Weekend Opener

Hello!

First things, I want to thank everyone who entered the giveaway. I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow.

It's been a long week and I am very ready for the weekend!

I had my training appointment at 11, and so around 10:15 I had a slice of toast with some peanut butter and almond butter.

Here's what today's training session included:

• leg press machine (3 sets of 15)
• triceps machine (3 sets of 12)
• pull up machine (3 sets of 8)
• calf raises (2 sets of 12)
• calf raises w/ toes pointed out (2 sets of 12)
• crunches on the ball (2 sets of 15)
• lat pull-down (3 sets of 12)
• The last one I don't know the name of. Lie on your back with your knees raised at 90 degree angle. Drop your knees to one side and then bring them back up slowly using your obliques. Do the other side. (1 set of 8)

Afterwards I did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes on the stationary bike.

Lunch was some V8 tomato soup with a little leftover brown and wild rice, a piece of bread, and a peach.

My mid-afternoon snack was a 100 cal. bag of popcorn and a diet Pepsi.

On the way home from work I had a 100 cal bag of craisins.

Josh had a bad day at work so I took him out to Buffalo Wild Wings so he could get some Mango-Habanjero boneless wings. I had a veggie burger and side salad.

Afterwards we stopped at Sears and I used a gift card we had to buy a couple of bags. I bought a dressier purse and a more casual tote. I'm gonna use the tote for daily use and hopefully it will keep me from wearing out my purses as quickly as I do now.

We came home to watch a little TV and eat some Oreos (dessert!) before Josh left for work.

Sorry the pictures aren't that great. My phone doesn't have a flash and my digital camera is too big to carry around all the time. I really need to get a nice pocket size one. I got the bigger one for the 12x zoom.

I'm gonna head off to bed soon so I can get up early for garage sales. Wish me luck! Maybe I'll find a Rembrandt for $50 or something. ;) LOL

It's Friday!

Don't forget to comment on the "First Training Session" post to enter the Spirutein giveaway. You have until noon EST today! I will announce the winner tomorrow.

Good morning! I apologize for no evening post last night. My tooth was still hurting and giving me a headache so I went to bed as soon as Josh left work last night.

This morning I got up a little early and did the Week 2, Day 3 of the Couch to 5K program. For the first half I took my dog, Rusty, with me.


He was slowing me down a little (wanting to mark his territory, sniff everything, etc.) so about halfway through I put him back in the house and finished my "run."

After a quick shower I made myself a smoothie. This had 1/2 frozen banana, almond milk, frozen blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and mango, as well as a bunch of raw baby spinach. It was quite delicious! I just wish I had some greek yogurt to put in. Gotta go stock up this weekend.


I have my second training appointment at 11AM so I'll let you know how it goes. I'm glad I got the C25K out of the way because now I can fit in another half hour of cardio after my appointment. :)

See you all tonight!

Confession Time

First...Don't forget to comment on this post to enter the Spirutein protein mix giveaway. You have until Friday at noon EST to enter.

1.) I had McDonald's for breakfast. I've REALLY been craving pancakes, but I didn't have time to make any at home.

2) I am proud of my choices this morning. Wait, say what!? You're proud of going to McDonald's.

No, I'm proud of this:

I really only wanted eggs, a biscuit, and pancakes. There's no meal like that so I ordered the Deluxe Breakfast and told them to hold the hasbrown and sausage. I knew that if they were there I would eat them. As I was eating it I realized the eggs sucked (big surprise!) so I didn't eat them. All I ate were the pancakes and the biscuit. What could have been a 1200 calorie breakfast was half that (still a lot for breakfast) and I am satisfied and don't feel deprived.

But...so that I'll be better prepared for the next time I want pancakes on a weekday I'm going to make a big batch (Fiber One mix is awesome!) and freeze them. Then, when I want them on a weekday I can just pop them in the toaster. True story! Try it!


To keep my balance for the day I will be working out and having light meals the rest of the day. Maybe soup for lunch and a salmon burger over salad for dinner.

In the meantime, I have a toothache and have to go to the dentist after lunch. Wish me luck!

quick post

First...don't forget to comment on today's earlier post to earn a chance to win a 1.2 lb. container of Spirutein!

The rest of this is gonna be a quick post as I'm blogging from my phone in bed. It's past my bedtime.

On the way home from work I ate 1/2 a banana bread larabar.

Dinner was organic, whole wheat spinach and cheese ravioli with 1/4 c. Sundried tomato alfredo sauce. I had two small pieces of organic multigrain bread with yogurt spread (Brummel and Brown) on the side.

For dessert I wanted a special treat so I had an Edwards single serving chocolate pie slice. It was about the same calories as a candy bar. Much better than some of the other single serving desserts I saw. One was nearly 800 cal with 54g of fat!! OMG can you imagine!

I did a little unnecessary snacking before bed...chips and chocolate milk. Gonna have to give myself a food bedtime of 9PM from now on!

I'll post the times with my meals so YOU can help keep me accountable!

First Training Session Today!

Afternoon, everyone!

This morning I made my first "green monster" smoothie in a while. This one had 1 scoop of chocolate peanut butter swirl Spirutein, 1/2 frozen banana, two handfuls of raw baby spinach, 1/2 c. of vanilla almond milk, a spoonful of Naturally More peanut butter, and 1/2 of a tray of ice.


Honestly, I didn't enjoy this one very much. I don't usually use a full serving of Spirutein (usually half a serving) and it really overwhelmed the smoothie. I drank 1/2 of it, which still kept me full until lunch (other than the 1/2 Ginger Snap Larabar I had before my training session).


The training session went well. I'm doing half an hour of strength training, three times per week and cardio on my own. Today we did:

• wall squats with the ball (3 sets of 12)
• straight Leg Bridge Lifts on the ball (3 sets of 12)
• chest press machine (3 sets of 12)
• chest Fly machine (3 sets of 10)
• bicep curls with the body bar (3 sets of 12)
• shoulder press with the body bar (3 sets of 12)
• crunches with legs lifted at 90 degree angle (2 sets of 12)

After the session was over I did Week 2, Day 2 of the Couch to 5K program.

Now I'm eating my lunch, which consisted of what The Fitnessista would call a "salad beast." it has a mix of greens, extra Romaine, 1/2 a tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, black beans, and hummus. Dessert will be the other half of the Larabar.


This is my first foray into eating a salad with no dressing. I gotta say, the hummus does a pretty good job of flavoring everything. I still love Ranch, though! ;)

Giveaway Opportunity!!!I will be giving away a 1.2 lb. container of Spirutein protein mix ($20 value). You get to pick the flavor. All you have to do is comment below with the flavor you want to try and how you plan on using it (drinks, smoothies, milkshakes, etc.). You have until Friday, July 31st at 12PM EST. I'll randomly pick the winner and announce it on Saturday. Good luck!

Almost Hump Day

Happy almost hump day!

This morning was a lesson in preparation. I didn't bring breakfast to work and just assumed I would get a bagel from the building next door. Except when I got there, they were closed. So I walk a few more blocks down to Dunkin Donuts to get a bagel. Closed. At this point, I am more than a little peeved. I ended up with blueberry muffins from 7 eleven and an orange juice. Not horrible, but not very healthy, althought it did hold me until 1:30.

I went and did a 20/20 class again. More strength than cardio unfortunately. It might make tomorrow's training session a little rough.

I didn't get a picture of lunch because I had to eat it during a meeting. It was ham on a sandwich thin with light mayo, an apple FlavH20, and some watermelon.

Afternoon snack was tea and 3 squares of dark chocolate.

On the way home I stopped at the health food store to get some chocolate peanut butter swirl Spirutein for my smoothies. I also picked up some Larabars and I tried the chocolate coconut bar on the ride home. It was pretty good, but there wasn't very much coconut flavor.

For dinner I made pork chops with leftover blueberry sauce, yucca fries, and peas.


Dessert was an orange sherbert push-up and some watermelon.

Our post-dinner excitement made me feel I deserved the push-up. We recently moved to a new house and haven't been able to afford a fence, yet. Our dog is obsessed with playing so if you take him out that's all he wants to do, not his "business." So, we have to put him on a rope and then go inside and watch him until he gets the job done so we can bring him in. He doesn't know how to do it on a leash.

Tonight, I put him on his rope and went inside. I was watching him from the living room window. Well, I saw him see a rabbit and before I could get out the door, he was gone! The rope came untied from his collar and he was chasing the rabbit. After a few minutes we noticed him down in the marsh behind our house. Surprise, surprise. He is half lab and LOVES swimming. We finally lured him out after having a little fun in the mud. He was so filthy my husband had to put him in the shower.

Anybody know a good fence company?

Tune in tomorrow for a giveaway announcement! Night!

Monday, bleh!

Evening, everyone!

Yesterday was spent getting a little sun at the beach.

Today was back to the grind. For breakfast I had Oceanspray oatmeal with cranberries.

It didn't fill me up very much at all and I had the meeting with my personal trainer so I had some blueberry greek yogurt and a peach.

The meeting with the trainer went well. This was just the initial assessment. I had to do the sit and reach, sit-ups, and push ups. She took my measurements and did the pinch test. It will be exciting to see my progress. I'm having my first training session Wednesday. I'm gonna start out doing cardio on my own and doing 30 minute strength training sessions with the trainer. If I'm not progressing I'll have her do cardio with me, too.

After the assessment I did Week 2, Day 1 of the Couch to 5K program, and then headed back to the office to eat lunch. It was an Ezekiel tortilla with a little rice, a spoonful of 7 layer dip, black beans, and a few strips of steak.

The tortilla was hard enough the it ended up working better as almost like a chip, eating it in pieces with toppings.

I gave into the sugar craving and had a bag of peanut M & Ms. If I had been better prepared and brought a few squares of dark chocolate it would have been better.

Before leaving work I had some watermelon with cantaloupe and blueberries.

For dinner, the hubs and I went to Joe's Crab Shack. I got the steam pot with shrimp and crab. I ate all the shrimp and crab (no butter) and half a potato.

Dessert was a 100 cal choc chip granola bar.

Now we're home watching Blood Diamond. I'll let you know how it is! Have a good night!

Busy Day

Last night I was very productive. I finished re-upholstering 2 of the 4 chairs we got last weekend (a table and 4 chairs for $5).

Here's the before and after. The green is before, the off-white is after.

I got woken up about 7AM this morning by my husband, just home from work, reminding me that I wanted to go to garage sales this morning. After a few choice words and a lot of grumbling, I stumbled out of bed to eat this:

After checking out local sales on Craigslist and mapping a route we headed out around 8AM or so. We got a few odds and ends (a lamp, casserole dish, and plastic bag holder) and were headed to a third sale, when the car started overheating. Not wanting to tempt fate we headed back to the house.

This car is 20 years old and has 200k miles on it so it's not a big shocker. Luckily my husband is VERY mechanically inclined so I'm sure he'll have her good as new in no time. If not, we'll get some $500 car that he'll put a little work into and it'll run for a long time. I gotta say, it's nice not to have to worry about car payments or wonder what we'll do if something happens to our cars. Love you, hon!

We were going to pick up the other car and go back out, but the neighbor kid came out to talk cars with my husband. While waiting on them, I ate some watermelon. The Puffins didn't keep me full very long. After waiting around for the husband to stop talking, I finally gave up (it's cars, how can garage sales compare...LOL) and headed out on my own.

I got this table for $2. I'm planning on sanding it and painting it either white or black.

After picking up a couple of other things, I decided to head home. Then, I remembered that I saw a Five Guys Burgers and Fries near the house. So I stopped in and got a burger with a small fry and water. This is NOT health food! This is a special treat. I haven't eaten there in about 3 years or so, but I was just really craving a juicy burger. I got my food home and realized they, like so many places, give ridiculous portion sizes, at least with the fries. I put a few on my plate and threw the rest away. Wasteful, but the best plan for my waistline. Here's how much I threw away:

Trust me, it was more than it looks. I'm proud of eating a reasonable portion and getting water instead of soda. :)

Now, you may wonder why I'm writing about this on what is supposed to be a healthy eating blog. Basically, I'm trying to be honest about what I eat. I AM striving to eat healthier and will do my best to eat healthy most of the time, but I love food! All food, including burgers, french fries and soda. My challenge for myself is to eat those things in moderation. I'm hoping that this blog will work as a food journal so I can look back each week and know that I need to work on. (Reducing sugar intake!)

After taking a pretty long nap I decided to hit up a thrift store I'd been eyeing. I found this table for $18.

Love it! This will probably become black, too, though I am digging the red!

Tonight I plan on finishing re-upholstering the other two chairs and maybe frost the glass on the table that came with it.

Tomorrow's schedule is Couch 2 5K, church, and beach!

Have a great Saturday. :)

Pizza Night

Happy Friday!

So I had some watermelon, cantaloupe, and blueberries before I left work.

Once I got home I made pizza with the following toppings, pizza sauce, feta, ham, mushrooms, 2% shredded mexican mix cheese, and some pizza seasoning. Here's what I used for the crust:

After we went to Best Buy to get a new SD card (It's working!) I had a handful of Barbara's Peanut Butter Puffins! Yum! If you haven't tried those, yet, you definitely should.

I think it's gonna be a quiet night at home for me. The hubs has to work tonight so I'll probably just watch TV and play around on the computer! I hope you all have a nice Friday night! :)

phone issues

Arrggghhh!! I am still having problems with the SD card in my phone therefore I have no camera here at work today. Very annoying!

Today's lunch consisted of Pad Thai with Tofu and a Wild Cherry FlavH20. Gotta say I like the Watermelon Kiwi more.



After lunch I had a Hershey's bar, which I am regretting. It didn't really taste that good and made me feel blah! I should have just eaten the fruit salad I brought. No more sweets today.

I think dinner tonight is going to be homemade pizza (with pizza sauce, feta cheese, spinach, pine nuts, and maybe some green olives) and a side salad.

Now, I'm gonna close the office door and do some yoga. Namaste!

TGIF!

Good morning! This morning I had a banana before leaving for work.
Once I got there I grabbed my phone and when off to do Week 1, Day 2 of the couch to 5k program. Why did I need my phone, you ask? Well, I have one of those awesome G1 Android phones and on it I have an app for the C25k program. It cues you when to jog and when to walk based on the guidelines for that the particular level you're on. Pretty awesome! You can play music at the same time, which is good, though it did cause me to miss one cue.

After my run I ate 1/4 c. granola with a single serving of Brown Cow Blueberry Greek Yogurt.

I plan on doing a yoga class at noon, but if I get too hungry I may have to skip it and do yoga in my office later in the afternoon.

I have an appointment on Monday morning to meet with my personal trainer! Yay!

If you haven't read about last night's dinner, scroll down and check it out!

bedtime

It's bedtime now, but before I head off I'm making sure to do my dinner post tonight.

I skipped the greek yogurt before leaving work because for some reason it wasn't appealing at all. Instead I had a FlavH20 and some popcorn. I headed off to Wal-mart to get a replacement sewing machine and in doing so left my phone at work. :(

After an extremly irritating Wal-Mart visit I headed home to make dinner. Blueberry Almond Chicken with Yucca Fries.

Tip: If you forgot to defrost your meat, put the frozen meat in a ziploc container and then put it in a bowl of water. Put the bowl in the fridge and you'll be amazed at how fast it will thaw out.

This meal turned out fantastic. Here's some pictures to prove it.

The yucca was a little tough, but overall I was very impressed. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the other half of it. I guess mashed yucca is on the menu for tomorrow!

P.S. Please forgive the horrific countertops. We moved in pretty recently and we're debating whether to spend the $ on countertops now or wait til we have the whole kitchen re-done (with a different floorplan).

Dessert was about 3/4 c. of Edy's Slow Churned (light) Chocolate ice cream with some almonds sprinkled on.

A pretty healthy day! Tomorrow is day two of the Couch to 5 K program!

snacky mcsnackerson

One of my afternoon snacks today was a mug of Arizona pomegranate tea and 3 squares of Endangered Species Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint. I like this brand because they donate 10% of their profits to help the environment.

After this I headed to the gym for my 20/20 class. Unfortunately, the instructor never showed up. Instead, I did 20 minutes of the seated elliptical machine and 10 minute of the stair climber. Next, I did 16 reps each of the following:

• bicep curls
• side raises
• front raises
• tricep kickbacks
• shoulder press
• lying fly
• tricep lifts

I plan on doing abs tonight. Hopefully telling you all that will motivate me to do it. :)


After the gym I ate a Cranberry delight snack bar. Pretty good. It's Food Lion's organic brand.

I'll probably have a Brown Cow blueberry Greek yogurt right before I leave work to tide me over until I get home since I have a couple of errands to do. I really want to make a specific new recipe tonight, so....stay tuned!

Cruise and Bikini Confidence.

I just got an e-mail from the State Department telling me that my passport was complete and had been mailed back to me. It only took 2 weeks! I already had a passport, but I needed to change the name since I got married in October.

That e-mail prompted me to tell you that part of the reason for this health and fitness kick-in-the-butt I'm giving myself is that we're going on a cruise in September! Woo-hoo! I can't wait. We leave from New Orleans and go to Mexico. It's a 5 day cruise and we get all the fun of the Big Easy, too! Another added bonus is that my brother and his fiancee live just outside the city so I get to hang out with them for a little while. :)

Right now the idea of being in a bikini around other people does not instill me with joy and I do NOT want to spend the whole time feeling self-conscious. I want Bikini Confidence ala Meghann. Therefore, I will continue to strive for healthier eating habits and more regular, intense workouts. I'm thinking the 5K will give me a goal to work towards for aerobic fitness and the personal trainer will help me tighten up.

On to the fun stuff: The suits I just received from the VS sale...

The one below I got in the green color.

Good Morning!

Hello! I know, I know. No dinner post last night. That's mainly because I didn't eat dinner. I had a bunch of errands to run and by the time I got home it was too late.

For breakfast today, I had a PJ's Organics breakfast burrito. I tried to find a picture online, but I couldn't find one. It has eggs, turkey sausage and potatoes in it. I like it a lot more than the Amy's burritos I've had because the tortilla stays soft and it has more flavor.

Another item I've recently fallen in love with is FlavH20. Normally, I hate flavored water, but this is different. It's similar in taste to a soda, but has about half the calories. So far the only place I've found them is at 7-eleven. But, you can buy them on Amazon. A little pricey at about $1.50 a piece, but a good alternative to soda.

Lunch today consists of a Morningstar Prime Griller "burger" on a whole wheat Arnold's Sandwich Thin. I didn't bring any condiments so I'll probably put some Taco Bell sauce on it that I found in my desk. LOL :) I had a picture but my phone messed it up and by the time I realized I had eaten it all.

On the side is some watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, and cottage cheese that I got at the salad bar yesterday, but was too full to eat.

Yay! for a great balance of healthy and skinny, today.

On the exercise side of things, yesterday I started the Couch-to-5k program. Let me tell you I am sore today. Legs (obviously) and abs mostly. I have a friend who wants me to do a 5K at the end of August with her. While I'm not sure I'm going to do that one (running in August?) I would like to do the Susan G. Komen one in October. My biggest challenge will be getting up early enough to do some of the training outside before it gets hot. Otherwise, I'll be doing it on the indoor track or treadmill and that really doesn't prepare you for running outside in my experience.

Also, I got an e-mail from my trainer and hopefully we'll be able to get something set up so we can get started next week. :)

Today I'm going to do a 20/20 (twenty minutes cardio, twenty minutes strength) class and tomorrow it will be couch to 5k again.