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

Introduction.....

I haven't blogged in sooo long, I am not going to pretend I have regular followers or that anyone knows who I am anymore!   I am introducing myself in case there is anyone out there who would like to read about my journey.

So here is a little about me:

- My name is Meghan (you may or may not have guessed that)

- I am 35 years young (yikes, what.... how did that happend?!?!)  (oh, and you never would have guessed that if you met me in person.... kidding!)

- I am a wife to a handsome younger man who will be a whopping 28 years old in October!  Soon I will be only 7 years older than him, not 8)

- I am momma to a almost 21 month old son (again.... YIKES!  What how did that happen)

- I used to be a 'Senior' Business Analyst , but am currently a stay at home mom

- I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and am gluten intolerant and slightly dairy intolerant

- I like to geek out on documentaries and books related to nutrition

- I dream of being a registered dietician when I grow up and helping people improve their lives through eating real food.

A little about my weight loss journey:

- I did Jillian Michaels Body Revolution from February- May 2012 and lost 10 lbs.

- I did Les Mills Pump from May- August 2012 and lost 0 lbs.

- I have sat on my butt and drank wine and had lots of desserts and partied it up the last few weeks  taken a little bit of a rest and have put on alot of the weight I lost, maybe five lbs-ish.  Kids this is not new muscle.... not at all.

- I was going to do Chalean Extreme and turned off the DVD 2 minutes into it, not for me

- I decided to do Body Revolution again 2 weeks ago and 2 of my DVDs were destroyed by my son, so I just couldn't

-My DVDs were kindly replaced so I am pretty much out of excuses and am starting over tomorrow.... sigh!  

 - I am 5'11 and at my health assessment the nurse said I should weigh around 115.  I don't weigh that and personally think I would look like a teenage boy at that weight

So if you want to read about someone doing Body Revolution for the second time, follow along.  Or if you are just into gastronomical voyeurism, that is cool too!

Have a great rest of the weekend!  Body Revolution ROUND 2 begins tomorrow!

Blogging about Not Blogging?!?!

We interrupt this streak of not blogging to share:

  the best thing that has ever been created in my kitchen

AND

  my thoughts on not blogging lately

So, 1.  OMG, OMG!  We are swimming in eggplant from our CSA and I stumbled upon an egg plant pizza crust recipe.  The cauliflower pizza crust was a huge fail, but this was just AMAZING.  Topped with tomato, prosciutto, arugula, and oregano.  It's like a thick herbed cracker topped with yummy goodness- not a traditional pizza.

Here is the recipe and a picture of the deliciousness:

http://beta.primal-palate.com/recipe/prosciutto-and-arugula-pizza/

So I went on vacation and then had a week to recover from vacation (toddler on a 3 hour flight- anyone?) and finally read blogs today.  I was on my phone so I didn't comment- sorry everyone.  CT's blog asking why people aren't blogging much anymore made me do some introspection and I think I have an answer.

I MISS blogging, but I am just not inspired anymore.  I started this blog for Jillian's body revolution when working out was still kind of shiny and new. It really consumed a lot of my thoughts-eating, calories, workouts, etc.

I still workout (and eat!), but it's just become something I do everyday.... I don't believe anymore that there is a magic program-I just need to workout and eat right.  So blogging about it is kind of like blogging about brushing my teeth, feel me?

So I am going to start blogging on a regular basis again, but it may not strictly be workout related or food related all the time.  I may start talking about other things that are interesting to me at the moment....all wellness related, but not necessarily 'here's what I ate'  ....  'this was my workout' type of thing.

Food is consuming more of my thoughts as I think that is the key to not only losing weight, but some healing of my autoimmune condition I need to do, stress reduction techniques I am studying, de-toxifying my beauty and household cleaning routine, books I am reading..... those types of things.

We'll see where this goes.  If you like what you see... follow along.  I'll definitely still keep updating on my workouts and food.... it just won't ALWAYS be the focus.

So I need a new blog name  AND Go!

Oh....hi!

Well..... hello!  It has been FOREVER since I have blogged last.  I am not going to make any excuses about being too busy, I know many of you are busier than I am and still find time to blog.  I have zero sh!@ togetherness, but I am working on it.  Seriously, I need to.  Here is an innocent victim of my lack of sh!@ togetherness-

This is my loyal, loving dog.  I feed, water , walk him and shower him with love on a daily basis.  For some reason I HATE taking him to get his haircut.  I kept procrastinating, he kept getting shaggier.  Then I became embarased about how long his hair was... resulting in more procrastinating.  FINALLY, I did what any normal person would do.  I took the money for his haircut and bought a dog clipping kit.  I watched a 15 minute DVD and fancied myself a dog groomer!  Well... hours and hours later he looked BETTER, but not great.

Anyway... I am still going strong with Les Mills Pump!  Today is day 39, I am almost HALFWAY through!  The bad news is that I have maybe lost 2 lbs, some days 1... hard to tell lately.  This is not the fault of Les Mills- There is new muscle under that little layer of fat!  I can feel it.  Since mother's day I just haven't had the dedication I had when I was doing BR.  There's always been an exception of some sort- Mother's Day, my son's 1.5 birthday, Father's Day, etc.

Recently, it was my brother and his wife visiting so LOTS of eating out.  I didn't eat too much or anything, but I did fill up on things like Asian Pizza (seriously sounds weird, but so good) rather than making sure I got my veggies in.  I did like Jillian's meal plan quite a bit and used it as a guide- the Les Mills meal plan is not good (frozen waffles, shakeology, etc).   So all that rambling means I need to REFOCUS on food.

Les Mills workouts are full body workouts, so some weeks you do the same workout 3 times.  This week my main workout is Pump and Shred. This workout is crazy and is about 45 minutes in length.  Each body part is broken up into tracks (the length of a song).

- Start with a five minute warm up
- Squats- a little over 5 minutes.  I am currently squatting about 30 lbs plus the weight of the bar.  5 minutes of squats didn't seem like that long to me, but it wipes my legs out every time.  The squats are varied- by speed and range of motion.
-Chest- again about 5 minutes.  I am using 20 lbs plus the weight of the bar.  This is the hardest for me. 4 minutes of this are chest press.  Sounds boring- right?  No!  You are constantly switching it up.  Down and pulse, singles, down and hold.  After this you do a minute of push ups.  After 4 minutes of chest press I am lucky if I get 30 seconds of push ups on my toes, I have to come to my knees- my arms are TAPPED!
- Back, Glutes, Hamstrings- Classic moves- dead rows and a lot of clean and presses.
- F-ing Lunges- Okay this is my least favorite track because it is murder on your legs.  Slow lunges suck !  I am so grateful when they speedup the lunges.  So you do about 2 minutes of lunging on one leg, break it up with squats for less than a minute, then do 2 minutes on the other leg, then squat again.
- Shoulders- Here you go Bar-Less!  More push-ups then you go into moves with just the plates- side raise, mac raise, overhead press.

One thing I should mention is that with each 'track' is a new trainer.  So if you don't like someone, you only have them for 5 minutes.  The shoulder girl is EVIL.  She is drop-dead freaking gorgeous, she is very soft spoken with a sweet little voice, but her words do NOT match her demeanor:

EVIL.

-Abs- We do various moves in a 'hover' (forearm plank), then do some traditional crunches, and some twists on crunches to work the obliques.
-Cool Down
WHEW!

So,  I try not to become wrapped up in all the Beachbody Hoopla, but I am intriqued by the Ultimate Reset.  It is freaking expensive, but I am friends with my 'coach' on facebook and she keeps posting meals and they look fantastic!  She gave me the recipe for one of the salad dressings and I made it and it got rave reviews.  I seriously want the reset for the recipe book alone.

I don't think I can justify this one, but I keep thinking about it.  Even these cheesy videos are starting to convince me.  Talk me down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfobGC_gAZY&list=UUCRLav5uZ3PdcNhxaMpoXOQ&feature=plcp

Good Night Friends.  I need to read about your happenings tomorrow.  It's gonna be another scorcher so I'll be inside!!