Back To Basics

Here's an article I found on simple exercises, taking it back to the basics, to help tone you up.

http://health.msn.com/fitness/ultimate-guide-to-winter/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100251080&imageindex=1

Brie's Boot Camp: Week 1, Day 1

I've come to the conclusion that I'm tired of how I feel. So. I'm starting New Year's resolutions a week early! Wahoo!! I was going to start yesterday, but it was my youngest son's 3rd birthday and I was not about to spend $20 on a cake and NOT eat some of it. LOL! (I know, I know. Totally bad justification. But it was a good last hurrah! :) So this morning, I started my own personal boot camp. Here's how it went:

4:59am - Woke up 1 minute before the alarm and DIDN'T fall back asleep. Score one for me!
5-5:30am - Made myself a breakfast of oatmeal with a bit of brown sugar for some flavor, then I cooked 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg, added 1 tablespoon of salsa and rolled them up in a low carb tortilla. Packed that, my turkey wrap for lunch and my little box with trail mix for a snack.
5:30-6:30am - Got myself and the kids ready to go. No small feat!
6:45am - Dropped kids off at daycare and headed to the gym. YAY!
7:00-8:00am - WORKOUT!!!!

For my first workout this week, I did:

3 sets of 20 reps: Biceps, 30lbs
3 sets of 15 reps: Triceps, 15 lbs
50 forward crunches with a 5lb weight
50 right & 50 left oblique crunches with a 5 lb weight
30 minutes cardio - elliptical set to random on a level 3. Went 2.36 miles, burned 456 calories.
Stretches in the sauna for 15 minutes.

FELT GOOD!!!!

And I still made it to work by 8:45. It CAN be done! :) Days like this make me wish I didn't have to sit all day for work! lol

I find that making my lunch and packing my snacks for the day leave no room or excuse for bad eating habits. That's a big thing that helped me a lot last year with my weight loss. It's no surprise to me that when I stopped doing that, I started gaining the weight back. Go figure, eh?

P.S. Here's an article I found that has 50 tips to skip or burn 500 calories a day.

http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100250356&gt1=31036

Pop Quiz!

This was a fun little quiz I came across online. Let's test your nutrition IQ. Some of the answers may surprise you. :)

http://food.aol.com/kids-cooking/healthy-choices?icid=main|main|dl3|link3|http%3A%2F%2Ffood.aol.com%2Fkids-cooking%2Fhealthy-choices

New Year's Goals

Ok. Here it is. I'm gonna lay it out now. 2009 started off fantastically for me, training wise. Between February and July, I lost 40 pounds. Between July and now, I gained some back. BOO! So 2010 is going to ROCK. I've laid out several goals for myself.

• Get back into my serious training mode. Daily exercise at the gym (minus Sundays.) And evening workouts as well. I really did enjoy that! I LOVED finally climbing into bed, exhausted enough to fall asleep instantly, knowing that I worked hard and EARNED a good night's sleep.

• Get back into my nutrition routine. This year will involve a more vegetarian based meal plan. I will still eat lean meats like turkey and chicken. Red meat and pork are out for me. (Really pork is out because I just don't like it and this is the perfect excuse to NOT eat it anymore. At all.)

• Involve more stretching time during workouts. The more limber I am, the more I can move and workout each muscle, which will only help burn more calories making each workout more effective. It will also help me tone the areas I want toned.

• Pound-wise, my goal is 60 pounds by June(ish). That breaks down into 10lbs a month, which is 2.5 lbs a week or so. Totally doable while still being healthy.

• Take photos once a month, so I can see the progress I am making. I wish I would have done that this last year.

• Keep blog updated and refreshed. As I find recipes, tips, different workouts, new research, I'll post it all here. :)

I think that's all for now. If I can think of any others, I'll write those down too.

Here's to a FANTASTIC, HEALTHY and ROCKIN' 2010!!!!!!

GAH!!!

Ok, so this is what I deal with on pretty much a daily basis at work.

Seriously people. And of course, that is my desk. This will be changed. If I'm going to make my goals, that needs to go!

Uhhh.....

Cheat days are allowed. Just sayin. :)

Training Report #1

This is the end of the first week of being BACK into training mode. It's not that I haven't cared the last few months. I just let other priorities come first. Work, mainly. I started going into work early instead of going to the gym first, like I was doing before. Which let me leave work WAY early on Fridays, which was nice. But I never did anything with that time on Friday. So I finally (re)decided it was way more worth it to me to get to work a little later, and stay a bit later on Friday AND get my workouts in than it was getting to work early, leaving early Friday and doing nothing with my time. Crazy logic, right? :)

I'd like to preface this with this is only what I do for myself. This is what my trainer and I worked out for me in the beginning when I started training. Not everything works for everybody. DEFINITELY talk to a doctor or someone who knows your personal health before you start pushing yourself. It's important to know when to stop pushing. Injuries will not do you any good. :) And if you push too hard, it's actually counter-productive. 

So, this week I decided my training would be geared to getting me BACK into routine. I gained 20 pounds back of the 40 I originally lost in the last few months. SO NOT COOL. (Thanks a lot Del Taco and Thanksgiving. I can't believe a spicy jack quesadilla did that to me! I thought we were friends! ;) And as I've gone to the gym, I've realized I lost a lot of the endurance I had before. So it feels like I'm starting back at square one. Which is fine. I've been there before, I'll get myself back to where I was.

So here's what I'm doing to get myself back there.

To begin EVERY workout, I spend a half hour on cardio. Either the bike or eliptical. I do 3 minutes at a full out clip, pushing myself as far as I dare go. Then I do 2 minutes slow to bring my heartrate back down. And alternate between the 2 speeds. (NEVER push yourself further than you can go. Passing out is a BAD thing. Listen to your body ALWAYS.) Going this way, my heart rate ever plateaus, and is actually more effective than just doing a half hour at a steady pace. Each week this month, I am working on two main muscle groups in both my upper body and lower body. And alternating between the two each day. For example. This week on Monday I worked my biceps and triceps. Tuesday I worked hamstrings and quadriceps. Wednesday it was back to biceps and triceps, Thursday back down to the legs. After weight training, I work core. Every day.  This week I did 50 forward crunches. I like the machine things at the gym, because I can add weight to it. I had a 5 pound weight to it this week. After the 50 forward crunches, I do 50 oblique crunches, each side. After all of this, I hit the dry sauna. I like to stretch out in there. My trainer told me that stretching out the areas you work will help shape and tone them faster and better. And stretching will allow you to do more. The further you can move your body, the more you can work it. I like to stretch in the sauna because it gives me that extra sweat. Another trainer told me that will also help drop the pounds as well.

I like to hear tips from more than one trainer. It helps me gain a more well rounded knowledge of what I'm doing. And I've found that people are more than happy to share what they know! :) One trainer might do things differently, or have more ideas and ways to work a certain muscle.

Fridays are always swim day for me. I learned how to swim with my face in the water earlier this year, and since then I have LOVED swimming. So for this month I have declared Friday my swim day, so I don't get an uneven number of weight training days on one area. Saturday is straight cardio day. I was going to go to Zumba today, but I was unable to make it to the gym. :*( So I think I'll workout to kenpo x. I have a few of the P90X DVDs that someone burned for me, and I really like the kenpo x one. Ok, it's the only one I've tried so far. LOL! But it makes me break a good sweat and the kids love to do it with me.

So that's been week one. Combined with better eating habits, I have dropped a little more than 2 pounds of that blasted 20 I gained back. I'm on my way!

Oatmeal Muffins

First, I have to share this recipe. The other day at work, the president of the company (I work as a graphic designer for Roberts Crafts) brought a box of huge, fantastically delicious looking muffins and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and someone else brought homemade pumpkin cookies. Of course the treat table is RIGHT NEXT to my desk. And sometimes IS my desk. I spent ALL DAY staring at those things. I love muffins. AND pumpkin cookies. Of course, this is the week I start back up on my path of change after 4 months of not caring. LOL. Figures. So I went home and searched for a more healthy alternative to huge, oil filled, sugar coma inducing muffins. And I found this recipe. They were SO yummy too. Hope you enjoy them! I used wheat flour instead of white flour. Gives it a bit more of the "healthy" factor. You can also use more natural butter alternatives as well. I just didn't have any on hand.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Combine dry ingredients; add alternately with applesauce to the creamed mixture. Stir in oats and chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.

Intro

Ok. I've decided to separate my family blog and my weight loss blog, since my weight loss is something I'm doing for myself. :) Well, and for my kids. But mostly for me. lol! It just made sense to not combine the two anymore. I will use this blog to post healthy recipes I find, tips I come across, methods and training I use. It will also be a place to vent food frustrations and to write down new goals and track progress. I hope that if anyone follows this blog, it can help them too, if they have their own goals. If nothing else, it will help me keep on track of what I am doing. :)

I have met some amazing people so far on my get fit path. I hate to call it weight loss, because to me it's so much more than simply losing weight. It's about becoming a better me. A more fit and healthy me. Not that I'm an unhealthy slob, or unhappy about who I am. I think it's because I AM happy with who I am inside that makes me so much more motivated to make my outside match how I feel about myself.

My biggest piece of advice on starting on your own path towards changing to a more healthy lifestyle is to find people with the same goals and work together. Surround yourself with people who know how to get you where you want. There are so many groups out there, trainers, nutrition-knowledgable people, doctors even. There are online groups that are free to join. Websites dedicated to sharing information. I'm sure there's even facebook groups! :) As I come across these groups, I will definitely link them here.

And as much as I hate to do it, I WILL post progress pictures. Sigh. This does not please me, but I know in the end it will only help and motivate me. And it will be nice to see the final before and after. I wish I had taken pictures when I very first started, to see the progress I've made so far. Oh well. Life moves on. :)

So here we go. Moving on with it!