Wed. Check In #2

Well we're halfway through our dietbet and it's been a slow but productive trail this month for me.  Our mini challenge for the week was to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.  I totally FAILED over the weekend, but that's ok!  I get that much sleep on days that matter like days I go to school or do homework all day long.

I'm down to 186.2lbs which means I've only lost a pound this week, but you know what, that's okay.  I'm losing weight, I'm eating healthy (most of the time) :), and I'm getting my exercise in in different and fun ways.  It's not a race, it's a (as so often quoted) lifestyle change and that's what we need to remember.  One step at a time, one piece of fruit at a time, one dance at a time, one piece of chicken instead of a burger at a time.  Things will change and it took me a few months to realize that I don't have to become a totally new me.  I personally think that's why so many people fail with new year's resolutions.  Too much to quickly and your body and mind just revolt.  These little changes each day aren't noticeable after a while and they just become a part of you.  So baby steps! as we are often told with anything can be the key to helping those that are struggling to keep up.  You don't have to lose it all overnight because not only is that unhealthy, you're more likely to put it back on.

This week's mini challenge is to have 5 full servings of fruits and veggies each DAY.  I can guarantee I'm not gonna complete this one, but I'm sure gonna try.

And when all else fails:

It totally works!  And you don't have to have real weights.  Use a gallon of milk, soup cans, water bottles, animals!, or whatever else you can find around the house.  It has seriously helped me get rid of the yo-yo weight on the scale and I'm consistently dropping weight at a healthy, steady pace.

Drinking Water.

We all know that soda is bad for us.  We also know that drinking water is extremely cheap.  Our bodies crave water day in and day out.  But here's my problem.  Water is boring.

Anything you drink is counted towards your liquid amounts for the day but what are you really drinking and why?  I personally can't give up soda, it's just not gonna happen.  But during the day, when I'm working out, or doing my homework, I tend to stick to water.  But I hate the taste (or lack) of water.  So I try to find other things that are "healthy for me" to drink.

Coffee is a suggested drink occasionally for the caffeine but I'm not a huge fan of the taste.  Tea is the one I've recently started drinking more.  I prefer green iced tea (I live in Phoenix.... it's hot) but I'll have a hot cup every now and then.  And yesterday, I rediscovered a drink that I used to buy all the time a few years ago when I got bored with water.  I hadn't thought about it because our normal grocery store doesn't carry it.  The flavored sparkling water that Walmart sells (for 68 cents per liter)!  I used to buy 8-10 bottles and drink them throughout the day.  It's fizzy like soda, but there's no calories, no caffeine, no sugar, so it's pleases all the encompassing features of what I CAN have!

While I realize this post is not rocket science or some huge epiphany, it's still something I think about every day.  What liquids am I putting in my body day after day?  The question matters and the answer is what's important to your health.

Finding the Right Breakfast.

Off the topic of working out and on to some nutrition!  I have been tooting my own horn for a whole day now about some banana muffins I whipped up after hours of research on different recipes.  So if you're reading this and you've seen it already, I apologize, but man they're good!

These muffins aren't made specifically for people that work out, they're not super high in protein, they're not fat free, but they're really healthy and still appeal to those of us with a semi-sweet tooth when it comes to breakfast items!

I personally rarely eat anything sweet.  I just don't have that sweet tooth that most people grow up with.  I attribute this to my father getting diabetes during my critical jr. high and high school days.  I lived in a house that was mainly sugar free.  I am not grateful for why, but I am grateful for never really developing or coddling a love of sugary things.  I used to bake a full blown cake for 1 small slice to satisfy my cake craving and then I'd be good for a month on sugar. (the cake would just go to waste)  My new journey through fitness and nutrition has opened my eyes up on the things that are most important in our diets.  So now, when I want my little piece of sugary heaven, I reach for a Dove Dark Chocolate because duh, it's chocolate! and also because dark chocolate is very good for you!!!

So when it comes to breakfast, I usually have a bagel thin with some veggie cream cheese and an egg white, or some cereal like special k or total.  I don't like to get up early to make bfast because I tend to not sleep well.  Last year, I made an awesome muffin base that I played with for a few months.  I would send the boyfriend to work with some and I'd munch on the ones at home and they were awesome!  But they were full of sugar and I got tired of them fast.

Lately I've been buying bananas to snack on after my workouts, but I've been thwarted each time with only 2 or 3 days to consume them before they're too ripe and I have to throw them out!  This is not only a waste of my money, it's a waste of food!!  After a facebook poll of how to keep them fresher longer, a friend suggested banana bread.  This thought had crossed my mind, but I don't have my mom's recipe and to be honest I had never made it before.  So this time around, I pulled all my bananas apart and spread them throughout the kitchen as suggested (they lasted about an extra 3 days) and used the last two to make this gem of a recipe!

Banana Muffin Surprise!

These are great for those counting calories because each muffin only has 86 calories! :)  That's my favorite part!!!  They also have the sweets on top, just a dabble of dark chocolate chips.  I hope some of you try them and obviously feel free to alter to your liking.  You might try adding some protein powder to the recipe, or using all whole wheat flour.  But these are wonderful and I can even have a 3rd during breakfast if I'd like because even with my calorie count, that's still only 250ish calories!!

Wed. Weigh In

Well it's the middle of the week again.  Time to get on the dreaded scale to see what my body has done in the last week of almost nothing but Mexican food!  But let's get real, that's what I love to cook and by taking it out of my diet, I was a sad person for 2 months!  So anywho!

The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans has gotten all of the New Year's challengers into the habit of weighing in on Wednesdays so here goes!

I was lazy and forgot to weigh myself last week but as of this morning I'm down to 187.2lbs!  It seems the weight is finally sloughing off, still slowly but at a much better pace than the first two months of the year!  I only need to lose 3 more pounds to win the dietbet this time around!  That's exciting!!!

Keep it up and you'll see results in one way or another!  And it's always worth it no matter what your mind tries to tell you!!

Makeover :)

Well recently the Biggest Loser had their makeover week and boy are those episodes fun to see!  I was going to wait til I lost more weight to do anything with my appearance but I just couldn't!  I haven't cut my hair in 14 months and I was reminded every day why I wore it short for almost 8 years.  So I took the plunge with summer starting to hit us already and chopped it all off!

 Last Week (took me 40 mins to do...)

Today! (took me 5 mins to do!)

It feels amazing and takes 1/3 of the shampoo to wash :P

Time to mess it all up in a sweaty workout!

Havin' Fun!

Some days it feels like I'm in a rut just doing the same thing over and over again.  That's why you have to switch it up and have a little fun every now and then!

I just did 2 fitness workouts on Dance Central 3 for a total of an hour!  Let me tell you how tired, sweaty and sore I am! (ok I won't reeeeeeally) 

 But it was more fun than running on an elliptical and I got to dance to some awesome classics like Turn the Beat Around and I Will Survive!  Lots of disco songs in one of the playlists I chose. :)

Time to stretch it out and start on dinner!  Making Stuffed Bell Peppers tonight and if they turn out awesome, I'll put them up on my food blog!

Did you get your exercise in today?

Getting it in!

What better way to get some exercise in than helping my Chunky Monkey partner from the new year's challenge move into her new place??  I was only able to help for a couple hours but there was lifting and lots of walking back and forth.  :)  Time to sit and play video games for the rest of the day!  Maybe sneak in an arm workout while I make Sopapillas with my shredded beef. (now I know what you're thinking.... Holy not super healthy! But if I don't get to make and eat some of my favorite recipes, I might actually lose my mind.  I don't wanna be boring with healthy food all the time.)

School starts back up tomorrow and I'm gonna have to get back into the routine of school work and getting my workouts in.  But! It can be done and I just need to find a little extra motivation.

Gonna take a stab at trying this ab workout a couple times a week :)

Listening to Signs.

Tonight me and the boyfriend are going to our favorite burger place to celebrate my midterms being over! (had to wait for payday haha)  That means I don't have the time to work out in the evening like I usually do.  And let me tell you, I need to work out because I know what I'm gonna be eating tonight :D

So I woke up this morning, walked the dog, ate something, and sat down to play my video games because DUH it's spring break!  And my game is down for maintenance, ack!  I try logging in like 6 times, look at forums to figure out what's going on and there's just no determined time that it will be back up.

I took that sign :)  Instead of playing a different game, I got off my butt and worked out!  I changed up my blast intervals on the elliptical.  Longer fast bursts and shorter regular paces.  It kicked my butt!  Sweat pouring!  It's so worth it to have that feeling that you don't have to worry about a workout for the rest of the day.

Day 2 of dietbet!  Let's get this done!!!

New Beginnings I suppose.

Well it seems that the combination of my challenges ending and midterms with school just inspired me to quit pushing so hard with working out.  I fell off the wagon and today is the day to pick myself back up and get it going again.  After 10 days of not working out, but still eating healthy, I've surprisingly maintained my lowest weight I've hit through my rollercoaster of weights in February.  I'm currently 189.6 lbs.

I know the last dietbet didn't go as planned for me and I didn't win any money, but I think I'm going to join the sisterhood's diet bet that will be starting shortly.  Just for some more motivation to get me going again.  It can't hurt.  And maybe I'll actually be able to lose that 4% this time around now that my body has settled on a number for a bit!

There is also the new calendar of workouts for March, even though we're 10 days in...

So I'm back and trying to get going strong again because I actually missed my workout time. :)  Let's lose some more pounds!

Too Much Advice.

Well I took too much of my own advice from the last post.  I have been slacking on working out but I'm still eating healthy.  The stress of midterms is just eating at me so I have no spare time to give this week.  Let's hope it goes by fast so I can get back into the swing of things.  I have a body to get in shape!

So I'll try and do some strength stuff while I'm cooking dinner tonight and hopefully work on getting some good sleep.... Here's to falling out of it quickly and trying to pick it back up.