Yesterday morning, I enjoyed my breakfast on the deck and it was fabulous…
Good oatmeal, great reading material and a tall drink of water enjoyed outside in the fresh summer air. Doesn’t get much better than that my friends.
Yum. I also went to the gym for a bit afterward and got a killer upper body workout in. I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a sec.
I enjoyed chillin’ outside, reading and eating so much yesterday that I did it again this morning…
This was more like a brunch though; probably around 11:00. I had a quick snack this morning and then got caught up in cleaning, laundry-ing and de-junking. Oh joy. So, I didn’t have a “real” breakfast until 11:00ish. I enjoyed a fresh peach (love them!) along with my standby oatmeal. So good and so filling.
I’m realizing that summer is coming to an end, so I’ve been trying to enjoy the beautiful morning weather before it gets too cold. So sad. My kiddos start school on Monday and it’s kind of bittersweet for me.
I’ve loved the lazy (or not so lazy) days of summer, the lack of a schedule, the extra sleep and the beautiful weather SOOO much! However, I think we’re all ready for a little bit more of a schedule ’round here. I’m thinkin’ I’ll be a lot more productive and get more of my to-do list done without 17 children underfoot.
Oh, and I sure hope the house stays a lot cleaner too! One can hope, right?
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I’m still doing well on my little “100 days without sugar” challenge! It’s actually not too hard anymore and I’m so grateful.
I might crave a treat once in a while and then have a little bit of a panic attack when I realize I can’t have treats for a very long time (80 days to be exact!) But, the craving/panic attack doesn’t last too long and I quickly return to my senses. I remind myself that I chose to do this challenge and I’m happy I’m doing it!
With that being said, I’m not eating 100% healthy 100% of the time though. I’ve stayed away from all treats (cake, cookies, candy, chocolate, muffins, etc.) completely, but I’ve had a few chips and things and we went out to dinner 3 times last week!
We went out for Kev’s birthday, our anniversary and a Friday night date night. I didn’t pig out any of the times, but I could have done a lot better.
I must also mention that for some reason I haven’t lost ANY weight since I started this challenge. Ya, like zero! So lame. It really doesn’t make any sense.
But, I’ve learned time and time again that sometimes my body has a mind of it’s own no matter what I do! So, this week I’m trying to remind my body who’s boss; I’m going to workout every day and really watch what I eat. We’ll see what happens.
Oh and in case you’re wondering, this is what I had for lunch yesterday…
I had to run a bunch of errands, so I just whipped up this Chocolate Almond Protein shake and brought it with me along with some Skinny Pop popcorn.
Here’s what I put in my shake; 1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds, 2 big handfuls baby spinach, a splash of almond extract and 8-10 ice cubes. This shake was so yummy! I really love almond extract; it’s so good. 😉
And here’s what I had for lunch today…
Some Food Should Taste Good crackers dipped in low fat cottage cheese with 3/4 of a banana with peanut butter on the side. I love both of these snacks so much, in fact they’re pretty much my “go to” snacks all the time. They always sound good to me, taste awesome and fill me up! Sooo, today I decided to make this my lunch.
I also had a cute little lunch buddy who decided to share my lunch. Apparently, he thought my lunch was better than his…
He ended up eating about half of my food. I also had another “lunch buddy” who wished I would share my lunch with him…
Too cute.
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Recently, I decided to buy the Body for Life book. I bought it for 50 cents + $4.00 shipping online (Half.com) Score.
I’ve always wanted to try this program, but have been too scared. I was introduced to this book about 10-12 years ago and I couldn’t believe anyone could EVER do it! It sounded so hard.
It always intrigued me though. AND, now that I’m living a healthy lifestyle, Body for Life doesn’t sound too hard anymore. I think I want to start it, but I want to research and prepare a little more before I start.
Since Body for Life has been around awhile, there’s a huge online support group and tons of information online. In fact, you can officially join the challenge online and can even win cash prizes!
BUT, the latest date you can sign up for the “official challenge” this year is Monday, August 26th. Dang. I think I want to do it. I hope I can be ready by Monday. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ve decided to adopt the “Body for Life” workout plan. I love it! It’s very practical, effective and not too overwhelming. Perfect for a busy mom like me.
You basically workout 6 days a week alternating between weight lifting one day and cardio the next. He (Bill Phillips) says you should only workout for about 45 minutes on weight days and 20 minutes on cardio days. The key is to really push yourself.
When you’re doing cardio, you should do interval training. For example, if you’re running you should run at an easy pace for a few minutes and then kick it up a notch for a few minutes. Then you go back to the easier pace and then keep kicking it up a notch until you are running as fast as you possibly can. This way of running allows you to burn a bunch of calories in a short amount of time. Love it.
As far as weight training goes, you’re supposed to alternate between doing upper body one day and lower body the next. You should do two exercises for each body part (bicep, tricep, quads, etc.) and do 5 sets starting with 12 reps and then increase the weight and do 10 reps and keep increasing the weight until you get to 6 reps and then end with 2 sets of 12 with the lighter weight. Sounds complicated, but it’s not.
I really like this exercise plan…a lot. So, I actually started following this plan the past few days. I’m going to research and plan a bit more for the nutrition part before starting that.
However, I still have a couple classes that I love to go to at the gym and I don’t want to give them up. I would get so bored if I just went to the weight room all the time. So, here’s the schedule I’m going to keep…
Monday: Boot Camp (I’m counting this as my lower body day + a little cardio). I will do a few lower body exercises in the weight room afterward if I feel I didn’t get enough in class. We always do TONS of lower body in Boot Camp though.
Tuesday: Upper Body at the gym.
Wednesday: Cardio day. I’m going to run 20 minutes using the plan specified.
Thursday: Weights class at the gym. This is a HIIT type class and we always do a ton of lower body too.
Friday: Miscellaneous day. I will either do upper body at the gym or another cardio day, depending on what I need.
Saturday: I will either go to an all over body muscle class at the gym or go on a run.
Sunday: Rest
That’s it. Yes, I’m definitely giving it my own spin, but I think I will love it. I’ll definitely be doing more resistance training than I usually do. It will be great.
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Well, I gotta get going. I want to go to the gym tonight and I need to get dinner ready before I go. I’m going to make Hawaiian Haystacks tonight for dinner. It’s one of our favs! I love it! I hope you all have a wonderful night!
I’m also starting to focus on Clean Eating. It’s so challenging! I have a 1 yr. old son and over the past year, I’ve done really well losing all of the baby weight (plus additional weight) in addition to working out 3-5 times a week. So, I’m happy with my weight and do good eating relatively healthy, but I’ve decided to try to challenge myself more and eliminate processed foods. My weakness are the carbs though – I LOVE muffins, chips, waffles, etc. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for the post – it was encouraging! (I’m on day #3) 🙂
Thanks so much for your comment! That’s awesome that you’ve been able to lose your baby weight + some. I love eating well and exercising too, but I agree with you about those carbs! It’s too bad they taste so good, dang it. Good luck with your journey!
Congrats for meeting your no sugar challenge. I really want to start Body for life, but I’m still feeling reluctance. I guess it’s a little fear of failure.
Thanks! I feel the same way about Body for Life, but I think I just want to go for it! I think you should do it too!!