Happy Halloween!

Ok so I am including a tip I found yesterday up here because it just wouldnt be relevant tomorrow.

This shows the GMO that is found in our different candy. GMO (if you cant read it) stands for Genetically Modified Organisms or all the different things that have been chemically altered whether it be sugars or soy or starch. And I am guilty because I am handing out just about every single type of this candy. LOL. I dont see anything wrong with a little candy. I give my kids one or two pieces a day after Halloween and Easter times. It is when you go overboard that it just gets out of control and not good.

Anyways back to the task at hand. Yesterday was a good day. For breakfast I had a banana strawberry spinach smoothie. Lunch was veggies and cheese and crackers. Dinner was 2 small bbq ribs, and a HUGE salad with some fresh mozzarella. Delicious. I also had a snack after lunch with some frosted mini wheats, some pretzel rods, a few semi sweet chocolate chips and some pumpkin seeds.

After we got the kids to bed, I went and did zumba. I went thru my ZIN 33 like I usually do then flipped it over for a refresher on some of the moves we learned at training. Then I put in a different dvd that had some routines to the songs. I really didnt like that one much. Some of the songs were "live" and so they didnt continue the moves. It got confusing. Then I switched it back over to the wii zumba. Let me say this. I dont like this game. Not because it isnt fun, but because it just doesnt get my heart rate up. I had a hard time keeping it in the 120's. Usually at a normal zumba class, my heart rate is up in the high 150's, 160's at the top of my range. So I dont know that I will be doing the wii zumba again unless it is just for fun. Not really finding any routines I like for a class on there anyways.

But I got 2 hours in (just over) and burned 1036 calories. Nice.

This morning I was back down to 175.5. So I lost 1.5 lbs yesterday. Like I said, I had a lot of alcohol over the weekend. LOL.

Today the plan is to go downtown trick or treating if it stops raining. Then K and I are going to go have lunch at Dexter pub while we are downtown. My plan is to have a salad. Then Landry and I will head to Xaviers school just before 2 for Xaviers Halloween parade. After that, it is home to do some story time, then a quick dinner and off to trick or treat. Once we get home from trick or treating, we will get the kids to bed for the night and MY plan is to get in at least an hour of zumba. Tonight I plan to do my infomercial dvds to learn more of those routines. At least with those, my heart rate goes up. :)

Also next week after pay day, I think I am going to order some more Healthe Trim. I just feel like since the tornado, my body is stuck in this rut. I go up, I go down quite significantly in a matter of days. I think this will help me out. I will have to cut out my coffee, but that is my only vice that I wont be able to have (well that and alcohol but I can drink red wine with it). I really dont eat or drink artificial sweeteners because I try to eat pretty clean. So stay tuned. I really cant wait to order it again. Hopefully it gives me the boost I need.

That is the news for now folks. Have a Happy Halloween!!!

Tip of the Day:

I made this for breakfast today and HAD to pass on the recipe.

Pumpkin Smoothie-
1/2+ cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling) You should be able to get about 3 smoothies out of one small can of pumpkin. Just put the lid back on and pop it in the fridge til your next smoothie
1/2 frozen banana (I used 3 chunks of banana that I had in my freezer)
ice
a bit of milk (I would have used almond milk if I had some)
honey to taste
vanilla (maybe a tsp)
pumpkin spice (a couple good shakes)

Blend til smoothe. Enjoy!

I drank this pretty quickly for my breakfast. It was delicious. Originally I put in a bit of pure maple syrup and no vanilla and it tasted a bit bland. I found a recipe online that added the honey and vanilla. Once I added that, it was perfection.

Post Parties

It has been a crazy weekend. Lots of food- not all good, lots of fun, and friends and drinks.

I admit I didnt weigh myself yesterday. I was scared to. LOL

Yesterday I was mostly back on plan with my food (I did have some wine, jello shots, and some cookies and other left over goodies yesterday) and I did 2 hours of zumba last night.

I mixed it up a bit and did my Zumba Instructor Network dvd which is just about an hour (songs I am learning) then turned on the Zumba Wii and did that for another hour. I have to admit, I have only done the Wii Zumba one other time. I made a new profile on Hard and had no problem passing the level. It is pretty easy and I didnt really break a sweat. I think I will be trading it in over Christmas for the new Zumba Core game coming out. And I have heard that the Kinect is a lot harder for Zumba because it takes into account your exact move and not just how you move the remote. With the Wii I was worried about making the remote move correctly. All in all though I burned 1094 calories in 2:11.

And this morning I weighed in at 177.0. Up 3 lbs but I thought for sure I would be back in the 180's so it was a pleasant surprise for me.

Today I am back at it again. Back with my fruit and veggie fast and Zumba again tonight.

The weather has been crazy here in Dexter and even though we arent getting the rain that Sandy is putting out, we are getting the wind. We have been having gusts here 50+ mph all day yesterday and today. Lots of post tramatic stress coming out in the neighbors. Crashing, debris flying...its crazy.

I was happy because yesterday we got the trampoline down before it got really bad. I know if we hadnt, I wouldnt have been able to sleep last night. Since we put it up, when we get wind, I freak that that trampoline is going to become air born.

To any of my readers on the east coast, please stay safe. Take cover. I can relate just a bit to what you are going thru.

Tip of the Day: Just to give you an idea of what different body fat looks like. I personally like the 30% one and would be very happy with that.

A quickie!

I have been going, going, going today so I wanted to pop in and give a quick update.

I am down another pound today to 174.0. Woot woot! I did another two hours of zumba last night and burned 1061 calories.

After I dropped Xavier off at school, Landry and I ran to the grocery store to get all of the groceries for the party on Sunday.

Since then I have been boiling eggs and making pudding and jello shots. Yummy!

I just had a salad with some baked chicken breast, a half of pita, some hummus and a cheese stick for lunch. Now it is off to do some zumba for a bit before I leave to get Xavier from school and go to class tonight!

So if I dont check in this weekend, it is because I have a VERY crazy weekend ahead.

Have a  great day and a great weekend!

Tip of the Day:

A bit better

Yesterday was a bit better of a day.

K came over and we got a bit of Zumba done and I showed her some of the other routines. I burned 474 calories in 43 minutes. 

The morning started off rough with the boys but in the end, I got Landry down for a nap and when I was time to get Xaiver from school, Landry wasnt cranky. Woo hoo!

Aarons mom came over that afternoon and was waiting for us by the time we got back from school.

Then the chaos began. LOL. Aarons mom got the boys a ton of Halloween costumes so the boys had fun the rest of the afternoon with that.

After the boys got down for the night, I was able to go downstairs and do some zumba with Andi. She wanted me to be her teacher. So I did the routines with her that I know. She was having some problems with one of the steps that I just learned so I broke it down for her after the first time going thru it. Then we did it again and she did much better. We worked out for about an hour and I burned another 601 calories.

This morning I weighed 175.0. Down 1.5 lbs. Nice!

Today I am going to work some more on my zumba routines. I want to start learning a new song. My mom is also coming for a little visit today while she is down visiting her aunt. Should be a nice visit.

I am also working on my grocery list for my halloween party this weekend. It is going to be a very busy weekend!!

Friday is Zumba and then our zumba halloween party at Buffalo Wild Wings.
Saturday I am going with K to a shelter so we can hand out food and supplies. Then I will come home and go get pumpkins with the kids and carve those. THEN I need to prep food for the party on Sunday. THEN at midnight, I am going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show. Woo hoo!
Sunday we are having a halloween party with friends in the neighborhood. That should be a lot of fun. Everyone is bringing some food to pass and dressing up. I cant wait.

On the menu for that day are some healthy things and some not so healthy things :)

1. red eye specials- hollowed out roma tomatoes with pesto, and a mozzerella ball with black olives for the pupils.
2. Deviled egges with black olive spiders on top
3. mummy dogs (for the kids)- hot dogs wrapped with crescent rolls
4. fall dip for apples and nilla wafers- cool whip, vanilla pudding and a can of pumpkin
5. fresh veggies and dip (duh)
6. 7 layer spider dip with refried beans, tomatoes, guac, cheese, sour cream YUMMY!
7. sugar cookie fingers (nails are almond slices)
8. witches brew- orange soda, pineapple juice and orange sherbert
9. shrunken head cider- alcoholic
10. witches brooms- pretzel sticks stuck into peanut butter cups

along with the normal soda to drink.

The above is what I am making. It will be fun to see what others bring. Some are saying cake and cake pops. Maybe some caramel apples? Who knows!

What are you doing for Halloween??

Tip of the Day:

Major meltdowns

Yesterday was a flat out rough day.

Everything was going great until Aaron called and said that we were going to go to a Coney Island with his mom and grandma for dinner.

Normally it wouldnt matter. It would be a fun time. BUT Landry didnt get a nap yesterday and I knew he was exhausted.

Well on the way to the Coney Island, Landry fell asleep. So when we got there he had to get woken up and he is CRANKY when that happens. And the crying started.

Finally he stopped and I got him to figure out what he wanted for dinner.

Xavier acted like he had pure sugar running in his veins and was up and down under the table, blowing straw wrappers and just not listening.

My mother in law took the kids to the bathroom once because they had to go. Later Landry said he had to go so of course Xavier had to go with them. That was when all hell broke loose. Landry started crying. Wait- crying isnt the word for it. Screaming. Shrieking! So much so, I could hear him all the way across the Coney Island from inside the bathroom. So I got up to see what was going on. And I was PISSED.

Come to find out between screams, Landry was mad that he wasnt the leader and that Xavier went into the bathroom first. Really? Seriously?

And the crying really didnt stop after that. Then Xavier got mad because we mentioned getting dessert but we just needed to leave because Landry was acting up. So no dessert- for anyone. Finally, Landry got calmed down and I took him to the car to see the shirt Aarons mom got him.

Aaron ended up having to carry Xavier out because HE started to pitch a fit because he wanted to say good-bye to his Meme. She had gone to get the car so she could pull up for her mom to get in.

We TOLD Xavier if he would just sit in his seat so we could buckle him up that we would drive over to say goodbye. But he wouldnt listen. He thrashed and fought and screamed. It was majorly embarrassing. Then he worked himself up so much that he puked in the car. Seriously?

This is how the night went. Not kidding.

So sue me and call me a bad mom...but I told him this was his fault. He wouldnt listen so he missed out on saying goodbye. If he would have LISTENED we would have been over there and she could have said goodbye while her mom is getting into the car. And besides, Meme would be coming to our house today.

Then on the way home Xavier got mad again because he didnt get a red sucker. He ended up with a bubble gum one and Landry got the tropical punch. Of course Landry wouldnt trade. So it was a lot of growling and huffing from the backseat. I tried to tell him that we have a ton of those fricken dum dum suckers at the house and that we could probably trade it for a red one.

And the tantrums didnt end there.

Xavier had to strip when he got home in the laundry because he had puke on his clothes.

He wouldnt get pj's on. He wouldnt brush his teeth. He was mad he didnt get a story. He was mad Landry brushed his teeth first. Really? Ugh. It went on...and on...and on.

Finally after a lot of crying and screaming we got both the kids to bed.

I went downstairs and worked on Zumba. K was supposed to come over but her work meeting ran late and she still needed to eat dinner. SO she will be coming over today about 11 to get a crash course.

I ended up doing zumba for just under 2 hours and burned 1079 calories.

Now I have to admit I did ok at dinner. I had water. I ordered a greek salad with feta and dressing on the side. BUT I ate both pieces of Landry's toast he didnt want AND I had the pita that came with my salad. LOL. That was before the drama.

After I worked out I went upstairs and took a shower. Thursday night is the night a lot of our shows are on. Sons of Anarchy and Ink Master just to name a couple.

Then I was just so stressed out from earlier that I started snacking. I had clean potato chips and pretzels and some semi sweet chocolate chips. I also made a drink with lime vodka and sierra mist. Its a wonder I didnt start drinking earlier. LOL

Then last night Xavier was up in the middle of the night. He wanted anything and everything. A drink. His night light on. His dinosaur. Then at 4am Landry was up screaming for Meme. He wanted to see her NOW. I said she wasnt here and that she was sleeping. He didnt like that. He wanted to get up. He didnt want his pj's on. He tried to charge the door- multiple times. Oye ve! Seriously? It took over 30 min to calm him back down. We told him he didnt need to go  back to sleep but mom and dad wanted to and that he had to stay in his room til we came and got him. And that little bugger didnt go back to sleep either.

Can you see my eye twitching today? I am seriously beginning to wonder if the Coney Island put crack in their chocolate milk.

I really need a coffee drip right into my veins today because I am seriously dragging ass.  I am SURE Aaron is too.

With all that, you can imagine how happy I was to see the scale remain status quo at 176.5.

Today as I mentioned K is coming over at 11 to do about 20-30 min of zumba with me. Then Aarons mom is coming over this afternoon for dinner. I will be making chicken breast stuffed with mozz and wrapped with bacon. I will be having a large salad and chopping up some of the chicken breast to put in it to remain mostly veggie.

Then my friend Maggie is coming over about 6:45 to work on Zumba stuff. When you look at the training video all at once it gets a bit overwhelming. So I think it is best if we focus on one song at a time. With the songs I have, I know the routines for 3. I "mostly" know the routines for another 8 which gives me 54 minutes of songs without warm ups and cool down. Plus I still need to get the songs from my instructor of other songs I know. So I am doing pretty good.

My plan is to try to work on routines for a couple hours each night. Whew. I am still sore from training on Saturday! LOL.

That is the news for now. Sorry for the long drama post but I had to get it off my chest. LOL. Have a great day everyone!

Tip of the Day:

Successful Zumba night

Last night was a successful first night of learning some Zumba routines.

When I say successful, I mean I learned ONE routine. LOL.

I actually did the first warm up routine twice (the squats were killing me and kept me from doing it a third time), the second warm up once, and then from that point on, I did Un Mes. A fantastic Reggaton routine that is so so fun! I did it with the break down multiple times before I finally started getting comfortable. After that, it was just memorizing what part I needed to do when. Finally I started to get comfortable to the point where I could listen to the music and do it with my eyes closed. Then if I would feel lost, I would open to see where they were. Success! This morning I listened to just the music (no dvd) and I remembered the whole routine. So one song down!

Last night I worked on Zumba for 2 hours and I burned 1072 calories. That includes sitting down to preview three other songs.

Not bad.

And this morning I weighed 176.5. Going down- by a couple of pounds.

Tonight I am going to do something a bit different.

K (I think) is coming over tonight and I am going to do the dvd's that I have and I have the music to. It will be a good refresher for me and not so monotonous for her. She has never done zumba before so I want to break her in slowly. LOL.

Then tomorrow, my friend Maggie is coming over and we are going to work on different songs. Should be fun especially when she is at the same spot I am in learning new routines.

Cant wait to see if this helps me lose weight and get toned up too. I know I said it before, but this IS how I lost most of my 100 lbs when I first started. Doing Zumba, I was able to lose about 1-2 lbs a night. BUT that was when I weighed 268 lbs.

Ok...moving on from Zumba. I apologize if that monopolizes my posts for a bit, but it is what I am working on right now.

Anyways.

Yesterday I went back to a mostly fruit and veggie fast. Breakfast was a smoothie. Lunch was fresh veggies, a bit of blue cheese dressing, a bit of bread and some of my left over pasta with steak that I made a few days ago. I wanted to make sure that I got a little bit of carbs to have some energy for that night. Then for dinner was a huge salad with some almonds, some lite blue cheese dressing, and a couple Tyson chicken tenders cut up in it. Delicious.

And I still had plenty of energy to make it thru my two hours of working out.

After work out, I had some water and two saltines with some peanut butter skimmed on. Then I went to bed. I was beat.

Thats about the news for now. I woke up late this morning so I have to rush around to get the kids to school and pick up a snack for Landry's class so off I go! Talk to you all tomorrow!

Tip of the Day:

Zumba!!!!

AHHHHH So excited!

I made it thru Saturday and I am officially licensed to instruct Zumba!!

A couple things I want to mention then I will move on to my recap of training....

You will notice on my website I now have some "ads" for Zumba. If you click on the banner, it will take you to the Zumba store. There you will receive a 10% discount on Zumba Wear!! Who doesnt like a good deal?? I wanted to pass on the discount to my readers.

Also...I am SORE!! As in, I havent been this sore since my half marathon. My calves still ache today BUT I need to get working on my routines. And I think I am the only one that can burn over 4000 calories on Saturday and still GAIN weight. LOL. I am sure it is because of muscle bloat though. That night after training, it was a lose, lose. It hurt to stand up, it hurt to sit down. LOL.

Ok so this is how our day went:

8-8:30am Registration
8:45-9am Introduction
9-10:15 Master Class- full out Zumba class. SOOOO much fun!!
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-12 Lecture- going over the science of Zumba, about Beto and why he made it, the purpose of warm up and cool down, etc.
12-12:15 Warm up with drill- going over the science of warm up and putting it into practice (more Zumba moves)
12:15-12:45 Basic steps for Merengue and putting them into practice
12:45-1:15 Lunch
1:15-1:45 Lecture on ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) I signed up for this. And I am loving it so far. Plus the lecture gave our food a chance to digest before doing more Zumba.
1:45-2:00 Break to get water
2:00-2:15 Lecture going over the basic steps of Salsa
2:15-2:45 Basic steps for Salsa- More Zumba!!
2:45-3:15 Cueing- how to and working on nonverbal cueing
3:15-4:15 Cumbia- this is the move that I was the worst at prior to training. This helped me SO MUCH!
4:15-4:25 Cumbia combined with cueing
4:25-5:00 Class writing a routine. We broke into 4 groups and each had to write a section of a song. Learned about how a song is put together and how to tell what type of song it is (merengue, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton)
5:00-5:30 Mini Master class (more zumba) and cool down
5:30-6:00 questions, evaluations & certificates!!

By the final mini master, I was beat. I thought that I wasnt going to make it thru. LOL. But I did. And it was so worth it. At the beginning, our ZES (Zumba Education Specialist) asked who was familiar with Zumba, who was a fitness instructor (other than Zumba) and who had never taken a Zumba class before. The shocker? We had two people who had NEVER taken Zumba before. One of which was an older gentleman (think mid-50's). He did great and received his license as well but I couldnt imagine not knowing what Zumba is and enduring a 10 hour class- even with breaks and lunch.

Yesterday was spent recovering and working on my new Zumba website and exploring ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network). ZIN is the place you go to for training, forums, help, music, marketing materials, etc. AND they send you music and routines as long as you are a member :)  If you want to check out my website, it is www.leemitchell.zumba.com.

Tonight (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post), I plan on starting to learn the different routines we were given. I want to get some of them down so I can look for a Zumba Instructor position. PLUS I am asking my instructor at the gym if I could get some of the music we use that I know the routines to. My hope is that she will later let me teach a couple songs during the class to help me gain my confidence.

My friend Maggie (who I met at the gym) went with me to training and got her license as well. We are going to get together on Wed to start working on routines. My hope is that we will teach together for the fun of it. We always joked about starting our own business together- Blonds With Barbells. LOL LOL.

Ok...now for some interesting factoids about Zumba- this is how a Zumba class SHOULD go... the ones you go to may not do this exactly (and they should!!).

Your class should be 70% latin music
Your class should be 30% other types of music (think Rock, Rap, Hip Hop, Pop).

A class should be 70% cardio, 30% fitness
A class should be 70% dance and 30% strength and toning

A class should be NON-Verbal cueing

A class is NOT about getting the steps and movement right-- just moving and having fun. Let the music MOVE you!

Very interesting huh?

And I learned that I am not a certified instructor...I am a licensed instructor BECAUSE I am licensed to use the Zumba logo. :) Happy days huh?

And I got some cool clothes for teaching in. They had a whole selection for us to choose from. I ended up getting one pair of pants and three shirts (one says instructor- hee hee).

On the food front, because of the class, I did go off the fruit/veggie fast for this weekend. Today I start back up again.

So that is the news for now. Sorry for the long post but can you tell I am excited about this new endeavor? If any of you have any questions about my training or ZIN, please let me know. I am very happy to answer questions. And I am already looking for my next Zumba training course. I am thinking Zumba toning or Sentao (which is a chair based Zumba!).

Tip of the Day:

WHY WATER IS IMPORTANT!!