egg Beaters, 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean and 1/2 cup Fat Free Milk

Morning meal (11 AM): Quaker high fiber maple and brown sugar oatmeal with a few walnuts and 3/4 cup strawberries

Lunch (2 PM): I grilled some chicken tender strips last night on the Foreman and these were DISGUSTING...on the edge of overcooked and then microwaving them today to warm them definitely made them overcooked...I slathered them with ketchup, which makes everything better =) Then had a 100 calorie pack of Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese.

Snack (4 PM): Chobani Greek yogurt, peach flavor (This stuff still looks so disgusting when you first peel back the lid, but give it a good stir and it gets nice and thick and delicious!)

Dinner (5:45 PM): Gorton's grilled tilapia fillet with broccoli. My mom brought home fried chicken from Jewel and you have NO idea how hard it was to turn that down! I did sneak ONE Hawaiian roll (the small ones that are in the 4 pack, they're 110 calories a piece nonetheless though...) but that was it.

Post workout (8 PM): 1 cup fat free milk with 2 tbsp chocolate syrup (Hey, I've read it's a good post workout food! Shut it.)

Evening workout

I love my boot camp class so I had to go. It's an hour long, so I already did 30 minutes more than what "the challenge" called for today : ) sweet! The class was really rough though since we did similar exercises to what I did this morning - push ups, tricep kick backs. We didn't do as much abs work as I would've liked, but did a good amount of back work and of course, squats.

Are you familiar with the website The Daily Plate? It's an awesome online food and exercise diary through Livestrong. Pretty much every food and product on the planet is loaded into this database. I've been using it on and off for a year now, but for this challenge want to use it every day. Today I logged every morsel of food and my totals are:

1,280 calories

29 g fat

156 g carbs (this sounds like a lot, but I came in under my RDA so guess I'm OK)

28 g fiber

101 g protein (yay!)

According to my fitness log, I burned 575 calories through exercise today too.

Good first day! Sorry this is so long with no pictures.

14 Day Challenge

A big thank you to everyone who has been writing me kind words on here or on Facebook. regarding my dad's situation. He had 2 successful interviews this week and has another on Monday, so we are on the right track it seems. We also realized that many kids are on their Spring Break this week, meaning many families are on their vacations - so who knows, he might get more calls once everyone gets back to work.

Since things seem to be leveling out some, I am ready to try to start focusing on some other things! I've decided I'm going to try this 14 day diet and fitness challenge, since my Florida trip is coming up soon. I've lost 6-7 pounds so far this year - it's slow, but then again I am not really "dieting" much, just exercising a good amount.

According to the Challenge, here's "The Meal Plan":

The Meal Plan
Do morning exercises on an empty stomach. Eat your first meal of the day an hour later, then have a meal every three hours after that. Each meal should consist of one serving of protein (about the size of your palm), a starchy carbohydrate, and a fibrous carbohydrate (each the size of your fist). See food choices below. Down 10 eight-ounce glasses of water a day and take a daily multivitamin.

FOOD CHOICES
Protein: Turkey (white meat) or ground turkey, chicken (white meat), any fish, egg whites, tofu, beans, low-fat cottage cheese or any low-fat hard cheese (a portion of which equals three pairs of dice), yogurt.

Starchy carbohydrates: Yams, potatoes, oatmeal, couscous, brown rice, barley, bulgur, high-fiber cereal, corn, peas.

Fibrous carbohydrates: Broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, romaine lettuce, apples, strawberries, oranges, peaches, pears.

ON SUNDAY
Rest! And eat reasonable portions of whatever you want.

This seems very doable for a short period of time, thus the 14 day challenge : )

I'll share my grocery purchases on Sunday and I will be starting this on Monday the 5th. You can all follow along and see if I make this the 2 weeks or not ; )