Back at it!

I've been incognito for awhile but I'm gradually getting back at it. Moving has consumed all of my time recently but now that we are settling in I'm starting to get back to my routine. I'm such a creature of habit that when I have to make changes It really throws me off! But as I always do I just have to just do it. 

IHRSA 2014

Last week I had a opportunity to attend the fitness industries largest tradeshow and convention, IHRSA 2014 in San Diego, CA. I was blessed to not only get to see the up and coming equipment/trends but to also be mentored by some of the BEST in the industry from all over the world. I am so excited to bring back what I've learned to implement in our club and our community!




The tradeshow was held in the San Diego Convention Center with hundreds of vendors attending.





We got to see an awesome performance from the KriStef Brothers at the tradeshow. They were a finalist on Americas got talent last year....and they have serious talent!

It was a great reminder to why it is I love doing what I do. I was also reminded that fitness isn't just about being "thin" or "skinny" but its about living a more productive, happy & healthy life. It never ceases to amaze me how many people fail to see thru to this aspect. Although, I did manage to maintain a fairly decent diet and drink my Shakeology every morning, I'm going to share the highlights of my week with you.

Although we stayed busy during the day, we had enough time to enjoy ourselves in the evening and wind down. It was great to be able to spend time together with my co-workers outside of work as well. We were only a few blocks from the Gas Lamp District so we spent most of our evenings there. It was such a good time! Dinner and maybe even a few drinks.... :-)

And what would a trip to San Diego be without a nice chauffeured bike carriage ride through downtown?! Ha! What a fun night we had!

Our last night in San Diego we were able to be a part of an absolutely amazing event that I've heard so much about through out my fitness career: Augies Quest. This is a fundraiser to help find a cure for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. I was in complete "awe" to see the event had raised $1.7 million! It really was a treat to see fitness professionals from all over the world come together for a greater cause. AND we were also treated with an up close and personal performance from Smash Mouth to wrap up the night. I can't wait to see what next year brings!


we got to enjoy an upfront spot at the Smash Mouth performance

 

Week 3

Wow! What a week it has been! I haven't even had a chance to post since last Tuesday. I've been so busy I hadn't even realized it until I sat down to write this post!
So...where do I even start?! I guess the good news: As of my last weigh in I was down 2.4lbs!! Woot! and even better news?! I managed to maintain the loss in the craziness of the past week....I'll take it as a win! Due to the craziness around here we weren't eating as we should have been and ate out pretty much all weekend. I may have even indulged in a few adult beverages. :-)
I think sometimes in our crazy lives we have a few bad days and get off track and get discouraged instead of just realizing that sometimes life simply just "happens". There are going to be times we get thrown off track but that's ok. Just DON'T GIVE UP! Tomorrow is always a new day, right?So, you want to know why my life has been so crazy this week?! ( I may be just a little excited!) We found a house that we LOVE and put in an offer, which was accepted! It was completely unexpected and happened really quick so we had to scramble to get our house ready to sell so we can move!!(Somebody buy my house!) So instead of thinking about what I was going to eat all week and prepping our food, I was painting and cleaning all week. But I made it through so today on my break, I am prepping a few days worth of food and will do some more tomorrow evening.

I've been craving asparagus so that's on todays list as well as chicken breast. Easy enough! I'm doing something different with my asparagus and hopefully it'll work. Instead of having to oven bake it, I'm going to cook it on my George Foreman grill. I've never made it like this before so I'm just hoping I don't overcook it. And since I already have the grill warm, I just threw the chicken on after I took off the asparagus. It only took me about 20 minutes from start to finish to make a few days worth of food. Anyone has time for that, right?

On my way

This week has proven to be a tough one for me. I havent felt the best so the idea of cooking just wasn't something I wanted to do. Luckily I had already prepped my lunch/snacks so I only had to deal with dinners. So for the most part I stayed on track but did have a few cheat meals....Pasta being one of them. But how could I not eat it when my awesome, thoughtful friend showed up at my door with my dinner prepped for me? Her version of Chicken noodle soup...and it was delish! (I did refrain from any cake, cookies or brownies for the week though, which is a WIN!!)

I've had two weeks now of successful food prepping and Shakeology and I feel much better than I have in quite a while. The first week was by far the worst but it's getting easier as it goes especially since I'm starting to see results. I'm not feeling nearly as bloated, my clothes are starting to fit better and I don't feel as sluggish. It never ceases to amaze me what a difference it makes to eat a cleaner diet. So, with that being said, for week three,  I'm keeping it simple: Rotisserie Chicken, fresh green beans and left over brown rice and sweet potato from previous dinners, which I just weighed, bagged and threw  in the freezer to use this week.

I didn't even try to cook a chicken. My last experience was not a pleasant one.....lol. How does one actually cook a chicken upside down and not know it?!? Well, I did and the answer is...I just am not cut out to be a cook, I guess. Ha! So I just bought a cooked Rotisserie chicken, measured it out into

4 oz. portions &  pan seared my fresh green beans so they were slightly less than done so they wouldn't be squishy when I warmed them up and put them in the containers to grab and go! The Rotisserie and package of green beans was enough for four servings total. I'll make a few salads later in the week and maybe some fish for the rest of my meals.

 

I'll be weighing in tomorrow and hope to see my hard work paying off. Wish me luck!

 

 

I want cookies!!

So, I'm 10 days in to my clean(er) eating plan and today I'm just not feeling it! I don't feel well which means I don't want to cook either. Normally I would order in something that probably wouldnt be healthy but I'm making myself cook. Meatloaf. Not the best. Not the worst. Plus, It only takes a minute to throw together and then I can just throw it in the oven and be done with it.

So, now the issue is, I would really like a cookie. I LOVE cookies!! Alot. But, like my trainer Maria Carlone says "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". So instead, I'm making a coffee with a little bit of white chocolate mocha creamer to soothe my sweet toothe. That notmally does the trick. 

I guess the moral of this story is this: We all have moments of weakness. We are only human. Sometimes you cave in, sometimes you don't. Regardless of weather you eat the cookie or not you have to make a concious decision. How bad do you want it? Is the short term satisfaction worth the sacrifice of your long term goals? My answer is no. So I'm going to suck it up and continue eating my spinach salads and plain tasteless food because I really want this! 

Weigh in and more food prep

Tomorrow officially begins The Biggest Loser Challenge. While I'm not looking forward to the weigh in and having to admit how much I've let myself gain over the past 6 months, I am happy to be getting back on track. Last week was my "pre-game" week so to speak. I stayed on track for about 75% of the time as far as my diet but nailed it on my workouts. It really helped giving myself a little time to adjust back to a cleaner/healthier eating plan as opposed to trying to cur everything out all at once.

So, as per my weekly ritual, today I took a few hours and prepped my upcoming weeks worth of food (lunch & snack) as well as planned our dinners. This weeks menu consists of: lean ground beef, grilled chicken, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, hard boiled eggs & spinach salad. I always start with the raw foods so I started with our salads this week. Last week we did more of a traditional salad so to change it up I decided a simple salad with spinach, red onion and bacon. 

This is probably one of my favorite salads! YUMM! Anyway.....next I was on to cooking. Since sweet potatoes take the longest I just threw them in the oven while I prepped and cooked the other stuff.

Sooo...If you know me, chances are you know that I'm not the best cook, nor do I do it that often. So I'm very thankful for Youtube! I had absolutely no idea of what to do with a brussel sprout...lol! Turns out they are also pretty simple to make so I trimmed them up and threw them in the oven with the sweet potatoes.

All I had left after was boiling the eggs and cooking the hamburger patties. I already had pre packaged patties (enough to feed the neighborhood from the last 1/4 beef we purchased) and a George Foreman grill so that took about 5 minutes of my time.For me, I weighed out 4oz beef, 3oz sweet potato and just threw a portion of the brussel sprouts in the container....I'm really not sure how much is a serving so I just wung it! 👍😉 I now have enough food/snacks to get me through the week. This is starting to be easier already so with any luck I'll stay strong.
Tomorrow I'll be weighing in and getting measured so I'll let you know how that goes 😬

I Workout!

Ha! I feel like I'm officially back on the exercise train. This week I've had 2 days of Brickhouse (Mon & Wed) AND I even ran (on the treadmill) 2 days! I got about 6.5 miles in...👍🏃

I have to thank my husband for giving me inspiration to want to run. It was his wonderful Valentines Day gift that made me want to go run some more. Wireless ear buds. They are AMAZING, by the way!

I cant wait to run again. Even if it does have to be on the treadmill for the time being. Next week I'm aiming for Mon, Wed, Fri at Brickhouse, train with Maria Tue or Thursday and run 2x. Monday is weigh in day for the Biggest Loser and I've got some pretty heavy competition so I need to stay on my game. Thank you Shakeology for fueling me through these workouts!