Weigh In Day!

Ok, so Fridays are my weigh-in day and I am proud to announce that I am down 2.8 pounds!! YES!! It's kicking in and actually working. As you can see I'm quite excited. Not sure if anything looks any different but I can feel things are changing. Mostly noticing muscles in my thighs. Sortof noticing small Biceps? Maybe? And my whole body 'feels' a little different. I definitely am feeling better, more energy. So all is going well.

Woo Hoo Week Two

Look at that it even ryhmes..LOL! Ok ..so I finished week 1 with a bang. I'm quite prowd of myself. I've noticed the last couple of days have been a little rougher for me and there were a couple times I thought about skipping my workouts but decided to push thru. I think this is usually the point in all my weightloss plans that I 'give up" and I'm NOT going to do that this time. I AM going to make it to the very end of this BootCamp. It will be my first time really sticking to ANYthing. I WAS feeling a little guilty about not wanting to do my regular Cardio today. I decided I was going to 'take it easy' on myself. I do think I might be pushing myself too hard so I will have to think about possibly slowing down a little, we'll see. Maybe I just need to push thru it. Anyway ...that was before doing todays workout(which I forgot WAS cardio anyway) and whew..I feel like I worked pretty hard!! So not feeling so guilty about cutting back on the cardio today..LOL I also chose today to be a "Bonus Video" day since it was just the short cardio workout today. I did a 5 minute leg workout with bands. Short but INTENSE! So Day 1 Week Two! Go me!

28 Day Boot Camp

Ok, so one of the things I have been doing is a 28 Day Boot Camp Workout at Spark! I'm currently on Day 6 and going strong. Already got my required workouts in. There is a 10 minute Toning Workout to do each day and you are supposed to do a 30 minute Cardio Workout of your choice as well. I do 30 minutes on the Treadmill. In keeping with my wanting to do a 'Booty Call" with the Tone it Up Girls , I did moderate walking on the treadmill this morning. I don't have a ton of energy in the morning(hopefully eventually that will change and I'll be one of those people who 'leap' out of bed each morning, but so far NOT) so I'm trying to take it a little easy. I just want to get my metabolism going a little bit to give me a slight edge thru-out the day. I still plan to do another 30 minute session on the treadmill later this afternoon(when I tend to have bundles of energy) and go a little harder!

Booty Calls and Spark!! Oh Yeah!

So, like I said in my last post I've actually been at this for about two weeks. And I'm still going strong. I started out just making a few small changes and then just adding more and more. I cut out the soda(AGAIN) and am mostly just drinking water, with a little bit of tea here and there and once in a while a V8 Fusion juice. I also still have my one cup of coffee in the morning. I then started trying to eat cleaner and fit more veggies and fruit into my day. I have been eating a LOT of good salads. Luckily I really love salad and veggies and fruit so it's not really a hardship. I also started to slowly add a little bit of exercise each day. I started with just a few squats or pushups here and there. And then started adding a few more exercises like leg lifts and situps and such. I would just do them in little spurts throughout the day. Then I started to add a little cardio on the treadmill. After a few days I decided I needed to track my eating, not so much to stay UNDER my Calorie counts but more to make sure I was getting ENOUGH Calories to support my new activity levels. I want to get healthy not necessarily skinny. So I went back to Sparkpeople.com to have a place I could keep track of everything I'm doing and see my progress. So far it's going well. I also have a few sites I like to go to, to keep me motivated and inspired and to get good info. My favorite right now is Tone it Up! with Karena and Katrina. OMG! These girls are just so darned cute and really encouraging. I love visiting their site and Facebook page daily. They have a LOT of good healthy eating tips and some GREAT workout videos that are FREE to use on their site! They have a thing called Booty Call where you are supposed to get in 30 minutes of Cardio right away in the morning as soon as you get up and then message them to let them know you did it. Today was my first BOOTY CALL! I've been doing my cardio in the evenings but decided to take their advice and do it this morning. I'll try again tomorrow....

I also like going to Tosca Reno's Clean Eating blog and her Facebook page to keep me on track and get more info on eating clean. All in all I'm feeling great and can't believe I never stuck with this before. I've always like exercising (don't know why I never keep it up) and love healthy foods(have no idea why I go back to junk!?)I really plan to stick it out this time. I don't know, something really feels different this time, like something really 'clicked"? So here's to a healthier life!

Starting Over

Yep..I'm at it again. It's funny I just looked thru a few of my old posts and this was one from when I 'started again' in January of 09. I could basically have written it today. As  a matter of fact I had planned to, but figured why bother. Just click on the link to go to it. It's still true today. I plan to do it basically the same way. I've actually been at if for about 2 weeks or so and still going strong. Going VERY strong even! I really feel THIS time is THE time.

Today has been a good day. I meant to have Coffee and Breakfast before Mass, but the monring got away from me and I forgot. We had a nice fellowship after Mass though so I had a small plate. I was VERY good and didn't pig out or anything...and had a small cup of milk with it.

For Lunch I just had veggies, grapes, and cheese with some water....

I only ate half the ranch dip

I relaxed for the rest of the day and had a few more glasses of water...

Then for Dinner I made Morrocan Chicken( from Tosca Reno's Eat-Clean Cookbook)
and Curried CousCous(from Allrecipes.com...I added chopped onion to the recipe)...This meal turned out REALLY great...it was simple to make and VERY tasty and HEALTHY to boot!

I left a few bites on the plate as I got full before I could finish.

Tonight I treated myself to a few slices of Sara Lee Poundcake. ...and bottle of Soda....everything in moderation.

Today was a day of relaxation. After I got a few chores done this morning, I spent a little time surfing some of my favorite blogs. One I was reading this morning is The Chic Life...she's in the 9th week of a 12 week challenge of making Small Changes with Big Results, which she calls SCBR. I hadn't read her blog for a few months, so I had been missing out on this really inspiring and encouraging blogging! So now I'm trying to backtrack and catch-up on her plan. It sounds extemely doable. It's about making small changes to get healthier and in better shape..It's not about losing a specific amount of weight , just about getting healthier and I like it! I also have to say I love reading her food and cooking posts. She makes healthy look GOOD and I've gotten some of my best meal ideas from reading her blog. I really need to read her more regularly.

Anyway, she also has a small food challenge where she is challenging her readers to incorporate certain 'healthy' foods or ingredients to their weekly menus. Again I am behind on reading about this so I missed out on most of her challenges..but that doesn't mean I can't catch up and apply these tidbits to my life today. One of the ingredients in her weekly food challenge was Tumeric. According to the post Tumeric is an anti-inflammatory and may have Cancer preventing properties. She challenged her readers to incorporate Tumeric into their weekly menus. I think this was back in February, so of course I'm a bit late in this 'challenge"...but...I decided to go ahead and try it today. For breakfast I made scrambled eggs, with onion , greenpepper,a dash of Cheddar and a nice dose of Tumeric..and you know what? It was REALLY tasty. the Tumeric really added another dimension to the flavor. It was far from bland...and I will be making eggs with Tumeric more often.

So today, inspired by The Chic Life I had Scrambled Eggs with Tumeric with a slice of whole wheat toast for Brunch( didn't get around to eating breakfast when I first got up. I was too busy getting a few chores done and reading ehr blog..LOL) . I did have two cups of Coffee. I then did a half hour of Namaste Yoga( also inspired by TCL) . Then I spent part of the Afternoon relaxing out on the Balcony with a good book( also inspiring) and downing a few glasses of water( it was HOT today) . The inspiring book I read today?
It was a really good read. It's a Christian based book on how to be a Diva like various women of the Bible such as Ruth, Esther, Deborah, the Virgin Mary, and Proverbs 31 Woman as well as a few others. It's not about being a spoiled, Prima Donna....but about being a strong woman in God's presence.

After a few days of Sunshine and warm weather I'm starting get a nice glow about me, and feeling totally UNstressed. I plan to spend the rest of my afternoon relaxing some more. I think I'll snack on a nice fresh apple after I post this blog, drink some more water, eat a nice healthy dinner and take a nice relaxing walk around the block this evening when it cools down a little bit. And talk to my hubby tonight,when he makes his nightly call....

This Afternoon's Outfit:
Bikini-Walmart
(this is why I put the blankets up on my balcony...don't want to share TOO much with the Neighbors...)
Sundress-One of my latest mark. purchases.
Pink Ballcap-bought last fall at a Tourist shop in VA Beach
Sunglasses-Lilly P a recent eBay Purchase!

In keeping with today's theme I had a really yummy, relatively healthy, dinner. I marinated a boneless porkchop( I was just watching Cooking with Sam on FitTV and it said Skinless Chicken has more fat than Boneless Pork Chops) in some Raspberry Vinaigrette mixed with a little bit of Chinese Sauce( I"m trying to use up what I can in my fridge in anticipation of my impending move sometime in the next century). And I sauteed some Onion, Zucchini and Yellow Squash...nothing fancy just sauteed in a little bit of butter with salt and pepper...and that was it...and it was REALLY good....this was extrememly easy and only took maybe 15 minutes to make( I did marinate the chops earlier today)...sometimes 'simple' is more than enough.I did also have a glass of what I'm calling "Cheater Margarita"....It comes in a box with a spigot ( kinda like "wine in a box" except it's "margarita in a box") ..It's actually quite good and now I can have a 'ready made" Margarita any time I want...LOL

Updated to add:

I took my walk around the block..it took me about 25 minutes walking atg a good clip. Man am I out of shape though. I started getting aches and pains right away....but then as I came to the end of my walk they were gone and I was feeling ok. I really just need to get out regularly a DO it! One 'good' thing about being so out of shape, is that I will probably start to see and feel results pretty quickly which should help to keep me motivated.....