Weekly Workout Recap

I'm going to start a new feature of this blog to help keep me more accountable- a weekly workout recap. I will share what I accomplished from Sunday-Saturday workout wise with honesty! :D

I actually typed a draft of this last Sunday and entered in an awesome Sunday workout......then did NOTHING for the rest of the week! I was SO busy with work and school and a job interview!

This week is better so far :D

Sunday 20th:

Jillian's 30 Day Shred level 2- wow, every time I take a break from Jillian and then do her DVD again it is a killer! I don't work my abs as hard on the machines at the gym as Jillian does with mat work!

Monday 21st:

Yoga: A college in the evening after work kind of day so I did yoga - about 30 minutes. It felt great- wearing heels makes my legs so stiff so I need it! I was surprised to realize I cant get as deep into moves as I could when I did yoga consistently in my youth....time to get flexible again!!

Tuesday 22nd:

Gym time! I did 30 minutes on the arc at level 30, 30 incline, and burned 300 calories, and did 5 minutes of weights.Felt pretty tired from the work day and proud of myself for going!

Friday the 25th

Does running around the mall shopping count? :D

I went to the gym and did 45 minutes of cardio on the arc and burned 430 calories. I also did some leg presses and stretching. I found it kind of hard to last all the way through to 45 minutes but music sure helped!

 Saturday the 26th

Didnt 'officially' work out but walked at least a mile or two all morning at flea markets taking photos for my still life assignment like this:

To continue or not to continue with the Four Day Diet?

I'm so excited to be only ONE pound away from my goal!! Woot woot! I'm at 126 pounds, nearing 125! After I reach 125 I'm sure I will


I'm back at work after wisdom teeth removal! A co-worker cut this out the paper for me...hehe, so TRUE, my cheeks did look similar for at least five days!!

Still have trouble opening my motuh all the way and eating tougher foods. I'm also not sure what I want to do after I can eat normally again- wing it myself, or keep going with Dr. Ian Smith's Four Day Diet?

 Its given me good results, but the week and a half I've been off the diet I've lost more weight, and seem to be doing fine eating healthy by myself! It gives me more flexibility in recipes too, which Im enjoying.

 However, I think I may still do the Vigourous Module. Apparently its one of the modules people really lose a lot of weight- when I can chew normally again!


I went to the gym five times last week, woot woot- usually for 45 minutes to an hour!




Having a purple day- purple workout in a purple gym followed by a purple smoothie!



Lose weight with Vegetarian Chilli, Wild Herb and Mushroom Texmati Rice

/hihi!! My swelling from my wisdom teeth removal is finally going down! Yay! I've enjoyed my time off work though, its been relaxing!

 I discovered a wealth of health and beauty info on YouTube (a zillion years after everyone else, I know I know lol) and used some tips to do my own French Manicure, check it out:

DIY French Manicure

Last night I went to the gym for the first time since my surgery. I went late at night because my face is still swollen and I'm self conscious. It felt great though! My sore neck and back melted away- they were probably a result of too much bed rest! I went again today, and did an hour of cardio and twenty minutes of strength training! I was famished afterwards and had this for lunch:

Two bean mexican chilli with wild herb and mushroom brown rice and gucamole, with a cranberry seltzer water on the side. It only took me five minutes to put together! (those strawberries are my salt and pepper shakers, I discoverd a lovely Himalayan pink salt at my local store the other day!)

I call this my weight loss chilli because I've lost even more weight while eating it over the past few days! I have a big protien/fruit/spinach smoothie for breakfast, and a cup of chilli+ a cup of rice+ half an avacado+ hummus + seltzer water+ cranberry juice for lunch and then am so full I only need a yogurt and some fruit for dinner! Its so hearty and filling :)

How to make the Chilli (adapted/modified from Cooking Light,  Vegan)

Ingredients

2 Red Bell Peppers (I didnt have any on hand so I replaced them with two yellow squash for color)
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper
1 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
half a teaspoon salt
4 garlic gloves, thinly sliced
2 cups organic vegetable broth
1 and a half cups peeled butternut squash ( replaced this with several purple organic potatoes)
1 (28) ounce can no-salt added tomatoes
1 (15) ounce can pinto beans rinsed and drained
1 (15) ounce can red beans rinsed and drained
half a cup thinly sliced green onions
2 cups TVP chunks (textured vegetable protein, available in health food stores, ads meat like chunks to the chilli)

1 cup TVP crumbles

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler

2. Soak all the TVP (chunks and crumbles) in a bowl of hot water. If the TVP absorbs all the water, add some more after 10 minutes.

3. Cut bell peppers (or squash) into pieces. Broil the peppers. If using squash skip this step, it will boil in step three.

Yellow squash and purple potatoes

4. Heat a Dutch oven (heavy pot) over medium-low heat. Add oil to pan, swirl to coat. Add onion, cook 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in cumin and add next five ingredients, cook two minutes, stirring frequently.. Add drained TVP. Add bell peppers/squash, broth, squash/or potatoes and tomatoes, bring to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.Add beans, simmer 25 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with green onions. 

Yields 6 Servings (serving size: about 1 and a half cups)
Calories - about three hundred a serving - high protien


This chilli is delightfully earthy and tasty, my man raved about it! Its not too spicy either which I like :)

My rice wasnt any magical recipe, it was this magical product:

The herbs that come with it smell SOOOOOOOOO good, if you make this rice your house will smell GREAT! 


Tip: I made the chilli in a big batch and froze half of it, and I made the rice in a batch to and tupperwared it. So today when I got back from the gym all I had to do was warm up the rice and chilli, melt some spinach into the chilli and make my fresh gucamole. I only used half an avocado as they are high in fat, I covered the other half in lemon juice and put it in a ziplock bag for lunch tomorrow!

Mmm Seltzer Water! Is it better than diet soda for health? What do you guys think?

Day Three of my Detox (aka. The Four Day Diet)

Day three was my turning point. I finally didnt feel weird and actually woke up full of energy and waaay before my alarm clock! I think the first two days were really rough as all my toxins made their way out my body and I got used to eating a really clean diet! I THOUGHT I ate pretty healthy, but I don't usually eat that much fresh food (fruits for breakfast, vegetables for snacks? Um..NO!)

When I attempted to do this two years ago I don't think I even followed it as well as I am now- sure I made salads. But I loosely interpreted "Garden Salad" and chucked all sorts of stuff into my 'salad'....croutons and creamy dressings DO make a difference in calories and the 'cleanliness' of the food (I hope that makes sense!)

This doesn't count as a "Salad" either!

There is something about fresh, un-microwaved food that makes you feel great :D

I prepped most of my food for the day the night before, I like how easy it is to just look at the foods allowed for the day and follow that, it takes out all the thinking/calorie counting and makes it foolproof! What I ate:

Breakfast:

A cup of fresh raspberries (SOO plump and juicy!) mixed with a 6oz Stonyfield pomegranate yogurt (Dr. Ian recommends you eat yogurts with fruit on the bottom, this one was great!) and one banana.

And a glass of lemon juice (water, 1tbsp raw honey, fresh squeezed lemon wedge)

I prepped my fruit salad  the night before and put it in a Tupperware, which turned out to be convenient as I couldn't scarf it all down before work for breakfast, so I just took the rest with me! I had it as a mid-morning snack, during a break at work. I sat outside in the sunshine, eating raspberries and reading this brilliant book:

Lunch:

Another small garden salad, this time I added mushrooms and used a sesame Asian ginger sauce for dressing to reduce my boredom with garden salads!

 

I also included my allowance of chickpeas/beans in this salad because it looked to small to keep me going through a work day without them!

Dinner:

Dinner? On a cleanse? ha ha... Actually, I was allowed to make CABBAGE SOUP tonight! WOWWW don't all get jealous at once now....

 

It actually tasted pretty darn good! I got home, feeling kinda hungry and pretty ready for dinner.. and discovered that it was going to take FIFTY minutes to make the soup according to Dr. Ian Smith's recipe, so I modified it by doing it in a pressure cooker (THANK God, or I may have just started eating the cutting board....)

 The soup has potatoes, carrots, onions and ham in it...I substituted the ham with two of these Gardein Chicken Scallopini made with soy and quinoa and kamut...

they are only 90 calories each and I stock up on them when they are BOGO!

The recipe makes a TON of soup by the way....my man had some too, he actually liked it! And I have a ton of cabbage soup in my fridge if anyone is interested...

I was allowed one cup...

Plus 2 cups of spinach....I skipped out on the spinach and had another half a cup of soup instead I was so over cooking by that point and still had to get to the gym

The Gym:

I did my 40 minutes of cardio....I definitely notice a decrease in my strength and energy on the harder cardio compared to my usual carb fueled self....but it felt great in the end!

Day three done...my stomach is REALLY flat and unbloated, I think its the lack of diet soda and sugar in my life :D

Mango cheesecake debauchery

/hihi So I made two mango cheesecakes last Sunday, planning to share with several of our friends, but only managed to share one!

We were really busy all week, our friends were really busy all week, and the end result was me and my man having to eat one ourselves (oh poor us LOL) We had it every way- with mango sauce, fresh sliced mango, with Skinny Cow dulce deleche ice cream....amazing!

Pleaaaase take some cheesecake?

 It reflects on the scale though!

  I'm fluctuating between 130- 131 pounds :( instead of going to 128.5 like I need to this month!! I will be SOOOO happy to even just get 129 as my new "normal!!"

 I think it is also because I ate out for the first time in ages TWICE this week as well, we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant...

yummy and healthy but high in calories!!

....and for brunch on Saturday at our favorite local organic joint, The Jones Eastside. I had a lovely tempeh burrito! 

No matter how healthy the place is, eating out always seems to negatively impact me, I think its the extra sodium!

I still feel proud of myself though as I found my old 'vison' board the other day in a drawer and it showed me how far I've come! My vision board is basically a photo of myself in a bikini at my heaviest tacked to a piece of cardboard with scrapbooking lettering around it with which I wrote my weight goals and inspirations and motivations down.

My goal was 130 pounds! (DONE!!!) :D

On the back of the board I had a daily weight log where I wrote down my daily weight and I saw the 143 pounds I was... I saw the 138,/137 plateau and felt really proud that I made it to 130 and THAT is where I'm fluctating rather than at 138 like I used to!!



I have been trying to battle the bulge by eating lots of yummy salads and hitting the gym up a LOT! I'm really trying to form a new habit :D




I did a dance work out and some yoga on Friday night at home on DVD


On Saturday I went to the gym with my man- we walked there (in 94 degree Florida heat!) did 30 minutes on the circuit training which was really fun!

The 30 Minute Workout Circuit

Basically Planet Fitness has a roped off area full of machines and you get on the first one, and keep an eye on this big light on the wall.


When if flashes red, you go to the little steps they have set up in front of each machine and do step ups for a minute, until the light changes from green to red again. Then you go back to the machines and change to the next one and do reps until the light goes from green to red again. They have all sorts of machines for every type of muscle and despite my usual reluctance to tackle intimidating looking machines they were actually pretty easy with simple directions :D I also found that I wasn't bored and 30 minutes flew by waaaay faster than when I'm jogging or on the elliptical!


We ran back home and it was a killer- running outdoors, on an incline, in the heat really made me feel unfit, especially as my  man was jogging circles around me!


Anyway, on Sunday I got up and did Jillian's 30 day shred on level 2. I toyed with the idea of doing it at level 3, but decided I wasn't ready just yet. Level 2 is still hard enough, especially when I really push myself and do the highest jumps I can do!

The fact that my arms are sore feels great though, I cant wait to have muscles!  I went again this evening and did 45 minutes of elliptical and felt very proud of myself!

Weight loss isnt easy!

I haven't been religiously tracking calories, more like estimating them in my head and tallying them up to be close to my daily limit per day. It shows, because I haven't lost any weight recently :(

 I've actually been fluctuating between 129-131 pounds over the past week.

I really want to see 128.5 before the end of May! Thats my goal!

The up and down of it is driving me nuts!

I wish weight loss WAS easy. Its not. It requires patience, persistence and diligence. These aren't 'easy' qualities!

However, I am still really elated to be where I am right now!

 I'm glad I've been trying. If I hadn't been trying at all I'd still be 143 pounds. But because I've been trying to be patient, persistent and diligent I have lost 13 pounds since I started this blog on January 11th. /XD And I havent been pushing myself that hard. /sweat If I really had been puffing away on the treadmill since January I'm sure I would have lost double that! But I've been doing what I can, my life is really busy as a full time worker, college student, owner of two mischievous dogs and paramedic's other half!

Just by being more conscious about my food choices and trying to take walks on my breaks at work and doing Jillian's DVD once or twice a week, I've lost those 13 pounds.

On a happier note, I actually went to the gym last night despite being exhausted! And by the time I was done I felt invigorated with my endorphin rush and not tired anymore!

I know that working out can help overcome feeling tired and give me more energy, but its hard to overcome the mid evening slump! I did it by telling myself I'd just go walk for half an hour on the treadmill and watch TV, its right by my house so I might as well....I ended up doing a half hour inclined walk, and ten minutes of solid running with zero breaks. Once I'm actually there, in my gym clothes I take that extra step and amp it up. Its just the battle of getting the sneakers on and getting there.

I also went for a really long walk with my man and Ellie, Tux has as sore foot to his dismay and had to stay at home!


I'm also really happy that this isn't a 'diet' but a lifestyle change. I try to get my vitamins and nutrients from my food rather than a pill. I try to eat for health and longetivty. The lifestyle change shows in that many of my previously unhealthy, nutrient foods have been forever replaced. So even when I'm not being tooooo conscious about my eating for the day, I'm till reaching for healthy options in my fridge!

I snack on cashews and cucumbers and fruit. I have yogurt cups at work for the 3pm hunger attack instead of chocolate bars.

I reach for a Naked Fruit Smoothie in the morning when I'm running out the door instead of a piece of bread.

The only 'treats' I have in my house is organic, health food store brought liquorice and a mini 150 cup of Skinny cow ice cream, as well as some frozen fruit popsicles.

Which is good, because on Monday I realized I just have ZERO willpower when it comes to delicious foods being in my house- I made fresh, home made peach cobbler for my man.

And I had a slice too...well what started off as a slice........and progressed to another one......

...and then later on that night another one.........so yeah, I just cannot making baked goods or fattening dishes even for my man because I cannot control myself when it is so easily accesible!

Food Log for the day: (time to start this up again, it really helps me!)

Breakfast:

Naked Blue Machine (full of blueberries and anti-oxidants and easy to grab out the fridge in the morning!) 340 calories and one of the tastier ones!

+ coffee (and creamer) about 100 calories of creamer

Lunch:

I made myself a burrito last night to bring into work today (I know I know- going to the gym AND making lunch for the next day? I'm on a winning streak =D>  ) I used an organic whole wheat wrap, lemon pepper grilled tempeh and home cooked pinto beans with taco seasoning, topped with salsa. Mmm...cheaper than anything I could buy at work and yummier too! Awesome  /nobigdeal

about 500 calories methinks...

Snack:

Vitatop- 100 calories

1040 so far for the day.. about 200 left- so I will make a smoothie or have zucchini for dinner, something light

Nobody but you is responsible for your life. It doesn't matter what your mamma did. It doesn't matter what your daddy didn't do. You are responsible for your life. What is your life? What is all life? What is every flower, every rock, every tree, every human being...ENERGY.You are responsible for the energy that you create for your self and you are responsible for the energy that you bring to others. -Oprah Winfrey
/bye