Thinking of workouts

So I’ve spent the last five days trying to figure out where in the world my insanity workout videos are! Under the tv? With the video games? Did my brothers steal it? Maybe it’s up north? But then it hit me. Where are my movies? I bet that’s where I put the DVDs. So after a long search and some false accusations (sorry bros), I found my movies and Insanity DVDs under the guest bed. Why and how I ever thought that was a good place to put them is beyond me.

Now that I’ve found them though I have to figure out if I’m ready to commit. I really hate starting things and not finishing them. And I want to set myself up for success. I like that Insanity is just 63 days vs the longer P90X, even though some of the workouts seem more well rounded for P90X. I also checked the calendar today to see that there are just 64 days until spring break. Hmm. Is this a sign? Day One of Insanity is a fit test, so maybe I will just do it today and it will help me decide if I can stick to it.

In terms of stepping and activity points, I’ve been doing pretty good! A couple days this year I’ve been just shy of goal, but I’m really aiming to minimize and eliminate those days. I mean, really, I can find a way to make 10,000 steps happen. No excuses.

Now that I’m on the 24 Day Challenge, I’ve been doing way better at staying on point for Weight Watchers. Without carbs like pastas (so high in points), I’m still pretty much hitting my daily point values and have not been using any extra points. Lots of healthy replacements like almonds, grilled chicken, lean ground turkey, etc.

Even though it’s only Day 5, a little look at the scale reveals -#s! I know this is largely water weight, but it’s encouraging and lights the fire under my ass. I’m feeling good, I’m convinced my face already looks less bloated, and I’m more motivated than ever to prove to myself that I can accomplish my goals and maintain my success.

I have so many things I want to accomplish in life, and I want to look, feel and be healthy when doing them. I was able to get to that place once during college even when working 35 hours and balancing 18 credits in school. Now I know I’m way busier now in grad school, and that’s in large part why I’m in the place I am at, but I’m not going to let that be my excuse. Am I busy? Yes. Do I love eating and drinking good things? Yes! Is that a good reason to be almost 20 pounds heavier than needed? No! I know they say we have set points and some people just weigh a little more and can’t maintain a lower weight, but I’m not settling for that. In September 2007 I said enough was enough and I’m saying that again now. If I can accomplish my goals now when school is the absolute busiest it may ever be, then I can do anything. Realistically, I could hit my goal by my birthday in late June. So that’s what I’m going to do! Even when this mood is gone. 💪🍓🏆

24 Day Challenge – All-In Style

Well, after a long week not doing super fantastic (thank you New Years extended weekend) I am up .6 pounds. I’m a little frustrated because that’s not how I wanted to start the New Year, but I’m also encouraged because this means I got through the holidays without a substantial weight gain!

While I’m still logging in Weight Watchers and wearing my active link 2, I also decided to do the 24 Day Challenge with my cousin! We started a day before the nation wide challenge which means we’ve just finished Day 2! This is before my original plan to do the challenge in February, but I’m hoping this will help jump start the year so I keep focused.

I really love the challenge because it’s realistic, never leaves me hungry, and is just a great way to get me off the sugar and on to clean eating. I take the cleanse (first ten days) pretty seriously and try to minimize heavy carbs as much as possible. Lots of veggies and fruits instead! I’m also getting plenty of protein and some healthy fats in.

I’m already feeling energized and excited! I’m keeping with my steps and hoping to add in some exercise too-maybe insanity. I bumped my head last week and I’m a little concerned I gave myself a concussion,  so hopefully tomorrow’s doctors appointment can help me figure out if I need to take it easy for a bit.

I have a good feeling about my goals this year. Here’s to feeling and looking good! =)

Goodbye 2014 – you were great!

I feel like I am ending 2014 on a great note! Despite lots of extra goodies on Christmas, I managed to up my activity points so that my weekly points did NOT end up in the negative. Not only that, but I actually weighed in at -.2. While that loss is pretty tiny, it’s not a gain!

Today will no doubt lead to a point overage (damn you champagne and beer and wine), but I started the day off right with a 1.5 hour Zumba session! Haven’t been able to take a class for a while, so if felt amazing! And it pretty much took care of my 10,000 steps plus activity points.

My fridge is officially stocked with fruits and veggies and I have a great feeling about this coming year. 2014 was amazing. I was able to go to DR with my fiancé in March which was absolutely beautiful. I passed my qualifying exams for school in August despite my basement flooding in the crazy storm after day one of testing. I visited Grand Rapids with my high school friends and made some crazy memories and spent lots of time up north mushroom picking with my family. Best of all, I was able to present at an international conference in Prague and traveled across seven countries with my brother. Through this all, I tried and loved Advocare and was able to maintain a weight loss of about 7 pounds. If this was 2014, I can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store!

Happy New Year!

Moving the Right Way

Well. Did I perhaps over indulge this past week? Yes. Not necessarily very happy to see how many points over I already am for the week (-3 from the extra points), but at least I have a few more days to stay on track and boost the activity points before Wednesday! Today was definitely a step in the right direction.

This past Wednesday weigh-in resulted in a teeny little loss, which I am pretty happy about given that I haven’t really fallen into a good groove yet. It’s really crazy how much a person can eat when not doing so mindfully. I guess it’s helpful to figure that out now and slowly transition to a healthier and more appropriate amount of food intake.

One of my Christmas gifts this year was the Samsung Gear Fit! While I had and liked the FitBit Flex, the Gear provides me with a clock and allows me to quick reply to texts and calls. I am all about the gadgets, and less than a week in I am loving the Gear. My goal is to get those 10,000 daily steps in. Beyond that, I’m still syncing the AcitveLink 2.0 with the Weight Watchers app. What I love about this is that it calculates activity points for me and subtracts extra food from them right in my tracker. It may be a little excessive to have all these devices, but they are fun and keep me motivated!

My biggest goals for the weeks to come will include the following:

1. Get 10,000 steps daily via Gear and hit 100% goal on ActiveLink daily
2. Drink 8-10 glasses of water
3. Take multivitamin
4. Incorporate more veggies!!
5. Exercise 3 days a week minimum
6. Aim for a 1lb loss per week

Looking forward into the next few months, I would really like to do another Advocare 24 Day Challenge. I have a vacation planned starting March 15, so the goal is to do the Challenge February 19-March 14. My hope is that in the month and a half before February 19 I’ll be able to slowly transition my eating to be a little cleaner. This will make it even easier to jump into the Challenge and will hopefully help make it easier to continue to maintain that into vacation and beyond.

I’m trying to keep my goals relatively small and manageable. I know this semester is going to be a busy one, so I don’t want to set myself up for fairly by trying to do any more than is realistic. In the end, 2014 has been a pretty bad ass year. I did end up losing some weight in ’14, but I am determined to match that loss and double it too! With so many great resources and a concrete plan, I feel like I can do it right.

Good luck to all of you with the same goals! Here is to making it happen in ’15.

Not Waiting For New Year

Sometimes I just don’t understand how I can go from being so driven and motivated to so blah. After working hard this summer to shed some pounds, I was starting to see some results and feel great! After coming back from vacation in October though, it was all down hill. Lots of mindless snacking and BAM – almost half way back to where I was at the start of summer.

Frustrating.

I’m not going to make excuses or say I’ll start again in the new year. Way too often I manage to find some event that I use as an excuse for not focusing on making healthy choices. As though the two are mutually exclusive. No no. I signed up for weight watchers before the new year! The past week has been eye opening and shown me just how much I’m over eating  (50 points one day when my limit is 26…yikes).

Now that I’m tracking food, steps (fitbit) and activity points  (activelink2) I feel like I’m focused again and motivated. Now I just need to keep it up…

Cleanse is done – on to the Max Phase!

Well, the out of town labor day weekend meant no internet access. Hence the lack of posts! My family went up north and had a great time! Some temptations during the weekend included two nights of my favorite pizza, cake with blue frosting and sprinkles, cookies, sausage, bacon, pancakes, cheez-its, alcohol, ice cream…I could go on. So out of all these things, where did I cave? Only in a bite of sausage that my brother insisted he wanted me to try! I’m not going to lie, that felt pretty damn good.

Another perk of the weekend was lots of walks in the woods mushroom picking! I ended up with a whole bunch of mushrooms and made some soup with it to eat during the Max Phase. The mushrooms are definitely yummy, but I wish I would have tried a different soup recipe. 

Overall, I was really proud of my first 10 days on this second challenge. I managed to avoid ALL heavy, complex carbs and stuck to fruits and veggies only rather than oatmeal, pasta and bread. I minimized my eating of almond and peanut butter and tried to stick to healthy, fresh protein like fish, extra lean turkey, and lots of chicken. I managed to drink 3/4 to 1 gallon of water everyday (exhausting drinking that much water) and actually exercised 7/10 days. Sooo….what did that mean results wise on Day 11?

– 6.2 lbs down!  Woo woo. I didn’t have time to take measurements or pictures and will try and do so tomorrow morning. Still, I can see the difference starting to show and already feel better in my dress pants. My biggest battle continues to be integrating exercise in and I think I need to work to at least do 10-20 minutes a day even if I can’t go for a run or complete a longer video. 

Day 5

To summarize my day: at 4:30pm I was in a a panic trying to complete my last minute tasks before we closed at 5pm for the day. Only at 4:45pm did I realize it’s Thursday and we close at 8pm. This was after I incorrectly set my alarm and woke up at 8:54am. For a 9:35pm class 10 miles away. Oi. It was a bit of a roller coaster kind of day! Found out that I did pass my qualifying exams (woo!) but that some people have to fix a question. I think because we are such a close class, it’s hard for me to feel the full amount of joy I was expecting to feel. Either way, it’s helpful for me to be able to store that part of my life away in the history books and move forward to begin work on my dissertation! 

As far as the challenge, well I struggled hard today. Had a good breakfast and snacks and dinner, but totally ended up skipping lunch. Somehow the time got away from me and next thing you know it’s dinner time! I know that is probably a pretty big no no, but I do feel proud that I didn’t give into the creamy coffee or gourmet cupcakes that were offered to me. 

Day 5

• Breakfast: MRS
• Snack: Almonds
• Lunch: Womp womp
• Snack: Blueberries
• Dinner: Scrambled egg whites on coconut oil with homemade quac
• Snack: Apple and pb

Obviously given all the activities of the day, I did not exercise. I plan to exercise in the morning tomorrow and then when we’re up north we take several very long walks through the woods. At least I have that to count on to get my butt moving. Will also bring Just Dance with me! 

Tonight’s plan will be to head to bed a little earlier. I’m going to be real honest, I looked at the stout in the fridge for a real long time weighing the pros and cons of having just one celebratory drink on the cleanse. Did not do it. Bam! Can’t get much more successful than that =p

Days 3+4

I thought today was Day 3 for probably far longer than I should have! I guess it’s a pleasant surprise to be one day further along on the cleanse! School and work have started this week which is resulting in a little bit of chaos. I’m trying not to let this mess with my eating or exercise, but I definitely did not end up working out yesterday. I WILL do so today after this post.

Day 3

• Breakfast: MRS
• Snack: Banana
• Lunch: Chicken, salad, tomato, raspberries
• Snack: Almonds
• Dinner: Chicken, tomato, avocado
• Snack: Apple

Day 4

• Breakfast: MRS
• Snack: Banana 
• Lunch: Turkey burger on lettuce and tomato
• Snack: Raspberries
• Dinner: Egg whites
• Snack: Almond butter and apple 

So I got a little lazy yesterday morning and went with a meal replacement shake. While I tried to do hard boiled eggs this morning, I forgot to check the boil time and ended up with eggs that were not quite ready to eat (womp womp). I went out to lunch today and managed to get the turkey burger on a piece of lettuce without any condiments, toppings, extras, etc. I imagine it may have been salted now that I think about it, but it’s about the best I could do where we went. One of the hard things for me is and has been finding ways to incorporate protein during this first 10 days. I’m tempted to venture into the world of tofu, but a little weary about proper prep. 

I also want to make it perfectly clear how many tomatoes I have.

This picture is only the pick from today! There is another bowl from Monday. And more in the garden! Love having such a good harvest.

I’ll be going up north with the family (funny enough I did that on my first cleanse), so I’ll bring some to share. My mom has again been super helpful in helping make sure there are enough meal options for me! Just gotta stick to it. Hoping to see some awesome results next week on Day 11! Already feeling better in general though, so I can’t ask for much more than that.

Day 2

First two days have been a success! I feel like I am already doing better than I did my first challenge. I know it’s early on, but I got some good momentum going here. Managed to deny a dark chocolate mate smoothie that was purchased to share with me (sorry!) even though it was no easy feat. Also did a JM 30 Day Shred video yesterday AND today. Even with a pulsing headache and after a 10 hour day at work. 

Day Two 

• Breakfast: 3 egg whites scrambled on coconut oil, plum, tomatoes 
• Snack: Almonds
• Lunch: Chicken, salad, apple
• Snack:Raw pumpkin seeds
• Dinner: Peanut butter and berry smoothie, tomatoes
• Snack: Tomatoes 

Okay, I know that tomatoes are generally supposed to be limited to 1 cup on the challenge, and I swear I am sticking to that. I have a whole garden full of little tomatoes that are turning redder and redder by the day! Extra veggies can’t hurt, right? 

The best thing I have improved upon this time around is definitely the meal planning. I already cooked and packaged my lunch for the whole week, which has made my life that much easier. I am a little nervous because I tend to get pretty bored having the same meal over and over, but I just need to suck it up – especially for these first 10 days! At least I can have my sweet potato treat to look forward to Day 12. 😉

Day 1

All right! So my qualifying exams are officially done (results pending until Wednesday). Things I did not manage to do while studying: exercise, eat well, drink enough water, get enough sleep. Obviously not my shining moment, but hours of studying has a way of doing that to you. 

Either way, I have decided to get back on the boat with a second 24 Day Challenge! I bought up my Advocare stuff a few months ago and have been waiting for the right time. No better time than the present, I suppose! I liked using this blog for accountability and for ideas from others, so I aim to use it the same way again. Hopefully it will keep me honest and on track!

Day One

• Breakfast: Spark, Catalyst, Fiber Drink, 2 Omega’s, 2 scrambled egg whites on coconut oil, 1 plum, spinach, tomatoes
• Snack: 23 almonds 
• Lunch: Ground extra lean turkey, spinach and romaine, tomatoes
• Snack: Peanut butter and apple
• Dinner: Chicken with zucchini and squash, 4 omega’s
• Snack: Started the day too late 
• Water: 120oz

I’m feeling like I’m getting back into the rhythm here pretty well. The challenge will be appropriately incorporating exercise this time around in addition to the good, clean eating! We’ll start today with either a run or a Jillian Michael’s DVD. To be determined!