21 Days

Ya know, it takes 21 days to form a habit and the same to break one. So, anything that I want to become a habit in my life I have to do for 21 days straight. After reaching the 21st day, I am more likely to continue doing whatever it is that I want to do. So I will have 21 day challenges. My first 21 day habit challenge will be to read for 30 minutes every day..it can be more..but at least 30 minutes. I plan to start this 21 day challenge on Monday, I need some time to prepare a chart to keep track of this challenge.

I have a new favorite snack. This is my recipe:

small can of Starkist solid light tuna fillet in water, drained
about 1/2 TB of organic mayonaise or you could use olive oil
about 1 tsp of lemon juice
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
dash of salt and pepper
Mix together and eat with Club low fat crackers...about 10. Awesome snack!!

I've also been eating lots of yogurt. One brand that I've recently discovered is Walaby Yogurt. Very rich and creamy as if to be high in fat..BUT, it's not. YUM!

I also have weigh in #3 tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous. With as much as I wanted to do the "30 Day Shred" every day, it just isn't possible. Not only did my muscles have fatigue but they were also getting bored of the same moves. I've substituted with my elliptical and some other non-video related exercises. I will be doing Jillian Micheal's "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" video tonight. It'll be my first time..so wish me luck. Mwuah!

LIFE.

Time flies. I wish things could slow down. I want to freeze frame certain portions of my life (or all of my current life) so that I can enjoy them as everlasting moments. Amelia is getting so big and sometimes when I stare at her beautiful face, fear comes over me. I don't want her to get big..I just want her to stay little, laying in my lap, sleeping peacefully for as long as possible. Why is life so quick to pass? Why have I, in this short life, been so willing to allow the days to cycle through as if I'm going to live forever? With as much as I would love to live life without an ending, I've come to realize that in my belief of life, I only live once..time is so very precious. I have to take each day and grab it with all I've got..enjoying every moment because they do pass so quickly. I want to feel life instead of just living it. I have so much I want to accomplish but those dreams just sit on a high, yet reachable shelf..collecting dust. It's time for me to live!

To start, I've always wanted to, and will be the best mother and wife I can possibly be. That is high priority for me, though being happy myself, is just as important, those two very wonderful people in my life make me VERY happy. I owe them nothing less than a happy me. Other things that make me happy which will contribute to my very full, well lived life are things such as painting, writing, reading, learning... things like to play the guitar, piano & history..and to be ultimately good at all of these things...at least a little bit, if only to myself. I could be happy with that. I want to be debt free for most of my adult life, I want to travel, I want to start embracing my relationships with people. I want to be a better friend. AND as you most know by now, I want to live life healthy and strong. All of these things are goals and things I mean to work on..and I shall. This is the time.

Weigh In # 2

Welp, there's good and bad news today. Good news is I didn't gain weight this last week, bad news is I didn't lose any either. HAHA I am the exact same weight and BMI that I was last week, exact same. I'm still glad. It's exciting to know that this week might be my big week where I start to see some weight loss. I know that if I keep at it, I'll get there eventually.

Update on my 30 day challenge: I did the "30 Day Shred" video 2 days in a row. I underestimated the pain I would feel from doing this video and my body felt like jello for 2 days after. I did skip the 3rd day, but I continued on yesterday and did the video again. It appears that this is the way it'll have to go down. I did not plan on this so now I should update the challenge. I WILL do this video during a 30 day period. So I did it 2 days in a row, skipped a day and then did it again which equals 4 days. So, 4 days down and 26 to go. I will take breaks as needed but I will continue on. During my "break" day, I still worked out. I was on my elliptical for a good, strong 15 minutes, then I did some stretching..much needed stretching. I feel good about this. I'm not at all disappointed in myself for not losing any weight because I know that if I press on, I will see results. I've also been eating very well. I slipped up a bit this weekend with an indulgence of ice-cream and an Imo's pizza, but all in moderation.

The ice-cream I had this weekend was the brand Sheer Bliss in pomegranate with dark chocolate chips. This is a must try ice-cream. It's the best store bought ice-cream I've ever had. A little pricey, about $4.99 for a pint but it's not something that I plan to make a habit of. It was a valentines day treat. :)

I'm ready for Spring! I am just shaking my leg at the excitement of it. I have goals to sort through my cluttered basement and have a garage sale this Spring/Summer. I also want to organize our garage because I park in it and can barely get out of the car. I'm thrilled about setting up a workout space in my basement once it's clean and organized. I'm going to be getting some boxing gear so that I can up my workouts with some muay thai. I'd also like to learn jiu jitsu.

Anyway, here are the stats..which are the same as last week.

Digital scale: 180.4 lbs
Wii scale: 182 lbs
BMI: 28.55

Oh and something exciting for me. I got my hair chopped off. It was pretty long, and now it's shoulder length, a tid shorter than that. I think it's cute and it looks really cute when it's curled. I'll post a picture soon.

Welp, gotta get to it. Mwuah!

30 day shred CHALLENGE # 1

YES!! I just finished Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" dvd on level 1. I am so pumped and feelin' good. This is the first time I've tried one of her dvd's and if you've watched "The Biggest Loser" on television, you know what to expect. She is tough.

So...here comes the challenge. I plan to do this video every day for 30 days as my first challenge, 10 days on level 1, 10 days on level 2 and then 10 days on level 3. I'm excited to see if I can do it and even more excited to see the results. I AM SO MOTIVATED RIGHT NOW! If any of you have the dvd and would like to participate, please comment. We can do this.

Other things I've been doing:

Well, off of the workout subject. A friend of mine who had been witnessing my husband and I attending to our daughter's cries, did not think that we should pick her up but rather let her cry it out. I had read before that it's actually better to NOT let them cry it out, especially at such a young age. I found a few good reads on the subject online. If you are at all interested, the links are below.

CRYING # 1

CRYING # 2

Anyway, I purchased some coconut milk and pineapple juice to make some yummy smoothies. I had one this morning that was pretty delicious called the Strawberry Colada. On a 1 to 10 scale, this smoothie gets a 6.

Serves 3-4

4 C. Strawberries..we used frozen.
1/2 C. Coconut Milk
2.5 C. Pineapple juice, chilled.

Very good and refreshing. Let me know if you decide to try it. I will be trying other recipes that are in my book "Smoothies & Juices: natural blends to delight and inspire" & sharing them with you.

Welp, to the shower I go...then a huge salad. YUM!

Super Bowl Sunday = eat crappy

Alright, so I did not eat well on Super Bowl Sunday or today really, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I think the Super Bowl is meant for snacking on chips and guacamole..right? I'm one of those Super Bowl party goers that kind of watches the game BUT really I'm just there for the goodies. LOL Today, I was extremely busy doing housework and taking care of my little one & didn't feel that I had time to really concentrate on my weight loss plan. I'm going to get back on my game tomorrow.

Here are some of my snack ideas that I'm using these days. Dried apricots, dark chocolate covered dried plums, Nature Valley's granola bars, home-made fruit & yogurt parfaits, steamed sweet potatoes, grapefruits (they're in season too), & Orville's tender white popcorn. MMM MMM! These are good snacks for movie watching or just for in-between meals.

How do I make my parfaits? Welp, I start off with a layer of fruit in the bottom of a bowl. Typically, blueberries and 1/2 a banana. Then I top that with some non-fat plain yogurt. On top of that I crunch up one of the bars in a Nature Valley granola package (any flavor) and then put a tid of honey and cinnamon on top. Delicious! If you decide to try it, let me know what you think.

I've also been following some health gurus on youtube.com, here are the channels if you're interested:

SarahsFabChannel

diethealth

I'm always looking for good youtube channels so I'll be sure to keep you guys posted as I find good ones. :)

Welp, Gotta get on my game...mwuah!

Weigh In # 1

Digital Scale: 180.4 lbs
Wii Scale: 182 lbs
BMI: 28.55...............EWWW!

In order be in a healthy BMI range I should at least have a BMI of 22, I have a ways to go. I don't have much to post today other than I am about to workout. I'll probably start with the elliptical then do some pilates. I found some yummy recipes last night so I'm excited to go grocery shopping today. Check out what I plan to make this next week:

Chickpea Tagine

Shrimp & Avocado Rice Bowl

YUMMY!

Welp, I better get to it. Mwuah!

What I've been doing this week.

This week has been fairly successful, I'm not a bit disappointed with myself. I have been sub-par in my "1 hour hard-core" workouts but my diet has improved a ton. I have had a few junky things which I think is perfectly healthy as long as it's not something I do all the time..just here and there. I've been eating eggs on an english muffin or a fruit smoothie for breakfast. I've been eating baby carrots, plain almonds and cheese sticks as my in between meal snacks. I have only had two sweet things this week. A small bowl of ice-cream and a piece of red velvet cake. Very yummy, but I was able to control myself both times. :) I'd say things are going very well. Today, I started looking up healthy recipes, that are packed full of nutrition but low on fat. You all should check out www.fitnessmagazine.com I'm also currently working on downloading the workout playlist that fitnessmagazine.com has on their site. I have been working out to lil wayne, Adele, and Tegan & Sara this week, I need some new stuff.

I have been using two workout dvd's this week. One is called "the Abs Diet for Women workout" done by fitness trainer, Jessica Smith. I WOULD indeed recommend this. It contains everything from Pilates to cardio, but all to tone your midsection. I've also been doing the "pilatesforlife Workout Collection" with Amy Brown. Now, this really made me sore. It's a 4 disc set to include, pilates for flexibility, pilates on the ball, 20 min. overall body workout & abs and waist. NICE! Yes, it is. I'm not too excited about Amy Brown, she kind of annoys me but the workouts are good. I've also been using my elliptical when I feel I need a good warm up or if I just want to get a good workout. While I was browsing www.fitnessmagazine.com, I ran across a routine that would help burn 400 calories either using a treadmill, bike or elliptical. Since I have an elliptical, I will now be attempting this specific workout.

15-18 min @ moderate level (level 6-9) RPE 5-7
18-20 min @ increased level (level 7-9) RPE 7-9
20-25 min REPEAT & gradually slowing for last 30 seconds. RPE 5

Sounds pretty tough really. I'm not all that excited about it but 400 calories? Uh, shyeh! Anyway, I realize some may think that I'm being too drastic for being 6 weeks postpartum but I'm a big girl. I can and will work at my own pace, not to push myself too hard and take it slow...that is indeed why this blog is called "Losing weight the hard way".

My first official weigh in will be tomorrow morning. I plan to do all weigh ins on Saturdays so keep your eyes open. It's only going to get better from here. Mwuah!

AND it begins..

okee dokee pokee. I am officially 6 weeks postpartum and ready and able to begin the journey of weight loss. Now, as you can see by the title of my blog, "Losing weight the hard way", this will be no picnic. I have accepted the fact that this may take longer than I would like and all is fine, as long as the goal is reached. What is my goal you ask..well let me tell you. I am bearing all here..my weight, what I eat, my workouts, etc. so be kind to my sensitive self because trust me I am not proud of where I am today (in regards to my weight).

Pre-pregnancy weight: 152 lbs
Current weight: 182.2 lbs
Goal weight: 130 lbs

Now, with those ridiculous numbers laid out for all to see, I plan to do something about it. If anyone has any tips, website links, or anything..let me know. I am all ears..or should I say eyes. LOL

The plan is to cut out all empty calories..except for the occasional slice of pie of course (DUH!)...I'm not Gandhi...we're taking things slow here. I eat way too many sweet foods..I have a LARGE sweet tooth..one that calls out far too often and for far more than it can handle..so this is a challenge for sure. Along side the cut in empty calories, I will strive for working out 5 days a week for at least an hour. When I say an hour I mean a full hard-core, feet to the asphalt, muscles to the poundage, hard-core hour. Not my usual, here and there, long ass time, we'll call it a 3 hour workouts. Nut-Uh, girlfriend! This is the real deal here. I will be posting details about how I'm eating, what kind of things I'm doing to eat healthier, what kind of workouts I'm doing, etc. I will also have weekly weigh-ins which will include weighing myself on my digital scale and on the wii scale and posting both my weight and my BMI..eeek, kind of nervous about revealing all of that, but hey it's accountability we're after.

As I look at my writing above, I realize that I enjoy my ....'s far too much. This I shall improve, I promise.

Wish me luck!