I did it!....An early work out

I can't believe I did it. I actually tried to talk myself out of it.  When my alarm went off this morning I thought, "no way!  I'm not getting up this early to go do a weight lifting program at the gym!", but after I laid there a minute I realized that I was going to be mad at myself the rest of the day if I didn't get outta that bed.  So I got up and was at the gym by 6:30.  Let me tell you, I was nervous!!  I really didn't know if I could do the first set of exercises in the New Rules of Lifting for Women, but I set my mind to it and decided that no matter what I was at least going to give it a shot.  And you know what?  I did every single one of the exercises!  I honestly was a little shocked at myself.  There were a few guys in the weight section of the gym, but it was no where near as intimidating as the crowd yesterday.  I'm really pleased with myself.  My legs are so sore, but it feels so good!  I warmed up for 5 minutes on the elliptical, did the weight workout, and then did 15 more minutes on the elliptical.  I wanted to do 30, but my legs gave out and I just couldn't do anymore.

Before the workout I drank a bunch of water (I drank a lot during too).  Then I came home and dove into this yummy bowl of steel cut oats with a scoop of Raw Fiber, ground flax seed, nonfat vanilla yogurt, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and blueberries. 

For lunch three egg cups (eggs, cottage cheese, green peppers) and some grapes.  Not super exciting, but still good.

I played my calories pretty low and healthy for the first half of the day because I knew that tonight would be hard with food.  Our regular group of friends that we "do life" with came over and it was bring your favorite appetizer night.  We had bbq bacon jalapeno poppers, sandwich wraps, taquitos, garlic bread, and mini-quiches.  Yeah, not super nutritious.  I had two jalapeno poppers, two sandwich wraps (spinach tortillas stuffed with bbq sauce, deli meat, cheese and fresh spinach), a taquito, a slice of garlic bread, and a mini-quiche.  Honestly I don't feel like over did it, but it was definitely lacking in nutritional substance.  I see a lot of fruits and veggies in my future tomorrow : )

I surprised myself exercising today.  What about you?  Did you have any surprises today?

Making Up for a Bad Morning

Man, mornings are just crazy around here. Somehow we always oversleep and end up running late. This morning was no different. The hubster woke up and said, "I've got a meeting at work in 23 minutes." Great, how were we going to get six people ready and in the car and get him to work on time? Add to that the hubs was starving and didn't feel like he had time to eat anything at home and you've got a problem on your hands. He headed straight to McDonalds. I should have let him order, watched him eat it, and then come home and eaten a healthy breakfast, but I didn't. I told him I'd take a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. And throw in a Dr. Pepper while you're at it. Yeah, not a good start to my day.

However, I realized that I made a mistake and moved on, spending the rest of the making good decisions. After the crappy start I was really feeling the need for some fruits/veggies at lunch. So, I made a juice with a green apple, red apple, spinach, blueberries, and a carrot. I also added Raw Green Super Food Powder and Tri-Cleanse Powder.

I felt much better after I drank this.  Oh, do you like my new nail polish?  I'm digging it, but my husband says it makes my nails look like M&Ms.  Hmmm....not sure what I think about that.

I'm supposed to start the New Rules of Lifting Group over at Prior Fat Girl.  I read the book and I have to say I really like it.  The guy who wrote it doesn't try to sugar coat anything.  He tells the truth and has a good sense of humor.  There are a couple of things in it that are a little difficult to follow (like way he explains the schedule is a little difficult to understand, but I think I've got it).  Overall it's a good book. 

Today I went to the gym with every intention of starting the program.  When I got there and saw the massive crowd of guys in the weight section I chickened out.  We went to the gym a little later than normal and it really busy.  I just wasn't up for attempting a new workout that I'm nervous about trying in front of a bunch of guys.  I was especially nervous about this move:

Yikes!!  I actually came home and practiced on my ball and I think I've got it.  So I should be ready.

Instead of doing the lifting program I did my Couch to 5K program.  I'm on Day 1 of Week 2.  It was tough!  There were two walking segments that I had to extend 30 seconds because I just couldn't start running again.  However, I did it and at the end I did my best distance yet!  A week ago I did 1.76 miles and today I did 1.95.  That's a great improvement.  I can't wait to see where I go from here. 

Because I didn't get the lifting workout in today I am going to go back early tomorrow morning and do it (hopefully it won't be crazy busy...if it is I'm just going to have to do it anyway).

I was still trying to get over the junk I ate for breakfast this morning when we had dinner.  I made a great salad and everyone loved it.  We had a mixture of baby spinach and baby arugula topped with carrots, goat cheese, avocado, sauteed yellow and red peppers and red onion, cooked chicken (I just cooked in a pan on the stove) and drizzled in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It was fantastic.

So, despite the awful morning I feel really good about today.  The majority of my food choices were really good and I got in a good run.  Here's to hoping I don't completely chicken out at the gym doing some new moves in the morning.

Busy Busy Weekend!

Oh my word, this weekend has been crazy busy! Yesterday we spent almost the entire day moving things around the house/getting rid of stuff we don't need/throwing junk away, so that we can switch the big boys to their new room. We didn't stop until we had to get ready to go to a friend's birthday party.
I new I needed lots of energy for all our work yesterday, so I started with a big mug full of steel cut oats with a scoop of Garden of Life Raw Fiber, ground flaxseed, nonfat vanilla yogurt, unsweetened organic vanilla almond milk, and a big helping of blueberries. I haven't been putting almond milk in my oatmeal recently, but it was really thick (I think because of the raw fiber) so I needed to thin it out a little.

I had my oats in one of my favorite mugs...it's from our honeymoon and I got it when we visited the Statue of Liberty. It brings back such awesome memories everytime I use it.

For lunch yesterday I had some left over egg muffins and an apple.  Not a lot, but I was too busy to really prepare something and I wasn't that hungry.

Last night we had such a fun time at our friend's party.  His wife threw a big surprise 30th b-day party for him and he was completely surprised.  I had one chicken fajita with grilled veggies, rice and beans.  I also had a small piece b-day cake.  Yum!
Today was another crazy day.  We woke up late (again) for church, so I rushed out the door with nothing but a bottle of Spark.  After church we had a leadership meeting and everyone was asked to bring a brunch item.  I brought watermelon, but everything else was muffins, donuts, pig in a blanket, and chicken salad.  Not a great lunch, but I did the best I could.  Lots of watermelon and a sausage.
Once we got home we were back to moving things around the house.  I looked up after working hard and before I knew it the clock said 6:30.  I didn't have anything ready for dinner and the kids were starving so we went out.  The hubster picked an Italian food place that close.  They really only serve calzones and pizza.  I got a calzone and ate about 1/2 of it. 
Today kinda sucked with the eating.  I love the weekends, but it's hard because we don't have a set routine.  I do much better during the week when everyday is pretty much the same.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

I'm Alive!....

I didn't fall over and hit my head yesterday when I weighed in!  Instead I got the following text yesterday afternoon from my hubs, "Want to do dinner/date night tonight?  Put the kids to bed, then eat?  Maybe watch a movie and never crack open a computer? : )"  Who am I to say no to that?!  So, we let the kids eat, then we ate, and watched The Fighter.  Oh my word I loved this movie.  One of my favorite parts may have been during the credits though.  Have you seen it?  What did you think?  Don't worry that I skipped posting yesterday.  I'm still going to fill you in on all the details!

So, I did my weekly weigh in.  I've actually tried to be really good and only weigh once a week so that I don't obsess about the number.  I wasn't expecting great things (in fact I was expecting bad things) because of having my period and the crap I had eaten.  I was pleasantly surprised when I weighed in at 184 (even).  Just in case you're counting that's a .2 lb loss.  Yep, not much at all, but considering everything it's pretty cool.  Especially if I look at the fact that I haven't gained back an ounce of detox weight.  That's pretty freakin' amazing.

I started my morning yesterday with steel cut oatmeal topped with ground flax seed, nonfat vanilla yogurt, slivered almonds, and blueberries.

 

Ummm....I'm having a mild obsession with this breakfast.  Someone may need to stage an intervention.  I may be buying stock in McCann's Irish Oatmeal.  I'm just sayin'.  Lord, help me.   I love it, here's my empty mug just crying out for more.

For lunch I took the left over quinoa from the night before and added canned albacore tuna, arugula, chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, crumbled nonfat feta (I'm out of my beloved goat cheese) and squeezed fresh lime juice all over it.  It was fantastic.  So easy and so good.

I'll confess that I did no exercise yesterday.  I was tired and grumpy (thank you pms), so instead I did this...

Made a big super fun tent in our living room and let the boys watch a double feature (Night at Museum and Night at the Museum:  Battle at the Smithsonian).  They loved it and I got some peace an quiet to read.

For dinner last night we had lemon orzo salad.  It was decent, but not a lot of flavors.  Probably won't be making it again (although one of my kids loved it and had seconds).

On to today!!!!!!!!!

This morning we were in such a rush!  All of us over slept and were rushing around like crazy to get the hubs to work.  So I grabbed a Nature Valley Granola Bar and my bottle of water to eat for breakfast on the way to drop him off.  Ugh.....I was really missing my steel cut oats.

After dropping him off we went to the gym and I hit the treadmill.  It was the hardest of the three runs I've done this week.  I think it was a combination of my period (are you ready for me to stop talking about that yet?), not eating a great breakfast, and not being well hydrated.  I drank a lot of water while I ran, but not a lot before.  Here's how it ended up....

 I'm still on week one of Couch to 5k.  However, even though it was a really hard run, if you look back you'll see that I actually improved.  My first run this week I did 1.76 miles in 30 minutes, the second run I did 1.82 miles in 30 minutes, and this time I did 1.86 miles in 30 minutes.  So, each time it's an improvement.  I'm super happy about that.  I'm hoping that I have time to go in the morning and do another day of week one and then move to week two on Monday.  At the end of my run today I wasn't quite ready to quit so I hopped on one of the bikes for 20 minutes.  I don't remember how far it said I went, but I did the interval program and the hills with resistance were challenging.  I was definitely continuing to sweat.

After my workout I had some Advocare Spark (Pink Lemonade).  I have never had this drink before, but a friend of mine sells it and I have a lot of other friends that use it and love it.  I get so sleepy in the afternoons and since I've given up coffee I decided to try this.  Okay, I know it has caffeine, just like coffee, but I'm not adding milk and sugar and a bunch of other stuff (high fructose corn syrup) to it.  So, I feel better about it.  It's sugar free, you put it in water, it's 45 calories and it taste great.  I have to say that this afternoon I didn't have any problems feeling sleepy.  I also didn't get jittery or have any other problems.  I really liked it.  ***Just fyi, I'm not trying to promote my friend's business.  The link I posted takes you to the official Advocare website and isn't for my friend.  I paid for the product because I wanted to try it.  I was not given anything to write about this.***

During lunch we were out running errands (after being in the house for two days with out a car I needed to get out and get some things done!).  So, I had to make a choice between some fast food places to eat.  We ended up stopping by Chick-fil-a.  I was a little worried that my hunger, pmsbun with no condiments.  Instead of fries I had a fruit bowl and instead of my usual sweet tea I got an unsweet tea.  Progress at the drive-thru!!!

Dinner was part healthy and part not so healthy.  I made egg muffins following  this recipe that I found via pinterest.  I followed the majority of the recipe, adding 4 pieces of turkey bacon (chopped up), low fat shredded cheddar cheese, and chopped red bell pepper.  I didn't use paper cupcake liners like she said to do, but I really sprayed my pan and once they were done I used a sharp knife to loosen the edges and didn't have a problem with them sticking.  Also, I had way more than I could use in 12 muffin cups.  I ended up making 18.  Everyone really seemed to like them.  Even the baby ate two of them.   My hubs also made some pancakes and I had two small ones with sugar free syrup.

I am so ready for this weekend!  We're working on changing up our bedroom and the boys' bedroom.  The two older boys will be sharing a room and the two younger boys will be in a room together.  They're all super excited, but the hubs is dreading moving the bunk bead. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  What does everyone have planned?

Yummy Yummy Chickpeas!

Tomorrow is weigh in day and I'm dreading it. Okay, tmi time, I started my period (or as the hubster calls it, "time of death and destruction") which explains why I've wanted to eat everything in sight and all the bloating I've been feeling. So, I'm not expecting any good news tomorrow. We'll see what happens.
I had more steel cut oats today. I love them and I've taken a fancy to eating them out of mugs. I don't know why. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

This was the highlight of my day. The big boys got to go swimming at the grandparents, so it was just me and my little man for most of the day. I don't get to spend near enough alone time with him. We enjoyed playing with the pop up toy and he's got mad sword fighting skills. Such a stinkin' cutie.

Ummm...lunch didn't go to well. I ate cereal. Not even good cereal. Frosted mini-wheats. I'm choosing to blame it on the death and destruction time.

Dinner was WAY better!  Creamy and Dreamy Roasted Chickpeas!  I loved them.  Caitlin came up with a stellar recipe.  I served the roasted chickpeas in all their creamy and dreamy deliciousness over quinoa and steamed kale and spinach.  La la loved it!

After dinner I met up with a friend at Starbucks.  She was a little late so I enjoyed my non-sweet Shaken Green Iced Tea while reading more of The Help.  I'm totally diggin' this book and can't wait to finish it and see the movie.  I may have to make it a girl's night though, because I'm not sure the hubs is up for it.

I didn't get to the gym today because the hubs had the car, but I did a Crunch Pilates Yoga Blend Workout that was on Netflix Instant View.  Good workout.  I also drank buckets of water.  It is sooooo hot. 
If I don't show back up here tomorrow it's because I fell off the scale and hit my head when I saw how much weight I've gained thanks to my time of death and destruction and Frosted Mini Wheats.

Celebrating Tuesday with a big taco!

Let's celebrate, it's Tuesday!! What? You don't celebrate Tuesday? C'mon, you've got to celebrate. You've made it to enjoy another day. Okay, I don't really celebrate Tuesday either, but I just thought I'd be funny for a minute. : )
This morning for breakfast I enjoyed some more steel cut oats. I may have found a new breakfast obsession. This time I added the vanilla yogurt, almonds, and some ground flax seed. One of the great things about the vanilla yogurt is that you don't need to add any extra sweetener to the oatmeal if you use it. Yum!

While enjoying my steel cut oats I was browsing Pinterest...

Where I found this....

Source: soon2befit.tumblr.com via Heather on Pinterest

I love it!  I thought about it lots today while I was at the gym running my tail off on the treadmill.  Here's today's workout for the Couch to 5K program.  No, it's still not going to set any records, but it's better than I did yesterday and that's all I can ask of myself.  Oh, and I think I sweated more today than I ever have.  Seriously, it was dripping everywhere.  Disgusting and awesome and beautiful all the same time.  I think I'm going to need to get a Bondi Band.

After running in the gym I went outside to my car and continued sweating my tail off thanks to 105 degree heat.  See, here I am all nice and red faced in the car with the a/c going full blast.  I'm so looking forward to the Fall and winter when I can run outside in the cool weather.

After working out I came home and made a super yummy lunch. Apples, carrots and a Boca Flame Grilled Burger topped with homemade guacamole.  Normally when I make guacamole I use avocado, pico de gallo, lime, and cumin, but I was out of some of that today so I made up a new recipe.  I added about 2 tablespoons of nonfat greek yogurt to one avocado to make it a little more creamy.  I didn't have any pico de gallo on hand, but I did have some red onions and some sweet onions so I chopped a few tablespoons of those up and threw them in the mix as well.  Then I added a pinch of garlic salt and the juice of half a lime.  It was really good (not as good as if I had pico in it), but still really good for working with what I had on hand.
Oh, did you see that I'm reading The Help?  I started it last night and I'm already through Chapter 4.  It is so good!!!!  I hope the movie will live up to the book.

For dinner we met some friends at Chipotle to celebrate Tuesday! Hee hee!  I got a single taco with rice, chicken, pico de gallo (!!), guacamole (because you can never get enough), and lettuce.  It was so good!  One was the perfect amount.  I left completely satisfied, but not stuffed.  I used to order the huge burrito stuffed with all that I had on my taco, plus sour cream and cheese.  You know what?  I didn't even miss the sour cream and cheese on my taco AND it was about 1/3 the size of the burrito.  More little things adding up to make a difference in my weight!

It was still a pretty big taco and I could barely fit it in my mouth! I ended up eating about half of it with a fork.

Here's the hubster scarfing down his mondo carnitas burrito! He enjoyed it immensely : )

So, we celebrated Tuesday this week?  Are you celebrating anything?

Silly Kids and Running Again

Oh boy did I have some yummy oatmeal this morning! I may have found my favorite way to make oatmeal. I used steel cut oats and cooked them according to the package directions (sort of). It said to bring the water to a boil and add the oats and stir until it thickened then let it simmer of 30 minutes. Well, I boiled the water, added the oats and stirred them, waited a little while for them to thicken, but never really saw that happen. So I turned it down to simmer and set the timer or 30 minutes. About 10 minutes later they were done. I guess I didn't turn it down far enough, but they were really good just like that and took way less time than I thought they would, so I'm not complaining. I added about two tablespoons of nonfat vanilla yogurt and some slivered almonds to it. It was perfect.

After breakfast we took the hubster to work (oh how I can't wait for him to get a car, hopefully that will be happening soon).  When we got there my 3 of my 4 kids climbed into the wall and told me to take a picture and put it on my blog.  They're so stinkin' silly!  So, to honor my word, here you go...three monkey boys.

I decided to stick with what I said in my post the other day about doing the Couch to 5K program anytime I get to the gym.  I did the first week training again since it had been so long since I did it before.  Here are my results....yep, I'm slow.  But hey, at least I'm doing it!  I'll get better.  I'm one step closer to reaching my goal.

Then we came home and I had my favorite salad. Egg over easy with paprika, over spinach and arugula tossed with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, along with some goat cheese and sunflower kernels.  I think I could eat this a couple of times a week and not get sick of it.  It's that good.

Okay, don't get jealous, but my dinner was amazing!  Seriously, amazing.  I made Kale Chips and followed this recipe from Kath Eats Real Food.  Then we had Italian Sausage and Goat Cheese Portobello Pizzas that I found here on Get Healthy With Heather.  Oh my goodness, put aside the fact that I have a crazy love affair going on with goat cheese right now, trust me when I say these Portobello Pizzas are the bees knees.  I definitely see these little beauties being added to dinner rotation on a regular basis.  Everyone loved them (even those three crazy monkey boys in the picture above).  The kale chips were outstanding too.  One monkey in particular even asked if I could put them in lunches for school.  That's a success in my book.

In other breaking news....after way too long having a dead battery that wouldn't recharge, my Roomba is back in action!  I'm in no vacuuming heaven.