My challenge

I am absolutely loving this challenge.  I'm down a good amount of weight, I'm stronger.  I am doing actual strength training.

I'm eating meat again, but have started the process of moving my family to organic meats.

We get our eggs from a farm when we can't get them from my mom.

I'm really looking forward to summer, where the Farmer's Market offers excellent produce.  We will be attempting to go with recipes and buy most of our groceries from the Farmer's Market.

I'm a little stiff and sore today.  We are doing squataday.  Yesterday's squats was 100. Today it's 100 again. Tomorrow is a little back off, only 50 squats.

Tonight is group training. Can't wait!  It's boxing + some kind of beating- usually very intense.

It's good for me to work hard. 

Right now, I am looking forward to March 20.   I get the straightened hair cut off and go back to curly.  I hate transitional hair.

Woot

I'm totally wearing pants that didn't fit before.

Finally making progress, not wanting to derail myself. 


This is good.

Busy times

I've really been diving into my challenge, which is leaving me with little energy for blogging.

I've done 340 cardio minutes this week, plus a good amount of strength, some really excellent stretching and I've eaten very healthfully.

I've got to make sure I change things, because I'm not a vegetarian anymore.  I'm just a girl that eats meat but not so often.

Today is my rest day.  It's a lovely, restorative thing.  I've gone to yoga, but otherwise, I've been relaxing and enjoying my day.

Tomorrow it's back at it.  I owe 50 minutes of cardio 6 days per week. 3 days of strength.  At least 4 days of yoga and 7 days of squats (we are also doing a squatathon.)

I'm super happy right now.  Disappointed with the slow movement of the scale, but delighted with my life nonetheless.

Be well.

No Excuses Here

I haven't had a lot to say lately, but I have been up to a bunch.

For starters, I have been more or less on track/in control since 1/2. This includes eating much less sugar, no added sugar, no fake sweetners, reducing the amount of fruit I am eating, etc.

I've also been eating pretty much exclusively whole foods.  For example- today's foods are

Breakfast
Old fashioned Quaker Oatmeal with 6 strawberries and a tablespoon of raw almond butter
coffee with 1% milk.

Lunch
Salad with red peppers and garbanzo beans
Thousand Island Dressing (not clean, but I am not a wasteful person, so I am using it up)

Dinner
2 slices of cinnamon raisin ezekiel bread with  2 tbsp natural peanut butter

Snacks
Hummus with veggies and a whole wheat pita (snack 1)
1/2 grapefruit with a string cheese (snack 2)

This is enough food to keep me quite full and satisfied and craving almost nothing. 


I've also been working out.  Real workouts with strength training.  That's new stuff for me!  I have one structured group workout with my besties per week, plus try for yoga on Sunday afternoon and try to fit in 5 cardio workouts per week plus two additional strength training workouts.

Some other changes.  I've been eating meat again.  The transition to clean left me craving meat left and right, and feeling kind of weak and HUNGRY.  I added a little bit of meat here and there (maybe 2x per week) and all of a sudden, I am feeling better, more satisfied.

I don't know that this is perfect eating, or perfect living, but it feels good, man.  I like it and I am not going to change it until it stops feeling good.

How are you?  Have you made any big changes?

It's been a hard 4 days.

I haven't been able to follow my challenge really at all.

First, my son got the flu.  Very snuggly and clingy, he passed the flu on to me in short order.  On Friday night, I left my house for the first time in about 36 hours and got my haircut.  Shortly after getting home from my haircut, I started coughing.  That stinks.

I coughed throughout the night. I woke up feeling like I was hit by a truck.  By noon, I was running a very small fever.  My appetite tanked.  I had enough energy to move from couch to kitchen, refill my water glass and back to the couch.  The cough gets worse. The congestion really sets in.  I'm sick as a dog at this point.  I sleep fitfully and rest.  Sunday morning, I wake up, burning fever, 102.5.  I can hardly breathe.  The simplest movement exhausts me.  I struggle through the day.

Monday, I wake up with a fever of 103.5.  I make an appointment at my doctor's office.  The verdict? unsurprising. Influenza.   The swab to test for influenza is very unpleasant.  It goes up your nose and down the back of your throat.  It burns some.  It will clear that portion of your nose, you know?  Gross.

I finished the day with a fever of 100.5, snuggled up in bed dosed up heavily with Nyquil.  I waited too long to go to the doctor, so it wasn't worth it for me to get Tamiflu.  I decided to be swabbed because Raj hasn't gotten sick.  If I have a positive flu test, if Raj gets sick, he just needs to call our doctor and she will prescribe Tamiflu for Raj to hopefully minimize his symptoms and duration.

I woke up this morning with a very small fever.  Just 99.6.  I took some NyQuil.  and now I am feeling pretty decent.  Tired, have a bad cold, but pretty healthy.  It's good to be back(ish)

Friend Makin' Mondays: Simple Questions

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section over at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

Simple Questions

1. Outside my window I see...our pine trees, some street lights, the neighbors' houses and a ton of snow

2. My kitchen counters are...in desperate need of replacement

3. Yesterday I drank...lots of water and coffee.

4. My cell phone is..a Droid Razr.

5. My computer is...getting old.

6. My favorite reality show is...Top Chef.

7. My workouts are...tough for me.  But I'm doing them.

8. The last book I read is...a book I've read many times.  The Namesake

9. My week will be....challenging. It's my first week of clean eating.

10.  So far 2013 has been...a good year.  I've made some goals, and I'm working toward them.  More on that later. (I didn't change Kenlie's answer because it works well with my answer)

Now it's your turn to answer this week's questions.  Don't forget to come back and link up in the comments!  Happy Monday, friends!

Day 2

Yesterday's promises were all kept.  The planks by the skin of my teeth.

Today's promises are

• To do my planks.  Two 1 minute thirty planks
• to run the stairs 30 times up and down
• spend 15 minutes organizing Deven's art supplies.
• 20 minutes of Zumba this morning (already done)
• to eat as best I can.  (We are having a work catered lunch)
• to spend some individual time playing board games with Deven.

I am feeling tired today.  It was hard to get up for Zumba.  But I did it.