Work it out

I am trying to hit 100 pounds by the end of the year. Now whether or not I hit that number I am very proud of myself, and what I have accomplished so far. I am doing my strength training 3-4 times a week, and have added in a little cardio at the gym, elliptical, bike etc... And I have also started t25. I have seen insanity advertised for a long time, and wanted to try it, but let saying I didn't think I could do the 45 minutes a day for it. Well then I started seeing t25 advertised, and hearing great results about it. My hubby and I decided to give it a try. He unfortunately broke his hand and has been unable to start it. I started 2 weeks ago and so far I love it. It is very hard work. I am dripping sweat everytime I finish a workout, but the great thing is that it is only a 25 minute workout. I do it 5 times a week and twice on Fridays. So 6 t25 workouts a week combined with my other workouts. My kids actually enjoy doing the t25 along with me. So far after the 2 weeks since ice started it I have lost 1 pound, 1 1/4" off my thighs, 3/4" off my arms, 4" off my waist, and 4" from my chest. I would say those are some good numbers for 2 weeks. I will check my measurements again in 2weeks and I'm hoping for some more great results. I would highly recommend t25 to anyone interested init. Here are a few pictures from after my workouts.

 

   

  

Fabulous Friday...late

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been very busy, but also honestly I was slacking off some. I have gotten back into he swing of things, and decided to take some progress shots. I started out the beginning of the year saying I wanted to lose 50 pounds this year. Well I have almost doubled that. I am trying to finish out the year strong to meet 100 pounds lost in 2013, and also to get a nice start into the new year. These shots have definitely motivated me to work harder. The first set is from the end of February beginning of March and the second set is from 2 nights ago.

November challenge

This is the hardest time for most people to stay on track. I know I have been very guilty of this in the past. This year, however, I am going to stay on track. My mommy group and I started a new challenge the month to help keep us on track. So join us.

Belated Anniversary

On October 16 my hubby and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has already been 9 years. I feel like we were just married. We have had a great 9 years together. We have been by each others sides through all of our ups and downs. Life is great when your best friend is walking beside you through everything. We went out to dinner that night just the two of us, which if you know us is huge. We hardly ever get to go out just us. We also went to a friends wedding on Saturday afternoon without the kiddies. So after the wedding we went and grabbed a quick dinner together and did some window shopping. This past weekend was also his first days off in 34 days so we all thoroughly enjoyed having Daddy home. I love my sweet, caring, loving, hard working man. Here are a few photos from our wedding and also from when we went to the wedding this past weekend.

This picture is probably about 12 years old. Oh we were so young :)

Belated birthday

I feel so bad that I am writing this post so late. My sweet baby turned 5 on the 15. We had a great lego birthday celebration for him. He had a wonderful time, and so did all of his guests. I even made a homemade lego piñata for him. He is the sweetest, most unique little man I know. He knows what he wants and will not change his mind for anything, which can sometimes be frustrating :). He loves his brother and sister more than anything in the whole world. He will be the first person to tell you that you look beautiful, or you are cool etc... He loves giving people compliments and he genuinely means it. I can't believe my little baby boy is 5 now. Here are a few photos from his special day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the MIA

Sorry for being MIA this month. I have been in a little bit of a "funk" this month, and have not really felt like updating my blog or Facebook page much. Which also means I was not keeping myself as motivated, and not working out as much. I have gotten myself out of my funk, and am back. I think we all need to take some time off. We did celebrate my beautiful sons fifth birthday, I will post some pictures in another post, and also my 9 year wedding anniversary. So things have been pretty busy here. I hope everyone is sticking to their healthy lifestyle. I know it is tough this time of year. So hopefully I can continue to be some motivation for you during this holiday season.

Calendar

The holiday season is beginning as is the months of sweets!! Halloween candy, big Thanksgiving meals with lots of yummy desserts, Christmas candy and baked goods the list goes on and on. So trying to stay on track is very hard this time of year. I think it is necessary to live a balanced life. So it is ok to partake in some of these treats, but do not overdo them, but also try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. You should keep doing your fitness routines as well as trying to maintain a healthy diet with the add ins of your favorite holiday treats. So here is a calendar we are doing in our Mommy group. Feel free to follow along with us. We are starting it today.

Motivation Monday

Yesterday was my birthday. I spent a wonderful weekend with my awesome family. Which was exactly what I wanted. I tried to find pictures of my 30th birthday to look at, and I could only find about 2 of them. I guess I was not really into taking any pictures then. I remember having a great time at my 30th birthday with my wonderful family. They are always so great to me. This year was even better than last year. I really was not that upset about turning 31, okay maybe a little. I can tell you I was happier at my 31st than I was at my 30th. So I am looking forward to my 32nd being better than my 31st. This gives me some motivation to keep going and make this year better than last year. So here are a few pictures from my fabulous birthday weekend with my family.

Throwback Thursday

I am going to an orchard tomorrow with a pumpkin patch with the kids. We are so excited about going. The last time I went there I was 8 months pregnant with my son which was 5 years ago. I was looking back at the pictures. I am very excited to go with them and get some new pictures with all the babies. So here are some photos of our last trip.

Tasty Tuesday

Today's post is about snacks. I think this is one of the biggest areas I struggle with. In the past I have fallen into eating all of my kids bag of goldfish and wash it down with a soda and a box of little Debbie's. Sounds great, but I felt terrible afterwards. So if you are eating good meals all day do not waste that with a few bad snacks. I have found it easiest to buy the kids snacks that I also will eat. That way I am not tempted by their snacks into something bad for me, which I feel better giving them healthy stuff anyways. Now I am not going to lie here, my kids do sometimes get special treats that I do not really partake in. I think yes we should eat healthy foods, but it is okay for my kids to occasionally have little treats. So anyways back to our healthy snacks. For my snacks I of course like something that I do not have to put a lot of prep into, and are both health and cost effective. A few clean eating snacks that I enjoy are as follows:

* A slice of pumpkin bread (I posted the recipe the other day), I usually will have a glass of water with it, but a cup of hot tea is also very yummy with it. Most of the time if I have this I just eat this, but you could add maybe a handful of nuts (if you did not put any in your bread) or a piece of fresh fruit.

* 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt (I like Stonyfield) with a drizzle of raw honey or agave, 1/2 cup of granola (you can do homemade or an organic one that does not have a lot of added sugars. I like the ones from KIND. There are a lot of different flavors that are good), mix with some fresh fruits (strawberries, blueberries, banana whatever fruit you have on hand)

* 1/2c unsalted nuts (cashews, peanuts, almonds, walnuts whatever you have), string cheese (get a brand that is real cheese not processed), and a piece of fruit (pear or apple is my favorite)

* 3-4 celery sticks with organic peanut butter, string cheese

* Fruit/Veggie protein smoothie (use whatever fruits/veggies you have with some organic peanut butter or protein powder)

* Organic carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks and cucumber with 2tbsp fresh hummus

* 1 slice whole grain bread with 1tbsp organic peanut butter, 1 tbsp. fresh jam (grape, strawberry etc...), whole organic carrot

* 1 hardboiled cage free egg with a little pepper, handful of fresh berries

* 1c no salt added cottage cheese with fresh fruit (pineapple, strawberries, blueberries whatever you have), 1/4c unsalted nuts, 1tbsp chia seeds

* 1 apple (I like honeycrisp but whatever you like) cut into slices, 2 tbsp. organic peanut butter

* 1c fruit salad (grapes, oranges, kiwi, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pears, peaches, strawberries whatever you like) a drizzle of agave 1/4c chilled quinoa

These are just a few of the snacks I enjoy. What is great is all of these are also kid friendly. There are a lot more, but these are all very quick, easy, healthy and cost effective snacks. I usually drink a glass of water with all these snacks as well. What are some of your favorite healthy snacks.

Size matters!!

Today we went out shopping. I didn't get myself anything, but looked around at a lot. My birthday is next weekend, and I was showing my hubby what I want for my birthday :) Well I have been walking around wearing size 16 jeans which are completely falling off of me. I mean it looks ridiculous how big they are on my. Which is great because only a few months ago there was no way I could even think about buttoning them. Anyways today I wore my new size 10 jeans out. My husband said wow there is such a difference when you actually wear the right size clothes for you. I think one reason I was keeping my size 16's was a comfort thing. The other day I took 4 trash bags of my "fat" clothes to goodwill. It felt great to get rid of them. I don't want to sound weird, but it was kind of a liberating experience to drop them off and know that I will never again need them. I still have some of my 16's, but I think I will be taking those to donation next week. I need to completely clear them out of my house. I have noticed that I still look at myself as the girl that could only shop in the plus size section or stores, and a lot of times even those clothes were tight on me. I still have to accept that I can shop in the smaller sizes. I am still focusing what I want to work on instead of what I have already changed. I am working on this. I still look in the mirror and see the overweight girl that has been there for so many years. So I got a big boost today when my hubby told me how good I looked in the right size clothing. I know also it will be very, very soon that I will be able to put on those single digit jeans. Can't wait!! So here are my jeans that I wore today (also my shirt is a medium just a few short months ago I couldn't even dream of wearing a 2x button up shirt)

Scrumptious Saturday!!

Today is the FIRST DAY OF FALL!!!! Yay. My favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, smells, holidays, clothing, leaves, the crisp air, apple picking, foods, and most of all everything PUMPKIN!!!! So today's recipe is pumpkin inspired. This time of year we add pumpkin to everything. I mean it is an amazing food why not right. I love pumpkin soup. I will post that recipe another day, but today I am posting my pumpkin bread. It is delicious and healthy, and guess what even my picky 6 year old son loves it (he calls it my pumpkin cornbread :) ) I used to make a really really unhealthy, fatty version with a box of vanilla pudding mix in it covered in a fatty frosting. I mean don't get me wrong it was delicious, but soooo bad for you. So this is a cleaned up version and it is equally as yummy. I am going to try to come up with a clean frosting recipe for this as well. I know this is not something I will be eating everyday (although I could!!), but we all deserve treats every now and then!! So here is my cleaned up version of pumpkin bread.


Clean eating pumpkin bread

1 1/2c of flour (I used whole wheat, but you can use coconut, oat, rice whatever you have)
1tsp baking powder
2tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp baking soda
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/4tsp ground cloves
1 egg beaten (I used a whole cage free brown egg, but you could do 2 egg whites instead if you want or chia seeds with water if you don't eat eggs)
1/4c dark brown sugar
1/2c organic whole cane sugar (you could use coconut sugar here)
3/4c plain non fat Greek yogurt (if you want a vegan recipe replace with silken tofu mixed with lemon juice or you could look for a vegan yogurt)
3/4c pumpkin (you can do a can (be sure to get a can with no added preservatives or sweeteners or fresh pumpkin puree, but be sure to use a sugar pumpkin)
3tbsp oil (canola, sunflower, olive or coconut)
1 1/2tsp pure vanilla
*optional walnuts, pecans dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x4 bread pan with an olive oil spritzer.

In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger and cloves. Set aside.

In medium bowl mix egg, sugar, yogurt, pumpkin, oil and vanilla until well blended. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Stir in walnuts, pecans or chocolate if you want. Pour batter into pan.

Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool for about 10 minutes.

It is so yummy!! Now like I said I do not eat this all the time, but it is definitely less fattening than the other version I used to make. I am thinking of making a few loaves and freezing some (if they last long enough to be frozen they may all be eaten before then :) ). Please comment with any variations you have on your pumpkin bread.

Fabulous Friday!!

I like to look at my journey and see where I was and how far I have come. I try not to look at where I still want to go, but hey I am human. In my mommy fitness group one of my fellow mommies asked the question what are your fitness goals? I can think of some different things like run a race, do the mud run, do pull ups etc...but what am I working towards? What are my ultimate goals? I know I am not going to be losing weight forever. So I know that my goals will not stay the same. What is that perfect weight or physique I am trying to achieve? I say oh I want the scale to read this number, but does it really matter? I am much healthier at my current weight then when I was about 40-50 lbs lighter years ago, I showed you all the pictures yesterday. So when do I stop trying to actively lose weight? At what point do I say yes this is enough. I think that I am now taking my focus off of weight loss. Yes I would still like to lose some weight, but I am more concerned about my overall health. I would like that toned muscular physique, less body fat more muscle. So while I am working towards this the fat will continue to come off, but my focus is more on building muscle. I believe I will be changing up some of my training routines. I already focus on weight training more, but I think I will be researching some ways to increase that some.

I enjoy doing races, but in the end I am not a runner. What joy am I getting over paying a lot of money to run somewhere that I could do for free? So I do not think I have the desire anymore to try to run a marathon. I am getting ready to do a mud run, I am excited and nervous about this. I will be doing a few 5k's, but I do not think I will really sign up for more than a 5k. I don't know what the future holds and perhaps I will eventually run a marathon, but right now I can say I am not a runner and I am not training like one. I have all the respect in the world for runners. I thought I wanted to be a runner, but the more I train for things I find running is just not my forte. I actually, and this will be in the way future when I have much more confidence, would be much more interested in a fitness competition. That is more in my lane. Something like competing in weight lifting etc... So we will see in the future if I achieve this goal or not.

The other main goal I have is to educate and help train others. I would like to look into in the future becoming a nutritionist, don't worry hubby not as my main career but as a side project :). I think eating properly is the most important thing about a healthy lifestyle. I would love to be able to help teach people how to do this. I know I did not know how to eat properly. I had to do research and teach myself the proper ways. I am still learning and improving my nutrition all the time. 

I also would love to, and once again not as a main career, train people. I do not ever see myself being a personal trainer in a fitness club or anything, but I would love to be able to help train people and help them realize their goals just as I have done. I started my blog and my Facebook page for these reasons. I love inspiring and helping others. It actually helps me stay inspired and motivated.

I always love hearing other peoples goals. Please feel free to share any of your goals with me. I would be more than happy to try to help you achieve them in anyway I can. Also any tips you have for me in increasing my strength training are more than appreciated.

Throwback Thursday

Today's throwback Thursday is going to be a little different. I have been looking at my pictures from when I was smaller not bigger. When I was in high school I was about 140-150. Of course at that time I thought I was too big. As a high school girl I felt fat because yes I was picked on by some other high school girls saying I was fat. So of course that made my self-esteem go way down. I never really talked much about how I was picked on, and how that made me feel then. I hope that my daughter never goes through that. I am bigger now than I was then, but I think I am much healthier now.