Day 26, 27 and 28

Hello my lovelies,

Well, I have completed 4 full weeks on my program.  28 days down. 32 more to go til the first day of spring.  Yaay!

Day 26 (Friday, Feb 14)
Valentine’s day was nice.  Got some gifts from hubby. I have to admit I was really worried because we were snowed in on Wed and Thursday, so I thought, “Oh goodness buddy, you are so in trouble if you waited to the last minute to get me a gift” But he surprised me!  Hmmm. 

It was a good eating day.  We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant for valentine’s day.  I had filet mignon, lobster tail and steam veggies. Hubby had a prime rib and veggies. My steak was one of the best seasoned steaks that I’ve ever

Day 27 (Saturday, Feb 15)
I am getting ready to start running. I went to Target and bought my very first ever pair of athletic sunglasses. So glad that I have been watching the winter Olympics because every sport has protective eyewear and I keep focusing on how cool the eyewear was and then I remembered that my last visit to the eye doctor, she told me that I had some small lesions on my eye that is from the wind blowing in my eyes and sun damage. The doctor told me to wear sunglasses all the time when I am outdoors to protect my eyes from wind and UV rays. but I have a hard time wearing shades because I can’t get over the fact that it alters the way the outdoors look. I am affected by the amount of sunlight I get so shades blocking sunlight depresses me!  But I don’t want to continue damaging my eyes either.  so I decided to invest in proper eyewear. 

On Saturday night, we dropped the kids off at a kids-only party at a cousin’s house and then we attempted to go see Kevin Hart’s new movie, About Last Night (?) or something like that. The 840pm showing was sold out, so we went out for dinner and drinks at 42 Street Oyster Bar.  It was nice. I have always like the ambience in that restaurant. It has a warm glow that makes my skin look 15 years younger. And its always crowded and full of energy.  Our wait was 1 hour and 15 minutes so we hung out in the cocktail bar area.  I asked these 2 guys if we could share their table and they said yes.  They were Jay and Jim.  Jay’s a real estate agent and Jim’s a commercial attorney.  He is trying to buy a house in the North Hills area but it’s hard to find a house in that area because is such a high demand area.   Jay is 47 and looked 32 (maybe it’s that beautiful lighting that I mentioned).  Jim is 38 with a 3 year old and recently divorced.  We had a nice time.  I ordered buffalo shrimp, bacon-wrapped scallops, hush puppies (they have the best in town), black eye peas (to eat with the hush puppies — don’t laugh I grew up in the rural deep south).  and I had fries. YES, IT WAS A CHEAT MEAL! It was some of the best food I’ve had in a long time.  We will definitely go more often. 

Day 28 (Sunday, Feb 16)
I laid in bed all day.  I was going to go for a run, but I just laid in bed all day.  I wasted 2 hours of life watching “A room with a view” on Netflix.  The only reason I watched it is because Rupert Graves was in it, and I love him.  But I hated it because it had Helen Bonham Carter and I don’t think I enjoy watching her in movies. Her personal life is so quacky that it affects my ability to enjoy her in movies. Eating was so so. We went to BurgerFi. We love that place.

Okay.  I got to start running and I need to buy a blender so I had get more veggies and fruit into my family’s body!

Week 5 here I come.

Day 25 of 60

Day 25
35 days til spring (5 weeks til spring)
Thursday,  Feb 13, 2014

Still iced in.

I worked out about 9pm to my kickboxing DVD (Les Mills Combat).  I warmed up to Beyoncé’s “Get me Bodied”.  That song is crazy!  The video is awesome and when you hear the songs you can’t help but try to do some of the dances that Beyoncé does in the video, except I look really stupid.  The only person who saw me is my hubby.  Luckily we can laugh together at my ridiculous-ness!

So after I warmed up to “Get me Bodied”.  I put “Moves like Jagger” on repeat and did some punches, jabs and kicks to that song for about 4 times. That song is the PERFECT kickboxing song!

Then after I was sweating and really hyped up and full of energy, I put on the actual DVD.  The DVD was a letdown after being hyped up by Beyoncé and Adam Levine.  But I love the structure of the DVD and  love the workout in the DVD.

DEADLINE GOT ME NERVOUS
So as you know, this blog is for 60 days only as I countdown to the first day of spring 2014, which is March 20, 2014.  I am feeling anxious because I only have 5 weeks left and I am not as far along my journey as I would like to be.  So I need to tighten up and get serious.

• On Saturday, Feb 15th, I plan to start running this weekend (I love to run). I am actually starting my training for a 5k that I will run with my kids and hubby on May 17th.
• SLEEP. Turn television off at 10:3pm so I can be sleep by 11pm.
• WHITE SUGAR, WHITE FLOUR — eliminate these as much as humanly possible. It’s very difficult for me to lose weight when I eat sugar and high glycemic foods, like starches, flours, etc.
• take my supplements (probiotics, omega 3’s, omegas’s, ubiquinol, carnitine, DMAE, multivitamin, Candida Cleanse, etc)
• WEIGHT TRAIN –  I have dumbbells at home, so I will do a mock-Body Pump workout until I actually purchase Les Mill Body Pump DVD. Which I plan to do in the next few days.
• Pilates DVD 3 to  5 times a week for core training and flexibility.
• HIP HOP ABS – I may buy this DVD because I need to learn some new dances moves. I can’t keep doing the cabbage patch, running man and the prep forever!

I am not scale obsessed like I used to be. I am really not focused on the scale moving down each day.  I really want to look great in my clothes.  I already feel healthy.  Once I started eating clean back in September, I started feeling healthy. The pains stopped.  I knew that eating clean was the secret.

Now I am working on getting fit.  I want to be cardiovascularly fit.  I don’t want to huff and puff when I walk up stairs.  I want to be able to run for 30 minutes like I used to back in 2011.

I want muscle tone. I want to sculpt my body through weight training so that I stand tall and so that my clothes fit my body in a pleasing way.

I am willing to put in the hard work.

DAMN IT!  I WANT THIS.

end

Kim Ford

Day 24 of 60

Wednesday, Feb 12, 2014

We are iced in.  Which means that all the heart wants to do is lay in front of the fireplace, watch the Winter Olympics and eats comfort food.  That’s sounds great. And I am sure that the hubby, kids and I will do that, but I also plan to:

• workout to my kickboxing DVD
• drinks lots of water
• eat my veggies, lean proteins, and my apple
• take my supplements (omega 3’s, omega’6, probiotic, etc)

So I will not let the fact that we are iced in and cannot leave our house, be an excuse to pig out.  One or two indulgences will be okay, AND I will keep doing everything else.  No need to drop it all.

I ran out of my favorite “brain” supplement, Rhodiola. It’s phonetic, pronounced ROW-DEE-OH-LAH   This supplement helps me and hubby with focus and concentration.  And I think hubby likes it because it also helps physical stamina when working out. I cannot really say for sure if it helps me in that way, but I am an analyst which requires hours and hours of deep focus and when I am sleep deprived (which is most of the time), then focusing just aint happening.  Love our Rhodiola. We use the NOW brand, which we get from Whole Foods.  As soon as the ice melts I am headed to get a bottle.

Hey please share your favorite herbal supplement, homeopathic remedies, or natural remedies. 

end

Kim Ford

Feeling Like Forrest Gump

Hello My Lovelies,

I am feeling like Forrest Gump.  I just feel like running.

So I will.

I will start training to run in a 5k in the spring on May 17. It’s the Purple Stride run/walk for pancreatic cancer.
http://purplestride.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1089444

My 9 year old and my 12 year old will run in it too. Hubby said that if the 3 of us run in it, then he will join us.  So there you have it. As of today, I plan to register the 4 of us to run/walk the 5k on May 17th.

I have only ran in one 5k in my life.  Though I did run/walk at 10K back in 1981 when I was 13.  I ran my one and only 5k in 2011.  That was after maintaining my weight for 1 year, I needed to up my game, so I started running.  I started running on March 20, 2011 (first day of spring) and then I ran in the Komen 5K three months later on June 11, 2011.

Muscle Tone
I am starting to see and feel muscle tone in my thighs and arms.  So I am happy about that.

Hip Hop Abs
I think that I will buy Hip Hop Abs.  or maybe Les Mills Body Pump.

Day 18 of 60

Day 18
Thursday
February 5, 2014

Workout
I arrived home from work at 4:45pm  By 5:10 I was in my workout clothes, sparring gloves on, and my kickbox playlist turned up as loud as it could go.  Okay, so my warmup song is Beyonce’s “Get me Bodied”.  But all my boxing and kicking is done to Adam Levine’s “Moves Like Jagger”.   That song is the PERFECT boxing song.

So I did my own kickboxing workout for about 20 minutes. Then I picked up my 8lb dumbbell and did tricep presses and scull crushers until failure.  I did some pushups, and some pilates moves for my core.  I am ready to start running and I am a bit eager to join the gym, but I will suppress the urge and try to get through these 60 days with working out at home. I wanted to go to the community center up the road for a run around the track, but my sports bra is a bit too little and it hurts.  It’s a really quality sports bra that I bought from Dicks Sporting Good 2 years ago when I was 20 pounds thinner. It’s an Under Armour and it really give outstanding support when I run.  I am at 38F, and if I try to run without a support-providing sport bra I look and feel stupid.

I don’t think that there is a larger-sized sports bra so I will probably just need to drop about 5 more pounds from my chest areas in order for it to fit comfortable enough for me to go for a 10 to 15 minute run.

My non-scale victories
One of the terms they used in Weight Watchers back in 2009/2010 when I was a member is “non-scale victory”, that when something good happens to you while you are on your fitness journey that has nothing to do with your weight.  Like when someone compliments you, or you fit into clothes that used to be too little.

• Today, when I walked into work this morning, I realized that I was walking very fast and with strength and gusto.  I was weighted down with laptop bag, lunchbox, and my general purpose bag.  But I realized that walking with all of that stuff “felt” easier and I was definitely walking faster.
• Today at work, walking up the stairs in my building seemed easier.
• On my car ride home from work, I was eager to get home to work out.
• On my car ride home from work, I was eager to go for a run.
• Yesterday, when I looked at myself in the mirror, my body looked smaller. I was so inspired I wore my high heels.

Body Pump
Okay I am ready to start working out with weights.  In a serious way. I may buy the Les Mills Body Pump DVD set.  I will just play it by ear. i have dumbbells here in my bedroom. And I already know all of the exercise because I have done Body Pump on and off for years. So I really should just put my own routine together.  Hmm.. let me try that first — don’t want to waste money. I can use that money to buy myself my next pair of Levi’s.

Post workout treats:

1. raw celery + ranch dressing
   (I really do enjoy this. I started last year when hubby and I would hit up The Fox and the Hound (our hangout) and we would order wings.  They bring them with celery and ranch, so I tried the celery with ranch and realized that the texture was pleasing and ranch dressing can make cardboard that’s good).
2. granny smith apple slices sprinkled with kosher salt + cayenne pepper. (yum-yum)
3. a bubble bath (the best part)

Dinner
I want a bowl of honey bunches of oats cereal.  But I do not have any milk, will text hubby to bring some home.

end

Kim Ford

Eating
We into the office today. So eating was really stable.

• breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs
• early lunch: chicken soup (chicken thigh + bone broth)
• late lunch: chicken soup (slowcooked chicken thight + bone broth)
• snack: gala apple
• snack: 1 hardboiled egg (white only)

(3) men that I lost recently

Phillip Seymour Hoffman
So my favorite actor died yesterday. Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  He’s a year old than me and he was absolutely brilliant.  I had a secret fantasy to flying up to New York with hubby the next time he was on broadway doing my favorite American play, Death of a Saleman. But he won’t act in that play ever again.  Dead at 46.  My favorite PSH movies are:

• Love Liza (indie film where he was depressed because his wife died, and he started huffing gasoline
• Stone Mountain  (he added comic relief as the Baptist preacher)
• Capote
• Before The Devil Know You’re Dead

Archie Buckley
The two men from my early childhood that shaped the ideal strong black man and husband in my young mind was my maternal grandfather and one of my mother’s boyfriends when I was 6.  He taught me and my brother how to dig for fish bait and how to fish. The only times I have been fishing, he took me.  He is my baby sister’s father. He was a good man.  He was a hard working man, a carpenter, and he would come home from work and would pop pocorn on the stove the old fashioned way and he’d put peanuts in the oven and roast them the old fashion way.  And we’d all snack while we watched TV. My husband have heard many stories of Archie because my husband reminds me so much of Archie. My husband is a good man.  I know he’s a good man because when I was 6 years old Archie Buckley came into my life and into my heart and showed me what a good man looks like. He died of cancer about 2 weeks ago. And I am filled with regret because I would have loved to have talk to him and asked him about that 6 year old little girl from his point of view. When he died he took his vision of me with him. And know I will never know about me from his mouth. I regret not seeing him earlier. He lived in Texas and now he is gone.  I called my big brother to ask him how he was dealing with Archie’s death. And we both were upset. So we decided to eat poporn and peanuts in Archie’s honor.

Joe Larry Spivey
Joe Spivey was my first boyfriend.  We dated in 1985.  He was crazy about me.  He was one of the nicest men that I have ever known. Everybody loved him. My mom loved him. My cousins loved him. My siblings loved him. I loved him, but unfortunately, he wanted to get married, but I had big dreams of leaving that small town so I was not happy at the thought of getting married out of high school eventhough I had 2 friends who got married in high school and another one immediately after high school.  So I broke up with him because he loved me.  I thought of him constantly and always planned to see him when I went home for visits. I told some of my male cousins that I was going to apologize to Joe the next time I saw him. and they all told me “NO!”.  They told me that it would take something from Joe’s manhood for his old girlfriend to apologize.  I did not believe them and had no plans to listen to them, but my hub told me that my cousins were right.  So I listened and never went to visit Joe for our ‘conversation’.   Another regret.  The last time I saw Joe Spivey was in September 1986 when I came home from bootcamp.  He and I went out for dinner my last night home.  We were both 18 years old.  My last moments with him were just us talking about our dreams.  I was headed to Camp Lejeune in NC. and I think that he got married within 2 years. When my sister called me and told me that he’d died of cancer. I cried.  I was shocked that I cried. But I did.  I knew. I knew that with his death the conversation would never happened.  I always envisioned Joe and me sitting around a table perhaps in our 50’s remembering the 80’s and our youth.  Remembering being 16 and 17. I wanted to know what I was like when I was 16.  But I wanted to ask him, because he was the one person who I know for sure actually liked me as a person when I was 16. I wanted to ask a man who loved me to pieces to tell me what I was like at 16. I had every intention of telling him what a wonderful young man he was.  I believe in giving people their flower before they die.  I did not get a chance to give Joe his and I did not give him a chance to give me mine. I will carry this regret with me always.

For Archie Buckley and for Joe Spivey, I will take Dr. Seuss’s advice:  DON’T BE SAD THAT IT’S OVER, BE HAPPY THAT IT HAPPENED!

Day 15 of 60

Day 15
45 days til spring
Monday
February 3, 2014

Question
Is it true that if you exercise when your energy is low, then you will get energized?

That is so counter-intuitive. Sorta like when we found out that hot water freezes faster than cold water.

Well, I put the question to the test — out of desperation. Around 5 pm, while helping my daughter with her math homework, I got really sleepy.  I have no caffeine in the house.  I searched.  Actually, I had that drinking chocolate that I told ya’ll I bought this weekend.   Drinking chocolate seems to be crumbled up dark chocolate candy bar that melts when you put it in hot milk.  I thought about eating a handful of that for the caffeine in the cocoa.  but it has sugar in it and didn’t want the sugar.

I did not feel like doing my Combat DVD, but I did feel like punching and kicking. So I put on my kickboxing playlist, which consists of 2 songs with a strong beat that I love:

1. Moves Like Jagger by Adam Levine
2. Get Me Bodied by Beyoncé

So I just put those 2 songs on repeat and just did some jabs, crosses, and kicks from my that I learned from my Combat DVD.

I was feeling great. And sweating. I threw in some lunges and squats since I was winging it.  Then I remembered I had just downloaded Pink’s song “So What” and that used to be the track that we worked out our biceps to in my Body Pump class at the gym.  So I put on that song and picked up my 8 lbs dumbbell and did some bicep curls and hammer curls and some tricep presses and some rows for my back. and since I was holding 16 pounds in my hands I went ahead and did some more squats.

22 minutes.  I did that for 22 minutes and as I type the sweat is still pouring down my face.  And I don’t sweat. I wish I sweated more because sweat is just confirmation that you are working out, but I have ran 2 miles and came back with a dry face and neck.  But today, I sweated. The last time I sweated like this is when I took a spinning class with hubby at the gym.  It was suppose to burn 600 calories an hour and I truly believe that it does.  It was the hardest cardio and most rewarding cardio workout that I have ever done.

So yes, exercising does give you energy and sweat!

OK. Now I am going to take an ibuprofen and take a hot shower.

end

Kim Ford

Day 14 of 60

Day 14
Sunday
February 2, 2014

Superbowl Sunday.  I am not a football fan. And I only watch about 5 minutes of the game, but it looked like Denver was paid by someone not to try. I saw a play where the Broncos were diving to stop a player that was no where near them. It look theatrical and ridiculous.

Playlist
You know how when you hear a song you love it takes you back to that place and time when you use to wear that single out?  You are that young person, hanging out with those people, kicking in that spot, rocking that hair style and those clothes!  The best memories are the one that are evoked when our jams are playing.

I realized that back in 2011 AFTER I had lost weight on weight watchers and I heard the song “Who” by Raheem Devaugn.  And I was immediately taken back to the Fall months of 2009 to the elliptical machines at Lifetime Family Fitness.  After I’d lost 30 pounds on Weight Watchers I was ready to get serious about transforming the shape of my body through weight lifting.  So I decided to do that Body For Life 12-weeek Body Transformation Challenge.  84 Days.  It was on of the best things that I ever did to improve my figure. I remember the dates.  It ran from October 24, 2009 to January 16, 2010.  Well, as part of the challenge I had to do 20 minutes of high intensity cardio 3 times a week. at that point I chose the elliptical machine.  It was cold outside and it got dark around 5 pm. So I would go the gym after work and it was dark and cold outside, but I’d go into the gym and go into the sauna and warm up, change into my workout clothes and hit that elliptical as if my life depended on it. I had a very tiny mp3 player that had a clip on it and I would clip it to my shirt and I would put the song “Who” on repeat and workout on the elliptical.  That songs was all I needed to “go hard”.  And I have it on my playlist and when I hear it, I am flooded with the angst I felt in wanted so badly to lose that fat and to have a bangin body.  I remember that elliptical.  I remember just working really hard to make those 20 minutes count.

What that taught me is that we can deliberately choose to have a soundtrack or a playlist to accompany us through a self-imposed journey.  Because after the journey ends, the playlist will always take us back to that headspace we where in as we strived to meet our goal or move through our journey.

I also realized that it’s important to make sure at least one of the songs on that playlist is a current song that is out at the moment. That way as we forget the specific dates of that journey, we can also look up when the song was out and be sure of when we did that thing.

So for this 60 day journey the songs on my soundtrack/playlist are:

• “It Wont Stop”  by Sevyn Streeter featuring Chris Brown
• “Hold On, We’re Going Home”  by Drake

Weigh In Tomorrow
I am not looking forward to my weigh in because I am bloated and retaining water (and the women know why).

Eating On Plan
Today’s eating was awesome.  I am proud of myself

Working Out
I did the Combat 60 workout. It is an awesome workout.  This DVD series has turned out to be a fantastic value.  The give you a DVD to teach you all the martial arts moves. So it’s a tutorial. And the encourage you to revisit the tutorial to make sure you are doing the moves properly.  The 30 minute workout was a bit too easy.  I thought that the 45 minute was just right until I did the 60 minute one and that one is perfect.  I enjoy kickboxing so I never feel like I am doing exercise. I feel like I am getting some cheap self defense classes.

Kim Ford

Day 13

Day 13
Saturday
Feb 1, 2014

Is it true that whatever you do on the first day of the month then you will spend the whole month doing that thing?  Hmmm… Just in case that’s true, in the past I would try to make really good food and exercise choices on the 1st day of the month.  I am ready to reinstate that philosophy.

Healthful Fast Food
On Day 13, which was Feb 1st.  My family and I ate at a fast food restaurant.   We have 2 go-to fast food restaurants that we frequent because the meat is antibiotic free:

• BurgerFi
• Chipotle Mexican Grille

Hot Comfort Food
So we ate at Chipotle. Normally I would have gotten a taco salad, but I wanted HOT food, so I order a bowl that consisted of the following:

• grilled chicken
• brown rice
• pico de gallo
• shredded cheddar cheese
• black beans
• guacamole

It was delicious, though the chilled pico de gallo then lower the temperature on the food a bit.

Breve Latte
Before arriving at Chipotle I was  already very sleepy because we were up early painting the kitchen and cleaning the house for our open house. Luckily there is a coffeehouse next to Chipotle so I ordered a 6oz (short) breve latte.  A breve latte is like drinking coffee flavored ice cream. (yummy) — but it’s a hot beverage.

• 6oz half and half
• 1 shot of expresso
• 3 packets of Truvia

I brought Truvia from home to sweeten it with because I don’t use artificial sweeteners anymore.  I will use real sugar before I use artificial sweeteners. I guess I should have said that I would go without a sweetener before I use an artificial sweetener.  But I have not gotten that strong yet.

The caffeine in the expresso did wake me up and gave me the energy to run my errands — mall + groceries.

Compliment on Toned My Upper Arm/Deltoids/Shoulders
Many times in the past when I start a diet, I simultaneously start exercise with weights to tone my muscles.  For this 60 day program, I decided to use Combat as both my cardio and my muscle toning method (instead of lifting weights).  In the past well before the scale revealed any progress and before my clothes started to loosen up, my hubby would be the first that say he notice muscle tone or firmer muscles.  Day 13 was that day for this 60 day program. Hubby walked near me and touched my shoulders and then he started poking at my shoulder with his rough fingers as if he was trying to check the tire pressure in his truck tire.  But then came the compliment — that my upper arm/deltoids/shoulders felt firm.  Wow. that’s probably after only 6 Combat workouts!

Dinner
We ate dinner really late about 9pm.

• fresh broccoli (in place of the lettuce)
• browned seasoned ground bison
• my homemade salsa (recipe below)
• 6 corn tortilla chils

Mild Salsa  (Pico De Gallo) recipe:

• tomatoes (chopped)
• onions (chopped) not very much because the onion will overpower the salsa
• cumin ( a dash)
• fresh cilantro (stems and leaves chopped)
• juice from a few lemons
• juice from an orange (optional)
• salt ( a lot of salt is needed to balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes)

The salsa will taste better as it sits in the refrigerator.

Groceries for Upcoming Week (Week 3)
Here’s the groceries I bought last night. I am going from memory:

• 1 pound of bison (use for taco salad)
• 3 lbs chicken thighs (bone in) (for chicken soup, curry chicken, oven-roasted chicken)
• 2 lbs Andouille chicken sausage (for red beans and rice — at hubby’s request)
• 2lb chicken leg quarter (because you can always find a way to cook chicken)
• fresh broccoli (my side dish)(I replaced my lettuce with broccoli in my taco salad)
• fresh tomatoes (for my homemade salsa/pico de gallo)
• fresh cilantro (for salsa)
• granny smith apples (low sugar fruit)
• onions
• roasted almonds (healthful snack)
• roasted sunflower seeds (healthful snack)
• roasted pumpkin seeds (healthful snack
• old fashioned rolled oats (oatmeal, granola)
• brown rice
• rooibos tea  (each morning instead of making a pot of coffee, we make a pot of rooibos tea)
• Truvia (our main sweetener, the kids use it in their cereal, cocoa, tea and lemonade)
• drinking chocolate (darn it. I did not realize it was presweetened with sugar, I was going to add Truvia. I have bee wanting to try drinking chocolate, I heard it delicious. I will try it and report back to ya’ll)
• tomato paste
• sweet potato chips ( superbowl snack)
• chicken wings (to make hubby some buffalo wings for the superbowl)
• Yo Kids yogurt (for my daughter, I wish I liked yogurt. but I do not like foods of that consistency. I cannot each soft serve ice cream, apple sause and I can only endure about 2 bites of cheesecake but the crust has to be a part of those bites)

Day 12

Day 12
Friday,
January 31, 2014

Goodness, January has come to an end.  It’s true, “the days drag on but the years fly by”.

My Eating on Day 12
I worked from home so when I woke up I put on a pot of rooibos tea, I took the leftover chili out of the refrigeratior, reheated it and put in my thermos. 

Breakfast
I skipped breakfast because I did not boil egges due to the fatc that my kitchen was torn to pieces because we are painting and there was supplies everwhere. 

Lunch
I did eat some chili from my thermos mid morning and then on my lunch hour I had to run an errand so I threw my thermos of chili in my bag and hit the road.  I did not eat on the road because I wasn’t hungry, but I felt great knowing that I planned well and had an actual hot meal in my bag if I needed it.

Dinner
Hubby asked for the salmon that was thawing in the refrigerator.  So I cooked.

• oven-roasted  wild caught alaskan salmon

• oven-roasted white potates + sweet potaotes

Weekends are a special challenge when you are trying to eat healthy
My plan for the weekend is to stay on plan.  Do not get it in my head that the weekend is for celebrating and eating anything that I want.  So taking a hot meal in my thermos, taking hot beverage in my thermos.  And for snack, some almonds and sunflower seeds.   I am going to continue to avoid fruit for the next few day.  Well to be specific, avoid apples, since they are the only fresh fruit that I have been eating.

My next official weigh in is Monday which is the beginning of week #3 and Day 15.  So I don’t want the weekend to screw up my weigh in.

end

Day 11

Day 11
Thursday
January 30, 2014

I had a great weigh-in this morning.

It’s about 9:15 pm, and I am so tired.

I finally got a chance to workout earlier in the night. I worked from home today, so after I stopped working, I put the chili in the crockpot and I put on my Combat 45 DVD.  So I was finished working out by 7pm.

My eating was on mostly on plan, though I had a corn bread muffing with my chili. Well, actually I had 2 corn bread muffins and I have no guilt.

For  lunch I ate some raw broccoli with ranch dressing.  No meat.  When I was a child growing up in rural Mississippi, my grandmother would keep all her grandkids during summer vacation and for lunch she would cook some veggies from her garden (collards, turnips, cabbages, mustards, blackeyed peas, crowder peas, and butter beans) and corn bread.  There was no meat! Actually there was some meat,  it was the fat back that my grandmother put in the veggies to add flavor. None of us kids wanted to eat boiledpork!

I made some really fantastic-tasting chili for dinner (everyone said so) (smile):

• 1 pound of bison (from Whole Foods)
• 1 pound of chicken bratwurst sausages (from Whole Foods)
• chopped onions
• chopped green bell peppers
• chili powder
• cayenne pepper
• chipotle pepper
• black pepper
• white pepper
• maple syrup (1 tablespoon)
• kosher salt
• cinnamon (a dash)
• 2 cans of organic tomato sauce
• black beans

Okay, I am going to drink a big glass of water, take a shower and the watch either the Golden Girls or The Heffernans.  Guaranteed laughs.

If you guys want to try some british sitcoms, here are hubby’s and my favorites — very very funny:

• The IT Crowd
• Peep Show

Now here are 2 british sitcoms that I enjoy but husband is not too crazy about:

• Absolutely Fabulous
• Keeping up Appearances

Here is a one one of my favorite british comedy movies:  Peter’s Friends.

If you want to try a british dramatic period piece that are not an adaptations of a Jane Austen novel (though I love love love Jane Austen) then please please rent “Firelight”.

end

Day 10

Day 10
50 days before 1st day of spring.
Wednesday
January 29, 2014

Detox that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog entry.

Here’s that detox that I mentioned in yesteray’s blog entry: JJ’s Green Smoothie Cleanse.

I am eager to do a detox of some sort. I know that main thing is to cut out meat, sugar, carbs and alcohol and just consume a lot a veggies and some  low sugar fruit. I am going to going to come up with something and soon.  Hey guys, let me know if you try this one or if you have a favorite detox you want to share

Chicory coffee

I am going to take a break from chicory coffee this week.  It was off limits when I was on Candida Diet because of the barley that is in it.  On top of that, since I don’t use powdered creamers  any more, I put half and half or cream in my chicory coffee and I don’t think my body is responding well to that.  So I will just give it a break for week #2 and see what happens.

Replacing my cup of hot & sweet with a cup of hot & savory

Instead of drinking  a replacement hot sweet beverage such as herbal teas, I decided to go with hot and savory beverage instead.  I took some chicken  bone broth from my refrigerator. I had cooked in the my crock pot 2 days ago.  I had only 3 leg quarters so there wasn’t as much gelatin in the bone broth as when  I used beef bones but I was happy to see the thickness of it so I knew some gelatin  in it.

I used a saucepan to reheat the broth and I poured the broth in my 20 ounce coffee thermos.

So as I work from home today (4 inches of snow outside),  I will just sip on my hot savory chicken broth.   It tastes delicious.

If you looked at my food log from a few days ago you will see where I took chicken soup to work for lunch.  This is that chicken broth but cooked for about 8 more hours with just the chicken bones to make the bone broth.

Just Say No to the Microwave

I need to research alternative ways to quickly reheat foods. I do not want to use the microwave.  I am spent a lot of my resources (time, energy and money) in transitioning towards eating clean and I can’t stand the thought of putting my healing foods into the microwave to zap any remaining nutrients that my food may have left .

Super Cleanse

Since we are snowed in, I thought today was a good day to take this herbal supplement called Super Cleanse by Nature’s Secret that I got from Whole Foods a few months ago.  Back then, it worked well for my hubby but it did not work well for me. Bummer.  But today, I am giving it the “ole Marine Corps try”.

The maximum dosage is 3 tablets, twice a day. So that’s a total of 6 tablets.  So I took the first 3 tables at 8am. I will take the other 3 tonight at 8pm.  And then I will drink 64 ounces of water (as directed) throughout the day. I will try to stay away from heavy proteins today and tomorrow.  I will eat a boiled egg here and there if I need to and this bone broth has the gelatin which is sorta kinda like a protein replacement – I need to read more on that.

I worked at my PC for 13 hours to ay. I am so sleepy. I was laying in bed and trying to get the energy to do my workout and then I remembered that I had not made my blog entry so I got up and was too tire to type. luckily for me most of the text in this blog entry was actually typed by me into a word document this morning while I was working.  I did not know that all of that text would save me at this moment and give me something real to post.

Have a good night my lovelies.

end

Day 9

Tuesday.
January 28, 2014

Okay. I think that I will need to start blogging as the last thing that I do before I go to bed. Now that I have typed that, it makes so much sense.  That way I can report on how today went.

Exercise

Its about 945pm and I just finished Combat 60.   That’s the 60 minute workout.  I felt great.   I really want to throw punches the way they do in the video. I look ridiculous, but I a love how much I sweat. Here’s  link to a YouTube video that shows about 60 seconds of the workout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_vtrS13kg

Eating

My eating was good today, I about 90% on plan. My kids were home because of a snow day so they were constantly in and out of the pantry looking for snacks, and one of them made the mistake of leaving their vanilla wafers on the table where I was working. Needless to say when they returned for their cookies, I had already snorted them up my nose.  No guilt. I enjoyed every forbidden bite.

I need to go take my evening supplements. I took my morning supplements.

• Probiotic
• Perricone supplements  (10 different supplements)
• Multivitamin

Here’s an article titled Perricone Top 10 supplements for weight loss.  I take the first 9.  I do not take the mushroom one.  I am following the plan laid out in his book: Perricone Weight Loss Diet. and the mushroom supplement is not in the book, I purchased.  Great book if you are interested in an anti-inflammation diet.

Here’s an article written by Dr. Oz for Oprah’s website about anti-inflammation diets: http://www.oprah.com/oprahradio/Inflammation-and-Aging

Detox

I am going to share with you guys a detox that my coworker told me about.  It’s a 10 day detox.  And basically you give your body a break from protein and eat some fruits and a lot a veggies but the basis of the detox are smoothies made with fresh/frozen green leafy veggies + fruits.

My coworker said she lost 10 pounds, I need to doublecheck with her but I think she may have lost those 10 pounds in 10 days.  But her friend lost 14 pounds in 5 days.  She did say her friend is a bit heavier so the weight dropped quicker. Her friend started on a Monday and weighed herself on a Saturday and had dropped 14 pounds. So good for a her.

There’s a Facebook page dedicated to folks being supportive of each other.

I like the idea of  detox and I am currently thinking about modifying her’s a bit. I am sensitive to all sugar so for me to start eating fruit smoothies would be disastrous. but I am willing to play around with low sugar fruits like strawberries, granny smith apples and blue berries.

Okay. I gotta hit the showers.

end

 

Day 8. End of Week 1.

Day 8.
Monday
January 27, 2014

Happy Monday, my lovelies!

My Weigh In
I lost 1.8 pounds in week #1.

I am happy that I lost weight, though I am disappointed that I ate off plan so many times during the first week.  The first week is kinda like transition week.  It’s the week that I have to remember to be more mindful of what I am eating and to plan and prepare my meal.

It’s a New Day and a New Week

I am very excited about week 2.  I plan to plan. I am prepared to be prepared.

What’s in My Lunchbox

I went into the office today and packed my lunchbox.  I work from home 2 days a week. Here’s what I put in my lunchbox.

1. Thermos filled with homemade chicken soup.
   To prepare for having hot chicken soup for today’s lunch: Last night at 10pm, I put ingredients in Crockpot so that it would be ready when I woke up this morning. Here’s what I put into the Crockpot last night: 3 chicken leg quarters (free range, antibiotic free, hormone-free), chopped celery, chopped onions, kosher salt, organic black pepper, organic adobo, and organic turmeric.  You should google all the health benefits of “bone broth” and “turmeric”.
2. 4 raw broccoli flowerets (in a ziploc bag).
3. 4 boiled eggs (cage free).
4. 1 gala apple (sliced with peel).
5. 2 teaspoons of organic ranch dressing (in a ziploc bag). I  will dip my raw broccoli into the ranch dressing. It’s tastes very good to me. I prefer the taste of  raw broccoli to cooked broccoli. Yes, it’s messy putting the dressing in a ziploc bag, but I cannot seem to keep track of my itty-bitty rubber made containers.  I have a bent towards solving problems quickly and creatively. So the ziploc bag is a handy, but messy, solution.
6. Pero (chicory coffee).   
   This is a hot beverage made from chicory that is a substitute for coffee. It’s tastes like instant coffee. 
   • Why do I drink chickory coffee instead of real coffee? Though the caffeine/acid in coffee had made me sick to my stomach for the last year or so, but I kept drinking it because I love, love, love the TASTE and AROMA of coffee and I love the COMFORT of drinking hot beverages all day — year round.  So to give up coffee would have been to lose my closest, dearest friend.  So I found a substitute.  Pero tastes link “instant” coffee, not brewed coffee.  There is no coffee in it. There is no caffeine.  It’s a blend of chicory root and some grains. Very natural and the best find I have discovered in a long, long time. I recommend it.
7. Carton of organic heavy whipping cream (f0r my coffee).
8. 17 packes to Truvia (to sweeten my coffee).
   Truvia is the brand name for this stevia sweetner. Stevia is the only sweetner that I use.  I have tried other brands of stevia and the aftertaste was yucky.  Truvia has figured out how to make stevia taste good.  My kids use it in their cereal, when they make lemonade and when the drink hot beverages. Of course it’s the only sweetener in the house so I really didn’t leave them many options.

I forget to bring my Perricone supplements because I did not put them into a ziploc bag last night.  There is not enough time in my morning routine to do that. Okay, I get it: planning is why we succeed. Lack of planning is why we fail.

Happy Monday.

end

Day 6

Day 6
Saturday
January 25, 2014

Inspiration + Movitation Pics of the Day

Weigh In

I did not weigh myself today, I am in a hotel room for a soccer tournament. I did  not bring my scale.

Daughter’s Soccer Tournament during the Polar Vortex

The 1st game was at 8am.  It was 21 degrees!  How many calories does a body burn trying to keep warm in weather that cold?

For breakfast we all ate a bowl of Honey Bunches and Oats that I brought from home.

The soccer team went to brunch at the Cracker Barrel after 1st game.  My hubby and kids are over there now with the team. I chose to come back to the hotel room and get cozy and to relax.  For lunch I just had another bowl of cereal and an apple.

I took my perricone supplements + a multivitamin.  So that 11 pills.   I hate swallowing pills, but I feel that it’s better that I take vitamins and antioxidants now to remain health thant to take pharmaceuticals in the future to cover the symptoms of poor health.

I failed at eating on plan

My eating today was unacceptable.  But it shows how far off track I can get when I don’t plan and prepare. I should have made a dish that I could put in my thermos such as:

• chili
• curry chicken
• chicken + veggie soup

and boiled some eggs.  I went to this soccer tournament completely unpreparesd to eat on plan.  Take a look at my Food Log and go to Day 6 and you will see what poor planning looks like.

Exercise

Here’s where I am proud of myself. Once we got back home from today’s soccer games we were tired, tired, tired. So hubby and I decided to take a quick nap.  I was laying there feeling guilty about how far way from my plan today’s eating had strayed. And I was feeling guilty that I did not workout last night though I had a good reason — we were headed  out of tow.

So I got up out of bed, tried not to wake up hubby, put on my work out gear.  I worked out for a total of 67 minutes:

• Combat 45 DVD (45 minutes mixed martial arts workout)
• Windsor Pilates Abs Sculpting (22 minutes on the floor)

Combat 45

I loved, loved, loved Combat 45. Today was my first time doing the video. I knew I was getting a great workout. Combat 30 is a bit too easy so I will save that DVD for days where I want to workout but don’t have the energy.

So as of Day 6: I have worked out to a Combat DVD a total of 4 times:  Combat 30 twice, HIIT-Plyo and Combat 45.

Windsor Pilates Abs Sculpting

I have always enjoyed Windsor Pilates. I have one or more of her workouts for about 10 years.  I love laying on the floor and stretching and becoming more flexible and it is the most gentle way I know to strengthen my abs/core.  I really need to do Pilates floor exercise with or without a DVD most days of the week.  I have read that the abs are the one muscle that can endure being worked out daily and I definitely need to be more flexible, so Pilates need to be a regular thing.

end

Day 5.

Happy Friday  my lovelies.

Day 5
Friday
Jan 24, 2014

I am happy and relieved.  Why? because my bathroom scale delivered some delightful news.

FitDay.com

I use FitDay.com to track my weight.  As a matter of fact, I have been using FitDay since 2002 after I had my 3rd child.  So I have 12 years worth of weight history and journal entries.  I would go back and a look at it more often, but I use the free version and it’s a pain going back to previous months and years to look at stuff.  But I have to admit that I like knowing that I have maintained 12 years of history on one website–which is why I haven’t traded up for a better site.

Which sites do you guys use to track your fitness, diet, food, or weight?

RunKeeper.com

I plan to celebrate the first day of spring (March 20, 2014) with a fun run.  If it ever warms up, I will probably have went for a jog before then, but I definitely plan to celebrate the big day with exercise (not food).  I enjoy running.  I have a app on my phone that I use to track my runs.  It has gps so it gives you a map of your route. While you are running it comes on every 5 minutes to tell you how long you have running, the distance you have ran and your pace.  It’s an awesome app.  After you save your information it uploads it to your profile on RunKeeper. com.  So I have a profile that goes back to 2010. I am happy about that too.  It’s motivating to look at the app on your phone to see all the dates you have ran and your distance and time.  I recommend this app to track your walks and runs. Hubby uses it to track his bicycle rides.

How did I do yesterday, Day 4?

Yesterday, Day 4, was a good day. I am starting to get into the groove of my program.

• I exercised at 7pm, when I first got home from work.
• I ate on plan.
• I drank a lot of water during the day.
• I took supplements both morning and night.
• I went to sleep around 1030pm

Analysis of Day 4

I wonder if my going in to work on Thursday was helpful to me in creating a more structured day. Monday was a holiday and I worked from home on Tues and Wed. So yesterday, Thursday, was the first day I went to work while on my program.

My Plan of Attack for today, Day 5

• I plan to eat on plan. (no sugar, no flour, no processed foods, no caffeine, no alcohol)
• I plan to drink a lot of water and non-caffeinated drinks to stay hydrated.
• I plan to be asleep before 11pm (this may be difficult because we are headed out of town tonite for a soccer tournament)
• I plan to exercise (probably will do some squats, lunges, pushups, pilates in hotel room)
• I plan to take my supplements (both morning and night)
• I plan to laugh out loud any chance I get.
• I plan to avoid being out in nature, it’s too cold. The Polar Vortex (smile) is still here. Hubby told me last night’s temp would feel like -5 degrees with the wind chill.

Day 4. Thursday, January 23, 2014

Today is Day 4.
56 days until the first day of spring.

I am not pleased with my actions in the first 3 days on my program.  I have eaten off plan way too much.

Last night at 10pm, I was actually in bed ready to go to sleep, then I started feeling guilty becuase I had not worked out or had not taken my supplements. So I dragged my self out of bed, change from pajamas to workout clothes and I did the combat 30 workout.  I was proud of myself.

I then sat down and sorted out my Day 4 supplement into ziploc bag. Planning and prep work is another key to success. I put the ziploc bags in my purse since I had to come into work today.  I work from home 2 days a week.

I then took my supplements, watched an episode of King of Queens and an episode of the Golden Girls, then went to sleep. I did not get good sleep.

My weight was up this morning by .2  but I knew it would be. I knew that I had not really had a succesesful Day 3 so why should the scale go down on the morning of Day 4. I hate weighing myself when I think that the scale is not going to say what I want it to say.  But I forced myself to weigh in so that I can face the consequence of my poor performance.

Today, Day 4, I will start weight training, because that is the key to reshaping my body.  the combat is great cardio but I need the weight training component too.

I will get better sleep. I need to get some of this weight off.

I will try to limit fresh fruit to 2 servings a day because my body is sensitive to all sugar.

I will drink more water.

Day 3

Day 3.

Recap on Day 2:

Exercise

I did not do my Combat workout on Day 2. My body was very tired and I am have made a commitment to not push myself so hard that I get injured or sick. So I listened to my body.

Food

I did not consume a lot of food, but I did consume food that was not okay for my anti-inflammation diet.  So  I am keeping an eye on that.

Supplements

I did not take any of my supplements yesterday.  But I will get back on that today. There is one that I have to take on an empty stomach. When is my stomach ever going to be truly empty.  I will just take it immediately upon waking.

Okay. A new day. A new opportunity to do something fantastic!

A poll. Is it helpful or hurt to disclose results of my daily weigh ins?

Please take a moment to complete this poll.

I weigh myself daily, so I am considering creating a page on this blog to track daily changes in my weight.  For instance each morning after I weigh myself, I would update the  blog’s table with how much weight that I lost or gained.  Since I have a digital scale the table would end up looking like this:

• day 14 — lost .2 pounds
• day 15 — lost .4 pounds
• day 16 — no changes in weight; weight the same as yesterday
• day 17 — lost .8 pounds
• day 18 — gained .2 pounds

So with this poll, what I want to know is: for you as a person who is on your own fitness journey and as a follower of this blog, how would seeing the daily  changes in MY WEIGHT impact your efforts, your moods and motivation?

Do you think it could helpful to your efforts on your fitness journey to see my daily weight changes — both my weight loss and weight gain?

Do you think it could it be hurtful to your efforts on your fitness journey to see my daily changes — both my weight loss and weight gain?

Tracking what I eat

I just created a page named “Food Log’.  This page has a link to a Google spreadsheet so that I can track each day’s meals:

1. Breakfast
2. morning snack (if applicable)
3. lunch
4. afternoon snack (if applicable)
5. dinner
6. before bed snack (if applicable)
7. middle of the night snacking (if applicable)
8. vitamins, minerals, supplements

Just finished Day 1’s Combat workout

Okay so the Combat DVD set comes with a 60 Day workout calendar.

I just finished Day 1 workout (Combat 30). It was easy enough to get back into working out, but with enough intensity for me to really get a good  workout.

Gosh my carpet floor made it difficult to shuffle my feet during the workout.  I may need to be buy some sort of workout mat that lays flat and don’t move. I took off my shoes halfway into it. I think my calves were a bit more engaged while bare feet. I did not like the way my bare feet felt when I had to pivot my feet to throw punches. but I did like kicking in my bare feet.

Day 2 workout will be:  HIIT Power.

I plan to try to workout at 5am before hubby & kids wakes up.  but.. we shall see.

I am also going to rip the videos and copy them to my tablet so that I can workout at other locations, perhaps when I go to the community center’s workout room. hmmm.

I am not interested in re-joining the gym at the moment. Though I do have a gym at work, perhaps I will go into the cardio room there and workout.  The sky’s the limit!

Day 1. Perricone Diet + Les Mills Combat Workout

Today is Day 1 of my 60 day journey to get fit in time for the first day of spring, March 20, 2014.

Only 60 days until spring 🙂  Yaay!

I have weighed in and have recorded my starting weight.

I will take photos later today.

I will post progress pictures about every 2 weeks on Day 15, 45, 60.  If I think that there are significant change happening then I will post weekly progress pictures.

If you want to know what ACTIONS I plan to take during the next 60 days in order get healthy, lean and fit then click on the tab named “My Plan of Attack”.

But the heart of my program is:

• Eat clean following the Perricone Weight-Loss Diet (an anti-inflammatio diet)
• Exercise using Les Mills Combat DVD (a mixed martial arts workout)