Catching Up

One thing I am figuring out on this journey is that as hard and as much as I want it to, my body just has its own ideas of what I should weigh.

I am learning that weight is just a number. It is a hard lesson to try to remember.

Today my weight is up a bit to 176.0 BUT my shorts that were tight are now very loose.

My legs are getting bigger and more defined. Obviously muscle is being added.

T25 is still kicking my ass. I have not missed a day. Every day I get up excited to do my workout. Then I start and wonder what I got myself into. But before I know it, the workout is done and I feel bad ass!

On top of all that, I have been trying to weed the garden. It is so overgrown that I am just going thru and pulling plants that really aren't weeds but are just really overgrown plants. I just want to make it beautiful and easy to maintain. Something that it is currently NOT!

Serious calorie burn, serious blisters on my palms from using the little spade but the weight is still up. Oh's to the well's.

Today I am on track but tonight might throw me off. We go to Xaviers school tonight to meet the new principal and take a tour. Then we are either going to Buffalo Wild Wings or Red Robin for dinner. My goal is to eat at neither place and have a protein shake when I get home. We will see if I can stay strong. Lol

I am trying to do a bit of a cleanse by having two protein shakes today.

Tomorrow I head to my sisters for a garage sale. Hopefully we can sell lots of our stuff.
 And I plan on packing some food to take with me. My Shakeology, peanut butter, hard boiled eggs, English muffin, egg whites, balsamic vinegar are just a few.

I want to make it easy on myself to make good choices.


When you go somewhere do you pack food? How do you say no and stay on track?

Tip of the day:

I survived!

Hey all!

This is going to be short and sweet because, well, I am exhausted!

I hurt. My legs are killing me.

I gained two lbs and now am 174. Not from eating bad. Oh no! I ate great! I gained 2 lbs from all the lactic acid build up! Lol. I am fine with it though!

Zumba Friday night was awesome. We only had 5 and 6 people per class but hell...we are used to that! That night I burned 1381 calories putting my burn at over 2000 calories for the day when coupled with the T25 double.

I was actually grateful that no one showed up Saturday morning for class! I worked my arms a bit, came home and Aaron and I took the dog we are dog sitting for a jog/walk.

That night we went out to eat. I had a salad (no dressing) with hummus. Yum.

Yesterday Zumba class rocked again. Only 4 people but I think with finally having nice weather coupled with the Woodward Dream Cruise just kept people out of the gym. It wasn't just our class that was dead but the whole gym! I ended up burning 1021 calories at the gym. Before that, I practiced a routine and burned 199 calories. When I got home after class, I walked the dog and burned another 261 calories.

This morning when it was time for total body T25, my legs screamed at me right away. Lots of screams came out of me too. Lol. Calories burned in 25 minutes, 405 calories.

Tonight is Zumba class again! Then I am following that up with legs. Yeah. I am gonna probably regret that tomorrow but I want to build some muscle mass in my legs.

Eating has been great. I am still sticking with my Shakeology and T25 meals.

I really can't believe how great I am feeling with the Shakeology! And here I was going to cancel it after a month! Nope. Not now.

OK all... I am out of here. The kids are getting restless and it is time to go back outside with them. I am basking in the sun and they can play. Lol.

Toodles all. Have a great Monday!

Major NonScale Victory! Day 10 of T25

Morning everyone!!!

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I saw that I have a MAJOR non scale victory that I have to share with you!

This picture on the left was taken in February when I was training with Eric. And it was the best picture I could find to give you a decent idea of what I am going to be talking about.

Take a look at my thighs in it.

See all the loose skin?

This is something that I have hated since losing weight.

Not only do I have excess tummy skin, but I have saggy legs. I always thought that the only solution to this would be to have surgery.

Way back when I saw the plastic surgeon I had talked to him about my legs BUT he didnt do leg lift surgeries. That was going to need to be a different surgeon that he could recommend.

So I figured that I needed to have priorities. Tummy first, boobs second and maybe legs last. I mean, legs you can hide with bikini skirts or shorts but the tummy just kind of flags in the wind and well...the boobs are just empty.

Last night I looked in the mirror and about pooped myself. Luckily I was in the bathroom already! HAHA. My loose skin is disappearing!!

Take a look (please excuse the pajama shorts)

The skin is smoothing out and the dimples are going away. I even noticed less cellulite on the backs of my legs.

I shared this on my Fan Page this morning on Facebook and someone asked me what I attributed it to: diet or exercise.

And honestly I had to say a good combo of both.

Even when I was training with Eric and was eating clean I still had saggy legs. Even at my fittest with him. Truly not his fault in the least. If I could train with him again, I would in a heartbeat. But it got me thinking...

I would say much is due to T25. It is very lower body based with squats and lunge and hops. It builds muscle quickly. I would also have to say that it is due to the vitamins and the shakeology. The shakeology has so many superfoods that you just cant get with other protein shakes.

If this is the results that I am NOTICING after just TWO WEEKS, just think of the changes that will have happened after 8 more weeks!!

What do you think? Can you see a difference?

Onto last night.

I did make it to Body Pump and then followed it up with RPM. Ouch! Legs were burning like crazy. I thought that I had forgotten my chest strap monitor piece at home and I was so disappointed that I wouldnt know how many calories I burned. Well. I found it. Yeah. It had slid down my shirt and into the top of my pants. LOL. I was just glad I didnt lose it on the ground somewhere. So once I found it, I was already part way into the second song of Pump. I didnt miss that many calories for an accurate reading...probably like 50. So my calorie burn I am about to report to you is a little low.

Last night at the gym for Pump and RPM I burned 1208 calories. Yup thats right. And that is a little off!

Combine that with T25 cardio burn of 397 calories and you get a total of 1605 calories burned for the day.

Whew!

This morning I was only down a half pound but I dont care. I know lots of it is swollen muscles and probably some retained water.

Today is doubles day for T25. Lower Body Focus and Ab Intervals.

My plan originally was to do one first thing and then have breakfast and then do the other before lunch.

BUT after I got done with Lower Body I still was feeling good so I decided to finish it off.

It was probably due to the fact that there isnt just so much cardio in Lower Body that you feel wiped after it. Dont get me wrong...my legs were screaming! But the second workout was Abs so I knew I could push thru.

I was glad to be done with both. So far today 670 calories have been scorched.

Tonight Maggie and I sub for Zumba. Two 45 minute classes back to back. Ouch! I know I will be sore after that one! But in a sick way, I am looking forward to seeing how many calories I burn. In my normal one hour classes I get about 700-800 calories burned and this is an extra 30 minutes on top of that. So I expect to be somewhere around 1100 or so. We shall see.

Tomorrow is just Zumba. Whew. Looking forward to Staturday and more pictures to compare. I am not expecting as many changes this week as last week. From here on out, it will be minor but I know they will happen.

Sunday is subbing another Zumba class. Just one hour this time but come Monday I am not sure I will be able to walk. LOL. Last time Maggie and I subbed, by our Monday night class we were both hurting and that wasnt two classes on Friday night! AND it wasnt ME doing T25 either! I could be in deep doo doo!

So that is the news for now. My eating will be very similar to yesterday. Shakeology, turkey wraps on english muffin, yogurt, chicken breast, string cheese, protein shake after Zumba...etc. If I dont post Monday, with stats, you know I have died over the weekend. LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Tip of the Day:

Zucchini bite review and Day 9 T25

Hola everyone!

What's up? Not too much here except I am getting into my marathon training sessions for the week....and I will get into that in a minute.

First...

Do you ever notice
When your body releases a ton of water when you have been retaining it? Like after a salty meal... The next day you have to pee about every 5 minutes?

That was me yesterday. Not sure if it was from the carbs the night before or if the Macaroni Grill food was a lot more salty than I realized, but holy heck!

I did pretty good with my eating yesterday. I stuck with what I outlined EXCEPT last night I did have two glasses of red wine and some salt and pepper chips (clean but still...).

The zucchini bites were excellent. I added NO cilantro but did add cracked pepper. They turned out to be like little mini quiches. I still have some left over. Not a huge hit with my family but hey! More for me. They were difficult to get out of my pan. But I did not spray my pan with cooking spray like they said. I thought I wouldn't need to because the pan itself is nonstick. I thought wrong. Lol.

I was still down a half pound this morning from my weight gain from yesterday so I was fine with that.

173.5

This morning I got my T25 cardio done. Still kicks my butt. And burned 397 calories in the process.

Now my marathon sessions start tonight:

Tonight is Body Pump followed by RPM
Friday is a double hit of T25 and then I sub Zumba. Two 45 minute classes back to back tomorrow night! Whew!

Saturday is Zumba class in Belleville. Not sure if anyone will show or not but I will still go in.

Sunday is subbing for Zumba again. This time one class for a hour.

Monday is back to T25 and Zumba that night. Whew. I will be glad come Tuesday to just have T25!!

Saturday is Staturday too. Looking forward to taking my measurements and looking at pictures.

Today's meals are like every other days. Shakeo for breakfast with banana and PB, lunch is my turkey roll ups on English muffin, dinner will be before the gym and will be my left over tilapia and kale. Snack after working out will be a protein shake which I will have on the way home. Once I get home I will have a cheese stick and my yogurt with raspberries and almonds.

I know that I will be be burning serious calories today and tomorrow so my eating is reflecting that. I will need to keep my calories higher to make it thru the next few days.

Also I wanted to let you know that beginning Sept 1st I will be doing a FREE challenge group on Facebook. It will center around 3-4 moves and focus on one move a day. If you want to join in, just go to my Facebook page Get Beachbody Fit with Lee and stay tuned.

Right now I am trying to figure out some good stomach/core moves for us all to do. It should be fun!!

That's the news for now. Not sure if I will make it on here tomorrow or not but I can't wait to fill you in on how the next few days go!

Have an excellent day!

Macaroni Grill Review and Day 8 T25

Good Wednesday morning everyone!

How is your week going?

Any of you have the problem that this picture shows? I know when I was losing major weight that I would go to the Salvation Army to get clothes. I was dropping weight too quick to justify buying more expensive clothes. Sometimes it would be a size dropped once every other week! And when you are talking going from a size 28 down to a 6-8, that gets damn expensive!

Onwards...

Yesterday I had a very nice dinner with my friend at Macaroni Grill.

I ordered Shrimp Spiendini which was supposed to be 380 calories according to MyFitnessPal.

I also ordered a tossed salad which I wanted some balsamic vinegar on the side but of course it came to the table all dressed with a vinaigrette. Apparently I wasn't clear enough in my ordering. I shut my mouth and ate my salad anyways just enjoying time with my friend. I was doing great savoring one glass of wine and staying away from the bread.

Then our main course came. What I ordered was supposed to be grilled shrimp and veggies with some roasted potatoes. What I got was grilled shrimp and roasted potatoes with a side of oil soaked soggy veggies. Nasty and mushy. I was very glad that I forgot to tell them no potatoes.

So as I waited for the waiter to come around, I started to get hungry. And I had some bread. Damn it.

Finally when he came back around, I told him the issue and he put in a new order for veggies. This time they came out a smidge better and at least they were warm. I would NOT order this again. Very disappointed. When the main part of the dish is the veggies, you expect nicely grilled ones. Not a pile of mush.

And I am sure it was WAY more calories then what was figured. That is the thing that really pisses me off about restaurants. They say that these foods are "X" amount of calories but then the cooks do whatever the hell they want and "f" it all up.

But it isn't like I eat out all the time anymore so one day off isn't a big deal. And I did order something that I am sure is way healthier than other options on the menu.

No surprise today that I am up 1.5 lbs to 174.0. I don't care. Aunt Flo is visiting so I know part of the weight is water. Well most is water.

Oh well.

Today my dad visits.

He will get here about dinnertime tonight.

I already did my T25 today. Speed 1.0. My favorite workout.  I was doing well until the fast crisscrosses at the end when I started to pee myself. Ugh. Having kids just ruined me. Lol. Keegles don't help either. Sigh. Sad when you have to consider buying Depends just to get thru a workout.

Here is my meal plan for the day:
Snack: 2 strawberries and my fat burner
T25 Speed
Breakfast: shakeology with 1 frozen banana and about 4-5 fresh strawberries , water and ice, my vitamin and 2 CLA
Lunch: turkey roll ups (turkey, avocado and red pepper) with a dry toasted English muffin
Dinner: shredded red cabbage (raw), sliced avocado, a grilled chicken breast cut up and all combined to make a salad and tossed with some balsamic vinegar. my 2 CLA. Then I will be making these zucchini bites. See the recipe below. I will let you know how they are tomorrow.
Snack: yogurt with raspberries and almonds and a drizzle of honey. Yum!

That's the news for now!

Recipe of the day:

Mini Cheese Zucchini Bites

Ingredients
2 cups grated zucchini (about 1 medium)
1 egg
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Optional: 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, salt and pepper (my sister said to use way less cilantro because it gets over powering)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a mini muffin pan w nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl mix the zucchini, egg, cheese and cilantro. You do not have to add any salt or pepper since the parmesan is salty enough. Evenly divide the mixture into the mini muffin pan, filling to the top, packed down in each cup. Bake for 15-18 miun until golden brown around the edges.

Day 7 of T25!!

Good afternoon all my lovely blogland friends!

It has been a crazy day thus far and I finally am able to sit and relax for a few while the kids are resting to write my update.

Yesterday my food and exercise was on point. Supreme. I learned two new zumba routines before class last night and you KNOW I had to track my calories burned.

Between T25, zumba practice and zumba class last night, I burned a whopping 1728 calories yesterday. Yup. You read that right!

Today I am Down to 172.5!! 2 lbs lost yesterday though not surprising with what I did yesterday. Lol.

Today I got up and did T25 Total Body Circuit. A serious workout with burpees, hops and spider push ups. I still have to stop and catch my breath here or there but I pushed REALLY hard and burned 458 calories in the process.

Breakfast afterwards was my normal Shakeology.

Then I cleaned the house from top to bottom. It goes so much more quickly when you only have one floor to clean! And I just love this house. I fall in love with it more every day.

And if you have little boys, how is it that they can completely miss the toilet bowl when they are right at the perfect height to stick their little pecker right on the rim? Seriously! The bathroom was starting to smell like a nasty locker room. But it is all clean now!

Anyways...

Lunch was mushrooms, onions, egg whites, 2 eggs, tomato and an English muffin.

Once the kids get up we are running to the grocery store to pick up a few things. Then it is home to make spaghetti and meatballs for the boys tonight. Where am I going?

I am meeting my friend for dinner at Macaroni Grill. I have already pre-decided what I am going to have: the grilled shrimp spiedini. It is 380 calories. And I am going to ask for extra grilled veggies instead of the potatoes that come with it. And I will be having a glass of wine too :-)

So not too much craziness here. Just busyness.

My dad comes tomorrow afternoon to stay the night. A first for him but he has ulterior motives because the Rousch headquarters are close to our home and Thursday he is having a new interior put into his Mustang. Oh yes. My dad has 3 Mustangs. Which he shows at car shows.

That's all the news I have for now! Have a great Tuesday!

Tip of the day:

Weekend Wrapup and a Progress Photo

So are you just dying to know my results from week 1 of T25?

I know I sure was!!

Here they are:

 -9 lb!! which we know was a lot of water weight but hell. Not all 9 lbs was...I can tell you that!

-1" on my waist, -1" on my chest, -1" on each leg and -1" on each arm.

I would say that is pretty damn good!

Check out my picture. I would say that is BIG changes!

Now tell me that you dont want to try T25...LOL! You know where to find me if you do. :)

And over the weekend my eating was on point. I was so proud of myself because remember last weekend when I gained a bunch of weight? Well Aaron and I went to the same place on Saturday that we went last weekend. And I said no to alcohol. Well ok...I had one sip of Aarons pina colada and one sip of a "rum" punch that was really just rum with some pink dye in it...LOL and two jello shots. I also had packed my food to keep me on track. And when we picked the kids up from grandma and grandpa, I just waited until we got home to eat. See? I told you nothing was going to derail me!

AND even before that, Friday night we went out to dinner and then went and saw We're the Millers. I had two glasses of red wine and a salad that I put hummus on instead of salad dressing.

At the movies, I had nothing. No soda, no popcorn...it was SO hard but once the movie started, I was fine.

I highly recommend the movie. All the best parts are NOT on the commercials. In fact, the commercials use stuff that isnt even in the movie. So if you like a raunchy type comedy...go see it!

And you know what? I actually LOST weight over the weekend! Back down to 174.5. Whew. I cant wait to be out of the 170's again!

Holy crap! That is a first loss over a weekend in I dont know HOW long!

After a typical T25 workout. Dripping with sweat

So today is Week 2, Day 1 of T25. Cardio. I did that this morning (first thing) and found out that I was able to do more this time then I was last week. Down ups killed me last week and I had to modify. Today, I didnt! Progress! Another way to tell that I pushed myself more is that I burned more calories. 420 to be exact!

Breakfast was my normal shakeo with banana and peanut butter.
Lunch is a dry english muffin with 2 eggs, 4 egg whites and sliced tomato.
Dinner is tilapia with kale and tomatoes. I had this for dinner yesterday and made extra helpings for me this week. I plan on having this about 4:30 before I leave for Zumba at 5.
Not sure what I am going to do about snack. I am almost out of turkey and I am out of yogurt. I will figure it out later though. Maybe an Arbonne protein shake. Dunno.

And finally...

IF you are interested in trying T25, I will be starting a challenge group on Facebook in TWO weeks! Just let me know under "comments" if you want more info.

Have a great Monday everyone!

Day 5 of Focus T25

Good morning everyone!

First I want to recap my day yesterday. The photo is current from this morning And I will get into that in a minute.

So as you know, yesterday I did my T25. Then last night I went to Ypsi.

I ended up getting there early enough to sign up for Body Pump so I thought "what the heck" and joined into class. I figured rather than doing a full body workout by myself, this would give me a good workout and keep me focused.

I kept my weight light because it was the first time I used the new weights the gym got and they were heavier than what I was used to. Also because I had RPM after and T25 today, I didn't want to be so sore that I wouldn't be able to complete everything that I had to.

Class was great. I did skip abs at the end and my legs could definitely feel that I had been working them with T25 all week.

Then came RPM. I ended up getting a bike that had no "ride easy" gear which kept my heart rate up the entire time with little breaks. My legs were screaming from the body pump and from T25 so I took it easy with the tension.

All in all at the gym I burned 1198 calories! And that didn't include the burn from T25 earlier.

Eating was on point too. I prepped my dinner while the kids had lunch so it was ready to go at 4 for me to eat and digest.

I will give you the recipe for my tip of the day.

After getting done with the classes, I bought a protein shake from the gym. My body needed the instant hit.

Then when I got home I had two pieces of my nitrate free turkey and my yogurt with almonds, raspberries and honey.

This morning when I got up, not only did I feel like I was hit by a Mack truck, but I lost another 2.5 lbs. Now I am only 1 lb from where I was last week.

And don't you know that today is a double hit of T25.

So I decided to do the first one (lower body) at my usual early morning time and see if I could do the second right after.

Yeah, no.

After my body being so sore, lower body about killed me.

Lots of isometric holds, bottom squats and lunges...
And lots of screams. Lol. My boys kept saying "what?"

So now my new goal is to do T25 cardio before I have lunch.

Calories burned do far: 358.

So here is my eating plan...pretty much the same as yesterday.

Snack: 4 strawberries, fat burn pill
T25 lower body
Breakfast: vanilla shakeology with one whole banana and natural peanut butter. Also my multivitamin and 2 CLA pills
T25 cardio
Lunch: dry toasted English muffin topped with turkey, red pepper and avocado (yummy!)
Snack: yogurt w raspberries, almonds and honey
Dinner: my chili steak salad, 2 CLA pills
Snack: probably a couple pieces of turkey

And I am sure that I probably won't be able to move tomorrow to teach Zumba. I am on my own tomorrow too. Lol.

But tomorrow is also my staturday... Yup. I take my stats tomorrow to see how many inches I have lost so far with T25. It won't be a ton, I am sure BUT I know there will be some.

Which leads me to my picture. I took the one this morning after my workout when I was a drippy, hot mess.

The calf shot I took BEFORE my workout. I have gotten that much definition in 4 days. Seriously!!

So far, I can't say enough good about this program!

And JUST in case you want to get the challenge pack for yourself, Beach body has extended the sale until the end of the month due to its popularity.

Just go to:
www.beachbodycoach.com/mitchellsaz
Sign up for your free membership with me as your coach. On my page you will also see the link for the T25 challenge pack. And if you love fitness as much as I do and you want to earn some money doing it, think about becoming a coach. I can walk you thru how to do it. So far I am loving it and I am on a fabulous team that sets you up with a ton of support!

OK that's enough about that but you know I have to put it out there. You never know if someone is thinking about it in the back of their mind :-)

Tip (recipe) of the day:

Chili-spice steak salad (makes 1 serving)

3oz raw lean sirloin, cut into thin strips
1/4 tsp chili powder (I used more)
Sea salt and ground black pepper (to taste, optional)
Nonstick cooking spray (I just used a smudge of olive oil)
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1/8 an avocado, sliced
2 T balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below and I would start w 1T and add on. I thought 2T was too much for my taste)

Season sirloin w chili powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat medium skillet lightly coat w spray over med-high heat

Add sirloin; cook, stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes or cooked thru

Place cabbage on a serving plate; top w sirloin and avocado

Drizzle w balsamic vinaigrette

Calories: 318, fat: 19, sat fat: 3, chol: 71mg, sodium:406, protein:27

Balsamic vinaigrette (Makes 4 servings)

3T balsamic vinegar
2T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp raw honey
1 tsp Dijon mustard
3T extra virgin olive oil

Combine vinegar, lemon juice, and honey in a medium bowl; whisk to blend

Stir in mustard; mix well

Slowly add oil while whisking; mix well

Store leftover dressing in a covered container in the fridge. If it thickens, hold at room temperature for 30 min and stir before serving.

Day 4 T25

Good morning everyone!!

How was everyone's day yesterday? Successful? Fun? Fall off the wagon a bit?

I want to hear!

I had a great day yesterday, but first...

Are you on Facebook?

If so, I started a fun new page called "Get Beachbody Fit with Lee". Please go to it and "like" it. It is a way for me to connect with all of you more than once a day and have fun. It will not be all about fitness or health or Beach body. Promise!

In fact, I posted a riddle this morning so make sure you check it out and see if you know the answer. I dare you!

OK, now back to yesterday.

You already know I did day 3 of T25.
Then that night we took the boys for a walk. Well, Aaron and I walked. The boys rode their bikes. But Xavier is getting so much better that I had to jog next to him for a bit. Pretty good!

I did not go to the Rec Center *sigh* because I had a conference call. But the call was great so I figure it a fair trade.

Eating was great. I stuck with what I had planned for the day.

And dinner? If you like salmon, I highly recommend this recipe!

Broil your salmon fillet on high til flaky.
Dice up one Roma tomato, 1/8 an avocado and some cilantro.

When the fish is done, top with the diced cilantro and veggies. And some cracked pepper and fresh lemon juice.

(I modified the original recipe which called for a vinegrette. I did not have all the ingredients. However, I really don't think you needed it. The lemon juice was plenty).

And last night I also ran out of my casein powder. Damn it.
I am not planning on getting more right now. I just bought supplements and the T25 with shakeology. So if I need a snack in the evening, it will have to be with my regular protein powder or some turkey or something else.

I am down another pound this morning so something is working. And NO. I am not caught back up to where I was. But I will get there.

And here is my meal plan for today:

Snack: 3 strawberries and my fat burner
Breakfast: shakeology with half a banana and peanut butter, my multivitamin and 2 CLA
Lunch: turkey roll ups (turkey, avocado and red pepper) with a dry toasted English muffin. * the English muffin helped keep me satisfied yesterday so I am repeating it again today.
Early dinner: (about 4:30ish): chili steak salad (another T25 recipe. If it is good, I will share the recipe tomorrow) and two CLA
Evening snack: nonfat Greek yogurt with raspberries, almonds and a small drizzle of honey.

Here is my workout schedule for today:
Morning: T25 Ab Intervals
Evening: Ypsi Gym. Upper body weights. Then RPM.

That's why I am making sure I have a really good early dinner. In lieu of the yogurt, I may decide to have a protein shake afterwards. I won't know for sure until I see how wiped I am.

T25 Abs are done for the day. Favorite workout so far. Great Ab workout and still got a full on sweat. Burned 297 calories in 25 minutes.

Thats it for me today.

Dont forget to go over to my page on Facebook!

Tip of the Day (well recipe. This looked delicious and I had to share!)

T25 Day 3 and other observations

Morning everyone!

I am finally figuring out how to do all this on my tablet... Lol.

Anyways... I have made it thru day 3 of T25. Full body circuit. Lots of planks, pikes, jumps, squats and sweat. Thought I was going to die: but in a good way.

My carpet squeaked from all the sweat when my feet were on it. Not joking.

This morning in 25 minutes I burned 362 calories.

Yesterday's eating was on point. No cheating. I did the same food as I did the day before.

I did not end up lifting last night. My calves are killing me (in a good way) from T25 so I decided to take a bath instead.

Tonight I am going to the Rec Center to get some jogging in and some full body weights. Tomorrow for T25 is ab intervals so I will not be working them tonight.

I have to say that I am shocked at how good this T25 program is. I am sore everywhere. My sports bra is always completely wet with sweat and I am already seeing new definition in my calves. And if I am seeing that already, I will definitely keep pushing play for the remainder of the program.

Aaron, however, has fallen off the wagon. He did not workout last night. He got home about 8pm and thought if he did yesterdays workout that he might puke.

Am I disappointed? Yes.

We will see if he gets back on the wagon today. Only time will tell.

This morning I stepped on the scale and found out I shed more water weight. Yeah! Go me! At the same time though, I always think "let's not do this again" but it always seems to happen on the weekends. Sigh. At least now I have set myself up with the proper groceries in the house to keep that from happening.

Onto my meal plan for the day.
One thing I noticed was how hungry I was the past couple days. I would eat and my stomach would be growling 30 minutes later.

So I am going to make a couple tweaks to today.

Before working out this morning, I had half of a protein bar (homemade) and 3 strawberries with my fat burner pill.

After working out I had my shakeology blended with half a banana and natural peanut butter. I also had my vitamin and my 2 CLA pills.

Lunch will be my eggs: 2 eggs and 4 egg whites scrambled and topped with diced tomatoes and basil but with that I will be adding a dry, toasted English muffin. My hope is that the carbs help keep me fuller longer.

Snack will be my fat free plain Greek yogurt with raspberries and almonds.

Dinner tonight is going to be a salmon fillet (about 5-6 oz) broiled with raw tomato and avocado and cilantro with fresh squeezed lemon juice over the top. Sounds delicious right? and my CLA pills.

Evening snack will be my casein shake with some peanut butter.

All this is still only 1244 calories!

As you may know, I am on myfitnesspal. And one of the nice things is being able to look at my friends food diaries to get ideas. BUT I am shocked at how little food some of my friends eat that seem to be so many calories! It can't be filling for them! Look at all the food I will be eating today. It may be surprising to find that it is 1244 calories but it is all clean and tracked in my diary.

Onwards now.

Did anyone watch Extreme Weight loss last night?

I'm watching it right now and poor Chris Powell is gonna eat all that crap food???

His body is not gonna like that!

You should totally watch it if you didn't last night.

The gal is from Michigan :-)

OK. Let's hear about what you are eating. Anyone want to share any recipes? I need some ideas. Lol.

Tip of the day:

Gluttony and T25

You are probably wondering where I have been. I mean I sign up for Focus T25, get it in the mail and then you hear nothing out of me!

Well this past Saturday we had a memorial for Aarons grandpa. He passed away February 2012, was cremated and never was buried. So that was what we did Saturday.

I did not eat well that day. At all. Too many mini strudels, a half a hot dog, cake, beer, just plain craziness. Part of me was like "f" it. I'm starting T25 on Monday.

Then came Sunday. Aaron and I went out for the day bringing our alcohol and jello shots with us. That night was pizza, and bread sticks and salad.

Not good.

Monday I was afraid to get on the scale. But I did. And while the number doesn't matter (it was BAD), I knew I was going to commit myself to Focus T25.

I took my measurements, recorded my weight, and did day one of T25.

25 minutes of heart pumping, nonstop cardio. In 25 minutes I burned 372 calories and was dripping with sweat.

After, I showered and went grocery shopping. After the grocery store I went to GNC. I wanted to buy a fat burner called B4 that was advertised in a fitness magazine that I had read. When I talked to the guy at GNC, he told me that B4 is crap. He showed me instead a dual pack that had a fat burner and also a CLA for toning. Many fitness competitors use them.

I also bought a multivitamin because I didn't have a good one.

Here is what I bought, in case you are curious:

So far, so good. Yesterday I was a bit jittery from the fat burner but I didn't have a problem with it today.

Last night was Zumba. We had our biggest class ever of 5 people! Woo hoo!

Eating was also on point. Breakfast was vanilla shakeology, lunch was straight from the T25 cookbook. 2 eggs, 4 egg whites all scrambled, half of a tomato diced up on top of the eggs and 5 fresh basil leaves chopped up. Yummy! I also had my left over black bean salad made with diced tomatoes and chilies, onions and cilantro. Snack was plain Greek yogurt (3/4 cup) with 1/2 cup fresh raspberries, 1 T raw slivered almonds and a small drizzle of raw honey. Yum! Dinner was turkey roll ups from T25. 3 oz of nitrate free turkey lunch meat with raw red bell peppers sliced up with avocado slices. AWESOME! That night I had my casein shake with some natural peanut butter in it.

This morning I was down 3.5 lbs from what I gained this weekend.

Ah, water weight. Thou art a heartless bitch.

This morning was day 2.

T25 speed.

And surprisingly I liked this one better. There were breaks after every move in which we stretched and worked on balance. Don't get me wrong. It was still fricken hard. Fast feet, burpees, punches etc... But I liked it. And I made it thru. But barely both days.

And my calves are killing me-  in a good way.

Today in 25 minutes I burned 353 calories. Not shabby huh?

My meal today has been identical to yesterday except that in my morning shakeology I had half a banana and some peanut butter.

My energy level has been thru the roof. Might be from the shakeology or the vitamins but I feel great.

Aaron and I were gonna hit the rec center tonight but he now is going out with clients for dinner. SO I am staying home and will lift weights in the basement tonight. I'm thinking a bit of everything. Tomorrow is total body circuit for T25 so I don't want to kill one part more than another.

And Aaron did T25 yesterday and he is going to do T25 when he gets home tonight. He told me he isn't a fan of these at home workout programs, but he likes this one better than P90X and only finds it "mildly annoying" lol.

And because the kids are gone until tomorrow, I have been working on my personal training cert. I was able to get all the essays done today so all I have left is 1.5 case studies. The kids come home tomorrow so I am hoping to get almost all the way thru it by the time they get home.

This weekend Aarons mom wants the boys overnight again so as of right now Aaron are planning on doing the same thing we did last Sunday... But without the bad eating and alcohol. I want the best results I can get from T25. I. Am. Committed!

How about you? What are you committed to?

Baby Steps

Now that I have lost a bunch of the water weight, it is no surprise that the weight is coming off much more slowly now than what it did end of last week and beginning of this week- even with burning MEGA calories.

So lets start here...

Today I am down another half pound. 174.0. I will take it. Heck I think it was July 23rd when I restarted and I was 183! So 9 lbs down in a matter of what? 2 weeks? Not even?

Eating was on point again yesterday though I have to admit, last night when I got home from the gym I was starving. We really really need to go to the grocery store...so I had to make due with a couple slices of colby jack cheese, a protein bar and my casein shake. Not really nutrient packed but the protein really helped.

Here is what I had:
Breakfast: Arbonne shake
Snack: Arbonne protein bar
Lunch/Dinner- I made up one can of tuna with onions, celery and fat free mayo and split it between lunch and dinner before I left for the gym with some wheat thins
Snack: 2 pieces colby jack cheese, Arbonne protein bar, casein shake

I have to admit...Last night Aaron took the kids to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Part of me was REALLY hoping that he brought me some wings home for me or that he would have some left over. Yeah no. You know what they had for left overs? A few tortilla chips which he brought home for who knows what reason, a quarter of a soft pretzel (again why?) and 2 mini corn dogs. Ah no thanks.

Ok. Now for the gym.

I didnt get to do a whole lot as far as lifting goes yesterday because I had a packet of paperwork to fill out to get paid from when I subbed Zumba. And when I say a packet...I mean 8 pages or so...

When I did get to work out it was only for about 15 minutes. I did some bicep curls on the machine, tricep push downs, chest presses and rows. That was about it. Sad.

So today I am going to concentrate on the back and biceps again before Zumba.

Ok- moving on. After my pseudo weight lifting was RPM. Oh holy hell. We did the same playlist as last week and for whatever reason, this week it seemed harder. Maybe I pushed myself more...not sure. All I know is that by the time the warm up tracks were done, I was already dripping with sweat.

For RPM...I burned 1069 calories. That is serious burn right there. In just over an hour.

See why I am a bit surprised about not losing more weight from yesterday alone? Thats ok though. My body is gonna do what it is gonna do and I know that I am on track.

On to today.
I mentioned that I was going to do back and biceps again. Then it is Zumba. I am only going to do one class because I am going into Dexter to meet with the gals in the park.

Here is my planned out food for the day:
Breakfast: Arbonne shake
Snack: Arbonne protein bar
Lunch/Dinner: Can of tuna with celery, onion and mayo with wheat thins (can you tell I HAVE to go grocery shopping????
Aubrees snack: hummus with celery NO FETA BREAD!!
Home snack: casein shake

ANNNNDDDDD....I tracked my Beachbody shipment and T25 should be here today!!! Woo Hoo!

Because I am not teaching Zumba tomorrow, my goal is to do T25 tomorrow night. I will officially start the program on Monday but I want to try it out!

So it is August 2nd. Lets talk goals. Do you have goals for August??

Tip of the Day:

Shout Out

I have to give a quick shout out to person who helped me today.

As you know, last week I was having computer issues with my router.

Well they never really got resolved and I was still having to reset my router every 5 minutes or so, so I called back the tech support. Now dont get me wrong, these guys are good. They got rid of all the viruses, malware etc. And they updated my router software. But I still was having the problem.

This time I was routed (haha) overseas to India where I connected with Taron.

Not only did he help me fix my router issue, but we got to talking because of how S-L-O-W my computer is about different things with our cultures and what we do for a living.

I told him about my blog and he looked me up and was surprised to see my transformation. He said he would bookmark it to read more in depth at a later time.

So if you are reading this, thank you for your help Taron! I havent had a problem with the router since we talked.

This guy is awesome. He even gave me his extension so I can contact him anytime. And the biggest part? He is so passionate about his job that he took my call on his day off!

Daily Update

Hey everyone! And happy Thursday!

Yesterday was a great day.

Xavier and Landry had their physicals for the year. Both boys are back in their growth curve on the chart. A while back Xavier was above where he should be in weight. It is good to know that with him eating more cleanly and with having a growth spurt that he is back on track. I really dont want my kids to become obese like what I was as a child. The doctor was cute in asking them their favorite veggies and fruit and favorite foods.

Poor Landry had to have 3 shots. He was very tired already and so I tried to distract him but he screamed and screamed. Finally calming down after about 10 minutes.

Then we went to my friends house for the kids to play. On the way home I got the kids Happy Meals.

It was raining pretty good at that point and Aaron was home already. I ate dinner and changed into workout clothes. It was obvious that the boys were exhausted by their 'tudes so we decided not to go to tree fort. I told Aaron he could go to the gym and I would work out at home. Well he fell asleep on the couch at 7pm. I let the kids play til 7:30 and they woke him up. The boys ended up going to bed with no problems and never came out of their rooms with any stall tactics like they normally do.

I decided to do some Turbo Jam Cardio Party. It was my first time doing this one and it was SO MUCH FUN! A mix of dancing, boxing and kickboxing. The 45 minutes flew by so quickly that I put in Ab Jam too. I ended up doing about 10 minutes of that one before turning it off. I had turned up the music (its an option on the disc) and I couldnt hear the instructions which was fine while we were standing and I could see the tv, but they went to the floor for exercises.  Knowing I wouldnt be able to hear or see well, I called "uncle" for the night. In one hour I burned 553 calories. Not shabby.

And today I am SO SORE! My obliques hurt like they NEVER have before! I plan on doing the whole disc on Friday (19 minutes of ab work).

Aaron decided that he was too tired and opted out of any exercise. He went to bed at 8pm.  He better realize he cant do that when we start T25. LOL. I want him committed for the 10 weeks.

Eating was on point.
You can tell I am in dire need to go grocery shopping when you see what I eat between today and tomorrow. LOL.

Breakfast: Arbonne protein shake
Snack: Homemade arbonne protein bar
Lunch: 2 eggs over medium (the last of my eggs) with melted pepperjack cheese, sauteed onions and a toasted dry wheat roll
Dinner: tuna with celery, onion and fat free mayo with reduced fat crackers, a smidge of pork
Snack: Casein protein shake

So today I weighed 174.5. Not bad at all. Half pound loss. I knew I wouldnt be able to maintain a 2-4 lb loss a day. LOL. If I can do a half pound a day that would be excellent though not sustainable in the long term.

Today is back and biceps. Then we also have RPM. Last week was the RPM class from hell and I just found out that we are repeating it. Bring it! It is hard to go backwards after pushing ourselves that much. We must push forwards.

I also got an email last night saying that T25 has been shipped. I am SO EXCITED!

Tomorrow is Friday. I am going to be doing a double hit of Zumba I think...Then it is out with the Dexter ladies.

This time though I am not going to have feta bread. I am going to have water, and some hummus and veggies. I dont want to undo what I have been working so hard to accomplish. Especially because Saturday will not be Zumba because of the memorial for Aarons grandpa.

If T25 comes before Sunday, the plan is to do that before Aaron and I leave for our fun for the day. Then that evening may or may not be to the rec center. Not sure what time Aaron and I will be getting home and if we will be sunburned or not. LOL

So thats it for right now...

Tip of the Day: