Days 15-35

Well....as you can see, I've been "away" for a while. So much has happened in the past 20 days, but since this blog focuses on my weight and health...I will just leave all the details for my other blog and tell YOU guys that over the past three weeks, I have packed back on a few pounds. I weighed in at 140 on Sunday of this week. Very depressing to see that number, but I'm not entirely surprised either. It's been a stressful time and to be completely honest...working out and worrying about nutrition has been the LEAST of my worries. It just didn't rank up there in priority...but I am glad to say that life is returning to "normal" again finally and I started P90X again yesterday. I am feeling especially encouraged after watching Biggest Loser tonight! How inspiring those people are!
Anyway, on our way home from San Antonio on Sept. 15th, I typed this post. Thought I'd go ahead and post it since I took the time to type it!

Vacation = calories
I tried, I really did. I actually didn’t “give in” and do something intentionally “bad” until this morning at breakfast right before we headed home. I caved and had a waffle at the hotel’s continental breakfast. I did use sugar free syrup though! It wasn’t even very good. Bummer! Most meals, I tried to order the healthiest options I could. At the Rain Forest Café, I ordered a bowl of veggie soup. At Sea World, I got baked chicken, fries and strawberries. At our Dinner with Shamu I had salad, baked chicken, brown rice, sautéed veggies and a tiny sliver of each dessert. The next day I got a turkey veggie wrap for lunch and ordered tortilla soup for dinner at Dave & Busters. I had raisin bran for breakfast one day, oatmeal the next day and the waffle today. I snacked on low fat yogurt cups and pistachios. I even got up yesterday morning before we headed to Sea World and worked out in the fitness room at the hotel. I was so proud of myself! I did 25 min on the elliptical machine and then a few shoulder, tricep and bicep work outs with the weights in there. It was actually really nice because I had the whole room to myself and it was totally state-of-the-art NICE equipment. I even got to catch a whole episode of Joel Osteen while I was on the elliptical.
Anyway, tomorrow will be back to normal eating and work outs—and hopefully back down to my 135 weight! (I’m sure I gained a few pounds this weekend!)

R2-Day 14

I'm awarding myself the Outstanding Achievement Award for today! I have accomplished SO much in the 14 hours that I have been awake--I'm sure I must have set some sort of record! ha ha
I got up at 6, pulled the sheets off my bed and stuck them in the washer. Came to my desk and did about 30 minutes worth of work for the dr. office before I headed to the kitchen to make our breakfast (egg white scramble, turkey bacon, WW toast) and Matt and Brooklyn's lunches. Next it was back to the office for another half hour to complete the file I had started earlier. Next I took Brooklyn to school and came home and then started on the 2nd file I had to do for the Dr. Office. Amazingly, Grant kept busy beside me the whole time coloring so I got #2 done. Then it was up for a bit to clean up the kitchen, make the bed and have lunch (mexi-salad and a left-over peice of pear cake!) Then gave Grant a quick bath and dropped him off at school. Got back home, scooped dog poop, cleaned up all million of the toys in the backyard and got out the pushmower. Push-mowed the front and back and side yards (had to dump the grass catch 8 times!!) Then I hopped on the riding mower and mowed the rest of the acreage. It was then 3:oo and time to go get the kids from school. Stopped off at the library and rented Mistaken Identity to read on our trip on Thursday and headed home to do a little more mowing and then inside to do another file for the Dr. office. I completed 3 files today for the Dr. office ...which is 3 days worth of work!! Yay! Now I am ALL caught up! After that, Matt got home from work and we did Cardio X before I ran off to the shower. Then it was time to cook dinner (baked tilapia, brown rice, veggies and salad). Cleaned up kitchen and then came in here to order another tub of the P90X Recovery Drink. I don't drink it but Matt does. Anyway...and now here I am! Whew! And crazy as it is, I actually don't feel tired at ALL! Next up is homework time with Brooklyn and then off to bed I shall go--tired or not. I am going to try to go into town tomorrow and do all our last minute running before we leave for vacation on Thursday. Hope ya'll are having a good week!
ONLY ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL BIGGEST LOSER STARTS AGAIN!!! TUE, SEPT 16!! YAY!

R2-Day 12 & 13

Okay yesterday was day 12. Other than the fact that I jumped down and did a couple of rounds of push ups and most of Ab Ripper X before we headed off to the lake, I didn't get any exercise. I also didn't eat very well. I took healthy snacks, ordered a fruit & yogurt salad at McDonald's when everyone else was getting nuggets and fries and drank only water and 1 cherry coke zero (when everyone else was drinking HIGH calorie drinks). But for dinner I went over to my SIL's house and she had prepared Frito Chili pie for everyone. I tried to get only a little bit of fritos and a LOT of lettuce...but still, I'm pretty sure I over did it. Then after that we all went to Marble Slab. Me, being the good girl that I am, didn't order ANYthing...but then I ended up sharing Matt's with him....so that was not good either. I felt like a pig all day though and I tried to keep my swimsuit coverup on as much as possible since I just felt plump. Yuk!

Today--Day 13. Had a headache all day--that has been escalating with every passing moment. Despite the ache, I did shoulders and arms and Ab Ripper X just now and as soon as I get done typing this post, I am going to bed. It's been a CRAZY-BUSY day. I did like 8 loads of laundry, 2 big loads of dishes, washed my van, vacummed and CLEANed it all out, sold my treadmill on Craig's list, cooked a huge dinner....etc....I am so tired right now that I actually just fell asleep while typing this! Yeek! I think I'm gonna end for now and hit the sack. Be back bright and early at the crack of dawn to get my work done for the dr. office that I didn't get finished with today. G'night y'all!

R2-Day 11

Oh! My! Gosh!
Today I had the FUNNEST day of exercise I have EVER had!! One of the "local" (took me 45 min. to get there) YMCA's had a Zumbathon. It was $10 per person and the money was going to benefit The Little Lighthouse, a non-profit preschool for children with disabilities. It was 1 1/2 hours of SOLID (no breaks) hard-core Zumba! There were about 200 women all together in a huge gym all dancing our booties off to songs like "Low" "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "I love Rock-n-Roll". It was a BLAST! Since I didn't know a SOUL there...I danced my little heart out and really got into it. There weren't any mirrors so I have no idea how ridiculous I looked...but I didn't care. My kicks were sky-high, my squats were Waaaaaay low and my shimmy was groovin! I knew I was burning some major calories but I never imagined I'd burn 859!!! Yep! That's what my HRM said when I checked it afterwards!
Brooklyn actually went with me and thought she'd take a stab at Zumba...but it was way too complicated for her. These instructors were the best of the best. There was some serious choreography involved and a lot of hip thrusting, booty-bouncing and ta-ta shakin' going on. She opted to just sit on the bleachers and draw. Thankfully (I had suspected that it might be too hard for her) I had brought her a little bag full of paper, crayons, pens, stickers and one of her American Girl magazines). It kept her busy for the full 2 hours. Since we both paid $10, we both got to put our names in the bucket for the door prizes and wouldn'tcha know it...she won one of the first prizes--a $10 gift certicate to Panera Bread!! I actually won a 3 month membership to the YMCA...but I opted to give it to someone else since there is no way I am going to drive 45 minutes to go work out somewhere. I also got a really cute Zumba embroidered towel and a cute Zumba bracelet. There wasn't an inch on my entire body that wasn't SOAKED in sweat by the time it was over. Even my hair was dripping. I literally looked like I had just stepped out of the pool with my clothes on! I LOVE that feeling!
Anyway, eating today was NOT good...but hey...it couldn't have been helped.
I met a friend for lunch at Red Robin. I ordered the turkey crossant sandwhich and then traded out my fries for a salad. I only ate half and then took the other half home. (which I ate at about 4 pm.)
Then tonight I took the kids to a birthday party where they were serving pizza. At about 7:30 pm I ended up having 2 small slices of pizza with a large salad and then I had a piece of birthday cake. YUM! It was so sinful..but so delicious.
Tomorrow won't probably be much better either. We are going down to the city (2 hours away) to go to the lake with my neice Rachael on her new boat. I'm sure we'll just be eating whatever.....
I am going to pack healthy snacks for us and I will bring us each 1 sandwich from home...but other than that, we'll just have to take what we get.
It may not be the best for my diet...but this is life. This is what it's all about and I don't regret a minute of it! I'll just make the healthiest choices I can and get in exercise when I can. Like Tony would say...Do your best and forget the rest! Hope you're all having a good weekend!!

R2-Day 10

I woke up with my motivation tank on E. I tried REEEEEEEEaly hard to get there...but just couldn't muster up any enthusiasm about exercise today. After a busy morning and with only a few minutes to spare, I MADE myself get on the elliptical. My intentions were to do what I'd done the day before (20 minutes doing 1 min. intervals) but it was the most miserable thing. I was HATING every minute of it and I was thinking thoughts like "I DESPISE exercise. I resent it...It's taking me away from my life. I'm so busy either 1)exercising 2)preparing food 3)thinking about exercising or preparing food or 4) showering from exercising that I don't have time for anything else." I decided that I was just self-destructing with all those negative thoughts...so I got off and did Ab Ripper and called it a day.
Eating was not much better either.
I had Kashi Go Lean cereal (major fiber and protien) with a banana and skim milk for breakfast.
I went out to lunch with my buddy Teya and had a small bowl of tortilla soup with 1/2 a chicken panini sandwich and 1 bread stick.
For a snack I had 1 small apple with 1 tbsp. peanut butter
For dinner we grilled LEAN top sirloin steaks, had a small baked potato with NO butter, 1 mini-ear of corn and a salad.
For dessert we had a (big ) bowl of light banana pudding (made with sugar free pudding, skim milk, light cool whip, reduced fat vanilla wafers and bananas)
I felt like a bloated pig when I went to bed and I HATED it. Here's hoping tomorrow is WAY better!

R2-Day 9

Okay, I'm trying to find something GOOD to say about this day.....
Not that it was a "bad" day or anything...but as far as my eating and exercise go...not the best.
I started it out good by having an egg-white scramble for breakfast with 2 light WW toasts and 1 turkey bacon (250 cal). For some quick exercise before I took a shower, I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. I did 1 minute going so hard and fast I was breathless and my HR was up around 170 and then 1 minute of "recovery" where I was still working hard but not so hard I couldn't breathe and on and on. So in all, I did 10 minutes of the HARD stuff and 10 minutes of the less hard stuff. According to my HR monitor, I burned 153 calories. Then at lunchtime I had a hair appointment and had to just grab something quickly, so I grabbed a Mojo mountain mix trail bar (180 cal--protien bar) and a small banana and a water. When I got home from that at 3:30, I was pretty hungry so I had a bowl of my weight watchers soup (42 cal)
For appetizer (while I was getting dinner ready) I made a small bowl of guacamole and we split that.
For dinner, Matt and I had a bowl of the WW soup (2 cups--84 cal). Each of us also had 2 Rosemary Kashi Go Lean crackers with a peice of turkey and pepperjack cheese on top.
Then here is where the Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad part comes in. After all that we were still hungry. I knew my mom had this wonderful strawberry cream cake at her house and I was wanting a piece SO Bad....but instead, I tried to satisfy my craving with a sugar free fudgsicle (60 cal)....Blah! Then I tried a 100 cal pack of chips-ahoy crips---Blah! Then off to my moms I went for a slice of cake! Yep, after all that I had a slice of cake. If it's any consolation, I didn't eat ANY of the icing. I scraped it all off and just ate the cake with the fresh strawberries in the middle. YUM! Believe me when I say..I needed this cake. I was having a tough night with 2 screamng kids and a grouchy husband and I needed an escape. Yes, I'm aware that a work out would have been a MUCH better choice...but for a quick (and delicious) fix the cake did it! :o)
Hey, I can't be good all the time! :o)

R2-Day 8

What a wet Wednesday! It's been raining since I woke up this morning and all I've felt like doing is sleeping! Ugh! I hate those kinds of days. I mean..I love the rain and the sound of it tip-tapping on the roof is so peaceful...but I hate the way I feel---drowsy and very low-energy. Anyway, you know me. How I feel does NOT dictate what I do...so...on went the sports bra and tennis shoes and I knocked out 58 minutes of Kenpo X. (bye, bye 316 calories!) I just sat down to have my lunch (eeek! how'd it get to be 2:15 pm already?) and now I'm gonna spend the next 45 minutes doing work for the dr. office. Then it'll be off to get kids from school, home to shower and then off to eat........................MEXICAN for dinner again!! AUGHHHH!!!!
What can I say? The whole (extended) fam is going...and I don't want to be a party pooper and say "no thanks, I'll just stay home and have my diet soup instead." All I can think of is to try to eat some healthy snacks before I go and then maybe I won't do badly while we're there!
So far today, I've done great. I had a bowl of cereal with banana and skim milk again for breakfast (approx. 400 cal) and then I had a bowl of my soup just now (84 cal.). I'm gulping down water at every chance I get....hoping that will help keep my tummy full.
Anyway...I hope you all will try that recipe I posted for the soup. It really is delicious!

BONUS:
So...Matt got home from work and said "AWW man..you already worked out? I was going to do it with you tonight." so I replied, "well babe--put on your tennis shoes and I'll just work out again!" So...in addition to Kenpo X earlier..I also just did Chest & Back (bye, bye another 244 calories!) YIPPEE! Now I won't feel SO bad about the Mexican food for dinner!

Losing weight just got easier!

Thanks to my buddy Joyce for supplying me this recipe...I think I may have a fighting chance to drop this last 10 pounds! For those of you who have done Weight Watchers...I'm sure you've seen this one before...but for those of you (like me) who haven't...it might just be our saving grace!
This wonderful tasting soup only has 42 calories per 1-cup servng and has NO fat and has 2 grams of fiber. It just doesn't get much healthier than this girls!

I made it this morning and it has been simmering in my kitchen all day...and now I am finally sitting down to have a bowl and YUMMO!

Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup (o points!)
2/3 c. sliced carrot
1/2 c. diced onion
2 garlic cloves
3 c. fat-free broth (beef, chicken or vegetable)
1 1/2 c. diced green cabbage
1/2 c. green beans
1 T. tomato paste
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4. tsp. salt
1/2 c. diced zucchini

I doubled it since I wanted to be able to eat this for lunch every day this week!

Saute the carrot, onion and garlic over lower heat for about 5 minutes. (I used a teensy drip of EVOO for this). Add broth, cabbage, beans, tomato paste, basil, oregano and salt. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes or until beans are tender. Stir in zucchini and heat 3-4 minutes. Serve hot.

I feel good-na na na na na na na. I knew that I would...(R2-Day 7)

Man it feels good to be working out again and eating right. Not just physically..but also mentally. I know that I am taking good care of my body and that is just so motivating!
Today I ate a small bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal with a banana and skim milk for breakfast.
For lunch I had a small bowl of salad (just lettuce)
For snack I had one (homemade) banana nut muffin
For dinner I had 1 small serving of turkey spagetti, salad and cauliflower.
For snack/dessert I had a small (8 oz) protien shake/smoothie
I also did Legs & Back with Ab Ripper X this afternoon. I'd really like to get in a good 20-30 min. on the elliptical tonight...but we'll see. I know this is dumb...but I took a shower earlier and did my hair and make up which is a big process and I HATE to throw it all away for a few minutes on the elliptical. (I'd need a shower again!) How do you guys handle that? Do you take a shower after you work out every time or do you just freshen up somehow?

BTW...did you see a trend in my eating habits today? I limited myself to a SMALL serving of everything today! It was tough because I wasn't necessarily full or even satisfied when I got done..but every time I waited a few minutes and before I knew it I was just fine and didn't need anything else. Now if only I can keep it up!

So that's why they did it!

Remember back in the olden days..women used to wear hankerchief's on their heads??? Well, I just always figured it was a kind of fashion statement. You know...like the beehive hair do or something. Well, I've recently discovered that wearing a hankerchief on your head is a WONDERFUL way to keep the sweat out of your eyes! Who'da thunk it?

It all makes perfect sense now...since those women back then had to do a lot of hard work and there wasn't air conditioning like there is today!

Anyway, I've been wearing one here latey and I LOVE it. No, it's not the cutest thing in the world...but hey...no more burning, stinging eyes! Gotta love that!!

Lose the Last 10 Pounds!

Thanks to Kate over at http://www.missgotwings.blogspot.com/ I read a great article today on http://www.msn.com/ called Lose the Last 10 Pounds! Although there wasn't anything amazingly profound in there that I hadn't heard before...there were a lot of great pointers that made me feel encouraged again that I CAN do this! I know reading a whole article takes time...so I thought I'd just post a few of the points they made that I thought were the most helpful:

You've cleaned up your diet, sweated off countless calories, and watched pounds melt away. But now the scale has come to a screeching halt. What gives? It's an unfortunate law of weight loss: The last 10 pounds are harder to shed than the first 30. That's because the slimmer you become, the fewer calories you burn just going about your day. For every pound you lose, your metabolism slows by up to 20 calories a day. But we do have some good news: Easy tweaks to the good habits you've already established can push you past your plateau and help you reach your final weight loss goal.

1. Cardio melts calories, but to keep seeing results, ramp up your intensity, too. "Interval training can trigger a boost in metabolism so you burn more fat during low- and moderate-intensity activity, and even at rest." Alternate between a moderate effort that makes you slightly breathless and a vigorous pace that makes speaking more than a couple of words difficult. In a 30-minute interval workout, you'll burn 20 percent more calories than if you maintained a steady pace—and you'll keep burning more fat afterward.

2. It's one of the dirtiest tricks your body can play: The more you exercise, the less you're inclined to stand, walk around, twiddle your thumbs, and generally burn calories during the 23 hours you're not working out. Standing for an hour more a day will burn 100 more calories than if you were sitting

3. Get a more time-efficient workout and burn a third more calories by doing strength and cardio in one shot. Cardio blasts calories immediately, while strength-training increases metabolism over time, so combining the two gives you the ultimate bang for your buck. At home, do one minute of jumping jacks or easy rope jumping between every strength exercise.

4. Eating less meat is a proven way to lighten up on the scale.

5. An apple a day could keep the pounds away. Diners who had an apple 15 minutes before an all-you-can-eat pasta lunch ate 187 fewer calories than those who skipped the snack. At 65 calories per cup, the apple fills you up.

6. Dieters who jotted down what they ate lost twice as much weight as those who didn't keep a record.

R2-Day 4, 5 & 6

Saturday, Sunday and Monday (today). Woops! Didn't mean to forget to blog for the past few days...but just haven't had time to sit down at the computer!
Saturday Matt and I spent almost the entire day outside putting the metal on the walls of his shop building. Then I got out the push mower and did the front and back yard--so that was my exercise for that day.
Sunday we taught the 3 year old class at church and then came home and grilled turkey burgers. Then it was outside again for a quick dip in the pool before we had to come in and start getting ready for a labor day cook out at some of our friends' house. So...didn't get any specific exercise that day. Bummer!!
Monday--today--Labor Day I got up and cleaned the whole house including shampooing all the carpet. Then I threw on my swim suit and went out to help Matt some more. But, it turned out he didn't really need me so instead I cleaned out our gutters! ha ha...but really...I did. Lately I've been noticing that when it rains, the water just pours out of the gutters and doesn't come out the down-spouts...so I figured they were clogged. And I was right...they were full of gunk. Anyway after that I got in the pool with the kids for a bit and then came in and showered and then cooked turkey spagetti for dinner. Brooklyn had a big project to do for her homework and by the time we got done with that, it was already 8:30 pm. Then I got the kids in the bathroom and did their nails. I've never seen Grant's fingernails so long! YICK!! Also, Brooklyn's nails needed to be cleaned off and re-painted so we did that. Now, finally, it's 10 pm and I just got them to bed. I decided its too late to do a P90X work out video now, so instead I just did 20 staggered push ups and half of Ab Ripper. It's not much...but at least I did SOMEthing, right? :o)
Tomorrow will be back to normal and will be a lot easier for me to get my work outs done. I think if I am being realistic....there is NO way I am going to reach my goal of getting to 130 by next Friday (the 12th). I am actually stuck at 136 right now and can't seem to get the scale to budge. To lose 6 pounds by then, I'd have to lose half a pound EVERY day. That's next to impossible...unless I starve myself. Hmmm......I wonder if I could do that? :o)
Okay..well, I think I'll end this for now and maybe go blog-surfing for a bit before I conk out. g'night ya'll!