Fall

Fall is my favorite season. Its not overly cold yet, the trees look pretty, the grass and well everything looks cleaner versus how spring looks and lastly the air has this crisp clean smell. This season we have been busy with canning our garden bounty, cheerleading and moving.

Canning:

Cheer:

 

 

Moving: We moved "across" town into a townhouse. Its a cute little place with 2 bedrooms and a full basement. It gives us plenty of storage space and the upstairs that I've always wanted :)

Carb cycling and work

I've been following Chris Powell's Carb Cycling diet since mid June. Ok well I started the diet mid June, lost 5 lbs in 2 weeks and then Cassie left. When she left my diet completely went out the window. I restarted it last week (yep over the 4th of July weekend), any guesses how that went? That's right, not good at all. I broke down and bought his book (well kindle version), hoping that it would have a ton of recipes or daily menus, it does not. What it does offer is plenty of information, success stories, info on each of the different carb cycle plans and lots of tools to help in your weight loss journey. It does have recipes in it, but not really anymore then what I already have found online that he's shared. He needs to come out with a carb cycling cookbook next. He states that if you fall (meaning you eat outside of the plan) you pick yourself up, admit to someone exactly what you did, recommit and start right were your supposed to the next day. For example. I ate bread on Tuesday on my last low carb day, Wednesday is my high carb day, I continue on with my high carb day on Wednesday and follow with the plan like normal. Basically you don't try to correct the fall by redoing that day the next. Yesterday was my high carb day and today is my cheat day. So yes I picked myself up, admitted where I went wrong and all the junk I ate that I shouldn't and continued the plan where I was supposed to even though I fell almost every day since I restarted last week. I did well yesterday with the exception of having 1 tsp. of vanilla ice cream as I was preparing my cheat day treat. A peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwich. Which I will have today with lunch. I even worked out yesterday :) I'm excited about work. I had the privilege of working with my boss on Saturday, this is a rarity and I really like to. Since we had been childless we went to the fitness center, hopped on the treadmill and walked a mile. She shared with me some exciting things happening in our department and asked how I felt about her asking the director of the Y if I could be guaranteed no less than 34 hours a week. She said it would actually be 36, but she couldn't get him to let her guarantee that. She had already spoke to him of course and its a go. The hours start increasing in August and will be there in September. She's working the hours around my schedule and will hire someone to fill in where *I* need them to. Plus I will work a lot in this new venture for our department, which comes with a raise. I'm very, VERY excited about this. And before any of you ask.. Yes I have our homeschooling all figured into the new schedule. The only things I'm missing is when Cassie's class at the school will fit in and cheerleading. Well those and we wanted to do the co-op. That one might be harder to work in. Oh well, I shall sign up for it and work it out later.

over due updates

For now I've stopped following Jillian Michaels Body rev program. Instead of feeling energized after a workout, I would be drained ALL day. Not exactly productive in my book. I'm sure I will pick it back up again at some point. However at this time its not a good choice for me. So instead I'm walking. I still plan on working up to a run. In addition, I've started Chris Powell's Carb Cycling and on Friday I will order his new book. I'm on day 3 and so far have lost a little over 2 lbs :) Now lets hope that those 2 lbs stay off and more drop before Wednesday's weigh in. On the Homeschool front, I've enrolled Cassie in music at the middle school. We have an open house event for a local co op and she's attending camp this summer. She has been reading the Dear America Series. Last night we stumbled upon a few of them in movie format. What a nice little bonus to add to her reading.

New day

Today is a new day. I got up at 8am to get some things done around the house. I want Cassie and I to be able to enjoy the rest of our day without that hanging over our heads. Her and I then went and did our morning 5k with running our 1min 30secs. 

Mid afternoon we tackled school work. We're trying to get a little extra in before she takes 4 weeks off to visit her dad, grandparents in MN and goes to camp.




I decided to join my fellow bloggers in this link up. You do 30 miles in 30 days. I think I can do that :)

Running for Ice Cream Virtual 5k

 Running For Ice Cream 2013 Virtual 5k or 10k Fun Run!

July is National Ice Cream Month and since Cassie and I love ice cream and would love an excuse to eat it. I'm hosting a Virtual 5k and 10k around it. To register and receive your printable Race Bib send a request to austin_molly@ymail.com Registration is free :)

Running for Ice Cream is FREE to participate. Its a fun run for all. There are no awards, as fitness is its own reward. You can run or walk. Go by yourself, with friends, family or pets and work towards being more active and  healthy. Afterwards don't forget to treat yourself to an Ice Cream to celebrate.


WHAT: A virtual race is running or walking a specified distance, timing yourself, without actually being present in a race location. A 5k equals 3.1 miles and 10k 6.2 miles

WHEN: July 19 - 22, 2013

WHERE: Pick your favorite local route or jump on the treadmill.

WHY: Fun, Fitness, Friendship... and Ice Cream!

 

 

Cassie and I are going to wear these shirts this year and I will make up something more unique for next. If you want one you can buy yours through:
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/52417316/running-ice-cream_tshirt



Did you know?
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed July as National Ice Cream Month. He also established National Ice Cream Day as the third Sunday in the month.
Ice cream is nutritious. A little heavy on the sugar and calories, ice cream is otherwise good for you. Its base ingredient is milk, which is loaded with healthy vitamins and minerals.
Charles E. Minches of St. Louis, Missouri is credited with inventing the ice cream cone. On July 23, 1904 at the World's Fair in St. Louis, he filled a pastry cone with two scoops of ice cream to make the first ice cream cone. There is some controversy over this claim. Italo Marchiony of New York City filed a patent for the ice cream cone months before the fair opened. And, he was selling lemon ice in cones as early as 1896. 

Wednesday Weigh In

Wednesday Weigh In.... I'm down exactly 2 pounds :)


Cause we all need a little motivation I joined a couple free virtual 5k and 10k's. You pick where you want to run or walk, pin on your Race Bib and go. The one below is first Its to be completed it during the week of June 1st thru June 7th. The 10k is called Running Mad hosted by Moms on the Run which is a free running group for moms.
Check it out the Summer Kickoff Virtual 5k here: http://www.heartshapedsweat.com/2013/05/summer-kickoff-5k-virtual-race.html



I was oh so very tired last night from work that I didn't cook. We went and had fast food, then to top that off I didn't do my workout in any form.

Workout 3

Keeping tonights blog short and sweet cause I need a shower and to hit the bed. I'm tired

First day of workout DVD 3 and a little TMI.. I'm dripping with sweat. What a good but hard workout.  I had some difficulty with a few of the moves. I'm thinking that these 2 will need the full 2 weeks to get down. I'm not going be able to double them up like last week. Oh well. The point isn't how fast I can get through them, its how much I can lose.

Looking forward to Wednesday Weigh in tomorrow. I'm sure that I lost at least 1 pound :)

Goodbye workouts 1 and 2

Today was a good day, its Memorial day, a day to honor service members past and present but it also  means last day for workout 2. Since I am combining both workout 2 and cardio today and skipping my rest day that means tomorrow i'm on to workout 3 WooHoo!! Goodbye workouts 1 and 2 see you again in August.

Today we got up at 7am, I weighed in  as I always do and I'm down 2 pounds. I hope to see at least that come Wednesday's weigh in. We then left to watch my sister and 2 of her girls run a 5k at 7:45am. The race officials miscalculated the distance and it actually was 3.8 miles. I was inspired by how well they all did, I decided to tackle the 7 miles around the lake. I laced up my running shoes, drove to a good spot to start and headed out. Just shy of 6 miles in I realized that I didn't get off the path at the right place and ended up at a residential dead end. By the time that I got back on the right path I had went an extra mile. I plowed on feeling a little discouraged and ended up finishing my walk at 2hrs 40mins. Not too bad. It averaged out to be 20min miles. Although my best mile on this was 18:13. I normally do 22min miles.

As a reward I went to DQ for a S'mores frozen hot chocolate. They gave me it as a shake instead and then said well that's what the order said. So I left with my shake. I'm not overly fond of chocolate shakes, plus the shake is more calories then the frozen hot chocolate (ok not by much but still not the point). I ended up having a couple bites of Cassie's blizzard instead and felt bummed about my treat. We decided to go pickup a pizza from little Caesar's. I was then going to treat myself to a diet soda, after way to much thought was put into if I should or not I bought a sparling water. Figured that was a good compromise, plus I really like them. I had my sparling water, 2 small crazy bread pieces and the smallest 2 slices of pizza in the box, then told Cassie to put the rest of the pizza into the freezer to avoid me eating anymore. If I start to feel like I'm going to binge on it I will have her throw it outside in the trash. I hate the thought of wasting food, but I'd rather it end up in the trash then attached to my butt.

For my second reward I bought a pair of insoles. My feet hurt so badly after my workout that I left my sisters early. Not only do my feet hurt, but my hips also. I came home after getting the insoles, put them in my shoes and my feet feel soooo much better. Now wishing that I had these before my walk today.

I hope everyone had a fun Memorial Weekend and now that my last day of workout 2 is done, i'm going to bed early tonight. Let the battle of If I should start workout 3 or not commence tomorrow.

The lake

This is where I live. Isn't it pretty? Ok so i'm sure that this is a very old picture but its the only one I could find that shows most of the lake. It's 7 miles around that lake and I plan on making it around it someday. This morning Cassie and I walked what we thought had been 3 miles only to get home and find out it was just shy of 2. So off we went for another mile.




I'm so very tired and know that I should let my body have its rest day, but i'm too afraid that I wont start back up the next day. Maybe if I do my workout at the crack of dawn tomorrow and workout 3 at my normal 10 to 11pm on Tuesday it will feel like I gave my body a rest.. Ok well maybe not. Oh well I finished my workout tonight and gave it my all. Workout 1 is done!!

walking and cinnamon rolls

I continued with my plans today to work on Katie's 5K for people who hate to run from Runs for Cookies blog and headed out this morning for my run/walk. I ran 1 min, then walked for an hour and 15 mins, for a combined total of 3.2 miles. I started at the lake and did the run with about a 5 min walk when my sister called, her and I then headed to a nearby school to do laps around it while Cassie played on the playground. My feet were killing me afterwards.

I started following weight watchers again today. Its not going overly well, I made a huge wrong choice for breakfast. I had 2 mini cinnabons from BK and 1/4 of an orange juice. That took away most of my points. The other issue I had was BLT's for lunch. I needed to use up some hamburger buns that I had, they are rather small so I had 2. Well 8 points later and just from the bread, lesson learned and thankfully they are now gone. Carbs and juice are my main weakness.

 

Dinner was One pot pasta (again more carbs.. seeing a pattern). You throw all of your ingredients into a large pot including the dry pasta and cook it. When the pasta is cooked, its done.  Oh my goodness was it good. Mine turned out very soupy still because I followed the recipe and it was for a HUGE pot of it. I did change the amount of pasta, hence the soupiness. I didn't want to eat pasta for the next week. I decided that I could freeze the remaining sauce to use when Cassie is gone. I want add peppers then as well. My points sucked today, but tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start. I will do better :)

 

 

 

 

Just finished workout 2. Thank goodness that I only have 2 more days with 1 and 2. I thought this day would NEVER come. I've started and stopped them so many times that I'm overly excited to be done with them for a while. On a happy note, I earned 15 activity points today from Moderate to heavy workouts. This may not seem like a lot but I don't have an active link to see what my number is from normal daily activities so I'm only using the ones from actual workouts (or what I consider ones like going for a walk ect)

Goals

I have set 5 goals for myself to be completed before 2014

1. Lose weight (ideally 40 lbs)

2. Take Cassie on 3 mini trips that won't cost me an arm and leg, but are still fun. 1 down, we just got back from Florida

3. Walk a 5k Signed up for the color run August 3rd

4. Finish Jillian Michaels Body Revolution Restarted, will be done July 28th

5. Get organized and setup my house


Body Rev.
I will be glad to move onto phase 2. These double workout cardio days are kicking my butt. I know that I don't have to do them. I just really want to get back on track to where I left off before vacation. Tuesday I will finally start workout 3 and say good bye to 1 & 2. :)

The scale hasn't shown any loss yet (I do daily weigh ins) and oddly I don't care. Normally I would be sad about it and sabotage my efforts by binge eating junk and forgoing the workouts. But I haven't, I've stuck to my workouts and stayed true to my eating. Maybe this time I will actually get to where I want to be. The signs of change are in the air

People who hate to run

I ran across one of my favorite blogs tonight Runs for Cookies. One of the posts she had on there was a 5k beginners running plan that she made about how she started running.



Cassie and I laced up our shoes and hit the road tonight towards my sisters house. She lives exactly 1/2 mile from my house and I planned on going there and back for 1 mile. Well I made it 1/10th of a mile before I felt like I was going to throw up and we turned around for home. Where I had issues for about an hour. Tomorrow I will try again and actually follow this plan and go SLOWER. I have the songs ready on my Ipod. I figure today doesn't really count since I wasn't following her plan. Plus I'm determined to give this a go.

The weekend is here :)

Only 1 more day of workout 1 and 2 more of workout 2. I prefer workout 2 more than 1 but will still be happy to not do either of them again till I start another 90 days in August. I really like that these workouts are not too repetitive. Makes it easier to continue with it. Although I had forgot to do my workout yesterday until after I was laying in bed, so like a good girl I got out of bed and did my workout. To avoid that issue today I did my workout early this morning.

I'm off all weekend :) I plan on enjoying this holiday weekend with Cassie since I get to have her for a few extra weeks then planned this summer. This makes for a very happy mommy :). I'm going to do some cleaning, getting a few extra workouts in and if it warms up some tomorrow and its sunny I might just walk the 7 miles around the lake.

Dinner tonight: Grilled chicken breasts, grilled garlic potatoes and a salad. It doesn't look the greatest. But pretty good for my first grilling attempt. Its cooked all the way through and not burnt. Plus it tasted good :)

Breakfast tomorrow...
Picture from bhg.com

I love angel food cake and French toast so I spend a lot of time finding and trying recipes that can get as close to the actual food without the use of eggs for my egg allergy child. Through my trial and errors I use The Vegan Chronicle's angel food cake recipe and omit the berries from it. For this version of French toast I then follow bhg's Angel food cake French toast recipe omitting the eggs, use so delicious coconut milk instead of reg milk and top with fresh berries and fat free cool whip -because after a recipe like this I needed to cut calories somewhere ;) . Not the healthiest of breakfast choices, but oh so yummy anyway.

I hope everyone has a Happy and safe Memorial weekend.

Day 3 and 4

Today is Wednesday which means weigh in....I've gained and a lot. I know how it happened. I went on vacation, ate stuff I had cut out and didn't do my workouts. I could have stayed on track but chose not to. Now I am paying for it. Todays weight = 214.2 OUCH!! I have now gained 16 lbs since April 15th when the dietbet ended. Stupid, Stupid me.

I decided to combine days 3 and 4 together and did workout 1 again and cardio 1. I was going to skip the cardio today I'm just not overly fond of it.  Since It's only 26 mins I did it anyway. I really, really dislike the suicides. My plan is to start over with the 90 days when I finish the 12 weeks.

I wanted to share my new drink of choice and snack pack with you.

Its Chia seeds in like a lemonade water. I have mine without the lemonade part and use crystal lite instead. The chia seeds have 6g of fiber and 5g of protein in half a serving (1.5 tbs) unfortunately they have 80 calories and 5g of fat in that same half serving.

Snack pack: These are snack size bags that have cherries (74 Cal), grapes (50 Cal), raspberries (30 Cal) and carrots (31 Cal) in them along with a Cherry Almond Greek yogurt bar (160 Cal) and a Special K Strawberry Pastry Crisp (100 Cal). They all fit nicely into a quart size bag for a total of 445 Calories if I was to eat the entire bag.

I don't plan on eating the entire quart size bag of goodies, I just want to have them available to help avoid the drive thru while I'm out and about. Whatever is left at the end of the outing will go back into the fridge to be used for the next one (adding back in something like the item eaten or another low calorie snack like a cheese stick)

Rest day

Cass and I went to the store and stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies. We also picked up some bottled water. I normally use a refillable water bottle but I'm finding it hard to get in my days water. I'm hoping that have the bottles in the fridge to just grab will help. I baked up the cookies for the bake sale and spent some time with my youngest niece. So not a lot of resting going on today, but had a good last day of vacation. Back to work tomorrow.

Body Revolution:
I did workout 2 tonight. It's a good workout and one that seems like it fly's by. I feel as though I should give more of a review on it, but its late and I'm tired.

Back from vacation

I just got back from 10 days in Florida for our family vacation. Vacations are nice, but its oh so good to be home. We had plane delays from both planes going there that left us 11 hours behind schedule and 40 minutes stuck on the plane at our airport here in MI coming home. While in FL we spent a day at Disney World, went and climbed a 17 story light house, swam in the ocean and the pool at my mom's house and went the Marine Science Center (which was Cassie's big highlight of the trip). We will rest up tomorrow, bake some cookies for my Niece's school bake sale and spend some time with our pets that missed us like crazy.


Tonight I started over on Jillian Michaels Body revolution. I was on day 15 before we left for the trip. However I didn't do it at all while there, even though I brought the DVD's with me. I'm feeling not overly bright especially since I ate horrible most of the trip as well. The scale's not going to be nice come Wednesday mornings weigh in. The workout was nice, I like both workouts 1 and 2. I should since I can't seem to make it to workout 3.  I'm looking forward to workout 2 tomorrow and I love that you change the workouts each day as I found myself getting bored doing the same DVD every day. Here's to a fresh start on it.

Kicking up the workouts

Today I decided to give my Jillian Michaels Body Revolution dvd's another try. I have 15 days until our vacation so it couldn't hurt to kickup my workouts (or rather start working out, 2 days a week doesn't really count). I would like to see at least 4 pounds by then. Wednesday's are my preferred day for my weekly weigh ins, today I weighed in at 204. Ouch I should have continued with the dietbet. I took my measurements also and will post the amounts lost or gained later. I know that some don't agree with taking the measurements yourself. I also think these can be a little off, however I left myself detailed notes with the area I put the tape measure like a mole, scar ect. For me that is good enough. I like these workouts except while doing them I swear JM's trying to kill me. Its all good though. I feel really good after working out. I just need to keep the motivation to actually DO the workout.

Dietbet

I came across this site called Dietbet. How it works is you pay whatever the fee is for the one you want to join and have to lose 4% of your weight in 28 days. Everyone who reaches that goal, shares the pot. If you reach yours the least you would go home with is the amount the bet was. The one that I'm doing is $25 and starts today. My 4% is 8 pounds. So if you win the least I would walk away with is that $25. It was just motivation enough to get me to kick myself into gear, my final weigh in was 198 :)

In gear

Time to kick my life in gear and headed on track back. I'm feeling like for a bit here recently it's veering off slightly. I thought that having our belongings here with us and not in storage things would be falling into place, instead its very overwhelming. I'm starting to get into this funk. I feel drained and not energized like I thought I would. Tomorrow I am working till noon and then its time to tackle the mess of boxes and just get them out of the way. Hopefully with everything put into its proper place or as close to that as possible things won't seem so overwhelming.

On another note, going to MN and back I lost motivation for my weightloss and its showing on the scale. 208 oh how I hate seeing that 200+ on the scale, yet what did I do when I saw it? I took a nap and then ate some girl scout cookies.

Ambition

Today I was feeling ambitious so I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and zuppa toscana for lunch. Both were under 130 calories and very yummy. I need to stay motivated in order to keep myself from getting fast food or grabbing junk food. I sat down with Cassie and after our heart to heart about her unwillingness to try new foods and how its hindering my weight loss she seems more willing to try some of these new recipes. I hope it keeps up. I don't need her to like everything that I make, just to try it. Plus its not like I'm going to make things that I know she would never eat. The things I want to make are ones she should eat. So here's hoping...

I weighed in today at 202.6. I think the bodybugg is helping. At least enough to keep me active. If it shows that I'm not going to reach my target burn for the day then I get up and so a DVD or go to the Y for a walk/bike ride. Plus its neat to see how many times I wake up during the night. Now if only I could fix that issue. I had been doing well since I got this but then I let Cassie try it out one night and now I'm back to not sleeping again. I'm sure its just because I'm excited and nervous to leave for MN on Tuesday.

Oh about that. I suppose I forgot to mention that. Cassie and I are going to MN this Tuesday and will head home Friday. We are going to get our stuff out of storage. I rented a car to get us there and a Budget Truck to get us and our belongings home. I hate that this is a very short trip, however with 2 jobs its hard to get more time off. Plus I don't want to be to greedy with my days off since I will need 10 days in May for our FL trip.

Bodybugg

I recieved my Bodymedia Bodybugg Link and Core. Every excited to try them out. I decided to give the Core to my sister here in MI. She's been so very wonderful to both cassie and I that I wanted to thank her in a small way and since as part of the giveaway I need feed back on it I thought she was a good fit. I weighed in today at 205.

Its a neat little gadget. It records your sleep patterns, calories burned, steps taken ect. Incase you all haven't seen one. This is the Link (the one i'm keeping). Mine came with both the grey band as seen in the pics and a Black one with blue intsead of the silver.

Weight Watchers for the 8th time

I pulled out my weight watchers stuff thats been riding around in my trunk for months and months now and have decided to try it again. My starting weight is 209. I really HATE that I allowed myself to regain 11 pounds. I was down to 198 mid December. So very close to what I considered my "safe zone", guess I really don't have one. Oh well back to the drawing board. I won 2 bodymedia bodybuggs that should be arriving soon. I will post more on those later.

I got back part of my tax returns, found an awesome deal on plane tickets to Orlando FL. I purchased them, so Cassie and I will be going to Disney in May. We haven't taken an actual vacation ever. We are super excited!. I also splurged since Kohls was having 30% off, I have a friend that let me use her employee discount and had a $10 gift card I bought a keurig. It was a really good deal. :) i'm very happy with my awesome deals lately, i'm normally not this lucky so I took advantage of it. Now if only I could win the lottery ;)

long over due

Well it's been what seems like forever since i've posted on here. Time for some updates

1. I'm finally in my own place. Cassie and I moved in here mid January. Its a cute little 2 bedroom 2 bathroom. Perfect for us. My sisters friends have been so very kind to us and gave us a few belongings. Now to find time and money to get my stuff out of storage in MN.

2. I'm offically back at the YMCA in childcare. I LOVE it. The Y is my fav place to work. I know that its only part time, but I very much like what the Y stands for, what they do for the community and how they treat their employees.

3. I had lost weight down to 198 mid December, but have since gained back up to 209. Ugh!!!!! Not cool. I need to nip this in the butt and fast.