LOTS of Workouts and Weight Loss Strategies (:

Hello and Happy JULY!!  Our weekend was a little bit of a whirlwind and I’m thinking the rest of this month will be the same way!  I’m still working on healing my stress fractured foot.  It’s getting a little old.  I want to run and work out hard and I just have to wait.  It’s much better, but I can still feel a little pain without my shoe or boot.  Next week I’m going on a pioneer trek and walking somewhere around 25 miles.  Crazy!  My doc says I should be fine if I wear my boot.  After trek I’m hoping all will be well!  Looking forward to that!

Today we started the week off AWESOME with my track workout!  It’s so great to be outside for a workout!  Here are the last two weeks of workouts!  They were both hard core sweaty fun.  I kinda just stood there and did a few abs, biceps, and triceps…very few.  It’s hard to even push myself with upper body or abs when I’m injured.  I took some great pics. though!

JUNE 29 WORKOUT

1 MINUTE EACH EXERCISE X 4

SPEED SKATERS

HAND RELEASE PUSH UPS

WALKING LUNGES

HIGH KNEES

JUMP SQUATS

HIGH SUMOS

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

AMRAP (AS MANY ROUNDS AS POSSIBLE) 15-20 MINUTES

20 BICEP CURLS

20 WEIGHTED SIT UPS

10 BURPEES

20 TRICEP EXTENSIONS

20 AB JACKS

1 RUN UP THE HILL

TRACK WORKOUT JULY 6, 2015

20-18-16-14 DO 20 REPS OF EVERYTHING ON THE FIRST ROUND,

18 ON THE SECOND, AND SO FORTH

THRUSTERS

LATERAL RAISES

BURPEES

TRICEP KICKBACKS

REVERSE LUNGE WITH BICEPS

RENEGADE ROWS

SNOW BOARDERS

FULL SIT UPS

RUN THE HILL AND BEAR CRAWL DOWN 3 X

5 MINUTE POWER WORK

DO THE FOLLOWING EXERCISES EVERY MINUTE ON THE MINUTE 5 X

10 JUMP SQUATS

10 PUSH UPS

10 SPLIT LUNGES

My Friendsies!

This weekend I’m taking my daughter to San Diego!  We will be there for 3 days.  I found a few workouts that we’ll be able to do together!  Some of these exercises I will modify because of my foot!

Mostly we’ll be spending our time sight seeing, going to the beach, ONE DIRECTION, shopping, eating, and hanging with my bro. and his family.  I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Next week I’m going to talk more about food.  July 15th I start my Oxygen Challenge.  I’m so excited!!  One of my friends is doing it too with her 14 year old son.  I’m so glad!  I will FOLLOW it 100% unless I have to be on pioneer trek for 3 days (:  12 weeks!  I’d like to take progress pictures along the way.  Stay tuned!!

One quick weight loss story to share!  My friend’s husband recently dropped a LOT of weight.  I think he’s 6’1 and weighs 170 right now.  He’s actually a little too thin.  He told me he runs 10 miles every day!  GEEZ!  His diet is pretty boring and almost the same every day.  He eats instant oatmeal for breakfast, yogurt for a snack, KFC grilled chicken breast and green beans for lunch, and whatever the family is having for dinner.  For his treat at night he eats Kipper Snacks.  I’d never heard of them, but apparently they are very stinky fish in a can.  He also eats fruits and vegetables to snack on.  Hmmmm…sounds like a successful plan!

That’s all for today.  Here are a couple pictures from our 4th of July weekend and my latest 26 mile bike ride with my friends!  Keep Working Hard and Smile!

Laguna Niguel Heaven

O.K.  I’m officially deciding to blog once a week on Fridays!!  Let’s see if I can keep this up!  Today is all about our Laguna Niguel trip!!  We had a great time!  Staying at the Ritz Carlton all week made me feel completely out of touch with the world.  How nice to have water given to you all day long and someone to clean your room nearly three times a day while leaving chocolates on your bed.  Not to mention how beautiful the surroundings are!!  I took these pictures off the internet, but it looked exactly like this:

Lucky me, the weather wasn’t my favorite.  Everyone kept talking about the 80-90 degree heat wave that we’d just missed the week before.  It was mostly cloudy with a few sun bursts here and there.  Every morning and night I’d wrap up in a blanket and sit by the fire!

This is a view of the hotel and the path that I’d run down.  The glass part of the hotel was the gym.  It overlooked the ocean.  I’d workout and watch the surfers!  I loved running at sea level and feeling like a hot shot!  This morning as I ran back home with my friends I realized how much of a hot shot I am not!  I did get a good 4, 9.5, and a 5 miler in this week.  I’m hoping to get another 6 miler tomorrow!!  I’m crash running for my 1/2 marathon next Saturday!  I’m looking forward to it.  My sister is running it too and we haven’t ran a race together in a long time!!!

Here are a few selfies from the trip in the fancy pants bathroom.  I love my little birdie swim cover up!  The second one is an outfit a 17 year old would wear!  My husband picked that one out for me to wear around Laguna Beach!  Oh geez!!  I’m too old for that (:  The last one is my LBD for the fancy party that we had on the last night.

My favorite day was the 1st day because of the anticipation for the rest of the week!!  I always think that way (:  Love anticipation!  Here are the rest of our pictures!  I loved the fancy theater we went to one day!  It had reclining chairs and they served you food.  Very fun.  We saw the movie Age of Adeline, which I loved too!

One of these days I’ll get a better camera too (:  O.K.  we made it back home last night.  I’m all confused getting back into the groove of things!  I felt like it was Monday!  I had to be reminded again about what I do all day!  Laundry, dishes, driving children all over the world (: It’s always good to come home!

I slid off my eating regimen near the end of the trip, but I’ll get back on!  I’ve loved my healthy challenge that I’m doing with my friends.  It’s fun to hear of everyone’s successes!  Next week, I’ll be concentrating on my 1/2!!  I love running, but I think I like lifting more!  My body changes more with weights!  Last week I had my body composition done at the gym!  I was surprised when my body fat came in at 14.3%.  It actually suggested that I gain body fat!!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  It showed all sorts of numbers and stats too!  Interesting!

That’s all I got for today!!  I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend celebrating Mom’s day!!!  Make a yummmy treat with lots of Sugar in it!! (:  And then tell yourself this:

8 week challenge, oatmeal, and sample workout!!

I’m back again so soon!!  How nice of me (:  I have 3 things to talk about!  #1 My 8 week challenge!!  I know I have many challenges and goals and modifiers etc….Oh well.  Go with me!  I’ve kept this sweet and simple!  This is what I’m doing:

8 WEEK CHALLENGE April 6-May 31

7 hours of sleep 5 days a week

80-100 oz. water

No eating past 8:00 p.m.

Jamie Eason Live Fit every day

2 treat days

Results (weight, measurements, bodyfat)

I’m on DAY 4 right now and things are lookin’ good.  I didn’t specify my eating, but I’m eating low sugar and with as little processed foods as possible.  Lots of lean protein, fruits, and veggies.  I’m going to have my body fat tested at the end of April and evaluate and then check again the end of May.  I started Jamie Eason phase two and I will not miss a workout (:  I’ll keep you posted.

Today as I was making breakfast, I thought I’d share what I’ve been eating every morning this week!  It’s called Baked Oatmeal.  I cook it in 12 muffin tins and then store them in the fridge.  I heat 2 up each morning and add a little milk and berries and then I whip up some egg whites with green onion, tomatoes, spinach, and avocado.  I’m trying better to drink my vitamins and take my BCAA’s.  I think that helps with the muscle soreness.  Here is my not so professional food pic!

Oh and here’s the recipe!!

Baked Oatmeal

2 c oats

1/4-1/3 c agave

1/2-1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1 t baking powder

1 1/2 c water

1/2 c applesauce

1 T flaxseed

Combine everything in a bowl and scoop into 12 muffin tins.  Sprinkle with nuts (I used pecans) and cranberries or raisins.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. YUMMM!!

And lastly, here is a sample workout from the Live Fit program.  I modified it a little.  I loved this workout and felt perfectly spent when I was done.  It was Chest/Abs day!  I started out with a pretty fast 1 mile run followed by the weight workout and then ended with 20 minutes of intervals.  20 second sprints with 10 second rests.  It took about an hour.  Whew!!!

SuperSets 

Wide Grip Barbell Bench Press 3×12

Push Ups 3×15

SuperSets 3×12

Incline Bench Press

Side to Side Push Ups

SuperSets 

Cable Crossovers 3×12

V-Ups with 10 lb. weight 3×20

TripleSets 3×12

Reverse Crunches with ball between legs

Captain chair knee raises

Cable Crunch machine

Today is going to be a great day!  I’ll end with my favorite happy thoughts.  My daughter is trying out for cheerleader this week.  She’s never felt super confident at anything involved with cheer, especially tumbling.  She’s struggled with throwing her back handspring all year.  With tryouts coming up she started worrying non stop and practicing every day after school!  Finally, last night at 10:30 p.m., SHE DID IT BY HERSELF and then she kept doing them over and over!  I wanted to cry.  I’m so glad she kept at it and did not give up!  Life lesson.

I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend with family and friends.  I want to take the kids to see the movie HOME.  I heard it was really good.  Next week, I’m looking forward to making dinner for my son’s prom!!  I’m so glad he wants me to!  I’m also working on recertifying my personal trainer certificate.  I’m thinking I’ll take a big nutrition class.  I’ve started training a little on the side again too.  Well, I need to be off.  Today’s job is clean the entire house and laundry.  Can’t wait!!  Smile (:  Happy Spring!  I want to buy a bird bath too!

Foods I never eat.

I’m trying to navigate a new OS garbage update on my computer.  It’s bugging me.  I don’t have time to relearn where everything is on my computer (: O.K.  I’ve been wanting to post a few things for some time now!  Although I have many workouts to share, expert DIET advice, a new challenge, and talk about my trip, etc…..I started thinking today about weight loss and maintenance over the years and a phrase came to mind that I always remember.  “It’s not the foods you eat once in awhile that make you gain weight, it’s the food you eat everyday that matters.”  That makes me feel better when I have a sugar binge now and again.  I lost it on my trip and at the start of this week I’ve recommitted myself to my normal healthy eating self.  I love food and I eat a lot of yummy healthy food.  I DO however have a list of many foods I will NEVER or VERY RARELY eat.  I’m not even tempted by these foods so it’s not something I am depriving myself from.  I do believe that eliminating these foods have helped me maintain my weight and feel healthy!!  Here is my random list off the top of my head:

• Sugar Cereal
• Packaged baked goods, pastries, cookies
• Chips and crackers
• Hot Dogs and Hamburgers
• Muffins and donuts
• Fried foods except sweet potato fries (:
• Alfredo sauce
• White rice and white pasta
• Soda and juice
• Cheese

That made me feel better about myself.  Some people might think I’m not enjoying food or I’m too strict, but I honestly DO NOT miss or want any of the above foods.  Try to slowly eliminate these foods and I’m positive you’ll feel better and lose weight (:

I’ve got to go get ready for a JAZZ game.  I promise I’ll be back soon with my 8 week challenge and workouts galore!  Only 2 pictures to share today.  My daughter and I after our workouts.  I’m borrowing her tank.  I like what it said (: and me trying to have curly hair!

I don’t know why they’re posting weird.  Another thing I need to figure out!!  I’m excited for Spring, flowers, color, runs, and being outside!!  I love this quote!!

Hasta Luego! Work Hard!!

I think you shine the brightest!

Oh!  Happy Friday!  I think I’d like to play games with the kids this weekend!  We’re all busy and we need to sit down and relax!!  I’m lovin’ my healthy eating challenge. I was running with my friends the other morning and one of our friends is going to be the official “manager”.  She said I could weigh in with her every week.  We came up with a 3 strikes you’re out policy since my friend needs to ease up on the strictness for a trip to Florida.  Geez…really? (:  I’m excited to see what I can do.  I’m officially on Day 2!  I’ve been doing my AB challenge every night as well and it’s getting kinda hard.  One thing I have to deal with when I eat real healthy is I’m colder?  Weird.  I don’t know why.  I carry the space heater around with me most of the day!  O.K.  Friday outfit of the day is nothing fancy.  I don’t have a workout outfit again.  I’d like to do another split progress photo but I had to take a break from that because I pulled a muscle showing off my flexibility skills.  I’m not a spring chicken anymore!  I love jeans and mostly wear them everywhere I go.  These are some of my favorites!  The brand is MEK.  I think that’s a Buckle brand.

 I haven’t weighed myself for awhile.  I don’t know why except I’m worried it isn’t where I want it to be.  I’m going to give this challenge one week and then I’ll weigh in.  Today for lunch I made a delishioso salad.  It took a few minutes to put together.  Butter lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, crab salad, and a little bit of dressing.  Yum!

I need to go visit my parents too.  I’m glad they live so close.  I might take them to see Saving Mr. Banks this weekend.  I loved that movie.  Have a beautiful weekend and remember Spring is getting closer with each day!  Here is a little artwork message from my sweet sister!

Say no to processed foods and sugar

Good morning!  Life is good.  We just had 2 good days off school.  One day I took the kids ice skating and the other day we went to Get Air.  However, I’m an orderly person and it was nice to send them off to school again!  I loved skating and realized we need to go more often!

Today I will post a super sweaty workout we did this morning at 6 a.m. AND a little word about my food challenge.  Several people are interested and I need to clarify a few things!  The MAIN goal of the challenge is to get rid of processed foods and sugar.  This is not LOW CARB.  You will be eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.  Here is the list of what you CAN eat: fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes, lean meats, soups, salads, legumes, nuts, almond milk, eggs.  You can also eat some dairy.  Plain yogurt or cottage cheese are best.  I’m o.k. with adding a little stevia to plain yogurt and berries.  This is what you CANNOT eat (: Breads of any kind, grains (except for a small amount that I’ll get to next), sugar (Check labels.  Don’t eat anything with more than 6 grams per serving), cereal.  I am allowing ONE small grain option ONCE a day.  You can either have 1/2 c oatmeal, 1/2 c brown rice or quinoa, or 2 protein balls.  Also, if you’d like 1 sugar free food a day you can.  That would include a diet soda, sugar free pudding, sugar free jello, or sugar free popsicle.  Sound easy enough?

To keep us motivated and challenged, everyone puts in $50.00.  The person that goes the longest WINS the pot!  We have no days off and no ending.  I told them we’d stop as soon as all my clothes fall off or I win (: whichever comes first!  We have some serious competitors in my circle of friends.  It’s going to be awesome!!  I’ll send this email out today and we’ll officially start tomorrow!!  Any questions?  Let me know!

K!!  WOD was great!  I set my timer for 2:00 minutes.  4 rounds.  We pretty much went round the clock with no breaks for 8 minutes at each set of 3 exercises.  Then we did all the exercises again in circuit form and completed two times.  We finished with butt lifts with a weight at the knee.  Like this:

2 Minute rounds

 4X

10 frog hops

10 over head press

10 step ups

 4X

10 jump squats

10 burpees

10 curtsy lunges

 4X

10 mountain climbers

10 sit ups

10 biceps

 CIRCUIT BLAST 2X

 20 frog hops

20 over head press

20 step ups

20 jump squats

20 burpees

20 curtsy lunges

20 mountain climbers

20 sit ups

20 biceps

 BONUS

butt lifts

This is a great time of year to take charge of your health, lose weight, and feel better!  We won’t have to do anything come Spring time cuz we’ll already be there!!!  Stick with it!

The sunniest day!

I am planting a small garden today!  I have a spot in the front on my house that has been an eye sore for too long.  It’s a nice flower bed encased in a brick wall.  Some of the tops of the wall are falling off.  It needs some help and will look so beautiful with many different plants and flowers and cascading flowers over the top to cover the falling apartness!  I need to spend some play time with my kids first and then I’ll be off to the garden nursery.  My goal will be to post the before and after shots TODAY!!  I love this perfect yellow flower in the rain*  Happy First Day of Summer!!!

I also want to install flower boxes on a couple windows at the front of our house.  Here is one I like.  I’m going to do the research and even learn how to do it myself!  That ought to be a funny site to see me on a ladder taking a drill to my newly painted house!

AND….my last decor item of the day is to color my front door!  It has cucky brass handles that I don’t like, so hopefully we can swap those out.  I want to do an orange shade.  This front door is Benjamin Moore rust.  Pretty.

Diet update this week.  I had a hectic week and found myself skipping meals and not eating enough.  Being stressed out makes me want to eat treats.  Sticking to a diet is not easy.  I don’t like the word diet.  Sticking to healthy choices is not always easy.  I still feel a little weird and not quite myself from the shingles.  I don’t like that word either.  I do like the words smile, warm, flowers, air, run, fresh, and smells (:  I’ll be honest, I’m going to have a short 24 hour break from strict eating this weekend and get back at it Monday.  I’m not done with my 9 weeks and I have a happy reward when I hit 129 again.  I will be there SOON!

To end on a healthy NOTE, I found a low calorie treat that is heavenly.  I will survive if I can have one of these a day!  SOOOOOOOOO  good!!!  Have a GREAT weekend.

 

Change it up!

Friday thought day!  Lots of randomness in this post.  First off, hair color and cut!  Next week I need a change.  I’m liking the long hair look, but I need to cut my bangs and get a new color.  I found a few examples I might try.  Some people have told me I resemble these girls.  Very nice compliment that I don’t quite see!  I love Shania’s curls in this one.

I don’t know if I could pull off the blond Jennifer Aniston.  I’ve never done that before, but it might be fun for a change.

Another color choice I need to make is my front door.  Today I had a group of friends over for lunch.  We just painted the outside of our house a beautiful dark gray blue color with a white trim.  Everyone thought it looked great!  Our plain white door is in need of a make over too.  Here are my thoughts for the door!!  I’m leaning towards the orange!

Next change needs to be in the exercise and eating department.  I think I’m working out too much.  I have a few ailments bugging me and at least one of them could be exercise related.  I hate taking time off exercise, but next week I might CHILL and only go on a few walks ):  The trail was beautiful this morning.  I’m in awe every time I run it.  I could never get sick of it.  I picked a small bouquet of flowers as I ran down this morning!  So sweet *

Take time to PICK the flowers!

The diet part of the life is getting dull so I’m going to crank it up a notch.  The Les Mills exercise program I follow has a 21 day diet challenge I’m going to try.  It’s stricter on the carbs and I need to fix that part up a lot.  I’ll post about it on Monday.  Till then, I’m going to eat many things that aren’t good for me this Sunday!  My fitness pal and I are getting together with our families to go up the canyon and make smores.  We also have a big list of other goodies to indulge on too!  Oh! Oh!….before I fall too far off the wagon I have to say I did a crazy thing last night.  My girl’s and I had a girl date and we stopped at the grocery store for a few things.  I walked by the peaches and nectarine section and started drooling from the sweet smell.  So yummy!  All I wanted for my treat that night was a perfectly ripe and juicy nectarine.  Heavenly!!  We got a small bag and ate them up on the way home!!  I need to buy more!!!

Last but not least.  QUOTE of the DAY!!  Moments are by far and away better than things!!!

Stick to a plan this summer

I need a pretty place right now!  This is beautiful!!  I’m lucky however because I live in a beautiful place too.  I told my family yesterday that it could be June every month of the year and I would never get sick of it!!  I love everything about summer!!!  Today marks the official 1st day of summer for my kids.  We’ve got a plan for each one of them!!  My 2 oldest boys play football.  I’m going to take them to the track 3 times a week and whip them into shape!!  My little 10 yr. old was with me this morning and I almost had him in tears!!  Not on purpose, I was being very kind (:  They’ll love it!!  Anyhow, we have the typical job chart along with reading and piano etc.  My oldest son wants to play guitar now too!  Always something new.  Today I ran a pitiful run and then went to the gym to do the WOD.   This was a great workout!  I’m going to post it here to see if my brain can recall it!!

WARM UP

400 m run

2 X

10 pushups

10 situps

15 air squats

WOD

100 jump squats

100 walking lunges

75 high sumos

75 push ups

50 burpees

20 pull ups

It took about 20 minutes and I was sweating!  My legs are still shaking and it’s been 3 hours.  ENJOY!!!!

Update on the healthy challenge of mine!!!  I need to kick it in gear all week.  I was UP? today!!!  134.  GEEZ.  How do I fluctuate 4 pounds in 3 days?  Anyway, I’ll be strict eating girl and weigh every day this week!  Father’s Day will be a break day!!  I am looking forward to that.  I have discovered it is not hard for me to eat healthy 6 days a week.  SUNDAY is what does me in!  Too much time on my hands!!

9 weeks to red hot!

Nothing will change your eating habits more than a 4 day vacation!!  We met up with our friends this weekend for a very fun and relaxing weekend.  Our kids had a great time together too.  The weather was beautiful!!  It was so nice to be outside swimming, hiking, and playing at the park.  We ate out way to much, ate in way too much, and indulged in a whole lot too much of Sugary treats.  What a perfect time my friend and I had coming up with a plan that neither of us will cheat on for 9 weeks!!!!!  I’m a challenge-goal girl that has a hard time sticking with the program (:  With my commitment to my friend, I’ll follow it this time to a T!!  I’ve also decided against the body-building contest.  Instead, I will invent my own workout and diet to get my body better looking than a body builder anyway!  This chick looks like something to strive for!  Holy abs!

Another funny thing I tell my friends is that if they ever see me running in booty shorts they will know I’m o.k. with my body!!  That’ll be an indicator if I’ve reached my goal!  Here is an example:

OK…down to business!  What am I actually going to do for 9 weeks?  My friend and I will weigh ourselves once a week.  We’re taking measurements this week and then at the end.  I even talked her into the hydro-static weighing to measure our body fat before and after.  I recently tested mine and I was at 19%.  I’m shooting for 16% and weighing between 125-128 lbs. by July 27th.  At the beginning of each week we’re going to share menu ideas.  She’s a great cook and I’m sure we’ll come up with many tasty dishes that I’ll be sharing.  Here are the bullet points of what we will do:

• Don’t eat anything that has more than 6 g. of sugar.  (That doesn’t mean for the whole day, just whatever one thing you are eating).
• Drink at least 64 ounces of water.
• Weight workouts at least 4 days a week
• No white sugar or white flour

A few other suggestions are eating more plant based foods and protein.  We both love salmon and tofu and we’ll eat a lot of that.  TONS of vegetables and fruit too.  I’m going to try to eat a vegetable every time I eat something.  Also, eat every 3 hours and stop eating for the day at 7:30 p.m.  We are giving ourselves 2 days off, which will be Father’s Day and the 4th of July!!  I’m very excited to get back in shape.  I really do fall out of shape, especially when my body is not feeling 100% (still having aching ribs), but I will go slow and do what I can do.  Here was my breakfast for today:

1 egg, 2 egg white vege and laughing cow cheese omelet.  1 pkg. of oatmeal with 1/3 apple and WATER with my vitamins and supplements.

Coming up at 11:00 a.m., I’ll be having 2 celery sticks with peanut butter!

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

All is well!  Day 1 of any diet is awesome!  I’ll be posting several weight workouts soon!!  I want to make them “easy to do at home” workouts!!  Stay tuned and remember:

P.S.  I purchased 3 Taylor Swift tickets for the concert this Saturday!  I surprised my daughter with them on her birthday!  I can’t wait!!