I SERIOUSLY Need To Buy Eggs

We ran out of eggs over Thanksgiving, and I've been waiting to make my weekly trip to the grocery store for Shop 'N Save Thursday. Yea, I'm one of those maniacs who takes advantage of $10 off my grocery bill.

Looking at my nutrition from the last couple days I really wish I had some eggs. I eat so much better when I start with eggs in the morning.

I've done something that I thought I would never do this week though. I gave up my beloved Rockstar Roasted Light. For any of you have seen me before 10am, you probably saw a Rockstar Roasted in my hand. At one point in my life, gas stations stopped stocking my beloved, and I went so far as to buy two cases online. It's my crack. Matt D. always made fun of me for not being able to give it up. He's one of those Coffee Black drinkers! But I always argued with him on this because it IS the healthiest, tastiest coffee drink you could possibly have. Plus its Rockstar so it had extra energy boosters. Only 100 calories for 16 ounces of coffee goodness. BUT, I am giving it up and have exchanged it for plain-ol-coffee plus a little bit of mocha creamer. So, in exchange for 100 calories I am now going for 35. My diet is getting pretty picky.

Nutrition Apps - A Review of Food Journal Apps

I've given it about a week. And wanted to review the apps I have been using both for nutrition and for exercise. I'm going to give each an overall rating out of 5 stars, plus the pros/cons.

First The Food Journaling Apps:
Livestrong.com & MyPlate App





The website Livestrong.com also operates an App called MyPlate. The App is $2.99 to download.
Pros: Website and App track all nutrients: calories, fat, fiber, carbs, protein, sodium & sugar. For someone who is really looking to track all aspects of their health this is a great breakdown. This App also has verified data for almost any food you could think of and its fitness portion allows you to enter exact calories burned and not just which activity you did.
Cons: The App does not work as well as the website. It does not always sync when you switch between the App and the website. It also does not allow for a presentable export option. If you print the exported document the text is too small to read.

MyFitnessPal.com & My Fitness Pal App

The website MyFitnessPal.com also operates an App called MyFitnessPal. The App is a free download.
Pros: Website and App sync seamlessly together. You can add food via your phone and it will be updated on the website. This App also has almost any food nutrient data. You can also track exact calories burned for each exercise. The export to print option works perfectly for someone wanting a readable copy. This app does allow you to track all nutrients, but you must edit your diary settings on the website in order to make them show up.
Cons: The only con to this app is that you can not enter your own nutrient goals based on a low-carb/high protein diet, etc.

This Challenge Is About More Than Weight Loss

I will preface this blog post with this statement: I am currently unemployed!

With that said, my day consists of waking up and eating breakfast, surfing job boards for marketing and communication positions I can apply for, stumbling out of my pajamas and into workout clothes which look strangely similar, then heading to the gym, coming home to eat lunch, working on my freelance projects: invitations, holiday cards, websites, and watching way too much reality television or CSI. It seems like those are my only options.

So on Tuesday, I met up with Matt D. at Golds Gym to fit in my weekly personal training session. I knew going into this workout that we were going to weigh and measure since I wouldn't see him on Thursday. Up until Tuesday morning, I was feeling a bit defeated but was trying to convince myself that weight loss would happen. I had been working SO hard to burn 1000 calories each workout and was tracking my food and felt it just was not happening.


After my workout on Tuesday, I felt like someone punched me in the throat it was so hard to breathe. But honestly, I think I just get frustrated with how easy it is for some people to lose weight when I know how hard I have to work to get there. As a woman, it is slightly frustrating to look at someone who is the same size as you but weighs 10 pounds less than you. You wonder why you aren't there or why it seems to be so much harder for you to get there. Then when I got home I watched "I Used To Be Fat," one of those reality TV shows I've caught now that I'm jobless. The girl on this week's show talked about how it was really hard to stay with it when the people around her weren't also willing to follow a diet or exercise. This could not be more true. I find it extremely hard to stay on the right path when people close to me are not also working hard at the gym or journaling every little thing that goes into their body.

I am happy to say that after weighing in with Matt on Tuesday, I was down one pound and my measurements have dropped. So, I'm going to stay focused on that and less on how easy it is for others to drop weight.

Tuesday, Matt set up a deadly little workout for me:
50 reps of the battling rope (as a warm-up) and I hate this thing as is.
10 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
8 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
6 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
4 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
2 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back

Repeat with cleans instead of swings
Repeat with high pulls instead of swings and sprint after every 8 and 2
Repeat with snatches instead of swings and sprint after every 8 and 2

50 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
40 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
30 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
20 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats

Then we did 10 reps on both right and left sides and overhead with slamming a ball against the wall.

Food, Food and More Food

Everyone in my family loves, and by loves I mean OBSESSES over Thanksgiving food. For years, my mom has made enough deserts that each person could have their own pie. More stuffing than anyone has seen. AND, I hardly eat on Thanksgiving.

This is probably a blessing in disguise since I am doing this challenge. I don't eat stuffing. I don't like gravy. I really just eat Turkey, Salad and a roll. So this year I volunteered to make the salad, since I will eat most of it.

I'm trying to not bog this blog down with posts of nutrition. So here are my meals for the past few days. I'm going to go ahead and posts today's journal even though I'm not done eating for the day. John and I made lean ground beef tacos for a very late lunch today since I got moving so much later.

Nutrition for Monday, November 21:I bought these voila frozen meals for something easy and healthy to make for dinner. It is noodles with chicken and LOTS of veggies (carrots, broccoli, corn). I took most of the chicken and broccoli since John hates broccoli. We used to love these meals. However, today's SUCKED! Will not be eating that again.

Nutrition for Tuesday, November 22:
I feel like I did better on this day, even though I had a few hundred more calories I could eat. My Carb to Protein level was much more where I wanted it. Plus if you haven't tried Trader Joe's Flax Chips you should. They taste amazing and have fiber unlike most tortilla chips. Today's workout was rough for me, but I'll post about that separately.

Nutrition for Wednesday, November 23:

Workout Apps and Nutrition

I've been doing workouts from a book I purchased about 6 months ago when Borders went out of business. 101 Fat Burning Workouts.

Workouts For The Week:
Thursday - Kettlebells, Ball Slams, Bounce Squats (that's what I'll call them) and Boxing with Matt D. Oh and the dreaded treadmill push.
Friday - 30 minutes cardio on the Arc Trainer and a full body circuit workout from my book.
Saturday - I took Saturday off because I went to The Urge show the night before and was lacking sleep.
Sunday - Boxing - took me 80 minutes to burn 1000 calories my arms were limp noodles but I love boxing.
Monday - Today I tried something new. I downloaded 5 workout apps on my droid phone and thought I would give them a try. Most of them have "motivators" which talk over the workout. I'm going to do a review of these in more detail in another post. But, I did a 20-min intense workout (push ups, burpees, jumping lunges, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, plank leg raises, etc) Then I did a 40-min Elliptical Intense workout, but I hate elliptical so I used the Arc-Trainer instead. 1000 calories burned in a little less than 80 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with Matt for my PT session since Thursday is Turkey Day. Gonna jump on the scale, but I'm afraid I haven't lost anything yet. Which is disappointing with what I've been doing. But I'm GOING TO STICK WITH IT!

Do nothing, get nothing. Do something, get something!

So, I hadn't posted my nutrition from yesterday yet, so here it is, definitely still not where I want to be with distribution on carbs v. protein. But not gonna give up there.

Nutrition - Sunday, November 20, 2011:

Nutrition - Tracking Food Is The Hardest Part of This Process

Breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, Spinach, RF Cheese, Banana

Working out has always been the easiest part of weight loss for me. I have a great trainer who has introduced me to sports really, that I love. Boxing and beating the crap out of something when you've had a bad day - nothing beats that feeling. But, nutrition that's another story.

I'm pretty good at tracking nutrition once I'm a few weeks in, but starting off it just seems impossible, BUT I'm going to do it.

Post Workout Lunch - Salad and Protein Smoothie

The website I use is Livestrong.com. I've used a lot of food journaling techniques: Weight Watchers, Excel Sheets, Spark People, My Calorie Counter. I feel like the best option has been Livestrong.com. It has any food you could possibly think of already programmed in, and on the fitness side you can enter the exact number of calories burned instead of selecting some generic exercise.

So, to reach my target of 2lbs lost each week - I am aiming for 1,400 calories a day. I also will be doing one "off" meal a week to give myself a break on the weekends.

Now for my nutrition for Day 1 - November 18, 2011:

Michelle - Goals and Measurements

Michelle is one of the lovelies who will be participating in the 6 week challenge with me. Here are her starting pictures and goals.

Michelle's Starting Stats
Age: 35

Gender: Female

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 158

Neck: 13.5"

Bicep: 11.5"

Chest: 38.5"

Waist 1: 34.25"

Waist 2: 32"

Hip: 42.25"

Thigh: 24.5"

Calf: 14.5"

 

Goals 

• Workout a minimum of 5x a week
• Burn at least 1000 calories each workout
• Lose 10lbs 
• Cut mile running time by at least 2 minutes (13:35) <---- because that is poopy.
• Decrease waist, hips and thighs by at least 1 inch each.
• Lose 1 chin (at least half an inch from neck)
• See more definition in my arms and shoulders. (and 1 ab would be nice)

Let The Games Begin - Keri's 6 Week Challenge Goals & Measurements

It begins tomorrow morning - officially.

My job for the next 6 weeks is to better my fitness level through nutrition and exercise. I've recruited my sister-in-law, Michelle; my lovely friend, Kelly; and my husband, John. They will be participating in this challenge with me over the next 6 weeks. And as long as they allow I will share their journeys also.

So, the idea is to establish a body composition goal for 6 weeks, bringing us straight to New Year's Eve. However, first we should take a look at where I am starting. I just got married, I say just but it has been 3 months already. I recently lost my job and have put back on some of that wedding weight I worked so hard to get off.

Keri's Starting Stats:
Age: 27
Gender: Female
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 174
Chest: 38.5"
*Waist 1: 36"
*Waist 2: 31"
Hips: 44.5"
Bicep: 12.5"
Thigh: 26.5"
Calf: 14"

*Some of you may be confused about my having two waists. One is a measurement around the bellybutton. Two is a measurement around the small of the waist.

When I was thinking of a goal, I really thought of several things I wanted to accomplish:

• Workout a minimum of 5 times a week
• Burn at least 1,000 calories each workout
• Decrease my Waist 1 measurement to 34"
• Decrease my Junk In The Trunk to 42"
• And my MAIN GOAL - lose 12 pounds

What Is The 6 Week Health Challenge

It's simple really. Starting Friday, November 18, 2011, there will be 6 weeks until New Year's Eve.

That gives you 6 weeks to set a reasonable body composition goal and achieve it during a time when most Americans gain weight.

This challenge was first posed to me by my personal trainer, Matt D. at Gold's Gym. I was recently let go from my full-time job and personal training has been an interest of mine. So, I am taking this time to challenge my friends and family to better their health and join me in my weight loss goals.

Over the course of the 6-weeks, I will document my workouts, food journal and feelings as I go through the process. If any of my friendly competitors want to share their stories, I will also post those here. Also, I will be documenting the process with photos and videos.

So what do you say? Take control of your health over the holidays, jump start your New Year's Resolution and set a goal for the next 6 weeks!

Personally, my goals are as follows:
- Workout a minimum of 5 times a week
- Burn a minimum of 1000 calories during each workout
- Journal my food daily

I haven't established my body composition goal yet, but I'm thinking a 10 pound weight loss goal.

Chicken, It's What's For Dinner - Chicken Taco Salad

This has got to be one of John and I's favorite recipes. Extremely easy to make, and the chicken can be swapped out for lean ground turkey or lean ground beef.

Now for our preparation, we use a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker - mainly because this makes cooking chicken in the microwave so easy! It won't taste like rubber, no worries.

If you do not have a Deep Baker - just substitute by using a skillet.

Ingredients (serves 3)
3 chicken breasts
Low Sodium McCormick Taco Seasoning
Lettuce
Diced Tomato
Shredded Low Fat Cheddar Cheese
Salsa (Your Favorite)
Taco Salad Shells (For The Men In Your Life)
or For Low Fat Option use Tortillas or Baked Tortilla Chips

Directions
If you have a Deep Covered Baker, Slice the chicken in long thin strips. Season with 2 tbsp Taco Seasoning, and put inside the baker. Microwave for 8 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

If you have a Skillet, Slice the chicken in long thin strips and cook on Medium heat until cooked through.
Once chicken is cooked, drain any oil from the skillet. Add 2 tbsp Taco Seasoning to the skillet with 2 tbsp water. Cook on low heat to let seasoning soak in.

Once the Chicken is prepared you can prep the taco salad shells following packaging instructions, or use tortillas or tortilla chips as the base. Add your favorite toppings, and you are ready to eat!