Back on the Band Wagon

I'm baaaack! hahaha I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I have done nothing but struggle for this entire month it seems! My stress level was turned on to high, and along with stress came some resurfaced bad habits and buried good habits. But when it comes down to it, the Nike slogan says it all- Just Do It! This is the mindset that I have decided to adopt on a daily basis. If I never slow down, take a deep breath, and get back on the band wagon now, I NEVER will.

So! Once again, here's my plan....

1. Re-associate myself with Myfitnesspal.com in order to track everything that I am putting it in my mouth!

2. Get back to my daily breakfast that includes 1 cup of Raisin Bran cereal (Instead of the sugary stuff like Trix that I have been opting out for A LOT lately!) with 1/2 cup of fat free milk, and a cup of coffee from my Keurig machine- 2 tbsp. of flavored creamer and one splenda packet!

3. Start drinking all of my necessary water every day (4 bottles, 8-8oz. cups)- Not only will this give me more energy to deal with all of the busyness that is going on in my life right now, but it will also keep me from eating unnecessary snacks just because I am feeling stressed. My new motto- When you feel the urge to snack, it is water that you lack! hahaha

4. Start moving again!! This one has been extremely difficult for me lately.  My parents just recently purchased a Live Strong elliptical machine- as Britt has mentioned before about my mom being a beast on it!  I, however, can not STAND it! I've never liked using elliptical machines..and I can't really give a good reason for it besides that fact that it smashes my toes when I use it.  But, either way, if I'm trying to exercise with something I hate, I will never stick to it. At the beginning of this month, I started running at the campus gym, but with the times of my classes, the only time that I could go was in the evening- when the guys' basketball team is having practice.  Every night that I went that week, a guy from the team got on the machine next to me and obnoxiously talked to me so that I couldn't even really work out.  So! Needless to say, I'm not going to be running at the campus during that time anymore. BUT! Here's what I AM going to do.

When my Spring quarter starts in about 3 weeks, I will have different classes with earlier times, so I think I will be able to work out on campus during a time that the team is NOT practicing!  But, until then, I have this DVD that is actually a really good work out!  You do a mile for each day, or you can do more.  Since this will be the only thing I am doing for a few weeks, I will probably do about 2-3 miles per day.  I also have a yoga DVD that I am planning to do on Saturday mornings! 

5. Re-form my buddy system with Britt! She left me a quite threatening voicemail about a week and a half ago telling me that I don't ever talk to her anymore..hahaha. But, I wasn't lying when I said having her as a fitness/weight-loss buddy REALLY helps! We're in this together, and keeping each other accountable is a MUST!

Britt & I this past weekend at my house with our matching Nike shirts!

Just Keep Spinning, Just Keep Spinning, Spinning...

That is EXACTLY what I was saying to myself during my hour long first experience of spinning. I bicycle in the summer time so it wasn't too far off from what I was expecting. It was a great workout-that is for sure. We went from a flat spin, to a sprint, to a climb (Lots of resistance or rogue as they call it), to a jog which where you stand up on your bike, to a run where you lean forward while standing and really pick up your pace, and back down to a flat spin. We did a sequence of this all the way to our peak at a running climb-ROUGH! Than we started going back down to a cool down and some isolation exercises.

I was extremely worried about my foot and how it would feel after we got done. Much to my surprise, my foot feels great! It really stretched it out but didn't put any major stress on it. My whole body is definitely feeling it today, especially my bottom.

Tonight I have my first Pilates class and tomorrow is weigh in! Eek! Nervous. It's been a crazy week (My diet week starts on Wednesdays so a little different). Also, the blog is under construction right now so excuse the mess! P.S. Where the heck is Lindsay? I'm wondering the same thing!

A Day in My Shoes

A typical day for me on Weight Watchers Momentum program looks like this.

Breakfast

PB Smoothie-1 cup of Fat Free vanilla yogurt, skim milk, water, and a Tbs of Smart Balance PB

1 banana

1 serving of Special K cereal-any kind, dry

Diet Coke

Water

Snack

Vitamuffin-Deep Chocolate Chip is my absolute favorite

Water

Lunch

Choose from the following:

A Lean Gourmet meal/Salad/98% fat free hot dog on 80 calorie wheat bun/PB & J on 35 calorie bread

Paired with water, a diet soda, a flavored water, and some sort of side like Fat Free BBQ Pringles

Snack

Another serving of Special k or 94% FF popcorn (Something worth one point) Maybe some fruit or veggies

Water

Dinner

Grilled Chicken on Black beans with Reduced fat shredded cheese

or

McDonalds Snack wrap with no dressing

or 

A small portion of whatever everyone else is having

with water or a diet soda

Dessert

McDonald's Ice Cream cone

A few Reisins

March already?

Another week is here, and I started mine with a 5:30 a.m. workout. It felt great to wake up and get my week started off on the right foot. I'm still rehabbing my foot since it has failed my once again. It's a very busy week for this girl. 

Jon and I headed to my hometown this weekend to visit my family. Check out this little angel wannabe :)

She is too precious. 

Nothing like Aunt/Niece Love

So anyway, this weekend was awesome. Now back to work! I start some new classes this week at the Y. This morning I pool ran for 30 minutes. Tonight I have my first Pilates class ever! Kind of excited/nervous. I will definitely suck at it for awhile, but hopefully it gets better. Tomorrow I have my first cycling class. So it is a week of new things for me. 

We are also celebrating Lona's 1 year adoption birthday this week.

http://www.dog-treat-recipe-exchange.com/dog-birthday-cake-recipes

I'll be trying this Dog Cake recipe for her special day and doing some doggy bags :) Get it? Hahaha. Okay, sorry. Cheesy.

And I finally got around to snapping a pic of my pebble weight loss jars!

Good luck this Monday guys! Remember your 2012 Resolutions!

Fit & Trim Fridays-Coffee Time

Happy Friday :)

Made it through another week of NY Resolution progress.

Last night was girls night for myself and my lovely lady friends. We indulged in salad, lasagna, bread, and brownies & cupcakes. To curb my point/calorie intake, I opted for an extra large salad topped with some Feta cheese and croutons. I dipped my fork in some ranch also. I skipped the lasagna and bread and went for the brownies instead! Good choice in my opinion. Powdered sugar brownies are one of my many weaknesses so I couldn't resist those. It was a fun evening with the ladies and hopefully to be followed by many more. 

Today, Jon and I are heading to Mansfield to visit my parents. Ready for some fun, fabulous memories to be made this weekend. I will have to be on guard though since going home always presents a struggle to stay on my diet. I brought my running shoes so I can either walk or give the new elliptical another try (Last time I tried, I only made it 10 minutes. Kudos to my momma for doing 75 minutes a day on that monsterous machine!)

Low calorie Ice Coffee 

Starbucks Blonde-Made last night and put in fridge. Added 3 tablespoons of FF Creamer + 2 packets of Stevia. YUM.

New Haircut

I like it, but time to start growing it back out :)


H20

Ready to hydrate today!

1-2-3-4

After my recent decision to go back to Weight Watchers (The old version-Momentum program), I lost not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 pounds. I could not be happier. It was exactly the jump start I needed to get me going again. It took 2 months, but o well! I've been pool running a lot lately. We use these nifty belts that help you float and literally just mimic running without putting any weight on your joints which helps a lot when you have Plantaar. Grrrr. It really does suck!  I have tons to post about now that I'm back on the Momentum program. New grocery lists, new eating habits, new tricks of the trade-all things to chat about with you.

Facing Friend Time

 Dealing with this a lot this week. Tuesday was my friend Ben's Birthday and a group of us went to Cheesecake Factory. EEK for my diet. First plan of action-check out the menu before getting there. This was a challenge since The CC Factory doesn't really tell anybody. THey do have a Skinnylicious menu that you can view here. I opted for the Lettuce Wrap Chicken Tacos Mexican Style. Jon got the same thing plus a Mexican style salad that I ate some of also. I did grab a few pieces of bread pre-meal I was so hungry. I also wanted cheesecake so my options were deny myself (which never sounds good), indulge myself (which doesn't sound good either after losing a few pounds), or order the Cheesecake made with Splenda for a lower calorie option. I went with the latter----obviously. :) I really felt like I splurged but when I weight myself this morning-I had still lost another pound since weighing myself Sunday.

This is one of the definite perks of WW Momentum program. You can eat and be realistic with a diet/life style change because the program gives you room to breathe. I might also add I enjoyed a Skinny White Peppermint Mocha before dinner. Jon always wants coffee :)

Also Check out my cute new dress from PacSun along with my Rose gold watch with new bracelets. All for under $20 :) I love bargains!

I love the Cleveland Indians!

Grady <3

Tonight is Girls Night at my neighbor, Megs apt. So I have a challenge ahead of me---Lasagna, Bread, and Cupcakes to portion out! Wish my luck...

The Greatest Obstacle of All!

Well, as everyone can probably see just from our blog up-keep for the past few weeks, Britt and I have been pretty busy!!  As she said in her last post, she's finally getting back on track after her trip to Texas.  My busyness, on the other hand, has just begun! 

First of all- My school schedule has been pretty insane the last few weeks, and is only getting worse!  I have a 15 minute proposal presentation tomorrow and a 45 minute presentation on Thursday- and that's just THIS week!  In the weeks following, there are many more big projects and exams to complete, and I've already completed a few big projects in the past two weeks.  But! I can't complain...because I am SO close to being a college graduate! :)

Second of all- I just received some pretty big news!  I am officially going to be traveling to the country of Haiti in about four weeks! I can't even begin to say how excited I am about that! I will be going with 15 other students to complete about four big projects regarding education in Haiti.  I won't be directly working on the projects, but I'm going to be the author or reporter of everything that we do while we are there!  Then, after we return, I will start working with a professor on compiling all the work that I did while I was there, and I will have to present it at a huge conference in front of people from colleges all over the country- talk about nerve-wrecking!  The professor in charge, however, didn't ask me to go until the last minute.  You can imagine how much paperwork and deadlines go into a trip like that! So, basically, I have been filling out paperwork and running to the post office at least once a day to send all of it out- not to mention I had to upgrade my passport.  Everything for the trip is pretty much done now, thank goodness! But I still have a lot to do in preparation for leaving!

Third of all- Of course, the flu bug is flying around like crazy.  And, of course, I caught it! Talk about the worst time to be sick!  It set me back with a lot of the work that I needed to get done, but thankfully, it was pretty much just a 24 hour kind of sickness.

Well, now that you've heard me babble on about everything going on in my personal life, I'm sure you're dying to hear how I relate all of this information to fitness and weight loss.  Well, just like the title of this post, the greatest weight loss obstacle of all is being busy.  I can prove this fact with my own personal life the past few weeks.  Remember the website Britt and I talk about all the time called myfitnesspal.com? Well, one of the girls on my friends list sent me a text the other day and said "My fitness pal says that you might need encouragement because you haven't logged in for a week.  So, keep going! You can do this!" This definitely made me laugh! I thanked her, but I let her know that I haven't given up- I've just been to busy to log everything on the site. I'll be honest, though, when you're always in hurry, you can't really eat the kinds of foods that you should be eating.  Yes, I might skip out on eating a filling meal to make up for the not-so-healthy foods that I was eating in a hurry, but this approach won't last for long. 

My advice to those of you who find yourself in the same busy boat as me is to PRIORITIZE. There is always something that we can cut out and fill with something more important.  How important is your health or weight loss to you?  Is it more important than the 20 minutes of television that you watch before you go to bed? Is it more important than_______________? Just fill in the blank.  Weight loss is never going to fly onto your lap.  You're going to have to make time for it, and if you don't, you will never see results.

But keep going! February is almost over, and I hope we are all still hangin' in there to meet those New Year's Resolutions. I am...who's with me? :)

P.S. Check out the Haiti Empowerment Project that we will be working on!

Getting off on the Right Foot

So after Lindsay and I's last few posts about struggling-I am having a crazy great start off day. Valentine's Day was great until after dinner when I mentioned ice cream. After I realized that we had to get in the cold car to go get ice cream-I said nevermind. But as I have already chatted about, Jon is not on board with me yet so he REALLY wanted ice cream so I caved. Than I said-let's share a pint. Jon wanted his own though. So I caved again.

This morning is my first official day back to working out since I hurt my foot. New insoles and some ice the past few days have made me feel like I'm ready to get back to it! It feels good to be back on the old Weight Watchers Program. I'm familiar with it and it always helps to have faith in a system. This is the only way I have ever loss mass amounts of weight so I don't need to really talk myself into believing that it works cause I've already experienced the success. At my current weight, I get 23 points a day. You learn to find tricks of the diet. Like meals that are only a few points! Special K Cereal is kind of my newest secret to the diet. Protein Plus is only 1 point per 3/4 of a cup. I was eating a bag of this cereal dry for breakfast anyway so it was an easy transition. I looked into the other cereals and they are all around 1-3 points per serving. Great snacks and quick ways to fill up with good nutrition. I'm already stocked up on several different kinds.

I went on a 30 minute brisk walk with Lona just to try to start working my foot. I iced it for about 30 minutes last night. I've been reading up on plantaar and it just isn't looking good for me. It's very frustrating but I'm going to switch things up so I can continue to work out while doing WW-Momentum style (the old program).

I wanted to share some pics of my vacation in Texas. Notice our new Mavericks shirts :) I loved Texas. Everything is new and HUGE.

Keep Holdin' On

Well, I'm with Britt- her last post anyway.  This past week has been pretty bad! I never realized how much of a help Britt was to me until this last week!  Because she was on vacation, we didn't really text back and forth during the day about how we were doing at all.  Plus, we fell behind in our blogging while she was gone!  But, as I've said before, a little set-back isn't going to keep me down! I'm determined to lose those first 35 pounds in 2012! And I am going to keep going no matter what happens along the way! 

My solution for getting back on track after a not so pretty week?

*Drink WATER- this has definitely not been happening this past week...I have been opting out for occasional soda and juices...definitely NOT good things to drink!

*Start exercising regularly again- this is very hard to do when you have been out of your routine for a week.  However, I plan to try to change things up a little bit and do some different things with my work out to give me some fresh motivation!

*Get back to recording my meals and snacks on myfitnesspal.com.  This site is a huge help! Sometimes foods and drinks that you consume on a regular basis- that you THINK are just fine and healthy- are actually alot more carb, fat, and calorie-filled than you realize!  Myfitnesspal helps you to keep track of EVERYTHING that you eat so that you don't under-estimate or, most importantly, over-estimate.

*Give my self little goals to reach.  It's very important to set goals for yourself that you will be able to actually SEE. For example, my first goal is to fit into a skirt that I have that I absolutely love, but can't quite fit into yet.  This goal is one that I will be able to actually SEE when I attain it! Setting small goals is extremely important because it allows you to see the results of what you are working hard for outside of just seeing the number on the scale.  It encourages you to keep going!

*Continue to motivate myself.  As simple as it seems, observing different motivating pictures and quotes on Pinterest.com REALLY helps me to stay motivated! Encouraging words always help, and seeing different bodies that are bodies that I want help me to keep pushing so that I will see that end result!

*Lastly, although Britt already mentioned it in her post from yesterday, I also made weight-loss pebble jars. It may seem silly, but being able to put a pebble in the pounds lost jar feels sooooo good and empowering! Like Britt said, it's a great visual tool, and just something fun to do! Here's a picture of my own personal weight-loss jars!

10 pounds down- 25 to go! :)

Practice Makes Perfect, Right?

So, I went on vacation for a few days to Texas with my boyfriend and let's just say that I fell off. I fell off the bandwagon. Jon has been on vacation for almost 2 weeks now and he has COMPLETELY fallen off the wagon which didn't make it too hard for me to do the same. My foot issues have also not helped. I've found some remedies to take care of the plantar fasciitis but still very nervous to run. Tomorrow I start back up though. NO FEAR!

I'm also starting Weight Watchers again. This time I will be following the old program. I just haven't been able to really get into a groove and so trying the old WW seems to be the best route since this is really the only thing that has worked for me in the past. I will be making some changes to what I did with WW a few years back, but sticking with most of it. Last time I did it-I didn't exercise at all. This time exercise will be a huge part of my day still.

I have a new tool that will hopefully help me-Blackberry Playbook. I bought Jon one also. I'm hoping it will help us encourage each other more through running apps and My Fitness Pal.

I also went ahead and made on of the pebble weight loss jars. For each pound you lose-you move it to the other jar. I figured this would be a great visual for myself every morning. I found this on pinterest!

GOOD LUCK this week & keep pushing forward to our goals for 2012 :)

Take it Easy!

Ok, so this week I may have done some over training. I ended up straining a muscle in my left foot. OUCH! It does not feel good. This did not stop me from working out though! It just forced me to change some things up. Putting pressure on my foot causes a lot of pain so I was limited in my choices. I chose to use the stationary bike at the YMCA. Biking allowed me to burn some calories while keeping weight off my foot. It also helped stretch my foot out. I took a book, some magazines, my ipod, & my cell phone to keep me company as I embarked on my 14 mile ride. It felt good but it really sucks to not be able to run! It's become very addicting this week. I ordered some insoles from Amazon today and I'm also going to look into an arch support. 

REMINDER: Take care of yourself and treat injuries immediately. 

Now for some Fab & Fit Friday tips-

1. Eat more veggies. This girl is opting for some extreme Spinach lately. I got a HUGE carton of it for $2.99 on Manager Special at Kroger. I made a salad for dinner last night which had plenty of spinach, cubed avocado, mushrooms, and fat free croutons. I topped it with 1 tbs of Light Ranch Dressing & a sprinkle of shredded cheese. I'm having the same for lunch today but with some Tyson Grilled Chicken Breast Chunks. Delish!

2. Allow yourself some space to breath, but know yourself. I've had a pretty blah week. Work has been busy, fighting off a cold, Jon is gone on vacation, and now my foot. So to treat myself, I decided to get some ice cream. I wanted Hagaan Dazs ice cream but I knew if I got the big carton, I would eat the entire thing. So instead, I opted for the mini ice creams that literally fit in the palm of your hand. I got Coffee & Peanut Butter Chocolate. I treated myself to one last night and I was still under my daily calorie intake thanks to my 14 mile bike ride!

3. Get a support system. Having Lindsay to chat with every few days has helped a lot! It's kind of like a mini competition slash support system we have going on. My friend Ande is also a huge help. We have been friends for 6+ years and have shared our weight struggles the whole way. Myfitnesspal is a great way to do this!

That is all for today fellow weight loss friends. Good luck this weekend! Enjoy the weather & be strong :) Remember---2012 Will Be Our Year!

New Perspective

This past weekend, I gained a whole new perspective of dieting and fitness.

I will admit that in the past, every time I would diet, it was because something had happened concerning my weight and I was really embarrassed, or because I just felt extremely unconfident about myself and knew I had to do something to make myself happy with who I am.  Because this was my perspective, while dieting, I would literally wake up every morning and say to myself- "Well, this is going to be an awful day.  I'm not going to be able to eat what I want. I'm going to be hungry most of the day, and I'm going to have to go through the pain of working out."  Then, I would get out of bed and start my day with this mindset.  When I talked to Brittany about how I felt, she said that it made her want to cry and that she couldn't imagine trying to live every day feeling like that.

So, no wonder I was never really successful with my dieting, right?  No one will ever be successful when that is the kind of mindset that they have.

Well, I admit, I kind of started out this year with a smiliar mindset.  No, I didn't literally wake up every morning and think that anymore, and yes, I had a much better attitude, but it was was still in the back of my head.

Do you want to know the key to losing weight?  Do you finally want to find the magical formula that takes off the pounds? Well, here it is:    BE COMFORTABLE AND CONFIDENT.

I think that people, including myself, have always approached weight loss in the wrong way.  For instance, I always started dieting because I went through something that made me feel very unconfident about myself--that's why I always failed.  You must first be comfortable with your current body and confident in yourself before you ever try to lose weight.

Getting fit and losing weight is NOT for wimps!  I'm sure pretty much everyone who reads this can agree! It takes an extremely tough person to work so hard to get the kind of body that they want- without giving up!  So you can't be weak and uncomfortable with yourself going into it or you'll never achieve the great things that you want to achieve. 

After talking to someone over this past weekend, I realized that I could be confident in the body that I have right now.  Of course it's not the body that I ultimately want, which is why I am working hard right now to change that.  But I can still be comfortable in my own body and have confidence.  If you don't have confidence in yourself, and if you aren't comfortable with your current body- no one else will be.  Realize that you're amazing RIGHT NOW! Before any of the weight comes off.  If you try to have this mindset instead of the kind of depressing, unconfident mindset that I have had in the past, you will feel much more motivated and excited about your weight loss.  You're not trying to completely transform a hideous beast....you're just trying to fine tune someone who is already beautiful! :)

Believe in yourself!!! <3, Linds

Going the Distance

Happy Wednesday!

 I cannot believe we are half way through the week already. My week is going amazing. I got a little distracted by past issues but working out has been my outlet. Last night I ran 32 minutes straight! I was really proud of myself! I didn't think I could run for 30 minutes straight but I did it thanks to Lona, some stress to work off, & one of my lovely friends-Jillian. 

Today was another crazy day. I've been fighting off sickness so lots of vitamin C. I ended up grabbing a footlong sub. Now I love tuna, but Subways tuna is super fattening because of all the mayo. I found a great solution to my issue. I got a footlong and only half the tuna on it. I loaded it with veggies and some salt & pepper. When I got back to my office, I opened up my sandwich and scrapped even more tuna off! It was basically a veggie sub topped with a thin line of tuna. It was amazing & only $5.

I ended my day today with over an hour of Zumba. It was awesome! Great songs and lots of sweat. When I got home, I grabbed Lona and met my friend outside. I figured we would run a quick mile but we ended up going 2.7 miles! 30 minutes again. I am feeling great. I was under my calorie intake for the day because of all my workouts but when I checked, I wasn't too under that it was unhealthy. So all & all---A GREAT DAY!

Moral of the Story

Turn your stress & worries into calorie burning motivation!