SkinnyQuinny

The Last Weigh-In

2010-05-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
So this is my last blog here. I will continue to blog on this BLOG. But it won' t be strictly about weight loss. So here my results since January 1st.

I have lost 11 pounds. Not much...but I'm more than satisfied.My goal was 15 pounds. But I am happy with my results.
I have lost one inch from my chest.
I have lost 3 1/2 inches from my waist.
I have lost 3 inches from the area under my belly button!

And that is amazing, to me! WOO!

I can now also finish Jillian Level 1 and 2 without feeling like I am dying! My strength and endurance is a lot better than it was before. I just feel and look much better! Doing this challenge has also made me feel like I can accomplish ANYTHING!

Here are some fun result pictures!

This is me at my heaviest, around 175

This is me at the beginning of the challenge.
January

February

March

April

And here are the most recent pictures.

I am going to keep working out, doing Jillian and C25k, and rating healthier but I am not gonna worry about losing anymore weight. If I do...great, If I don't...no big deal.

Good Luck on your journeys, and please keep reading my other blog!

2010-04-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

I am starting to feel like I just don't have anything new to blog about on this particular blog. I still love reading your blogs, but I feel like my blogs are getting repetitive. I think it's because I limited myself to writing only about health/fitness, etc. So I think I am done with this blog.

BUT....I am just starting a brand-new BLOG! I am making it broader...more about goals and challenges than JUST health. I also switched to word press in the hopes that I will get more comments. You can check it out HERE. I have already posted a new blog. So please don't stop reading...I am just ....renovating!

But before I go...here are some things I have learned about weight loss while on blogspot.

1. Start slow...if you push yourself you will end up quitting. Just start slow.
2. Challenge yourself. This may sound contradictory to the first one but convince yourself that you can do a little more everyday.
3. Watch what you eat. I found that the weeks I lost the most weight was the times when I tracked my calories
4. Friends and support. This is possibly the most important thing. You need to vent your frustrations, celebrate your successes...and friends to do this with you.
5. Variety. Don't be afraid to try something new and switch it up, if you get bored...you will quit.
Here is everything that I have done on my weight loss journey

Walking
Hula Hooping (great workout)
20 minute dance parties! (just turn on the music....and dance)
Wii Fit
Yoga
Strength Training
The Biggest Loser for the Wii
Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred (my favorite!)
C25k (my most recent love)

So I know this is kinda a short and boring blog but I am going to post my final blog and pictures in few days. So stay tuned! (for a little bit longer)

And don't worry...I will still be reading your blogs and commenting!

The end is near...

2010-04-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
WOW...it's been a rough week. My mind is blahhhhhhhh....so if this doesn't make sense....sorry.
Harliegh is starting to feel a tiny bit better. it's still been a rough day, though. We are going on day 6 of this and all the nights and days are blurring together. She is on antibiotics now adn teh dr. said she should be almost back to normal within 2-3 days. So there is an end in sight!

On fitness related news...my sister randomly called me today and asked if I wanted to run. I haven't worked out since last Wednesday and I am actually getting to the point where I enjoy working out so I was very happy that she called me. She is on week 2 of C25k and I was a little scared of starting on week 2. We had to take Harliegh in the stroller (it was nice outside and she had a jacket and a hat) and my sister's yorkie, but it went great. i was actually surprised that I didn't get too tired during the run and I am thinking that if my brother won't start running with me again I might try to finish C25K on my own, I actually thought it was fun and relaxing. But maybe it was just a nice break from being trapped in a stuffy house with a sick baby! I am glad she came and got me to run though because I was actually starting to feel unmotivated and slipping into old habits. Now, though, I am planning on attempting Jillian...if my poor, sick little girl will let me! I also haven't weighed myself in over a week...so it will be interesting to see what damage I have done!

2010-04-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys,
I am not going to be posting real blogs right now. It turns out Harliegh and I did not just have allergies like I thought, but something much worse. I am assuming a terrible cold or the flu. Harliegh has had a fever since Saturday and last night it peaked at 104.5. It scared me to death but it was about 11pm and I didn't want to take her to the ER and expose her to worse things unless I absolutely had to. I called my sister, who is a nurse, and she told me to just keep giving her motrin and tylenol alternately and to watch her temp. It was a loooong night. Her temp, started to drop and I finally got her to go back to sleep around 12:30. Then she woke up again at 2am, when I stood and rocked her in my arms until about 3:30 when my husband came in and tried to take her, but she just wanted mommy. We took her for a ride in the car to calm her down and when we got back she finally went back to sleep....until 5:30. I took her into my room and put in Sesame street and I dozed for awhile, she actually fell asleep for a few minutes. At 7:30 we came out to the living room, I gave put her in her highchair and gave her some Motrin...which she then vomited everywhere. At this point I think I was pretty much covered with my daughter's snot, drool, sweat, pee and vomit. Nice way to start the day!

We are taking her to the dr. at 11. Hopefully they can help her. I have been lucky and at 20 months, she has only been sick twice before this ...and both times were mild colds with a low fever. This has been tough. I would do anything to take her illness away. It's heartbreaking!

I know this has nothing to do with my health and fitness, but this is more important. iw ill blog more when I am back on track.

FLF-late edition

2010-04-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys that I haven't posted in a few days. My allergies have gotten really bad the past few days. I honestly can't remember it ever being this bad. My eyes itch and are puffy, my nose is runny and sneezy, my ears itch, my Eustachian tubes itch, my throat itches and feels swollen. Even my skin itches. It's horrible. To make matters worse, I have discovered that Harliegh has inherited my allergies! She has had all the same symptoms as me the past couple days. :( I gave her some zyrtec and will give it to her through the weekend and if she is not better by Monday we are making a trip to the doctor. I wish I could take away all her suffering and pile it on to me. She looks miserable!

So I guess I missed Fun-Loving Friday. Can I just say that I would LOVE to not have allergies?

No? That doesn't really count? Ok, fine...

Hmmm....well, today I am going to go shopping to get stuff for the Baby shower I am throwing for my sister. I actually have two sisters pregnant at the moment! My sister, Misty, is due in August and she is having a girl. They are going to name her Natalie Paige ( I thought you might like that Nathalie!) She is the one I am throwing the shower for. My other sister, Shalene, is due in July and is having a boy. I am not sure if they had settled on a name yet, but the last I heard it was Raiden Charles. Someone else is throwing her shower.

Last night I ran to Target to get out of the house and bought a present for Misty's baby, and today I will also look for a gift for Shalene's baby. Shopping for new babies are so much fun! I am also going to attempt to make a diaper cake for the shower. Wish me luck.

I am also getting Harliegh a bed today. I think she is ready, I hope she is. We are going to leave her crib up for a while just in case she's not. But its a big step and I am excited...and a little sad! My baby is turning into a big girl. She even will climb up the stairs at the playground and climb through a tunnel and go down a slide. ALL BY HERSELF. In fact, she refuses to let me help! :( She is way too brave and independent!
So this is my late edition of FLF! Have a nice weekend!

Wednesday

2010-04-21T08:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I would like to give a big shout out to my best friend, JESSICA! We have been friends since the 3rd grade! I am happy because Jessica has finally entered the modern world and got a laptop...so I can finally chat with her online! Jessica has recently started Jillian, too! A couple weeks ago we started a little friendly competition to see who could lose that last 5 pounds. Our deadline is May 15th. I am totally gonna kick her butt!! Haha...ok...honestly, I haven't lost a pound since we made that goal and I only have about three weeks left. Based on my track record, I'd be lucky to lose 2 pounds by then...but, oh well. You never know, right?

Yesterday I didn't get to go on a run with my brother. I had all plans on running...but I forgot American Idol and Glee was on. Yes, I am a nerd and watch both of those shows, I can't help it. So hopefully tonight I will get in my run with my brother.

I am making my absolute favorite tofu recipe tonight. Brooke, you said you needed another recipe and you are trying to eat 2 meatless meals...I would check this out. It's soooooo GOOD!

Crispy Tofu and Veggies

I use stir-fry sauce in place of the teriyaki and have it with brown rice. YUM! (Jessica, you should try this,too!)

And since Jessica is online...

You should check out these blogs...These are the blogs of some absolutely amazing and inspirational people!

Sarah
Nathalie
Brooke
Have a great day everyone!

2010-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first day I actually succeeded in doing moderate/intense workout for an hour. i ran for awhile in the morning with my brother and then did Jillian later that evening, and let me tell you....I had the absolute BEST sleep I have had in a loooooong time. It was fantastic. Today I have already did Jillian Level 2, went on a short walk and am planning on running with my brother tonight if he's up to it.

I don't have much to talk about today..same old, same old, really! if you are bored, I have posted a sample chapter from the book I am writing here.

Also, have you heard of this website? 1000 Awesome Things I am probably out of the loop but I just recently heard about this on the Post Secret website (another awesome site) It is pretty.....well.....awesome! So everytime I blog I am also going to list an awesome thing. Today i am listing two....

When you get a letter from a friend via snail mail! What a great surprise!

and...

That perfect day after a long winter you can finally wear a skirt and flip flops and feel the sun soaking into your skin.

I hate my brother

2010-04-19T07:02:00.001-07:00

Ok...so I don't really hate him, I love him. But I didn't like him very much this morning. If you remember I wanted to start C25k today. Well, I showed my brother (who is in the Army Reserves) and asked him if he wanted to do it with me since he will be staying with me the next few weeks. He took one look at the program adn decided it was "too easy" and somehow talked me into just letting him train me. So this morning we stretched, did some jumping jacks and started jogging. After a few minutes ( I am guessing between 4 and 5) I wanted to stop already ...ho wouldn't let me! He yelled some Jillianisms (yes I just made that up) at me...things like "Pull through, you can do this Ladies!" "Don't Phone it in" etc. What made me mad was I could barely breathe and he was saying all this in a normal voice! GRRR...He also made me sprint....TWICE. Ugh, I thought I was going to die! Overall, we probably only ran 3/4 of a mile or so. YIKES! So right now I am pretty tired...and he wants to do Jillian later this evening!

So how are you guys doing? It was a pretty slow blog weekend for us all! If you are interested...I posted a new blog on my writing blog. Just click here!

Can't wait to read YOUR blog!

HAIR!

2010-04-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BLOG FRIDAY!
I am really started to look forward to happy blog Fridays!I would like to start this Happy blog by saying...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARAH!!!!

Sarah turned 24 today, so hop on over to her blog and wish her a Happy Birthday! Love you Sarah-dipity!
So I was happy to see Miss Brooke expose herself, and check off one item on her Bucket List! Congrats Brooke! I also checked one thing off of my Bucket List today....sort of.

I have always wanted to dye my hair a funky color. I mean like a streak of hair, not my whole head. Well, my way hip Aunt who is also a hairstylist, is visiting from Florida and she brought me.....colored hair extensions. This is even better than dying my hair because I can take it out, switch it, put two in....you get the picture.
So....for my happy blog...I am going to post some pics with my funky hair! :)

ENJOY!!

BLUE HAIR!

PINK HAIR!

Purple Hair!

And that concludes this weeks edition of...

HAPPY BLOG FRIDAY!

Picture day...again

2010-04-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggerettes (most of you are girls)

How goes it today? Today is the 15th! Which means.....picture day.

This week I have seen no results. Well, technically....I gained three pounds and have lost three pounds. So I am back where I started. OH WELL. Like I said before, I am not so concerned about the number anymore. Just staying healthy.
So here are my latest pics. I wasn't going to post these, cause honestly I don't think they are much different from my last pics. But Sarah wanted me to since she did. :)

So here is the last pic from the 1st-ish I think?

And here is me now. It's hard to compare because these are on my cell phone and my arms were up.

Believe it or not, I did have a some stretch marks and they have faded almost completely! I am excited to go shopping soon! I need new clothes! And....this body is from Jillian, walking, yoga, and eating right...oh and drinking a ton of water. Pretty soon I am going to post a long blog about what changes I have made since January 1st. I know that we all have different journeys but I really feel liek you can learn SOOO much form reading other peoples blogs. I learn a lot of new cooking things from Nathalie, I learned about C25k from Brooke and learned that support is the number when thing when it comes to new challenges from Sarah, who honestly has been one of my biggest supporters!
Here is a pic of me just being me since most of my pics are me right after a workout when I look gross....LOL

Buckets and buckets...

2010-04-13T19:46:00.000-07:00

So Brooke and Sarah have both posted great Bucket lists so I was inspired to do the same. But Before I do that , I wanted to talk about challenging yourself. I am really trying to get to know myself again. After you have a baby, a lot of your identity gets temporarily misplaced. You suddenly just become a "MOM". I love being a mom, but sometimes I can't remember who I was before being a mom. When I started this "Get Healthy" challenge I honestly didn't think I would do it...but I have and when I hit 100 days, I was so impressed with myself. I never finish anything. Ever. And here I am ....100 plus days later, still going strong and looking for more challenges! On April 1st I challenged myself to write 10 stories in 100 days because I love to write and I want to write, but I hold myself back because I am scared of what other people will think. But I don't care anymore, I just want to do things because.....well, because...I want to..it's as simple as that. Why not? Why not live my life without regrets? So I think when I finish my 10/100 challenge(and I will finish it) I will start a new challenge...maybe learning guitar, taking a Kung Fu class...I don't know. I just know I want to challenge myself this year, to see what I can do. That is the kind of role model I want to be for my daughter, someone who is not scared to take a chance. Another challenge I MIGHT be doing is this thing called Urban Dare. I say might because I technically have class this day. Urban Dare is kind of like the tv show "Amazing Race" in Minneapolis. It's a race...5 miles long...you have to stop at different check points and do fun dares like climb a rock wall or eat something weird (no bugs). AND you wear fun costumes! It raises money for breast cancer research. My sister and I are thinking of teaming up. I am excited and hope I can get out of class.

I was looking at my Bucket list from a few years ago and realized I have completed some (like going to a Paul McCartney concert.) and some I still need to do. So here is my new bucket list, I am making it up as I go...

1. Dance in the rain with Harliegh (to show her its okay to do things like that)
2. Dye my hair a funky color at least once
3. Learn to play at least one song on the guitar
4. Take a Kung-Fu, Tae Kwon do, or Karate type class
5. Take a dance class ( I always wanted to be a ballerina)
6. Run a marathon
7. Go to NYC for Christmas with just Tyler and my kids
8. Go on a beach vacation ( I have never been on a real vacation)
9. Read all 100 books on the classics list (at last count I think I had 40 or so)
10. Watch all the classic movies ( I love Casablanca and Singing in the Rain!)
11. See old friends and meet online friends
12. Paint a picture I am proud of
13. Write a book
14. Publish something...a book, a story, a small paragraph...
15. Randomly and anonymously send money to someone who needs help
16. Write letters to all my friends and family telling them how much I love them
17. Plant a garden
18. Learn to knit
19. Stand in the front row at a concert
20. Get a Bachelor's Degree
21. Get a Master's Degree
22. Go canoeing
23. Go camping with my kids
25. Be a good role model for my kids
26.Be somebody's muse
27. Go to the Ellen Degeneres Show
28. Go to a Conan show...if he ever gets back on tv :(
29. Visit all 50 states
30. Have a huge dinner party with all my family and friends

I can probably think of a million more...but that's all I've got for now!
Goodnight y'all!

Stormy Day!

2010-04-13T07:12:00.001-07:00

What a wonderful day for a break day! There are many reasons why today is a great day to take a break. It's raining...with thunder and lightning, who doens't love to just be lazy on rainy days? Plus, my allergies are horrible when it rains so I can't breathe. Also, you might remember several weeks agao i think I pulled a muscle in my left calf. Well, for the most part it has gotten better, but I noticed whenever I do Jillian Level 1 it starts hurting again. it's those damn lunges! i think I just try too hard and end up hurting myself. Well, yesterday my calf started hurting A LOT! It might be because of teh combination of doing my run and Jillian Level one. I don't know, but I think resting will help, and next time I am going to replace the lunges from Level one with the lunges in Level 2...they don't hurt as much!
So today I am going to lounge and clean a little. Maybe do some laundry, work on some homework, etc.
I keep forgetting to post some recipes. So here are soem great recipes I have tried recently. The first one is Chicken and Noodles. A great homey, comfort food...but...it's LOW FAT! It was really yummy!

Chicken and Noodles Recipe

And this next one is a vegetarian recipe. I was pleasantly surprised with how flavorful it was, especially the yummy avocado spread!

Portobella Burgers with Avocado Spread

Hope you guys all have a fantastic day!

I did it!

2010-04-12T06:36:00.000-07:00

I did it!

I got up and ran this morning. I didn't do the c25K routine because I wanted to just see how much I could do non-stop, to kinda figure out where I was. I got up stretched, did a few jumping jacks to get my heart rate up and started running down the cul-de-sac by my house. I ran the whole thing and back again. It turned out to be 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Which doesn't sound like much but my calves were sore from doing Jillian yesterday. After running, I started walking and honestly, after a minute of walking I felt like I could run again. Maybe I should have, but I really just wanted today to be a practice run. It felt pretty good to run though, minus the feeling that all my neighbors were watching me out their windows. I also realized I need to invest in a new sports bra. LOL.

I also forgot that this was the week when I was going to attempt working out for an hour a day. Well...when I start the C25k routine on Wednesday, that will be 20-30 minutes, plus Jillian Level one...which is another 30 (including warm-up and cool down) That is an hour on MWF. So on TTH I will try Jillian Level 2, walking and yoga. I know walking and yoga is not really supposed to count...but...baby steps, right?

This is also my 100th blog post! YAY! Now I am going to go stretch out my calves and make a smoothie.YUM

Goals

2010-04-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday night and I just realized I haven't made next weeks goals.

I think Brooke has talked me into this C25K. Maybe....I don't know why but I am so nervous about trying to run. Silly, right? Since I have been doing Jillian? I should be able to run, right? And I take long walks everyday...I don't know...I just wish I had someone to run with me.

So.....next weeks goals

Try to do C25k MWF
Do Jillian Level 1 MWF...if I am up to it after c25k
Do Jillian Level 2 TTH
Track calories...I have had a bad food week :( but I may up my calories a little since I am more active now
Keep track of water (it's been a bad week for this, too)

Well...that's my health goals, I also have to write another story and work on homework...and don't forget Spring Cleaning!Ugh, my mind hurts just thinking about it.

Sorry, this is a boring blog...I am just not feelin' it tonight. I am a much better blog writer in the mornings!

Happy Blog-Day

2010-04-09T11:06:00.001-07:00

Well...it's Happy Blog Friday!

WOO!

Some things that make me happy:

My daughter and all the new words she is learning lately.

Writing...and believing that I can accomplish my 10/100 challenge.

My husband and good news from his work!

Friends...especially all you blog readers.

Flats and Flip-Flops, yes the shoes. The closest thing to barefoot I can get.

Yummy nut mixes. (Planter's NUTrition Energy mix)

Possibility of being in a writing group and making friends.

My maid. Ok, I don't really have a maid but the thought of one makes me happy.

The feeling I get after a good workout, you know...once the "OMG, I think I am dying" phase has past.

Nieces and Nephews...I will be getting one more of each this summer!

Jimmy John's sandwiches.

My daughter's cheesy grin.

So that is a pretty good list..it could go on and on and on....

Tomorrow I start Spring term in school. Ugh. I am not looking forward to ALGEBRA! But I am taking a class called "Human Identity through the Creative Arts" yes, it's a mouthful. It sounds pretty easy and fun, though.

OH! And if you are wondering...I have finished my first story for my 10/100 challenge. I will be posting it later on THIS BLOG if you want to read it. If you don't see a new story...check back tomorrow.

Well, will ya look at that...an entire blog without talking about weight.

Silliness!

2010-04-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

So Yesterday Sarah Posted some great pictures of herself after her workout so I was inspired to do the same. Call me crazy, but it just sounded fun! So the picture you are about to see it me minutes before stating my daily Jillian workout....

AH! Look at me...so optimistic and ready to tackle the day. So fresh-faced and innocent and naive. So bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

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And this is me minutes AFTER completing my Jillian workout.Are you ready for this?
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Jillian, what did you do to me? You ruined me! Destroyed me! Corrupted my innocence! I will never be the same!

So since I was taking silly pictures I just kept taking them. What can I say, I was in a silly mood after my workout. So here are some silly, humiliating pictures of me showing you how tough Jillian has made me (HA!) ENJOY!!

Flexing my ummm....muscles?

You want some of this??Haha...I might make that my profile pic! LOL.

Ok...that's my silliness for the day!Oh other health related news....

Guess what? When I started 30 Day Shred I could barely do 3-4 real push-ups before switching to the easy ones. After awhile I just gave up even trying the real ones. Well, I decided to give it a shot and guess what? I did 25! Without stopping! I didn't even feel like it was hard until after 15, so Jillian must be doing something! For those of you who are thinking of locking dear Jillian away out of fear...don't! Take it slow, and you will see results eventually!

And...I have another recommendation for you. Lately I have been eating about an ounce of nuts every day. Especially right after my workout., because it helps build muscle and fight the cravings and hunger you get after a good work out. I usaully get Blue Diamond plain Almonds because I love Almonds and it has the ounces premeasured. Well...today I tried Planter's NUT-rition Energy mix. It was sooooo yummy! You should try it! It has Almonds, honey-roasted peanuts, honey-roasted sesame sticks, dark chocolate covered soynuts, walnuts and pecans. This may be my new favorite healthy snack! Of course it is high in fat....like nuts usually are...so I can only have a little, but seriously....YUM. And it's the good kind of fat! I would gladly have this over m&m's!

Enjoy your day!

It's raining compliments!

2010-04-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Today I was thinking that I love to get compliments. Who doesn't, right? Sometimes when people are negative towards me it will spurn me to try harder to prove them wrong, but it;s done out of anger. But when I get a compliment, I want to move on because I know people are paying attention. It makes me happy and one compliment can give me fuel to keep going for at least a week. Compliments are powerful stuff.

So today I am going to take a moment to shower you , yes YOU, with compliments because I think you deserve it, and I think people should let each other know how they truly feel. So sit back, relax, and bask in the compliments. ENJOY!

Sarah- We started this together so I am going to start with you. You are a great friend and a great listener. Sure, you can vent for hours...but what matters is that when you are done...you are always ready to listen to me. That's a sign of a great friend. I envy you for your eyes. You have big, beautiful, gorgeous eyes. My eyes are tiny and boring. I wish I had your eyes. I also think you an amazingly talented photography, too. Your writing is great, too. Your poetry very lyrical and I think you could be a songwriter. You and your husband should write music together. I don't know how talented he is on the guitar but you guys could learn and grow together. But your photography......it's amazing! I can really see the depth of your passion in your photos. Even the dark adn depressing photos...I can see your happiness in each picture. You know on the movie Hook when they are looking for teh real Peter Pan? And they find it in the corner of his mouth? I can see the real you in your photos. Do something with that talent.

Nathalie-I knew you in high school and I am so grateful that we are friends again. I never told you...but I love your smile. Even back then, with your braces in, I thought you had a great smile. You still do of course! And you can SING. I never knew you could sing in high school. But I heard you sing in that video you made and I was amazed. Why didn't you try out for the musical in Waynesville? I would have given you my spot as a villager...I can't carry a tune to save my life. i wish I would have talked you into it. I am jealous of your knitting ability. I can barely crochet, and as it turns out, I crochet wrong to begin with. But your knitting is beautiful. I am also impressed by your writing ability. I knew you could write in high school. When I read your short story (and hopefully will see more soon) I wanted to put my pen down and quit my attempt at writing. You make it seem so effortless. Your details and subtle humor are great. You understand that your readers are not stupid and will figure out things are their own (something I struggle with-I want to expalin EVERYTHING). You are so talented!

Brooke- I don't really know you outside of your blog. But I know you like Garden State...so you must have great taste! You are an inspiration. I read your blog and feel so motivated...not just to lose weight...to do ANYTHING I put my mind to. Nothing seems to get you down. Even when you have an obstacle you seem to take it and move on. And you have done AMAZING things in one year. AMAZING. I also love your photography, you need to post more blogs on your photography. I think your pics are bright, cheery and hopeful. Just like you! I love your bold use of color, too. Also...you are just plain adorable!

Tyler- (yes he reads my blog daily) My husband. I am one lucky girl. You are a great husband, Tyler. No matter what I look like, no matter what I weigh, you always say I look great. You support me in anything I do and seem to be truly interested in everything I do. You are also a great father. I am jealous that Harliegh calls for you, several times, every day. and sometimes I am jealous of how much she loves you. I know she loves me, too. But you guys have a special connection that it amazing and beautiful. I know I nag you to be healthy but it's only because I want to share a nice long life with you!

Now I was going to make a longer list of a lot of other people...but I figured I would just focua on my most loyal readers and commenters. (Is that a word?) Thank you all for being there for me and pushing me to be a better person.

Ok...now on to something a little less sappy. As you know, I am getting closer to reaching my goal. As a reward I am getting my hair done and buying new clothes. I need your advice. I am torn with what to do to my hair. I am keeping the length, because I want to grow it out. But I am going to get more choppy layers put in to give it more shape, it's kinda shapeless right now. But I am trying to decide how to color it.

This is my hair as of today. Kind of a cinnamony color. This is my natural hair color. So option 1 is to leave it like this and maybe get some subtle honey colored highlights to lighten it up for the summer.

And this is me a few years ago when my hair was always bright, strawberry blonde. So Option 2 is to get my hair dyed back to this blonde color and get some fun, funky color streaks...liek the picture below...Just a little taste of color.

Here is my argument for both:
Option 1: I do like my natural color, and the blonde will brighten it without doing anything drastic. Plus it will be easy to maintain, don't really have to worry about roots for while.

Option 2: I like me as a blonde, too. I feel I look younger and in a way it fits my personality. Ever since I can remember I have always wanted soem funky color in my hair and have NEVER done it. Right now would be a good time because I am a SAHM and student and don't have to have a "professional" look.

So what do YOU think? Put your votes in now!

Have a great day!

BONUS BLOG!

2010-04-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey guess what time it is?

Time for an amazing, awesome, totally rad BONUS BLOG!

Yes, I already blogged today but you can have a free one just for being you. Air High-Five!
But...If you haven't read the first one, shame on you...and make sure you go read it...NOW. Go on, do it.

Sorry...my brain is a little bonkers right now.
So I tried out a little more of The Biggest Loser Wii game. Another thing I don't like...I couldn't figure out where to go to weigh myself. Maybe I am only allowed to weigh myself on weigh-in days, like the show? I don't know...but I think that should at least be an option. But I randomly chose a challenge to do just to see how it was. YIKES! I shouldn't have done that.
First...keep in mind that I already did Jillian Level 1 this morning...and we all know how much that can take out of you. So, I picked this challenge where you have to "cycle" to light up ten bulbs. Of course, I am not on a bicycle, my character was. But this is what you have to do. You switch from doing high-knees, (like butt kicks only you are bring your knees up to 90 degress instead of back to kick your butt) and football runs ( legs spread a little outside hips, and you "run" really quickly, while barely lifting your feet off the ground-think of any football movie you have ever seen) Ok...so you switch back and forth between these two exercises until you light up all ten bulbs. The faster you go, the faster you light up the bulbs but on average this seemed to take one minute. That is one round. THEN...you continue doing this for TEN freaking rounds. UGH! I was drenched in sweat and thought I was going to die! But I survived...and I actually don't feel too bad right now. I will tell you one thing, though...I love Bob...he is so much nicer than Jillian. Do they make Bob's 30 day Shred?

So....I haven't weighed myself in quite a few days. I pulled out the Wii Fit and stepped on it..and I have officially hit the ten pounds lost mark! I am really excited about that! When I started this my goal was to lose 15, so only 5 pounds to go! WOWZA!

I was also thinking about something today. Everything I have heard/read lately says women should exercise one hour a day to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight. This does not include light workout...cleaning, walking, etc. This is moderate to intense workout. This sounds sooo hard to me, especially being a stay at home mom. But NEXT week I think I might challenge myself to try it for one week. Just to see how it feels. I will probably go back to 20-30 minutes workout after that, but I want to challenge myself. I was thinking...20 minutes of Jillian in the morning, 20 minutes of wii fit or biggest loser in the afternoon and I figured 20 minutes of yoga combined with a 20 minute walk will probably make up for the rest. What do you think? Tell me if you think this sounds insane. I may not be thinking clearly after that crazy challenge!

Tuesday, Rainy Tuesday

2010-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

I am in a pretty good mood today. I don't know why, it's rainy and overcast and my allergies are always horrible when it rains. But I am feeling pretty good.

So yesterday I browsed through the Biggest Loser for the Wii. I must say, I was pretty impressed. it SEEMS like a good program....but it does take a littlt while to get into it. This is to be expected though. i had to input all of my stats and my personal goals. Then after you do all this you have the option to pick your exercise level. Beginner, Intermediate, etc...I picked Beginner, but in hindsight I should have picked a higher level since I am used to working out. I only did the warm-up just to try it out and it was pretty easy. They let you customize your own work out or you can do one of there routines. I recognized some stuff from Jillian, too! The game also tells you your recommended calorie intake and you can track your calories, too.

So at first look...here is what I liked so far:

You can customize your workout.
There are levels! (this would be good to do before starting the Jillian DVD)
YOGA! WOOHOO
Calorie tracker
Pick your trainer: Jillian or Bob. I picked Bob and he seems so much nicer than Jillian!

Here is what I don't like:

Time consuming, I was on for 30 minutes but I only managed to do a 6 minute warm-up in that time!

That's about it so far.
I will let you know more about it as I try more!

I tried a new recipe last night and it was scrumptious! I LOVE fish but I am always nervous to cook it myself because I am scared of under or over cooking it. It seems so easy to mess up. But this recipe was perfect! And so healthy for you! I had it with brown rice and broccoli. YUM

Crispy Oven-Fried Fish
(from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook)

Ingredients

1 pound fresh or frozen skinless fish fillets, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried dillweed
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse fish; pat dry with paper towels. Cut into four serving-size pieces, if necessary. Measure thickness of fish; set aside. Place milk in a shallow dish. Place flour in another shallow dish. In a third shallow dish combine bread crumbs, cheese, dillweed, and pepper. Add melted butter; stir until combined.

2. Dip fish in milk; coat with flour. Dip again in milk, then in crumb mixture to coat all sides. Place fish on a greased baking sheet. Bake, uncovered, in a 450 degree F oven for 4 to 6 minutes per 1/2-inch thickness or until fish begins to flake when tested with a fork.

3. Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Facts

Calories 242,
Total Fat (g) 9,
Saturated Fat (g) 5,
Cholesterol (mg) 71,
Sodium (mg) 423,
Carbohydrate (g) 13,
Fiber (g) 1,
Protein (g) 24,
Vitamin C (DV%) 2,
Calcium (DV%) 14,
Iron (DV%) 8,
Starch (d.e.) 1,
Very Lean Meat (d.e.) 3,
Fat (d.e.) 1,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Oxymorons

2010-04-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey hey everyone.
Happy Monday....that's kind of on oxymoron, isn't it? Like Icy/hot?

I have been pretty moody and grumpy the past few days...and it seems like most of you are in the same boat. Is there a full moon? haha. But I am trying to tell myslef to be happy and go on with my usual routine, though it is very hard! Today I did get up and do Jillian Level 2. This was dumb. I know that after a weekend of visiting family, eating lots of bad food, drinking little water adn getting less sleep is going to have a huge affect on how much exercise I can manage. BUT... for some reason I got up and said..."Do it, Quinn, it will help you release some stress." Well, ok to be honest, it did. I do feel a little better now...but it was a LOT harder than usual. i had to take several small breaks and I just got tired a lot quicker. ICK. But I did it. At least it's better than binge eating my stress out, right?

This afternoon I am going to check out the Biggest Loser Wii game. I am probably not going to do to many workouts, but I do want to see how it works before I jump into it head on. I will let you all know what I think of it. The problem with wii games, for me, is that I can't do it when Harliegh is awake. I can do the Jillian DVD and she will just try to do it along with me or start playing somewhere else. But the minute I pull out the wii balance board she is all of it and I can't really work out that way. And to be honest, I don't want to give up nap time to working out. Maybe I can sacrifice 30 min or so, but that's all I am willing to give up. Especially since I am going to school and need that time to work on school work.

I have a lot of potentially yummy and low-fat recipes I will be trying soon. I will be sure to post them soon!

Hope you guys all have a great Monday.

Happy Easter

2010-04-03T18:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone!

I hope everyone is taking it easy on the Chocolate Bunnies! So this weekend has not been so healthy for me, but I am not going to dwell on it. Why? Because I know that I am starting to know my body, and I now how bad foods effect me so I know I won't fall back into old habits over just one bad weekend. I just know that I will have to continue working out, eating healthy and smiling. That's all that matters.

I was at the MIL's yesterday. If you don't remember, she is the one who told me about Jillian's 30 Day Shred. Well, yesterday she told me about a The Biggest Loser Wii game. She bought it a month ago but decided she didn't have time to do it. I mean she works full-time, golfs, works out EVERY day...it would be crazy for her to fit in another workout! So....she just gave me her game. So YAY! I got a free workout game. I am going to try it out tomorrow and see how I like it.

So I think next week I am going to do Jillian Level 2 Tuesdays and Thursdays. Depending on how I like this new wii game, I will either do that or Jillian Level 1 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have decided to give up on the idea of walking every morning. When it comes down to it, I value the extra sleep more than I value that time to myself and light workout. I like the idea of it...but it's not working so much for me at the moment.

On other news. I have seven days to finish my first story in my 10/100 challenge.YIKES! I have an idea cooking though, so I am confident I can do it. I also start my next term in school next weekend. I am taking Human Identity through the Creative Arts, which sounds easy and interesting. And Applied Algebra.....wish me luck. :(

Hey Hey

2010-04-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

How is everyone doing? Well, today, once again, I did not get up to walk. I am thinking about just shelving this goal for now.It's just that I get my best sleep the last few hours of the morning, I now I can adjust that...but it's hard. Today I went to a taste testing. It's something you can do around here (and maybe where you live to...who knows) where you can go in and taste something, today it was a banana nut muffin, take a quick survery...and just like that, in less than 15 minutes...you have made $30! The downside is, I only get called to do it a couple times a year. So I dropped Tyler off at work and then Harliegh and I went to Target, and yes, I spent that money. I bought a new shirt for myself since all of my old shirts are a bit stretched out and too big, I am pretty excited about that. I also bought something for Tyler...I can't tell you cause he reads my blog daily, and I bought Harliegh some cute summer shoes that were on clearance! Yay for good deals! After running around for awhile we stopped for lunch, Harliegh and I shared a kids meal because she never finishes them anyway. It was nice having a day of shopping with just the girls! When I got home, I put Harliegh in bed for a nap and got in my workout clothes with all intentions of doing Jillian. I stepped on my patio for a minute and thought, wow....it's perfect outside today. I laid down on my porch swing, and I was out. Yep, I fell asleep! By the time I woke up I figured it was way too late to workout if I still wanted to shower, blog, clean, get dinner ready all before picking up Tyler at work. So....oops. Oh well.
Tomorrow I am headed to Iowa to visit family for the weekend. I am planning on fitting in Jillian at my usual time...about 9:45...because we aren't planning on leaving the house until 11 and it will be my last chance to get in a workout until Monday. Maybe Sunday.....

On another note- I am starting a 10/100 creativity challenge. I originally started this for myself to try to get myself to write more, but I think I may have talked Nathalie into it, too. Any other takers? Sarah? Brooke? I know you are both artistic. I am challenging myself to write 10 stories in 100 days, but it can be anything, poetry, photography, etc. We shouldn't focus on just being healthy, we need something to be passionate about in our lives. Not that we aren't passionate about being healthy, but ...you know what I mean. If you are interested just mosey on around my other blog Bookwormquinn and check it out. Maybe we can work some reward program out...or we can ALL start new blogs. I don't know...just an idea.

And back to the health topic, I have a lot of fun, new recipes planned the next two weeks. I will be sure to post the good ones!

Have a healthy weekend and a Happy Easter!

Picture Day

2010-03-31T12:12:00.000-07:00

Well, hello!
I know this is a day early...but I had time, so I thought it I would do this today. So this is my progress pic from 2 weeks ago.

And this is my pic from today. Jillian is fantastic. She should pay me for promoting her video, but I am proof it works!

I only have 7 pounds to lose to reach my goal. But honestly, that's just a number and I am starting to feel comfortable with my body now, I don't even check my weight like I used to. I really just like being healthy and working out and trying new foods. I am so excited to go clothes shopping on May 1st with my sister. I was going through my clothes the other day when I realized....all of my skinny clothes are gone. I remember thinking last year when I was edging near 175-180 that I probably would never fit into anything again and I got rid of MOST of my pre-pregnancy clothes, what was I thinking? I won't make that mistake again now that I know I am in control of my body, not the other way around. But, yes...I have NO CLOTHES. My clothes are getting too big, and just hang on me. My jeans slide right off. In fact, I have one pair of jeans that fit ok and those are even getting loose. I did keep some old pre-pregnancy jeans, and those are too small. I honestly don't know if I will fit into those again...pregnancy can do amazing things to your hips. Even if I lose more weight, my hips just aren't as slim as they used to be, finally I have a little curve!
For all of those out there working hard and making lifestyle changes ...keep it up, you will see change! Just as a reminder....here is me on Mother's Day LAST year....so not even a whole year ago. See what a difference a few months of hard work can do? Those jeans don't even stay on me anymore!

Before I go...I big shout out to my sister, Darci. She is starting Jillian and walking more, too. She is one of those girls that look cute at all times, so now she is going to get all fit and be even cuter. Damn her! :)

(100)Days

2010-03-30T06:32:00.000-07:00

Good morning!

Well, I had a doctor's appointment this morning and since I HAD to get up and get dressed I went on a quick ten minute walk. It was refreshing and I feel more awake now than I usually do at this time. So I will try to do it again on Thursday and maybe work my way up to longer walks and possibly jogging. So my appointment was just a follow-up appointment for the GERD. Everything is looking good and my doctor even complimented my TEN pound weight loss since the last time I was in. I also paid attention to my blood pressure, thanks to Nathalie and her blog a few weeks ago. It was 110/60....I have no idea what that means...but that's good, right? I should refer back to Nathalie's blog. My doctor was also pretty impressed with my exercise and eating healthy! YAY ME!

Guess what today is? It is been 100 DAYS since I started using my Wii Fit! WOW! Now, of course, I didn't use it EVERY DAY but....it's been 100 days since I stepped on the balance boaurd and said "I need to get in shape and be healthier". I have lost ten pounds and a few inches and I am healthier all around. My wii fit age went from 50-ish to 23-ish. I have better balance and better body control. In just 100 DAYS. It makes me wonder waht else I could accomplish in just 100 days. Write a book? Write a few short stories? Learn to play Guitar? Train to run in a marathon? I feel like I can accomplish ANYTHING. Why not, right? I thought I would have quit this already and I am still going strong! So today I am going to make a new goal, non-weight related, because not everything has to be about weight. As you know I have another blog, Bookwormquinn, so my new goal is to write ten short stories in 100 days. That doesn't sound too bad, about a story every ten days. So keep an eye on my other blog and encourage me to keep going, because I need encouragement, and I couldn't have made it 100 days without YOU. (Sarah, Nathalie and Brooke especially) So Happy 100 to me! YAY!

On another note, I had another success....I got my husband to take a walk on Sunday and Monday! This is big for me because, well.....he just doesn't do outdoors and he likes to sit and play games all the time. Now that I am living a healthier life I am trying to encourage my family to do the same, because I love them and I want them to live a long, full, healthy life. I have also gotten Tyler (the hubby) to eat healthier for dinner and I am hoping to squeeze another walk or two out of him this week because it is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL this week. It's supposed to be 70 + for the next three days! WOO!

You may have noticed, I didn't post my portobello mushroom recipe last night...it was not so good. I think the red wine vinegar just made it taste bitter...so yuck. But the point is I am trying to make new recipes, so it's ok that this was a FAIL!

Today is my yoga day and I am looking forward to it. I just feel....blah and tired and some yoga and a short nap sound PHENOMENAL!

A big shout out to Sarah, who is feeling a little down and could use some cheering up!

Mondays

2010-03-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

It's Monday....yay. Can you hear my excitement?

So I am not feeling so hot today...but we must go on, right? After I finish this blog I am going to do Jillian Level 1, but I have already decided that I am going at a very slow pace. Then I will take a quick shower and Harliegh and I will go for a walk. Then maybe I will get in some yoga when she goes down for a nap and possibly take a nap myself.

I know most people hate Mondays, but I kind of like em. It gives you a chance to start over fresh, make new goals and throw out old goals that didn't work out.

I really don't know what else to talk about today. My brain is in kind of a fuzz. Blah.

I am trying a new Portobello Mushroom recipe tonight, I will be sure to post the recipe...maybe some pics If I can find my missing camera!

Have a great day!

2010-03-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

So I know I didn't post a blog yesterday, but i have one busy little mama. You see, this Saturday is my FINAL class for the term and I have been busy, busy, busy putting together one massive portfolio for my Creative Writing Class. I have revised and edited 7 poems, 1 flash fiction, 1 mentor project and 2 short stories so many times that my head is spinning and all of my characters are all mixed together creating little mini stories. It's pure havoc in my brain! But....I only have to revise one story one more time, and write a two page self-evaluation, and put everything neatly into a folder....though I am running out of hours in the day!

You will be happy to know that I have been working out everyday. I have done Jillian Level 2 every other day and yoga in between, as well as walking once or twice a day every single day. I managed to make it through Jillian Level2 today without the overwhelming need to vomit. ha. I just worked at a slower pace then they did on the screen, but I made it though it all!

So...I usually do this on Sunday, but I am going to do it now.

Last week's goals

1. Count calories, stick to my 1250 a day plan. (stuck to this for the most part, a couple minor setbacks but I usually compensated by eating less or skipping snacks...no biggie)
2. Try Jillian Level 2! (I'm a little scared) if my leg feels better, that is...( Tried this, went semi-well)
3.Do Jillian every other day and Wii Fit the other days (Yep....succeeded)
4. Bedtime: 11 (hmmm....for the most part, yes...Level 2 wears you out!)
5. Get up early and walk/jog by myself twice(uh......no)

And here are next weeks goals:

1. Stay on calorie counting
2. Jillian...I am going to do Level 1 on Monday and Friday, Level 2 on Wednesday
3. Yoga on Tuesday and Thursday (maybe more since a certain visitor is on the way)
4. Bedtime:11 (don't laugh but I can't figure out how to take the italics off)
5. (ooo...no italics) Get up on Tuesday and Thursday to jog/run (I have an early dr. appt on Tuesday so I need to get up anyway)

That's all.....basically the same as last week with some minor tweaks.

I haven't lost any this week....but....see the parentheses in goal number 3. So I am not discouraged.

Finally...it's friday...and I am trying to say something that I love on Friday...soooooo

Free Time

I love free time sooo much, and it has been something I have seen very little of this week. In fact, I really don't even have the time to go into detail about how much I love free time. So this will just have to do.

Have a great weekend!

Tired

2010-03-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

So I tried Jillian Level 2 today and had to stop after the strength part of circuit 3. Not because I couldn't do it, but suddenly I had the need to vomit. I didn't...but it was close. Once I thought about it, I think this must be from my GERD I remember reading that I have to be careful not to workout too soon after eating with GERD. I had waited an hour, but maybe I should wait two. PLUS, I am sure all the jumping up and down and bouncing while in the plank position does not help with the reflux! I think on Friday, I will just wait the two hours adn see if that helps, if not...I am going back to Level 1. I don't really want to induce vomiting. Other than that, I really like Level 2.

I saw on the news this morning that women age 20 and up should do a minimum of one hour of moderate exercise a day to fight the weight gain after 50. Did you know that? I didn't but it makes me glad I am making lifestyle changes now!

So this is a pretty short blog...but I am tired.

Later!

2010-03-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning!
Well....I forgot to set my alarm this morning. I hate alarms, so I guess I was hoping I would just wake up on my own. I didn't. I woke up at 7:15 and nestled down into my warm bed and pillow. A few minutes later, Harliegh woke up. I really do want to try to get up because I think once I get a taste of walking/jogging and being 100% by myself I will want more and more! The hardest part is just doing it. But I still have time...my goal was to get up and walk just two days, and it's only Tuesday!

I wasn't as sore as I expected this morning from doing Level 2. I guess the aleve really helped. I am a little sore, but nothing bad at all. Guess what today is? March 23rd? and guess what March 23rd is? Free Cone Day at Ben&Jerry's! AH! Now...please don't throw your shoes at me in disgust. They are only tiny cones and I have to walk down a huge steep hill just to get one...then back up again. But who can pass up a free ice cream cone? Not I.

I am watching Ellen...she has a segment about weird inventions. Some idiot actually invented something called a" The Spoon and Fork Lift"....an actual spoon and fork that is weighted like a dumbbell so you can work out your arms while you eat! SERIOUSLY?!?!?! WOW. Just....WOW.

I woke up this morning and opened my patio door to let in some fresh air. Within ten minutes my eyes were red, itchy, swollen, watery. AHHHHH....SPRING! Gotta love allergies, huh?? So maybe I won't be enjoying my cone as much as I had hoped!

I was reading Nathalie's blog this morning and she was talking about how unhealthy America is. It's true...makes you not so proud to be an American. BUT I am PROUD to say that Minneapolis, Minnesota ( I live in a suburb) is one of the healthiest American cities! YAY!We have to focus on something to get us through the winters, right? Might as well be health!

This blog is soooooooo random and jumping everywhere. I hope you enjoyed the ride. LOL. My brain must be swelling from my allergies! hahahaha....ha....ha.

okiloveyoubuhbye!

Level 2

2010-03-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

I did Jillian Michaels Level 2 this morning! YIKES! Level 2 makes Level 1 look like a walk in the park! Really...my head is in a fog right now! It's all a blur to me! LOL The one positive about Level 2 is that it seems to go by much quicker than Level 1. I only stopped once for a 5 second break. In that 5 seconds I blubbered like a fool and nearly started bawling than I told myself to "man up" and keep working so I did. I had to do the "easy" version of most of the workouts, I felt so wimpy!
Luckily, I had the great foresight to take an aleve beforehand so I am not feeling it so much right now. Tomorrow is a different story...but the yoga will help that.
I was going to go into detail about the workouts...but I don't even know how to explain them. Right now, though, I am missing punches and side-lunges. :(

I sat down and made my meal plan through Friday! This really helps me stay on track! I also have been keeping track of my water intake! Today I have already had 4 tall glasses of water (about 14oz of water each) so I will try to get one more down before the day is over. How do I do this when I hate drinking? One tall glass with Breakfast, one before Jillian, one during/after Jillian, one with lunch and one with dinner. I also mark each glass on a paper on my fridge to remind me how many I have had and how many I have left to go.

Tomorrow I am going to TRY to get up and go for a walk/jog and then do YOGA! I am sure my body will thank me for the yoga!

Have a great day!

Sunday's Goals

2010-03-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
I haven't posted since Thursday! OOPS! But don't worry, I have been reading all of yours. So it's Sunday and that means it's time to evaluate last weeks goals and make new goals.

Here are my goals from last week:
1.Try to go to bed even earlier...maybe 11?
2. Try to do Jillian every day
3. Get up early twice and take a walk

Going to bed early....didn't work out so well. The time change screwed me up and for some reason I couldn't sleep at all last week. I stopped taking my vitamins because I was worried they were causing it but I haven't seen a difference so I might start them up again and just keep trying to go to bed earlier.

I did Jillian everyday up until Thursday. I think I pulled a muscle and I want to give it time to heal. Actually I did Jillian on Friday, too...I just skipped the workouts that I knew would hurt my leg.

I didn't get up early, but I did go on several walks. So I kinda half did this goal!

I weighed myself today and I have gained 1/2 pound. Nothing to be upset about...but a huge difference form the 3 lbs lost the week before! The only difference was that I didn't count calories....even though I hate doing, counting calories has proven to be effective over and over again.

So next week's goals:

1. Count calories, stick to my 1250 a day plan.
2. Try Jillian Level 2! (I'm a little scared) if my leg feels better, that is...
3.Do Jillian every other day and Wii Fit the other days
4. Bedtime: 11
5. Get up early and walk/jog by myself twice

I really want to reach my goal by May 1st, so I gotta focus and stay on track!

Seems like a couple of you are trying Jillian this week. I am excited to see what you think. Be prepared to hate Jillian (and probably me for recommending it) and to be SORE...but it's a good pain, right? RIGHT! Of course it is!

Crispy Tofu and Vegetables

2010-03-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

So my tofu recipe for tonight......A-freakin'-mazing. Seriously....It was sooo good. I couldn't stop eating it!I cut the tofu into smaller strips so it was more like chicken finger size and I used Stir-Fry sauce instead of teriyaki. If you want to try tofu..this is the recipe for you. Some tips: After you drain the tofu wrap it in several layers of paper towels and press between two heavy plates ....put in fridge for a few hours before cooking. Also...you have to be really careful when turning the fried tofu. Oh....and look at the awesome calorie count!

Crispy Tofu and Vegetables

Ingredients

2 cups fresh sugar snap peas (8 ounces)
1 12- to 16-ounce package light, reduced-fat, or regular extra-firm tub-style tofu (fresh bean curd), drained (see tip, page 00)
3 tablespoons reduced-sodium teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 medium red sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
1 medium yellow sweet pepper, cut into thin strips
8 green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 tablespoon white or black sesame seed, toasted (optional) (see tip page 000)

Directions

1. Remove strings and tips from pea pods; cut in half. Set pea pods aside. Cut tofu crosswise into eight 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices in a single layer in a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Pour 2 tablespoons of the teriyaki sauce over tofu; turn slices to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes.

2. In a shallow dish combine cornmeal and ground red pepper. Drain tofu, discarding marinade. Carefully dip tofu slices in cornmeal mixture; press gently to coat both sides. Set tofu slices aside.

3. Pour 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil into a large nonstick skillet. Preheat over medium-high heat. Stir-fry sweet pepper strips for 2 minutes. Add pea pods and green onions; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes more or until crisp-tender.

4. Remove skillet from heat; stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce. Transfer vegetable mixture to a serving platter; cover and keep warm. Wipe skillet clean.

5. In the same skillet heat the remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil and the cooking oil over medium heat. Cook the coated tofu slices for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes on each side or until crisp and golden brown, using a spatula to turn carefully. Serve tofu slices over vegetable mixture. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

6. Makes 4 main-dish servings

Nutrition Facts

Calories 151,
Total Fat (g) 6,
Saturated Fat (g) 1,
Monounsaturated Fat (g) 1,
Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 1,
Cholesterol (mg) 0,
Sodium (mg) 473,
Carbohydrate (g) 15,
Total Sugar (g) 2,
Fiber (g) 3,
Protein (g) 9,
Vitamin A (DV%) 0,
Vitamin C (DV%) 196,
Calcium (DV%) 6,
Iron (DV%) 14,
Starch (d.e.) .5,
Vegetables (d.e.) 1,
Lean Meat (d.e.) 1,
Fat (d.e.) .5,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

The Ice is Melting

2010-03-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my walk yesterday. I will post some more when it gets nicer outside!

The lake is still partially frozen.

This is the killer hill I walk up and down!

Beautiful, huh?

I think I may have pulled a muscle or something. My calf is killing me! It started hurting when I was doing lunges on Monday and it has just gotten worse since. So I am going to give it a rest for a few days and see if it feels better.

I am trying a new tofu recipe tonight. I will be sure to post the recipe!

Portobello Mushrooms in Boursin Sauce

2010-03-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

This was my delicious dinner! It was YUMMY!

Pasta Shells w/ Portobello Mushrooms and Asparagus in Boursin Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound portobello mushrooms, stems removed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (5.2 ounce) package pepper Boursin cheese
3/4 pound uncooked pasta shells
1 pound fresh asparagus, trimmed

Directions

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and heat the olive oil. Cut the mushroom caps in half, and slice 1/4 inch thick. Cook mushrooms in the skillet 8 minutes, or until tender and lightly browned. Season with salt. Stir in the chicken broth and Boursin cheese. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly, until well blended.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add shell pasta and cook for 5 minutes. Place the asparagus into the pot, and continue cooking 5 minutes, until the pasta is al dente and the asparagus is tender; drain. Toss with the mushroom sauce to serve.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 380 | Total Fat: 16.6g | Cholesterol: 35mg

I got this recipe off of Allrecipes.com. Of course....I made some changes. First, I used the Light Garlic Boursin Cheese. I also sauteed onions and garlic with the mushrooms for some extra oomph! It was delicious. Even my husband loved it. And did you check out the calorie count? If you absolutely hate mushrooms you COULd replace it with chicken. But the mushrooms were AMAZING! And the boursin cheese is a little on the expensive side but I am sure you can replace it with some garlic cream cheese for a similar taste!

ENJOY!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hellooooooooooo Nurse (in true Animaniacs style)
I would like to start out this blog by giving a HUGE shout out to BROOKE. She has hit 100 pounds lost! Isn't that amazing? Go Brooke!

So far this week I have manage to do my Jillian workout and even went on TWO walks on Monday, it was rainy on Tuesday. Today I WAS going to skip my workout but I got inspired by both Brooke and Nathalie and their great blogs! I am so close to my goal and living a healthier lifestyle, no breaks for me! So in a minute I am going to eat breakfast, do my Jillian and take my daughter on a walk. Then maybe I will take a break...for an hour or so.

The reason I wanted a break day is because I have not been sleeping well at all. This is normal for me, I have never been a good sleeper, but lately I just toss and turn all night. It could be the time change that has thrown me off, who knows? I think I am going to get some tylenol pm and try that for a day or two. I need SLEEP. This morning, Harliegh woke up at 7:15 and I could not get up, I physically COULD NOT fully wake up. I had a dream THREE times that I woke up my husband and told him to get up. Finally realized I was dreaming and it wasn't real and woke up just enough to wake up Tyler and beg him to get up. He did, and let me sleep until 8:45 when he had to get ready for work. He's such a good hubby.

Of course, that extra sleep only resulted in me having scary nightmares about kidnappers and weird religious cults. But that's another story!

Have you checked out my writing blog? it's Bookwormquinn and I have no followers and have yet to get a comment, so show some love. I am trying to write more and need some encouragement. I am currently working on a Flash Fiction piece (less than 750 words) and it has proved to be a challenge....a lot harder than any short story. In fact, that is one thing that has been keeping me up at night!

So this hasn't really been about anything health related....no I take that back. I talked about sleep...and that has a LOT to do with health! I am also planning on trying a NEW recipe tonight so I will post the recipe. I am trying to get a recipe exchange together soon. I will keep you updated on that!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Wear your green....and eat some green!

Recipes!

2010-03-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Blogateers!

I have had a good day so far. I didn't go to bed early though so I am kind of tired...darn time change. But I did my Jillian workout this morning and Harliegh started doing it with me! It was the funniest thing ever. She was trying to do the jump rope exercise, then after jump rope you do bicycle crunches. So she laid down on the ground and sighed "AHHHHH" and then put her feet up and grunted "Argggggh" it was too cute. After the workout I was stretching and she looked at me weird, walked over to me and pulled on my shirt to get me to stand up. So I did. She gave my a gruff look then started doing jump rope...So, how can you say no to that? I did about 30 more jump ropes! What a great motivator! After workout we went for a walk. It was soooo nice and beautiful outside! 53 degrees! So we went down to the lake for the first time this year. Hardly any snow left and not too many muddy puddles! It was nice, but now I am really tired.

So I was sitting last night writing out some recipes, I have a huge binder for recipes....and it's pretty much empty. I am horrible at writing down recipes I have tried and liked. So I ws thinking of trying a recipe exchange. Would you be interested?

This is how it would work, I think, I would write down a recipe on a index card. Then I would send that recipe to a list of interested people. Once you get your recipe, you have to write down a recipe on an index card and send it to me and whoever else you want to include. Every time you receive a new recipe you have to return the favor and send that person a new one. What do you think? Would it work? Or should I try something else? Comment me and let me know if you are interested and any good suggestions.

getting close!

2010-03-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Just a short blog to make my weeks goals!

I have had a great week this past week. I lost 3 pounds! Now that's great, but it is unhealthy to lose too much in one week ( I think 5 is the max) But this means I am only need to lose about 6 pounds to reach my goal! WOOHOO.

I am going to post a pic...not to brag....just to show you that a little hard work can really pay off! As I am sure you all know, anyway!

This is my Wii Fit progress chart for weight. You can see how up and down the dots are....but they are all moving slowly down ward! Yippee!

And this is a pic of my Jillian abs after another week! This is why I love Jillian!

I think everyone has a trick that works the best for them, Jillian is mine. I hope you find yours soon if you haven't already.

So this was my last weeks goals...
1. Take my vitamins everyday
2. focus on drinking lots of water
3. make a meal plan and stick to it
4. workout everday- Jillian DVD on STTH and Wii Fit on MWF
5. try to go to bed earlier..I am setting my goal for 11:30-(this will be the hardest for me)

Guess what? I did ALL of them!

so here are some goals for next week....

1.Try to go to bed even earlier...maybe 11?
2. Try to do Jillian every day
3. Get up early twice and take a walk

and of course continue with the vitamins and water. I might up my calories soon, too. I don't want to get below my goal weight. I want to be a nice healthy weight. I can't believe since Jan 1st I have went from being on the border of overweight to the middle of my healthy range! YAY!

Well...hope you guys have a fantastic week!

Happy thoughts!

2010-03-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

ooops...I forgot to do my Happy Friday Blog, so I will do it now.

I want to try to focus on one thing, but I am going to start buy pointing out some smaller things. First, I want to say I am extremely happy with my progress this week. After hitting a plateau for nearly two months, I am losing weight again! I have lost THREE pounds since Sunday. There are three things that I have changed this week that could have caused this. 1. I started taking One-A-Day Metabolism Vitamins. 2. I have stuck to my 1250 calorie meal plan 3. Jillian Michaels.
I guess I could also add in that I have been forcing the water this week, too.

The second thing that makes me happy is YOU. Yes, you, my blog readers and bloggers. We all have different stories and different struggles. Some of you have much longer journeys to make than I do, but I couldn't have made it this far without YOU. You are all AMAZING people! So don't give up, keep blogging and keep commenting. This goes out especially to Sarah, Nathalie and Brooke.

AND the thing I want to focus on today is WALKS. I love taking walks and I am itching to get out and start my walks again. Last Spring, when my daughter wasn't even walking yet I would bundle her up (it stays pretty chilly here until about June) and take long walks. This is how our days went:
Wake up, breakfast, get dressed, leave to take a walk (about twice a week we would start by stopping at the Library). About a half a mile from my house is Lake Minnetonka, one of the biggest lakes in Minnesota. Coming from the state whose slogan is "The land of 10,000 lakes" that's saying a lot. So, naturally, this is my favorite place to walk. The catch is...to get to the lake I have to walk down a HUGE, steep hill. Add in a stroller with a 20 lb baby and you have quite a workout! But it's so worth it. Once you get down to the lake there are a number of docks and the sidewalk runs right along the lake. The town is beautiful and there are usually a ton of flowers and shady trees everywhere. After about a ten minute walk down the sidewalk you come to an old Train Depot, they don't use it anymore, but they made it into a cute little museum. Outside of the train depot they have a beautiful flower garden leading up to more docks and a nice area for picnics. If you walk down a little hill you can walk across a dock to the beach. There is a small stretch of sand and the lake and a great playground. Usually this is the point Harliegh and I would take a break and play. We would walk barefoot int he sand, dip our toes in the water, build sand castles, swim (when it got hot enough), and I would push her in the baby swings. And the sailboats! Sail boats everywhere! White, Bright blue, Yellow, Red. I love sailboats. They are so....whimsical and romantic. After awhile I would put her in the stroller and we would continue our walk.
Over some more hills and a nice little wooded area, we would then be making a loop back to where we started. Across the street from the sidewalk near the lake is a cute row of little shops. Harliegh and I would sometimes stop by Ben &Jerry's for ice cream or Starbucks for a coffee and juice. Sometimes we would duck into the cutest little bookshop you have ever seen. But most of the time we would just window shop, staring longingly into all the clothes stores with merchandise way too expensive for me. Then we would make our way up the huge hill. You think it's hard going down? I can feel every muscle working on the way up.

Those are my summer walks. After this,w e would go home, have lunch, take a nap...and then do it all over again. Occasionally I would opt to walk to the other park a few blocks away (no hills). But that's it....Two walks a day almost every day from April until September!
You might think that is crazy....but that is how I lost the first 30 pounds of my baby weight. Just walking, pretty much!

So that is my happy thought for the day. Hopefully I didn't bore you. When the snow melts and it gets a little prettier I will take pics and show you. It's beautiful!

Walk this way

2010-03-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

Did you know? It's supposed to be over 50 degrees on Monday! I am thrilled! Maybe I can start walking to the lake again! Nathalie sent me a pedometer and I am excited to see how long my walks are because when I was trying to lose weight last year walks really made the biggest difference. If you are just starting out working out/getting healthy I highly suggest starting with walks...maybe some yoga. I LOVE walks.

So today I am going to do Jillian again. I know I did it yesterday....but, I managed to make it through the whole thing without breaking and even somehow had energy to dance while making lunch. SO that's a sign I am ready to do it everyday. So I am going to do it today, then tomorrow I have class, then maybe take an easy day on Sunday. Then...next week, starting Monday, I am going to ATTEMPT it every day, I will just do the Wii Fit on days I absolutely don't think I can make it through Jillian. I sat down and watched Level 2 yesterday, so far I have stuck to Level 1. It looked like something from a horror movie! YIKES. But I think after one more week of doing Level 1, I may attempt it.

Right now, I am going to take my vitamin. Get my daughter dressed for the day and do my workout because I really need all of nap time to work on homework. Procrastination, eh?

Have a great, healthy weekend!

Dear Jillian

2010-03-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

hello bloggers!

Today is another Jillian day. My back feels better now. Actually, I tried some yoga yesterday and by the time I was done the back pain was gone!

I was talking to Sarah about how great the Jillian work out is. I love it. BUT...I think it is best if you try it when you are already used to doing some hard work outs. I know, Jillian makes comments about how she has made 400lb people do these workouts....but honestly if you are not ready you will end up in tears on the floor and will most likely burn the DVD. But it is great, really. You just have to be mentally and physically ready for it.

Why do I like it so much? It breaks the workouts into 6 minute circuits. Each circuit consists of a 3 minute strength, 2 minute cardio and 1 minute abs. So just when you feel like you can't take jumping jacks anymore...she lets you lie down to do abs. You do 3 sets of circuits so teh whole workout is only 20 minutes. And really....20 minutes won't kill you, right? Most definitely not. I think everyone should try this workout. Just don't get discouraged...if it's too hard adn you REALLY can't get through it...put it away for a week. But I think most of you will be surprised that you can make it through most of it if you really put your mind to it.

So.....I am going to post two pictures to show you the effects of Jillian.

Okay, this first picture is just a
normal week when I did just a Wii Fit
workout every day

And this picture is after a little
over one week of doing Jillian
just every other day
Of course...some of that
difference might be bloating
but I really believe most of it is from Jillian.

So...as you can see, I am almost to my my pre-pregnancy body! Honestly, I am perfectly happy with my body now. But I just want to tighten up those abs in preparation for my next pregnancy. I look this standing up, but when I lay down on my side....I swear all my inner organs flop onto the bed. Gross, I know. But I just have this loose flappy skin that just hangs there. I have read that if you work those ab muscles it will help tighten that up and the skin will start to slowly shrink, we will see. I also am practicing a healthy lifestyle so it will be easier to stick to when I am pregnant. I am hoping if I do this I won't have the same struggle I had last time. I hear the second pregnancy is a lot harder on your body!

Well, I am going to attempt to do my Jillian workout now so I can fully enjoy my "time-off" during nap time.

Have a nice day!

Oh, my aching back

2010-03-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

I need your help, yes YOU. My Creative Writing teacher wants my entire class to submit a work to the college's literary magazine. If you are bored and have nothing better to do go to my writing blog
and read my short stories, "Red Shoes" and "The Forgettable Life of Patrick Sullivan". I am taking a poll to see which one is a better story. Thanks!

How is everyone doing otherwise? My back is killing me, I don't know if I did something while working out or if I slept wrong but I had to get up at 3am, nearly in tears, to take some tylenol and rub some icyhot on my back. Usually, I let Wednesday be my day off, and I was going to skip it this week, but a day off might be necessary. :(

When I stepped on the Wii Fit yesterday to weigh myself I was pleasantly surprised. I lost 1.8 pounds! Now, I am sure this was water weight, but still, it's something to be happy about. I am getting very close to my goal! Only 8 pounds to go!

Hope you guys are all doing fantastic and I hope Sarah&Emma are feeling much better and got some sleep!

Think Healthy Thoughts

2010-03-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

I want to send out a shout out to Sarah and Emma who are currently horribly sick! Hope you both feel better soon, get tons of rest and pamper yourself. You deserve it. Don't think about weight/working out, you will know when its time to start that again! HUGS!

So today is another Jillian Micheals work out day. I didn't sleep well last night so I was very tired and was already planning on taking a nap when I got up at 7. Fortunately, my dear husband got up for awhile so I could get a little extra sleep. I was STILL thinking of my nap when I started to feel guilty about planning to skip my workout, ESPECIALLY on Jillian day...when it counts the MOST. So I set up some paints for Harliegh and did my workout early, compromising that I could still take a nap if I got my workout in. I am kinda glad I did this and it worked out pretty well, except when Harliegh decided to sit on my stomach mid-crunch. LOL. I was still a little sore from Sundays Jillian Work out, but I found that as I did the workout today, I loosened up a lot and the sore muscles actually improved.

I tried to take my vitamin 15 minutes after eating today and guess what? No Nausea. I guess I will have to do this everyday!

Think Healthy thoughts! (for you and for Sarah&Emma)

Complaining!!! (positively)

2010-03-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday....kind of.

I am trying to be positive, but I am going to complain to ya', too...in a positive way! LOL.

Okay...my first complaint...
it's supposed to rain ALL week...positive twist: at least it's not SNOW!

The vitamins I started yesterday made me very, very nauseous....positive twist: I am healthier (I think) and hopefully the nausea will go away soon...I feel like I am prego again! (I'm not)

My entire body is sore! Abs, chest, legs, arms, butt...positive twist: this means I got a great workout yesterday

I am incredibly tired...positive twist: I went to bed at 11:30, even though I tossed and turned. But at least I should be ready for bed early tonight, right?

Ok, I guess that is enough complaining for today. It's true though, the vitamins made me nauseated all day yesterday. Has anybody else had this problem? It happens EVERY time I try to take vitamins. But I am going to stick to it for awhile and see if my body will get used to it. Bleh.
I did do my Jillian work out yesterday! I am definitely feeling it today, but it's a good hurt. I am glad that I only do this every other day! Today I can do the Wii Fit and focus on a lot of YOGA, I am looking forward to it! If you have never tried the Jillian work out....it's hard! But so worth it! I will be honest with you, I have to take several short breaks during the work out, or else I would not be able to make it through it....and it's only 20 minutes!

Blech...I took my vitamins a half and hour ago and the nausea begins. Yuck.

Sorry ...I just had to say that.
I didn't get around to making my meal plan yesterday so I am going to work on that while Harliegh watches Sesame Street.
Have a great day!

Next weeks goals

2010-03-07T06:33:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone!

How are you this morning? I am a little sore today from my workout yesterday, but that is to be expected since I have not worked out in a week!
Today I am going to start my vitamins! I got the generic, Target-Brand of One-a-day Metabolism. There is supposed to be something in there that boosts your metabolism. It's also supposed to give you energy. I really need energy! In the past I have not had good luck with vitamins, my prenatal vitamins made me sick and once I tried Centrum and those also made me nauseous but I am going to try vitamins again. Today I am also going to attempt my Jillian Michaels DVD. It's a love/hate relationship with that DVD, I hate it while I am doing it, but I can really feel it working. Also, I was looking at pics the other day and the week that I was doing that DVD every other day you could really see definition in my abs that you just couldn't see before and I haven't seen since. I am also going to take time today to make a meal plan for myself for the next few days. I find that if I do this I have a better chance of sticking to my goal 1200 calorie goal.

So thats my plan for the day, Now I need to make some goals for next week. Last week, as you know, I didn't stick to any of my goals, so I really need to try harder this week. So, here are my weeks goals.

1. Take my vitamins everyday
2. focus on drinking lots of water
3. make a meal plan and stick to it
4. workout everday- Jillian DVD on STTH and Wii Fit on MWF
5. try to go to bed earlier..I am setting my goal for 11:30-(this will be the hardest for me)

So, that's it. I think that those should be easy enough, right? In the next few weeks I want to start getting up early and walking/jogging in the morning, but I need to work up to that.

If you are interested, I will also be updating my Family Blog and my Writing Blog today, so if you are bored...check them out and leave some comments!

Starting Over

2010-03-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Well ladies, I think I have broken the slump....hopefully. I had a good nights sleep last night and got to sleep in this morning. I woke up with the sun shining brightly and the snow steadily melting and I felt great! I made a brunch for the family and after Harliegh took her nap I did a workout...for the first time all week since Monday!
I was surprised and thrilled to find that I haven't gained any weight, but it also made me think that maybe if I HAD worked I might have lost a couple pounds. OH WELL, I am not gonna dwell on it.
Tomorrow I am going to attempt the Jillian Michaels work out (YIKES!) and if all goes as planned I will continue doing it every other day. I am also seriously considering getting up early and taking a walk every morning. It's still a little cold here in the mornings but the ice is all melted off the sidewalks. I know next week will feel like starting all over but I need to get back into my routine.
Unfortunately because I was lazy all last week I also didn't do ANY homework. So this weekend I have to write a report and rewrite one (or both) of my short stories. Not too bad, but now I wish I would have just finished it earlier. Damn my procrastination!

I only have 9 pounds to lose to reach my goal. I wanted to be able to buy new clothes in May, do you think I can make it? We will see!

LOVE and HAPPINESS

2010-03-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

This has been an incredibly LAZY week for me! I was going to blog about that and how I need to get out of this slump, but I kinda already did that on Wednesday. I told myself earlier this week that I could have one week to be lazy, we all need breaks once in awhile, right? So, starting on Monday (possible earlier if I am feeling up to it) I am going to get back into my health routine and start on taking vitamins. Though I haven't weighed myself in few days i don't think (fingers crossed) that I have gained much. I still don't have that "splooge" falling over my jeans that I had at the beginning of the year. I feel I owe this to the fact that I have cut back on packaged food, red meat and completely cut out white bread and pasta. Even though I have been lazy, minus some cookies, I have stayed pretty good on eating. So it wasn't a complete step backwards.

So Sarah and Brooke both blogged today about things they loved or made them happy. I think this is an amazing idea and I think we should all do this every Friday, just to remind us that losing weight/being healthy isn't the only thing we talk about.So I am going to make a list of the things that make me happy, too!

Number one is my daughter, Harliegh. I can't help but be happy around her. She makes me smile, even in my worst moments. She is so smart and beautiful. I can't help it...she is the best thing to ever happen to me and I am one proud mama!

My Husband, Tyler. He really is a great husband and father. Very supportive in anything I ever do. I am so grateful to have him!

My family. Yep, all five sisters and one brother. We can be a little hard on each other sometimes but I love them all dearly!

My pets, Oscar (pictured) and my cat Vicious. They can be annoying but I love them!

My FRIENDS:
Sarah: I am so glad that we have gotten to be friends! Sometimes I turn on my computer just hoping you will be there for me to talk to. It's too bad we didn't get to be friends when we lived in the same state. I know we will be friends for a long time.

Nathalie: I considered you one of my best friends in 8th-10th grade. I am sad we lost touch, but I am glad we found each other and can share our lives in some way. Hooray for old friends!

My friend Jessica, she doesn't read this but she has been my best friend since third grade and I am glad we still remain friends.

My friend Jade, for giving me someone local to hang out with and talk Mommy talk every once in a while.

All my other friends, new and old, who I didn't mention. It's always great to have a friend. This includes Brooke, who I have never actually meant but I would love to get to know and hang out with. Brooke, you seem to have a great, positive personality. Just the type of person I like to surround my life with. Hopefully we will have the chance to meet someday.

Other things that make me happy:

SUMMER!!! I can't wait for summer (I know I live in the wrong state)
Reading
Writing (refer to my new blog!)
Taking long baths (while reading, of course)
Pandora Radio (I swear Pandora knows my mood at all times and knows just the perfect song to play)

So everyone, have a happy and healthy weekend. I will try my best to get back on track!

2010-03-03T06:55:00.000-08:00

Man, I am in a funk this week! This can be from a number of factors: recovering from being sick last week, recovering from my sister and nephew visiting, my "friend" is here this week, I have been reading a book I CANNOT put down, I am mentally exhausted from school, I am getting used to not working out. I don't know...I just can't shake it. I forced myself to do 20 minutes of yoga on Monday, yesterday I couldn't even talk myself into a workout. Today I am tired and I went to bed early! Of course, I didn't sleep well, but I never really do. I can already tell that I will desperately want a nap today :(. The positive thing is on Monday and Tuesday, Harliegh and I got outside for a walk, so I have been a little active at least!

So I think I have decided to give myself a break so I can "refresh". I am going to set a goal to do 20 minutes of yoga a day and to go out for a walk when the weather permits. I am going to take a nap if I need it because I think my body is telling me I need more sleep. I am going to load up on water, because lethargy can be a sign of dehydration. I am going to work on getting caught up on housework since I got behind last week. I am going to set my goal to get back into full workout mode by Sunday, but if I feel like it sooner I will. I also want to start taking some vitamins.

If you haven't checked yet, I started a new blog on reading and writing. If you are interested click here. Leave some comments!

Happy March!

2010-03-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Happy March!

It is beautiful today up in Minnesota! 33 degrees and the sun is out! So Harliegh and I decided to take a walk. We ended up walking around for
about 20 minutes, even though it was limited as to where we could walk since there is still a ton of snow and ice. I took pictures to share with you our
first real walk of 2010. Yep...that's A LOT of snow! But that is a HUGE improvement over what it was only a few weeks ago! I did take measurements today, but like I thought, there has been no change. Oh well. I will post new measurements on the 15th of March. MARCH....that sounds great doesn't it? April will sound even better!

Negativity

2010-03-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I realize today is weigh-in today and I will post my measurements later,though I am not expecting anything, especially since my "friend" just arrived.

I just wanted to say a little something inspired by Sarah's blog rant. If you haven't read it...read it now!

Every woman is different and we should embrace that beauty!

When you look at models in magazines and television, remind yourself that they are most likely NOT healthy and they are FAKE. Seriously, if we all had a team of make-up artists, hairstylists, people dressing us and even more people fixing every flaw on a computer, we would probably look just as good as them. What makes me sick is when they put a super-skinny model on a page advertising plus-size women...what's wrong with you people?

Let the industry do what they want, they are made on a bunch of LIES. But what we need to work on is acceptance of other normal woman. What I mean is...we all need to realize that every woman's body is different. We need to be happy with who we are. We need to stop judging other woman. Now, I admit, it really bothers me when a person is very unhealthy and they don't seem to care about their own HEALTH. But everyone should be happy with their bodies and want to be healthy.
This is what I mean.
As most of you know, I am a small person naturally.Don't hate me...that's just my body, but that doesn't mean I haven't had problems with weight recently. Now, I was TINY in high school. I didn't break 100 pounds until my senior year and I wore a size 0-3. I HATED IT. But I was healthy, seriously, I ate normally, I just was very thin. Well, even at that size I was made fun of. People made jokes about me being anorexic or bulimic, they joked that you couldn't see me if I stood a certain way, they called me skeleton, they called me flat-chested. Seems to me that if you want to be "perfect" you had to be right smack in the damn middle, and how many people actually are? I hated the way I looked back then, I was so self-conscious. I made it a point to eat a ton of food when I was in public, and then I made sure I didn't got to the bathroom after I ate for fear that people would say I was puking.
After high school, I started gaining weight, at a healthy pace. It was just time catching up with me and my metabolism slowing down. I was around 135 and I was finally starting to feel comfortable in my skin. Then different comments came, my friends who knew me in high school started pointing out that I had "put on a little weight". One friend took one look at my tiny little muffin top rolling over my bikini and snorted, saying "Wow, Quinn, you have put on some weight. You need to start working out or something." This was at 135 pounds!
About 3 months after I had my baby I started putting on weight rapidly due to a crappy little birth control pill I started. After I had Harliegh, I walked out of the hospital at 145 pounds. But then I rocketed up to close to 180 at my heaviest. For the first time in my life, I was in the "obese" range. Then the comments really started "Quinn is not so skinny anymore" "You can't shop in the Jr's section anymore, better hit the plus-size" "We are going to have to start calling you hips instead of Skeleton, now" "you need a new bra, your boobs are starting to sag now"
Thanks people. Thanks.
Why do people have to be so negative? Now I am finally starting to get back to a good weight for me. I am toning up and notice changes in every aspect of my life, even when the weight doesn't move. I decided that I need to be happy with me. I wish I could make everyone see that those negative comments don't help. It just makes you look like a stuck-up, judgmental bitch. But we all know those voices are out there.

So put those voices in a corner...shoot them in the head...and live your life. Be happy. Be Healthy. And love your body, love your shape. There will always be someone out there who will feed you negativity...no matter what your size is.
So just be beautiful. and don't judge others (I know you don't...)

Blogs and more Blogs

2010-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ok....So Sarah talked me into it...I started a reading/writing blog and just posted my first blog. I never thought I would be a the blogger type, and here I am with 3 blogs! EGADS!
I would love for you to read it though! Here is the link for my new blog Bookworm Quinn. I am a little nervous about it so leave some comment love, ok?

As far as health goes. I am feeling almost 100% now. Woohoo. Tomorrow I am going to jump into my workout/health plan again, counting calories and working out. I did weigh myself yesterday and do a few easy workouts and was surprised and happy to find that I have not gained anything at all!

I am really loving the video blogs of both Nathalie and Sarah and can't wait to see more. Maybe some day I will do one....if I ever buy a webcam!

I haven't posted new goals for a while, so here are my new goals for next week:

1. Get back into working out everyday
2. Counting calories and making meal plans
3. Drinking lots of water ( I am horrible at this, I am not the type to drink all day...usually I only drink at meal times and I need to start drinking more because I can really tell a difference when I do)
4. Get to bed earlier (again I am HORRIBLE at this, I average only about 4-5 hours of sleep a night)

Ok...I think that's sufficient. Hope to hear form you all very soon!

Get back to where I used to be...

2010-02-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone!

Today has been a bad week for me workout and health-wise, but today I am going to attempt another light workout. It is going to be hard to get back to my routine next week but I just feel lazy adn unhealthy this week so I am looking forward to working out again. I am getting to the point where I actually start feeling the NEED to work out.

On other news, Sarah has suggested that I start a blog for my writings (maybe she is just tired of reading them for me??LOL). I am taking a Creative Writing class and trying to write more often. So if I start a blog I might post some of those writings and some book reviews. What do you think? Would you read it if I did? It's very hard for me to share my writing with people, but I think this might a good exercise for me.

Have a great weekend!

The snow is melting...

2010-02-25T06:40:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted much this week. I am feeling much better but I also have my sister and nephew visiting so they have kept me pretty busy. I haven't been eating the healthiest, but when I weighed myself on Tuesday I hadn't gained any, so that's good. I have only gotten one workout in this whole week, but we have been shopping so I got in a TON of walking. I declared today a break day anyway...I know I haven't done much this week, but I am exhausted. Harliegh has a horrible cough and hasn't slept through the night in a week, so I could use a nap. This has been a bad week, but I will get back on track next week.

THE SNOW IS MELTING!!
I can't wait to start jogging! I need to work more cardio in my workout soon so I can actually get in a decent run, but I am pretty excited about it. It is going to be 32 this weekend and 34 on Monday! I am sp happy about that, even though it will be a sloppy, muddy, wet mess outside for awhile but spring will be here soon and then SUMMER,my favorite season. I am dreaming of long walks with Harliegh down to the lake.

Think Warm Thoughts!

Colds and Soup

2010-02-23T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,
Well I am finally starting to feel a little bit better. Harliegh and I got a pretty nasty cold and we have both been pretty miserable all weekend. I was planning on attempting a workout today but I was up a lot last night with Harliegh who was coughing horribly, so I might take a nap instead. We will just have to see how I feel. As far as diet goes I have been living off of soup and orange juice so I am pretty sure I have been way below my calorie count. I am going to slowly get back on my health plan but I don't think I will hit it hard again until next week.
I have had people recently comment on how thin I am getting. So I am actually getting visible results finally. SO WOOHOO! That is very exciting for me!
I made a super easy and yummy Black Bean Soup last night. It was so good and I don't think it was high in calories or fat, but of course I have no idea what the counts are. But here is the recipe:

Black Bean Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic chopped
3 15oz cans of black beans
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 can chicken broth
1 10 oz can rotel
11 oz canned corn

Saute onion and garlic in a oil. Blend a can or two of black beans (depending on how thick you want the soup) Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Heat through and serve.

It kind of has a slight Chili flavor. YUM.

Sick

2010-02-22T08:44:00.001-08:00

UGH.....Sick....will post a new blog soon.

Taco Bell

2010-02-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

I just finished eating a burrito supreme and a taco from Taco Bell. I know, I know...shame on me. But we had an appointment this morning and by the time it was over it was close to lunch time, and anyone with a kid knows the consequences you will pay if you are late for lunch. So I was sitting here devouring my bean burrito when I started to feel a little guilty. I grabbed my computer and looked up the calorie count. It was 440! So...I only ate half of my burrito, then I ate the taco which was only 170 calories. Overall, I stayed within the range I had planned for my lunch to begin with. Now I know that these are empty calories and that food was nearly 35% of my daily fat intake, but at least I managed my calories, right?

In case you were wondering (and you probably weren't) I have gotten a decent chunk of my weekly to-do list done. Tonight I convinced to hubby to go hang out with friends and I plan on finishing up the rest of my homework (a whole week early!! WOOHOO). I have to do some laundry today and tomorrow I will work on cleaning the house.

Today I am debating whether I should sweat it out with my tough Jillian Michael's workout to make up for not working out yesterday and for eating Taco Bell or opting for the easier Wii Fit Workout and doing the tough workout tomorrow. Hmmmmm.....Either way, it doesn't matter as long as I get some sort of workout in right?

Have a great, healthy weekend everyone!

Rough night

2010-02-18T10:26:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,
It was a rough night and has been a slow morning for me. Harliegh seems to have picked up a cold (I suspect the drs office on Monday...darn sick people going to hospitals!!!) I noticed she felt a little warm as I was putting her to bed and sure enough, she was up every two hours the rest of the night. Finally, around 4, I gave her some tylenol. Imust have slept wrong, or maybe its from being on edge all night listening for my sick baby, but my neck is stiff and I can't move my head. The pain has spread up to my head and down my shoulder and back now. So, I don't see exercise in my future for today...sure some yoga MIGHT help, but I am scared it will make it worse. So I figured today i will focus on homework. At naptime I think I will take some tylenol and try to sleep a little. I know I already took a rest day on Monday, but sometimes things happen and I feel like this will be most beneficial for me, especially if I end up catching this cold from Harliegh, which I probably will!
You will be happy to hear, though, that I have stuck to my meal plans! But for now, I should probably go. I have a sick baby to take care of and some homework to start.

Send some comment love, I need it today!

Planning meals

2010-02-17T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hello,
Well, I actually did it! I sat down and planned out my meals for the next four days, including calorie count. I won't bore you with the details but I planned everyday according to my 1233 calorie plan and left a buffer of about 100 calories just in case I need an extra snack or eat a little more than planned, but I am going to try to stick to what I have planned and pay attention to serving sizes for the next few days and see if it makes a difference.

Today, I am a little grumpy and I can't wait to do my workout to help blow off steam. I didn't accomplish ANYTHING on my to-do list yesterday so I need to focus on at least a few things from the list today. My sister and my nephew are coming to visit next week so I won't have as much time to do homework so I REALLY need to work ahead on that stuff.

I saw that Jillian Michaels has a game for the Wii. I am really excited about this and I think I will make this my reward on March 1st if I stick to my workout and diet plan. Which means sticking to planning my meals!

That's it for now. I will let you know how my progress is going later this week!

Cabin Fever

2010-02-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

Hey bloggers!
I have been in a kind of a slump this week and not wanting to do ANYTHING, but I did get up and do a light workout. Right now I am feeling a little more motivated thanks to Sarah's blog she talked about how when people slow down in their blogging it makes her feel like everyone else gave up, so she should,too. I feel that way, too, so we should all help each other out and keep blogging! Like Sarah said...now is the time to be kick ass. We can do it!

So, I decided I need to get back on to counting calories...I am horrible at this, but when I started doing it a few weeks ago I lost a little over 2 pounds in a week! So I think tonight I am going to sit down and plan out my meal plan, including calorie count, for the next few days! If I stick to it, I will know I stayed to my limit, if I eat something extra, I will just have to add those calories in. As a reward, if I stick to my plan, I am going to allow myself to have some extra buttery popcorn when I go to the movies with my sister this weekend. I know you shouldn't reward with food...but I am a sucker for movie theater popcorn, honestly it is my biggest weakness. I can not go int o a theater without getting popcorn and a cherry coke. Plus, one day shouldn't throw me off too much.

I have been feeling the Cabin fever lately, too. I know that exercise will help me beat this, so why not make the most of it? I like to crack open the patio door while I exercise and pretend that it is spring....the fresh air does wonders for your mood...do you know you should get at LEAST 30 min of fresh air a day? I want to take Harliegh outside, especially since it is Minnesota Nice (30 degrees) but the snow goes up to my waist so I have a sneaking suspicion it would not be very fun.

Another thing that has been getting me down is that I am feeling overwhelmed with all I have to do lately....usual mom stuff, housework, homework.....so I made a list of everything I needed to do this week and I plan on checking at least two things off the list everyday.

So everyone, stay motivated!!! Don't give up now.

I need a day off.

2010-02-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, its been a busy weekend for me. Saturday I had class all day long again. I thought I would like getting class over in one day, but it really takes a lot out of me to be gone so long! The good thing about school is that I pack a healthy lunch and snacks and don't have the opportunity to give in and get something unhealthy since I don't bring cash with me. Also, even though I don't get a workout in, I do get in a lot of walking. On Sunday we took Harliegh to and indoor playground and I got in a lot of walking/crawling/ running in even though she was a bit overwhelmed. Unfortunately is was bad day diet-wise. We went to Ruby Tuesdays and I had steak and lobster with broccoli and mashed potatoes, I admit...I ate most of it. then we ordered pizza fro dinner since I didn't feel like cooking. But I only had one slice and three chicken wings.

This morning was Harliegh's 18m appointment and she had shots, so we had to get up a little earlier then usual to get her there. So I am pretty tired right now and decided I needed a lazy day. I haven't had one in a over a week, so I think I deserve it.

The next two weeks I really want to focus on getting enough sleep and not procrastinating. I really need to stay on top of housework and homework. Last weeks I put off my homework until just a few days before class and then I was scrambling to get it done. I also have a bad habit of snacking a lot when I am doing homework for long periods of time, so if I break it up a bit I might not do that as much.

Brooke has been blogging about loving yourself and making time for yourself. She really made me think that I really don't even think about that. I mean, I am working out for myself but basically everything else I do is partly for my family. I go to school so I can get a decent job to support my family, I clean the house so we don't have to live in a mess and can live with pride in our home. When I really break it down there is very little time in my day that is spent solely on me! I haven't even had time to do much "fun" reading lately and that makes me sad because reading is my escape. I haven't had time to work on my book that I am writing cause I spend so much time writing assignments for class. I think I need to try to make time for things like this for my sanity....cause I am starting to feel so tightly wound lately. Ugh....the life of a mom, huh?

Hope to see some new blogs from everyone soon, it looks like everyone kind of took a break this weekend!

THE END....

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Or is it just the beginning?

Well, it's the end of our six week challenge! What a journey it has been...but it flew by so fast! I have learned a lot in the past few weeks and now I am going to share them with you!

BODY:
So, the obvious change...body. In set out this challenge wanting to lose about 15 pounds. I knew this was unrealistic from the beginning, but that is my ultimate goal. I have made amazing progress though that I am absolutely thrilled about! Below are some pictures. The one in the white shirt is a pic I took only about 10 minutes ago, the other pic is the pic I took about one week into our challenge. See, only five weeks later and VISIBLE results! The tummy is less round and the posture has improved! WOOHOO!
So here are my before and after measurements:
Then:
Chest: 36
Waist: 31
Below belly button:35
Weight: 149

Now:
Chest: 35
Waist: 29
Below Belly Button: 33
Weight: 143

So I have lost 6 pounds and 2 inches!! Not bad at all!!
Not only that, but I have noticed that I am stronger and more stable! I can balance easier and I am starting to be able to do more exercises on one foot, something that was pretty much impossible before for me. I have gotten a lot better at all the exercises and have even moved up skill levels on many exercises.

MIND:

Okay, this is less obvious...but there have been other changes, too. I mentioned before that when you do the Wii Fit it measures your "Wii Fit Age" by testing a combination of physical and mental exercises. When I started I averaged close to 50! Now I am averaging about 23! What an amazing difference! Also, the wii fit measures your center of balance. When I started I was way off center, and now I am very close to center everyday! I am also more aware of my center of balance then I used to be. POSTURE....I have always had bad posture, I think it was my attempt at trying to hide when I was younger, but now my posture has improved immensely and I find myself checking myself and readjusting my posture several times a day. I have also noticed that I am taking more even steps than I used. Overall I just feel more....balanced and less wobbly.

SPIRIT:

I have noticed that I am way more energetic then I used to be, especially on days I work out. When I work out I find that I spend more time on my feet the rest of the day, I get dressed sooner in the day, I spend more time cleaning, I get homework done earlier. I am just overall more efficient. Conversely...when I declare a "Lazy Day" I sit around in my pj's all day, the house stays a mess, I get lazy on my cooking and I don't do anything really. I have also noticed that I have had far less instances of insomnia. In fact, if you take out the nights I was having GERD problems I think I can recall only two nights that I had trouble sleeping. This is really good for me! I also feel better about myself in general. I feel less "frumpy" LOL.

FOOD:

I have learned a lot about food! I have made several new meals that are low-fat, low-calorie and even vegetarian! I am also more aware of fat and calories while planning meals. I learned that I naturally eat around 1400-1500 calories a day, which is how I have managed to maintain my weight, but I need to cut back to 1200 to see some changes. This has turned out to be harder than I thought!

So those are the big changes I have noticed in 6 weeks. We started out this challenge thinking it would be done in only 6 weeks and instead we made lifestyle changes that hopefully will stick for months and months to come. If I have lost 6 pounds in 6 weeks, I should be at my goal weight in no time! Just in time for Summer!

Now that our challenge is over I have some new goals in mind. First of all...I am changing my goal date to May 1st, this is a bit more realistic. From now on I will try to post measurements on the 1st and 15th of every month. I am also going to try to reward myself every two weeks with something fitness related to encourage me to not give in to old habits. Here are some rewards I am thinking of : a hula hoop...I do a hula hoop exercise without a hula hoop and it is one of the best workouts I do, if I had a hula hoop I might do it more often, like when I am watching tv! A jump rope...like the hula hoop, this is a great workout and when It gets warm outside I can do this when I take Harliegh to the park to play. New workout videos (I am really liking Jillian Michaels) this will prevent me from getting bored with my routine. A pedometer, just to remind me to keep moving. New running shoes...for when I start jogging outside when it gets warm out...and when I reach my goal...NEW CLOTHES!
I hope all you bloggers out there continue to read my blog and write your own. I read all of yours on a daily basis and it is still my number one driving force! Keep it up....or as Jillian Michaels would say, "Don't phone it in!"

30 Day Shred

2010-02-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday everyone!

So I finished the first draft of my story last night. It's only 9 pages and I would like to stretch it out a little longer, but I can work on that on my next draft....but it's done! I need to work out some rough patches and details but at least I have the basic story done, right? Hooray!
So I still have a lot to to do for homework, second draft of my story, finish my business card, finish all the reading I have to do...ugh. Maybe write a poem or two...Speaking of school...I would like to congratulate Nathalie for going back to school! It can be very difficult to go back to school after having a kid, I know firsthand! I hope I will also be sending Sarah some congratulations, soon, too!

So yesterday was kind of a light workout day and I didn't keep track of calories but I am pretty sure I stayed on track. The hardest part about making nutrition changes for me is counting calories, it takes up so much time!
I went out and bought that Jillian Michaels DVD yesterday! If you didn't know, Jillian Michaels is one the coaches on The Biggest Loser and she is TOUGH! The video is called 30 Day Shred and has 3 different workouts from beginner to advanced. She works in 6 minute increments, 3 minutes of Strength, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. The video claims that you can lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days....but I am not going to put that to the test because I know it is tough and I don't think I can handle it! You can watch a few clips of this video here. I did the beginner 20 minute workout this past weekend with my MIL but I am excited to try it out alone. I loved this work out...and hated it. I could really feel it doing something...but I thought I was going to die. The best part of this was that you know it will end in 20 minutes! It is a very intense workout, but the individual workouts are relatively easy. Also, ladies...there are some great weight lifting exercises that will help perk up the "girls" haha! I definitely suggest this video, but be forewarned that it is very intense. I am planning on trying to do it every other day, doing the wii fit workout on the other days. Also...if you do buy this video, you will need some 2 or 3 pound weights. I like that I feel like I get a great workout in 20 minutes with this video but I feel like I only get a moderate workout in 45 minutes with the wii fit.
That's it for now! Hope to read some great blogs later today, as well as hear some good news from Sarah!

Short Stories

2010-02-09T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

This will be a short one because I just realized its almost nap time. I only got a short workout in today so far. I NEED to devote today and possibly tomorrow on homework because I am a horrible procrastinator, so sadly I can't work out during nap time. Today I managed to get a short work out in but as all you mommy's know...it's pretty hard to work out when you have a little one awake, but I still feel better knowing that I did something. We also did a little bit of dancing today, too. The snow was horrible yesterday so I didn't get to go out and buy that DVD I mentioned yesterday but hopefully we can today. I am also contemplating getting a hula hoop. Hula hooping is a great workout...and inexpensive!
I really want to take a nap today...I was up all night stressing out about how I need to have a short story written by midnight on Thursday, I haven't even started it yet! But I better work on it now so I can sleep better tonight. Why do I do this to myself??

Thanks to Sarah for brainstorming with me, I am going in a completely new direction with my story...but you got the juices flowing! Also, Sarah...I haven't seen a blog in a couple days! Hope you are still sticking to your health plan! I love reading your blog so please don't give up!

Happy Monday

2010-02-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

This blog will be my 50th post...insane...I am a blog machine! LOL!

So I am ready to start this week head-on, are you? I am going to buy that Jillian Michael's DVD and some three pound weights and do it every other day...can't do it everyday, it would kill me! I sat down this morning and did my meal plan because I seem to do better if I plan it ahead of time!

So here is my Meal Plan for today:

Breakfast:
Smoothie....330

Lunch:
Turkey Sandwich....180
Peaches...30
veggies....30
Peach Tea.....10

Snack:
Handful of peanuts...170
Green Apple....70

Dinner:
Lemon Chicken Pasta Toss.....300
Veggies.....30

Snack:
Popcorn....150

Grand Total: 1255

The super bowl party went pretty good, but we have a ton of bad junk food left over which isn't so good. I will just have to be smart about it and not give in to temptation. Hope you guys have a great week! I am looking forward to reading your blogs!

I hate Jillian,

2010-02-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

So this weekend hasn't been nearly as bad as a expected. On Friday, the hubby brought home some McDonald's before we left for our trip to Iowa. He brought me a chicken ranch BLT sandwich, which is 470 calories...but I only ate HALF. Then we had spaghetti for dinner and I kept my portion pretty small. The next morning the MIL asked me to do her morning work out with her so I gave it a try. It was one of Jillian Michaels videos. We did the 20 minute "EASY" workout...and it kicked my butt! I hate Jillian Michaels and wanted to punch her....but you know what? I did the ENTIRE workout! I usually am bad at videos but this one wasn't too bad. It was fast paced though...she kept yelling at me "Don't Stop! Don't Phone it in!" so I didn't. She switched between Cardio and strength training every 3 minutes or so. Let me tell you...I am sore now ....but I might just go out and buy this DVD. Today I ate reasonably, I think. One piece of French Toast, one sausage, one bowl of cheerios, one bean burrito, lots of fruit, on small piece of cake...not ice cream and one roast beef sandwich from Arby's. Not sure what my calorie count was ....but I don't think it was so bad and I don't feel like I threw away all my progress, especially since I got in that extra work out.

Tomorrow is my Super Bowl Party...which is ironic since I hate football and only watch the super bowl for the commercials. LOL. But I am still not too worried about sticking to my plan. It will be hard since we are snacking all day instead of having meals. I am making some cheese dip with chips, a veggie tray with celery, carrots, and pea pods (YUM) olives and pickles, meat and cheese and cracker tray and cookies. As long as I reach for the veggies more than the cheese dip I will be okay, right?

On Monday I will get back to tracking calories, I promise! :)

Hope everyone is doing great!

Boca Burgers= YUM

2010-02-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I was watching Dr.Oz yesterday, it was about losing weight and the biology of blubber.If you can find it somewhere online you should watch it. Did you know that a woman who drinks ONE can of soda a day raises her risk of getting diabetes by 83%! That's amazing.

On a different note....I must have really worked extra yesterday because my legs and abs are killing me now! I am tempted to do a light yoga workout today but I should probably try to get in a good workout since I won't be able to for most of the weekend.
Oh...the Boca Burgers? AMAZING! Yum....they were so good and filling, too. If you haven't tried them I highly recommend them.

Well...I know this is a boring blog but that's all I've got for ya.

Keep blogging everyone...I check your blogs everyday!

2010-02-04T13:46:00.001-08:00

Good afternoon!

I know I posted earlier but I just wanted to peek in and say how my day is going. So far I have stuck to the meal plan I posted earlier, the only thing I have changed was I decided to skip the miracle whip on my sandwich at lunch and instead had a handful of salt-free nuts after my workout. I think this was a better choice. I have heard that if you eat protein immediately after working out it helps build muscle and curb hunger. So today is my first day of my new 1233 calorie diet. I must admit...I am hungry! Dinner is in about an hour and a half and all I can think about is food. UGH....but I said I would give this a few weeks, so I am willing to try. I did get in a good workout in the afternoon but I couldn't get my morning jog in because people kept calling me. I will try to get in my evening jog but I have a heap of stuff to do tonight.

Here is my to-do list for the rest of the evening:
write two poems for my Creative Writing class
finish my report for class
begin at least one of my reading assignments
clean my house to prepare for Superbowl party
make a grocery list for party and go shopping
ten minute jog
15 min Yoga
Give daughter a bath (as well as play time)
Put daughter to bed
pack bags for our overnight stay in Iowa tomorrow

Yeah....I don't know if I can do ALL of that, and sorry to say but the workout will be the first thing to cut.

This weekend is going to be tough for me to get in a workout or follow my nutrition plan. At noon we are leaving for Iowa where we will spend the night at the MIL's house, where I am sure she will have a delicious meal planned. The next morning we will head to my sisters house for my nieces Birthday party. They are having taco's and of course, birthday cake. Then we will head home where I am sure we will get fast food for dinner. Then on Sunday is our Superbowl party. Only a couple people are coming over so I don't think I really should call it a party....but you know what I mean. I think I am going to make chili, a veggie tray and chips and dip. Sooo....YIKES. But I promise I will try to be good and I will report back on Sunday or Monday.

Have a great healthy weekend everyone!

Refresher Course

2010-02-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

So last night I was thinking that one of the biggest reasons I am feeling discouraged is that I needed a reward for all my hard work and i wasn't seeing much change in my weight...which I realize is not realistic. So, last night I decided to reward myself with a brand new workout outfit. Something to make me excited to work out again. I decided that I need to reward myself for little things....such as losing 5 pounds or working out and sticking to nutrition for two weeks. So last night I bought some bright, happy, blue work out capri's and a matching t-shirt. YAY!

I also looked on Webmd to review my fitness and food plan. They said if I wanted to lose two pounds a week that my target calorie intake should be 1233. This seems so low to me, but as I said before I seemed to eat 1400-1500 naturally, without trying to, so maybe this is what I need to do because I didn't actually make changes in my diet before. So I am going to try to do it for a month and see how it goes...if I don't starve by then. LOL! WebMD also suggested burning 1000 calories a day, so I figured in about 750 and I am assuming I burn the rest through everyday stuff. So Below is my new and improved health plan. If you have any suggestions, let me know because I really want to do this the healthiest way. Also...today is the end of week 5! I am not even going to bother measuring myself this week...in fact I think from now on I am just going to post measurements on the 15th on the 1st of every month.

My Food and Fitness Plan

Breakfast

Cereal, Kix

110

Juice, orange pineapple, no pulp, w/calcium & vit D, 16 oz

130

Banana, fresh, lrg, 8" to 8 7/8" long

1/2

Subtotal 300

Lunch

Lunchmeat, turkey breast, mesquite, thin, svg

120

Bread, whole wheat, 100%, w/honey, slice

220

Dressing, Miracle Whip

Subtotal 385

Afternoon Snack

Cottage Cheese, fat free

Apples, fresh, sml, 2 3/4"

Subtotal 80

Dinner

Vegetarian Meat, burger, All American Classic

150

Buns, hamburger, lrg

133

Ketchup

Lettuce, bibb, fresh, leaf, med

Subtotal 298

Evening Snack

Frozen Yogurt, vanilla chocolate strawberry

140

Subtotal 140

Total Calories from Food 1203

conditioning, hatha yoga

10 min

running, jogging, general

10 min

conditioning, hatha yoga

20 min

running, jogging, general

10 min

conditioning, calisthenics, situps, moderate

20 min

home activities, cleaning, general

120 min

404

conditioning, aerobics, low impact

30 min

168

Subtotal 784

Total Calories From Fitness 784

somedays...

2010-02-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned. :(
I started out this weekend with my TOM. For some reason this one was a tough one for me emotionally, in fact I still feel out of it and it is come and gone. So unfortunately, I gave into my cravings and bought some doritos and oreos. In the past four weeks I have lost 4-5 pounds. When I weighed myself yesterday I had gained almost all of it back...now maybe thats from TOM, but I will have to give it a day or two to see. But I do know that some of it has to be from those oreos and doritos.

Part of me wants to just give up. I am comfortable with my weight, honestly. I am in a healthy weight, but I just wanted to lose a few pounds so I can be HAPPY and comfortable with my weight...does that make sense? I also want to get healthy so I can prepare my body for baby number two. I want to be able to work out while I am pregnant so I won't have this struggle next time. But a tiny part of me just wants to say, "oh, you'll be just fine..." which may be true, but it seems like the lazy way out to me.

I think today I am going to start counting those dreaded calories. I might even post my log on here...if I think you guys are reading it then it will make me feel accountable.I am trying to think about how it may take two months to see real results, like Nathalie said, but it is hard to keep that in mind.

Somedays I think this is all just too much hard work. I am sure you all feel that way sometimes, too. It is real hard to balance nutrition, working out, being a mom, cleaning, getting time for myself, working on my writing, working on my school work...and somedays I just think that I need to get rid of something. But it all seems pretty important to me.

ok....enough complaining.

I am going to finish my smoothie and take a jog-in-place.

Who are you? And what did you do to my husband?

2010-02-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone,

Ugh....I have hit the point where I think, "This isn't working, I give up" But I won't give up. Yesterday was just one of those days. You know, those days when I am just a little bit off kilter. I was busy and forgot to eat breakfast. Also, when I started to do my workout...for some reason...I was doing everything wrong. The wii fit kept telling me how shaky, unstable , etc I was so I got pissed off and turned it off after only 15 minutes into my workout.

But I am not going to let one bad day get me down. After I blog and finish my smoothie (Blackberry Peach) I am going to do my jog and some yoga. I can't wait for the snow to go away so I can start jogging in the mornings and going on all my fun walks with Harliegh. I would really rather chase her around at the park then sit here and watch tv all day. But unfortunately I live in Minnesota and we will probably have snow until May!

Speaking of May, I changed my goal date to May 1st. I still only want to lose ten pounds...but I feel like this might be a more realistic goal since it has been kinda slow going so far. If I lose it before then...great, but I won't be disappointed if I don't.

Last night, I made another vegetarian meal. Bean Burritoes and spanish rice...yum. I called the hubby on his way home from work to pick up some stuff I needed. While at the grocery store he called me and told me he wants to put hamburgers on the menu...I was a little disappointed cause I am trying to eat healthier, but the next words that came out of his mouth just about put me into shock. he said, "Hey, how about we try these vegetarian Boca burgers?" Yes...he said that! My husband who thinks he looks better overweight, who loves fast food and sugary snacks and only one month ago insisted that a real meal must include meat, starches...and veggies OPTIONAL. Seems like my healthy changes have effected him in a positive way! Who are you, and what did you do to my husband?

In other goal related news: I have been back to working on my story again! I am well over 100 pages now and still going strong. I also have to work on a short story for my creative writing class and I have hit a wall. So if you have any ideas to get the juices flowing, send em my way.

Keep going everyone! We have made it too far to quit now!

This Weekend

2010-01-31T18:52:00.000-08:00

So...I haven't posted since Thursday! Shame on me! But I am still doing pretty good. I was feeling lazy on Friday but managed to get a jog and yoga in. Saturday I had class and I packed a healthy lunch and healthy snacks. Its a ten minute walk to class from the parking lot, I walked 20 minutes during my lunch break, up and down stairs and then another 10 minute walk to my car after class. Today I did a light 25 minute workout. Not bad considering that the past few weeks I have been absolutely lazy on the weekends. I weighed myself today and was happy to find that I have lost a little since I weighed myself on Thursday. That surprised me since it is that time of the month and I usually gain weight. It makes me excited to see how much I will weigh when that time is over! I can tell working out and eating healthier has made a huge difference because I didn't bloat up this time, and I didn't gain weight....AND...I didn't get as bad as cramps as usual. Amazing what a little healthy lifestyle change can do for your body, huh?

So that's about all for this weekend. I will post more later this week. I am looking forward to reading all of your blogs, too!

Week 4

2010-01-28T08:14:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! So this is the end of week 4! How did it go for you? I have been noticing lately that I have had to start pulling up my pants, but I thought it was just my imagination because my weight had barely changed. (maybe about a 1/2 pound, if any). But today I pulled out the measuring tape and found out that, even though I haven't changed at all anywhere else, I have lost a WHOLE inch right below my belly button...which is my problem area. WOO! I was looking in the mirror and thinking, even if I didn't lose any more weight I would be completely happy with losing only another inch or two off my waist. I can even tell that my thighs and hips look a lot leaner. I honestly wasn't expecting any weight loss because I have really been focusing on strength training, so I am most likely gaining muscle. I have averaged a loss of one pound a week, which is slow progress...but good enough for me. I am already noticing some changes that I wasn't expecting to see until after 2 months of this.

So this is also the time of the week when I usually revise my goals...but I can't think of anything to do differently at the moment. I am already getting in 60-90 minutes of workout about 4-5 times a week and I have been paying attention to what I eat. So this week I am just going to keep it the same. I might up my morning jog from 10 min. to 20 min in a few weeks....but I am not ready for that yet!

I hope you guys have been enjoying my recipes. I sure have been having fun making them!

Congratulations to Nathalie and Sarah for making it to week four! You guys are amazing.
Congratulations to Brooke for exceeding her weight loss goal. You are an inspiration!

Sarah...we miss you! We hope to hear from you soon!

Rosemary Pork Chops

2010-01-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

Yummm. I made Rosemary Pork Chop Skillet tonight. It was so yummy and great comfort food, and it smelled PHENOMENAL while I was cooking it. I served it with some whole grain rotini, but I think it would be sooo good with some stuffing. The best part of it was that it was only 220 calories! So. once again here is the recipe:

Rosemary Pork Chop Skillet

Ingredients

1 pound boneless pork sirloin chops, cut 1/2 inch thick
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups peeled and cubed (1 inch) winter squash, such as butternut, banana, spaghetti, and/or acorn squash
1 medium onion, cut into thin wedges
2 teaspoons snipped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup orange juice
2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon snipped fresh sage

Directions

1. Trim fat from pork. Sprinkle chops with the salt and pepper. In a 12-inch skillet heat oil over medium-high heat. Brown chops about 4 minutes, turning once. Combine squash, onion, and rosemary; spoon squash mixture over chops. Pour broth and orange juice over squash mixture and chops. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

2. Add zucchini and sage. Cook, covered, about 5 minutes more or until chops are done (160 degrees F). Using a slotted spoon, transfer chops and vegetables to a serving platter. Cover; keep warm.

3. Bring reserved juices in skillet to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Spoon over chops and vegetables.

4. Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Facts

Calories 220,
Total Fat (g) 8,
Saturated Fat (g) 2,
Monounsaturated Fat (g) 4,
Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 1,
Cholesterol (mg) 63,
Sodium (mg) 411,
Carbohydrate (g) 15,
Total Sugar (g) 4,
Fiber (g) 2,
Protein (g) 24,
Vitamin A (DV%) 0,
Vitamin C (DV%) 49,
Calcium (DV%) 7,
Iron (DV%) 11,
Starch (d.e.) 1,
Very Lean Meat (d.e.) 3,
Fat (d.e.) 1,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Nap Day?

2010-01-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

I think.....I am declaring today a Nap/homework day. I think I might just do this every Wednesday. The past few weeks I have noticed that this day is the hardest for me to get motivated. I might still do my morning work out, and maybe try to get in an evening workout. But I think I might skip that afternoon workout and opt for a nap instead. I just feel.....tired (yawn) and unmotivated. I don't even want to do any homework, but I have to because I have class this weekend. Bleh.
If I make Wednesday the official Nap Day, I might work harder the other days knowing that I will get a break!

Of course, this might be the musings of a sleep-deprived mom and maybe I will feel motivated as soon as fully wake up and eat breakfast. Who knows?

That is all.

Tofu and Super Hula Hoop

2010-01-26T16:10:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

This is my dinner: Sesame Tofu Stir-Fry. Once again, it was delicious. I know I always say that...but I love food and flavors and I am not picky at all. So this was my second successful vegetarian meal! Both my husband and my brother LOVED it. The Tofu was amazing....not slimy like I have had before. It was the perfect texture!
I used brown rice instead of white because it is better for you.

Here is the recipe, taken from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Ingredients

1/4 cup finely chopped peanuts

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 12-ounce package firm or extra-firm tub-style tofu (fresh bean curd), drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 16-oz. bag frozen stir-fry vegetables, thawed

2/3 cup bottled stir-fry sauce

2 cups hot cooked rice

2 green onions, thinly sliced (1/4 cup)

1 medium orange, cut into 8 wedges

Directions

1. In a bowl combine 1 tablespoon of the peanuts, the sesame seeds, ginger, and red pepper. Add tofu; toss gently to coat.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. (If necessary, add more oil during cooking.) Add tofu mixture to skillet. Cook, stirring gently, for 3 to 4 minutes until sesame seeds are toasted and tofu begins to brown.

3. Remove tofu mixture to a bowl. Add vegetables to skillet; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. Add stir-fry sauce; cook and stir gently until mixture is bubbly. Stir in tofu; heat through. Serve over rice. Sprinkle each serving with some of the remaining 3 tablespoons peanuts and the green onions. Serve with orange wedges.

4. Makes 4 servings

Nutrition Facts

Calories 386, Total Fat 14 g, Saturated Fat 2 g, Cholesterol 1 mg, Sodium 1054 mg, Carbohydrate 45 g, Fiber 6 g, Protein 19 g. Daily Values: Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 58%, Calcium 13%, Iron 17%. Exchanges: Vegetable 1, Starch 1.5, Other Carbohydrate 1, Medium-Fat Meat 2, Fat .5.
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

So how was your day? I had a pretty good day. I got up and did my jog in place and yoga, then I did I very tiring 50 minute workout after lunch. I have been working on strength exercises to start building muscle and I can really feel it in my legs and abs! I am beginning to hate Super Hula Hoop on the Wii Fit. Well, I should say it's a love/hate relationship. I love it because it burns a lot of calories and I can feel it working, I hate it because it hurts and makes me think I am dying! I can now get 700 plus spins in three minutes, which earns me four stars...the highest you can get. WOO! What sucks is when I put my workout on random and I somehow get this twice...ugh. But as my personal Wii trainer reminds me, I "visualize my ideal body" and it gets me through.

That's about it for me. I am looking forward to reading all of your blogs and hearing about your progress. It is amazing that we all have all made into our fourth week. Great job!

BBQ Chicken

2010-01-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

Hey fellow blogsters!

My dinner was soooo good! Here is the recipe!

Oven-Barbecued Chicken

Prep: 10 minutes
Bake: 45 minutes

Ingredients

2-1/2 to 3 pounds meaty chicken pieces (breast halves, thighs, and drumsticks)
1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup bottled chili sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Directions

1. Skin chicken. Arrange chicken, bone side up, in a 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 25 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, for sauce, in a small saucepan cook onion and garlic in hot oil over medium heat until tender but not brown. Stir in chili sauce, honey, soy sauce, mustard, horseradish, and crushed red pepper; heat through.

3. Turn chicken bone side down. Brush half of the sauce over the chicken. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink (170 degrees F for breasts; 180 degrees F for thighs and drumsticks). Reheat remaining sauce; pass with the chicken. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 244,
Total Fat (g) 9,
Saturated Fat (g) 2,
Monounsaturated Fat (g) 3,
Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 2,
Cholesterol (mg) 77,
Sodium (mg) 807,
Carbohydrate (g) 15,
Total Sugar (g) 9,
Fiber (g) 2,
Protein (g) 26,
Vitamin A (DV%) 0,
Vitamin C (DV%) 10,
Calcium (DV%) 2,
Iron (DV%) 8,
Other Carbohydrates (d.e.) 1,
Medium-fat Meat (d.e.) 3.5,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

I made some yummy mashed potatoes, too!

5 medium Potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup Fat-free ranch dressing
pepper (optional)

I looked it up on webmd and this is only 125 calories for 3/4 cup!

I also had half a corn on the cob with no butter, which is 60 calories.

Grand Total for my whole meal: 429

I think that is pretty decent!

Hello everyone?

How was your weekend? Health-wise....mine was not the best. My brother is visiting from Utah and got in Friday night, so we went out for pizza. I had two pieces. The next day, I was supposed to go to school but the weather was supposed to be bad and I didn't want to get stuck at school or risk getting into an accident in our new car, so I stayed home. I ate what i had packed for lunch though, which was a turkey sandwich, grape tomatoes, and grapes. But then when the roads didn't get too bad we went for a late Birthday dinner at Applebee's. I was pretty good though and had fish with rice and steamed veggies and only ate half of it. On Sunday, my sister came over and we watched the football games (I don't like football, but I watched anyway) and had snack foods, little smokies with bbq sauce, chips and dip, pizza , carrots and celery sticks. So it was fun...but now I need to stick to my health plan. I did step on the scale yesterday and I gained less than a pound, so I am hoping I didn't undo all my work last week. ugh.

On a different note, I spent a long time working on my grocery list and every meal I picked is low-fat! I even have two vegetarian meals this week. Here is menu:

Bean and Cheese burritos with Spanish Rice

Sesame Tofu Stir-fry

Rosemary Pork Chop Skillet and Pasta

Lemon Chicken Pasta Toss and Steamed veggies

Oven BBQ Chicken with corn on the cob and potatoes

Yum...sounds good, huh? If you want any of the recipes just message me, but I will most likely post a couple as I make them.

Have great week!

Wish me Luck

2010-01-22T13:05:00.000-08:00

I am just writing a short blog today because....well...I have nothing much to say! It has been a good day. I spent the morning cleaning, preparing for my brother to visit. Then I did my usual 40 minute afternoon workout. I was tempted to skip it...but...I won't have too many times to workout this weekend and I don't want a repeat of last week.
Tomorrow I will have class, so like before I can control what I eat by only packing healthy foods. Plus, I will be walking a lot. Sunday my sister and brother will be here to watch the Vikings game and there will be tons of snacks, I'm sure. It will be so hard to stay on track! Wish me luck.

Now I must go whip up a quick two-page report!

Measurements 3

2010-01-21T17:30:00.001-08:00

Whew...what a day. Ok...it wasn't THAT bad...but I can complain sometimes, right?

So last night our internet went out, apparently it was out in the whole town, and it didn't come back on until about 5 or so. I have come to realize that the internet is my release, if I get stressed out, I take a ten minute internet break. It's also become part of my routine, its the first thing I do in the morning. (I sound like an addict, don't I? Maybe just a little...) But seriously, I am a stay at home mom and the world wide web is sometimes my only contact with the outside world. I go crazy without if I know I can't get out of the house...I feel trapped, I need to get over this. So this morning, frustatedand grouchy I did a great 30 minute workout, confident that the internet would be up and running by the time I was done...it wasn't. So like an addict trying to kick the habit, I was grumpy and stressed the rest of the day. I didn't do anything most of the day, not another workout (shame on me) I didn't even clean my house until around 3. I mentioned before that I KNOW how to eat healthy, but I eat when I am stressed. I called Tyler and asked him to bring me lunch, a bean burrito from Taco Bell.Then I fantasized about oreo's and doritoes the rest of the day...luckily I don't keep them in the house so my healthy lifestyle wasn't completely in the toilet. I couldn't even stress eat through the box of chocolates sitting on my counter because I ran out of my GERD medication...and I don't want to be up all night in pain. NO THANKS. It didn'thelp my stress factor that I have homework I needed to do on the internet, due tomorrow. So I was also worried about that,

Whew....sorry for that rant. I am better now and tomorrow will be better. Now onto health-related news.

Both Sarah and Brooke had great blogs tonight! I feel guilty for even publishing this piece of rambling nonsense after reading theirs! Sarah made a great point about how this "Six-week Challenge" becoming a lifestyle change and I really feel like this could be true! I have never stuck to a health plan this long and I owe it all to Sarah, Nathalie and Brooke for keeping me going. Thanks guys!
Today I found myself happily entertained reading a cook book! I was already planning next weeks menu and I was even paying attention to calories and fat! It is really fun finding great new recipes! I have also upped my workout time to between 60-90 minutes (broken up through out the day) ...though today was not a good day and I only got 20 minutes in, I am not going to stress out about it.
So today is the 21st...which mean the end of week 3! Which also means....measurement day!
I was going to post a picture...but...well...I didn't feel like it today. So I will post tomorrow,though I am not expecting visible results.
This week started out bad, I gained 2.4 pounds over the weekend. But I worked extra hard, and now I am proud to say that I not only lost the 2.4 pounds I gained, but I also lost an additional pound! I also have lost another 1/2 inch off my waist and a 1/2 inch below my belly button. WOOHOO! I have also noticed that I feel a lot stronger and I am getting significantly better at a lot of exercises I was terrible at. So...not a bad week.

My goals for next week:
Pay closer to attention to the calories consuming and planning for meals
stick to working out at least 60 minutes a day...even on my bad days

Week Four...here we come! Keep up the amazing work girls!

Sick baby :(

2010-01-20T12:52:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

How was your day today? Mine started out kind of lazy, Harliegh had a fever last night of 102! I gave her some tylenol and put her to bed at the usual time and this morning her temp was only at 100.1. So I decided to take it easy this morning and work on homework. My creative writing teacher loaded us up with work and I am a little behind, but I now only have one report to write, about 100 pages to read in a book, 2 more poems to write and find something to bring to class to write a "Found Poem", any suggestions? That sounds like a lot, but that is less than half of what I did have. I have to have this all done by Saturday!
After Harliegh went down for a nap I figured I had no excuse so I put in a good 40 minute workout, took a shower and here I am now, blogging. Yesterday and today I have noticed a decent drop in weight, though I am still making up for the 2.4 pounds gained this weekend.
I haven't decided whether I am making Cream Herb pasta or homemade mac and cheese. The pasta is only about 150 calories a serving! I noticed, though, that I need to pay attention to the meals I am planning, because even though the mac and cheese sounds amazing it is around 600 calories a serving! That is about 1 1/2 cups per serving though and that sounds like an awful lot! I will just have to make sure I eat more veggies than anything else.
Here is a tip I have been trying when I eat. Always give yourself more veggies than anything else. When You start eating, start with the healthiest food and work your way around the plate to the least healthiest. Eat slowly and chances are you will be full before you actually finish the unhealthy food. Not sure if it makes a difference but inmy mind it makes sense!

Spanish Rice

2010-01-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I am back, as promised...to post the recipe.

It was very good, and I think if you added soem black beans it would make a phenomenal vegetarian dish (look what you started Nathalie!).

Here is the picture of my dinner. The steak was great,and I limited myself to only five strips!

Here is the recipe for Spanish Rice, the only thing I changed is that I used brown rice to make it healthier. I also posted the nutritional facts!

Spanish Rice
Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1/2 cup chopped green sweet pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 28-ounce can tomatoes, cut up
1 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked long grain rice
1 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers, undrained
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Several dashes bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions

1. In a large skillet cook onion, sweet pepper, and garlic in hot oil until tender. Add chili powder; cook 1 minute more. Stir in undrained tomatoes, water, rice, chile peppers, salt, pepper, and, if desired, several dashes hot pepper sauce. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, about 20 minutes or until rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. If desired, sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

2. Makes about 5 cups (6 to 8 side-dish servings)

Nutrition Facts

Calories 144,
Total Fat (g) 3,
Saturated Fat (g) 0,
Cholesterol (mg) 0,
Sodium (mg) 353,
Carbohydrate (g) 27,
Fiber (g) 2,
Protein (g) 4,
Vitamin A (DV%) 0,
Vitamin C (DV%) 59,
Calcium (DV%) 8,
Iron (DV%) 11,
Starch (d.e.) 1.5,
Fat (d.e.) .5,
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Now, I should probably work on my homework since I have been pushing that to the back burner the past few days!

Same Stuff, Different Day

2010-01-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!
How has your day been? I am doing okay. I go up this morning, made a delicious smoothie and Harliegh and I did our favorite workout, the "30 minute Dance Party". I ate up the leftovers of my vegetarian meal for lunch and then when Harliegh went down for a nap I did my Wii Fit workout. I did a great workout and the last ten minutes I worked on strength exercises. Boy, some of theose are HARD. I tried a new one today called "One Arm Stand". You hold you arm straight up in the air and then lie down on the floor, then you stand back up again...all without moving your arm. You do this about five times and then switch arms and do it five more times. I thought I was going to die! So I worked out for a total of 46 minutes, I was planning on following it up with a ten minute jog but I was too worn out after the strength training! Yesterday I got in about an hour and fifteen minutes of work out through out the day. So tonight I think I will do a 10 minute jog in place while I watch tv followed by 15 minutes of Yoga. I think I am going to try to average between 60-90 minutes of workout through out the day, some light and some heavy.

Tonight I am making a delicious dinner of chipotle steak, spanish rice, and corn. We are splitting one steak between the three of us since I am trying to eat less meat. The spanish rice recipe is marked as Low-Fat in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (its on page 88 if you have it). If I have time maybe I will take pics and post recipes later tonight.

Sso...yeah...I know, what a boring blog...but it helps motivate me when I think there are people reading and watching my "progress" or lack thereof. LOL

On a side note....When is Spring going to get here? Is it too early to be thinking about that? I live in Minnesota, so the answer is yes. Sometimes it doesn't warm up until May! But I still want it to hurry, I am looking forward to walks and maybe jogging in the mornings. Think Spring thoughts!

Vegetarian Challenge

2010-01-18T16:57:00.000-08:00

Nathalie challenged us to make a vegetarian meal once a week. Tonight I tried my first vegatarian meal! It was so yummy! It was also suprisingly filling! I will definitely make this again! I made Creamy Spinach Tortellini. You can find the recipe online, but I will post it on here, too.

This is my tortellini cooking.

All the veggies I put in it, I LOVE veggies, so I admit I put in a little extra!

This is the finished product. I served it with some yummy red grapes.

Here is the recipe: Taken from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Spinach-Tortellini/Detail.aspx

Creamy Spinach Tortellini

Ingredients

1 (9 ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
2 tablespoons Butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
cherry tomatoes, halved

Directions

Cook tortellini according to package directions.
Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion; cook until soft and translucent. Mix in cream cheese, parmesan, milk, mushrooms, and spinach.
Gently mix in tortellini and cherry tomatoes with skillet contents; warm through, and serve.

The calorie count was a little high, 557! But it said it makes 4 servings and I had WAY less than a fourth of it! Also, I replaced the cream cheese with neufchatel (low-fat cream cheese), I didn't use parmesan...because I don't like parmesan (I know I am weird), and I used Skim milk, so I am sure the calorie count was a lot less. I also added some garlic while I was cooking the onions and some pepper.
It was so delicious! It was creamy and like I said, it was surprisingly filling. Even my husband liked it and he is the world's pickiest eaters, of course he picked out the tomatoes and said there was too much spinach.
If you didn't want this to be vegetarian I would suggest some chicken marinated in Italian dressing, grilled or baked. I would also put about half the spinach in because there did seem to be a lot! Then I would add some artichoke.YUM! I can't wait to make it again!

So that is my vegetarian meal! Sorry that this is my third blog for today, if you were bored I am sure it gave you something to read anyway!

2.4

2010-01-18T12:52:00.000-08:00

If you read my blog from earlier today you will note that I have been feeling very lazy today (the past few days, actually). I promised myself I would at least do a short workout today. I ate great, a smoothie for breakfast, Select Harvest Light soup for lunch, a half a turkey sandwich. Then after i put harliegh down for a nap I reluctantly fired up the Wii Fit. I stepped on the balance board to be weighed...and found that I have gained 2.4 pounds. 2.4!!! Now, granted, SOME of that might be the normal weight fluctautions from day-to-day, but I am sure not all of it is. This is really a slap n the face to show how slacking off for one weekend can really effect your results.

I was so disappointed in myself that instead of doing an easy 15 minute workout, I did a 45 minute workout! I also plan on fitting in some yoga tonight. UGH!!!

Hope you guys are all had a more successful and healthy weekend than me ! :)

2010-01-18T05:51:00.000-08:00

I know this blog is mainly for getting healthy, but if you read my blog from the beginning you would also know that I had other goals I wanted to work on, too.
I am happy to say that it has officially been a whole week that I have kept my house clutter-free! I finally got around to cleaning my room last Sunday, and it is still clean! I have also kept the living room, bathroom and Harliegh's room nice and neat. I haven't gotten to de-clutterering the kitchen, that is this week's goal. It feels do nice to have the rest of the house nice and neat!

I also have been doing pretty good on my writing. Not that I have much choice,since I am taking Creative Writing and have to write a couple poems a week. I am not much of a poet, so it has certainly been a challenge. I have not had much time to work on my "book", which is really disappointing because I really have fun doing it and haven't worked on it for quite awhile.

This weekend was a bad weekend for me for losing weight. Saturday I was just having a very blah day, but I did do a short workout and stuck to my healthy eating habits. Sunday we traveled north to celebrate my husbands late family Christmas. This, of course, meant lots of typical holiday food, hm, turkey, gravy, potatoes, casseroles, salads, etc. Of course, I had to have a bite of everything, but I don't think I went overboard. I made a delicious fruit pizza, which is less than 235 calories a slice! I say "less-than" because I used neufchatel instead of cream cheese in the recipe, which is low-fat. Here is the recipe if you are interested:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Fruit-Pizza

I am feeling pretty lazy once again today....I think Cabin Fever is starting to set in and I am just sick of being stuck inside! I can't wait for it to warm up so I can go on walks down to the lake and (maybe) start running. Since I had such a busy day yesterday I am going to compromise and be happy if I get in at least one decent workout. But who knows, maybe after that workout I will feel more energized. I have my eye on a couple cute dresses that I refuse to buy until I lose the weight I want to lose, so that is my incentive.

Hope you guys all have a wonderful, healthy day!

Different Goals

2010-01-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

I wrote another blog ...a huge long thing. Then decided it verged on self-pity and deleted the whole thing.

I know I do not have the same struggles as some of you, and I just want to let you know that I understand how hard it is some days to stick to your plans. I only want to lose 10-15 pounds, adn I don't expect that to be easy. It will be hard and disappointing at times,but I will get there!

I hope you all know that I think you are all doing an amazing job working towards your goals. I hope that somehow I can help you achieve your goals and motivate you! You guys all motivate me! When I hear your successes, I am so happy for you! So keep it up!

Hypocrites

2010-01-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

I was sitting here chatting with Miss Sarah and she was trying to talk herself out of doing her workout. I simply said to her "Just do it...it's only 20 minutes" or something like that. A few minutes later we both logged off and I curled up on my chair to watch some corny abc family movie. It was about time for the season premier of Project Runway to start...one of my favorite series and suddenly I started feeling guilty and hypocritical for telling Sarah to work out.

I mean, one of my goals LAST week was to get in a relaxing evening workout and here I was sitting on the couch telling Sarah, "...it's just 20 minutes". Part of the reason I haven't gotten that extra workout in is because after Harliegh goes to bed...I shut down. I stop cleaning, working out, doing homework. It's bad...I shouldn't do that because if you take away those precious hours after she goes to bed and before I go to bed, the only time I have left to focus on anything besides Harliegh is naptime...which averages about 2 hours a day...if I'm lucky. I am not super woman...I can't fit everything into 2 hours!

Ok...I got off an a bit of a tangent there....sorry. But the main reason I don't workout is because, simply put...I wanna watch tv. So, as Project Runway started and I started feeling like a hypocrite I got up and compromised with myself. Ok, Quinn, you can do both...20 minutes of relaxing Yoga WHILE you watch tv...so thats what I did. And it felt amazing!

So basically what I am saying is...if you can't workout or stick to a healthy goal, think about the reasons. Are you TRULY not able to do it for a real reason, or are you talking yourself out of it?

I forgot to mention early that I have noticed a difference in my body while working out on the wii fit. I noticed today that I seem stronger and more balanced. Exercises I was horrible at when I started I can now manage, though its not near perfection yet. I am noticing that my movements doing routines are more strong and less shaky and unbalanced.
The wii fit has you do a body test every day. It starts with a center of balance test. When I started my balance was way off center, now...it is very close to center! Then it weighs you and measures your BMI...I already told you those results. But waht i like is if you gained a pound or more it asks you for a reason and then addresses ways to change this habit.So it makes you accountable. The next step in the body test is a series of body and mind exercises. Usually this consists of different balance tests in which you have to shift your balance and sometimes you also have to do mind exercises...like picking anumber greater than 4, putting numbers in order, stuff like that. Then when you are done...it presents you with your "Wii Fit Age". When I started I think my age averaged to around 50 (yes....yikes). But for the past 4 or 5 days my age has avereaged around 25!! So I am definitely making progress somewhere...even if it doesn't show up on the scales or the tape measure!

Ok , thats all for tonight!
Good night!

Measurements Part 2

2010-01-14T07:03:00.000-08:00

Good Morning everyone! This morning Harliegh woke up at 7:30 and I was not ready to get up all! Ugh. But I got up, had a small breakfast and made myself do my morning yoga. It felt good...but I am thinking I need to add some energetic exercises in there to help me wake up. The just relaxes me and makes me want to go to sleep.

Speaking of yoga...I am HORRIBLE at anything that requires me to stand on one foot. I just don't have the strength or balance. Any suggestions on how to improve this?

So today is the end of week 2 of our 6 week challenge. I did not see much change this week, which is a little discouraging, but I am sticking with it for at least six weeks. I am hoping that I am not seeing a change because I am gaining muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat as we all know.
Here are my measurements:

Week 2:
Bust 36
waist 30 1/2
below belly button 34 1/2
Weight 146

So my weight and my bust stayed the same. My waist and belly button measurements have decreased by 1/2 an inch each! I am really happy about this. It doesn't sound like much really, but if I lost 1/2 every week until the six week challenge is up, that is a significant change in my book! I was going to post pictures, but I thought it would be a little silly since it isn't much of a change.

Last week I made a new goal, to either jog for 10 minutes or do a 15-10 minute Yoga evening workout. I didn't do either. I just couldn't find the time, but maybe I am making excuses. So this week I am making the same goal, but I am only going to try to do this every other day.
Also, my friend Nathalie challenged me to have one vegetarian meal a week. This week I found a great recipe that my husband is actually willing to try! It's cheese tortellini with tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms with a creamy white sauce. YUM! I will post the recipe when I make it.

So how was YOUR second week? If you didn't see many results, like me, don't get discouraged. Keep going! I know you can do it!

Stupid @#%$@&% Car

2010-01-13T12:48:00.000-08:00

Breathe. Just Breathe.

Sigh...I am trying to be positive. My husband just called to inform me that the car we had our hearts set on we can't get. We don't have the best credit (stupid mistakes in the past coming back to haunt us) so even with a co-signer and putting $2500 down on the car we can not get the loan for a $7000. I am not gonna lie, I cried a little. It's just frustrating, we are trying our best with what little we have and we get screwed. That car would have been perfect for us! Instead, we have to settle for a car that is older and probably less reliable. I am so tired of settling. Ok...now I am done with my pity party. Sorry you had to hear that.

Up until the frustrating news, I was having a decent day. Harliegh and I made whole wheat blueberry muffins for breakfast. I only ate one with a half a banana and a glass of skim milk. Then later, we had our 30 min dance party which sends Harliegh into fits of laughter...so rewarding for all that sweat and work! Then we went outside to cool off and take a ten minute walk. For lunch I tried the new Select Harvest Light soup from Campbell's. It was really good, and only 120 calories if you eat the whole can...which I shared with Harliegh. We also had some sugar-free Jell-o, only 10 calories a cup! After I put Harliegh down for a nap, I did a good 35 minute workout on the Wii Fit. I am looking forward to measuring tomorrow, cause I do feel...tighter. I am scared I will feel disappointed though because the wii weighs me everyday and I know I haven't made much progress with that. I keep telling myself that it is because I am gaining muscle and I will see results in a week or two. Hopefully.

Well, I guess I feel a little bit better. I need to be positive. As of right now, we are still without a car, and we lose the rental on Monday. But something positive has got to happen, right? RIGHT? tell me I'm right! Please?

2010-01-12T14:35:00.001-08:00

Is anybody reading this? I don't think I have gotten a comment for quite a few days now?? LOL!

Today has been quite a busy day for me. I did my 20 minute yoga workout this morning. Then I noticed that it was birght and sunny outside and finally around 30 degrees! This is practically a heat wave up here in Minnesota! So Harliegh and I got bundled up and went outside. Harliegh has not gotten used to the snow yet and for some reason she hates to stand in snow. So after several failed attempts to put her down I ended up carrying and we took a short 10 minute walk. It felt so nice to be out in the fresh air! After that we came in and had lunch... we split a BLT and had some fruit. After I put her down for a nap I did my usual 30 minute workout. After nap I put on the music and I danced/cleaned for an hour and a half. I have not had luck with my new goals...I just can't seem to fit in that extra few minutes of workout....ok, ok....maybe I could do a 20 min yoga workout after harliegh goes to bed at 7...but usaully I am exhausted and ready to spend the night watching tv and wasting time on the internet or reading. maybe I should stop making excuses and just do it...I mean, what's 20 minutes? I just need to work it into my routine like my other workouts.

How is everyone doing by the way? Only two more days until the end of week 2. I am excited to measure my waist and find out if there is a difference cause I FEEL like there is a difference.

Speaking of time limits....I know this is a 6 week challenge and I really want to see results in 6 weeks. But I decided today that I just want to be satisified with my body by the time it gets warm...which in Minnesota is about Mid-May. Next term I have to take a P.E. class, I am hoping this will give me some good exercise tips...because by then I will be sick of what I am doing now.
I will be sure to pass on any tips to you guys, too! Next term starts in April!

On another note...

I think I am having some sort of muscle spasm in my right leg. It started last night, but every once in a while I feel these sharp twinges in my muscle above my knee and it hurts. It feels like my muscle tightens, too. Then suddenly...it stops and its gone for several hours. It seems to happen more when I am sitting/resting. Any suggestions or ideas what this might be?

Well, I gotta go...I have to get ready to go get groceries. I will be looking for Laughing Cow cheese...and some vegetarian meals as challenged by Nathalie! ;)

Hope everyone had a heathy, happy day!

The Jar of Mice

2010-01-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

Good Morning All!

Today I got up and did my 20 minute yoga...I haven't done my morning workout in quite a few days. :( It felt sooo good. I even tried a new yoga pose..The Bridge...man that feels awesome!

A little aside here...for all you writers out there. You must read "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. It is amazing! It's a book about writing and she has some fantastic tips. I was reading last night and I came across a paragraph that I wanted to share with you. It is about writing but you can relate it to anything in life. Whenever you do anything in life, whether its writing or losing weight, or anything at all, you always have those voices you can't get out of your head. Your mom, dad, sister, brother, friend, stranger....they all have something to say. Here is a tip to help you block those voices out and get to what is realy important...YOU.

"Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person apeaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers colleagues, children, anyone who is whining in your head. Then put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away trying to make you feel like shit because won't do what they want--won'tgive them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn is all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of angry, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft.
A writer friend of mine suggests opening the jar and shooting them all in the head. But I think he's a little angry, and I'm sure nothing like this would ever occur to you."--Anne Lamott

So...next time you feel discouraged by something someone said...just turn down your mouse jar and keep doing what you are doing.

Lessons learned from my mommy!

2010-01-11T12:17:00.000-08:00

I have been reading everyone's blogs lately and I am noticing a common theme: how to eat healthy.
This has never been an issue for me, sure...I might not choose to eat healthy, but I do know how to! Let me tell you a little bit about my childhood.

My mom was a stay at home for...seven kids. Yes, SEVEN! So my mom knew how to cook...and to cook on a budget. She is also one of the most health conscience people I know. I didn't appreciate it when I was little, but I do now. I know how to eat healthy. So....here are some lessons learned form my mom:

1. Drink lots of water. We sometimes got juice. Rarely got Kool-aid. Absolutely NEVER soda. If we were thirsty we got water. PERIOD.

2. Fruits and Veggies. We had at least one at EVERY meal. We also had to eat it all...this was never a problem for me since I was never picky.

3. Meat. Really, you only need 1-2 portions a day. One at lunch, one at dinner...but watch the portions. You don't need any more than what will fit in the palm of your hand. You can actually replace meat with beans or legumes. Once, back in 8th grade my mom went "almost" vegetarian for a few months. We only got meat one day a week and she even replaced some cheeses and dairy with tofu and soy...it actually wasn't that bad.

4. Fast Food. HAHA! I remember in 7th grade I was in track and we traveled for a meet to some other school. The team stopped at McDonald's and....I was embarassed when I realized....I had no idea how to order! We never had fast food....and when I say NEVER...I mean...less than 3 or 4 times a YEAR!

5. Snacks. You know what my mom said when we wanted a snack? "Have an apple, orange, banana or some crackers or a slice of bread. Yep. No oreo's or chips for us...but imagine what a treat it was when we went over to a friends house! HOLY COW! My mom did make the most wonderful cookies...but we only got one...maybe two a day.

6. Replacements. Skim milk instead of Whole milk. Frozen Yogurt instead of Ice Cream. Wheat Bread instead of White Bread. Chicken over beef. Veggies and Fruits should ALWAYS be a bigger portion than meats and carbs.

7. SALT. Most canned/packaged foods have salt...so you really shouldn't add more. Learn to enjoy the other flavors.

8. Television. Yep, we got to watch two hours on Friday, two hours on Saturday...that is all. So...we spent the rest of the time outside playing or reading....really anything we wanted to do...non-tv related.

So...that is what I learned from my mom, among other things. Like....do you know you should NEVER eat Trans fat? They are removing it from most stuff...but companies are allowed to round down to half a gram...Which means that if your crackers have half a gram of trans fat...they can record it as zero! AND...did you know you should never go over 2 grams of trans fat a day? It's horrible for you...and think of all those hidden 1/2 grams you could be eating? It adds up...so it's better to not eat ANY!

Class....and Cleaning

2010-01-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone. How are your weekends going so far?
My classes went okay, Creative Writing actually went by quickly and I think I am going to like how it is taught. I was horrified when I saw that he puts poems written by students up on the board for all to read and discuss and critique. But in away, this is a good thing because I will work harder on my poem to perfect it. Just so you know, I am horrible at all things poem related, reading, writing, analyzing...ugh. So this will be a struggle, but it will be a great learning experience and help me to come out of my shell a little more. My graphic design class on the other hand...BORING! I am hoping it's because the teacher wasn't feeling well. He talked for 2 and a half hours about a training exercise we had to do to get used to the Adobe Illustrator equipment. Then the rest of the time we did the exercise...which was, literally, tracing lines on the computer...that's all. But I think it could be more interesting once we have real projects to work on.

Sorry to bore you about my classes! The lunch I packed yesterday was great...I didn't even have to eat the candy bar or pb sandwich! I did however have to walk around for half an hour to search for a place to eat my lunch...so that counts as part of my workout.HAHA I planned on doing some yoga after class since I was so stiff from sitting all day, but I realized 8 hours of class can do wonders as a sleep aid. I was soooooo tired. I dozed off on the couch at 9...then woke up at 1030 and went back to bed...where I happily slept until 9. WOW! It was such a beautiful sleep, too!
Today I decided I am focusing on cleaning. My room is a mess. A total mess. So that is my goal for today...get my room cleaned. I might step on the wii for my Body test and some yoga, if I get around to it.

Sorry for the incredibly boring blog.

so , to copy Sarah's closing style

Peace, Love and Healthy Choices!

Off to School I go...

2010-01-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

I am posting now because I am headed off to school tomorrow, like a good little girl! I already packed my lunch and made a delicious smoothie for my breakfast. Here is what I am bringing to school tomorrow for food:

Smoothie...I am guessing around 350 calories
Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, and cucumbers ( I love my veggies), two hard-boiled eggs,sliced (for protein) and a table spoon of fat-free dressing.
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich (hey...the jelly was only 50 calories, hush)
an orange
two granola bars
and one itty-bitty fun size butterfinger (yes...I remembered my medicine...)
A Bottle of water

So...I will be stuck at school from 8-5 with no money, so I will be forced to eat the super healthy food I prepared and put in my lunch box. I feel like I am in elementary school again! LOL!

I am excited and nervous for class tomorrow! Creative Writing and Graphic Design! YIKES! You know that dream you get when you are walking in class and everyone is staring at you and you realize you're naked? That's how I feel when I have to do anything creative in class, and here I am taking not one, but two classes that REQUIRE me to use creativity! AAAAAGH! What was I thinking?

I got a decent workout today after going out for lunch.

40 minutes of Wii Fit
30 minutes of "Dance Party"

Though, after eating that burger I weighed a full pound more than yesterday! HAHA!

Hope you guys keep up with your healthy habits this weekend!

To my Healthy Buddies

2010-01-08T06:43:00.000-08:00

I am just writing a quick blog to say how proud I am of my weight loss/getting healthy buddies, Sarah and Nathalie.

It has only been a week since we started on this journey together, and let me tell you, I am not planning on dropping out....nor will I let you fall and drop out. Sorry, but, we are in this together. I can't believe how addicted I have gotten to reading your blogs and writing my own. I look forward to reading your blogs everyday and get excited when I see you have posted a new blog. It has been a tough week for me...sleeplessness, stress, car problems, etc. and if it weren't for you I might have given up. I find that I want you to accomplish your goals even more than I want myself to accomplish mine, so I feel like I have to motivate you by proving that I am not giving up.

You guys are amazing and are doing fantastic! For week two, lets up our game. We are one week closer to becoming healthier individuals.

Today will be a hard workout/diet day. I am going to try to get a yoga workout in a minute. Then for lunch I am going to my favorite restaurant, The Happy Gnome. I am not even going to think about calories. One day of "cheating" won't hurt me too much. I am going to get an Angus burger with Widmer Cheddar cheese and and sweet pickle aioli....it is the best burger I have ever had in my life. I am going to enjoy every bite. Then I am going to come home and do an extra good workout and not feel guilty about a thing.

Tomorrow, I have class alllll day. From 8am -5pm. Two classes, one hour break in between. I am going to pack a healthy lunch and tons of healthy snacks, but I probably won't get a workout in , unfortunately. But...my classes are a good 10 minute walk from the parking lot...so I will get a decent walk in. Maybe I will fit in a light workout after class.

Keep up witht he great work. i will be looking for new blogs this weekend!

Measurements

2010-01-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes....I am blogging...AGAIN! Are you sick of me yet? So today marks the end of week one!

Above are some pics of me...egads! Since Sarah posted some I felt obligated. The first one (left to right) is me today! I hadn't take a shower yet, so ignore the yuckiness. I really just want to lose the belly. The middle one is me at my heaviest...around 170, and the last one is me when I was super thin. I don't want to be that thin again...I was maybe 105 pounds! But I just posted it for comparisons sake.

So I guess I should post my measurements now, huh?

Chest: 36
Waist:31
Right under belly button:35
Hips:37

Weight: 146

So that means I have lost two pounds! YAY! Though...most of that is probably due to a certain monthly thing....but I am still counting it as a success. HOORAY!

So since it is the end of week one, this means I probably should come up with a new goal for next week. So...I couldn't decide on one, so I picked two. I will see which one I fall into easier adn stick to that, or do both.
This is my "Ideal"usual workout, what I TRY to do every day:

20 min of light Yoga workout in the morning
30 min "Dance Party"
30 min Wii Fit workout

this is what I am adding:

10 min jog
20 min light Yoga workout in the evening

I don't think that is to much, do you?
Also, I am going to try to go to bed sooner.

Like I said before, my goal is to be 135. Right smack in the middle of average for my height, this was I have some cushion if I gain weight again. Really, and I know this sounds crazy, I just want to get healthy so I can get pregnant again. So I can still exercise while I'm pregnant safely and that way my body will bounce back faster next time.

So that's it for now. Now begins WEEK TWO! (dun dun duuuuun...you know, scary music)

Up all night with dear Gerdie

2010-01-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, I was up all night with my dear friend Gerdie. Gerdie and I have really gotten to know each other over the past year or so ....and I wich she would just go away forever. A few months after I had my daughter I started having intense chest pains. I had a burning, tightening pain right under my breast bone that would last for HOURS...and it always happened just as I am going to bed. I went to the doctor, and was diagnosed with GERD. It is manageable as long as I don't eat chocolate, caffeine or alcohol. If I do eat one of those, I just have to take an acid reducer beforehand. Yesterday I wanted a fun size candy bar around 12:00 pm so I took an acid reducer. These acid reducers should last around 12 hours. I only had one candy tiny candy bar, so the acid reducer should have worked. Last night, I went to lay in bed at 10:30...early for me! But I took a book with me and ended up reading for an hour and a half. As I was reading I noticed a tightening in my chest but thought it was the way I was sitting, after all, it shouldn't have been GERD...I took the medicine. But then as I put the book down and tried to sleep the tightening got worse and I realized it was definitely dear old Gerdie. I got up and took another acid reducer and tried to get some sleep. This was around 12:30 am. I guess I did fall asleep, cause I woke up at 2 am in extreme pain. I couldn't take another acid reducer because you can only take 2 in 24 hours. So I paced around the house for a bit and then took some tylenol and and a few big bites of yogurt...yougurt is a miracle food isn't it? About an hour and a half later I finally felt good enough to doze off. Harliegh woke up at 7 and just as I ws attempting to roll out of bed my husband cheerfully sits up and tells him that he will get up for awhile. Sweet Bliss! So he got up with her for about an hour and a half and I slept. He fed the baby, changed her diaper AND started a load in the dishwasher...he gets MAJOR good husband points today!
Right now, the burning and tightening in my chest is gone but I still have the annoying burning in my esophagus. That will probably last all day. Now I am wondering why the meds didn't work liek they should have...all that pain for one little tiny fun-size butterfinger, seriously?? The only thing I can think was that this episode HAD to be caused more from stress. UGH!
So I am watching the Today show and they say to be healthy and lose weight you need to get a good night's sleep...and you MUST go to bed at the SAME time every day. Like I said before, this is hard for me because those last few hours of the day are ME time...and I selfishly cling to them. So ...my goal is to TRY to be in bed at 10:30 every night. If I read for 30 minutes, and wake up around 7 this will give me around 7-8 hours of sleep. This is IF I go to sleep easily and STAY asleep....which I never do. But maybe...maybe I need to train my body to sleep well? Maybe I need a bedtime routine like I do for Harliegh? I don't know....

Today I am going to eat well. Skip nap and do a good long workout. Even though I have worked out EVERY day this week, I have been skimping. Maybe it will help me sleep better. Today is the 7th! Which means a week of our workout! How are you doing?

Now I must go eat and hopefully soothe this burning. Have a fantastic day!

Obstacles

2010-01-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a day! Last night my husband was in a car accident. He is ok...but the car....not so much. It was the other person's fault though. Thank God for car insurance. We are hoping our car isn't totalled since we owe more than the car is worth. Plus....we owe his mom quite a bit for fixing the car 6 months ago. UGH. Then...I accidentally locked my cat in the bedroom and he peed on my bed.... :(
So we cleaned it up and flipped the mattress. THEN....I got a letter from a friend today. We used to be pretty close but I hadn't heard from him in a long time so I had sent him a Christmas card. He sent a letter back and told me he is now in jail and will go to prison in about a month. WOW...double WOW. It makes me said cause he is not a trouble maker...but he does have some mental problems.

So, needless to say, I am not feeling very motivated today. I did get up and weigh myself, did the body test on the wii fit and managed to do a 10 minute workout. Right now, I am debating whether or not I should take a nap. I want to....but I am afraid I will just lie there thinking about everything and not be able to sleep and then get up an hour later grouchy and even more tired. Maybe it will be more benificial to do some cleaning, a little yoga or maybe some reading.

We definitely hit a lot of obstacles along the path of achieving our goals, huh? But we have to just get up, brush the dirt off and keep going.

I Feel Like Dancing!

2010-01-05T13:41:00.000-08:00

So it's been a pretty decent day so far! I did a good 30 minute workout on the Wii Fit and after Sesame Street, we turned off the tv and had our own little dance party. As I was dancing around, Harliegh looked at me very strangely but before long she was dancing around with me. We danced around for about 20 minutes and I was EXHAUSTED! I was sweating and my muscles were sore...but it felt great! I also found an "exercise" for us mommies. We all like to toss our babies in the air, right. Well, next time, as your holding your baby bend your knees and flex your ab muscles, then as your tossing baby, extend your knees. As you catch baby go back to bending your knees. After about 5 reps of this, you really feel it in your thighs, abs and lower back muscles...not to mention your arms. Take a break adn then do another 5...you can really feel it, and your baby will love it! Ok...so it's not new or innovative or anything...but it does work!

So I felt pretty confident that I got a great workout today and decided to take a little nap. WOOHOO!

I decided I am not going to track my food calories anymore, I have been meeting my goal everydayand I am pretty smart about portion size...so...it's just a big hassle. I might every once in awhile to make sure I am on the right track, but I think for the most part I do a pretty good job.

My weight is still decreasing by 0.4 lbs a day, not bad! It is so nice to see that dotted red line on my Wii Fit graph moving slowly, gradually DOWN! I feel much healthier in general. I amstarting to LOVE Yoga and find myself wanting to do it several times a day. I can really feel my core muscles gradually strengthening, also...it might be my imagination...but I am not fighting it.

Well...I am off to go to the library. I wish it were warm enough to walk there again! That was my favorite summer activity last year! But...it is only -25 with the windchill, so probably NOT a good idea...even without taking Harliegh! I can't wait for Spring, can you?
Which reminds me...In April I have to take a P.E. class! I am hoping Iwill learn a lot about fitness and the best ways to stay healthy,lose weight and maintain weight once you get to a good weight. I will be sure to pass on this info to you lucky readers!

Motivation

2010-01-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

I don't usually blog this early, but I was felling like it so, why not?
Once again, I didn't sleep well. Somedays I wish I would just go in for a sleep study so they can tell me why. When I got my eyes checked, the optometrist told me that he didn't think I closed my eyes all the way when I sleep. Could this be part of the problem? I don't know. I should start going to bed early, but those few hours after Harliegh goes to bed are my only "me" time. It's the time I get caught up on reading, homework, writing and ...to be honest...just wasting time on the internet. So every day I intend on going to bed early, I don't. It would be okay if Harliegh hasn't been waking up nearly two hours early the past few days!
In about 30 minutes I am going to force my butt off the couch and do a 30 minute workout. I still plan on dancing with Harliegh, but depending on how energized I feel at naptime. I may once again decide to nap again. I know you are probably thinking that if I didn't nap I might sleep better at night, but I know from experience that this is not true. Plus, my naps the past two days have been the best sleep I have gotten! Sooooo....we'll see how it goes.
I am having a delicious smoothie right now.
here is the recipe:

1 cup Peaches
1 cup Strawberries
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup milk

Calories: 312

This makes two good sized smoothies and it is delicious! I even shared some with Harliegh!

Here is to a great day (raises smoothie in a toast) to Sarah and Nathalie. I order both of you to have a great food/workout day and that you both feel incredible about yourselves. We can do it, you guys!

Stay Motivated! Stay Positive!

Dance, Dance

2010-01-04T20:05:00.001-08:00

Hello loyal blog readers!

I know there are at least two of ya! How are you doing today? I did not sleep well last night, I have never been a great sleeper anyway, but then the baby got up an hour and a half earlier than usual...ugh! So right away I was already tired and planning to be lazy all day. I ate a half a banana, a small bowl of life cereal and a half a glass of oj. Then sat on the couch :(
After about an hour I felt guilty so as Harliegh colored a picture in her highchair I got off my butt and did a vigorous 30 min workout and I even got a shower in before my dear husband got up to go to work. (Note: My daughter was playing in the hallway and I had the bathroom door open...in case you were wondering how I managed that, lol). So....because I got my workoutin, I rationalized that I could take a nap when Harliegh took her nap. It was a great nap, too!

So, I weigh myself everyday on the wii and my weight has been decreasing a tiny bit everyday. The Wii Fit ever so nicely informed me that I need to up my game if I want to reach my goal in 6 weeks. Sigh....oh well....I am satisfied that I have decreased in weight for the past 4 days or so, it's a start right?

I have come up with a new crazy idea to add some extra workout and fun into my life. I got the idea from this video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvljD0toJmU
When I watched this I just wanted to get up and dance. I love dancing...okay, I love jumping around crazily and calling it "dance". So I think I am going to spend a while each morning dancing to some happy, energetic music. Have you ever managed to dance and stay angry, sad or down? It's not possible. Dancing makes you happy! I figured I could fit this in between 11 and 12:30. It will be a fun thing for me and Harliegh to do, maybe we will only dance for 10 min or 15 min...but I am hoping it will help motivate me and brighten my mood for the day. I just looked it up...did you know in 15 minutes you can burn 75 calories dancing? Awesome.

Here is my food for the day:

Banana: 52 cal
Life Cereal (1 cup):149
2% Milk: 138
Orange Juice:55

Fat-Free Vanilla Pudding: 80

Goulash: 300

Fun-size Butterfinger: 83
Fun size 100 Grand:98

salad: 100
mac and cheese (1 cup) 100
mini corndogs: 250 (WHAT?!?!)

fat-Free Popcorn: 40

TOTAL: 1445

I am still hitting my calorie goal, or getting close but I need to work on making healthier choices to reach that goal! UGH!!

So....overall,not a bad day! I am going to try to get to bed earlier ...maybe I will have more energy tomorrow!

Light Day

2010-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Well, hello everyone!
Today I declared it "light exercise day" I woke up this morning and had a delicious smoothie. Then I did my weight and 30 minutes of yoga. I have been cleaning a lot today, so that will make up for more calories burnt. I am about a pound and a half less than two days ag0, I know weight can fluctuate but I hope this is a sign I am moving in the right direction.
Sometimes I think "Why am I doing this??" But then I think about spring and summer and how I will feel more comfortable in skirts, dresses, shorts, tanks and a swimsuit than I did last year. Also, I promised myself that if I lost the weight I would buy myself some new Spring/Summer clothes.

I haven't really been talking about my other goals this year. I am slowly working on de-cluttering my house and cleaning, I was up all night last night thinking about how messy certain areas of my house are and I almost got up to clean in the middle of the night. It's just really hard to organize/clean with a 16 month old!

I have been doing pretty good with keeping the tv off...unless dad's home. He likes to have it on all day.

I really wanted towork on my story during my break from school, but school starts in a week and I haven't gotten to it! :(

I have done pretty good with the calories today, but I am not going to post them right now...but really its just a bunch of repeats from the day before, So I will post later.

That is all for now. Stay positive!