Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! Yaaayyyyy the weekend is finally here! My plans for the weekend include doing laundry, cleaning out the bird cage, making Monkey clean her room (again), and reading. I'd throw in a work out or swimming in there as well, but I'm having a few personal issues at the moment that prevent me from doing much more than walking. In fact, I've spent much of this week medicated (I love Tramadol - it's a life saver) and will probably spend most of the weekend medicated as well.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Also, to distract you from my utter Twitloss fail, I give you cute kittens:

Let's Get Physical!

I have been really good about the exercise! Yay! I have walked and/or worked out almost every day this week. That's right I got physical.

Over the weekend we went camping and well...that was a disaster food wise. I probably ate enough meat to compact my colon into the year 2011. But that's another issue. :D

Sweets are still finding their way into my mouth...not sure how that keeps happening. Yeah, alright I know how it happens. But really, people need to stop bringing that crap to work. So that's really it for now. I am working on getting up every day this week to workout at 5:30am so that the "I'm too busy" excuse won't work. Because honestly I am not doing much at that hour. Just sleeping. Well, I was sleeping...

Remember to smile all the way through your workout! You gotta be there any way, might as well smile. (No? Not buying it? Me either. Someone should tell Billy Blanks.)

-	8/18/2010	8/19/2010	8/20/2010	8/23/2010	8/24/2010	8/25/2010
Exercise Type	Light Walking	Light Walking	Light Walking	Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner	Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner	Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner
Duration	15min	15min	15min	23min	23min	23min

Nobody's Fool

The videos are usually brought on by inspiration, rather than having anything to do with the actual topic. Today is a nice, if unexpected, mix of both. If you like 80s hair bands, this is the video for you. If not, meet me after the jump.....






So, today I got the P90-X dvds from the library. After watching the "watch this first" video, and watching the 50 warning screens about how this "isn't for everyone" blah blah blah, I got into the first video and it was chest and back. Well, I don't have the pull up bar so that was a bust. I took it out and flipped to the cardio disc. It said I need yoga blocks (wha???) and some other stuff that I didn't have, but I figured some of it would be just cardio, right? It was. I knew, though, that when the warm up was running (they called it jogging....ha ha ha ha) that I was in trouble. I think I got through 5 minutes (out of 45) and that was enough for me. I took it out and put in a walking dvd.

Sometimes, you really SHOULD listen to those stupid ass warnings. I'm not fit enough to get fit with P90-X. I'm more like P-65.....

But, if YOU are fit enough to let P90-X make you sweat, here is a little Keith Sweat inspiration to send you on your way. Vaya Con Dios!

Happy Tuesday!

What I've Been Up Too!

I've been slacking lately. But I do have a reason. In addition to the health crap that I have going on, the hubster has been gone and is going to be gone for the next several weeks for training for his new job.


I've been to the hospital today and I will be there Wednesday, Friday, and the following Tuesday for various procedures.

My energy levels have been very low (due to my health issues), so although I've set my clock for five a.m. every morning to work out. I just literally could not get out of bed no matter how early I went to sleep the night before. As a result I've been rushing around every morning to get myself and the kids out the door let alone work out and when I've gotten home, by the time I get the kids to bed and I try to watch TV or work out, I'm asleep on the couch and the next thing I know I wake up and it's 2am and I drag myself off to bed.

After I left the hospital, I went to Wendy's. I haven't had any desire for a fast food burger at all. But today, I just had to have one. I went through the drive through ordered a burger minus mayo and received a burger with mayo. I can't stand mayo. I haven't been able to eat mayo on a sandwich since I was a kid at summer camp and was given a bologna sandwich with a glob of bad mayo on it. Mayo is a gross, gross, glob of white stuff that makes me gag just thinking of it. Even if you try to scrap it off, it's still there!

The only good news has is that at least I haven't gone above 150 pounds. That's what they told me I weighed when I went to the hospital again.

He wants hamburgers & I want fish: battling your partner in the kitchen

Battling your partner in the kitchen: He wants hamburgers & I want fish (healthy vs unhealthy food)

I'm the one that does the cooking in the house, but my boyfriend never has a shortage of suggestions on what I should make. What can I say, I'm with a very opinionated man. LOL.

When I started this weight loss journey, I talked to him about the changes I was going to make in my diet and how it was going to affect the way that I cooked. I wasn't going to be frying a lot of food, I'd be replacing ground beef with ground turkey, we were going to be eating a lot more lean protein and vegetables, etc. He was fine with it at first.

And then he remembered that he likes hamburgers. And pork chops. And fried chicken.

So now he's asking me to buy ground beef again. And to make more of the foods he likes. Which, let's face it, I miss like crazy. I'd give my right arm to be able to eat like him and not gain a pound. But if I even look at a hamburger, my butt grows 3 inches.

I told him that I won't be making 2 different meals, but I will institute a cheat night where I cook something less than healthy. I want to see if I can make mix ground beef and ground turkey together to make a less fatty burger, but I kind of doubt that would fly with him.

Do you guys have any low fat, low calorie, "healthy but still yummy" recipes? I'm dying here.

Getting Juiced!

So I found myself transfixed by the Montel Living Healthy infomercial over the weekend. I was completely sucked in and I wanted that stupid machine. Of course my DH was trying to make a grocery list and plan our annual camp trip with me while I half listened and lusted over a juicer. Why you might ask? I dunno. Why do we fixate on anything? *shrugs*

For some reason I have now decided that juicing is the answer for me. Ha! Well, we will see if I can even buy a machine first. That leads to the next natural step. I want something....I go internet shopping! Wwwhheee!!!

First stop. Amazon.com. I love them to find stuff and see what people are saying. And boy are people saying things about this little gadget...none of it is good. Generally speaking the Living Well Health Master is getting a lot of bad reviews. The motor seems to burn out quite easily. The cup leaks. The lid is hard to close. The list goes on and on. Okay, Montel is not selling a quality product. I'm shocked, but I move on.

Next stop, I think well let's go old school. Jack LaLane. Who? Jack LaLane is a health and fitness guru who may just be older than dirt. I'm just sayin', it's possible. I mean he has been around forevah! Check him out in all his hunky masculine glory...yeah he had a nice bod back in the day. Now he peddles juicers for those who want to be fit. Wait...that's me! Yep, so I said well let's see what's what with his equipment. (Alright you dirty girls! I know what you're thinking. I am talking about the man's juicer.)

His juicer has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Nice. What does that mean?

WE PROMISE This is Good Housekeeping's LIMITED WARRANTY: If any product that bears our Seal or is advertised in this issue* (with certain exceptions described below) proves to be defective within two years from the date it was first sold to a consumer by an authorized retailer, we, Good Housekeeping, will replace the product or refund the purchase price.

Cool! So now I need to see what this thing can do. I am looking at the Pro model for my research, but there are other models that are a little cheaper you can consider. It is dishwasher safe...good cause I am a lazy girl when it comes to housework. It has a big pulp collector. Check. Chute accommodates most fruits and veggies. Lifetime warranty on motor. (You can see this is all very scientific, right?) Okay...off to Amazon again to check it out. It has mixed reviews. But I like the Good Housekeeping endorsement, so I think if I am going to go for the juicing thing it will be with this one. I will let you know if that happens, it may be a while as it is not exactly cheap, but I hope to acquire one soon.

My question to you is: Do you juice? Have you thought about it?

A quick update:

-	8/11/2010	8/12/2010	8/13/2010	8/14/2010	8/15/2010	8/16/2010	8/17/2010
Exercise Type	Light Walking	Light Walking	None	None	None	Light Walking Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner	Light Walking
Duration	15min	15min				15min 23min	15min

Also, my weight tracker. It has gotten bad, but I am trying to wrestle it down again. Sigh.

Fairly Fit! (but that's below average)

Good evening, fair bloggers! I wish I had something fantastic to report (like I'm fully back on track) but I don't. I'm kinda sorta back on track. Yet, I've lost 2lbs this week.

This is my new motivation. Not that I expect to look like Toni, but MY version of Toni. (Which is short. LOL)



Anyway, today I had a follow up General Fitness Assessment at the gym. I already did the measurements a few weeks ago, but I've improved in every category: Aerobic Index, Body Comp, Flexibility, Strength and Endurance. Now, when I say I "improved", please take that with a huge portion of salt like substance. My flexibility was, and still is, pretty awful. But, it's better than it was on January 30th. Where do I kick ass? Endurance, of all things. What else would you expect from a dirty girl? THE GYM tests endurance using Push Ups (in 30 seconds) and Crunches (in 60 seconds) I blasted past the averages and that was the only category where I hit "Excel".

Overall, I'm just a slight bit away from "Average". In January, my Overall assessment was squarely in the middle of the "Low" category. So, what a difference six months makes. Onward! Happy Tuesday.

How do you deal with setbacks?

So, I started a new job this week. Woohoo! It's only part time while I go to school, so I figured I'd have plenty of time to go to the gym before or after work.

This is the part where you laugh at me and my naivete.

I'm only supposed to be working 25 hours a week. But because I work in the Veteran's office in the Financial Aid department at the college, and it's the last week of class/two weeks before next semester/payment deadline for the fall semester... Well, I worked 12 hours of "overtime" this week. While it only adds up to 37 hours this week, which falls short of a "full time" position, almost every one of those hours was spent on my feet.

I've been running all over the office, climbing the walls (literally) to get files... Who says office assistants aren't active? Every day that I've come home, I've had to make dinner, get the Monkey bathed and ready for bed, and try not to fall flat on my face while doing so.

So, this is kind of another setback. I say "kind of" because I actually cut way back on my food intake... which was kind of getting back to a bad point. I eat when I'm emotional or when I'm bored. And sitting around the house doing nothing tends to make me both. So, there is the fact that I'm eating less and am up on my feet a lot more than I was before. Woohoo. But I'm not getting cardio in, I'm not lifting weights (unless you count a stack of student files), and ...I've completely forgotten what I was going to say there. See? Tired. My brain is mad at me for throwing it back into the deep end of the working world without giving it fair warning first.

So how do I deal with this setback? Like I do all the others. I lick my wounds, put on my big girl panties, figure out what works best (read: get in the flow of things and set a routine that includes time for a daily workout), and climb back on the horse.

So, what do you do when you experience a setback of your own?

Another Week...Another Excuse...

Okay, so here we are it is Wednesday and as I look back since my last post I realize I have not done too much exercise. Some light walking, but no...nothing substantive. Note to self: EXERCISE! LOL! So here is the tracker for the last week.

As you can see...working out has not gone well. Frankly tonight doesn't look any better. I guess this means I am going to have to revert back to getting up early to work out. Really, I think it is the only way I can manage to do it successfully.

Well, that's all I got this week. But I do want to know, How do you squeeze in your workout time?

Destructive Cravings!

I am in a foul mood and I apologize. My laptop died. The hubster seems to think that he can take it to some guy he knows who fixes computers and get it fixed instead of buying me a new one. I think he's smoking crack, but we shall see. I hate not having a computer at home. It's driving me crazy. What makes it worse is the hubster never shares his laptop because he's under the impression that I destroy electronics. Just because all my electronics have a short shelf life and I've went through like five computers in like seven years and six or seven cell phones. I mean that could happen to anyone right? And just because I just got an expensive phone less than two months ago and the screen is already cracked and the charger somehow doesn't work that has nothing to do with me. He is being very unreasonable in not letting me use his computer! LOL!


What I really annoyed about is that when my computer died I had Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred in my DVD Rom and I can't get it out until I either smash the computer or the repair man can actually fix the darn thing. So I only worked out like two days last week.

I've also being eating like a pig recently. I don't know if it's because I've been working out more and my body is starving for more calories or I'm just stressed. Could be either/or.

Anyhoo, last week I went to the Chinese Buffet for lunch and pigged out. I also went to the seedy sub place around the corner from my office and ordered a gyro and some fries. All the snacks I have stashed in my office are gone. Even through the snacks were healthy I'm sure they weren't meant to be inhaled one after the other like I've been doing? Even as I'm typing this, I'm hungry now. I think I still have a yogurt left in my office refrigerator!

And if you're wondering, NO I'm not pregnant but I did gain a pound! SIGH!

Guest Blogger - @mslizalou

My first RWA Conference and twitloss challenge
I’m Liza (twitter name is @mslizalou) and I’ve followed #twitloss on twitter for some time, but only found the blog recently. When y’all posted about needing guest bloggers, I knew I had RWA coming up, which I knew would be a challenge for my continued weight loss. First off, I wouldn’t be able to cook my own food. I also had heard from conferences in the past, that very little sleep happens, and wasn’t sure how I would fit my workouts in while at the hotel.

I did an okay job with my eating for the most part. I did splurge and eat the desserts at the luncheons and the GH/RITA dinner. Of course, since salad, chicken, and veggies were served at each of those meals (and I do mean the exact same chicken at every meal), the dessert was the only bad thing I ate at those meals. Also enjoyed some of the best sushi at Kimono’s a couple of nights. Most nights, everyone headed over to Kimono’s for karaoke and drinks. Fun times were had by all. I did have some adult beverages while out most nights, but tried to stick to no more than 1-2 drinks a night, and picked Bud Light or Coors Light as much as possible. Since I’m on Weight Watchers, it was really hard to figure out points on food. I did know on some of the food the set points, and I’ve known the points for beer since I joined Weight Watchers (light beer is usually 2 points per beer). The only time I really cheated big time, was when I had to get a milkshake at The Fountain. I had seen people with milkshakes all week, and on Saturday, which is somewhat my cheat day since I weigh that day, I finally got my milkshake. I hadn’t eaten real ice cream or had whole milk in so long; I couldn’t even finish half the milkshake. But what I had was amazing.

I did manage to get one 3 mile run in on the treadmill, but other than that “organized” workout, my only exercise came from walking all over the hotel. Luckily for me, going to Nationals means lots of walking. My room was on the opposite end of the hotel from all the workshops and book signings. Plus, most of the nighttime gatherings happened over in the Swan section of the resort (the conference and my room was in the Dolphin side). I actually made the choice to nap or sleep when I had any free time, since I was on the go so much, and was very sleep deprived within a couple of days of arriving at the conference. I didn’t realize until last week that I really can’t go more than a couple of days without at least 8 hours of sleep. The final day of the conference, I was up 24 hours before I got to the airport and slept until I boarded the plane, and then proceeded to sleep through the entire flight.

I managed to maintain my weight for the week. I neither lost nor gained weight and am very pleased with myself overall. Now the challenge will be to get myself back on track with my eating and exercise. It is always a little hard for me to get back on the eating healthy wagon after splurging for more than a day. However, I know I can do it since this is a life-style change rather than a diet.

How much activity are you getting?

Just a quick update from me because... well I don't have a lot to say, for once! I've spent the last two weeks really pushing my activity level... this last week I did body pump 3 times, followed by cardio... and then did cardio on the off days. I ached. A lot.

This week I took it a bit easier and now am very close to slacking.... must get to the gym tonight for body pump again.

So what did all these hours of working out do for me?  2 lbs ... thats it. 2 lbs. *sigh* My body tends to do strange things where I lose a bunch and then nothing so I am trying not to be discouraged yet... but.. it's hard.

All in all, I easily logged 8+ hours of sweating the other week.... how many do you get or aim to get in any given week?

Drawing a Blank....

Seriously. I haven't got anything really targeted or specific today. I mean what is there to say I am attempting to lose weight. It's not going so well. Mostly it's my fault. I have a hard time saying no. No to food, no to favors, no to anyone but my husband. Him I say no to all the time, especially when he asks me to get up off the couch and get him something. So I took a little baby step starting last Monday. I said yes to him. I got up and went and got stuff for him. That Monday I came home and worked out and then I cleaned the bathroom. Then I helped him cook dinner. I didn't sit down until like 7 or 7:30pm...usually my butt is on the couch right after my workout (*cough* when I workout). I am adding a new feature to my post...a workout tracker and weight tracker. Hopefully this will keep me honest. *Snort*

-	7/27/2010	7/28/2010	7/29/2010	7/30/2010	8/3/2010
Exercise Type	Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner Cleaned Bathroom	Billy Blanks Turbo Charged Fat Burner	Med Walking	Light Walking	Med Walking Billy Blanks Celebrity Fit Cardio
Duration	23min 30min	23min	15min	1.5hrs	43min

And here is the truly sad news...somewhere along the way I managed to actually gain weight. Sigh. Well, I have officially tortured myself enough for today. Hopefully next week there will be better news.

Right on Track? Maybe.

Really, this song sounds as good to me now as it did then. I have an addiction to the 80s that cannot be broken!




Happy Tuesday! I don't have much to report this week except that I'm going to try something new. Do you ever get bored with all of this? We've been doing this since March, right? Feb? I can't remember. At any rate, it's all starting to get a bit same old same for me. Yeah, I've lost 24.2 lbs, but looking at that number (which hasn't moved in awhile) is even boring to me now. I can tell because I've started slacking. Slacking off on exercise....slacking on the food recording.....yeah. Not good. So, time for a "mini" challenge. And, lucky me, I have a time frame all set. Bar exam results are due back on October 1, so that seems like a perfect window of time to do something worthwhile. So, instead of my usual ticker, I made a new one to see how much weight I can lose between now and then. Maybe I'll get to 31 lbs, and maybe not. But, I do love a challenge! Who would like to take the Bar Results Challenge with me?

Being Back in the Saddle Again HURTS!

Okay. If you haven't noticed I've been slacking. I got tired of being such a lazy a—, especially when my doctor has been telling me that I need to exercise and watch what I'm eating. So, I decided to jump back in the saddle again.

Going to the gym wasn't working. It's been hard for me with working full-time, family, etc it was hard for me to get to the gym. Something always seemed to come up. So, I decided to go back to doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I used it before and liked it. The exercises seem to be a twist on high school gym stuff, but seem effectively. At least for me, I've been feeling the burn. 30 Day Shred has 3 exercise levels. Ideally once you get comfortable with one level you're supposed to progress to the next. I really like utilizing 30 Day Shred because it takes less than thirty minutes from the time you press start on the DVD.

Here's the notes I've made throughout the week on my progress:


Tuesday - Day 1 - Level 1:
I don't remember the exercises being this hard. WTF. My endurance sucks.

Wednesday – Day 2 – Level 1:
Didn't work out. Sore as heck, but at least my knees don't hurt.

Thursday – Day 3 – Level 1:
WTF. This hurts. I didn't do so bad when I started last time. My thighs are killing me. I feel like an old woman or someone who has just got . . . (never mind)

Friday – Day 4 – Level 1:
I don't remember Level 1 being so hard. I'm out of shape and I gained back a lot of the weight that I had lost. My knee hurt for the first time while I was doing the program but I think I was in the wrong position. This is the first day I haven't been interrupted by the kiddos while I'd been working out. It still burns but I no longer walk like an old woman.

Saturday – Day 5 – Level 1:
Didn't work out.

Sunday – Day 6 – Level 1:
Didn't work out.

Monday – Day 7 – Level 1:
Endurance is up. Seems to be going faster though my knee hurt when I got to work this morning and used the stairs to go upstairs.


So I worked out for four days and when I went upstairs to weigh myself I weighed in at 148 pounds!