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!