Ringing Out the New Year Bring on 2013!!

So I just want to chime in and wish you all a safe, healthy, happy New Years Eve!

Do you all have plans? Are you sticking at home? Aaron and I are staying home but we will going to get us some carry out from somewhere. We received a gift card for Red Brick and I can get a healthy Turkey Burger from there so that is one of our possibilities. And tomorrow we are having a few friends over to just enjoy the day before boys have to start back to work on Wed.

So before going off for the day, I want to do a quick recap from my fun weekend.

Friday the kids and I headed north. Aaron ended up with pink eye and rather than sharing the love, he stayed home. Sad because we were doing our Christmas with my parents but good because we dont want to spread the love to my nieces.

As it was, Aarons brother ended up with pink eye. He told Aaron next time he is going to give the kids his Christmas list instead of them picking it out themselves...HAHAHA...get it?

So Friday night I ended up running on my moms treadmill and I was listening to my iPod practicing my routines mentally for Saturday. WELL the stupid treadmill for whatever reason shut off after 40 minutes. And every time I tried to restart it, it kept jacking around my MPH. I started to get mad but I "think" I got in 4 miles before saying Forget It!!

After that, I practiced some of my songs for Saturday and made up my play list. I had way more than 60 minutes worth and had to decide which songs I was going to do.

That night I ended up burning 815 calories.

Saturday I had my first Zumba class!! Some of my moms friend came out but couldnt complete the class because of bad backs, hurt feet, etc. So I ended up having 3 make it thru. The others really wanted to see what zumba is all about.

It is MUCH different (calorie burn wise) teaching versus just doing zumba. For example, in one hour class on Saturday when I taught, I burned 909 calories.

Last night when I did my whole play list (90 minutes) full bore and not holding anything back I burned 802 calories. So big difference!! Probably because I wasnt talking and yelling out moves...

Today I weighed in at 167.5. Up a bit. I couldnt track my weight at my parents house because their scale was off and I wasnt sure by how much. And even though I worked out, I ate too much bad stuff (like cookies). Oh well. I am ok with it. I start back to normal Wed with eating and working out so I will be fine.

And I have to be happy with where I stand because beginning of 2012, I started at 173 lbs (approx). So I am down in my weight for the year.

Today I will be working out when the boys nap to burn off some of the calories I will be eating tonight. I may get a short run in too while Aaron goes to pick up food. I just want to get the calories burning so I dont gain too much over night.

Frankly I will be glad to see 2012 go. We had a lot of negative things happen this year. And though I wouldnt change it because of the friends I made and GOOD things that have happened, instead of it being "one of those days" it was definitely "one of those years".

And I cant wait to usher 2013 in. It is going to bring some big changes this year with working with my personal trainer for 6 months and with all the good vibes I have been putting out in the universe, I am hoping to get some back.

Have a great last day of 2012 everyone! Stay safe tonight if you are going out!

Tip of the Day: I thought this was REALLY interesting and had to share!

"Pass The Butter ... Please.

This is interesting . .. .

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories.
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.


Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

Post Christmas weight gain

Thought this was cute...and it is how I was feeling during Christmas though not intentionally hiding from exercise.

I was sort of embarassed to have gone from a weight of 165 to a weight of 169.5.

Until last night. Eric confessed to the 4 of us that was taking his spin class last night (small class because of the holiday. The gym was almost empty) that he gained 6 pounds in one day. LOL. Apparently he ate a peanut butter cup on Christmas that was the size of his head. And while it tasted good, he is like me and once you ingest crap processed food after eating clean for a long time, your stomach tends to not sit well.

Now let me back up and recap.

Christmas didnt go as well as planned. We ended up switching from my aunt and uncles house to my grandpa's house because my uncle was sick. Because of that, we brought wine and beer.

I ended up eating hummus and celery, some shrimp, a couple buffalo wraps (we had some at my sisters wedding and we got the recipe from the restaurant), a couple stuffed mushrooms, a couple bacon water chestnuts, some homemade applesauce, some crackers and cheese, and a couple cookies my aunt made. I did have some wine but stuck mostly to water.

Not as bad as I could have done but still. I had decided that I could work off the weight gain and that I would just enjoy the day.

Christmas morning was when I weighed in at 169.5. Ugh. At least I wasnt over 170. Trying not to go there again.

Christmas I cooked our dinner. Turkey, green bean casserole, asparagus, lots of snacks like left over salsa, italian rolls, applesauce, stuffing, cookies, etc. I did well and had some turkey, wine,  a beer, a half of a roll, a little bit of stuffing. That basically did me for the day besides an english muffin I had for breakfast.

Day after Christmas I was happy to learn that I dropped a pound on Christmas day to 168.5 even though I ate what I wanted, and even had a Chocolate Bock beer. Usually beer bloats me.

Wednesday we got a ton of snow and I got snowed in and couldnt go to the gym. Well I could of, but I didnt want to risk it. So instead I ran on the elliptical for an hour. (More about my Wed adventure in a bit)

Yesterday I was down a pound to 167.5.

Then because I missed working out with Eric on Wed night, I worked out with him last night. Well first I did 2 miles of running on the treadmill, 1 mile of walking, then I worked with Eric for upper body for a half hour, then did RPM. I ABOUT DIED!! I dont know how I used to run, do an hour of Body Pump weight lifting and then did RPM.

I ended up burning 1276 calories.

I did end up buying some things for me the day after Christmas to help me with my exercising. Aaron got me some weight lifting gloves which I desperately needed- purple too! And I went to Dicks Sporting Goods to look at the adjustable kettlebells that Aaron found. I didnt end up buying those, but I found some Fila Skele-toes on clearance for $25. Those are the toe shoes that are like Vibrams. I decided to try them on and thought they were really cute. My toes are curved a bit so it takes a minute to get my toes into each slot but they are super comfy. I decided for $25 it was worth the money to try them out to see how I like them before spending money on the real deal Vibrams. When I went to pay for them I was shocked to learn that they were $19 with tax! I guess there was another 25% off the clearance!! Woo hoo!

Then I went to Best Buy and got an external cd drive for my computer so I could put my zumba music onto my iPod that I have been getting in the mail. I have a netbook that doesnt have an internal drive. $30 and I was a happy camper.

After I was done there (and by now the snow was flying really good), I headed across the street to the bicycle shop to check out the cycling shoes. They had a bunch on clearance and I splurged and got a pair.

LET ME TELL YOU...if you take a spinning class like RPM regularly, get some shoes!! They make a world of difference and I almost couldnt walk after class last night. I think I got my shoes for $60 (they were $90) and then the clips for them for $20. I was able to use some Christmas money to get them. A really good investment.

Once I was done at the cycling shop, I decided not to take the expressway home and instead take surface streets. The streets werent bad, just slow going. I think my anti locks only came on once or twice when I was turning a corner. When I crossed the overpass, express way traffic was moving about the speed I was so I was glad I stayed on the less traveled surface streets. All it takes is one person to lose control on the expressway, hit another car and cause a pile up.

Between all this, I was messaging Eric back and forth trying to figure out if we were still meeting or not. Finally I decided that I would be better to wait and kill myself Thursday. I am glad I did. One of the other trainers was telling me how Wed, she had to turn her steering wheel right in order to go straight on the expressway on Wednesday.

Today I am heading out of town with the boys to my parents house for the weekend. We are getting together to do our Christmas gifts to each other. Aaron isnt coming because he now has pink eye. Poor guy!

So tonight my plan is to run for an hour on my moms treadmill. Tomorrow I am teaching my first Zumba class for my mom and dads neighbors/friends. It should be a blast! I am getting my music around as we speak (well I type) for it. Lots of them are newbies so I will have to show modifications but I also want to do high cardio for the challenge for the others. So we shall see!

Packing will be interesting. I have lots of things I need to remember to pack for the Zumba class...ipod, portable speaker, HRM, workout gear, Zumba fun gear like my shimmy skirt, plus the boys stuff and my regular stuff. Plus I need to pack gifts for Christmas for my nieces and my parents.

Well I am off. Time to start getting everybody around and packed so I can be ready to go after lunch. Hopefully the boys will nap in the car but I highly doubt it.

Here is hoping I dont gain weight this weekend.

Have a good weekend all!

Saturday Recap and Holiday Prep

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I went to the grocery store and picked up the food I needed for Christmas Eve.

I am making homemade Clean applesauce, I bought Sabra garlic hummus and roasted red pepper hummus, homemade salsa (I will make on Christmas Eve) and bacon water chestnuts (which I wont have any of).

We just sort of vegged all day while the kids played. They are still getting over pink eye. Luckily today it looks like Xavier is all done. Landry's eyes dont look pink anymore but this morning his eyelids were stuck shut. Poor guy.

Anyways...

The boys went to bed really early last night. Xavier didnt nap yesterday and Landry just for a bit so we did dinner at 4:30, then I cut their hair. Then shower and they were in bed by 6:30. Whew.

Then I went downstairs and ran on the elliptical for an hour on the fat burn setting. I ended up playing with the resistance a bit more than the program calls for. Usually it is a gradual increase in resistance and then you go for the hardest resistance for the longest amount of time and then it decreases in resistance until you are done. I ended up going up then stayed steady and then went up and down for the last half until it decreased in resistance and I was done.

Then I did some bicep work, tricep work, and I FINALLY blew up my exercise ball that came with P90X2.

Aaron came downstairs once I was done running and I showed him some of the moves that I do with Eric.

1. On your knees you put your hands on the ball in front of you. As you roll the ball out onto your forearms, you extend your body out so you are almost planking on the ball (but on your knees). Hold for a couple seconds and roll the ball back in using your forearms.

2. Laying on your back in sit up position, hold the ball with your arms outstretched above your head (on the floor). Crunch up bringing the ball up and your legs into a 90 degree angle. Place the ball on your legs and crunch back down and extend your legs out straight while balancing the ball. Crunch back up, retrieve the ball and repeat.

3. Plain old planking on your forearms

4. Mason twists

5. crunches on the balance ball making sure to keep your pelvis up

Well...it was SO much fun working out with Aaron. And I hate to say this, but it was fun to see him struggle. I mean, he is in pretty good shape. He runs on the elliptical (about 1.5 miles at a time) and does some weight lifting (nothing major) but it was OBVIOUS he doesnt touch his core except with basic sit ups.

He did the first exercise fine but you could see him shaking while trying to keep his core steady.

Second exercise he just could not get the timing down and he cant bend his legs up high enough into a 90 degree angle. He was trying to do the move way too quickly instead of slow and steady and holding the core tight.

Planks he was only able to hold for about 15 seconds. I stopped at 45 seconds, gave myself a few seconds of break and then we would repeat for 3-4 times.

Mason twist I gave Aaron a 2lb weighted ball. I used a 3lb one. I did 50 each side....and Aaron? Not so many...LOL. Maybe 15 each side.

And he didnt do any crunches on the ball. He did his arms while I did that.

Like I said, it was a lot of fun working out with him. And he realizes that he needs to work on his core more. I also showed him how to use a kettlebell and do the kettlebell thrust things. I dont have a kettlebell (I think I am getting one for Christmas!!) but I used my 10 lb iron dumbbell.

All in all, I burned 762 calories. Nice!

Then I came upstairs, took a shower and Aaron and I watched the movie Ted. I wanted to preview it before deciding if that would be our Christmas movie at my parents house. The funny parts were funny...really funny, but the rest of it sort of dragged on.

So I think our Christmas movie is going to be Harold and Kumars Christmas Movie. THAT movie is hilarious and I always try to pick out a raunchy one to watch (yes with my parents. LOL).

In the past we have watched Euro Trip, Hot Tub Time Machine, the Hangover, Hangover 2, and I cant remember what else.

While we were watching the movie, I had a glass of red wine, a string cheese stick and some of those Eat your Veggie chips.

Today I was down another half pound. I will totally take it. 166.0!!

Today I am also prepping for Christmas dinner and Christmas Eve.

I am making the stuffing for Christmas today so I can prep and stuff the bird tomorrow, and I am making the Bacon Water Chestnuts for tomorrow. Then tomorrow all I have to do is throw the chestnuts into my roaster to warm them up and keep them warm.

Tomorrow morning I will be making the homemade applesauce. It is done in the slow cooker so it should be pretty easy.

And I will also be making the homemade salsa tomorrow too. I think fresh is the best.

We dont need to be at my Uncles until 4 which means leaving here about 3 so I have a lot of time to prep and get everything ready.

I really hope Landry is all better by tomorrow and the goop stops. Right now he still has red racoon eyes even though the whites of his eyes arent red. And this may sound bad, but I am going to give Landry some Benedryl tonight to help him sleep. That kid just doesnt sleep much and he needs sleep so he gets better. Ugh.

We will probably do an early night for the boys again tonight because tomorrow will be a later night.

My goal for tonight is to run on the elliptical again or do zumba. I am not sure which one yet. Maybe elliptical. I love our elliptical and I dont use it as much as I should. And if I run on the elliptical, I will be doing more core.

Tomorrow once I get the applesauce going, I am going to workout. I want to get the calories burning for the day. And I need to make sure that I stay consistent with how I eat. Heaviest meal in the morning, veggies during the day, then really light in the evening. Probably some shrimp and veggies with hummus.

My aunt and uncle dont drink, so I dont have to worry about that.

And Christmas? Well, no plan for Christmas....

Probably a piece of fruit for breakfast, heavier lunch- turkey, asparagus and a sweet potato (no stuffing, rolls or anything like that for me), and then a really light dinner.

So just in case I dont get on here tomorrow (and I wont be on here Christmas), Merry Christmas everyone!!
Stay strong, think before you eat, everything in moderation!! It is the holidays afterall!!

Tip of the Day: back to my turkey burner!!

Friday recap, and canned sandwiches

Good Saturday everyone!!

Last night was fun at the gym. I ended up speed walking for 25 minutes with a sweatshirt on to get the sweat going and yet keep my heart rate low enough to fall under the "fat burn" rate rather than the "cardio" rate.

Then came Zumba. Had a good time and my heart rate always gets up there. I ended up burning 792 calories at the gym.

Then I came home and K and Penni came over that evening. Before they did, I had a piece of Dietz and Watson bacon lovers sliced turkey. If you have this lunch meat available at your deli counter TRY IT! It is pricey but awesome! You can definitely taste the smokiness of the bacon in it without all the fat. Along with the turkey I had a string cheese stick.

Then when K and Penni came over, I pulled out these chips called "Eat Your Vegetables....One Chip at a Time" (sea salt flavor). They are awesome! You get one full serving of veggies in every ounce. I didnt eat a ton of them, just a couple here or there, and had some water with it. I stayed away from the alcohol (go me!). These chips have navy beans, potatoes, rice flour, sunflower oil, canola oil, carrot, sweet potato, sea salt, onion powder, a smidge of sugar, and garlic powder. They are low in saturated fat and give you that salty taste we sometimes crave. For 13 chips, it is 130 calories, 7 g of fat, 0.5 of sat fat, no trans fat, 0 cholesterol, 140mg sodium, 17g carbs, 3g fiber, 1g sugar, and 3g protein.

If you can find these in your grocery store, check them out too.

And even though I had a bit of snacking, I ended up losing a  half pound!! Down to 166.5!! Go me!

Today we have NOTHING going on (thankfully!!) so I can have whatever I want to eat.

Here is my menu for the day:
Breakfast-  english muffin with krema peanut butter, dietz and watson bacon lovers turkey, 2 hard boiled eggs
Lunch- celery and scallions and garlic hummus
Dinner- left over whole wheat spaghetti with sauteed mushrooms and onions

Snack will be some pretzels and some jelly belly jelly beans (if I really want some)

And I plan on running on the elliptical tonight for an hour. I want to take a little break today from zumba and instead hit the cardio and some light weights. Tomorrow will be back to zumba again.

OHHHHH I forgot to tell you...

Yesterday Penni came over and we took crazy pictures of me for her new satire piece that she wrote for Rant Political Online. You HAVE to read this story if you want a good laugh about the apocalypse and canned sandwiches. Here is the link to the story:

http://rantpolitical.com/2012/12/21/canned-sandwiches-may-lead-to-americas-new-beginning/

I had to be the crazy woman for her. I put my hair up in velcro rollers and went heavy on the makeup. LOL. It was fun. And I think she is going to use me for every story so it will be a funny running gag. Same person in the picture but different names for each person. LOL.

That is the news for now! Have a great day!

Tip of the Day:

Thursday recap

Oh baby was yesterday a good workout day.

First let me start with my breakfast lunch new routine.

And let me add that I am a multiple time a day scale user.

Normally when I have my heaviest meal at lunch, before I go to the gym I am normally a two to three pounds heavier than I am in the morning. Then by the time I get home from the gym I am about at the weight I was in the morning.

Yesterday I was only 1 lb heavier than I was in the morning which means that my body is burning the morning fuel better and more efficiently when my heaviest meal is in the morning. So I am going to keep doing that.

For breakfast I had an english muffin with peanut butter, 2 hard boiled eggs and some roast beef. (Same as today)

Lunch- scallions and celery and hummus

Dinner- string cheese and part of my Larabar, a piece of bacon turkey and a small glass of orange juice

Gym last night was 3.3 miles of walking to get a lower heart rate to burn fat. That and I didnt want to kill my legs before RPM. Then RPM class. I was DRIPPING with sweat from that!! I ended up burning 958 calories last night.

And I woke up 167.0!! One pound lost and a new low for me!

AND Eric is going to use my pictures in his portfolio. LOVE IT! I told him I plan on putting a new side by side picture every month.

And I am going to get 48 more sessions with Eric which is 6 months. He said with the results I got from month 1, I will have a rocking body by June!! Cant wait!

Ok so today is Friday. Which means leaving for the gym at 4:30 and running for a half hour. Then ZUMBA!!

K is coming over tonight and she is working on some Christmas Present projects. I am finishing one of my Christmas projects up too. I cant say what it is right now because the person who it is for reads this blog...well sometimes.

And I think Penni is coming over too. I am doing her a favor today and posing (for pictures) as a crazy lady for a satire for an online newspaper that she is writing for. It is about a woman who spent all of her money on canned goods in preparation for doomsday (today) and because the world didnt end, she is making a canned food store in her front yard. LOL. So I am gonna throw my hair up in curlers, put on a poofy long jacket, get some crazy makeup going...LOL. AND I think she is going to use me as different people in all her writing. LOL. I will be sure to post the article link when she does it. She is an awesome writer!!

So tonight is gals night at the house and Aaron is going to trivia. I will have some food out but I probably wont eat much as my hands will be really messy. I might splurge with a glass of wine though. We shall see.

So that is the news for now. I am off to run errands. Have a great Friday everyone! Stay strong over the holidays!

Tip of the Day: Thought this would be good to post again with cold/flu in high gear!!

Holding Strong!

Yesterday was a great day- well besides the pink eye thing.

I got to the gym last night and got my 4 miles in before working with Eric. Then we worked on triceps, chest and abs. Some of the things he had me do was declined bench press, push ups using a machine (quite interesting), a big balance ball to lay my back on and do chest presses with a weight, walking planks while my feet were on frisbee type things, and sit ups. I am sure I am forgetting more.

For the first time, I couldnt complete some exercises. My right shoulder when I was doing chest stuff is far inferior to my left so as we added weight, my right hand side couldnt keep up and that side was continually lower than my left. A couple times Eric had to adjust my weight so I didnt drop the weight and smash my face. LOL.

Honestly, it made me feel really weak. Knowing that for the first time, I couldnt live up to the challenge. BUT I know that it is a starting point and we will keep working on it to strengthen my shoulder. I really want to try to avoid a rotator cuff replacement by strengthening the muscles around it.

After we were done, I got in another 1.5 miles on the treadmill just walking. I made sure to stretch out my arms and shoulders while walking too. I ended up burning 969 calories.

Also Eric and I talked about my diet and what I eat. He asked what my biggest meal of the day was. I told him what I typically eat at lunch and that that is my biggest meal. That I really dont eat much at dinner because I am just not hungry after the gym and that I start the day with a smoothie.

Nope. He recommends that I have my biggest meal at breakfast. That I need to swap breakfast and lunch.

It gives the body all day to burn off the big meal rather than about half a day. Makes sense to me.

So today for breakfast I had 2 hard boiled eggs, an english muffin with natural peanut butter and some roast beef.

Lunch will be scallions and celery with some hummus.

Dinner will be my other half of Larabar from last night and a cheese stick.

I am still documenting what I eat in MyFitnessPal. If you use that app, my user name is fsugoddess. Let me know that you know me from my blog and I will friend you.

Today I am holding steady at 168.0. I would LOVE to lose some weight today and be down a bit more tomorrow so I have a Christmas buffer. LOL. Especially because I wont be working out with Eric until next Wed. I will be on my own from Saturday until Wed. A bit scary!!

Tonight is running and then RPM. It is my late night at the gym.

Originally today I was going to take the kids to the movie after school to see Mosters Inc with my friend Penni and her two kids, but dont you know that Landry woke up with pink eye today too. So he had to stay home from school and we decided to try for the movie next week. I guess it works out better this way because originally I was going to have to rush from the movie to get the kids home to get back out to the gym in time for class.

Penni was even wonderful and dropped all the teacher gifts at school for me. She is so sweet.

Now, just in case you didnt click over to see my side by side results for the month, I will post them below. It looks like my arms are a bit smaller. Where you can tell the biggest difference is in my side shot. Tummy area says it all!

 

The good news is that the gym is offering an end of the year special of 10% off personal training packages. I plan on taking advantage. I am hoping to get the 45 session package. If I do that, and we meet 8 times a month (2x a week) that should get me about 5 1/2 months with Eric. I think I could get some MAJOR transformation in that time. I just need the gym to work with me to get the monthly payments to what I was paying before. We shall see what they can do.

That is my news for now. Have a great Thursday everyone...and stay healthy! Everything is going around right now. Strep, croop, pink eye, flu...it is crazy!

Tip of the day:

Monday, Tuesday recaps

Good Wednesday everyone!

I want to give my recap over the past couple days because so much has happened fitness wise.

Monday night was my night with Eric. We were working on legs. Well first I got in 2.9 miles on the treadmill at 5.0 mph. Then I started with Eric. We were working on the leg press machine where I sit and my legs are above me. You release the stop and press your legs in. Well...we did those one leg at a time. And then we did calf raises on it.

Then he brought out the sandbag and we went to the treadmill. OMG.... We put the sandbag on my left shoulder and he started the treadmill up to 2.0 mph. Remember- this is a 50 lb sandbag we are talking about. And then he upped the incline to almost a 45 degree angle. I am sure I am exaggerating some but it was at least 30% incline. No exaggeration there. He had me walk like that for 90 seconds. The LONGEST 90 seconds of my LIFE!!

Then we went back to the leg press and started all over again with the circuit and this time switched the sandbag to my right shoulder.

Again went back, completed the press circuit (each time adding weight) and back again to the treadmill. This time he put it back on my left and upped the incline even higher!! OMG.

After that we went to the upper portion of the gym and did some leg kickbacks. A machine that sets you up to basically do a donkey kick. I did a measily 100 lbs each leg on it. LOL. I was dripping with sweat. So much so that Eric had to get a towel to wipe down the machine. LOL. Talk about detoxifying from the weekend!

Then we went on to do some core work. He had me doing planks and then while in plank extend your right hand and left leg out to the side then bring them back in and switch. 45 seconds of doing that. Then he had me go over to an ab thing where you are suspended in the air, arms bent at 90 degrees and you try to lift your legs. I couldnt do that because it puts too much pressure on my shoulder. It hurt. So instead we had me hang from the highest bar like if I was going to do a pull up, and pull my legs up. Then back and forth between that and the plank. I think after the second round I told him that the carpet we were on left something to be desired on the forearms. I stood up and stretched and he said holy cow (or something like that). I looked at my arms and my forearms were raw and bleeding. LOL. After that he got me towels to rest on but every time I moved an arm out the towel would move and stick to my arm. LOL.

Can you see the rugburn on them? This is after the bleeding stopped. Poor Eric. I think he felt guilty. But no pain, no gain, right?

After I was done, I went back and walked on the treadmill for a while. I got in another 1.67 miles or so before I called it quits. I ended up burning 956 calories Monday night.

Tuesday morning my arms were sore- not from the rugburn, but from hefting the sandbag.

And I weighed back in at 169.0!! Way better than what I was Monday morning at 171.0.

Then after I dropped the kids off at school on Tuesday I went running my errands. First to TJ Maxx because my mom was looking for these stylus's for ipad/iphone. Their store only had two of them for $12.99 and my moms boss gave hers to someone else thinking my mom could get more. WELL their store was out and online had them for $20! So I ran there and sure enough they had 11 of them. So my moms boss had me get them all.

Then I wanted to go to Halmark to get ornaments for friends and teachers but they werent open yet so I thought I would go to Meijer to get gold bells for Xavier's class for Thursday. They are going to shake them during the reading of the Polar Express.

Well Meijer didnt have them and they no longer have a craft department. So I had to drive 15 minutes into town to go to Joann's. Nope. No luck. Then I ran to Target. Nope. Not there either. Not even on a garland or something I could deconstruct. At this point I was starting to get desperate. I called Party City and asked. Nope. So I ran across the street to a different Meijer. In their decoration department I found a big container of jingle bells but they were silver, green and red. I hung onto it because I thought that some sort of jingle bell would be better than nothing at this point. Then I checked out their craft department (this store actually had one) and sure enough! There were the gold bells I was looking for. So I grabbed two bags of them (different sizes) and I figured the teacher can use them how she wants to and save the rest for another time.

Seriously I should have worn my heart rate monitor. I was flying thru the stores in case I had to make another stop.

And because I went out right after dropping the kids, I never had time for my smoothie. Thankfully I had a Caramel Apple Pop (sucker) in my car and ate that while I was running around.

After that it was to Halmark to look for ornaments for a couple of my friends and the boys teachers. Whew! What a morning!

Then Tuesday evening I did 90 minutes of Zumba. I was really excited because I got my double set of cd/dvd in the mail for this month from ZIN. I was really disappointed though. The music wasnt really high tempo and my heart rate barely got above 130.

I ended up turning it off about 40 minutes in and putting in my Zumba Cardio Party instead. Now one thing I noticed is that my heart rate with the Cardio Party doesnt go above 145 anymore. It used to go above 160. That means I am getting stronger and fitter and will need to be upping my game. In 90 minutes, I only burned 589 calories.

Regardless of that, I still woke up this morning weighing 168.0. I lost a pound and am back down to my low.

Woo hoo!

Tonight is running and working triceps, chest and core with Eric.

I am kinda bummed though. Xavier woke up with a slight case of pink eye this morning. Which means no school. Which means that he may miss out on making a gingerbread house tomorrow and the Polar Express Friday.

Here is a home remedy I am doing right now while I am waiting to hear from the dr office...wash your eyes with baby wash. For whatever reason that is supposed to help.

And my friend just called me and told me to use Lipton tea. Make up a batch, let it cool, soak a cotton ball in it and put a few drips in each eye. Repeat 8-10 times for the day. She said Xavier should be good to go tomorrow. And she has NEVER taken her kids to the Dr. for pink eye using this method. Her mom used it on her and it has always worked. So of course I am out of Lipton so guess where we will be heading shortly? To Meijer.

Oh also...if I dont do it right away, I will be doing it this afternoon...but I will be updating my current photos with new ones. I kept forgetting to take them and I finally had Aaron take some last night. It is right after I showered so that is why my hair is wet. lol.

But here are a couple of my current shots that are non side by side...

Evening lighting is not my friend. LOL.

Ok...Tip of the Day:

Blogger Day of Silence

First I just want to start with a PSA.

Tomorrow you will not be hearing from me. In case you didnt know, tomorrow is a Bloggers Day of Silence in memory of the children and adults whose lives were lost on Friday. Living in Yellow has a badge that you can post for the day but nothing else should be said or addressed- and I plan on doing it.

Now...

This weekend...

Saturday didnt go as well as I hoped. LOL.

When we got to the party, I had some chicken wings, cucumber salad with sour cream, scallions, homemade perogi with jalepenos, salami and cheese, a piece of garlic bread with cheese, salad, a piece of ham (it wasnt salty), a glass of root beer and then I had two cookies. My favorite kind that I dont bake on purpose. It is the chocolate, coconut kind that is all fudgy gooey with the coconut on top. O.M.G. I just love those!

And I didnt end up exercising that night.

So yesterday I woke up and was 171.0. Oh well.

Yesterday we ended up going to a Christmas party too. I had artichoke dip, spinach dip, crackers, some pinwheel wrap type sandwiches, celery, oranges, pineapple and a couple dove chocolates and this time I stuck to water.

I got in a little bit of zumba last night until my ipod died on me. And I mean died. Not battery ran out died, but died.

First it started pausing while I was doing a song even though I had it on lock. Finally it got to the point that I had to hold it and have it unlocked so I could keep pressing play. Talk about a pain.Finally I gave that up and reset the dang thing. WELL...then my middle round select button wouldnt work. What a pain in the you know what. I ended up charging it over night and tried to reset it again. It is an older ipod (2nd generation nano) and I looked up troubleshooting on it. People said to hit it against your leg...ah no thanks. Others said to do the lock button back and forth a bunch of times. Didnt work.

Finally I gave up and went to bed. I was pissed. My ipod nano (6th generation) died earlier this year so between that, this one and my computer, it hasnt been a good year for electronics.

This morning I was playing around with it some more trying to see if I could press the play button on a playlist to get it to work. It did but the middle button still didnt work. Well I wanted to get the shuffle off because when I do my zumba class, I have the music set in a specific order. I pressed play on shuffle trying to toggle it off and it didnt work. Well I went back into the settings and tried to press play and for whatever reason the center button started to work again. Not sure why. Maybe it got too much moisture in it last night? Who knows. At least right now I dont need to buy a new ipod. Ugh.

I also weighed in at 171.0 again. I am glad I didnt gain any weight after eating a bunch of dip yesterday. LOL. I probably could have lost some of the gain if my ipod hadnt stopped working. I had planned on practicing for a couple hours.

Today I will be back on track with eating and working out.

Breakfast- protein shake with half a banana
Lunch- scallions, celery, english muffin with krema peanut butter, roast beef, one hard boiled egg and some garlic hummus. This will be my biggest meal of the day.
Dinner- cheese stick

Dont forget, I have the gym tonight. Hopefully 4 miles and then legs with Eric. I will be interested to see what he has me do tonight. Last week we did a bit more cardio for legs and I didnt burn as many calories as normal...so we will see.

And because I wont be blogging tomorrow, tomorrow night I will be doing zumba or the elliptical at home. Not sure which yet but I will be active. Time to get the weight off before Christmas this coming week.

So that is the plan for now. Have a great day everyone and talk to you on Wed!

Tip of the Day:

A Minor Binge

First I would like to say prayers for the families affected by the bastard that decided that he was having an off day and went into a school and slaughtered innocent children. Almost babies. Kindergartners, teachers, principals. Sorry for my language but he is a FUCKING BASTARD. I hope he rots in Hell. I hope Satan decides he is too evil and decides he needs to live in a fiery bath because really, Hell is too good for him.

This hit home really hard for me yesterday. Xavier is in Kindergarten. I cant imagine sending your child to school one day and then not having them to pick up that afternoon. Insane. When I picked Xavier up from school, I just held him in a huge hug for a minute. He didnt know why, just accepted it. Later, I hugged him again and just started crying. Then he started crying and wondered why I was. LOL. I told him it was because I loved my boys so much. Innocent lives like his snuffed out like a candle...unbelievable.

Last night I had Zumba. Aaron had to get his car from the shop so I got a late start. I decided instead of running that instead I would do the stairmaster. The one that is like an ever rotating escalator. I wasnt able to do that for too long. My cousin Jen showed up so I ended up walking on the treadmill next to her for the remaining few minutes. Then Zumba class. Just what I needed to help with my funk.

Not too many calories burned compared to what I usually do, but I still burned 771.

K came over last night so Aaron could go to trivia. We watched Brave and then Escanaba in da Moonlight. I got all my Christmas wrapping done. I also had a slight binge last night. What I REALLY wanted was Aubree's Feta Bread. What I "binged" on was carrots, celery, hummus, cherry tomatoes, pretzels, clean chips, roast beef, some turkey and some wine. Sounds like a lot but it was a tad of this, tad of that. Well. Wine. I had 3 glasses. I just was in a bad way last night. I know no one affected except a friend who is EMS in the next county over in Connecticut and a friend whose cousin lives in the area but goes to another school but this hit too close to home.

So today it was no surprise that I am up a half pound. Honestly I am ok with that. It could have been much much worse. 169.5.

My plan today is to have a rest day. We have a Christmas party tonight and I already know I wont be eating anything there. I will need to have a little bit of food before I go. I need to correct the binge. Tonight if I really feel the need to exercise, I am going to do some Zumba.

 And tomorrow my plan is to have about 2 hours of Zumba. I need to practice some new routines I have bouncing around in my head.

And lastly, in regards to what happened yesterday, I was very happy with how our school district  handled the situation. Last night the superintendent put out a robo call that was almost 3 minutes in length. She detailed out our security systems in the schools, how we should approach and answer questions our children may have, sympathy for the families out there...etc. This weekend they are sending out information to the parents with how to handle questions and concerns children may have. IF the kids have heard about the shooting, they may become concerned for their safety at school and how should we handle that. That we shouldnt watch the news with them around....etc. I am glad we live where we live.

Bless those lives lost yesterday and bless their families and give them the strength to get thru.

Frustrating time

Well first I have to vent just a bit. Nothing too major but my weight went up by a half pound again. Up to 169.0. I have a couple ideas why and neither has to do with cheating on my diet. I have been really strict with it and I have been going to the gym every day.

So I am a tad frustrated but I know that it is probably muscle or muscle bloat that I have going on. That and the fact (TMI warning) that I havent gone to the bathroom in like 3 days. I took my Healthe Cleanse again last night so hopefully that helps.

Here is what I did yesterday. I ran 4.5 miles at a leisurely 5.0 mph. I like to listen to my zumba music and do arm movements with the songs which also help to elevate my heartrate.

Then I had a killer RPM class. Eric threw in a new song which I LOVED. It was an american classic rock song that had me singing the way thru.

I ended up burning 1192 calories so I am obviously getting the calorie burn.

And yesterday I did good with my food too.

Breakfast- smoothie with peanut butter
Lunch- celery, scallions, roast beef, 2 hard boiled eggs, hummus
Snack- pretzels, clean chips, a few semi sweet chocolate chips
Dinner- a very small piece of roast beef and a piece of string cheese

My favorite jeans that I wore yesterday are a bit bigger today. Not sure if they stretched out but I am having to pull them up a bit.

And my back is even more sore then what it was yesterday from Wednesday with Eric. Oh man! He said it was the sandbag and the upright rows that did it.

So my weight gain could be from lactic acid build up in my legs from the running and RPM yesterday. It could be from muscle bloat in my sore back. It could be that I am gaining muscle...not sure.

And I know I should look at the NSV's over the scale but it is still frustrating when you are doing everything right and the number is still going UP!!

This weekend will be a good recovery weekend for me. Tomorrow we have a Christmas party. I am going to have to eat before I go because nothing there is healthy.

Sunday I will probably do some Zumba at home. Just light work. Heck I might even break out my P90X2 yoga to do it. I havent done that in a while and it would probably be great to stretch the muscles out.

What are your plans over the weekend? Are you going to fit in exercise? Or take a weekend off?

Tip of the Day:

More of the same

SOOOO...let me just say that I am VERY sore this morning.

Now to tell you what I did last night.

I got in 1.6 miles of running before my workout with Eric. Aarons car has a bad heater core in it (brand new 2012 Focus and we had a bad part already) and so we had to get Aarons grandmas Edge to borrow for a couple days. Thankfully she let us borrow it.

So I got a late start to the gym.

Anyways so I worked out with Eric and I got to play with a couple of new toys. Our focus of the night was biceps, back, abs and maybe some shoulders. Just for shits and giggles we added in some legs too.One of the new toys was a sandbag that has handles on it. He showed me how to clean jerk and flip it up so it rested on my forearms, do a squat then whip it back down. It was a lot harder than it sounds- let me tell you. But I felt great that he didnt need to take out any of the sand in order for me to do it.

I did upright rows, the sandbag things and then I did deadlifts from the floor. The final weight I deadlifted for the evening was 105 lbs...did I mention that was from the floor??? We also did bicep curls and at my heaviest weight I was curling 40 lbs! And I got to play with a small tire that has handles sticking out each side. I dont know what it is called but I was on my knees and I would wheel it out then pull myself back up. I also got to play with a medicine ball. I would lay on the floor with the ball in my hands, crunch up, put the ball between my legs (I brought those up to so they were bent in 90 degrees) leave the ball there, crunch back down, crunch up, get the ball and repeat. That was really hard and I was having a hard time doing it so Eric modified the move. I could keep my legs bent at the 90 degrees and focus on balancing the ball on my legs while I crunched. Really, Really hard stuff. That ball was so much heavier than I thought!

After that we were done. Eric gave me an extra 5 minutes. Made up for my little bit of shorter time on Monday.

Then I went to run again. I got in 0.6 before I had to pee. I paused the machine and when I came back out the damn thing was off so I had to restart it again. Dang it. I started running at a leisurely pace of 5mph which is what I ran before working out. I kept thinking that I only ran 0.6 before working out and another 0.6 when I stopped to pee. Well I ended up running another 3.78 not realizing that I just ran almost 6 miles last night (5.98 miles!). Calories burned: 1224.

And today I am sore. Sore, Sore, Sore.

No change on the scale BUT I tried on my favorite jeans. Ya know...the ones that my sister gave me? And they fit. Not only do they fit, but there is no muffin top!

So I am ok with staying at 168.5 today. I can obviously see that my body is changing.

Now for today.

I am really gonna watch my sugar intake today. I am going to cut back on the fruit. I dont know if that is hindering the weight loss so I am doing an experiment.

Todays menu:
Breakfast- protein smoothie with peanut butter
Lunch- 3 scallions, celery, garlic hummus, roast beef and 2 hard boiled eggs
Dinner- string cheese and celery

I am eating my biggest meal at lunch. Tonight is running and RPM. Eric has already said that he is conducting an experiment and that tonights class is gonna be a killer. So I am making sure that I get lots of protein to get me thru.

Also with tonights class being really late (7:30-8:30) I am not going to eat much afterwards for dinner which is why I am sticking with the light celery and string cheese.

Wish me luck. The experiment should be interesting.

What has been your latest non-scale victory?

Tip of the Day:

Quick review

I just want to do a super quick recap from yesterday because I have a very busy day today.

Yesterday I ate:
Breakfast- protein smoothie with 1/2 banana
Lunch: 2 hard boiled eggs, 3 scallions, some garlic hummus, apple with peanut butter
Snack: some pretzels and some clean potato chips
Dinner: left over tuna
Snack: glass of red wine

All within my calories for the day.

After the boys were in bed, I ran on the elliptical for 60 minutes on the fatburn setting. Then I did some upper body light weights and ab work. I ended up 762 calories.

Today I weighed in at 168.5. Half pound up but I am ok with that. It should come off today.

Today after I drop Xavier at school I am going to Rochester to see my cousin and her kids and we are going to a place called Rochester Play. Think huge indoor climbing structure and they have food available there that is healthy and organic. I however, am packing snacks for us. I will buy Landry something but I want to make sure I stay on track.

So I packed some grapes for my breakfast, an apple and two cheese sticks plus some water for lunch.

For dinner I will have another partial energy bar (Larabar) before working out at the gym tonight.
After that I will probably have another piece of string cheese. Also I will probably have some roast beef once I get home from the play area.

Thats the news for now. I need to get my butt in gear and out the door! Have a great day everyone!

Tip of the day:

A great circuit

Ahhhh....my legs are sore today! So sore in fact that I want to share a great circuit with you that we did last night that you could do in your own home.

First I got in 4 miles on the treadmill.

Then I went over and met Eric and he picked up a 20 lb barbell....ya know, the kind your put on your shoulders/back to do squats with.

Then he explained the circuit...

Move 1: a squat then jump 15 reps
Move 2. Alternating jump lunges 10 each leg
Move 3. A deadlift with alternating leg raises 15 each leg
Move 4. High knees 25-30 times

Repeat this circuit three times. Not only do you get high cardio, but you get resistance training as well. Eric wanted to show to me that I dont have to get my cardio on the treadmill all the time.

In between leg circuits we also did some standing ab work using a machine.

And for the last circuit we switched to 30 lb barbell. He said I was making the 20 lbs look too easy. LOL.

And yes...today I can feel the results. 

I did stick around afterwards and completed more abs. I felt like my workout- though effective- was too short. LOL. We only worked out for 20 minutes or so.

So after Eric and I were thru, I did 100 crunches on the BOSU ball, the ab machine at 40 lbs- 10 reps, repeated 4 times, then some oblique work on the BOSU ball.

And this morning I weighed in at 168.0 lbs! Another lb gone. That means I have officially met my 5 lb holiday weight loss goal already. LOL. Now I am trying to figure out if I should aim for another 5 lbs or if it should be more. Eric said 15lbs but I want to enjoy the holidays. So maybe another 5 lbs. I would be ecstatic weighing 163.0 after the holidays! 

Today is errands so I wont be working tonight. I need an oil change and I have to go to the Dollar Store and Grocery shopping while the boys are in school.

Tonight is Karate for Xavier so no gym for me. After the boys go to bed the plan is to work out in the basement. Zumba then some light weights. Then Aaron and I are still trying to catch up on Sons of Anarchy. We have 2 more episodes and we have another one tonight too. The episodes lately have been 90 minutes long. Luckily we can fast forward thru commercials.

Here is my planned food for the day:

Breakfast: Protein shake with 1/2 banana
Lunch: 2 hard boiled eggs, apple with peanut butter
Dinner: leftover tuna from yesterday on iceburg lettuce (like a wrap)

Plus lots of water and caffeine free tea for the day. :)

Do you plan your meals out each day? Do you track your meals? And do you have go-to food? You can see that I eat the same thing most days because I know the calories of them.

Have a great Tuesday!

Tip of the Day:

A new milestone and Motivational Monday

Ahhhh... a nice weekend.

After Saturday, Sunday was a nice relaxing day.

I took Xavier and returned his Lego Star Wars kit he got for Christmas over the weekend because he already had 2 of the same kit. LOL. So we got him a new one and by the time we got home, it was time for lunch for them and then nap.

Aaron and I never did nap but it was just a nice rest.

Then I took him and the kids over to Aaron's grandmas house for dinner and I headed to the gym. I had a few minutes before the last class let out so I did some ab work.

Then Maggie and I worked on our different routines for just over an hour. We had a great calorie burn at that point and it didnt feel like exercise at all. The cleaning guy kept coming into the room like "hint, hint" BUT it is our gym...we pay for it...so we had the right to use it as long as we wanted. We ended up working in the room until just after 5. After that, Maggie left and I decided that I wanted to walk on the treadmill for a while to try to burn off the 1.5 lbs I gained the day before. So I ended up getting in 2.5 miles before the gym closed at 6.

And I burned 994 calories.

Then I went back to get the boys and they were frosting sugar cookies. Fun! Well my little elf helpers left their grandma in a pinch so my FIL and I started frosting them. My MIL had to make 14 plates of cookies with 8 on each plate for her cookie exchange and then for the family they adopted thru the hospital.

After that, the remaining cookies were devided between our house, Aaron's grandma's house, and Aarons brother.

I did really good. I didnt eat a cookie or lick any frosting. I did however sneak some of the frosting and sprinkles that spilled onto the table to the dog. LOL.

About 7:30 we loaded up and headed home. I was energized from working out and Aaron was exhausted from a Tylenol PM he took. So he went to bed right after we got the kids to bed. And he was OUT. When I went to bed at 10, he didnt move.

So here is what I ate yesterday.

Breakfast- red grapes, caffeine free frosted sugar cookie hot tea

Lunch- roast beef, celery, apple with peanut butter, and some garlic hummus.

Dinner- cheese stick.

And lots of water and tea.

Doesnt seem like much but I really was still full from the night before. LOL.

This morning I weighed in at 169.0!!! Wahoo! Out of the 170's!

Tonight is working out with Eric- legs. And I am going to run/walk before hand. Hopefully get in 4 miles.

I WANT these arms!!

I am completely re-energized after getting out of the 170's. Hopefully I can keep it up because 169 is too close to 170 for me to be comfortable. LOL.

Ok...here is my meal plan for today.

Breakfast- smoothie w/ half a banana
Lunch- tuna with onions, celery and fat free mayo, apple with peanut butter
Dinner- Cherry Pie Larabar (3/4 before working out, the other 1/4 on the way home) and probably just a cheese stick. I cant eat much after working out.

This will all be coupled with lots of water and my caffeine free tea.

So what motivates you? Is it a non-scale victory (NSV)? Do you have a goal in mind? Do you give yourself a target and then reward yourself when you meet it? Do you keep pictures (like the ones above) to motivate you?

I am thinking that if I can get down....wait...not IF, WHEN I get down to 164 which means 10 lbs to go, I am going to go out and buy a BOSU ball for the house. That is the name of the half ball/platform thing that I have been using at the gym. I would definitely use it at home and I think Aaron would too. They are about $100 each so they are a little pricey which is why I want to give myself a goal to work towards.

Another thing I would love is a set of 35 and 40 lb kettlebells for the house....or maybe one of each. Those are a new fav too. That would be maybe towards the spring. I dont want to get a set too early then outgrow them. I will be keeping an eye out on Craigslist for deals.

And I think I already said that when I get to my goal of 154 lbs I would buy myself a pair of Silver Jeans from the Buckle.

Eric says that not only am I going to meet my goal, but I am going to surpass my expectations. I am about ready to sell my soul to keep working out with him. LOL. It isnt that I like working out with him because I need him to motivate me, it is because he changes up the workout, makes it fun, believes in me, and pushes me WAY farther than I would have ever pushed myself. Part of that is because he is there to spot me too. LOL.

Ok...so that is my news for now. I am going to update my weigh in page now. I LOVE seeing the numbers go down, down, down!

Tip of the Day:

Christmas Party recap

First...

The answer to what I wore last night...

I wore the long sleeve blue and green dress with black boots.

After going out last night I wish I would have worn the other because of how HOT the restaurant was.

We met the coworkers at the hotel bar and had some drinks. I had water the whole time.

Our reservations for the restaurant were for 8 and when we got there they had our table set up with the exception of one which had people still sitting at it with a bill. Clearly that table needed to be pulled to ours...they had excess butcher paper folded back but these people just didnt get a clue.

Now let me back up here for a minute and fill you in on what I ate earlier that day.

Breakfast was a protein smoothie with no banana. Lunch was celery, some grapes, one deviled egg at the nursing home and a very small piece of fudge. And water.

Now fast forward back to the restaurant.

By now we are standing around and it is closing in on 8:30 and I started not feeling well. The restaurant was PACKED and it is a VERY narrow, cramped restaurant. I was smart and fished in my purse and found a small box of old raisins. I HATE plain raisins but I ate them.

Finally the people got the hint and left and we could sit. Aarons boss ordered appetizers but I didnt have any. Fried calamari, stuffed mushrooms, and lamp chops. I did eat a bit of the toasted pita bread that was at the table to keep me going. It had some oil, garlic and pepper on it. It was wonderful.

And I ordered one glass of red wine. A nice pinot noir.

For dinner I had Alaskan King Crab, a house salad with very light dressing (salad had bacon and blue cheese on it so not the healthiest but what the heck), broccolini, and a couple bites of Aarons hashbrowns with blue cheese scallions. Those were delicious. And I ate the entire 1.5 lbs of crab. Really the 1.5 lbs includes the shell so it really wasnt that much. But I didnt use butter. It was excellent but by then I was starving. It was after 10pm already.

After my one glass of wine was gone I just drank water. So another win for me.

And I didnt order an after dinner coffee...think Irish Coffee.

BUT when the dessert tray came around I just couldnt resist anymore. How often is it that someone says to go to a restaurant and order whatever you want...money no object? Seriously?

The desserts ranged from coconut cream pie (a personal favorite), creme brulee, hot fudge sundae, oreo cheesecake, a HUGE cream puff sundae which looked AWESOME, a 3 berry crumble, and key lime pie. Wow I am amazed I just remembered all that!

I ordered the creme brulee. I probably would have done better by ordering the crumble but I said heck with it and ordered it.

And I ate it all. LOL.

Afterwards we had to walk back to the hotel where we parked. It was probably 0.4 miles so it wasnt too far. Thankfully I wore my wedge boots and not my heeled ones!

We still had a drive ahead of us and didnt get home til 1:15 or so. It was a VERY late night. And of course Landry was up at 6am.

So Aaron and I are running on like NO sleep. I got to sleep in a bit longer which was nice of Aaron.

And this morning I weighed in at 171.5. And honestly, I am ok with that.

I know that I made GREAT decisions last night. My only bad one was the dessert...and well maybe eating all the crab but I mean COME ON! Its CRAB! LOL

Today I am back in the swing with tracking the calories.

This morning I am having some red seedless grapes- Still not hungry from last night. We ate until almost midnight. LOL

Lunch will be some celery, roast beef, and an apple with peanut butter.

Aaron and I are planning on giving the kids lunch at 11 then down for a nap so he and I can rest. Hee Hee.

THEN I am meeting Maggie at the gym for 4pm to work on Zumba routines. Aaron and the boys are having dinner at his grandmas house so this works out perfectly. I can drop them off and head to the gym. The gym closes at 6 so the latest we will be there is til then.

Then my plan is to go back, get them and come home and have some string cheese and maybe some tuna.

So that is the plan for today. Are you doing any exercise today or is Sunday your rest day?

Tip of the Day:

Rest Day

Last night was a great workout.

I ran 4 miles (tempo up and down and walking at the end), then did 100 crunches then zumba. By the end of the class I was really wiped and Tee asked me if I was feeling alright. I was feeling fine just exhausted but when I looked in the mirror I looked really pale and not flushed like I would normally look after zumba. So for the last two songs I really dialed it back not wanting to pass out. During our shuffle that we always do before cool down, I stepped out of the room to use the restroom. Frankly I get really tired of doing the shuffles every class. I would much rather do a normal zumba song. I went in and peed then came back in at the end of the shuffle for the cool down. I ended up burning 1176 calories.

When I got home I went upstairs and showered. Aaron was in the basement working out. When he came out I was working on my nails and he went to Meijer to get a gift for his boss for tonight. Then he asked if I wanted to watch the new Batman movie on Demand. Sure! So I ended up having a piece of string cheese, some pretzels, clean chips with sunflower oil, some popcorn popped in coconut oil (just the last bit of what Aaron had popped the night before, maybe an 1/8 of a cup) and some semi sweet chocolate chips for a sort of trail mix.

I ended up falling asleep during Batman. The third movie just could not hold my interest. That and I had just worked my butt off. I ended up waking up to see the final bit of the movie with the big fight scene. That part was good. All in all, I rate it one thumb up and one thumb down. Aaron gives it a thumbs up but said it is way too long. I will probably end up buying it so we have all three but the Dark Knight is by far my favorite with the Joker.

This morning I woke up status quo at 170.0. This makes me happy after eating popcorn last night. Usually popcorn makes me bloat.

I am very, very, very sore today. So I am going to take a rest day. I will probably do some core ab work but my poor muscles need a break.

Tomorrow I am meeting Maggie, who I got my zumba instructor with, so we can practice our zumba routines. That will be a couple hours of hard work.

Today I am going to need to apply my Discipline with my food. Especially because I am not working out today.

I think I already went over my plan for my food. Now it is just a matter of sticking with it.

Discipline....Discipline....Discipline.

I think I can, I think I can....

Tip of the Day

Help Wanted!!!

<--- I need to remember this for tomorrow!

Let me back up and rehash my day yesterday then I will get onto what I really need.

Great day yesterday. I stayed completely on track and ate more than normal.

Breakfast- smoothie with no banana
Lunch- roast beef, 3 scallions, 2 stalks of celery, baby carrots, hummus, apple and peanut butter
Dinner- Larabar (partially before working out and the rest after), and a cheese stick (after the gym).

Late night workouts mean not much for dinner which is why I ate my biggest meal at lunch.

I got in 4 miles at the gym, did 100 crunches using the half ball thing, inclined crunches and side crunches. Then was RPM. I pushed the weight and tried really hard to stay on tempo. I am definitely getting stronger.

All in all, at the gym I burned 1201 calories.

This morning I woke up to a new low! 170.0!! I am SO close to the 160's! And that means I lost 3 lbs yesterday!!!

Also yesterday I started something new. I put a number 5 on my hand (courtesy of Weight off my shoulders) to remind me of my weight loss goal over the holiday. That way if I get tempted by bad foods, I can look at the 5 and stay strong.

Any of you want to do that as well?

And here is the meat of my blog for today. I need some help. Tomorrow is Aarons party for work. He used to work for this company 2 years ago. And I have changed a lot since then and want to look really nice for the party but not overdressed. I have my dresses narrowed down to 2. Please let me know which dress you vote for and which shoes. I have two options for each.

Both dresses have ruching at the waist.

Dress 1. Long sleeve. Blues, grays, whites and dark greens. Sorry the lighting is bad and my hair is crazy. Shoe choices are a high heeled gray boot or a black wedge boot.

A better view of the boots

Dress 2...sleeveless, multicolored dress. Ruched in the waist again. Usually I wear it with silver wedge sandals. Instead I have a choice of gold glitter pumps or silver heels with diamonds down the middle strap

close up of the shoe choice

What do you think? Which dress should I go with? I LOVE them both, I just keep going back and forth.We are going to a chop house for dinner so it is a bit upscale though our dress isnt super fancy. I am planning on doing my toes and nails tonight to match whatever dress I am going to wear.

And here is my plan for tomorrow (not sure if I will get a chance to blog or not).

I am going to get up and work out while I am waiting for my healthe trim to click in. I will do some zumba and some weights.

Then my normal smoothie for breakfast.
Lunch I am going to pack some celery and carrots to take to the nursing home to see my grandma. I want to leave the majority of my calories for the evening.
Dinner I am going to order the Alaskan crab legs. It is the safest thing I can order. Steamed, no butter and IF I ate the entire 1.5 lbs, it is only 300 calories. I also plan on having a salad and veggies with the dinner- no potatoes though I might have a bite of Aarons hashbrowns that he is going to order. Just a bite as they have blue cheese in with them. For beverages, I am going to be the DD so I will stick with water or cranberry juice and club soda.

And I wanted to give you a looksie at the mugs I did at UFO night the other night. They are all done and baked now so they are dishwasher safe...

I think they turned out pretty cute!

Tip of the day:

This holiday season if you are having alcoholic beverages, try to go with clear alcohol. It has less calories.

ALSO use club soda (no sodium) or seltzer instead of tonic water. Club soda has no calories, or carbs. Tonic water has 23 g of carbs and 90g of calories per 8oz.