about that time, eh chap?

Yesterday was a really hard day for me and by catching up on the other blogs this morning it just seems to be one of those weeks for all of us. Maybe it's the change of seasons? Or just reaching that almost-a-month mark?

I don't know what my problem was - but as much as I just wanted to get home and workout while I was sitting at work all day, once I got home it was really hard to motivate. I did get it done. And I probably worked myself harder than I did in the beginning of the week. I just really didn't want to do it. Because it's been a super rainy week here on the east coast, I've had to do all my HIIT inside... mostly on my stairs. And that just gets boring. Thank god it's only 20 mins, any longer than that and I would probably never do it because it would just be no fun. The thing is I'm not really big on doing it outside either. :-\  When it comes to cardio I'm a gym girl all the way. I actually like being on one of those machines. I'm really considering buying an elliptical trainer... or maybe just getting another gym membership.

Stats for 9/29:

• total calories: 1339 - this amazed me because I took my little sister to the movies and we got those pretzel bite things w/ nacho cheese and popcorn and coke. I didn't eat a whole lot of it, but I think that's mostly because I was so scared I was gonna screw up all the healthy eating I've been doing lately lol.
• calories burned: 300
• had 2 cigarettes with my mom.... bad influence!! What was surprising to me though was that I was more smoking just because she was smoking, not because I really wanted one. The second one I got halfway through and just put it out because it just was appealing to me anymore.
• 11pm bedtime
• $12 spent on snacks on the movies ($23 left for the week)

I was really down on myself yesterday because I didn't get my 3 cups of veggies in - after work I did my 20 mins of cardio and then barely had time to grab a shower and get dress before picking my sister up for the movie. Today I'm doing double-veggies to make up for it, and really going to work on my time-management so I don't get into a pattern of making excuses to break the rules. 

Peanut butter and granny smith apples

...this is my new favorite snack. Getting plenty of protein and fiber in while staving off lunch hunger that inevitably creeps up on me around 11am every morning never tasted so good!

Stats for 9/28:

• total calories: 2200 - I went over my "goal" calories due to eating 3 slices of frozen pizza in addition to having my usual giant salad for dinner. I should have stopped at the 2 slices and I would have been fine. I'm not really stressing over that, though. Focusing more on my sugar intake right now more than anything.
• total calories burned: 300 - did my first 10 minutes of HIIT on the stairs inside, then took it outside when Mike came home in the middle of my routine. 
• 0 cigarettes - 3 days.
• 11pm bedtime
• $0 spent ($35 left for the week)

I've also been making these delicious smoothies at lunch - handful of frozen strawberries, handful of blueberries, a banana, handful of spinach, a dollop of greek yogurt, a cup or so of water, one scoop of vanilla whey protein and blend. They are really good! I have a tendency to want to have dessert after lunch, so I've been drinking these after I eat in place of having a popsicle or handful of M&Ms. Plus it usually keeps me full till dinner time. 

One thing I really need to work on is remember to thaw meat for dinner. I've got a ton of chicken breasts in the freezer - I need to thaw those out and grill them up on the george foreman to keep in the fridge for salads and stuff. 

A different kind of stats... BODY STATS!

I'm not sure why my post title made me seem so excited to share this deeply personal and embarrassing information with you... but anyhoo.. here we go... measured yesterday, which was day 1 of the two week JW (Jackie Warner) jumpstart:

As of Monday, September 27th

• chest: 41"
• waist (around the bellybutton): 39"
• hips: 47"
• thighs: 27.5"
• biceps (flexing): 13.5"
• weight: 205lbs

So there it is folks. Perhaps I will peruse my photos when I have a moment later today and post an accurate portrayal of my weight right now. Maybe I'll even have Mike just take a quick picture of me today so it can be really accurate. 

Now for boring regular stats from yesterday:

• total calories: 1636 - I even ate some ice cream with crumbled cone on top and didn't go over my processed sugar grams for the day! Very proud of that! That means for the last week, including today, I've stayed under 40 grams of processed sugar everyday!
• calories burned: 250 - this is a low-ish estimate. I attempted to do my 20 mins of HIIT (high intensity interval training) but Mike had to work late which means I had my 4 yr old in tow... you would think a 4 yr old boy would have enough energy to keep up for what was a essentially a 20 minute jog. NOPE! He dragged and moped and whiiiiiined the WHOLE TIME. Also asked me to carry his 50lb. butt several times.. I was like, "No way, dude." So I did an extra 10 mins of running up and down my stairs when we got back home because I feel like I wasn't really able to push myself while I was out with him. Plan of action for the future: bring workout clothes to work and jog around the pond before I get the kiddo from daycare or do the whole routine on my stairs if the hubby isn't home from work.
• 0 cigarettes - that's two days so far, woo! Saturday will be the hardest for me since my mom is having a ladies night... and almost all the other ladies are smokers. We'll see how it goes. 
• 11:30pm bedtime - stayed up til a little after 11pm watching Harry Potter. I'm trying to watch all the movies again before the newest one comes out in November. I turned the lights off and ATTEMPTED to fall asleep about 11:30pm... however my husband had other ideas.. ie: staying up until after midnight blaring the football game. -.-
• $5 spent on Taco Bell for lunch - 7-layer burrito with a regular taco and a small soda. 

So my goals for this week are:

- $40 budget for the week
- $100 for the month of October starting Friday (following Maury's example on this one)
- 40g of processed sugars or less daily
- 2 detox fruits daily
- 2 eggs daily
- 3 cups detox veggies daily
- whey protein daily
- 3 liters lemon water daily
- 5 days of HIIT cardio for 20 mins

- continue to cut back on smoking, 5 cigarettes a day or less

Stats and the Two Week Jump-start!

• Total calories: 1362 (no wonder I was STARVING as I was getting ready for bed.. poor body. I'm afraid I keep accidentally pushing you into starvation mode. Yay for fat storage! Not. -.-)
• Total calories burned: 0 - probably less that lol. I seriously slept ALL DAY. My sickness caught up with me after staying up so late Saturday on top of drinking/smoking a ridiculous amount. 
• 0 cigarettes - woo! I'm going to really try to keep up with this trend.
• in bed by 10:30pm, read for about an hour. Had a rough time falling asleep since I slept most the day, but probably ended up drifting off around 12:30am. No trouble getting up this morning, though!
• $0 spent

I've gotten about half-way through Jackie Warner's book and am really loving every minute of it! Today I start the two week jump-start with my diet and my exercise.. basically for two weeks I eat normally but add amino and omega complex supplements to my normal Shaklee vitamin intake, whey protein, 3 liters of water w/ lemon juice daily, 2 eggs a day, 3 cups of detox veggies and 2 detox fruits a day (which fruits and veggies are "detox" are specified in the book, but it's basically normal stuff: salads with lots of additional veggies like broccoli, carrots, asparagus, etc. and then fruits likes apples, oranges, bananas, berries, etc.). For exercise I will be doing 20mins of high-intensity interval cardio 5 days a week. I'm going to shoot for this to be Mon-Fri or maybe Mon-Thurs and then Saturdays. Right now I'm trying to figure out HOW I want to do the cardio - if one of the two dvd's I picked up with the book have a strictly cardio workout that I can do, or if I'm gonna have to suck it up and actually go outside... and like... run. Ugh. lol

Stats for Saturday

• Total Calories: 1712 (including beers)
• Total calories burned: 0 - no workouts
• More cigarettes than I care to count.. but almost an entire pack and I feel like poo because of it.
• In bed by 1:30am - not bad for a Sat night spent drinking with friends
• $0 spent

Stats for Friday

• Total calories: 1555 (that's including a trip to Five Guys AND ordering pizza last night! I'm getting the hang of portion control finally)
• Total calories burned: about 150 (I took a walk after lunch but didn't workout)
• 2 cigarettes
• was in bed by 10:30pm, went to sleep about 11pm (really boring for a Friday night, I know, but I was SO tired from staying up so late every night earlier in the week! I'm sure I'll make up for it tonight lol)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far - I'll post some about Jackie Warner's book later, but so far I'm really impressed with it and can't wait to start a new routine.

MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY!

Okay, ladies and gentlemen... today I'm going to talk a little bit about "Fitness Fads" and the people that like to follow them... ie: ME. Yes, I'm that chick. But only just recently.

There was a time where I went to the gym 6 days a week, weighed all of 137lbs and wore a size 10... we refer to those days now as "When I was 17/18/19"... I miss those days. Then I started dating someone that encouraged laziness and gluttony and I followed suit blindly.

Then I had a baby.

Then I lost alllll the babyweight and then-some because I was sooooooo sleep-deprived and depressed... and then I realized "oh, wait, I'm 21, I can go out and DRINK!". And I did. And I gained all 30lbs of babyweight back thank to Mr. Captain Morgan and his good buddy Coke.

Let's fast-forward a little bit... to where I meet my now-husband and decide I should not be that-fat-chick-Mike's-dating or it's ugly cousin the he's-so-thin-and-good-looking-why-is-he-with-HER?! girl. So I joined a gym. And I went 5 days a week. And I lost about 15lbs - putting me at about 185... and then I GOT ENGAGED (!!!! very exciting stuff here), and I started spending MORE time at the gym and in 6 months lost ANOTHER 15lbs putting me back at my pre-baby weight of 170lbs just in time for my wedding. WOO!

I'm not sure if any of you know this... but one of the side-effects of getting married is... GETTING FAT.

True fact.

I should have done something last year when at the beginning of the spring I realized my 14's were getting a little snug... and then by the end of the summer I had to "graduate" to 16's... and then by the new year I had to graduate YET AGAIN to an 18. EIGHTEENS!!!!! Wtf?! I went from being 170lbs in September of '08 and fitting into a 14 EASY (and even some 12s), to being 190lbs by September of '09, to being where I am today at 205lbs in September of '10. That's 35 fuckin' pounds in 2 years. Depressing isn't it?

I think so.

But I've finally realized that I can't just be complacent in my very comfortable size 18 jeans. I look at the 14s living in the top of my guest room closet and I miss them SO BAD. Some of those are really badass jeans and I can't fit in them anymore. It's tragic. ...so what did I do? Did re-up my gym membership for the super low price of $220 for the WHOLE YEAR?! (For those of you not wanting to do the math.. that only $18/month - which would have been a pretty amazing deal.) No, I did not re-up my gym membership. I was doing yoga, goddamnit. Nearly everyday. But not the good fat-burning power yoga. Oh, no no. I was doing the relaxing, stretching, meditation kind of yoga. So then I decided... I was going to start running. Yes. That's right. Running. At 6am every morning. And then I would do yoga in the evenings. Yes, that's right. Running in the mornings, yoga in the evenings.

-.-

I have a 4 year old. I work full-time. I own a home. Honestly, how the fuck did I think I was going to be able to pull that off just out of nowhere having very little routine instilled in me for work-outs as it was?

I was delusional. Obviously.

Some friends of mine started talking about P90X. (If you don't already know what that is, go here) Well, after some research we decided to start with Power 90 (here) - which is basically P90X-light. Mike and I jumped on the bandwagon and spent 3 months, 6 days a week, doing these workouts. I lost an inch off my arms, and an inch off my waist. Lost about 7lbs altogether.

I started a 2nd cycle a few weeks ago but realized I was completely bored with the workouts since it's the same resistance training/cardio every other day. But the problem is... I've become a Fitness Fad-natic. I read every stupid article on Yahoo! Shine about weightloss, how to get a flat tummy "in 3 easy steps", "Workouts For Work - Right At Your Desk!". Yep. I'm THAT chick. Spamming your Facebook newsfeed with all kinds of useless crap... the only one I found that seems to actually work is The Chocolate Milk Diet, oddly enough.

So now that I'm completely broke and can't afford to re-join the gym and start hitting the eliptical and weight machines hardcore, I'm committed to the home workout. My newest adventure: Jackie Warner. You may know her as that super lesbian with a show on Bravo... now she's actually got TWO shows on Bravo. Not gonna lie... her abs kind of scare the shit outta me - but she really seems to know her stuff and I decided I'm willing to take a gamble on her.

Today, waiting for me at home, is her book (greatest title ever) "This Is Why You're Fat (And How To Get Thin Forever): Eat More, Cheat More, Lose More - And Keep The Weight Off" and two of her workout videos. I'm STOKED!

Tomorrow is my usual grocery shopping day so I'm hoping to be able to read through enough of the book this evening to know what I should pick up to start off on the right track next week. I'm planning on kicking everything into gear Monday, but I may actually start this weekend - I'm just going to try not to put any pressure on myself to start right away tomorrow since we have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, and being stressed out certainly isn't going to help anything - plus I probably should try to rest my body a bit since I have this horrible chest-cold-thing going on.

Bronchitis?

I’ve got some serious chest/cough/grossness going on in my body right now. It might just be bronchitis. I feel like I develop a little bout of it every fall/winter and then it just kind of goes away on it’s own after a couple weeks… perhaps this will assist me in my struggle to quit smoking… but somehow I doubt that. Lol

Ok, so stats from yesterday:

•          Total calories: 1505, including the massive amount of beer I drank last night… which is pretty sad… and I should definitely try to get more calories in my diet because I’m fucking 5’10 and even at my ideal weight I should be consuming at least 1800 calories a day. I would like to think this calorie deficiency will help me drop weight more quickly… but I think it’s just going to hinder me in the long-run.
•          Total calories burned: 200 – I worked out yesterday, but I was UBER lazy about it, and only did about 20 mins instead of the usual 30-50mins. I’ve got new videos coming in the mail tomorrow… more on that later.
•          Probably about 10 cigarettes… I’m really feeling that today especially with this horrible upper-respiratory thing I’ve got going on. Goal just for today: no more than 5 cigarettes.
•          Didn’t get to bed until about 12:30am… and definitely woke up WAY late again today and barely made it to work on time. (I’m looking super rough, wish I could take a picture for you guys. Heh.)
•          $9 spent on beers at the bar (about $18 left for the week)

Laziness!

Well, I did workout today... but I was really lazy about it and didn't really push myself at all.. and I only did it for about 25 minutes. :-\   I had no motivation today really plus I have this crappy upper-respiratory thing going on and that makes cardio suck even more than it already does.

So I was thinking about the whole "Stats day of" thing I said yesterday - and I don't think that's gonna work so well. Right now I just finished dinner, but I'm going out for a little while tonight so I won't have an accurate count on things like cigarettes and money-spent until tomorrow.. or late tonight,  and I'm just not gonna force myself to blog before bed every night. I tend to be more interested in blogging during the days anyways.

Also tomorrow I want to share some thoughts on exercise fads. :)

Hope everyone has a good night!

Well f*ck

Stats for yesterday:

• english muffin w/ jam and earth balance with an apple for  breakfast, yogurt for snack, 6 inch turkey on wheat with baked lays... and two cookies (big no-no!)...from subway, giant salad with balsalmic dressing for dinner, and a small handful of pretzel m&ms for dessert. Total calories:1668
• took a walk after lunch - maybe about a half mile? I'm gonna estimate maybe 200 calories for that.
• 10 cigarettes
• late to bed again - and made the mistake of turning on Turner Classic Movies and staying up til 1am
• $12 spent on cigarettes and subway

I'm having a "fat" day today... plus I bought this gorgeous warm brown hair dye... and somehow turned out with SUPER RED hair... and now I'm going to watch some 6 Feet Under and go to  bed because it's just not been the best day. I'll update more tomorrow. Also, I'm going to start posting my "stats" in the evening at the end of everyday instead of doing "yesterdays stats" all the time.

So really quick... my stats for today:

• english muffin usual with a pear for breakfast, cottage cheese w/ nectarine for snack, ham&swiss on wheat bread w/ baked lays and grapes for lunch (at home), 6oz marinated salmon filet with a small handful of fries for dinner with an orange for desert, and now I'm going to make myself a 100 calorie popcorn for a snack because I'm STARVING...  total calories: 1404
• no workout today, went to mom's for dinner instead. total calories burned: 0
• 4 cigarettes
• planning to go to bed at 11pm
• $0 money spent - woo!

New blog... again - and having that "Ah hA!" moment...

For those of you who know me... yes.. I'm starting another blog. You're all thinking I'm ridiculous.. and that's okay. :D  I realized my tumblr was starting to become almost nothing but health/fitness/food updates and I'd really like to keep that as just my main brain-vomit-type-blog, so I'm hopping back onto the blogspot bandwagon (had a blog on here years ago) and this will be my main health/fitness/food blog... but don't be surprised if it morphs into an everything blog at some point in the future. lol  I'm fickle that way. 


I've started calorie counting again, inspire by my cousins (check them out here and here). I'm using good old My Plate which is now part of the Lance Armstrong Livestrong website. It's a great little tool and I believe that even have iPhone/Droid apps for those of you with fancy smartphones. :)  I'm allotting myself 2'000 calories/day. I'm hoping to be able to lose about a pound a week if I can stick to this and my near-daily workouts burning between 350-500 calories per workout. 


Okay, so stats for yesterday:

• whole wheat english muffin w/ earth balance spread and strawberry jam for breakfast, apples with vanilla yogurt for snack, Taco Bell crunch wrap and taco (SO BAD I KNOW) for lunch, giant salad w/ carrots, cucumbers, radishes and shredded cheese for post-workout dinner with one slice (1/8th of the whole pie) of red baron pepperoni pizza, handful of chex mix for snack and an Edy's lemon frozen fruit bar. Total calories: 1935
• 30 minutes of fast-paced resistance training (gotta get a little cardio in whenever you can). Total calories burned: 381
• 3 cigarettes
• another late bedtime - 11:30pm, read until 12:15am.
• money spent: $5 on Taco Bell

So - my ah-ha moment. I think I know why I'm so freaking fat... SUGAR INTAKE. Oh geez. It's so bad. The "average" person on a 2000 calorie diet is suppose to consumer 60g (EDIT: 40g) or LESS of processed sugars (ie: anything with corn syrup, grains, etc. - sugars from fruits and veggies are a-ok)... and I on average consume probably about 100g. That's 2.5 days worth of processed sugar intake. If that were my fat intake I'd be disgusted with myself... the main problem here is that lots of processed sugar is hidden in things you were think are "good" for you. Like yogurt. YOGURT IS JUST DELICIOUS DAIRY SUGAR!!! Noooooooo!! *dies*  I love yogurt. I really really do. But I'm thinking I may have to start buying plain yogurt (or greek yogurt, which is even better for you) and sweetening it myself with honey and perhaps some vanilla extract. I'm going to research how to do this properly on the interwebs and I will share with you my findings. Also invest in more cottage cheese, especially the little yogurt-sized snack packs that I can bring to work and add berries to.

Jackie Warner (from BravoTV fame in "Work Out" and now "Thintervention", two shows I'm not a big fan of, but the lady is in SUPER shape) says this:
Sugar is the devil
Sugar throws our body into an immune suppressed, non-working state of chronic fatigue, depression, and hormonal imbalance. It is the leading cause of disease and depression in this country. To break the sugar addiction, get rid of refined sugar (anything that isn’t fruit or veggies) for 5 days in a row, then allow yourself to have one cheat meal on Saturday and one on Sunday. You will have curbed the chemical addiction for sugar and your brain will desire less.


I may try this "sugar detox" at some point here in the next couple weeks.. but it definitely won't be easy. She recommends not eating anything with more than 9g of sugar per serving as part of just your regular diet (again, unless it's sugars from fruits or veggies). That even cuts out milk. :-\ 


Okay so goals for the rest of this week (normally I will set these on Sunday or Monday):

• keep my sugar intake at or under 60g/day 40g/day as advised for my DRA (Daily Recommended Allowance)
• workout 5 days/week for at least 30 minutes
• 10 cigarettes or less on weekend nights
• continuing focusing on my budget - $50/week for things other than groceries/household needs (ie, toilet paper, cleaning products, etc.)/special occasions (birthdays, etc.)

Does anyone think those are unrealistic goals? I guess we'll see, won't we? heh.