5 Small Steps to a Healthier You

You do not have to make a life change to become a healthier person. Taking small steps is always a good way to go. I have some great tips on small steps you can take towards a healthy lifestyle.

1) Whole wheat pasta--Have you been hearing lately that whole wheat is the way to go?  It is the better option when it comes to pasta. Why? Let's talk about Rotini for a moment. Rotini and Whole wheat rotini both have 210 calories per 3/4 cup dry serving. They both offer 7 grams of protein and have 2 grams of sugar. But whole wheat rotini offers 5 grams of fiber versus the 2 grams of regular rotini. Whole wheat rotini also has no sodium in it. That's a big plus seeing as we consume way too much sodium! Small step tip:If you don't particularly like the taste of whole wheat pasta, you can mix regular pasta with whole wheat. Go half/half and slowly add more whole wheat each time you make pasta.

2) Spaghetti Squash--Like spaghetti but don't want all the calories that go with it? Need some extra nutrients in your dinner? Spaghetti squash has the look and consistency of spaghetti noodles but is so much healthier! It also doesn't really have a taste so it will taste like whatever delicious sauce you add to it. Small step tip: Just boil up a whole spaghetti squash. Open it up, de-seed it and use a fork to "spaghetti" the squash. 

3)Water, water, water--You've heard it time and time again. Drink lots and lots of water. It really does benefit you! I personally don't drink coffee or soda so it isn't hard to choose water over other drinks. What is hard is getting enough water in.  The more sodium we take in, the more water we retain. The more water we drink, the more toxins/sodium we flush out of our system. Small step tip: Try to drink 10 glasses of water a day. Why 10? 10 glasses is roughly 80 oz of water. Drinking 10 glasses will make sure you are getting enough water and keeping hydrated. Your body will thank you!

4)Vegetables--Vegetables these days are becoming less important, especially with all the easily accessible processed food. We don't have time to cook, so we grab something on the go. One week I noticed I ate hardly any vegetables. All my meals were a yellowy/orange color. They weren't rainbow colored like you are supposed to have in your meals (you know, like green salads and orange carrots and red bell peppers, etc). Vegetables are micro-nutrients. They offer vitamins that your body needs. We can't overlook vegetables! Small step tip: Add at least one vegetable to every meal (I don't just mean corn or potatoes, those are a starch. I mean broccoli or bell peppers or green beans, FRESH not canned). If you have a hard time eating things like broccoli I see nothing wrong with putting some cheese on them if you have to. You will at least be getting those nutrients in from the fresh veggies.

5)Walking-- Exercise is good for the soul. And the body too.  You don't have to do an intense program like P90x or Insanity to get your body in better shape. Walking can do wonders. You can benefit from the fresh air, from your heart rate increasing. I know someone who lost 20 pounds just from walking. It doesn't take much effort and it can make you feel so good! Small step tip: Start by walking for 5 minutes a day. Getting your mail? Take a 5 minute trip to do it. Bringing in the groceries? Bring in one bag at a time to get those 5 minutes in. Gradually increase your time to 30 minutes a day if you can.

There is always more we can do to be healthier. Its is okay to take baby steps.

-Kate

Losing Weight Motivates...or does it?

*****Disclaimer: I have posted a picture of me at the bottom of this post to show how I have improved over the last few months. If you don't want to see me 'half' naked then don't scroll to the bottom of the post.*****

The end of the month is such a drag for me. That is when we run out of money for groceries. I haven't been eating the best lately. I have been eating out of the food storage pantry. That means tuna casseroles, spaghetti, meals containing "cream of" soups... Must I go on? I need to plan our money out better to make it go the whole month. For that matter I should probably plan out a whole month worth of meals. We would totally have veggies right now if I didn't splurge on foods earlier this month. Next month I will focus on how you can eat healthy without breaking the bank. I wasn't a good example of it this month but it can be done!

I wanted to talk to you about weight loss. The world is under the impression that the number of pounds you weigh is what is important rather than your measurements. I disagree. Even at my skinniest (well skinniest as an adult, not a teen) I was "overweight". At my height I am supposedly at a healthy weight between 105 and 125 pounds. I was 135 before having kids and I didn't look fat. I am an hourglass shape. I am a Marilyn Monroe. I have a naturally bigger bust and a tiny waist. Well I did. When I stand on the scale I feel like a heffer, especially if I have been working out hard and eating healthy and haven't lost any weight. But when I measure myself and see that my body has slimmed down by inches then I feel pretty good.

That being said, losing weight does feel really good. I do both. I weigh myself and measure because I do want to see a difference in my body. Losing weight motivates. When I see that I have lost 5 pounds I feel motivated to continue on. When I see I have lost an inch in my waist but see no change on the scale I do feel like "man, but I wish I could lose more weight". Dang society! It did that to us. It makes us think the scale still matters a whole lot. I am trying to get myself to think more on the line of just measuring rather than weighing but it is so hard.

When I started this blog I was 154 pounds and I have no idea what my measurements were. In January I weighed 157 and started to measure myself. I am currently 145 pounds. I have lost 12 pounds! That is very motivating to me. Now let me tell you about measurements. I measure my chest, waist, hips, arms, and thighs. I measure my arms when flexed because I am trying to build muscle in them and want to see bigger measurements there.  I will share with you my measurements from January in the bust, waist and hips versus what I am now. Then we'll talk a little more.
January 14th, 2013
Weight 157.8
Chest 37"
Waist 32.5"
Hips 42"

May 3rd, 2013
Weight 145.8
Chest 35.5"
Waist 28.5"
Hips 39"

So what does this mean? I have lost 12 pounds. I am slimmer in my chest by 1.5 inches. My waist is 4 inches smaller than it was in January. My butt is smaller by 3 inches. That is pretty awesome.  When I look in the mirror I can see it. When I looked at the pictures I took today I don't see it so much. But I am looking at all my flaws, not at my improvement. Society tells me that I should look like this:

and not like this:

The above picture I found under plus-size models. That is sick! This woman looks great but she is a plus-size model. I know maybe I am going all over the place. The point I want to make is that we are taught by the world that we should look a certain way. Thin and pretty. Well I am 5'1". I will never look like bikini girl up there. I feel like I look like plus size model over here and there is nothing wrong with that. She looks great. The world telling her that she is a plus-size model is messed up.

Try not to focus on the number on the scale. That is my goal this month. Focus on the measurements. Focus on feeling good. Focus on feeding your body good and healthy foods.  It's not about the numbers. It's about being healthy.

And now here is how I am looking these days:

I guess none of these skinny women who wear bikinis have a scar from their appendectomy either! I rock that scar!

A Much Needed Update

I know it has been too long since my last post.  I am pretty disappointed in myself.  The whole reason I started blogging about my fitness is because I wanted there to be a blog where someone wrote the good and the bad days. A blog where someone wrote about the set backs. Well when I started having set backs I didn't want to blog about them hahaha. What a hypocrite! Well I'm back and I'm better than ever.

A lot has changed since the end of January. I must tell you that I am no longer doing P90x. It is a great program, don't get me wrong. But it is very time consuming. Each workout is at least an hour long. My husband was too busy with school to keep doing it with me and it was hard to motivate myself to do it alone. In week 5 of P90x things started going downhill.  We got sick. Week 6 we had people visiting. Thing after thing, reason after reason came up and our P90x workouts kind of fizzled out.

It is ok though. I have been re-evaluating my eating habits and workout habits. I was starting to get fit on P90x when we were really doing the program. But I never lost weight. Right now that is most bothersome to me.. the extra weight I am carrying around. I don't like seeing it. I don't like feeling it.  I want it gone! I have always heard it is 80% diet and 20% working out.  I needed to change the way I was eating if I wanted to loose the weight. No more mint oreos (which are my FAVORITE!! But let's be honest here. Every time I ate them I got a stomach ache. So if they were causing me stomach problems every time I ate them, they couldn't be good, could they?) No more deserts every night, or even every week. But it is so hard to make a healthy change. I needed a kick in the pants to do it.

My family started a health challenge at the beginning of this year. My brother and sister-in-law have lost a lot of weight since January. They are doing great! They inspire me so much. And also make me really jealous because even though I was working out I didn't feel like much was happening. I wasn't loosing weight. I wasn't eating great. I wasn't feeling great. I was jealous that they were doing so well and I wasn't.

So what made me change? Because I have changed. It wasn't my mom (who IS an inspiration to me) telling me I should eat this and that and not eat this and that. It wasn't my brother and his wife who are eating and exercising and losing weight and getting healthy. In part it was myself. Waking up one day and kicking myself in the pants. And in part it was a few documentaries I came across on Netflix: Hungry For Change and Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  I won't go into detail about them right now. If you get a chance, watch them for yourself.  They opened my eyes. And I decided to  make a change. Not just go on a diet. But to make a lifestyle change in the way I view and eat food.

I am not becoming a vegan or a vegetarian. I am not going 100% raw. I am simply taking processed food out of my diet. I am not eating foods that have chemicals in them (you would be surprised how many foods are filled with chemicals). I am not eating foods with added sugar (like foods that don't even need sugar but have it in them....). Well.. I am just trying to eat whole foods and fruits and vegetables. 

I decided to start off my healthy eating change with a detox. I needed to get rid of the toxins in my body and also get rid of the cravings I was having to sweet things.  I wish I had a juicer. Watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead made me want one. Alas, I don't have one nor do I have the money to buy one. That made my detox a little tricky. I wanted to do part juice part fruits and veggies for my detox, but how could I juice without a juicer? At the store I found a juice brand called Naked. They had a few juices that had only fruits and veggies in them--no added sugar and no preservatives or chemicals.  The only down side is they had more fruits in them than I would have liked.  It was better than nothing though, and better than starving myself. I didn't want to starve myself. I just wanted to get the junk out of my body.

I did 3 days of juice/fruits and vegetables.  I drank tons of water. I had a cooked sweet potato. I made a yummy salad from detoxifying veggies such as cucumber, parsley, cilantro, spinach.  I ate apples, cantaloupe. I was satisfied by what I was eating. The first day was hard. I felt "hungry". I wasn't really hungry. I wanted naughty food. I wanted sugar. I wanted Twinkies (weird because I NEVER want those). I wanted pizza.  It is funny because if I hadn't been on a detox I probably wouldn't have even thought about pizza.  I wanted all these things but I DID NOT QUIT. I DID NOT CHEAT. I kept thinking "Why did you do this detox, Kate? To be healthy. To get rid of the junk!" And that helped me.

The second day was better. But I had to go to the grocery store to get more veggies.  It was so hard to be in the store. The cakes looked so good. The chips looked good. My body was saying "Screw this detox and give me some good food!!" Mind over matter.  I repeated the words I would hear Gina from the Biggest Loser say, "Pain is temporary. Quitting is forever." I also knew it wasn't what I wanted. I want to be healthier.

The third day was hard because I did not prepare myself for the day. We had a play date planned and I did not bring food for myself. I was very hungry that day. I did eat a bite of my daughters peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't think that ruined my day.

I decided to do a raw food day for the fourth day of my detox.  It was a good day. I found a raw food book from the library and chose recipes from it to make.  Every meal tasted good and sustained me. I had a raw nut granola for breakfast with almond milk.  I ate this walnut pate on tomato for lunch. I had a mock rice pilaf for dinner with lots of veggies on the side. The meals were so tasty.  Again I drank a lot of water.  I lost 5 lbs from those four days of detoxing.  That felt really good.  

Today is my first day off the detox, but I am sticking with eating healthy foods (minimally or no processed foods.)  I made the raw nut granola again for breakfast. I made a quinoa curry for lunch.  I made pizza with a cauliflower crust for dinner. That was really good.  Since I have started my detox I haven't had any meat.  I have had hardly any dairy. I feel really good! I feel like the junk I had been putting in my body was weighing me down.  I feel like I have more energy. I feel more motivated to get up and move around.  I feel a difference in my body.

As for exercise, I am still working out even though I am no longer doing P90x.  Actually, I really want to run a half marathon. I found one in July and I have started a training program. I run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I cross train on Mondays and Wednesdays. On Fridays I do yoga.  I am really excited about the half marathon.  The other day we ran 2.5 miles and usually I would stop several times or quit altogether. This time I felt like I could do it. After doing this detox I feel better emotionally and mentally. I feel more positive.

The most important thing in the world to me is my spirit. It dwells inside my body.  It is important to have a healthy body to hold my spirit. I can't weigh down this body I was given with crap, no matter how good it tastes. One of the documentaries I watched said our bodies were not made to digest these highly processed foods. I believe it! And I am going to continue eating healthy. Like I said before, I am not going to become fully vegan, or vegetarian, or raw.  But I also think it is good to eat vegetarian meals, and vegan meals, and to eat raw now and again.

And I am motivated to get this blog going again. I will be posting the recipes I find. I will be telling about my struggles and victories. Tomorrow I run 3 miles so you will be hearing how that goes. Thanks for supporting me in my pathway to being HEALTHY and fit!

Feeling the Changes

I am now in week 4 of P90x.  I can't see too much of a change in my body when I look in the mirror, but I can FEEL a change. I can feel my muscles getting stronger. It is a really cool feeling. Where there used to be flabby fat it is much more toned.  When I walk I can feel my leg muscles. I know it takes time to SEE the changes. I am really glad I can at least feel the changes. That motivates me to keep going.

I am not a sweat-er. I don't sweat very much. I don't know why that is either. I always want to sweat but I mostly just seem to get red in the face when I workout.  But today during our workout I sweat like crazy. I was dripping sweat!! And what did it take to do that? Core Synergistics! In week 4 of P90x you change up the workout routines a little. We did yoga yesterday and we did Core Synergistics today.  It is killer.  You just go go go. And its core work. And you use weights.  And my whole body was hurting.  And I was sweating.  Sweating like crazy. We used mats and when I laid down my body stuck to the mat. It was awesome.  It felt good to sweat. It felt good. My whole body is still sore from this morning's workout.  I want to curl up on the couch all day.  I will try not to but I want to.

On another note, I am doing well in my family's health challenge.  I have been in 1st place two weeks in a row! But I am only in first by 20 points so I need to BRING it this week!

P90x-Week 2 Day 2

My body is sore. It hurts.  Especially today. I did the week 2 day 1 workout last night and I couldn't even get up to my alarm this morning.  When I did get out of bed my whole body ached.  But you know what? It hurts so good.  It took me a little while to get going today.  My husband left for school around 9am and I was still in my pajamas, sitting on the couch watching The Bachelor.  I think in my head I planned on being a vegetable today.  But then I watched The Biggest Loser and decided not to be lazy.  I got dressed. I even did my hair today.  I ate some healthy meals.  I played with my kids. I organized my desk which has been messy for a while.  I did several loads of laundry.  I accomplished a lot once I got my big lazy bum off the couch.

I want to back track a little bit.  Yesterday I weighed myself and I gained 2 pounds. I am now 157. What? I don't understand how that happened. I ate healthy and worked out hard and drank a lot of water.. If I was on the Biggest Loser I would have been sent home.  Hopefully this week I can lose some.  My overall goal isn't to lose weight, it is to get fit and healthy. But I also think I should lose weight in doing so. That just didn't  happen last week. I need to remember that muscle weights more than fat.  Here is an example:

This picture shows the same weight of muscle and fat

This picture is really motivating to me.  Even though muscle weighs more than fat it takes up less space.  So if I turn my fat to muscle I will be smaller. That is encouraging.

The scores came up for my healthy challenge. I am #2 out of seven people. I should be proud of that but I really want first so I need to do better this week.  I WILL do better this week.  I did the Plyometrics workout tonight and I worked out hard.  I am proud of how I did tonight. It is a hard workout but I kept going and I didn't give up.  Go me! haha.

Tomorrow will be hard but not brutal. It is arms and shoulders.  Bring it on.

First Week of P90x Complete and Health Challenge Update

My body is sore and I didn't want to get out of bed this morning, but I am proud to say I completed my first week of P90x! This program is brutal! I feel like everyday I was excited to workout and as soon as it started I was like "No! no! I can't! It hurts! When is it over?!" but I kept going and I am proud of myself. It helps to have my partner in crime supporting me by being my workout buddy.

I do have a confession. I didn't get my P90x workout in on Thursday, which was a 1.5 hour of yoga. I chose to go on a date with the hubby to see Les Miserables and couldn't find 1.5 hours in the day to do yoga uninterrupted by my kids. But I did workout that day. I found a 30 minute kickboxing video and it was pretty good. I did, however, do the yoga along with the Legs & Back workout I was scheduled to do on Friday.

Friday was a killer day for working out.  I did 30 minutes of the Legs & Back workout in the morning and the other 30 in the evening along with the yoga.  The yoga kicked my butt! I didn't realize that it would be so grueling. I love yoga.  I have taken many yoga classes. I substitute taught a few yoga classes in my community.  I do not love doing yoga after I have already worked out my legs.  But I am glad I did it.  I didn't want to say I didn't do a P90x workout on my first week.

I am feeling pretty good about myself this week.  I have been eating really well (with the exception of eating candy at the movie but I ate the serving size when I normally would gorge on many servings so I am proud).  I have made a few "clean eating" dished this week. That basically means I made dinner the way people did back in the day--from scratch. And the meals were delicious!

On Monday night I made Curry Pineapple Turkey Rice Bowl which was SO GOOD! Click on the link for the recipe.  On Tuesday I made Taco Salad from the same website and it was also really good.  I had a lot of vegetable options to pile on top of the meat and I used this meal as an excuse to have Tortilla Chips Hint of Lime in our house.  On Thursday and Friday we had Shrimp Jambalaya which is a family favorite and only 158 calories per cup! It is so flavorful! Yesterday we treated ourselves to some Sushi. Yum! I feel proud of the way I ate this week.  Every meal I try to have 2 or 3 vegetables on the side to eat.

I am doing well in my health challenge.  We turn our scores in today and tomorrow we will find out who is in the top 3.  I have no idea how I fare to the other competitors. I know I have more points than my husband but starting tomorrow he will be biking to and from school so I need to kick it up a notch if I want to have more points than him.

I am really glad I have this challenge to motivate me to want to be healthier. Not only want to be healthier, but it motivates be to make healthier choices.  Yesterday we decided to have family movie night, so we went to the store to get some movie snacks. I chose to get the Chex Mix Muddy Buddies.  It was a 10.5 oz bag. It has 10 servings in it. Each serving is 1/3 cup. That isn't very much.  During the holidays my husband and I downed one of those bags just the two of us in like 10 minutes.  Last night I portioned out one serving and took my time eating it.  It satisfied me and I didn't go back for more. Not only that, I didn't find myself craving more. Whohoo! There is hope for me yet!

Tomorrow is my first weigh in.  I will post pictures along with my weight (whether I lose or not) and I will let you all know what I ranked in the challenge. And let me just say I love that Sunday is a day of rest and I don't have to work out today. My body needs rest, for tomorrow is the first day of week 2 of P90x!

Health Challenge and P90x Day 4

I need to start posting everyday on how I am doing in both the health challenge and P90x.  I am doing really well! I have been eating healthy, drinking a lot of water, and exercising to the P90x videos.  On Monday I did the P90x fit test, which I really should have done on Saturday and started the first workout video on Monday... oh well. On Tuesday I did the Plyometrics video which was a killer on my legs and butt. The whole day yesterday I thought I was supposed to do the yoga video but it was actually Shoulders & Arms and the Ab Ripper. I was pretty disappointed that it wasn't yoga.  But it was a really good workout.  My whole body feels sore this morning.  I'm writing down my scores, though they won't make much sense because I forgot to write down the exercise I was doing but they were all arm exercises and I wrote them in the order the video did them, so it's more for me to come back to and see how I am doing as I go along through P90x.  Here they are:
Shoulders & Arms P90x workout:
10 lbs 8 reps
10 lbs 16 reps
10 lbs 8 reps
10 lbs 10 reps
10 lbs 14 reps
10 lbs 5 reps/5 lbs 5 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
25 modified chair dips
5 lbs 11 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
15 modified chair dips
5 lbs 12 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 6 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 10 reps
5 lbs 12 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 8 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 8 reps
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 11 reps
4 reps left arm
7 reps right arm
5 lbs 16 reps
5 lbs 6 reps
12 reps left arm
16 reps right arm

In the P90x program I will do this work out again for the next two Wednesdays. I am excited to see how I improve.  I would have liked to use the 10 pound weights but my husband was using them because we only have 5, 10, and 25 pound weights.  I guess we need to get some 20 pound weights.

It was a good arm and shoulder workout. It is good to have a break from cardio and do weights.  After that I did the Ab Ripper and... IT WAS INSANE!!! My abs were screaming! When they say ripper, they mean ripper. I felt like my abs were ripping apart. It hurt so much! But it is so worth it..

I am ready for yoga today.  It is an hour and a half so I will do it after the kids go to bed. It will be so good to stretch out all my muscles.  Whoo!

Health Challenge

My family has decided to have a Health Challenge for one year.  This challenge is to help motivate us all to be healthy.  We get points for exercising, for eating healthy food, for being physically active in a social setting, etc.  We get minus points for eating bad food.  We are all putting some money in a "pot" of sorts and after a year the person with the most points will get the money. That is definitely motivation for me.

Yesterday we started our competition.  I also officially started the P90X program yesterday.  My husband and I took the fit test yesterday and today we did the Plyometrics video. It. Was. Crazy! It is an hour long workout of death.  It is like doing those workouts 3 times in a row. It was intense.  I don't think I gave it 100% but I did work hard and I know I will feel it tomorrow.


I am not happy with my body at this moment in time. I am 5'1" and 155 pounds. I haven't been able to get the baby weight off.  I want to motivate myself to change.  So I am letting it all out there folks. I want to document this year to see how my body is changing.  I know that if I eat healthy and exercise I will lose weight and get fit.  Good bye donuts, chocolate, and nutella! You do not belong anywhere in my life!  You are the fat makers! haha.

Doing a Quicky

I procrastinated in working out today but I finally did it.  It was a short one. But I got it in. "That's what he said".

Holiday Hiatus

Ok so I took a sabbatical from working out the last two weeks.   I got sick and family was in town and it was Christmas time and excuse, excuse, excuse.  I got lazy. And I ate naughty food. And I loved it!  I did get some fun fitness presents as well.  I got a pair of Nike Flex running shoes from my mother -in-law and they are beautiful! She also gave me a pair of yoga pants.  My husband gave me two 5 pound weights. I am really excited about those because I was in need of 5 pounders when I did the P90x arm workout.  My brother-in-law's girlfriend gave me an interval timer and my mom gave me a pedometer.

The pedometer is awesome.  It tells me how many steps I am taking, how many miles I am walking, and how many calories I am burning.  I realized that I do not move around enough during the day.  Some days I don't even walk 1 mile during the day.  So my goal is to walk 3 miles during the day not counting my workouts.

Now that the holidays are over I am ready to get back on track.  I have made some fitness goals for myself. Along with my 3 miles worth of steps a day goal I also have a goal to workout every weekday this year, and not miss a day.  I started today.

After we put the kids to bed my husband and I did this little workout:

Yes it was only 4 minutes but it was a good start and it was hard. At the end I was out of breath.  I can't believe how much not working out for two weeks takes a toll on your body.  Where did my muscles go?  I need to get myself back on track and in a good place.  Here's to being fit and healthy in 2013!

P90X

My dear friend Jennifer and I decided to be work out buddies.  We are going to workout three days a week together. It's really great because we live in the same apartment complex and we can motivate each other. I have done a few 5ks but would like to run more.  Jenn says she would like to run a 5k. So I found a 5k for us to run in March.  We are going to do a couch to 5k program together that Jenn found. It starts in January. To get a head start on working out we are going to do workouts together starting now.  Jennifer has the P90X program (google it if you want to know about the program) so we are going to try it out.

On Wednesday morning we started the P90X program.  We watched the "welcome" video that talks about the program and eating/exercise plans.  Then we did one of the cardio workouts. It seems like a really good program if you stick with it.  On the program it has you working out 7 days a week. I personally don't work out on Sunday so if I truly stick to the program I will only do 6 days a week.

I did the shoulders and arms workout today. It is an hour long weight lifting workout. It. Was. Brutal.  I really felt it in my arms.  I am not quite equipped to do all the exercises for arms.  I only have 10 and 25 pound weights.  I need a couple lighter weights to do some of these workouts.  The arm workout was crazy.  30 minutes into it I was like "What?! There are still 30 minutes left??!"  I was screaming in pain.  I was whining that I couldn't do it, then I continued on.  At 45 minutes the P90X guy was like "You can stop here or go on." Well if someone gives me the option to stop then I will. And I did.  They were doing some exercises that I didn't have the right weights for.  But the 45 minutes that I did do were crazy awesome. I really worked my arms.  I know I will feel it in the morning.

I am not truly sticking to the program.. They want me eating 2400 calories a day. They have some recipes and they are like 55g of protein and I just don't think I am at that fitness level yet.  I would gain weight and I don't want to do that. I want to lose weight.  I am going to stick to my 1300 calories for now and see how it goes. I may increase a little if I need to.

This program has a variety of workouts for all different parts of the body and also yoga and stretching. I really feel that even if I did this workout 3 times a week it would benefit me.  I'm going to try it out for a month and see how it goes.  I'm pretty excited to tone up my arms!

The 5-4-3-2-1 Workout

Over Thanksgiving break I got an iPhone. I love it! One thing I love about it is all the apps you can get. I got an app that tracks my food intake.  It also makes weight loss plan for you. I can reach my goal weight by March by losing 1.5 pounds a week.  I think that is doable.  It is a 1300 calories/day plan which I think is also doable and realistic.  I wouldn't go under 1200 calories a day to lose weight.  I really need to make an effort to eat better--make those 1300 calories worth while and not waste them on naughty food.

I have a weakness for naughty food, especially during the holidays.  I love eggnog.  Eggnog is super naughty! We need to stop justifying naughty foods by saying things like "but it has dairy in it so it must be healthy" or "at least there is some nutrition in it". No! We can't do that to ourselves.  I was in Walmart yesterday looking at the eggnog selection. You see, I am a Foodie. I can't just get any old eggnog. It has to be good. Bolthouse has come out with a "healthier" version of eggnog.  I almost bought it.  It has like 60 fewer calories, less fat.. But when I looked at the bottle and it was labelled 'low fat'.  As a Foodie anything labelled 'low fat' is kind of a no-no to me. So without looking at the label of the full of fat eggnog I just grabbed the one with the prettiest packaging and lowest price.  It was something like Southern Comfort Traditional Eggnog. I should have known by the 'southern comfort' part that it was N-A-U-G-H-T-Y.  I went to have a cup of it yesterday and as I poured a mug full I looked at the nutrition facts.  The serving size is 1/2 cup.  First of all, who drinks just 1/2 cup of anything? And it is 200 calories per serving.  What a JOKE!  If you don't pay attention and have 1 cup of this stuff than you are downing 400 calories in 1 minute. So crazy! So according to my 1300 calorie/day plan that 1 cup of eggnog would be a meal for me!

So from now on Eggnog will be a once in a while treat for me to have. I might go back to the store and get the Bolthouse just to see if it's any good. If it tastes good than that delicious naughty regular eggnog can go right down the drain!  It has 9 grams of fat in that 1/2 cup! Why are delicious holiday foods so bad? It just isn't fair.

This morning I decided to do this workout that I found on Pinterest:

I decided to make it an interval training 50 seconds on 10 seconds rest.  I did 15 minutes worth. I might do another workout tonight.  Here are the scores:
high knees 140
jumping jacks 52
diagonal knee-ups 45
run in place (just ran in place 50 seconds)
scissor jumps 86
lunges 28 back,15 front
mountain climbers 70, 82
10 push ups  3 sets
15 tricep dips 2 sets
squats 6,10
jump sqauts 9,8
1 minute plank

I feel pretty good about this workout. Maybe I should have done it 2x through but Bran left for school and the kiddos needed me.  My 18 month old daughter likes to "work out" with me sometimes. When I did push ups she cam and laid down on the floor then lifted herself up and looked at me like "hey mom, look at me! I am doing what you are doing! I am working out!"  It is fun to workout with her if she is not in the way or trying to climb all over me.

I had a protein shake for breakfast. It has ground oats, water, whey protein, a banana, ice, and spinach in it. I stuck it all in the blender and just blended until smooth.  I shared it with my sweet girl because like me she is also a Foodie and a mooch.  And I logged this breakfast into my nifty new iPhone app and that was that! I also had a clementine because tis' the season to eat clementines!

I want to note that I am 153 today and my goal weight is 130. I think it is obtainable and realistic. I think most of my extra weight is in my butt and my stomach.  I should do more butt workouts.

BodyRock-30 Day Exercise Challenge

30 days ago I decided to take on a workout challenge from BodyRock.tv. I have mixed feelings about BodyRock. I love their workouts. I like the interval training. I hate that they never wear clothes--they are working out in practically nothing.  I hate how they have all these sexy poses in their sports bra and "shorts"--more like underpants. I wish they would show their pantry instead of their panties. I need to see what they are eating. I know exercising is not enough because I live it. Just because I workout doesn't mean I will loose weight because I just ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's in one sitting.  Can anyone show me a FREE website that has both eating plans AND workouts?

I digress.  Back to my exercise challenge.  30 days ago I took the 7 minute fit test, and started on my 30 day journey. They way the workout was set up was you worked out 5 days-Monday through Friday, and had two "rest" days. I think they wanted you to have an active "rest" day by running or hiking or something.To be honest, there were days I didn't do the workouts. I got sick, some days I was sore, I was also training for my 5k, excuse, excuse, excuse. I did enjoy the 30 day challenge though. I do feel that I have improved, and that I have muscles growing where they never existed.  The workouts were tough. Some days I couldn't walk after working out, or I woke up so sore.

Throughout the challenge there were 3 fit tests: a fit test on day one, one in the middle, and one the very last day.  As you know yesterday was Black Friday. It was also day 30 of my challenge.  I had stayed up til 3am  shopping and then I got up at 5:30am for more shopping. I had taken a 3 hour nap around 11:30am and so by the time I got to doing the Fit Test I was pretty exhausted.  Part of me wishes I waited until today to do it.  Maybe my scores would have been even higher. Never the less I did it yesterday. I still beat my original scores so I should be proud. Proud that I have improved and I went through with the challenge and didn't give up.

Here are the scores from my fit test, going from test #1 to #2 to #3:

Squat Jumps- 25/32/30
Push Ups- 3 reg 10 modified/19 mod/24 mod
Burpees- 8/10/12
High Knees- 70/96/110
Switch Lunges- 15/25/28
Tuck Jumps- 12/18/23
Straight Abs- 7/10/17

Now I need to figure out if I will continue BodyRocking or find other workouts to try. I am always up for suggestions.