{ABS}

Mom's Into Fitness and Lindsay Brin is one of Win, Lose, or Blog's Season 5 sponors. I'm in the middle of reviewing her 60 Day Slim Down System {more on that later} and I have liked her facebook page to keep up on the awesome deals and tips she shares. I love reading her fitness tips!

Today Lindsay Brin said:

"Should you do abs everyday? Nope! But you can do abs before and after your workout, plus switch up the routine. Challenge yourself. But only do abs every other day...otherwise you could build those muscles out instead of pulling them in!"

Totally makes sense, but I know many people (including me) who think if you want a slimmer waist, the best way to reach that is do 100s of crunches every day.

For fitness tips and deals on Lindsay Brin's fitness DVDs, head over to facebook and like her page.

Here We Go Again...

I still haven't replaced the battery on my scale. I'll get to the store and remember I need a new battery, but it takes one of those little round batteries, not just like a AAA or something easy to remember, so I never know what kind to buy when I get there. I need to bring it with me next time.

Saturday morning it said 149

Sunday morning it said 152.4

This morning it said 153.2

I really doubt my weight is fluctuating that much, but who knows. I just need to replace the battery, because I can weigh myself 5 times in a few minutes and it will give me a 5 lb range between each time I step on.

This morning I weighed myself twice and it said 153.2 both times so I guess I'll go with that.

Again, 1 lb down from last week. This isn't going to do if I want to reach my goal. I'm hoping the scale is just off and changing the battery will help...I've had the scale almost 2 years I think and have never changed the battery and me and my hubby use it often so we'll see what happens when I change the battery. I'm a tad nervous that it will actually go up after I change it.

On a happy note, I've now lost 3 pant sizes since January. The scale can't lie on that.

Woo hoo.

On a not so happy note, I'm sick and didn't work out yesterday and I doubt I'll be up to it today.

My head kills. My throat kills. I'm soo tired and my body aches.

I just want to sleep, but I won't be getting many zzz's in today with 2 kiddos running around.

Goals for this week:

Workout as soon as I feel better

Change scale battery asap

Lose 2 lbs

Drink more water!!

{Free SOYJOY bar sample}

Head over here to get a free sample of SOYJOY fruit bars.

You get to pick from banana, apple or blueberry. I was debating whether to buy one of these last night after the gym, but grabbed a luna bar instead (mmmm), so I'm excited to get the free sample to try.

ugh!

Can I just say how much a new trend bugs me?

Fast food restaurants seem to be pushing late night eating so hard right now.

I just saw this ad...

Everybody wins what else? A high BMI?

Thunder thighs?

A muffin top?

This comes after receiving a coupon for buy one combo, get one combo free after 10pm from McDonalds last week...because if one big mac combo at midnight wasn't good enough, you can get a second one to share...or for yourself.

What the h?

Why the late night eating push?

I get they want to up sales by extending their hours, but it totally bugs me.

They aren't advertising to the graveyard shift workers..unfortunately most people who eat that late are the ones that shouldn't...and I don't say that to sound totally judgemental. A lot of the weight I put on in college came from midnight runs for massive burritos from a small mexican restaurant and late night burger runs to Burger King...was I hungry those times? Most of the time no, we were bored and wanted something to do, so why not eat when there are places open to serve you? That came before all the restaurants were pushing the open to midnight or later advertisements. At the same time, so many fast food restaurants are claiming that they aren't causing/adding to America's obesity problem. I say psssht and whatev to that.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

It just really bothers me to see the fast food industry encouraging late night eating so much.

There was a time I would have seen this coupon and totally jumped on it, but I think I'll pass this time.

Jazzercise Core DVD giveaway at Win, Lose, or Blog

Win, Lose or Blog has a Collage Video giveaway going on right now!

Collage Video is THE online source for ALL your fitness dvd needs!

An ACE Certified instructor does EVERY dvd available from Collage Video, so they offer only the most effective videos.

This giveaway is for the Jazzercise Core DVD:

Head over here to enter and hurry! The giveaway ends June 27th.

***

Also, don't forget to apply for Season 5 if you are looking to lose some weight!

Click here to apply and see the awesome sponsors we have lined up so far!

{Weekly Weigh In}

I haven't changed the battery on my scale, yet, but it seemed to be acting normal this morning.

Not thrilled with what it showed today, but it could have been worse, so I won't complain too much, just going to have to do better in the weeks to come if I want to reach my goal.

Today I was at 154.2.

Exactly 1 lb down from last week. I need to lose an average of 2 lbs a week from here on out to reach my goal weight by my birthday. I'm not going to beat myself up if I end up a few pounds shy of my goal by then, but if I keep going at 1 lb a week, I will be a whopping 15 lbs shy of my goal. Can't let that happen when I know I can do better than I did this week. I didn't track my calories 4 days last week and I know I do so much better when I track my calories...might also have something to do with the fact that pasta salad and cinnamon rolls made too many appearances over the weekend. And chinese last week...and half a rolo mcflurry...yeah, definitely can do better than last week. :)

{don't laugh}

Before you read this, I want you to a make a promise...this will be on your honor..

you can't laugh...

I wanted to go for a run tonight, but legs have been achy, so I thought I would do some low impact exercise instead. As I went through my workout dvds, I came across one I had long forgotten about...and for good reason.

I got this dvd at my bridal shower 5 years ago, used it once, put it away and it's collected dust since.

I was kind of in a bad mood tonight and thought what the heck, I'll give it a try.

The dvd starts off with stars, sparkles, rainbow colors and unicorns...ok, maybe not unicorns...but for real, a screen full of flashes of pinks, yellow, orange, blue, purple...and stars and sparkles shimmering around the screen.

Carmen and her friends were dressed like this...

And well, I look nothing like that.

While Carmen's moves were smooth and sexy, I felt like my dancing was more akin to this guy's...

I managed through 20 minutes of head rolls, dips, and hip bumps and couldn't take anymore.

Lesson learned...again.

This dvd is back on the shelf to collect more dust.

I feel silly for even putting it in the DVD player tonight.



Chicken Verde Stew with Hominy {recipe}

I found a recipe for Chicken Verde Stew with Hominy in a Cooking Light magazine; the original recipe says to cook it in a dutch oven on the stove top, but I prefer to crock pot anything I can...that way when dinner time rolls around, I'm not tempted to cave for something quick and easy, which unfortunately normally equates to something less than healthy. Making it in the crock pot also eliminates cooking sprays and oils. I made a few substitutes and added some black beans for extra protein. Topped with sour cream, it was supper yummy and filling.



Here's how I made mine...

Chicken Verde Stew with Hominy

1.5 lbs tomatillos (husks removed)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1.5 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1 cup chopped onion (I used red)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 chopped red bell pepper
4 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast (I pre-boiled mine)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 (29 oz) can of golden hominy, drained and rinsed (I accidentally used mexican style. mmm)
1 (15 oz) can of black beans, drained and rinsed
reduced fat sour cream (optional)
cilantro leaves (optional)

Broil tomatillos on foil lined cookie sheet for about 14 minutes, until blackened. Cut chicken into one inch pieces. Add tomatillos, cilantro, one cup of chicken broth, oregano and cumin to blender and blend until smooth. Add mixture and all other ingredients to crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

All the veggies alone looked soo good...


All together now...

Top with sour cream and cilantro...

Yum.

This recipe makes about 10 cups.

1 cup has:

175 calories
2.5 g fat
9.1 g fiber
13.9 g protein
23.5 g carbs
7.3 g sugar 

{Weekly Weigh In}

My scale was being whack this morning, so I'm going to go off what I weighed yesterday morning.

155.2

I don't know what was up with my scale today, it kept giving me different numbers, I stepped off and it still said 2.8 even though I wasn't on it...and then I stepped on and it said 157 (say what?!?)..so I really don't know what's up. I might change the battery and see if that helps. A few days ago I was at 155.4 so I think (and hope) 155.2 is right...and yes, I weigh myself several times a week, but really try to focus on the weekly *tuesday* number. I don't have the control to only weigh myself once a week, I want to know every few days if not every morning. Anyone else with me?

80 Calorie Ice Cream Sandwich..yes please!

I had this for dessert tonight...

Ok..so actually, I had two, but still only 160 calories for both!
One nestle ice cream sandwich bar is 240 calories.
160 calories or 240. Hmm..tough choice.

Want to make some?
Easiest thing ever...

Grab a box of chocolate graham crackers and a tub of light cool whip.
Split one cracker into two and sandwich 2 tablespoons of light cool whip between them.

Freeze.
Eat.
Yum...

...and try not to eat 3 or 4...

:)

I loved these, and my hubby who isn't normally a huge fan of the light or low cal stuff loved them too.

Whew!

What an active day!

I got up and headed to the track this morning. I was supposed to go to spin class with a friend, but something came up so that was cancelled. I Ran/Walked a bit and then ran the stadium steps twice.

Then I spent the afternoon gardening. You can burn some pretty good calories from weeding/gardening.

Then tonight, my friend asked if I wanted to walk since we didn't do spin, so we did 2 miles... we ran a bit, walked a bit... and then ran the stadium steps 3 times. We timed it and I ended up doing it in about 7 minutes 20 seconds total.

I'm low again on calories...I could have "afforded" to eat more calories at dinner, but I got full so I didn't finish the last slice of pizza like I planned to.

Breakfast

1 piece toast- Sara Lee 100% whole wheat

1/2 grapefruit

1 scrambled egg

181 calories

Morning Snack

12 special k multigrain crackers

1 laughing cow cheese wedge

1/2 c grapes

145 calories

Lunch

Orowheat sandwich thin with turkey, ranch spray, lettuce

1/2 string cheese

1/2 cup cantaloupe and honey dew melon

211 calories

Dinner

3 slices of homemade pizza

(I cut the slice thin, making 16 slices, so it would be the equivelent of 1.5 slices)

276 calories

Evening Snack

Special K 90 calorie bar

1/4 grapes

32 oz minute maid light

135 calories

Total Calorie Intake: 948

Total Calories Burned: 1336

Net Calories: -480

I burned way more than I ate today and I never thought this would happen, but some days I'm having a hard time eating all my calories. I eat plenty throughout the day, but when I eat at home, they are all very light meals, with lots of protein and fiber. As it is, livestrong suggest I eat 1078 calories a day. I have an extra 130 calories I could eat today and there is that slice of pizza I didn't eat at dinner calling my name in the fridge, but I know I'm not hungry. It just sounds good right now. I've had energy all day so I don't know that I need to worry about getting in all those calories that it says I'm allowed, but gosh, sometimes 950 calories sounds like nothing, especially since I used to down that in one meal without any thought. I think I'm going to try upping my breakfast calories. The toast with egg and grapefruit is one of my favorite breakfasts, it fills me up, but it doesn't have a ton of calories, I might have to put a little pb on the toast next time. And man, am I rambling today or what?

Do you ever get frustrated with the calorie game?

Worrying about whether you are eating too little or too much?

I definitely do...

{food-6/10}

Breakfast

1 c Kashi Go Lean

1/2 c skim milk

1/2 banana

237 calories

Lunch

Carl's Jr. Guacamole Turkey Burger w/o cheese

Fries

Estimated 515 calories*

Dinner

2 oz tilapia fillet

small salad w/ 15 ranch spritzers sprays

1/2 c grapes

130 calories

Evening Snack

1 Nabisco Nutter Butter 100 cal Delight Bar (yum)

1 c honeydew melon and cantalope

158 calories

Total Calories: 1040

Calories Burned: 336

Net Calories: 704

*I totally goofed on my calories at Carl's Jr. I was reading the menu and read the "portion weight grams" instead of calories for the fries and didn't realize it until later...duh..I hate that they put those right next to the calories on the menu, I should have known a small fry had more than 105 calories...good thing I wasn't hungry after my burger so I just ate a few fries or my lunch would have turned into a nearly 800 calorie meal and would have totally thrown off my calories for the day.

Going to spin in the morning and looking forward to it!

Stairs

I've been going to the high school track every day to walk and today I conquered the stadium stairs after doing 2 miles around the track.

{image source}

I was with a friend and we ran, weaving up and down each staircase and across the sections twice, for a total of 20 sets of stairs.

It took us 7 minutes and I could definitely feel the burn when I was done. Next time we are going to try for 3 times in 10 minutes, and I eventually want to do them 4 times without stopping.

Stairs are such a good workout, I calculated on livestrong how many cal/hr I burn running stairs and it's a whopping 1060 calories per hour. Just walking up and down the stairs I could burn 570 calories an hour. Good to know since we live in a split level house and I feel like I am constantly going up and down the stairs some days. :)

{Food- 6/9}

Breakfast

3/4 c chocolate cheerios

1/2 c skim milk

1/2 banana

198 calories

Lunch

Flat Out Wrap Pizza

226 calories

Afternoon Snack

Light String Cheese

Special K 90 cal strawberry bar

150 calories

Dinner

2 beef soft tacos

300 calories

Evening Munch

2 Special K multigrain crackers*
*I just bought them and wanted to "test" them.

10 calories

Total Calorie Intake:  884 calories

Calories Burned: 488

Net Calories: 396

It looks like I'm way low on calories, but I haven't felt hungry between meals today and I had plenty of protein and fiber today, but should work on the fresh fruit and veggies for snacks, but I did some major grocery shopping tonight so that will change tomorrow! I hadn't realized how low I was on calories until I put everything in after dinner.

{Shout Out and What I Ate Today}

My good friend Laura had a baby a couple months ago and just started a weight loss blog to track her weight loss journey. Our 25th birthdays happen to be just two days apart and we have the same goal of 125 lbs by our 25th birthdays. She even posted her starting weight, which also happens to be the exact same as I weighed this morning. Quit copying me Laura :) Just kidding, I'm excited to have another friend with the same goal as me.

I have a few other friends working towards a healthier, thinner life, including my sister and it's great to have so many around me with the same goal and support for me, and I love being able to support and encourage them too! You can see a growing list of other "weight loss" bloggers on my left side bar.

So... what did I eat today?

Breakfast

1 piece of Sara Lee 100% whole wheat toast with spray butter

1/2 grapefruit with 1 packet of splenda

1 hard boiled egg

181 calories

Lunch

McDonald's Asian Grilled Chicken Salad w/o almonds

w/ packet of Sesame Ginger Dressing

(This was divine!! I absolutely loved it)

390 calories

Afternoon Snack

Special K Strawberry 90 cal bar

90 calories

Dinner

Leftover whole wheat spaghetti with turkey spaghetti sauce

2 cups salad

10 sprays Wishbone Ranch Spritzer

363 calories

Total Calories: 1024

Calories Burned: 320

Net Calories: 704 

I predict a cup or two of light butter popcorn with a book in the near future, which will add 30-60 calories and put me right at my calories intake limit for the day. What is it about books and movies making me crave popcorn?

{How Many Calories Should You Eat?}

Have you been on Livestrong.com?

If not, and you are trying to figure out how many calories you should be eating a day to reach your goal weight, go check it out!

I put in my age, height, weight, activity level and how many pounds I want to lose a week and it calculated how many calories I should eat a day. Be sure to update your weight as you lose it, I just updated mine and to lose 2 lbs a week, I should be eat 1090 calories a day...when I started in January, it said 1700 calories a day to lose 2 lbs a week.

You can also calculate how much you can eat to maintain your weight. I was happy to see that once I reach my goal weight and want to maintain it, it calculated I could eat just under 1900 calories a day...I can totally handle that..in fact, I think it will be strange when I can add all those calories to my diet once I reach my goal weight.

{Confession and Food}

After Win, Lose, or Blog Season 4 ended, I gained a few pounds.

The next two weekends involved trips out of town, not that this is an excuse, but one of them was a 12 hour drive to Arizona over Memorial Day weekend...24 hours in the car over a 3 day weekend brought a lot of fast food and snacking for me...and I got sick and didn't work out one week...excuses, excuses, excuses.

The point is I gained, and I'm kicking myself, because that's weight I have to re-lose.

So here's comes the numbers..I've said I want to get to 125, but how far do I have to go? I've hesitated putting this out there, but I feel like I should.

Today I weighed in a 157.8

At the end of Season 4, I was 155.8.

I have two pounds left to re-lose.

At the start of that competition, I was 178.6...

I lost 23 lbs in 7 weeks...

and gained by a little less than 3 in 2.

In January, I was at 183.

Yikes.

I've made a goal to re-lose those 2 lbs by next Tuesday.

I'm going to start doing weigh in's on Tuesday in attempt to feel more accountable.

I'd be thrilled if I could lose 2.8 by next Tuesday, putting me exactly at 30 lbs from my goal weight.

I've tossed around the idea of posting everything I eat, but I just don't have the time..ok, I could find the time, but don't want to...but I have had people still asking me what I'm eating and doing to lose weight, so every now and then, I'll post what I've eaten for the day to give you an idea. Sorry, no pictures this time...

Breakfast

3/4 c chocolate cheerios*

1/2 c skim milk

3/4 medium banana

(my 15 month old always steals some banana)

224 calories

*I feel rebellious eating chocolate for breakfast...mmm...

Lunch

2 cups lettuce

3 oz steak

1/2 roma tomato

chopped carrots and red onion

20 sprays of Ranch Wishbone Spritzer

171 calories

Afternoon Snack(s)

(since lunch was so light, I had a bigger "snack")

Strawberry Banana Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt

10 raw almonds

Special K 90 calorie strawberry bar

221 calories

Dinner

2 oz Whole Wheat Spaghetti

1/2 cup spaghetti sauce with ground turkey

small salad with ranch spritz

1 oz slice of french bread

390 calories

Evening Munchies

6 animal crackers

45 calories

Total Calories:1051

Total calories burned from exercise: 473

Net calories for today: 578

***

Today wasn't a perfect day. Calories were good, but my lunch was a little lighter than it should have been (unintentionally), even though it seemed to fill me up at the moment, it didn't hold me over very long..which lead to two afternoon snacks. I ate lunch just before noon, had a snack at 2, and then again around 4 and ate dinner at 6...I felt snacky all afternoon... I still kept in my calorie range, but it's the want to snack because I didn't fill up at a meal that I worry about. I definitely don't want to develop the habit of "snacking" again.

What am I doing?

Just this morning I had a friend ask me how I was losing weight?

Is there a specific program, diet, or workout that I'm doing?

I've been doing it the old fashion way for the most part.

I stick between 1000-1200 calories a day

and I work out 5-6 days a week...7 days now in June..thanks to the June Boom :)

Back in January, when I started my weight loss journey, I did SlimQuick's Gentle Cleanse.

I didn't notice a huge difference in weight loss, not anymore than I think I would have lost without it, but I didn't feel so sluggish after I finished it..but at the same time, I had been eating better and exercising during that time, so it could have just been from that.

I posted here an example of what my daily diet kind of looks like.

For exercise I run, walk, or do a workout DVD... The Firm's 500 calorie burn or Gold's Gym Stay Ball routine. I got a deal on some passes to Gold's Gym and will occasionally go with a friend while we use those up...I loved the spin class.

So that's it in a nutshell, no fad diet and no specific workout series DVDs, although I wouldn't mind trying Jillian Michael's 30 day shred or something like p90x someday.

Do you have any "tricks" you are doing to lose weight or just old fashion diet and exercise? 

June Boom!

Bailey posted about a June Boom Challenge going on over at Pounds Off Playoff and I decided to join up.

So what did I exactly sign up for?

The June Boom has three rules: 

1. Exercise every day in June. I'll do at least 30 minutes of something every day.
2. Start something you've been putting off.  For me it's running. I've been struggling with endurance so I plan to keep running and lengthening each run. 
3. Be publicly accountable. I'll use this blog and post each day's exercise activity the June Boom page at the top.

I just committed to this last night, so I lost a day (the 1st)...Somedays I'll just be walking, like on Sundays. We reserve Sundays for church, spending time with our family and "resting"...but we love our family walks on Sundays, so that will have to count for my exercise on those days. Other days will be full of running, exercise DVDs, work with the stability ball, and a few workout classes at the gym...I'm sure some days might just mean me jumping on the trampoline with the kids..or hubby :)...but the point is, I will be active for at least 30 minutes each day.