Merry Christmas and Gluten Free Goodies for All!

Many of my handful of followers know why I've been away. An explanation and big change is coming! I just wanted to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas! :)

Hunting and Gathering and Killer Abs

Happy Weekend Healthy People!

I am fever free and very appreciative for my health today.  I am very grateful to my body and for all the work it's done healing.  Fortunately, I only had a fever for less than 24 hours and a mild sore throat on Friday. It could have been so much worse.  I skipped working out on Friday, but did walk quite a bit to get some fresh air.

So, now that the healing is over, it's time to get back to the routine! My hubby and I drooled over our cookbooks this morning and planned out our meals for the week ahead and then headed down to the Farmer's Market.  We try to get as much of our list from the market as possible- we also have a weekly CSA share so have plenty of local veggies on hand.  My hubby got some pumpkin coffee so it definitely feels like fall! :)  LOVE IT.

We did pretty awesome!

My son enjoyed a snack and did some people watching.

We went home, put our goods away and then went out and got the rest of our needed groceries from the grocery store. Again, I try to avoid the grocery store as much as possible- but we needed some staple items so it was to the grocery store we went.

Whew!  It feels good to be prepared for the week!  Now tomorrow can truly be another day of rest!

I value weight training more than cardio and since I missed two days of weight lifting I decided to do a Les Mills pump workout today since they are full body.  I also got my pre-order from amazon so I did this:

I pre-ordered this MONTHS ago when Jillian was in Women's Health promoting it and totally forgot about it, so it was a nice surprise to get in the mailbox today.   Since I already worked out I thought I would take it 'easy' with Level 1.

Okay- no this wasn't that easy.  There are some phase 3 body revolution moves in this workout plus a lot of moves that require quite a bit of balance.

Balance moves:

• Sumo Squat with a side crunch- you are in a sumo and you reach down and crunch toward your ankles
• Warrior Crunch- warrior pose with a 'crunch'
• Lunge with torso rotation- sounds like a BR move, but for the Torso rotation you have your arms fully extended
• Dancing Crab- Again, sounds like a BR, but you actually get on your back, come up into dancing crab- then go back to your back.

Random moves I remember:

• Inchworm- nope not the BR inchworm.  You start standing walk out with your hands to plank, walk your feet up to your hands, then jump back to plank and start over again.
• Plank Jacks, to plank mogul, to plank jacks
• Jump Rope Sequence-  I think it was regular jump rope for 4 counts, switch to kicking out for 4 counts then back.

The cardio intervals were shorter, more frequent, and repeated.  This was truly a full on ab workout though.  The workout was a little over 31 minutes with warm up and cool down.  We'll see how my abs feel in the morning.

All in all, I liked it.  My only complaint is that she re-used names for moves that she has used before.  When she said 'inchworm' or 'dancing crab' I thought 'oh, I know what this is'.  But no, they were new moves old names.  Plus she gave the military march in the warm up a funky name. Everyone knows that move as military march.  A little less CREATIVITY and MORE CONSISTENCY please and thank you.

Off to watch Damages!  Have a great rest of your Saturday.

Well, bugger

I was really starting to feel awesome yesterday. This morning I took my son for a walk and started to feel "off" my heart rate started climbing into the 150's just WALKING. I got home and was freezing and shaking. I took my temp and there you have it- 102! I am definitely skipping the workout today. There are excuses and then there is plain stupidity and I am not going to be stupid!!! I really hope I don't have hand, foot, mouth but all signs are pointing to it. If I have it I'll be drinking water and kombucha and praying for a quick recovery. I'll restart again once I 100%.

Day 3!! :)

My Internet is down and no one can come out to fix it until 09/12, so I am going to do some quick updates from my phone.

Today I did Cardio 1 xs 2. I am actually a little sore today + my son has hand, foot, mouth and isn't sleeping so I am super proud of myself for getting it done.

I saw this and it made me laugh so hard today, this is so me. I do care about politics, but fb this time in the elections is hilarious and I have to laugh at it.

I am just going to put up a photo explosion of my food today, but must comment on the snack. Avocado-strawberry ice cream- genius. Just take an avocado and blend it with a bag of frozen strawberries- makes a few filling servings. Healthy fat, no added sugar and feels like a treat.

I have no clue how this will look on the computer, so my apologies in advance if it's hard to read. Have a great night! :)

Round 2- Day 2! :)

Good morning!

Yesterday was day 2- round 2!  I found workout 2 to be pretty easy the second time around- there aren't any crazy moves in this one (or push ups- whoot!). The workout is longer than workout 1- it pushes 37 minutes and the calorie burn isn't that high because there is a lot of floor work- I burned about 245 calories in the 37 minutes and that was really pushing it with the cardio intervals.  The moves I remember are lunges with torso rotation, table, pelvic thrusts, good mornings, straight crunches, and step ups with weights.  Cardio 1 was pretty breezy as well.

My i-phone camera wasn't working half the day, so I barely got any pictures of my food. My i-phone 3 is on it's last legs, but I have heard the 5 will be out later this month, so I am holding out.

I am running on about 4 hours of interrupted sleep thanks to a sick toddler, so today should be interesting- it is double cardio and yoga day.

Food yesterday-

Steel cut oats topped with mixed berries and 1 egg
Leftover chicken with no cream spinach and broccoli
Banana and almond butter
Enchiladas and cauliflower mexican 'rice'

Have a great day!!

Jill's Big Shocker and Revolution Recap Day 1

I admit it, I spent an hour at home this morning so I could check out Jill's big announcement on the today show.  As soon as  I saw how nervous she looked I could tell she was returning to Biggest Loser.  Oy.... I am very surprised considering how much she has talked about what an awful time in her life that was.  Hopefully it works out better for her though I am not sure about teens on the show.

Yesterday was the big day!  Day 1 of Body Revolution Round 2.   I pulled on my vibrams and got down to business.  I have to admit, I really thought workout 1 would be super easy- no problem.  And it was no problem, but it was harder than expected.  The first time around I did this, I was probably dogging it... but not this time.  I did all the advanced moves- did the jump for all the various squats with the weights and all the other various advanced options she provides.  I was surprised at how difficult push ups were.  Do these ever get easy (or easier)?  I did them from my toes this time around, but seriously, I feel I should be better at these by now.

I also did cardio 1 since I am kickstarting it.  This was great.  I remember how tough I thought cardio 1 was the first time around but it was soooo much easier this time around.  Kickouts with arm circles still totally suck, but running man is nothing now- yay!  I didn't have my heart rate monitor until sometime in phase 2 the first time around, but my calorie burns were pretty good for the early workouts and I haven't even adjusted it to my higher weight yet (we'll get to that).   Keep in mind, I really pushed it today and was dripping sweat ( I barely broke a sweat with these workouts the first round).

Food today was okay.  Good in terms of quality, maybe too much food- but it was a holiday and I am training my taste buds to crave only real food again (not chocolate pb cups and wine).

BF- Scrambled eggs and bacon (Jill suggests canadian bacon- but we had the good stuff we got direct from the farmer so that's what I had).
Lunch- Roasted chicken, roasted veggies (beets, carrots, potato), mashed butternut squash, and salad
Snack- baked apple slices (this was actually dessert so no real 'snack' today)
Dinner- Lemon caper tilapia, leftover roasted veggies, broccoli, and a little gazpacho

Hopefully everyone is bored by now and stopped reading because I am kind of embarrassed to admit my stats, but hey it happens and I will always be honest in my blog. That's the reason I am back I need to be accountable!

Starting weight- 141.5- AGAIN, how did this happen?!?!
Waist-30 inches
Chest- 32 inches
Hips-40 inches
Left Thigh- 19.5 inches
Right Thigh- 18.5 inches
Left bicep-9.1/4 inches
Right Bicep- 9.5 ish inches

Sorry about the bad behind picture, hard to take of yourself.  I will weigh in on Mondays.  There you have it, have a great day. :)

A Tearful Goodbye

I said a tearful goodbye to my vices yesterday and had two chocolate peanut butter cups and a glass of wine....it is sad really- there are so many peanut butter cups left.  I may indulge in one here and there, but not this week.... I have goals.

Last time, I did Body Revolution, I didn't really have an in shape date to shoot for, so I just kind of went with the flow and the weight slowly came off.  I have a goal now that will keep me away from the pb cups this week.

The goal isn't even noble-like to keep up with my kid or have energy for this or that.  Nope- besides the fact that my abs aren't looking super-fly like they were a month ago, I just want to look good for family pictures so when people get my Christmas Card they won't be wondering whether or not I have an announcement to make.

I am exaggerating, kind of.  Really my weight goes to my butt and when you have a kid there is always the kid looking over the shoulder shot.

Today was day 1 of BR- I will talk about it tomorrow as well as give you my starting stats.  Here's hoping for a good butt shot this year, I have 8 weeks left!

XOXO