I'm Losin' It!

I don't suck

2010-02-23T21:07:00.002-06:00

So, after I jog, I insert my Nike usb to the computer so it can upload my information. Today was jog #6, which is completely unimpressive. My goal is run 210mi in 2010 and it was supposed to begin on 1-1-10. I don't like jogging on a treadmill, it gets boring and I don't feel like I'm working out my entire body. Jogging on terrain is completely different and total body workout. Needless to say, the reason why jog #6 is completely unimpressive is because it is 2-23-10 and I've only run 9.07mi and I should have ran at least 40mi by now.

The one good thing about the fact that it is only jog #6 is that I've increased my distance by 1.02mi and I've been able to keep up with a below Aleiva-average pace! I am totally pumped about that!

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

2010-02-18T19:24:00.003-06:00

Thanks to Erinn, I will now be keeping track of my "everything new" on here again!

Ok, now that my parents have moved out of the country and things are settled back down, I am prepared to start my new and improved lifestyle again. It kinda sucks that "life" can get in the way of life ... I didn't really understand that until I got married. Plus, life happens 9mo out of the year for me (teaching), so I need to get with it and stop complaining.

Either way, Christopher and I are back on track and we both bought some protein meal-replacement shakes. A lot of people can't stand them, but I really don't mind them. They help me cut my bad eating habits cold-turkey, which is what I need. In honor of Lent, this is what I plan on doing for the next 40 days to get kick myself back into gear:

protein shake for breakfast (30g protein, 180cal and 3g fat)
run in the mornings for 30-60min

protein shake for lunch
carb-free snack at school x2

sensible dinner

oh, and lots of water

Sounds boring, but boring is good! It's not too extreme but it will help me get this eating under control! I am now up to a size 12 and I am at my heaviest weight ever .... 170lb. So, that's why boring is good for a while.

Love to all!!

prepared for soreness

2009-10-27T15:35:00.001-05:00

I'm packing up my stuff, right now, going home and then going to work out. I'm VERY prepared to be sore in the morning, but that actually makes me excited. Is that wierd?

10yr. high school reunion

2009-10-18T20:00:00.002-05:00

So, this whole budget thing has been my excuse for not tracking my calories and my exercising. Thus, enabling me to sleep in when I should be getting up to go workout before work. So, now that my 10yr high school reunion is just quick 3 weeks away I've decided this will be the event that kicks my butt back into gear! I have my meal replacement shakes ready to go this week. My eating plan is going to consist of 2 shakes a day plus a light meal. I need to shrink my stomach back down so that I get full faster. I'm totally pumped!

I'm back on track!

2009-08-29T11:01:00.004-05:00

I don't know that I will say I was ever really "off" track but I sure wasn't counting my calories any more and I wasn't really watching what I was eating (for a good 15days). However, I did keep my portions small so that I wouldn't spiral out of control. Something that got reaffirmed, that I didn't really care to reaffirmed is: I'm a stress eater. Once I got the ball rolling with having to set up my classroom and go to meetings all day I realized that under pressure I eat crap for meals. The crap eating didn't last as long this time, just those 15 days, but starting school isn't exactly the most stressful part of the school year for a teacher either.
I'm going to have to find a way so that when I get stressed out I don't revert back to "my old way" of eating. It's entirely way too easy to get off track and STAY off track for me. What do you do when you find your self doing things that you don't really want to do, but it's your way to cope with stress?
On a happier note, since school started 5 days ago I have been eating great AND I'm also taking my daily vitamins. For breakfast I'll either have a breakfast cookie to-go or a Fiber One yogurt cup with 1/2c of granola cereal mixed in or a Zone bar. For lunch I have Campbell's, Select Harvest (microwavable) soup and a string cheese. And no, it's not hard to eat soup every day for lunch at all actually. For my 2 snacks during the day, I usually have what I didn't have for breakfast. Dinner has been really light this week since I'm exhausted when I get home. They have consisted of cereal, sandwiches, cottage cheese, fruits, and simple things like that. Once I get the hang of school, I will go back to cooking dinners, but they won't consist of 5 things on the plate like they used to.
I'm so lucky that Christopher supports everything I'm trying to do. He doesn't get bent out of shape when I say I would just rather have a sandwich for dinner. He's a HUGE part of the reason why I can do this.

Grab 'n Go Breakfast Cookies

2009-08-25T19:49:00.004-05:00

So, I just made my own version of Oatmeal To-Go bars for breakfast using my Hungry Girl cookbook! I am so excited!!! The recipe doesn't use oil, butter or real sugar! I already taste-tested them and they are FABULOUS!!!! One cookie has: 154 calories, 1.5g fat, 32.5g carbs, 5g fiber, 10.5g sugars and 5g protein

careers and dieting

2009-08-20T17:22:00.002-05:00

I knew it would be difficult to keep up with this blog and my trackers on SparkPeople. However, I didn't realize HOW HARD it would be! For the month of August I have not been watching what I eat. Between traveling to Mexico and now going to meetings all day for school and getting my classroom set up, it has been VERY difficult to get back in the swing of things. SO, what I did be proactive about this was print off a list of Portable Snacking Tips and Ideas. It's an article I found when I was browsing SP. I already made my shopping list and I'm excited about being organized in the kitchen so it will help me stay focused on my students instead of my eating. I am not going to promise that I will post daily, but I will promise to post at least once a week. That's more realistic since I'm going back to work!

TMM promotes a healthy lifestyle

2009-08-01T10:04:00.003-05:00

So, Christopher and I are doing the TMM by Dave Ramsey. Most of you already know this, but it's a lifestyle change to get completely out of debt. Now, his approach can be as extreme as you are willing to make it. This could mean, everyone gets a second job, sell your home and anything in it you don't really "need." He also lumps your mortgage, student loans and car payments into what he calls debt; it's not just credit cards any more.

Chris and I are are only focusing on the credit cards first, then my car. If we like what we see and we feel good about it, then we'll continue on with the student loans. If it gets to be too much work at that point, then we'll just let our loans pay for themselves like they have been for the past however many years.

Ok, I just went off on a tangent. Sorry.

Where I was going with this was that doing the TMM is going to force us to have a more healthy lifestyle. No more eating out. No more ordering pizza. No more bar hopping. When we're bored, we'll be forced to go exercise or to play a mind engaging board game. We will have an entertainment budget each month but we cut it down to 25% of what our entertainment budget was before. That's going to be hard.

I'm actually liking where I see this going dispite how hard will get at times having to say no. Not only do I already have a plan for my self by tracking my fitness and nutrition, but we also have the TMM to help us maintain the new healthy lifestyle we're trying to obtain by KEEPING US FROM SPENDING ON UNHEALTHY THINGS! It's wonderful when parts of your life fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

*Acconym: TMM - Total Money Makeover

breaks are not failures

2009-07-29T10:57:00.004-05:00

After I got back from Austin, it took me 5 days to start tracking my food/fitness. That seems like a lot of time to me. At the same time, I don't give my self any breaks ... the first break I take I end up seeing as failure. A little extreme, I know, that's how I was born. I'm trying to work on that aspect of this new lifestyle. Someone commented on my SP blog and told me that, "It's a victory if it's better than what you were doing before." So, I'm going to try to start believing that.

vacations and diets suck

2009-07-24T12:19:00.002-05:00

I enjoy both eating healthy and vacationing, but I just haven't figured out how to both at the same time! It's easy when you're you rent a condo b/c then you can go to the grocery store and cook all of your food. When your friends want to eat out, you eat before hand and just sip on water or pineapple juice and order a salad. It's not so easy when you're going to a friend's house and staying for 3 days. I didn't feel like I would be there long enough to go to the grocery store nor did I feel right packing a cooler. Yes, I actually thought about it. So, here's what I ate while I was there from 7.20-7.23:

On the way down: McDonalds Fish-filet combo with diet dr. pepper and about 5 french fries (good thing is, I don't crave them so much any more!!!)
Dinner that night: Spaghetti Warehouse: house salad with house dressing, half portion of lasagna and angelhair pasta in a butter garlic sauce with approx 3oz of grilled chicken (I only ate half of my half portion so that made me feel ok) *** about 5 vodka tonics ***
Breakfast on Tuesday: Nothing, I slept too late
Lunch on Tuesday: Out with Andrea's mom to an Italian restaraunt. I had 4 pieces of a (super) thin crust peperoni pizza and some ice tea
Dinner on Tuesday: The remaining 4 pieces of pizza from lunch
** about 4 vodka tonics**
Breakfast on Wednesday: peach fruit cup in light syrup and 1 pkg of grits with a tsp of Smart Balance
Lunch on Wednesday: Homemade cheese enchiladas with a beef sauce that Andrea's mom made and 1/4c of mexican rice
Dinner on Wednesday: Cheddars and I ordered a grilled chicken sadwich, no mayo, applewood bacon, swiss cheese and about 5 frenchfries again
I did get in about 25min of lap swimming in and dancing one of the nights, so my workout didn't go completely down the toilet.

So, there it is. Complete damage for those few days and because I decided to eat like I and drink the way I did ... I've had a migraine for 3 days now.

wiped out

2009-07-17T19:41:00.003-05:00

So, after waking up 6:45am with Christopher today to make him a Mint Mocha Frap. I decided to fall back asleep until 12pm! I can't believe I slept that much, I really can't. I think it has to do with how hard I push my body at the gym. Therefore, I did not accomplish my cardio goal for today: 60+min and/or 500-800 calories burned. I don't feel bad about it either. I had a really tough work out yesterday and I think my body just needed to relax for a day. I did eat really good though, but there is a small problem. I can't give my totals for the day b/c the spark page isn't loading right :( I'll have to try later or tomorrow even. I LOVE MY HUNGRY GIRL COOK BOOK!!

chocolate, bananas and coffee

2009-07-16T10:30:00.004-05:00

I'm totally excited! Last night I bought the Biggest Loser food scale :) Now I can actually eat correct portion sizes.

Now onto some crazy-good breakfast recipes!

choco-monkey oatmeal

1/3 cup regular oats

1 25-calorie packet diet hot cocoa mix

1/2 med. banana, mashed

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1 packet of Splenda (or which ever sweetener you like)

dash of salt

How to make it:

Pour cocoa mix into a glass with cinnamon, sweetener and salt. Add 1/4cup of hot water and stir until dissolved. Add 1/4 cup cold water and stir.

In microwave bowl, combine cocoa mixture, mashed banana and oats. Mix well. Heat for 2min. Stir.

*I do everything in a small pot on my stove b/c we don't have a microwave.

** It was totally yummy and VERY filling!!

Serving (entire recipe)

185 calories

2g fat

137mg sodium

37g carbs

5g fiber

11g sugar

6.5g protien

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

mint chocolate chip freeze

1 tbsp. Coffee-mate Sugar Free French Vanilla powdered creamer

1 tbsp. sugar-free chocolate syrup

1 tsp. instant coffee granules

1 tsp. mini semi-sweet choco chips

1/4 tsp. peppermint extract

2 no-calorie sweetener packets (I use Splenda with Fiber)

1 cup crushed ice or 5-8 ice cubes

2 tbsp. Chocolate Redddi-wip

How to make it:

Combine powdered creamer with 2 tbsp. of warm water. Stir until dissolved. Add 3/4 cup cold water and transfer to blender. Add remaining ingredients except for Reddi-wip. Blend on high for 30-45sec. Pour and top with Reddi-wip.

*I didn't get Reddi-wip b/c I'm not a fan of the texture, so I'm sure it cuts the calories down just a little more.

Serving (entire drink)

87 calories
4.75g fat
36mg sodium
12g carbs
0g fiber
3g sugar
<0.5g>

Hungry Girl eating starts tonight!

2009-07-15T15:31:00.002-05:00
I'm so excited! Last night I went through my Hungry Girl book and picked our recipes to cook for the next 2.5 weeks. Today I made my grocery list and tonight I go shopping. I can't wait to try out and share recipes! I have no idea where to buy some of this stuff though:
*ground-beef-soy-crumbles (come frozen)
*Boca burgers
*Tofu Shirataki spaghetti shaped noodles (I have never had, tried or bought tofu)

Goals Met and Mac 'n Cheese

2009-07-15T11:07:00.003-05:00
I cant' seem to figure out the best way to share what I've eaten on here. Listing everything is too much work, so I've decided to share my daily totals. On my spark nutrition page, I track everything I eat (which I've never done before and boy is it a lot of work) and it breaks it down for me. Here are my nutrition totals from 7.14.09:

CALORIES 1,388 Daily Goal 1,200 - 1,550
CARBS 184 Daily Goal 163 - 236
FAT 39 Daily Goal 32 - 56
PROTEIN 75 Daily Goal 60 - 127
8 glasses of water!

I'm trying to stay on the lowest end of my daily goal especailly with fats and calories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fitness total from 7.14.09
Stationary bike and elliptical

Cardio daily total 30min Cardio daily goal 60min
Calories burned total 245 Calories burned goal 432
(I clearly did not meet my goals today!)

Strength Training (3 reps of 15 per exercise, weight varies)
seated back extension
back extension on roman chair
seated chest press
seated twist with medicine ball
seated tricep dips, legs bent
reverse crunches
reverse crunches with medicine ball
hip abduction machine (inner and outter thigh)

I did not have a very good day yesterday as far as working out goes. There were 4 more leg exercises I was supposed to do but I just had NO energy and I didn't want to hurt my self.I was TIRED! So, I've decided to break up my off-days to Wednesday and Saturday instead of Friday and Saturday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ALL love mac 'n cheese!!!!

Week 1 Measurments

2009-07-13T08:54:00.004-05:00
Weight: 163.3. down 2.6 pounds!!! - I miscalculated it before, but that's still good for one week!
Bust: 39" same - I swear my boobs will never get smaller!
Waist: 33" down 1.5 inches!!!
Hips: 42.5" down .5 inches!!!

I sure do feel good when the measuring tape and the scale validate what I'm physcially feeling in my body changes!!!! YES!

I haven't been doing a good job about posting my eating and exercising, so here's a recap of the last couple of days: As fas as my diet is concerned it hasen't been that great. We're out of food and we can't go shopping until Wednesday!

7.11.09 - Day off! Today was definitely my cheat day!!!! Happy Birthday Dad :)
1 hardboiled egg white
1 string cheese
1/4c of bbq beef brisket
1/2 c bushes baked beans
1/2 c cheese potato casserole
3 glasses of water
3 small mango margaritas (for my dad's birthday)

7.12.09 - Elliptical, randon setting, level 7, 60min, 550calories
Strength training: chest press, abs, tricep dips, squats
oatmeal
2 eggs
1slice of cheese
1slice of whote wheat, sugar free bread
3 pieces of breakfast sausage
1 freezie pop
4 glasses of water
1 20oz bottle of gatorade
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's how I manage my goal setting -Right now I have 4 small goals and one 1 HUGE goal-

Small goal #1: drink 8 glasses of water a day (this one is actually the hardest one!)
Small goal #2: Journal my efforts daily
Small goal #3: Get 8hrs of sleep a night
Small goal #4: 400min of cardio a week
HUGE goal: Lose 3500 calories a week or more by working out and eating right
That's right ..... 3500calories = 1lb of fat!!!! EWWWWWW!!!!

snowflakes are fragile

2009-07-12T15:12:00.004-05:00
This quote made me think ....
all of us are kind of like snowflakes. There are many things that we can do alone and do alone successfully. But while doing those things alone we can become tired, stressed, overstimulated, depressed or uninterested. On the flip side if we stick together, share successes, praise each other, share knowledge or even just show interest, it attracts others to do the same ... hence building a snowman instead of melting before hitting the ground.

South Beach out Hungry Girl IN!

2009-07-11T12:47:00.003-05:00

On Thursday I went to Barns and Noble after hitting the gym in search of a satisfying cookbook. I was looking for book that just told me what to cook and not all of that science jargon. I already know about carbs, good ones and bad ones. I already know that starches turn into sugar and sugar turns into fat. I already know that just because something says "fat-free" on the label doesn't mean that it's fat-free. Fiber keeps you full and you want to eat approx. 60 grams of protein a day. I think you get the point.

After 45min. of browsing I found the perfect book! Hungry Girl 200 Under 200. It has 200 recipes under 200 calories each! This website plus SparkPeople are my two healthy lifestyle bibles during this journey back to being my self.

Food and Sweat

2009-07-10T20:32:00.009-05:00
Here's what I've done so far:

7.6.09 - Elliptical, 800 calories
oat meal
1c. fideos (mexican soup with letters, tomato based)
brisket sandwich w/bbq sauce
water

7.7.09 -Elliptical, 500 calories + core training with 4lb medicine ball
oat meal
bbq chicken wrap in spinach tortilla
2 wedges of cantaloupe
4 wedges of watermelon
1c of Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast Soup
water/ 1 bottle of coke

7.8.09 - Elliptical, 700 calories + abs
1c of corn flakes w/skim milk
1c of Progresso Light Beef Pot Roast Soup
peanut butter and jelly sandwich
water

7.9.09 - Elliptical, 300 calories + legs and butt
oatmeal
2 beef soft tacos from Blue Goose
water
I didn't do so good today. I'm tired.

7.10.09 - I did nothing. Today is my day off. I slept until 12pm, which is extremely late for me. I am usually up at 6am with Scooter and Bentley. Then I decided to go to the pool, float around and get tan. Today was a me day.
3 hard boiled egg whites
slice of bread with peanut butter
1 string cheese
1c. lentil soup
water (not enough though)

Current Stats

2009-07-10T19:06:00.004-05:00

166 lb.

chest: 39"

waist: 34 1/2"

hips: 43"

I figure if I put a picture like this one up, then it'll push me harder than ever.

No, you don't weigh that much.

2009-07-09T22:18:00.005-05:00
My entire life I've always had a bubbly butt, thick thighs, a full bust and broad shoulders. Quizzes in Cosmo magazine tell me that I have a "sporty build" and when I describe my self it's usually, " a little above average or curvy." Embracing, loving and enjoying my figure was never on my list of things-to-do and that was because I didn't look like anyone else. That's right, because I didn't' look like any of my friends I didn't think my body was pretty.

It wasn't until I went off to college when I started realizing (and accepting)that I will always have a 36" bust or larger no matter how small my boobs get, that my thighs will always touch no matter how much I work out and I would never be smaller than a size 9 even if I got a tummy tuck. And it wasn't until college that I started to believe my friends when they would say, "No, you don't weigh that much." I was beginning to love the fact that I didn't look my weight and that no one else looked like me. I was beginning to love me, just the way I was supposed to be.

Now that I'm (almost) 28 years old, I have found my self in unhappy situation with my body again. I've also learned things about my self that I do not like, but that I can change.

#1 Food for me is like a drug. I like it and want it because it tastes good in my mouth, not because it makes me feel full.

#2 I eat for flavor, not for nutritional or for healthful purposes.

#3 I am an emotional eater.

So, this is the purpose of my blog. I'm sharing my biggest insecurity with the world in exchange for some motivation, tips, praises and crack-downs when I screw up.