Category: Fitness and Health

I’m officially down 20 pounds from when I started my 10-week challenge 8.5 weeks ago!

That’s a weigh-in before a work-out, which means it’s GOOD.

I did get off track last week with sailing lessons and two girls-nights-out, but I’m back on track and will finish strong.  My nights out may have ruined my chances at the big win, but I will be happy no matter how this ends up because this is just the beginning.  I’m anxious to start another 10 weeks of intense fitness in 1.5 weeks.  I measure everything in 10 week increments when I’m tracking fitness progress.  It’s just what I do.

Husband is wanting to start of a fitness class too, so that’s awesome!  He actually asked me this morning if I’m thinking about doing some races and I said, yeah – on September 5th!  He then asked if I was thinking about more than running races… and asked about Adventure Racing again.  He is getting the bug… yay!  We used to love doing that together, so I told him to get back in shape so we can do an AR next spring.  He wants us to go to AR camp together in March.  YES!

AND – I need to give a big shout-out to my friend who I didn’t know was still reading my blog who went to Turb.okic.k class with me today!  I was so excited to have a friend in class – I was getting lonely!  She and I are going to work our butts off this fall together.  Get ready, M!

Week 3 of our Paleo Adventure is here!

My husband signed me up for an introduction to sailing class, so I’ll be doing that each night this week and missing dinner at dinner time.  Because I’m enjoying cooking so much, I’m still going to prep and cook as much of each meal as I can every night before my husband gets home.  That way, there should be food left for me for dinner that night or lunch the next day.  I picked out of all of the recipes for the week and we went to the store tonight as a family to get all of the ingredients.  We are finding that each week costs about $150 for the fresh meats and veggies.

Everyone says that meal planning each week makes things easier, and I used to just nod my head and think, “yeah, yeah, yeah.”  It turns out, I really like planning each week because it gives me a chance to mentally prepare for what’s to come and the effort that will be needed to make each meal happen.  This is helping me manage my time during nap time and after the kids get up and are playing without me.  I also like having the fridge stocked for the week and working through the items on a daily basis.  I feel real accomplishment when the fridge starts to become bare and it needs to be reloaded by Sunday morning.

Sunday, 08/03/2014  *** Buffet at the Grocery Store ***

I blew it today at lunch because my fitness plan allows a free day, and I figured that I needed to take advantage of it after skipping breakfast and sleeping until 11:45 (thank you, B, for taking the kids this morning!).  I had an awesome breakfast sandwich and some (not all that came with it) hash browns and I would not take that back for even an instant.  But after that meal I knew I had to reel it in for dinner.  We had a shrimp dish planned but my husband suggested we just get food at the grocery store before stocking up for the week, and I agreed.  The kids napped late and there was no reason to rush ourselves at home trying to get dinner going.  I had a baked skinless chicken breast (fresh out of the oven) and steamed cauliflower and asparagus.  It was pretty good – I was satisfied!

Monday, 08/04/2014  *** Curry Burgers ***

This recipe is one to keep handy at all times.  It was fantastic (the second time around)!  I prepped everything, including the curry spread, during the day but forgot to tell Poor husband about the fixings – so he just made the patties and curry cauliflower I had waiting in the steamer.  Shoot!  He loves a good mayo concoction any day of the week.  He also forgot about the prepared lettuce leaves, so he was just eating meat and cauliflower – but still liked it.

I cut the recipe in half and used ground bison instead of beef just to shake things up.  The recipe made 5 small patties and I asked Husband to save two for me – which he thought meant not to cook two of them.  I came home from my sailing class STARVING with no food to eat.  But this worked out because I got to make them the next day for an early dinner with the proper garnish and they were TO.DIE.FOR.  I even had the apple slices ready to go – so they were just as pictured below.  I let Husband have the first bite since he got screwed the night before, and he loved it (he only got a bite – the rest was for me before sailing class!).  Because we have a lot of curry spread and lettuce leaves ready to go in the fridge, he asked me to make it again on Wednesday.  No problem!  I’ll make it with grass-fed beef though, like the recipe calls for.

Tuesday, 08/05/2014  *** Winner Winner Chicken Dinner ***

Yes – I made the Greek Chicken again from week 1.  I told knew it would be in our weekly rotation!  Honestly, I could go without it next week just for a change-up.

I got the chicken and asparagus prepared while the kids napped and before I headed out the door to my weights class.  I wrote up the quick baking instructions for B and left everything there for him to make the night easy for him (sailing again for me!).  I messed up the recipe again like I did in week 1 and seasoned the wrong side of the chicken.  DAMMIT!  Poor B loves a crispy chicken skin and he had none to eat because he forgot to carve it off before carving the entire bird, and it got destroyed when he flipped the bird breast-up.  He did say that the meat was super moist again, and I do attribute that to cooking it upside down.  HA!

Here is a photo of my meal prep – I am pretty proud of how easy I’m making things for B after his nice gesture of signing my friend and me up for sailing classes every night this week!

Wednesday, 08/06/2014  *** Curry Burgers (Again, but with Beef Veal This Time) ***

I meant to make this recipe again with beef instead of bison (the recipe calls for beef), but it turns out when I went to mix up the patties that I took frozen veal out to thaw instead.  We don’t buy veal.  Ever.  Our grocery store stocks the veal next to the lamb and grass-fed beef, so it appears that I selected the wrong thing.  Knowing that the only problem we had was a moral one, and let’s face it – the veal was already purchased and in my house – I decided to just use the veal.

B made dinner (I was out with a friend) and remembered the apple, curry mayo, and lettuce this time and said it was good, but was better with bison.  We have yet to try it the way the recipe calls for it to be prepared, but we’ll likely stick with the bison for this one.  B did hold back 2 patties for me so I had them the next day and they were great – just a touch more bland than I’d normally like.  A winner once again!

I prepared mushrooms for my husband to sauté because it just made sense to serve this with mushrooms, and my husband really liked that.  The boys ate the curry burgers with enthusiasm – my big kid thinks it’s meatloaf.  OK!

Thursday, 08/07/2014  *** Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Pineapple Tidbits (known in this house as Srirachi Shrimp) ***

This was my final night out with my friend for sailing lessons, and I tried a recipe last week that I knew B would love!  So I prepped that for him tonight and let’s just say that it is his favorite so far.  This one is so easy, and so incredibly tasty!  I cooked up the bacon way ahead of time, but didn’t cook it as long this time which helped me get it wrapped around the pineapple better.  The shrimp just had to be thawed and I made the sauce so that was ready to go.  I had B make green beans which are way boring, but the kids ate them and that’s all that matters.  B just ate the entire plate of shrimp, bacon, and pineapple!

Friday, 08/08/2014 *** Pear and Ground Pork Stuffed Winter Squash ***

Oh my goodness, this was great!  Just cooking up the squash got me in the mood for fall.  The meat filling was terrific and was easy to eat on its own – but even better in the squash.  We passed the meat off as meatloaf to Matthew which worked – sort-of.  The pear and pork combo is just to die for!

I didn’t serve this with a separate veggie because the squash was the veggie (and it has carrots).  It was good!  We’ll make an extra one next time – we only made 2 (4 halves) and we both wanted more.  B ate the remaining meat filling since there was no more squash.  Sadness.

Saturday, 08/09/2014 *** Night Out ***

We had B’s nephew’s birthday party out of town and decided to check out a local festival on the way home.  We ate at an Italian place.  It was not Paleo.  It was not healthy.  But they had dessert pizza.  This week has not been good in terms of falling off the wagon (wine with my friend twice this week).  Next week is going to be better.

Week in Review:

• Weight Lost This Week:  0.6 pounds
• Weight Lost So Far (in 3 weeks):  6.4 pounds
• Fat % Lost This Week:  0.6%
• Fat % Lost So Far:  2.6%
• Noteworthy Points:  It was not a good week – I fell off the Paleo wagon a few times because of my sailing outings with my friend.  It was worth it, because I needed the time off from mom-duty, but I don’t like screwing up like that.  I’m not mad at myself, but I’m not thrilled either.  All the back-and-forth has not done good things for my body either – I’m not feeling the best.
• How I feel:  I can tell I had gluten this week.  I feel terrible and my digestive tract is not happy with me.

 

I’ve been trying out classes at our local YM.C.A and I really like them!  Sure, they’re not kickboxing (which I truly, truly love) but they are pretty good and the calorie burn is seeming to be the same or similar.  There is an intense endurance class that is truly the hardest fitness class I’ve EVER done, so that’s super exciting!  I can make that on Thursdays and Saturdays, and then a TurboKi.ck class on Tuesdays.  I like doubling up workouts on strength days, so this schedule works out great!

What this all means is that it was time for some new fitness gear (enter eye-roll)!  I am a fitness gear junkie and always like to have the right stuff to make my workouts as comfortable as possible.  I think a change-up in fitness routines makes my husband a little nervous just because he knows that there’s money that’s going to be spent.  I don’t like spending the money either, but there are some things that I just NEED to get things done right (“right” as I define it – please don’t lecture me on needs and wants!).

The first thing on my list was new shoes for the studio fitness classes.  I do kickboxing in socks and am used to doing my kicks and turns with complete freedom to move and move well.  Kicking with running shoes on felt wrong, and they were way too sticky for the spins and quick slides.  The bonus to this is that any shoe I got for studio classes would work for kickboxing as well, which I have been thinking about because sometimes the socks are too slick (especially on the new mats).  I researched shoes until the wee hours of many mornings and settled on Ryk.as, Asic.s, or the Nik.e Stud.io Train.er.  I have super long and narrow feet, so I knew I couldn’t just order shoes online.  I went to a great fitness store here in town and tried on what they had in my size – Ryk.as and the Stu.dio T.rainer.  The Ryk.as, as I suspected they would be, were too short but awesome looking.  The Ni.kes were prefect but ugly.  I got the Nik.es and tried them out a few days later in kickboxing and Turbo, and they were perfect!

I’ve wanted an activity monitor for a long time, and was all set to get the Fitb.it For.ce – but it was recalled before I got it ordered.  I’d also read some rather dismal reviews on it, so I was actually glad I didn’t get it before the recall.  That left me wondering what would do the job for me and some girls in my HEAT class (High Energy Aerobic Training) had heart rate monitors going.  That made sense to me but they weren’t tracking their daily activity – just fitness activity.  I could use my Garm.in Fore.run.ner 40.5 for what they were doing, but that left the same problem – no daily activity monitoring.  After doing heaps of research, I settled on the Garmi.in Vivof.it and I LOVE it.  I mean, I am IN LOVE WITH IT!  It hooks up to my Garm.in heart rate monitor (if I could find the damned thing – I saw it just 4-5 weeks ago but now it’s gone) so it gets TRUE calories burned if I so choose to track that.  The other activity monitors I was looking at don’t hook up to heart rate monitors, so they were immediately stricken from the list (again, thank God I didn’t get that Fitb.it!).  The coolest feature is that it hounds you if you haven’t moved in an hour by placing a red bar on the display that gets longer as you sit longer.  I’ve never had as many ants in my pants as I did today when that bar was on (after sleeping in all morning) and the kids were down for their naps!  I got out and walked the entire neighborhood (2.3 miles) and that little device was only 0.06 miles off from what my GPS app said the distance was.  AWESOME!  I’ve since measured my stride and entered that into the device so that should be more accurate next time.  Another cool thing it does is auto-set my step goal for me, so as I get more and more active, the goal gets more and more intense.  Yesterday, I took over 14,000 steps doing my normal daily stuff.  Today, I took over 12,500 steps after sleeping the morning away and then going for a walk to make up for it.  What will tomorrow bring?

Back to shoes.  My new studio shoes weren’t going to work for my HEAT class, so I needed new cross-trainers.  I’ve never bought cross-trainers before, just running shoes, so I had no idea what to get.  I don’t get the luxury of going for cute with a size 12 narrow foot (for athletic shoes – in real life I’m an 11 narrow).  I was going for functionality and a sticky sole.  Asic.s running shoes have always been my go-to because of their standard width and breadth of length options, so I went there straight-away.  I found the Women’s Asic.s Gel-For.tius™ TR and they are awesome!  The soles are ridiculously sticky but with a pivot point for quick turns (during drills) and they look BAD-ASS!  Best feature besides their fit and functionality is that the footbed says, “Be Better Than Yesterday.”  AWESOME!

The final new pieces of gear are my new headbands.  Stupid sounding, I know, but what’s even more ridiculous are the old-school sweatbands I’ve worn for years.  I always see these gals wearing cloth bands on their heads during kickboxing or other fitness classes and I’ve always wondered what in the world they’re thinking – those can’t catch sweat (and I’m a serious sweater!).  Well, it was lost on me that they were wearing wicking headbands that I had not yet been introduced to.  My big kid picked out my first one (Junk brand) and I also got a Bon.diBan.d.  I really like the Junk one so bought two more of those – I’m armed with 4 functional sweatbands that won’t make me look like a washed up tennis player.

The last thing I need is that pesky heart rate monitor.  I haven’t bought it yet because I know the minute I do and use it once, I’ll find the old one that’s just as compatible as the new one.  This is killing me because it’s nowhere to be found, and I don’t lose ANYTHING.  I’m spending my free time this week cleaning out the room that may have it lost within it.  If it’s not there, I’m ordering that bad boy by Friday!

 

(Written Saturday night before the week started:  My husband will be out of town ALL week.  What this means is that I’ll be eating a lot of Paleo take-out.  I already have some ideas, but I won’t be cooking big meals from the cookbook – the recipes are just too big to try to cut down for one person.  I’m anticipating a lot of cold cuts, yogurt (full-fat, making it more Paleo-friendly), and Chipotle/Pancheros burrito bowls.)

Turns out, I missed cooking, so after dropping my husband off at the airport, we headed straight to the store to prep for the week!  Paleo Week 2, here I come!

Sunday, 07/27/2014  *** Take-out BBQ without the BBQ Sauce ***

Our friends invited us over for “make your own pizza night,” so I grabbed smoked meat and green beans from my favorite BBQ place and headed over.  I ate my meal as planned, as did my little guy.  My big kid ended up making a pizza… and loving it.  I sampled a small bit of his and it was good.  They had homemade ice cream for dessert so I went for it – a small dish.  Good, but not worth the calories or deviation from our plan.

Monday, 07/28/2014  *** Roughing It ***

My very helpful neighbor watched the kids so I could hit a 4:30 kickboxing class.  When I returned to get them, she was feeding them dinner (she’s like that – just takes over which is so helpful!) and I was out of luck.  I was going to make the Greek Chicken from week 1, but it would have to wait until Tuesday.  So, I picked through the fridge, found some turkey, milk, and a cheese stick.  Awesome.

Tuesday, 07/29/2014  *** Greek Chicken (Again) ***

Because my big kid had speech downtown at 5:30, I decided to make the whole Greek chicken for lunch and then just eat the leftovers for dinner after speech.  This plan did not work out – the boys at 3/4 of the 4 pound chicken and left me just one breast.  My little guy ate all but 6 spears of my roasted asparagus.  It was a light lunch (HA!).  With my leftovers plan thwarted, I was left to figure it out on the way home from speech.  We went to Chipotle.  The kids were both being so difficult, that I took the hit and got tacos (soft corn) so I could eat with my hands and not have to worry about forking up my own food while trying to feed and contain both kids.  It was good (no GREAT)!

Wednesday, 07/30/2014  *** Ground Pork and Apple Sliders (Again) ***

When you’ve got an easy, outstanding recipe at your disposal, why not take advantage of it?  I made these awesome sliders again tonight, served with green beans (none of us ate them, they were so tough and awful) and bib lettuce.  They were GREAT!  I just love this recipe!  I had 3 of them equaling 6 ounces of meat.  The boys split one, leaving 2 for tomorrow’s lunch!

Thursday, 07/31/2014  *** Leftover Ground Pork and Apple Sliders ***

This was just as good reheated as it was fresh.  I swear, I could eat this recipe every single day!  I had 2 patties left (each with 2.67 ounces of meat) and reheated them together for 2 minutes on 40% and they were juicy and awesome!  I didn’t have any veggies to have with it, but the lettuce did the trick for me.  We ate early, so the rest of the evening consisted of snacks (milk, cheese).

Friday, 08/01/2014 *** Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Pineapple Tidbits ***

This little dandy didn’t come from our normal cookbook – it just happened to be in our grocery store publication (it’s a rather fancy store with it’s own quarterly food magazine) and it just happens to be Paleo (within reason – it has maple syrup which is allowed on special occasions).  So being the lovers of shrimp, and spice, and bacon that we are, this was put into our rotation immediately!

It was AWESOME!  I would make this again and again.  The sauce is to die for – and it’s just 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup and 2 TBSP of Srirachi sauce – that’s it.  Back in the day, my husband and I would go to a brew pub at least once a week for a shrimp dish that we both loved – we’d order two rounds of it for our appetizer because we couldn’t stand sharing just one serving.  They took it off the menu and B’s been sad ever since.  I told him tonight (he’s still out of town) that we can now make it at home – this recipe tastes just like that fabulous appetizer, but has grilled bacon and pineapple as a bonus.  Hell yes!

Saturday, 08/02/2014

B got home today so we went out to dinner. We both wanted to end the week well so chose Joe.s Cr.ab Sha.ck for two of their healthy options. As my husband always says, we can cook much better meals at home, and he’s right. I had the Malibu shrimp (no rice, add broccoli) which was fine, but not great, and hubs had mahi. The kids ate grilled white fish and DEVOURED it, so that’s a positive from our experience! We all went to a lakefront then to feed ducks which was super relaxing! It was a pretty solid ending to a *primarily* paleo week (because I had those tacos and a kids cup of vanilla soft serve from DQ earlier in the week).

Week in Review:

• Weight Lost This Week:  2.4 pounds
• Weight Lost So Far (in 2 weeks):  5.8 pounds
• Fat % Lost This Week:  1.2%
• Fat % Lost So Far:  2%
• Noteworthy Points:  I’m finding it easier and easier to prep and cook dinner – and it makes me happy to do it!  I feel like a better mother and wife, which sounds ridiculous but it’s true.  I have stepped up my fitness plan just because I need a break from my kids with my husband out of town all week – so the YMCA and long walks it is for the little and me while my big kid is at camp.  I only did the Y one day, and the walk for two days, but it was nice!  I also took my little to kickboxing with me twice this week which worked out once, but was a colossal failure on Friday (we left early).
• How I feel:  TIRED.  My youngest is having a hard time at night with teething and an awful cold – so I’m just exhausted.  I was actually relieved when we had to leave kickboxing early on Friday.  Besides being tired, I feel really good! My body is very sore from the near-constant exercise (and new shoes) which is good, but still painful!

This marked our first week of going Paleo for my husband and me (the boys are already primarily Paleo in their diets).  The week went really well and I did the bulk of the cooking, which I’m really enjoying.  The cookbook we’re using is “Everyday Paleo – Family Cookbook” by Sarah Fra.oso.  We’ve really enjoyed getting familiar with the recipes and how they’re designed.  No portion sizes are given – she just says, “serves 5” or something similar.  I’ve learned to read that first before planning any meals – we don’t need 2 pounds of sirloin to share between the two of us!

Sunday, 07/20/2014  *** Ground Pork and Apple Sliders ***

B made these awesome pork and apple sliders.  They were to die for and we did not modify the recipe at all.  We used Boston Bib lettuce as “buns” and it was perfect!  We paired them with the worst steamed green beans of all time (yes – legumes – we had fresh ones in the fridge to use up and the boys love them) but that didn’t matter because the sliders were THAT GOOD!

Monday, 07/21/2014  *** Tomato Soup with Chicken ***

I made tomato soup and it was pretty good – but required some doctoring.  We added cayenne pepper, dried basil, and Bavarian seasoning to it.  I put a bit too much garlic in it.  I did not puree the soup long enough and it was chunkier than we’d normally prefer, but still good.  I used shredded rotisserie chicken as a topping – I felt no need to make my own chicken.

Tuesday, 07/22/2014  *** Mini Meatloaves with Homemade Ketchup ***

Meatloaf is a big hit with the kids, but since we keep them on a rather strict Paleo diet, we get pretty frustrated with the amount of bread used in traditional meatloaf.  We were excited to try these mini-meatloaves and they didn’t disappoint.  B had made the ketchup on Sunday so that was nice to have ready to go.  I added cayenne pepper, which was a nice kick.  We both agreed that we’d sauté the carrots and garlic first before mixing with the meat next time.  They were a bit too crunchy and at times, we felt like we were eating raw garlic.  We also realized that with a non-stick pan, there was no need to grease the pan.  We paired this with mashed cauliflower made with coconut milk and it was great!

The ketchup that B made is just awesome!  We did add some of it to our pork sliders, but used the rest of the jar to top off our mini-meatloaves.  B prefers to puree it next time to smooth it down, but I love it the way it is!

Wednesday, 07/23/2014  *** Mexican Beef Skewers with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Basil Pesto ***

This is the big winner so far!  I would put this meal into our weekly rotation for sure.  We were both looking so forward to making these Mexican skewers!  I prepped the marinade in the morning while the kids were up and got the meat marinating by 10:00 AM.  While they napped, I put the meat and tomatoes on the skewers and wrapped them in foil before putting them back in the fridge for more marinating.  I also steamed up some Brussels sprouts (with just garlic salt) and then put those on different skewers so we could just grill everything together (and crisp up those sprouts – yummy!) when we got home from swim lessons and kickboxing.  This worked out great!  They were perfect and the only thing we’d change is adding mushrooms to the skewers.  We would serve them again with Brussels sprouts for sure.

The best part of this meal was the finishing touches – the sauces!  I made the chipotle cream sauce and cilantro pesto as the kids napped and the recipes were spot-on – they took just 5 and 10 minutes to make.  Everything was in the fridge and ready for cooking at 2:30.  The combo of the cocoa marinade and the two sauces was ridiculous, and the pesto was great on the sprouts!

* A quick note – we had a lot of pesto left over so we saved it for later, hoping we’d find something to make with it.  Turns out, there is a breakfast egg recipe that calls for it, and B made those Friday morning and they were AWESOME!  We still have pesto leftover, so we’ll be making the eggs again this week!

Thursday, 07/24/2014  *** Fiesta Chicken Soup ***

This soup was fantastic – FANTASTIC!  B and I both frequented a place here in town, long before we met each other, and we both still talk about how great their chicken tortilla soup was (the place went out of business eons ago).  Whenever we have a chicken tortilla soup anywhere, we compare it to Mondo’s.  After having one bite of this soup, I said, “This is just like Mondo’s, but without the sour cream, tortilla strips, and cheese!”  He said, “I KNEW you were going to say that – I agree!”  And you know – it was just like Mondo’s.  We’ll be making it again, but we have enough leftovers that we won’t be making it for at least a week.  HA!

I did make a slight modification.  When they said salt and pepper to taste, I took that very loosely and decided that cayenne pepper would be better than regular pepper.  And I probably put in 1/2 a teaspoon of chipotle seasoning because you can’t beat chipotle flavor.  Oh – and I did put some cheese on top.  I couldn’t help it and desperately needed the calories after the workout I did this morning!

* A quick note – this made the best leftovers!  We are not into leftovers… at all.  We both agreed that this was a solid leftover meal that made us both very happy!

Friday, 07/25/2014  *** Date Night ***

My in-laws texted us in the early afternoon asking if we wanted them to watch the kids some time this weekend so we could go out.  YES PLEASE!  Because B was leaving town Sunday morning, we asked them to come that night!  We went out to the newest hot spot and both agreed that it was going to be a free day – and we shared a pizza as an appetizer and I had lasagna.  B had lamb.  We both had dessert.  They were not Paleo friendly.  The end.  (Actually no, not the end.  It was DELICIOUS!)

Saturday, 07/26/2014  *** Whole Greek Chicken with Roasted Garlic ***

This was terrific!  I cooked the chicken upside down, with the breast on the bottom, and we think that kept the breast really moist.  B wished there had been more eat-able skin, but the skin he did have, he loved.  I put asparagus in with it about half-way through cooking and it wasn’t good.  The asparagus was way too thin (we don’t have a great selection of asparagus here lately, for some reason).  I put 1.5 lemons in my 4 pound chicken and saved 1/2 a lemon to use on the asparagus.  Once the chicken was done, I squeezed the cooked lemons onto the meat and it was to die for!  We cooked 4 garlic bulbs (yes, BULBS) and ate them ALL.  This is a repeater!

Week in Review:

• Weight Lost:  3.4 pounds
• Body Fat % Lost:  0.8%
• Noteworthy Points:  The week went ridiculously well.  I did not expect to get into it so easily.  The fabulous recipes are the sole reason it’s going so well.  When we did this in the past, I was very resistant because I wasn’t in love with the recipes in the cookbook we were using.  I’m so glad B picked up this recipe book!  There was only one recipe we weren’t super excited about (tomato soup), and even that one, we’d try again with modifications.
• How I feel:  I feel TERRIFIC!  My body just feels light.  I have no water weight and I’m looking as trim as I’m feeling.  I am not at all disappointed when I step on the scale – even our date night only cost me 0.6-0.8 pounds which is already gone.  Besides the date night and my abuse of Di.et Pep.si, we have stuck to our Paleo plan 100%!  I truly feel that this is the lifestyle shift we needed, and will stick to.

 

As I embark on the last 5 weeks of my fitness challenge, we’ve decided to follow a Paleo diet for ourselves (we always follow one for the kids – more on that another time).  We were strict Paleo right before Matthew turned 1 and we both have never felt better!  Because weight loss is a side-effect of following a Paleo diet, we figured this was as good a time as any to get back on our healthy eating lifestyle.  I can say that just 4 days in, I feel great!

Because I’m a tracker of all things in my life, I’m going to keep track of the recipes we use each day for our family dinners.  I’ll be tracking all of this on my Paleo Adventure page and then moving each week’s worth of content to a post every Sunday (or so).  I’ll be keeping notes on weight loss, how I feel, how it went in general, etc. each week.

This really is an exercise for myself, so I don’t expect anyone to follow along or care about this.  But in case you’re looking for great Paleo recipes, or are curious to see how this way of life changes my life, feel free to read along each week!

I’ve been keeping something rather close to the vest lately – unless you follow me on MyFitnessPal (Josey and Esperanza).

I’ve been kicking my ass into fitness gear.  Like – seriously.

I met B when I enrolled in an intense 10-week fitness course that was just local here in Iowa – it has since spread to 9 states (check it out if you’re in Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, or North Carolina.  B has known the guy who started this since he was 8 years old (B, not the guy) and he is a stand-up dude who wants nothing more than to help people exceed their fitness goals!).  It’s pretty serious and meets 6 days a week, doing true martial arts kickboxing 3 of those days and resistance bands for strength the other 3 days.  This program is insanely effective and the first time around (more than 8 years ago!), I lost 7.3% body fat and 12.6 pounds.  I was, admittedly, a bit disappointed in the weight loss but the body fat loss was super high for a female.   I did this program for 4 years and quit once we were failing miserably at getting pregnant (sigh).

So – I have been struggling to lose the last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight and I knew what had to be done.  I had to enroll again in this program – the one that works.  The one I know.  The one I trust.

Today was 5-week testing.  I’m down 4.7% body fat and 12.8 pounds.  The second 5 weeks are usually more effective, especially for women, so I’m hoping to at least double those numbers by 10 weeks.  I know I can do it.  We’re going strict Paleo in this house on Monday for the remaining 5 weeks and that should really melt the pounds off.  I’m super excited!

My stats so far:

I’m pretty excited about all of the stats, especially when I compare them to my 5-week testing from 8 years ago (yes, I have that all electronically), but I’m most excited about my mile run time.  I was shooting to take a minute off of the run time by 5 weeks, but I took 1:22 off of it and am almost under 9 minutes.  I better be under 9 minutes in 5 weeks.  B thinks I’ll be able to do it in 8:15-ish territory.  I’m shooting for 8:27.

This whole thing is a competition with all other people in the 10-week program – and the person with the most changes wins $1,000.  When I ran into Mr. F who owns this crazy-successful franchise two weeks before I started, I said, “Mr F, I’m coming back, and I’m in it to win it.”  I know what to do, I’m off to an insane start, and I plan to win.  And if I don’t win, I’ll at least look good losing.  HA!

Oh – and I hit my pre-pregnancy weight today!  Halle-freaking-luiah!  It only took 1 year and 24 days.  Good Lord!

(I was hoping to have the “before” photo they took of me, but they don’t give those out anymore at 5-week testing.  I will post my “before” and “after” photos right after I get them in 5 weeks!)

For those of you interested in keeping tabs on my ability to stick to my fitness plan (you know who you are), you can find it here each week, along with not-so-hot photos of my just-showered, post-run, no makeup self in my weekly photo uniform!  I am doing this not for any of my readers, obviously, but for me.  I need to get in shape.  I need to get back to my pre-baby fitness level.  I NEED to do an adventure race next summer with my husband before we start trying for baby #3.

I cannot believe I’m writing/saying this, but a year from  now, I’ll likely start lupron shots for our first frozen cycle (FET) for Baby #3.  How can that even be just a year away when I have a happy 3 month old sleeping in his room down the hall (in his crib even – for over two hours – HU-freaking-ZZAH!)?  I have a hard time believing it, but it’s true.  We’ll start a month later than we did for my younger son because I will not have another transfer on/around October 12 – I will not have another June 24/25-ish birthday if we can help it!

When I finally got pregnant with our oldest (and I cannot believe I’m putting this on the internet), I weighed 192.6 pounds.  Holy hell!  That was the result of a 20 pound gain from serious fertility drugs and 3 IVF cycles (2 fresh cycles with a FET in between – and I won’t count the IUI cycles because they were just clomid and I don’t know if that causes you to gain weight).  I weighed 167.6 when I got pregnant with my youngest – much better but still not something to be proud of.  My goal for when we get pregnant with #3 (if we’re so lucky, fingers crossed) is to be hovering around 150.  The lightest I ever was, at the peak of my fitness with a very lean BMI for me, was 144.6, and that was super hard to maintain.  Maintaining 150 pounds is not hard if I keep taking care of me.

And that’s what this is all about, right?  Taking care of me.  Doing what I love.  Doing what makes me feel good (without breaking the law – HA!).  Doing the things that teach our boys how to live healthy lives.

It’s amazing how quickly things fall into place when you make an effort to be fit.  I don’t have the urge to eat like an idiot because it will un-do what I’ve worked hard to do.  I’m not totally changing everything, but am making small changes here and there.  For instance, I went to We.ndy’s for lunch yesterday and instead of getting a single with cheese meal, I got their grilled chicken sandwich meal (I love their chicken sandwich).  This morning, instead of going to Star.bucks for my venti cinnamon dolce late and the sausage breakfast sandwich, I went to Mc.d.onalds and got the egg white delight meal (yes, with the hashbrown) because it’s 400 calories versus 900.  I have thought about my choices two days in a row, and even though they’re still not the most stellar of choices, they’re much better than they would be if I wasn’t using the treadmill each day.  In time, I’m sure I’ll skip the fries/hashbrown all together because really, what’s the point?  But please don’t ever expect to read that I’ve given up my Diet C.oke (out of the fountain only) or Diet Pe.psi.  Or DQ.  That is asking all together too much!

I will update my fitness page (also on the main menu of my blog) every week!  I track fitness in 10 week intervals, and this one ends 12/9.  My target weight for that date is 159.6, and that’s being conservative when you look back on my other 10-week efforts.  I’m trying to not go crazy here!  We do have a big family trip to Colorado Springs over Christmas and that gives me another 2 weeks to shed another 3.8 pounds getting me down to a hopeful 155.8 pounds.  That would be awesome, and is totally do-able!

So there it is – all out there.  I’ll try not to post about this because it is super boring to everyone but me.  But if you’re interested, go ahead and check in on my page and harass me.  😉

 

I feel like I’ve used that title before.

A while back (July 29 to be exact), I had a grand plan to start going to the YMCA to get my ass in shape.  Then one of the boys got sick and there was no way I was going to leave them in the “free” child care at the gym.  My plan got deferred for a week (I like to start on Mondays – I’m weird), which seemed like no big deal.  Then we went out for breakfast with B’s parents and he and his mom had a conversation about leaving your kids in the child care at the gym – and that we don’t know the people working there.  I sort of rolled my eyes at this conversation, but then took it to heart as I pondered it.  Don’t read into this – B was perfectly fine with the boys going to the gym child care while I worked out, but hearing them talk about how we don’t know those people made me not OK with that plan.  So I didn’t work out, and I didn’t work out, and I didn’t work out.

There is a pretty big cross-country race here that we’ve done a few times together, and registration for it was this past Saturday.  I knew it was the motivation B needed to get running again, so I offered to sign him up.  I mentioned that I was jealous that I couldn’t do it too but that the boys and I would enjoy cheering him on.  I also mentioned that I’m not in any shape to run that race and then lamented the fact that I wasn’t going to the YMCA because of the conversation he and his mom had about the child care.

And then he said, “we have a treadmill in the basement, and you have at least an hour of nap time each day to run if you want to.”

That’s just what I needed to hear.  How could I have forgotten that?  I mean, that treadmill is the source of many a joke in this house.

(There is some history behind this piece of exercise machinery.  It was my grandpa’s and when his house was being prepped for sale, B and our friend drove down to get it, and carried it up a very narrow staircase to hoist it into the truck for me.  As they were trying to maneuver it around the staircase (built in 1950), B told me that he was about to just leave it there because getting it out was going to be impossible.  But they did it!  They then drove it home 2 hours and had to figure out a way to carry the beast into our basement.  We got it all setup, with treadmill track under it to protect it from carpet fibers, and it sat there.  For a long time.  Of course that didn’t stop us from buying a TV for that room so that I’d have something to watch when I decided to use it.  Then we finally got pregnant and I decided to try it out, and B caught me jogging on it 5 days after our first successful transfer.  I was forbidden from using it again “after all we’ve gone through to get you pregnant,” So it just sat there.  Then I never got the motivation to use it again.  And we dropped cable.  So now it’s in the only spare room we really have with a TV that has no means of displaying a single TV show.  And that treadmill, and the TV, have sat unused for 3 years.  Until today.)

I took B’s words to heart and put on my (tight-fitting) running clothes prior to my big kid’s nap so I’d be ready.  I laid with him until he fell asleep (just a couple of minutes – it gets easier and faster every day) and then I was out of there!  I grabbed the monitor for the baby’s room and headed downstairs with my phone so I could stream some SVU on Net.fli.x.  Of course the emergency “key” was missing from the treadmill so I had to track that down (thank you, little man, for bringing that upstairs a while back), but I found it quickly and I got all setup.  I even stretched!  I walked for one mile at 3.5 mph, then jogged for 2 miles at 4.0 mph (an admittedly light jog), and then finished with a 1 mile walk at 3.5 mph and a 3.5 incline.  I moved my body (as Josey would say!) for 65 minutes and burned 432 calories.  My average pace was 15:55 which is slow, but acceptable to someone who hasn’t run in over a year.

So yeah – I did that today!  And it felt great!  And it motivated me to sign up for that race with B (I cannot believe I got in!).  And it motivated me to take photos (GASP!).  And it motivated me to start my fitness tracking spreadsheet.  And it motivated me to stop eating like crap and just take better care of myself.

It’s time to get serious.  I will log my progress here each week with photos (gasp again!) if I get around to it each Monday (I plan to and even set a reminder on my phone!).

I’m in pain tonight, and I will be tomorrow for sure when I wake up, but as I know from my fitness past, this pain will be gone soon enough.

Starting weight: 177.6 (10 pounds more than when I got pregnant – GAH!)

Current weight: 177.6

Target weight after 10 weeks:  159.6 pounds

Target weight loss after 10 weeks: 18 pounds

What I currently look like (A new version of the bump photos – HA!):