Welcome to 2012!

What's in store for you this New Year?  2012 is going to be big!!  Lots of exciting things happening around here.  Starting today, keep an eye on the FB page for 31 Days of Health and Fitness Tips for January.  

30 Day Challenge Update

Hey ya'll.  Update on Challenge:

Renewed my tax account in preparedness for spring.  Getting my new iphone on Tuesday - should help keep me more organized, better manage my time and use it to update while on the run or at work.  Scale is going down slowly - down 3.5 lbs.  The last 3 days have been a bit up and down as we have had a new water heater put in and some plumbing done. Less structured eating and lots of running around crazy.  Last night went to see Steve-O at a comedy show - it was fabulous!  Had 2 Bud Light's and 1 foo foo drink, sweet potato fries and a chicken burger.  Not on plan, but back on track today.  Made a sweet corn and potato chowder which was pretty fab.  Already downed 80 oz water and feeling good.
Realized that working out hard (2x last week) really messes with my defecit and I'll need to figure out how to work around that.  I really love working hard, but the deficit is where it's at.  Going to wrap this up and try a 20 min. yoga on-demand to get some strength/flexibility in.

Here's the recipe for Spicy Corn Chowder from "Clean Eating Mag's Classic Comfort Foods".  I made a few changes with the amounts so this is what I did:
(I like to measure in grams on my food scale)

Spicy Corn Chowder

56 g carrots sliced thinly
70 g onions chopped
73 g red pepper sliced thinly
260 g potato - peeled and chopped
278 g frozen corn - thawed
1 tsp olive oil
515 g low sodium chicken broth
1/2 C 2% milk
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste
dill for garnish

saute onions and carrots in olive oil. Add cayenne pepper, red peppers, salt and pepper and cook about 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add potatoes, broth and corn and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are tender.  stir in milk until heated through and garnish with dill.
YUM!

Nutritional Info is from the magazine (still searching for an easier way to use it and my fitbit...)
For 1 cup: Cals 144, fat 3, carbs 24, fiber 2, sugars 7, protein 6

Try it out and let me know what you think!

More than 6 months....

Where to start? Does it say anything that it took me almost an hour to find my blog and my log in info? Not good... 

 I had things rolling for a while and then it all kind of came to a halt.  As I'm sure many new moms (or 1st time moms) can relate, I reverted back to putting myself at the bottom of the priority list.  I swore when I was pregnant that I wouldn't become "one of them"... it slowly creeped up on me.  My fear of perfection or imperfection/failure, overrided my ability to just do it.  This time around, I'm a little more focused, a little more organized and have learned alot!  

A few things going forward - don't expect perfect grammar, spelling, etc.  If I think about that stuff too much it gets to me and I give up!  ACK!  I'm going to keep this up on a fairly regularly basis - 1x week.  I have a lot of knowledge and life lessons to dump and this is the spot!  You will find new recipes, new workouts and lots of talk about motivation and fat loss.  

As an update, I'm happy to say that I never gained back any weight during my blog hiatus.  I have maintained and just in the last month or so, began losing again.  I'm still a fan of Clean Eating, but I have some reservations about Tosca Reno Clean Eating. It just didn't work for me - and that's what it's all about - finding what works for you!  Not what works for the world to get you to the top of the list.  Just sayin' 

I have some goals that I'm going to be tracking on here and I'll be participating in Rog Law's 30 Day Sexification Challenge.  I highly recommend you check it out!  

So my goals for this challenge are: 

*Procrastinate less and get more done by limiting my FB, Pinterest, Polyvore, etc

*Get ready to get working on my own in Spring (aka Jump off the Cliff)

*Lose the last 20 pounds - yes, you heard that right.  

This has gone past my 20 minute time limit and now I must move on to prepping food and workouts for the week - stop by to check my progress!  

Day 7 of Clean Eating Challenge - Lessons Learned

After a crazy week and now officially into Day 7 of my 28 day Clean Eat Challenge, I have learned a few things about myself.  

1.  "Fail to plan, plan to fail" applies to me 100%.  If I do not have my meals prepped and planned in advance, I either don't eat (not good) or I eat off my daughter's plate(also not good as she's on a 28 Day Pasta eating challenge - she's winning).  I prep all my veggies and proteins on Sunday and that usually lasts me until Thursday.  This week was so busy that I did not get a chance to finish my prepping for the weekend.  I ended up eating tuna out of a can, about 1/2 cup of macaroni and cheese and 1/2 of my husband's homemade taco!  Lesson learned.  

2.  My mind can only handle 3 days at a time before I need a "cheat" meal for my sanity.  I've decided to modify the challenge to 3 days of the Stripped Clean plan and then add in 1 "Clean Cheat".  Then back to 3 days of Stripped Clean eating and so on.  I think this will preserve my sanity and keep the binges at bay.  A Clean Cheat is defined as a cheat meal that is still clean ingredients just not on the Stripped plan.  It will most likely be dessert like!  

3.  A gallon a day of water is proving to be very very difficult!  I'm still at a little over a 1/2 gallon.  The constant bathroom breaks are proving to be somewhat annoying.  My body should be adapting to the extra water, but because I've been so inconsistent it's taking longer than expected.  But, I will keep trying!  

I spent all day Saturday at a Personal Training Summit with 4 amazing speakers.  I'm still digesting all the new information that I learned and will share with you this week.  

Happy Sunday!  

Day 2 of Clean Eating Challenge

2 days into clean eating 28 day challenge and I can say it’s going good.  The main points I’m following is: eat every 2-3 hours (so 5-6 meals a day), drink 1 gallon of water a day, no added sugars and no alcohol. 

This is what I’ve been eating for the last 2 days and for the next 3 days.

Meal 1: oatmeal with chopped apple and 10 almonds sprinkled with cinnamon

Meal 2: 1 whole egg scrambled with 3 egg whites, peppers and Chohula sauce

Meal 3: grilled tilapia with broccoli and ¼ C quinoa

Meal 4: Protein Muffin

Meal 5: chicken with broccoli

Meal 6: 1 TBS almond butter 1 C strawberries

I’ve had 2 really busy days and I was a little worried in the beginning about being able to plan and prepare for not eating all my meals at home.  Sunday night I portioned out all of my meals and got them ready to put in the cooler.  A big part of the Eat Clean lifestyle is prepping and carrying your meals in a cooler so there are no excuses.  That turned out to be easy so far – I avoided French fries at the zoo, ice cream at home and donuts at the gym (seriously?  Who brings donuts to the gym??).  The hard part has been the water.  1 gallon of water is a lot.  It takes a few days for the body to regulate that and it can be really tough hitting the bathrooms every ½ hour with a toddler in tow.  I can do about ½ gallon right now and I will be up to 1 gallon by the weekend. 

I’ve found the following websites to be super helpful in making this work for me:

Smoothie Girl Eats Too

http://smoothiegirleatstoo.blogspot.com/

She has an amazing recipe for a protein muffin that honestly has been carrying me through each day.  It is pretty close to chocolate cake for only about 155 calories, 12 g protein, 16 carbs, 4.5 fiber, and 1.75 g fat. 

She has a lot of great recipes that are all clean.  And she is great at experimenting with ingredients – I am not! 

The Get In Shape Girl

http://thegetinshapegirl.wordpress.com/

Kyra has great fitness tips and recipes and shares a great story about her own transformation.  She is great at experimenting with recipes while still keeping them clean.

The Gracious Pantry

http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/

More clean eating recipes – I love it that she’s a mom too! 

Here’s to 2 days down and 26 to go! 

28 Day Clean Eating Challenge

Are you familiar with Clean Eating?  If not, you should be.  I’ve probably tried every diet out there from Atkins to Nutrisystem all with little to no long term success.   A couple of years ago I discovered Tosca Reno’s Clean Eating approach.  Basically it calls for eating fresh wholesome whole foods.  If you are trying to lose weight or become the fittest you can be – clean eating is the way to go.  Unfortunately, you can’t out train poor nutrition.  You can workout from 6 am to 6 pm but if your fueling your body with garbage you are wasting your time! 

Here is Clean Eating in a nutshell – eat fruits and vegetables, unprocessed whole grains, organic meats and choose foods that have ingredients you can pronounce. 

If this sounds like it might be right up your alley be sure to check out Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet.  I hate the use of “diet” as “diets” are typically short term and thus hard to sustain.  This is a lifestyle change.  Some of you may already be living it - some of you may be ready to jump in and make a change for the better.  

For the most part, I personally follow the principles pretty closely but lately with work and life I’ve found myself falling into old habits.  So the other day I picked up Tosca’s newest book "Eat Clean Diet Stripped".  It’s great for a review of the basic principles and offers up a 28 day menu plan.  The book also focuses on how important nutrition is,  the importance of being prepared, and our fear of success.  Yes, you heard me right – fear of success.  Not fear of failure.  This seems to occur with women all too often.  I’ll be hitting all of these plus the highs and lows of “dieting” during the next 28 days – stay tuned! 

Check out all the fitness and nutrition tips and tricks here.

Bellevue Square Workout

I’m normally a glass ½ full kind of girl, but I have to admit that the weather this winter has been a bit much.  Even for a native!  If I’m not at the gym getting my workout in, I’m outdoors hooking up my TRX to the nearest tree or jungle gym while my almost 2-year-old plays nearby.  We ventured out a few times in the rain and I worked out while she stomped in the puddles.  More often then not I found myself working out at Bellevue Square. 

We’ve had an amazingly beautiful couple of days of warm sunny weather but I’m not yet convinced that my days working out at the mall are completely over.  So I thought I would share my Mall Workout with you in case you have to wait out another rain bout. 

This workout should take about an hour to complete and can be done by yourself or with a stroller.  Make sure to bring water and snacks/toys/books to occupy the little one if your bringing the stroller. 

Start at Macy’s on the first level. Warm-up with 1 lap of the bottom level hitting all department stores and back to Macy’s.  Walk quickly with a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 6-7 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being can’t talk, very heavy breathing. 

Workout is simple –Each time you see a bench or set of steps you will perform the following exercises

Benches = 5 squats and 5 pushups

Steps = Step Series (skip a step, walk down, jump up a step, walk down, step with alternating leg lift, walk down)

Department Stores = 5 walking lunges (10 total), 5 pushups, Plank for 30 seconds. 

Keep a fast pace while walking between stations.  Repeat 2 times around the first level and then take the elevator up to the 2^nd floor and repeat 2 times. 

You can make this workout as easy or as hard as you want.  If you are just starting out exercising do only 1 or 2 exercises at each station and 1 workout around each level. 

So next time it rains or is too chilly out, here is your no excuse workout.  See ya at the mall (but hopefully not too soon!)