Healthy for Life My Story

It really has been a long time since I have updated any of my many blogs. I have been working hard to change my life and made many personal discoveries. I have had to face many obstacles and have come out with a new vision.

I started my weight loss journey again several years ago. I was down to a good healthy weight and had kept it off for quite some time give or take a few pounds. Then as a 31 year old I had an accident and broke my hip and I was hoping to get right back up and spend a lot of time walking the dog and on the treadmill and in roller skating and other activities I really enjoyed. Well that didn't happen walking on the pavement still hurts and skating is kind of scary because I can't find a great place to go with a clean enough area to skate in. The treadmill I can do now but at first it hurt like hell and it really upset me so I gave up.

I drown my fear and anxiety in food, and activities that kept my mind off of the obvious issues and my booty on the couch. I was really depressed and lost all confidence. One day I had had it and started back despite the physical limitations deciding a slow steady walk on the treadmill was better than sitting on the couch and I worked my way up to more intensity and got a gym membership and moved on to weights and cardio fitness. I dropped about 20 pounds. I am never sure what I weighed at my heaviest because I refused to weigh until about a month or so after that life changing day.

Then I got stuck and discouraged and I tried many things with my diet that I now believe were just silly. Not that shakes and supplements are all bad but I really don't think anyone needs them to be healthy. Then I decided that maybe the workout's I was doing were not helping that much anymore. I was still in the overweight category and I decided to look for something fun to do. Something that would leave me disappointed when I couldn't make it. I found pole dance fitness and I was finally motivated to go to class as it has both cardio and strength training in one and I have never once felt like the class was 70-90 minutes long. Okay maybe the first month I when I was worn out at about 45 minutes it seemed kind of long but once I built up the strength I was so motivated to just move to the next level. I lost another 25 pounds in less than 6 months!

I kept thinking to myself I want to do this for a living, but instead I signed up with another direct sales company to try to cut the expenses of going to every possible class I could at the dance studio. I still didn't believe that I could do something like teach health and fitness for a living. I have performed with the studio in front of live audiences and still didn't believe in myself. I started to gain a little of the weight back over the holidays and started feeling a little depressed again and even participating in some of the old eating for comfort behaviors I thought I had kicked. About 5 pounds later I was starting to feel it in my clothes and decided there was no way I was going back there again and I kicked it back in to high gear the last two weeks of February up to today. I am pleased to say the weight is gone already and I am feeling better again because I am eating well and exercising.

For the first time in my life I didn't let that failure overcome me and it pushed me to take a plunge into a new carreer. Last Monday I signed up to become an ACE personal trainer and I have plans to get at least at least one more of the ACE certifications and to learn to teach Pole and other forms of dance fitness.

I like the direct sales company I work for now but it is not my ultimate goal and I had to overcome some issues the last few weeks. I work with a food company and the main focus is really on the unhealthy items so I was feeling conflicted. I decided to put that aside and focus more on the healthy items and even healthier preparation of items that are though of as traditionally unhealthy.  I am feeling renewed in my business and in my life!

I thought I would share this story and also have a record for myself to see how far I have come. I am not sure about my exact weight I don't monitor it all the time right now because I have been at healthy weight for some time now and I tend to gain muscle and get frustrated by the scale sometimes. I measure more by the way my clothes fit and the size 4 jeans that were getting tight a little less than a month ago are starting to get a little loose and that is a great feeling!

I am going to prove that anyone who puts there mind to something can do it. One of my goals even with the metal in my leg is to get a flat split in at least one direction. With my injury I am proceeding slow and with caution but I am almost all the way down in a front split with my left leg in front and more than half with the right in front. I am sure I will be able to perfect the front split if I keep at it and don't push too hard. Then we will see about the straddle. One goal on working the injured leg at a time.

Then the other goal is to prove that anyone can get those nice looking abs if they just work hard enough. I know I can but I also know it will take a ton of work on my part and I need to kick up the cardio because when I work my abs I can feel the muscle under them. I want to loose the fat so I can also see that muscle.

If you made it this far I hope my story has inspired you from now on this blog will be about my healthy lifestyle and helping others adopt a healthy life. Feel free to ask me questions I am here to help!

Get a Pole Dancers Body at Home

If you have been keeping up with my posts these days you know that I am progressing along with my weigh loss goals by going to pole dancing class as well as getting additional training at home from SutdioVeena.com. In only 4 months I lost 5 sizes and 20 pounds and am still loosing. My body is changing shape dramatically and I owe it all to this amazing sport.

Pole dancers come in all shapes and sizes but if you are training hard and eating healthy you will start to see the  long lean muscles you have dreamed of. A pole dancer's body is not easy to develop but it is possible. I am seeing results very quickly but I am also on the pole a minimum of 4 days a week and I spend just as much time in other forms of training such as other types of dance classes, stretching and flexibility training, several types of cardio exercises as well as strength training.

After training hard these amazing muscles are popping out  in my arms and my shoulders as well as my legs and butt. The definition is amazing yet not too bulky...who knew you could have muscle tone in your forearms.  Most of the fat I have left is in my tummy but I when I work out I can feel the muscle that I will soon be able to see. The best part is that pole dancing is so fun you won't even feel like you are working out. Then the drive to get better makes all the non-pole training so worth it when you get to the pole and you can do something new on the first try.

So if you are looking to try pole dancing visit this article on my pole blog for more information about getting the pole dancers body at home.

How I lost 5 sizes!

Okay so I am not rocking the weight loss as much as the inches lost. I am now in a size 3 or less. I am actually over 10 pounds heavier than I was the last time I was this size so I know that I have a lot more muscle.The above video is what I am striving for...not the way the ladies look although that would be a plus I want to be able to do all of these moves. I am working hard to get there and I am rocking many of the strength moves but the graceful pretty moves need a lot of work.

I have my story posted at my new website but I plan to talk about it here too but in the mean time check out Pole Dance Fitness and let me know what you think. I am going to try to sell pole dance products there as well as helpful advice on getting fit and eating healthy. 

I have a lot of great news these days and plan to start sharing it here on my personal blog. Lately I have been working so many avenues to get fit and earn income that I have just about burned myself out. I started working with Wealthy Affiliates and I am learning how to stream my online efforts to produce some results. Just learning has helped me stop some of the worrying but I am still working on getting things organized and figuring  out where to focus my time and effort. 

So I plan to work on two income earning websites until I learn how to make them work right and take some time for me and post here on this blog to share what I am doing in all aspects of life. So starting tomorrow I am going to be scheduling my day around completing training and tasks. I will be updating this site and getting rid of old links and widgets. Let me know what you would like to see more. 

The new plans for this blog are to post about my personal thoughts about well everything with a focus on health, fitness and working online. Sorry for the time since the last post but I have been working on way too many things including pole dancing. 

8 Pounds Lost

Okay I have been loosing a good 2 pounds a week for a month now. I love the Herbalife shakes and  I have tons of energy.  I have picked up weight lifting again. I joined a gym so I could have access to weight machines at least until I get stronger. It is a lot harder to hurt yourself on the machines. I have been working out 5-6 days a week and I dug out my heart rate monitor so I can keep my heart rate up during cardio.

I would like things to happen faster but when I measured my inches last week I was down quite a bit more than I expected and most of my clothes I have been wearing are too big. I don't have much to wear which would normally be a good thing but I have a lot of places to go that I need to wear clothes. There are weddings and family gatherings and picnics and church and the gym. So I may have to go and grab a few dresses or something on clearance and I am sure I will have to grab some gym clothes. I have at least 2 more sizes to go before I fit in my old gym clothes.

So I have decided that I am going to sell Avon in addition to the Herbalife products I already sell. I am doing that because I already have a few customers and I think I can pick up more if I have some books when it is time to go to the events I have planned. I will only change my mind if I get the call and the cost to join has gone up or there are too many things to do to get involved.

If you are interested in my products or selling them let me know. You can email me at sundcarrie@yahoo.com or you can visit my Herbalife Website. I don't know what I will need for an Avon website yet but it might be something I choose to get.

Down 6.5 pounds and 12 inches!!!

Results!
I have to admit I was very discouraged this week because the scale just wouldn't budge. I was at 144.5 for five days. Then this morning it went down. I added some serous weight lifting this week and somehow I hoped it would make the numbers on the scale go down. I knew from a logical standpoint that I should be taking measurements instead but it is a lot harder than just getting out of bed and stepping on the scale.

So this morning I took my third set of measurements, biceps, hips, bust, waist, calves and thighs and I am down 6.5 more inches for a total of 12 since I started this program on June 22. I really am going to have to focus on the inches more now that I have a good strength training regimen going.

Gym
On Monday of this week I joined a gym that is less than 5 minutes from my house. The gym requires no contracts and it was only 100 dollars down and 10 dollars a month. Yea for me I now have somewhere to lift weights. I found that I also like the cardio bike, something I used to hate. It loosens up the hip I broke and helps with more fluid motions in the leg.

I have been sore for days but it is the good kind of sore and I know if I keep it up I can look like Jillian Michaels in no time. Yes that is my goal these days to have a body like hers and while I have a weight guideline it is not set in stone because I want to have some serious muscle tone.

My membership included 2 personal training sessions and the first one was just paper work and goal setting. I don't have the cash for more sessions but he did show me some great exercises and my sister in law also helped me learn to use the machines and showed me some great core exercises. I am all set to succeed for now as long as I keep it up.

Setbacks
Everyone has setbacks and mine seem to have to do with scheduling. I have not really messed my eating up because I have kept all the really bad food out of the house. I have however had a few days where poor planning has had me to the point of my stomach grumbling and me reaching for anything and everything to eat. If I had junk food in the house I would be in big trouble on those days.

I think the worst thing is finding time for exercise 6 days a week. I want to stay on a 6 day plan for the rest of my life but there is always something to do or some family function or a wedding or ....well you get my point, and that leads me to my next section about working in the fitness industry.

My New Job Is Getting Fit
I started my first (free) course to become a personal trainer. I have been reading the book when I have the time but some of it is overwhelming. I did graduate from college with a great GPA but I didn't learn a whole lot of science and the book is loaded with it. So I borrowed some textbooks from my sister to help me get a better grasp of some of the terms.

It won't be a breeze but it is not super difficult either and it gives me some time to prove to myself and my hubby  and potential clients that I can get in great shape. Then when I am close to my own goals I can start to take the ISSA course that seems to be accepted everywhere.

I want to stay in great shape and I want to help other people stay in shape and what better way to achieve this goal than to have a career in fitness.

Diet
Just an added note I am on a diet of sorts. I am using (and selling) Herbalife products. I love them because they give me energy and they are great for a quick meal when I am on the go. I can take a protein bar to the gym and eat it before a great work out and come home and have a shake. I am on a 2 shake a day program but I have been known to have another on for a snack especially now that I am lifting weights and need a protein boost without having to cook something. I eat a lot of veggies, salads and nuts for snacks and I eat a good meal but I am NOT counting calories. I get way too obsessive when I do that. I am also not cutting out red meat or potatoes but I am staying away from bread for right now. I eat ground buffalo and lean steaks but not everyday and I sometimes have potatoes cut up and grilled. I am staying away from the bread because I think I am addicted to it when I eat a little I just want more and more.

We went to the Outback the other day and I had a small steak with veggies and a sweet potato and one little piece of bread and once I took a bite it took everything in me to leave the rest there I don't even have that much of an issue with sweet things. I always thought my vice was sweets but come to find out it is bread. Not sure what that is all about but maybe I will learn in my personal training courses.

Good luck with your weight loss programs and thanks to all of you who have supported me over the years. This time I am going to get it done and by the end of October you will get the before and after pics.

My Crazy Life

This is just going to be a bit of rambling because I have had an almost unbearable week. I have had some victories but it is hard to focus on them with everything that has happened to me. The first big thing has something to do with the Herbalife business that I am starting. I want to say that it is not Herbalife that I have a problem with it is the people/company I came in with. Then there is the duplex that was broken into and all the copper pipes stolen plus a broken window.

Now in the midst of this stuff I started my new diet plan. I am on the Herbalife quick start plan and I love it. The shakes are amazing and I eat 4-5 times a day just replace two meals with shakes. I am still working that out because I need to get some protein in with my snacks. I have been having a lot of salads and sometimes I save the last snack for the evening and have home made ice cream but I have been eating just a very small portion of it. I need to figure out the calories in each batch but I am still better off than much of the grocery store ice cream. It has a lot less sugar in it and none of the extra stuff you can't pronounce.

I started at 150 on Sunday and have worked out everyday since (5 days) and I am now at 148 so that is not too shabby for less than a week. I have to work out the diet plan a bit but the work outs I am feeling good about. I have been pushing myself and on the days I feel like I can't do it I just keep doing it even if it isn't as fast as yesterday.

I started off really motivated but right today I am feeling like giving up because I am so irritated with life. I am not going to give up! I just can't!

 So you want to know what else happened well I went to incomeathome.com and signed up for an online business. They were very secretive about their product and their methods. They are a group of people selling Herbalife products in a different way and it is a very high pressure and deceptive way. I am not going to go into details because I already feel like a huge idiot for letting them dupe me out of money and tons of time before I could even start selling the product. If I had not stood my ground it could have been worse. I have been fighting to get some of my money back and it is not working. I have almost 600 dollars into it and I have one quick start package which would have cost me 110 dollars had I signed up locally. That doesn't count the phone minutes and the 20-30 hours of my time on phone calls and training that did not teach me much about the products.

So I canceled everything I could and filed the BBB reports that I could and I called Herbalife and asked if I could just be a regular distributor. I found a nutrition club with the help of some great friends and I was very impressed with the way they do business. It was not high pressure and they were very transparent about the costs. I was able to taste some very good shake recipes and I am excited to sell the products. I just can't get the bad taste out of my mouth with the experience I have been having. I have been fighting for hours each day with the many different companies that I have signed up for because the training said I HAD to have this and that and NONE of it is required to sell the product.

The good this week is that the products I got from Herbalife are working very well for me I am so excited. I have a lot more physical energy already. I didn't get my product until Tuesday but I had some samples that I used to try to get through the earlier days. I love the shakes they are delicious and I was really scared they would not be. I would like to loose two pounds a week but I have to overcome my temptation to eat when I get stressed out or to just sit and pout about the money I couldn't afford to loose.

I just need to find the fighter in me and push through all of this and just get it done.

My First Article

I submitted my first key word article today. It took me a long time to complete it and will hardly be worth the pay verses the time spent on it. I don't mean that in a bad way because I need the practice and I need to learn to focus. It may not even be accepted for payment on the first run.

I learned a valuable lesson about choosing key word articles, I will never again pick one that is awkward to use in a sentence. I also learned that I have trouble staying focused on one project at a time. I end up wasting time researching interesting things that I ran across while researching my topic. I am going to have to learn if it won't fit in the article don't bother with it or make a note to look into it later.

Once I wrote the article I started on another goal. I have not been working out or eating right lately and I really want to get back on track. I was doing really well and a few minor things made me feel like I was fighting a loosing battle and I just gave into the cravings. I went to the park down the street today with my dog and started my new routine. I am going to start jogging and since I have never been more than a walk fast kind of gal this is a real challenge.

Asuka loved it every time I broke into a jogging pace and she was excellent. She didn't pull like she does when we walk and she didn't stop to sniff everything. She is not a puller like the dogs you see running there owners down the street but she could use some work or maybe just some speed.

I learned that I am really out of shape and that it will take time to build up to speed. I had to walk most of the 2.5 miles. My heart rate was through the roof after just a little jogging. I am going to be a better dog owner and in better shape by sticking to this goal. I don't know yet if I can handle two days in a row or just every other day. We will just walk if I can't jog each day.

I have also been going on evening walks with my husband and the dog so if all of this continues I will be in better shape in no time as long as I don't eat whole pies or bags of chips. I honestly could eat a whole pie I have never done it but lately my sweet cravings have been really bad and I am tempted to grab the sugar bowl and chow down some days.

Over all life is looking good I just need to outline a plan for these changes in my life. Once they are in writing they are easier to follow and tweak as needed. That is one of the mistakes I made in my good health plan this last time. I quit writing about it and put it out of my mind. Not this time I am going to work on becoming a better me. I am working to be the person I want to be and I am going to make it happen.

Gained a half a pound

I needed a cute picture up here to brighten my day. So here is a cute puppy that looks really bored or maybe giving someone those cute puppy eyes that say PLEASE can I have what I want.

So I did my weigh in this morning and I was a half a pound up. I had an idea the was coming. I ate like crap Saturday and some of Sunday. I didn't go over my weekly points but I didn't do any real working out either.

So today I still have like 6 daily points left and I have 6 activity points. I walked the dog myself for an hour today and then with my hubby we went out again for almost anther hour. Plus I played a few minutes of Your Shape we got in from Gamefly. I wanted to try it before we buy it and already it works much better than the other game.

 I plan to play that tomorrow before or after my shift tomorrow. It depends on how I feel when I get up and what the weather is like. If I am really tired when I get up then I will wait until after my shift. I only work from 11-2 so I can fit it in. If the weather is  pretty good again I need to take the dog for another walk without the hubby. She has decided since I have not walked her all winter she is the boss. She is not behaving for me at all when we are out so It is back to a training collar of some sort so she can learn to listen to me again. I can't be dragged around by a German Shepherd it makes for a difficult walk.

This week I am prepared for the days at the end of the week when my fresh veggies and fruit might go bad. I got plenty of fresh for most of the week but if they don't last I also got a bunch of frozen. I went to Sams and saw they had giant bags of the few veggies I like and of fruit like strawberries, blueberries and a mix with papaya, mangoes and pineapple with no sugar added. If they are not super sweet I can add a tiny bit of sugar but I shouldn't need to. I can also make my favorite syrup and pancakes where I just put my choice of fruit in my food processor and then pour it into a pan with 1tablespoon of sugar and heat and serve. I have a whole wheat pancake mix that needs used.

So this week is off to a great start. I work a lot of short shifts and even twice in one day but I think I can get a work out in a few days this week and if it stays above freezing I can take a lot of walks with my hubby and Asuka the German Shepherd who wants to pull my arm off so she can go swim in all the giant puddles. I should have some weight loss this week if I keep on task with my eating and working out.

The has been one thing that has really been bothering me and I think I may have solved the problem last night. I can't seem to fall asleep no matter what time I go to bed I have not been able to fall asleep for at least an hour. I took a night time cold medicine pill to see if it would help. It did I was out in about 20 minutes. So next time I go to the store I will get something for sleep. I don't want to keep taking cold pills but I need the sleep. So I am going to try to go to bed around the same time every-night and get up around the same time everyday. Hopefully once I develop a pattern I won't need to take anything. If I still can't fall asleep right away I will go to my doctor and make sure it is safe to take the over the counter stuff for long periods.

The scale was not my enemy today.

I was down another half a pound making it 153.5 today. I don't want to make a habit of getting on the scale everyday but some days I just feel like I could be pleasantly surprised.

I am meeting a friend for lunch today so I have not had a lot of points because I am not sure what I can eat when I get there. I did however pop in the step video Kim Kardashian: Fit In Your Jeans by Friday: Butt Blasting Cardio Step and it made me realize how horribly out of shape I am. It looks easy and I am pretty sure to anyone who works out on a regular basis that it is. I did a little over half the video and I was dripping buckets of sweat and felt like I might pass out.

So I got about 30 minutes in and I am hoping to get a walk with the dog and hubby in this evening since the weather is starting to cooperate. I still can not believe that I am this out of shape maybe I will have to do the video again with out a step and just pretend it is there until I get all the moves down and can do them without passing out.

So after lunch with one friend I get to hang out with another friend and then I have to make it home in time to walk with my hubby. I have such a great day planned for today. Hope you all have a great days as well.

Off to bed

Well I am off to bed here in a minute hopefully going to bed by 11 I will be asleep before midnight and able to get up by 8. I need to get up early because I have lunch with one friend and then I am going to another friends house to hang out for a bit.

I had a great work out today and I really want to get one in before I go tomorrow. I did an hour on the elliptical and I really kept my heart rate up most of the time. Sadly I just barely made it through the hour without passing out and I only got 3.1 miles in. I have not been pushing myself hard enough. I need to work harder during my workouts.

My food plan was not derailed today. We had veggies to munch on at the meeting I had today and I have even been able to use up some of the not so good food in the house by planning it with my points. I want to get to the store either tomorrow or Saturday because I need much more fruit and veggies. I want them to snack on because most don't cost points. I know this means I will probably have to go to the store several times a week until late spring but I will just have to suck it up and do it.

I hope the scale gives me better news next time I weigh in but that remains to be seen.

Did great on the diet today

Well today is relative in this case by the time I finish this post is will be tomorrow. I plan to go to bed no later than 2am. I will have a busy day tomorrow so I don't know if I will get to post.

So I get 29 Weight Watchers points a day plus 49 extra points a week. I used 27 today and I am not hungry. I am sure that won't happen everyday but it was reasonably easy to track. I am sure as I loose weight that will change.

The thing that gets me is I went for a 45 minute walk with my hubby and the dog and spend 45 minutes on the  elliptical and I am not hungry. I am tired but not hungry. I have a mountain of laundry to fold and put away so that will take me some time. Other than that I don't know what I will do to stay awake for 2 more hours.

I have a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow and I work overnight so I am not sure if I will get a good work out in but I am going to try. I really need to get to working out more regularly. I seem to be stuck with the idea that if I can't do at least an hour at a time that it is not worth doing it at all. I don't know for sure where that came from but I think a the personal trainer I went to see said something like that.

So I am hoping to remember to weight in in the morning I just guessed for the start of my plan. I think it was last week or so when I weighed in at 152 one day but I have been really bad with my eating. So I guessed 155 and that is so heavy for me. I have 35 pounds to loose and I really need to tone up. I am really motivated today to take charge of this.

It felt good to fit into smaller clothes when I went shopping and I know it will feel really good for those same clothes to be a little big on me. I can work with clothes that are too big but I just have to buy new ones when they are too small.

No More Sweet Stuff in This House

Okay I was really bad last night I just couldn't stay away from the sweet cinnamon bread I made. No more sweet stuff in this house. I don't have a huge problem staying away from the salty stuff but the sweets are my downfall.

If it is not in the house I can't eat it. So we just won't be buying anymore sweet stuff. I have reasonably healthy sweet stuff like yogurt and oatmeal and that will have to do. I don't want to gain these pounds back.

I did stand for a good 3 hours yesterday while doing chores and computer stuff. I also did about 45 minutes of a good cardio workout on the Xbox. So that makes my activity level much higher. Right now I am standing at the kitchen counter typing. I am trying to get my body used to being more active and standing instead of sitting is just the first step.

I hate to admit it but most days I spend most of my waking hours sitting. I get up and watch something on netflix or get on the computer in my chair. Even if I work I sit at my desk and that has got to change. I can make simple changes and just stand while I work and while I do all the computer stuff I do.

So today is a new day and I am working again on being more active and eating healthy.
For breakfast I had:
Hazelnut Latte oatmeal
A lot of coffee
Milk with my coffee about half a cup

I have my meals loosely planned for the rest of today but I should be able to stay at 1200 calories today with no problem.

Wasted Day

So I went to bed at 7:30am after my long overnight shift. The offices were closed today because of the snow storm so I worked 4-7. That gave me plenty of time for adequate sleep. Except that my hubby (not his fault) got a crazy case of the hiccups and woke me up. After going back and forth upstairs and downstairs he finally took a blanked downstairs and tried to sleep.

That was not the worst of it all the kids had school off too. I slept okay with snow shoveling and snowblowers it is kind of a constant noise. The kids that kept ringing the doorbell and knocking on the door were making me seriously angry. I know they just wanted to earn a few bucks but they would not stop. I didn't want to get up and put clothes on answer the door. My hubby was not dressed to answer the door either and the dog barked at them until they went away.

So I am living on like three good hours of sleep. I am trying to keep my calories between 1200-1400 a day and I don't think that will be difficult today because I will not really be awake that much. I usually don't weight daily but when I got up this morning afternoon I was hoping for some sort of good news. I lost another half a pound so I say that was great news. I am down 3.5 pounds now. That is pretty exciting.

I stood for five hours of my shift and I worked to stay busy before my shift last night. I know it isn't exercise but it is better than sitting and relaxing all the time. I am kind of lazy today but I plan to be up and about more tomorrow. I am on call tomorrow but only until 7pm so I should be able to get a good evening work out in.

I was scared...

When I stepped on the scale this morning after my week or so of not doing much in the way of working out and dieting. I was pleasantly surprised I lost another pound.

I am not sure how that happened but I will take what I can get. I did count calories yesterday but I am sure that didn't do the trick. I have still been eating a lot smaller portion sizes even when I ate bad for me stuff. I used to eat at least four pieces of pizza and some cheese bread now I am luck if I can eat three slices and no bread. Even that depends on the pizza if it is thin crust I eat three if it is regular I eat two.

I am back to calorie counting and trying to keep under 1600 calories a day on most days. I am still going to have days that I cheat but not entire weeks. I know the low carb diet works faster but I can't seem to stay on it. I have my Weight Watchers food tracking book that I am using to journal what food I have eaten and the calories. I have no intention of counting the points.

I work tonight for 12.5 hours and I am going to try to spend a few of those hours standing and maybe marching in front of my desk. It won't be good cardio but it will be more activity than I have had this past week. I realized how out of shape I am a while ago but I got a blinding slap in the face yesterday when I felt like I was going to die after cleaning the bathroom. Granted I had put it off for quite some time and it needed a lot of scrubbing but I shouldn't have had a huge back ache just from cleaning the tub.

So my goal is to get more active daily even if that means less computer time or even standing while on the computer instead of reclining in my comfy chair. If I make some simple changes and keep eating less and healthier I might just loose about a pound a week. I have at least 30 pounds to loose so I can hopefully loose it in less than a year. As soon as spring hits I am naturally more active and I love fresh fruits when the weather breaks.

My Day

Well today I got up at noon and answered phones for work for two hours starting at 1:30. Then I had to go meet the tenants that moved out a few weeks ago to walk through the place with them. Then we went to a market and a grocery store.

I got a lot of veggies for the week but I didn't like what I did with them and I cooked a few portions. I am not sure if some of the veggies tasted bad or if they didn't taste good with soy sauce. I am going to try another sauce next time.

I did buy myself one of those tiny boxes of conversation hearts because I love them. My hubby always seems irritated at the price of a box over that of a bag. I just wanted a little and if you can't stop yourself from eating the whole bag it is well worth the extra money to get the box. I did find a box for 25 cents so it wasn't that bad but you can get 10 times that much in a bag for less than two buck. I have been pretty good about not buying candy so the hubby didn't seem to care today.

Tonight I plan to do an hour of cardio boxing on the Xbox. My arms are really sore from yesterday but it kept my heart rate up and it was fun. I turned the trainers voice down and used my own music. I am not really sure where this day went but since I stay up until about 3-4 in the morning it is not that far gone. I have about six hours to go.

Todays Work Out
1 hour of cardio boxing

Todays meals
Coffee with milk (most of a pot and no idea how much milk)
1 piece of whole grain bread with peanut butter

2 small pieces of chicken maybe 2.5 ounces
Broccoli

I have had about a handful of almonds between meals as well.

2 small pieces of chicken maybe 2.5 ounces
Zuchini, onion, carrot and mushrooms stir fried in a small amount of butter soy sauce and mirin. (I made three portions of this so I will call it stir-fry veggies)

I plan to have the the chicken and stir-fry veggies for my 4th meal and because I have been snacking on almonds I will just have an apple for my fifth meal.

Fingers Crossed

Well my fingers are crossed I did about an hour of this video game today and it didn't freeze . The difference is I made my own workouts. I made a cardio boxing workout by filling all the slots with boxing until I hit 30 minutes. I also made a mixed shorter workout to test it.

There is nothing more frustrating than having the game freeze up on you in the middle of a workout and not saving any of your progress. Xbox did an update and a lot of things changed so I thought I would try it again. Tonight went fine so I will try it again tomorrow.

As you can see by the link on the side they lowered the price another ten dollars since I bought it. I think if they fixed the bugs it will be well worth the money. I really like the make your own program feature as long as it works and I don't have to keep starting over I will keep using this as a work out tool.

Pizza Made My Week.

So last night I broke down and got pizza and by the end of today I will have eaten a whole medium. I think I am going to let myself do that once in awhile. I still feel good and I am actually in the mood to get more done today because I am not just thinking about food.

We go to the store tomorrow so I can get more variety in my healthy meals. I can't take too many more days of chicken and broccoli. I don't like a lot of veggies but I like fresh mushrooms, zucchini and bean sprouts. I like salads too but I doubt I will find many good looking salad ingredients this time of the year.

I tried some clothes on and I am just a few pounds off from fitting nicely into some of my skirts that I made this summer. I was really excited to see that my stomach is loosing weight this time. I looked nice in quite a few outfits I tried on. Not great but much better.

It helps me stay motivated to do this once in a while. I didn't do the greatest cardio workout yesterday it was only a half an hour of step and boxing moves I made up but I did do a killer arm workout. More than the one that left me sore for days last time. Today I am just mildly sore and hope to do a killer lower body workout tonight and maybe a similar cardio workout but try to go longer and keep the heart rate up higher.

I need to start doing more core exercises but I don't know that many. I just know crunches and other floor exercises that kill my back. There has to be something I can do that won't make me need a pain killer for the back pain. It is not the lying on the floor it is the upward sit up or crunch motion. So I am open to any other type of ab exercises you all know about.

Well off to get some more stuff done around here. I think it would be a good thing to put away the loads of laundry that are in baskets as well as the stuff I tried on and didn't put away.

Working, Exercising and Cooking Healthy

So today I worked from 9am-5pm and still managed to get my meals in. I can't seem to manage no bread so I have decided to have a piece of peanut-butter toast once a day when I just can't stay away from the bread. It is high fiber whole grain bread so it is not that bad.

Most of my meals are made and I just heat them and eat while I am working. I am eating about 5 small meals a day. I am was having trouble with some hunger today so I had a cup of milk.

I have chicken in the oven with enough left overs for the next day plus two extra parts of chicken from last night. Hopefully I can remember to keep this up. I am also going to have to grab some shrimp for something I can cook quickly with some veggies and stir-fry sauce.

I spent an hour on my elliptical last night and plan to do that again tonight. I have to stay up late because I have to work tomorrow from 6:45pm -Wednesday 7:15am. So what better way than to make myself work out.

I am still worried about the eating thing tomorrow because even if I stay up later tonight I will be up for 18+ hours tomorrow so I will have to split the food into six meals and I am sure I will want at least one extra meal. I really need to get healthy and I am very motivated to do so. I guess I just have to take it one step at a time.

Diet and Exercise and Lunch with Mom

So I was gone most of today with my mom. I am going to get on my elliptical in about an hour and then maybe a bubble bath before bed. I have to work 9-5 tomorrow. Those are day shift hours then night shift the next day.

I did pretty well today with my eating. I have been eating hard boiled egg whites for breakfast. And mostly baked chicken and veggies or fruit for my other meals. Even for lunch I had meat and vegetables. I had one bite of brown rice and decided more veggies was better.

I am going to have a piece of whole grain bread with some peanut butter and a cup of milk before I work out. Then tomorrow I have all of my protein portions ready to go. I am eating 5 small meals. I have fruit or veggies ready to go with my protein.

My mom and I talked a lot about how we used to eat and work out and what worked for us then. We went to a personal trainer at the same time and we looked over the meal plans she saved. I never could follow the strict diet but I modified it to fit my life. I think one of the big things is the 5 small meals instead of three big ones with crappy snack foods in the middle. I also need to do more strength training but I have been on top of that the last week and a half or so.

On that note I also want to get more cardio in but as anyone who reads this blog knows the epileptic makes a strange noise. When I called about it they said that using it wouldn't void my warranty but I am worried. Well that was before Christmas and I still can't get the repair man to call me back. I have called and left several messages and he just has not called back. I am going to have to call Sole again and get them to call Fitness Tech and have them call me a new repair man. I even called the middleman and left a message and they didn't call me back. Really frustrated about that so I am just going to get on the elliptical tonight and not worry about it. It is not really a loud noise.

I need an hour on the elliptical today and I am going to work on the strength program so I don't need to do any extra strength training today. Hopefully tomorrow I will get some upper body training in and a hills program on the elliptical

Rather Irritated Today

I started my workout last night and the game froze on me half way through. It was a rough workout for me so I didn't want to start all the way over again. I am not sure I would have made it through again. This is the second time it has happened but the first work out was easier.

Now that is something I could get over with if it was not coupled with the pain in my neck. I woke up with such a sore neck I could barely get out of bed. I am okay now with something for the pain and something for the stomach because of the pain meds. I am pretty sure I should stay away from any upper body work outs today so I am off schedule in my game and may have to start over. I hope to at least get on the treadmill tonight if the pain is not too bad.

This seems to be how it goes when I am really on a good health kick something happens and I can't work out .