I Lost!

I said the trudging on the beach worked!  I re-weighed myself this morning before work and I am down 4 lbs from last week!!  Well color me excited! 

I didn’t go to the gym this morning, but I’m okay with it.  I cleaned my house and my mom’s house last night and worked up quite a sweat in doing so.  My knee is starting to feel much better... I’m able to walk at a faster pace as I normally do with minimum pain and discomfort.  It still doesn’t feel quite right… but the pain is dissipating.  I’m not so sure that I’ll be back on the treadmill next week, but I think the elliptical is a definite possibility! 

For dinner last night, I made chicken meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans.  I completely forgot what I was doing when I was making the meatloaf and I started to make it like meatballs but it turned out REALLY good!  I’m in a big hurry today so I’ll post the recipe later J

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Choc Protein shake w/ Skim Milk

Snack:

Low-Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

TINY meatloaf (leftover after 1cup portions)

Green Beans

Snack:

Protein Mousse

Almonds

I also have some string cheese with me... don’t know if I’ll be eating it or not today.

My brother and his family, my parents and Nora and my sister and her girlfriend are all coming in town tonight!  It’s going to be a busy night, I’m sure and I have no idea what’s going to happen for dinner!

Well, I have to run.  Until tomorrow!

Even Steven

Long time no post, I know!  Sorry, as I mentioned last week I went on vacation with my family to Norfolk, VA.  It was amazing!  We had so much fun getting everyone together and lucky for us, everyone is coming back to Florence on Wednesday!  Branden and I had to leave Sunday night b/c we both had to work Monday. 

The weekend was full of delicious foods and a lot of beach time.  Luckily, I think all of the trudging on the beach helped because even after eating a LOT of food that I normally wouldn’t, I didn’t gain anything this weekend!  In fact, I may have lost?  I weighed myself last night when I got home from work (with shoes/clothes on and before going to the bathroom) and I was at 271(last week: 270).  So after going to the bathroom and removing clothes (I always weigh myself in my skivvies) I may have lost!  I’m going to try to get a final number tonight when I’m at mom’s… I’m going to go clean her house for her before they get home tomorrow. 

I’m feeling very indifferent about my blog right now, to be completely honest.  Considering I’m not really working out right now and my ‘Path’ is at a bit of a stand-still, there’s not much for me to say?  I will say that as of now, my knee is feeling much better.  I called and made an appointment with my orthopedic doctor yesterday, scheduled for July 11^th.  I’m hoping that it will have improved so much by then that I can just cancel the appointment and hop back on the treadmill!  We’ll see?  I know I’ve said this 1 million times but this is SO frustrating.  I absolutely hate the fact that I have the motivation and desire in my heart/mind/soul to bust ass and lose the weight... but my body is the thing that’s holding me back.  Oh well, I guess.  I’m going to try to get with Andi this week so I can go back to Urban and burn some more calories in the lap pool. 

My food is still really out-of-whack right now because I didn’t make it to the grocery last night.  Last week I kept my groceries at a minimum because I knew I was going out of town so this week we’re pretty much just out of everything!  I’m going to try to go out tonight so I can get our usual foods going again and stop eating out!  Last night we went to the movies and I just had some popcorn for dinner… healthy, right? Ha!  I did have a protein shake and banana w/ pnut butter for breakfast and I brought low-carb yogurt for a snack but I have to go out and get lunch.  I’m planning on going to Kroger and just getting a healthy salad or something?  Again, dinner is an un-known but hoping to do better than movie popcorn lol. 

Well, like I said, not much to report these days.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend and I’ll continue to report back, even if it is a bit boring?

Until tomorrow.

Lap Pool!

Well, I went swimming this morning!  Geesh, no one told me how hard it was! Lol  I actually found myself sweating in the water… which was an interesting sensation.  It felt good to get my heart rate up, though! 

Last night Branden and I went to Hofbrauhaus for dinner then to Papa’s Pub for an after-dinner cocktail.  It was a lot of fun!  Nutritionally speaking, not the best decision (although I did at least have a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner?), but definitely fun!

I went to the gym with Andi this morning and we went to Urban Active, where she is a member.  I really liked the gym and they have a LOT more to offer than Fitworks.   My only hold-up is that Urban Active gets a lot busier than Fitworks and their population is male-dominated.  I was surprised at how many ‘beef-heads’ were there at 6am!  I’m hoping I’ll be able to try it out for a couple of weeks before committing to the switch.  One of the great features is that they have a ‘Women Only’ fitness area, which is nice.  The cardio part doesn’t bother me to be around everyone, but I’m not a fan of lifting weights in the middle of a testosterone party.  I have to say that I felt a bit awkward swimming!  Normally when I’m in the pool I’m just lounging or playing with Nora, so needless to say, I don’t have the best form.  There was a man on the other side of the rope who was OBVIOUSLY an experienced swimmer with his bald head and cute little goggles.  Meanwhile, I’m over there doing basically a sophisticated doggy-paddle just trying to stay afloat!  I tried not to make eye contact… J

Here’s my workout from today: (arms again – leaving for the beach TONIGHT!!)

TIME	EXERCISE	REPS	LBS	SETS
	TWISTING BICEP CURLS	15	10	3
	CROSS-BODY BICEP CURLS	15	10	3
	CONCENTRATION BICEP CURLS	15	10	3
	TRICEP EXTENSION	15	10	3
(on ball)	INCLINE DUMBBELL FLYS	15	10	3
(on ball)	INCLINE CHEST PRESS	15	10	3
	TRICEP DIPS	15	BODY WT	3
	BALL CRUNCHES	20	N/A	2
15 MIN	SWIM	N/A	N/A	1

I felt pretty good with that workout!  I want to find some new arm exercises though; I’m getting bored with these.

Food today is a bit unpredictable, again.  I didn’t buy much at the grocery store this week knowing that we were going out of town and had a strange schedule, so I’m pretty much out of food at home lol.

Breakfast:

Choc Protein Shake w/ Skim Milk (FINALLY bought more!)

Snack:

Low-Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

Going out, prob a burrito salad (as usual, no rice/sour cream/cheese)

Snack:

Almonds

Dinner:

I have no idea!  I have sewing to do tonight (making my first maxi dress!) and then we’re leaving at 9pm so just something quick, I’m sure!

I am SO excited to go to the beach tonight!  (Can you tell?)  We’re only staying 2 nights/3 days but it will be a very nice break.  I’m hoping that the weather is beautiful and we can spend the majority of the time relaxing in the sand!  We will have multiple laptops with us of course so I will try to continue to post while I’m down there.  If for some reason I’m not able to do so, I’ll be sure to give a full update on Monday!   I’m going to try to do a weigh-in on Sunday... Hoping that my brother has a scale or at least access to one?  He’s in the military… I’m sure they weigh stuff, right?

Well, until tomorrow!  (HopefullyJ)

Wednesday 6/22

Hello!  Wednesday is upon us and so far things are looking pretty good!  (other than the weather, of course! L)

I woke up to less pain in my knee and more mobility.  I didn’t go to the gym, partially because I was hesitant to work it out 3 days in a row, partially because Nora kept waking up and crying for mama this morning and partially because my phone died and I didn’t wake up until like 6!  SO instead I went to my basement and had a QUICK PJ workout.  I rode the bike for 5 minutes and did 3 sets of 20 reps of Twisting Bicep Curls and Cross-Body Bicep Curls.  Nothing major by any means, but it was something at least? 

We had music class for Nora last night and didn’t get out until 7:15 so we decided to just run to Noodles & Co. to grab dinner.  Terrible choice.  I was rooting for Panera but Branden just kept saying that “Panera isn’t dinner food.” – whatever that means?  I ended up getting a strawberry and spinach salad with chicken, pecans, blue cheese, croutons and bacon with a fig vinaigrette.  We got home and there was no chicken on my salad so Branden had to go back and get it (after all, he paid $2.39 to add chicken!) and then once I got into the salad, it was like 10% spinach, 50% croutons and 40% everything else.  Needless to say, I wasn’t pleased and didn’t eat all of those damn croutons.  Just a bad experience and, as I’ve said before about this restaurant, I won’t be going back there again!

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Banana w/ natural crunchy pnut butter (determined to buy some protein today!)

Snack:

Low-Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

Tuna Salad

Raspberries

Snack:

Almonds

String Cheese

Dinner:

Date night with hubby – we’re going to Hofbrauhaus!  A terrible choice nutritionally, but we have a gift certificate and date night is much needed. 

I’m hoping that I can go swimming with Andi tomorrow at Urban Active!  I think it’s time for me to switch gyms.  This not working out thing is REALLY starting to get to me and I’ve heard that swimming can be great cardio.  Hopefully, if I get to go with her tomorrow morning, I can talk to the membership people there and see what we can do J

Miss Nora is leaving today with my parents and my grandmother headed to Virginia!  We’ll be meeting up with them Friday after we drive through the night Thursday.  I CAN’T WAIT to get there!!  I feel like I haven’t seen my brother in FOREVER and it will just be nice to get out of here for a while!  Our hotel has a  decent size pool so I’m going to try to sneak in there early in the mornings to swim some laps J  If all else fails, I know there’s a fitness center so I can do what I can in there too!

Well, that’s about all I have for today.  The lovely miss Ashley G. told me that she was making the Turkey Meatloaves for dinner last night!  I love to hear when other people are enjoying my recipes J  I hope they turned out great!

Until tomorrow…

Ta Ta Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!  Well Tuesday is upon us and the knee is slowly improving.  I worked it a bit more at the gym this morning and I’m glad I did.  It hurt but felt good at the same time to stretch it out. 

This is what I did:

TIME	EXERCISE	REPS	LBS	SETS
20 MIN	BIKE	SLOW	N/A	1
10 MIN	ERGOMETER (ARM BIKE)	FAST	N/A	1
	LAT PULL-DOWN	15	70	3
	ANGLED ROW	10	45	3
(on ball)	BACK EXTENSION	15	N/A	4
(on ball)	CRUNCHES	20	N/A	3
	SINGLE LEG CURLS	15 EA LEG	20	3
	SINGLE LEG EXTENSIONS	15 EA LEG	20	3

I plan on going again tomorrow… I’ve been trying to get my heart rate up as much as possible with the Ergometer… however it is a bit difficult since I’m only moving my upper body. 

Food yesterday went a bit off track b/c a few people from the office (including myself) went to LaRosa’s to celebrate one of the girls’ birthdays.  I had a grilled chicken salad with their creamy garlic dressing.  Not the best choice but it was one of the best things they had to offer.  The only ‘diet’ salad dressing they have is Fat Free Ranch and I detest that stuff so… I had the garlic instead. 

For dinner I made a yummy pasta dish:

Recipe

Roasted Pepper Spaghetti

4small boneless/skinless Chicken tenderloins, thawed and chopped

1can Italian diced tomatoes (w/ oregano, basil and garlic)

2 Bell Peppers, roasted (directions below)

½ onion, sliced and chopped

2tbs minced garlic

Pinch Red pepper Flake

Whole Wheat Pasta

1tbs EVOO

-Sautee Chicken in 1tbs EVOO for 4-5 minutes, then add garlic, tomatoes, onion, roasted peppers, red pepper flake and cover. Simmer on med for 20 minutes

-Cook pasta according to box directions then drain and add to sauce, mix and serve!

*To Roast Peppers:

-Slice peppers in ½ and place cavity-down on a cookie sheet.  On lower rack in oven, broil for 5-10 minutes (depending on broiler heat – keep an eye on it!) until charred.

-Immediately put peppers in a bowl (preferably glass) and cover with saran wrap.   Allow to steam for 15 minutes then peel charred skin off of peppers and chop.

This was really tasty and healthy!  Nora even liked it! 

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Banana w/ Natural Crunchy Pnut Butter (still out of protein! L)

Snack:

Low Carb Yogurt

Lunch:

Tuna Salad

Protein Mousse

Snack:

Almonds

Raspberries

Dinner:

TBD

I’ve already made a horrible decision and ate a cupcake today.  A vendor brought them into the office and my eyes overpowered my brain and I ate it.  Terribly decision, the sugar immediately gave me a headache and made me feel nauseas.  Karma?  Yeah, karma.

I am at least planning to walk Nora up to music class tonight.  It’s not a long walk but at least it’s movement!

Well, until tomorrow!  Enjoy your Tuesday J