1 New Habit

I have been reading up on habits and how to create new ones.  The key is to pick one habit , keep it simple and focus on that habit for 30 days.
I found a great post about breaking bad habits from www.pickthebrain.com.  You will love this website. So much good information.

So My habit will be to get up at 6am and go to the gym. I am going to focus on this habit for 30 days!  I'm not going to think of fancy work outs or where I'm going to work out but that I am going to get up at 6 am and be out the door by 6:15.   The gym in closed friday mornings so I will do this Mon-Thursday.

Now I realize the hardest part of this is physically getting out of bed...Well I already started going to the gym this week and the key is: Do Not hit the snooze button.


There is no reason to hit that snooze button...the alarm goes off-lift up your head, turn off the alarm and get up!!!   If you don't get up right away then your mind will tell you to stay in bed.... You have to get out of bed before you talk yourself out of it!!
Don't even think about it, don't try to rationalize or think of excuses not to...just do it, just get up.  I don't even know why there is a snooze button.

Now that I have shared with you the getting out of bed part I will move on to some other tips:

Preparation for the night before:

• Set aside my work out clothes, shoes, phone, head phones & water.
• Prepare my coffee the night before. (set the timer)
• Be in bed by 10 pm.

Preparation in the morning

• Get out of bed and brush my teeth. (this wakes me up)
• Warm up & eat my banana protein muffin
• Also pour my coffee and start drinking
• Get dressed
• Out the door!

I eat my muffin first then I get dressed (i'm buying time for my food to digest)  and also the drive to the gym gives me time to drink my coffee.

weekly weigh in

So I got on the scale this morning and it read 147.  Not good but I know what I did wrong. ...it all went down yesterday.  I was so good during the week..I was even down to 145.8  Then friday came along and I made chicken tortilla soup. Well it was so good I had it for lunch and dinner. Then my daughter brang home cheetos. Wow, I have not had them in a while and they are pretty good. I also slacked on my water intake.
The good news is that I know what I need to do to lose the weight. We Will try again this next week.
Here are my stats:
SW: 152
CW:147
GW: 136
Wow, the goal weight of 136 seems so drastic to me however it is only 11 lbs away and I met my 10 lb challenge last fall so I should be able to make this goal as well.
My Deadline is March 16th   That would be a 1 lb loss weekly....Thats pretty realistic however I have not gotten off to a good start.  I'll leave you with this poster that helps me keep going.

Another Fitness Challenge

I decided I really need to keep blogging about my fitness if I don't want all my hard work to go down the drain. In the fall I buckled down and lost 10 lbs. Well now I have lost my mojo and have gained 3 lbs back!
I need to set another goal....maybe just mini weekly goals.  This winter cold is getting the best of me. I have been such a couch potato, it has been so cold that I don't even want to go to the gym because the walk from my car into the building is too far & bitter cold.
So I'm going to challenge myself to another 10 lb loss!

Todays weigh in : 146.7
My new goal weight will be 136.   Ok, since I have a goal I need a deadline. hmmm
March 16th.  That is 1 pound a week.  Can I do that? I think so. I think it is a good attainable goal.
So to stay on track I will weigh in every Saturday again. I'm just going to pick up where I left off.


This is a collage I put together of everything that has helped me lose weight. I'm not the greatest at putting together informative posts but you can look at my previous posts for some ideas to help you lose weight as well.

The Results are in

I weighed myself this morning and I got 144.4 !
Wow, last week I weighed 147  That is a 2.6lb loss!

I think the reason why it was so extreme is because last week I had my period and was also munching on Special K Cereal and Raisin Bran Crunch.  They are loaded with sugar.
This past week I cut out all sugary cereal, drank ALOT of water and started sewing again. When I sew the time flies and I forget to eat!
So my first post about weight loss started off as running for 28 days straight. It then turned into my journey to lose 10 pounds. I'm telling you it has helped so much to blog about it. and another thing that is fun 10 weeks later is looking back and reading the past posts.
I love this poster:

I'm in my 11th week and I'm sure glad I stuck with it!
I have been trying to lose these last 10 lbs for a couple years now and I'm finally doing it!
On Sept 10 I weighed 153 And that is the day I recommitted to losing 10lbs by December.
Well today I weighed in at 144.4   so I have lost 9lbs!!!  Not too shabby!
And of course it was hard!! You can read my previous posts and see that every week I did not have a loss. Believe me it is not easy. Some weeks I gained a pound but you just have to never ever give up!
I put together a collage of things that have helped me.

Let me point out some things. Notice the Pitbull album?  I always listen to Pitbull on pandora, the  music is amazing for cardio. When I'm running or on the eliptical, his music gets me going.
Green Tea is another necessity. I drink that right after my meals. It seems to take away sweet cravings before they start. And there are so many benefits that come from green tea. I still can't believe it is 0 calories.
"EVERYDAY JUST DO IT"    Some days I try to talk my self out of going to the gym or zumba...then I have to yell at my self "JUST DO IT"   just go. Believe me I am the queen of excuses not to work out. I've just had to yell at myself to shut up and JUST GO!     EVERYDAY JUST DO IT!    Its that simply.
So I hope I have motivated you to lose weight!

Saturday weigh in

Time to face the damage of my latest eating habits. Here is a recap of the past couple days:
Wednesday-ate out at a sushi place and did not work out.
Thursday- Thanksgiving feast and no workout
Friday- ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel, no workout, binged on Reeses Pieces Cereal.
Saturday- back on track

Why didn't I work out for the past 3 days?  Well Wednesday I was pretty sore from the prior days workouts but I know there is no excuse for Thursday or Friday, I just didn't feel like it. One positive is that I didn't have any pumpkin pie but I did have a couple bites of some pecan pie..nothing major however the breakfast at Cracker Barrell the next day did make up for it.

So here is the #

This week is 147.2
Last week    145.8
gained  +1.4lbs
Geez, that is not good but what should I expect? 3 days of bad eating and no workouts. Well I need to get back on my routine starting today!  Today I'm going to do an intense Hiit program for 30 minutes which involves push ups, high knees, burpees etc.
This upcoming week will look like this:
Sunday: treadmill & weights
Monday: Zumba
Tues: Hiit Program
Wedn: treadmill & weights
Thurs: Zumba
Friday: eliptical & weights
My goal this week is to keep my hands out of the cereal box!   I want to try to lose 1.4 lbs so I'm going to buckle down and follow my schedule.
and remember:

Source: Uploaded by user via Megan on Pinterest

barely hanging on..

So yesterday I went to see Breaking Dawn with my daughter and had MoViE ThEaTre PoPcOrN!!
I had about 5 handfuls...I think the salt was the most damaging. ..However I did do a HIIT work out.
This one is similar to what I did.

Source: indulgy.com via Kerri on Pinterest

Instead of 50 seconds I did 60 seconds by using the timer on my phone.  So I had my headphones in my ears listening to music and my timer would go off every 60 seconds and I would change workouts. I was dripping with sweat after about 12 minutes. And on Sunday I actually did this for 30 minutes!

If you are not familiar with HIIT workouts here is a great guide:

Source: toinfinitebeauty.tumblr.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

So then I gotta talk about today.
 K, you know how cartoons always show the good angel/bad angel?
This could have not been more accurate for me tonight. I almost did not go to zumba because of the bad angel (I don't like referring him as the "d" word)!  The bad angel kept saying " just go tomorrow, you are too tired tonight" And the good angel said "don't listen, just go, you already have on your workout gear. you will not regret it" so I basically told the negative part of me to shut up and I grabbed my keys and drove to zumba. I am so glad I did it. Now that I just admitted that I have these conversations in my head you probably think i'm crazy?? lol. But isn't it true that we let our own selves get in the way?  And I'm not just talking about fitness, I'm talking about in our careers and our relationships. I always bad talk myself but now I need to realize it's that little red guy trying to break me down! If I can have this mentality every day I will definitely meet my fitness goals!   
So the moral of this story is to not listen to the little  red guy!

saturday weigh in

another loss!

So the scale reads 145.8
This is a loss of  .4 lbs.
Last week I weighed 146.2
So my total loss since 9/10/12 is 7.2 lbs! Not too bad right? It is a slow process and as I go thru the weeks I always think i'm not making a difference or that the difference is so minimal but it does take patience. The weight will come off but it is a slow process. Blogging about it has helped me so much. I have 3 weeks left of my 10lb journey. Dec 5th is my health assessment appointment so I really need to buckle down.

Now lets talk about Willpower.
This week I realize just how much i have. You don't just have it! you have to somehow create it yourself, it definitely takes practice. I was so hungry and there was a candy bar sitting in the pantry... to be more specific it was a Hershey bar... In the past  if I opened it I would eat the whole thing but not in this occasion. I opened it, ate 3 squares and threw the rest in the garabage!    ya hoooo! I have come a long way

I just get so sick and tired of not seeing any results and taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
This next week is going to be hard because its Thanksgiving. I need to decide ahead of time what I'm going to eat. Of course I'm going to have turkey, stuffing & yams. As far as pie I don't know?  I might have a tiny slice. I'm allowing myself to make that decision that day. If I don't feel like it I wont but I also know that if I have a tiny piece its not the end of the world and I won't have the guilt of "cheating"

Here's to a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am so grateful for my family, my home, my job and my health. I think having a healthy body is so important because there is not much you can do if you don't have your health!
I'm going to leave you with this picture to help you get mentally prepared for the big day!

Saturday Weigh In

starting weight: 153       9/10/12
current weight :146.2
goal weight:  140         12/5/12

So last saturdays weigh in was 147.4   and today I weigh 146.2 so I am down 1.2lbs!
Hopefully I can keep heading in that direction. As I have mentioned before I have a health assessment appointment thru my work on 12/5/12  and if I meet my goal I will received a $50 rebate check!
SO i just need to stay positive, somewhere along this journey I have become so negative... just always thinking negative thoughts about my body image and constantly comparing it to others. why do I do this? why do so many of us do this? it's weird because I never compare myself to others as far as how much money I make, where I live, what I drive,etc. I have always been happy and grateful for what I have.
so to keep this a positive journey I am no longer going to feel guilty for eating lemon heads! I am going to keep it simple and have patience!  I am doing the best I can and that is good enough.

My only enemy..the scale.

Ditching the scale because every time the number goes up I feel like this!

Source: livestrong.com via Kelli on Pinterest

Whenever I want to complain i think of this:

Source: allwomenstalk.com via Emily on Pinterest

Duh! News Flash...it isn't easy!
But you know what I have realized? I always tell myself I hate working out and I always get so mad when the scale does not budge but I think deep down inside I like working out I just don't want to admit it. I am a very grateful person and I appreciate all my blessings and never want to take anything for granted. I know god can take things away as fast as he gives them and every day I am so grateful for my health. I have told people many times that I work out simply because I can! I think it is a great reason.  There are so many people out there struggling with there health, so many people in wheel chairs, or even have bad knees and can't run so if you are healthy enough for physical activity then just do it! It kills me when I see perfectly healthy people just sitting on the couch! I bugs me so bad when it's a beautiful day outside and people stay inside on the couch!!! Come on, get your heart pumping! Enjoy the fresh air! Isn't your body worth it to you?

On to something I'm good at... Drinking Water.
 I never realized before but I drink a ton of water!
128oz!! I always just refill this cup throughout the day.  The cup is 32oz. So that is 16 cups a day that I drink??  Wow and imagine some people have a hard time drinking 8 cups a day.

New goal...pushups

 New Week, New Goals! I was so excited with meeting my mini goal and I have to have goals like this since I cannot depend on that scale...errrgh.

So my new goal for this week is doing 3 man pushups every day. Right now it's a struggle but hopefully by the end of the week I can do 3 perfect pushups!

I have also decided to put a plan in place that way I'm not wondering what type of work out to do each day.

So I have already completed my work out for today. I have to say it was the best workout ever! Thanks to Pitbul I did not want to get off the treadmill. I also did upper body weight training so I'm off to a good start for the week.  The reason why I have a rest day for tomorrow is because I have to go into the office so I won't have time in the morning to work out and I'm usually exhausted after work. 

I also just found out that my Healthy Utah Appt is on Dec 5th.

During that appointment I will get a health assessment done which is where they measure your body fat, cholesterol, take waist measurements etc. So I'm really going to buckle down, I'm excited to see how I measure up compare to my #'s from last year. And I would like to see how low my body fat % is as well.

Last year my body fat was 28% and it needs to be below 26% 

And if I'm in the healthy range on the health assessment then I will get $50!  Not bad right?

Maybe I can buy a new pair of jeans by then.

Saturdays Weigh In

I'm still going strong on my 10lb journey. (I'm trying to lose 10 lbs!)
This is the day....me and the scale do not get along. I hate even stepping on it but here goes:


Well, down .4     Why does the scale hate me so bad?  Sometimes I swear the scale is broken...but I'm not going to let it get me down. I am done talking about it. Actually, my outlook is so wrong. I should be happy about it!!
Yeah guys look... I lost .4 lbs!!! I must be doing something right! The scale loves me and my hard work is paying off!     Here is last weeks weigh in.
Lets take a look at my past week:

This week I did 5 days cardio! (i'm also going today)  And I did strength training 2x this week!  Yay.

And I met my goal. It really was such a mini goal of waking up early and being at the gym by 6:15 on Monday and Tuesday. But since I set that goal I proved to myself that I can get up early and go!

Now lets set some goals for the following week!

Source: Uploaded by user via Jodie on Pinterest

What a great question. This is why I have decided to do weekly goals.
This week I'm going to do 3 "men" push ups every day. How hard is that? everyone can do that right? The form will not be perfect but by the end of the week they might be?
And it will get me closer to my lose 10 lbs goal.

Also came across this article that will blow your socks off! If you eat out you need to click on this link:
http://www.chacha.com/gallery/1317/what-are-the-10-worst-fast-food-items#Sp
Taco Bell, Subway, even chicken strips!  It tells you how many calories you are eating.
I could not believe it!


Here's to another great week!

Temptations

<p>Trying so hard to avoid them!</p>

A new month!

I hope everyone .had a fun and safe Halloween!    I'm just glad its over. I was a little nervous about the temptations but I stayed strong.  I had a couple smarties and some licorice. No Chocolate. I just stay away from that because it is so addicting.    So what if you did pig out?  I found a great site for that: http://jillfit.com/2011/05/31/7-ways-de-bloat-indulging/

Moving on....    So whats new?
Well I have been staying away from the scale...trying not to let it get me down. Remember my last post where I wrote down a mini goal about getting up early for cardio?
 well I did it! I followed thru! I got up and was at the gym by 6:15am on Monday, Tuesday and even Wednesday!!! Its great to be able to meet a goal. I'm going to start setting a lot more mini goals that have nothing to do with that ugly scale!
I also have another great piece of news:

Source: via Inked on Pinterest

I finally got up the courage to  entered the free weights area. I'm not talking about the regular weight machines. I'm talking about the free weights and the curl bar and the area where you do your dead lifts and squats which is in front of the big mirror that all the muscle boys are at. I just decided to walk over there with my head held high and pick up a curl bar and start lifting. 
I'm so glad I had the courage to do that , It took a lot of guts because at my gym it is definitely the guy zone. There were absolutely no girls in that area and you know what???They didn't even care. I guess I thought everyone was going to judge me or that I would get so nervous and drop a weight but none of that happened and now I can get my strength training on! 
I'm so glad I had the courage to get over myself and you know what? after I did my first set of dead lifts I felt so cool! Yeah, I was in front of the mirror lifting weights with the muscle men!  

Also, my new weigh in day is going to be Saturday Morning.  Hopefully I will have lost some weight...even if its only .4ounces...I'll take it.

Source: naturalhealthsolutionz.com via Jill on Pinterest

In the meantime I want everyone to set a mini goal that can be achieved in 1 week! You will love the happiness you feel when you meet your goal!
I will share my new goal with you on Monday (the beginning of the new week)

weigh in

So today is saturday its the end of the week and I weigh 147.8!!! Not a very good # but what can you do?The reason why I'm not so angry is because last night I got a compliment. My friend asked me what I was doing because I looked really small!   Take that Scale!!!  I'm starting to realize that the scale is always going to go up and down regardless of how my clothes fit. And I love how my clothes fit right now!
So here is a recap of what I did this week.

I didn't do as much cardio as I wanted. Wednesday and Thursday I did not work out at all!!!There have been some changes at my work and I just didn't have any time. So this next week is definitely going to be better. I'm not going to let the # on the scale bug me. I'm just going to focus on 45 minutes of cardio and also strength training on Tues & Wednesday.

So my blender went out on me and since I have a smoothie every day I had to run out and by another blender so I went with the Ninja from Bed Bath and Beyond.  It's nothing to brag about but it does the job.

Here is a new use for protein powder. I just put my coffee in the blender with 1/2 scoop of protein powder and a little bit of creamer, just blend it for a couple seconds and it tastes so good and frothy. And you've got protein first thing in the morning!

So my main goal for this upcoming week is going to be cardio first thing in the morning.

I'm going to go to the gym at 6:15am (ouch) on Monday and Tuesday. (taking small steps)  But think how good I will feel when I follow thru and meet that goal, its my mini goal!

So just to be clear...This weeks goal will be:

Cardio 5 days this week.

Strength training 2 days this week.

6:15 am cardio on Monday & Tuesday.

Stay Tuned!!

Wednesday Weigh In

Well, here it is...not so much of any good news:

I gained .4 lbs!!!!
This past week I have been lifting weights more...but still keeping up on cardio.
Saturday I splurged on kettlecorn and also had a corn dog...but that can't be what kept me from losing?
But I noticed I have been very hungry!! last week I was eating around 1200 calories. this week its been about 1400 calories each day. That would explain my gain. But what the hell am I suppose to do? I'm hungry!!! This is such a miserable game.
I've decided to change my weigh in to saturday morning that way it will be easier for me to reflect what happened through out the week.  My week will go from Sun-Friday with Saturday morning weigh in.
That way I don't really have to get my weekend mixed in with my week.  I will also come up with some weekly goals. I feel like I need to be more strict with my blogging because right now I feel like i'm on the edge of giving up.

  I just need to take the advice of this scale!

Source: loseweight-safe.com via Kassie on Pinterest

That # will not define who I am!

Ok, so you know how I handled the news of my gain?
(and I do not recommend you try this at home)

I love trail mix! It is my weakness. I ate the whole bag! It was soooo good. (700 calories later) I enjoyed every minute of it and hopefully now that I got it out of my system (or rather in my system) I can move on with my life. Tomorrow is a new day. I will be doing about 45 minutes of cardio tomorrow. I didn't work out today...I feel so lazy...mostly because I pigged out on trail mix :(

motivation monday

I'm officially losing it. I am losing my motivation, it's a scary thing.  The holidays are around the corner and i love to bake. I'm sick of making my pumpkin protein bites.  Why would I make them when I can make these:

Source: riversrecipereview.blogspot.com via delilahthomas on Pinterest

They look sooooo good!  and I know i'm playing with fire by looking at these yummy treats!
I just need to hang in there. I know it is normal to feel like this  and I hope it will pass.
I've just had a rough week. My last weigh in post was full of good news however I don't know what happen. all the sudden the scale has gone up 2lbs. I know its not my weigh in day but I'm nervous. Why the hell would it do that? Ugghhhh. I guess I technically can't complain yet. I will wait and see what my final #'s are in  2 days. Hopefully I wont have to destroy the scale.

Wednesday Weigh in

So this morning I got on the scale and here it is:

Sorry, i don't know why it came up sideways and I'm too tired to try to edit it in a different program.

I am excited that I am down 1.2lbs this week!

That is a 7lb loss in 6 weeks!  I'm so excited!

 

These are my numbers from the past 6 weeks.  Who knew I would see 145 this early in the game?

I have cleaned up my diet tremendously. Little by little I get better. Eating well does take practice just like everything else. I use to need a tootsie pop each day...then I weened off that and just had a couple lemon heads, now I don't even eat the lemon heads!

Okay moving on.....

Here is my latest purchase for $3.49 at Ross!

I bought a food scale and realize I have only been eating 1oz yogurt (in my shake) instead of 4 oz. and I always thought my serving of meats were around 6 oz when they have only been around 4 oz! Yeah! And today i have not had one piece of sweet candy...not even lemon heads!! I stayed around 1200 for my caloric intake...but for some reason I still feel fat! ?! Anywho I've been looking at some of my older blog posts and found one that said that I should be 140lbs by Dec 1st. that gives me 6 more weeks to lose almost 6lbs! I think I can do it. based on what I have lost so far I am right on my goal!

Yes! Of course, everyone needs to lift!  You will burn more calories, check out this link:

Here are 8 reasons to lift

Here's one of my reasons...

Source: muscle4hardgainers.com via Arian on Pinterest

If I could have this body I am definitely lifting!

I have been lifting weights but I do it in between high impact cardio.

So for 60 seconds I'm lifting then the other 60 seconds I am kicking, jumping, squating etc on a step bench.

Today I only ran 2.5 miles but I did it in intervals and boy am I tired.

 Here is the post of my last weigh in

And until next time....

And here are 12 more reasons! to lift weights.

Motivation Monday

Motiviation is key in weight loss and to stay motivated I have to change things up. Especially my diet. 

I finally bought some quinoa and I'm not all that impressed...

And I thought to myself I would rather just eat brown rice and when I googled the facts this is what I found:

Quinoa is a little higher in carbs, protein and fiber but really they are the same thing. I actually need to compare price as well. I'm going to try a couple recipes I found off of pinterest.

Source: punchfork.com via delilahthomas on Pinterest

I tried this salad first and it wasn't so impressive to me. Maybe I need to have it set overnight so the flavor soaks into the quinoa.

Source: pbfingers.com via delilahthomas on Pinterest

I absolutely love pumpkin! Hopefully this will taste better than the salad.

Source: healthfulpursuit.com via delilahthomas on Pinterest

This one looks scrumptious but it calls for too many ingredients.

Now as far as motivation goes I have 2 more days to buck up for my weigh in on Wednesday
Saturday I did bad by eating half a bag of kettle corn. I love kettle corn! Its a good bad situation.
Bad that I bought and ate half the bag!!! But good that I threw the bag away. I did allow myself to buy it because it was saturday and I allow myself to indulge in one thing on Saturdays and I decided that is what it was going to be. And I'm so happy I had the strength to just throw the whole bag out! And based on the nutrition facts half the bag was 300 calories. Not too bad right?

Ok so this is going to be my reward when I reach a 10lb loss.  So I'm just going to throw the # out there.
I will reach my goal when I reach 140.

My last weigh in was 147 so I have 7 pounds to go which seems so far away for me. That is nearly 2 months away if I have no slip ups.  But these are some really nice jeans from Express and I really need some new jeans bad. I just don't want to buy them yet if I can actually get a smaller size :)  So i'm going to do everything I can to lose 1.5lbs every week. I think it can be done!!

Wednesday Weigh in

Good news:
I got on the scale this morning and this is what I saw:

That is down 2.2 lbs from last week!
Its a lot of discipline but I'm glad it paid off.
So here is a little recap of last week
Thursday: work out, circut training
Friday: did not workout, I bought flax seed and started putting that in all my shakes
Saturday: running 2 miles, (cheat day) ate chex mix and beer
Sunday: interval walk/run 30mins
Monday: walk run 30 mins
Tuesday: circuit training 35 mins
So i still did not work out like crazy. I think the flax seed has helped a lot...it keeps me regular.
My other favorite food has been sweet potato.
And if your curious my diet consists of all of these foods:

I have all these foods in my house at all times!

So in the past 3 weeks I have lost a total of 4.2lbs.  I'm so excited!

motivation monday

Another Monday!
Well, Saturday I didn't do too good but it was expected so it was kinda a planned cheat day...actually a planned cheat meal. For dinner I  had hot wings, beer and chex mix! It was my nieces b-day. The positive thing about that day is that I did not have any cake. I just said no. And it was not just cake. My sis n law make the best pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting but now I have the will power to say no and I love it. Not only did I say no but everyone kept telling me to just have it. Then they cut me a piece and handed me the plate. I just put it back on the counter. hehehe.  I just think that if I did have it that it would be so good and I would get hooked on sweets again. I really don't want to fall off the wagon.

So back to motivation. I always have to read this poster. It's been about 4 weeks since I was truly committed. And about 3 weeks ago is when I started blogging about it.

Source: Uploaded by user via delilahthomas on Pinterest

So even though the scale is not where I want it to be I went down another knotch in my belt! And my pants are fitting much better. And the other day I went Marshalls to get some skinny jeans and every pair that I tried on fit! I remember I use to go the stores and try on 4 or 5 pairs of jeans and none of them fit but this was a breeze!
Hope everyone else is having a positive week