"Don't you know that you're toxic?"

As I was working out tonight (Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred--it's a butt kicker!!!), I was thinking about toxic people when it comes to working out and eating right.  Then of course, Britney Spears song "Toxic" came into my head!  I think I might have slight A.D.D......oh look!!! A squirrel!!!  Just kidding!  Anyway, back on topic...focus Suzanne, focus!!!

Do you have toxic people in your life when you're trying to change your lifestyle of eating right and exercising or people that try to sabotage your efforts anytime they get the chance?  If so, you need to get rid of them, or put them in their place.  It is already hard enough to do what we're doing without someone waving a Krispy Kreme doughnut in our face while we're eating our 160 calorie Oikos Greek Yogurt (key lime pie is my favorite!!).  Thankfully, right now I don't have trouble with this....or if I do, I feel like I am at a point where I can shut it out.  For example, tonight as I sat eating my grilled chicken breast with shredded lettuce and tomato with a smidge of mustard (no bun) from Sonic, my hubby had a big ol' juicy cheeseburger!!  What got me through was the fact that I had just added in my calories into My Fitness Pal and knew how many calories he was shoving in his pie hole with that cheeseburger...and quite frankly it disgusted me!  But he doesn't taunt me with it or talk about how amazing it was ('cause trust me, if I wasn't counting calories, I'd be stuffing a big ol' cheeseburger in my pie hole too!)  But, I digress!

The point of this is, if you are just beginning in your journey or don't have much willpower, you need to let everyone around you know that you are trying to adopt a new lifestyle and to either hop on board with you or get outta your way!  I know it isn't easy (trust me!!!).  I used to work in a doctor's office where around Christmas time our patients LOVED us sooooo much that they would bring cookies, cakes, and pies (all homemade yummy goodness)!!  And it was so incredibly hard to stay out of the break room and not stuff my face with all that junk food!  And to be honest, I didn't do too well at it (which is why I am in the boat I am in now....AND I had a baby!)  Lol!  Anyway, I feel like I completely lost the point somewhere in all this hub-bub so I will go now!

When you get a chance, read this article!  It's Sabotage!

Peace y'all!

Suzanne

Yo-yo

I know y'all probably get tired of reading my blog and seeing that I yo-yo so much with dieting.  Technically it isn't really yo-yoing though because I'm not off and on and off and on I just jump from "diet" to "diet".  After the 6 lb weight loss I was only able to keep 3 of the 6 lbs off that I lost during the 4 day off cycle of the  Three Day Military Diet.  I started it again on Monday but Thomas and I went to Campbell University to visit two girls that go to our church that attend there on Tuesday so I couldn't stick to the diet for supper.

So, I have now started counting calories.  It is going pretty well and really opens your eyes up to see what you really consume in a day's time.  I have been reading a blog and two of her followers decided to start a facebook "fit camp" page. It has over 7,000 members now and we all (or whoever can) started October 1st the 30 days of Jillian Michaels challenge where for every day in October you will do some sort of Jillian Michaels workout.  I decided to take on 30 Day Shred and it is kicking my butt.

I was going to attempt to do my couch to 5k (C25K) program every other day with it but I find it extremely difficult unless I do one in the morning and one in the evening.  My amazing hubby took our son to work with him on Monday so I could get the house cleaned.  I literally cleaned from 10 AM to around 6 PM that night and now it seems that it needs cleaned all over again.  I HATE DOING DISHES!!!!!!!!!!!  I vacuumed and dusted every room, changed the sheets, did laundry, vacuumed the cob webs out of the corners of the room, did dishes, and then attempted to do day 3 of C25K.  Haha, it is a 30 minute program and I got about 10 minutes in and went from the jogging 1 minute to walking 1 1/2 minutes I think the 2nd or 3rd time around and almost lost my footing because my legs completely locked up.  I felt like a total failure and knew that I probably shouldn't do the workout but wanted to anyway because I knew it would make me feel better.  Boy was I wrong.  I don't know if I still have so much weight to lose that I need to wait until I lose about 20-30 lbs and then restart C25K or just take it a little slower and make a 9 week program more like a 12-14 week program.  Thoughts? Suggestions?

I decided to stop doing the 30 day at home CrossFit workouts, mainly because I was getting bored with them.  It is all body weight exercises and I have more equipment now than when  I first started that I need to incorporate into the workouts.  I think I might start back at the beginning of my CrossFit workout notebook and do those workouts and add in some other exercises that use my new equipment.  I am getting so bored with all this but I know it is what I need to do to better myself and it makes me feel so much better.

So I know I have only been counting calories for a few days but I am so incredibly impatient and I want to start seeing some results!!!  How long does it take before you start noticing or see the numbers on the scale going down?

Take care y'all!

Suzanne

Down 6 lbs!!

I am finished with my first 3 day rotation of the Three Day, Military Diet and I am down 6 lbs.  I exercised on Monday and Tuesday but did a ton of housework with a baby strapped to my chest (thanks Moby Wrap!!) on Wednesday so that was  my exercise!  LOL!  I drank half my body weight in water on those 3 days, my skin is clearer and I am feeling good!!!  Although I didn't see the 10 lb weight loss, I will take the 6 lbs.  I am getting over closer to my first goal!  Yay!!!  I hope everyone has had a good week so far!  Keep on keepin' on!

Suzanne

Guinea Pig

I am trying something new to jump start my metabolism and weight loss.  I found this page: Three Day Military Diet while browsing Pinterest.  I bought all of the stuff that I needed on Friday and today is my first day.  So Day 1 you eat 1/2 grapefruit (grapefruit isn't in season right now so I bought a jar of the Del Monte red grapefruit in light syrup and rinsed it a couple of times and ate that.), with 1 piece of toast ( I had 1/2 of a sandwhich round) smeared with 1 TBS of peanut butter and then I ate the other 1 TBS of off the spoon. :)  And I found a purple acai and blueberry green tea and I had a cup of that this morning.  I am feeling pretty good.  I think I may need to find a different tea to drink because there isn't much caffeine in green tea.  This diet also has a facebook page and I was reading some tips on how to succeed on this and it says to take your body weight and divide it in half and try to consume that many ounces of water a day....yeah, that's a lot of water.  But I'm gonna try it!  I will just be visiting the ladies room all day!  I have already drank 30 oz. of water this morning.  Here's to something new!  I will keep y'all posted on my progress but I am not weighing again until the beginning of day 4 when the diet is complete. I can't believe I'm doing this for all the world all 5 of you that read my blog to see but you have to start somewhere right?  These are my before pictures and I never want to go back to looking like this again.  I am learning to love myself no matter what I look like but it's extremely hard when you find so many imperfections.  Will you keep me accountable and just check up on me to see how I'm doing?  I would appreciate it!  Thanks for reading!

Suzanne

Day 2 and 3

Day 2, I lovingly dubbed "CHEAT DAY!!!"...I started attending a Bible study at First United Methodist Church in Washington for Young Moms.  It started last week but I had just found out about it that day so I wasn't able to attend so I got Little Man and I ready (with the help of daddy) and hit the road.  It started at 9:30 and ended at around 11:30.  The group is going through Colossians and it is intense.  Kinda makes me feel like I'm in college all over again!  But I'm hoping to make some new friends and learn more about Paul's letter to the church at Colosse.  Little Man did wonderful in the nursery and I overall had a good time.  There are several groups that meet and then everyone comes together for a little bit of food and fellowship and a devotion.  The leader of the devotion talked about putting God first in our lives and how Paul talks about in Colossians chapter 1 how God is the head of everything and every battle that we may face, there is no need to worry about because Jesus has already gone before us to fight that battle.  I kind of got my toes stepped on a bit with the whole worry thing and also how I prioritize my life.  I spend incredibly too much time watching TV and on the computer that I don't put God where he rightly deserves to be in my life.  Hmm, just some food for thought.  

So, I didn't do bad at all during the fellowship time.  I had a few strawberries, chunks of pineapple, and a few slices of apples and water to drink.  Hubby and I were doing really well about making a habit of eating together on Wednesdays since I had to come over that way anyway for church and praise team practice but the last month or so we haven't been doing very well, so since I was already in the area because of the Bible study, we decided to do lunch.  He let me pick and we went to The Plantation House in Washington and I had the BBQ Plantation burger...holy cow it was good....hamburger with bbq sauce and grilled onions and mushrooms....YUM-O!  And I had unsweet tea with sweet-n-low and a few sweet potato fries.  Bad, bad, bad....but then supper time came and I have an extremely hard time eating healthy at church, mainly because when a group cooks you have to eat that particular food.  I guess I could start eating before I come or making my meal ahead of time and bringing it with me.  They had fried chicken, cole slaw, and potato salad and then I had a piece of german chocolate cake.....OH MY GOODNESS!!!  Soooo bad!!!  And, to top it all off......I DIDN'T WORK OUT!!!!!!!!!  So not only was yesterday my cheat day, it was my rest day too! Grrrr.....

But, day 3 (Today!) I am back at it!   I had my coffee this morning and made bacon and eggs (no toast) and I just got done working out.  I did 3 rounds for time of: walk/run 1/4 mile and 50 air squats.  I am proud to say that I ran more than I walked but I feel soooo incredibly fat when I run on a treadmill...well run in general.  First of all, I am NOT a runner by any means and all this extra weight just kinda flaps in the wind....ick.  But I completed the workout in 21:50 and thought I might pass out or throw up.......and it was glorious!!!

Happy Thursday y'all!

-Suzanne-

Day 1

While I have been eating pretty decent the last week and a half, I haven't been exercising.  Quite frankly, coming off of this ankle injury, I have been scared to do much of anything for fear of hurting myself even more.  But I sucked it up and dealt with it.  I started doing CrossFit in 2009 (I think) and was gung-ho for it, but looking through my plethora of CrossFit workouts that I've done in the past, I was afraid to go all in.  So, I looked up some CrossFit at home workouts and found this blog:

http://cleaneatsinthezoo.com/index/30-day-at-home-crossfit-challenge-workouts/

He has a 30 day at home crossfit challenge going on with pretty much bodyweight exercises and if you can't or don't run outside, you can do the running on a treadmill or bike or swim (whichever you prefer). So I did day 1 today: 5 rounds for time of: 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 air squats and then I added in 10 10lb kettlebell swings.  I feel great but also feel like a fatty because I know I'm nowhere near where I was!  But, as long as I keep on keepin' on, I will do this and I will get back to where I was and hopefully surpass where I was.

So, I opened my Pandora "Hard Rock Strength Training" radio station and went to it. I completed these exercises in just under 10 minutes.  9:58 to be exact.  Not where I wanted to be, but I know I'll get there.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Sometimes I wish I was one of those people that could just change the way I eat and lose weight.  Although this works for me for a time, I just become "skinny fat" (look it up on Urban Dictionary--lol) and that is not what I want.  Like I stated in a post before, I want to be one of those women that people look at and say, "She had a baby?!" And right now, I know I am NOWHERE near there!

So, I am hoping I can stick with this for the next 30 days and then move onto the level 2 that Clean Eats in the Zoo has or go back to the workouts that I have in my notebooks!

As I stated above, I've been doing really well with eating.  Saturday night I broke out my Everyday Paleo Cookbook by Sarah Fragoso:

I made her "Spicy Speedy Stuffed Peppers" also found at http://everydaypaleo.com/?s=stuffed+peppers and they were delish!  Last night, I made her Hasta La Vista Pasta Lasagna where the "lasagna" is thinly sliced zucchini.  I loved the meat mixture, but wasn't too keen on the zucchini--it was bitter!  Bleck!  But, I'll still eat the leftovers!

Anyway, hope everyone has a happy Tuesday!

-Suzanne-

I'm actually doing it!!

So, for the past 3 days, I have actually stuck to my diet and I feel INCREDIBLE!  I am pretty much doing paleo, but not completely hardcore and still doing SOME dairy.  Two and a half weeks ago, while I was in Virginia Beach for my uncle's funeral, I sprained my ankle as we were leaving on Sunday.  I was only on crutches for a day (hey, mama's can't let a sprained ankle get in the way of taking care of their baby!).  It is finally getting better and I am getting a lot more movement out of it but still not sure that I want to take on CrossFit quite yet (what can I say, I'm scared!!!) I have to ease my way back into it.  Anyway, not a ton to update on.  I had lost like 8 pounds, but the week that I sprained my ankle was heck for me in the eating department because we were doing quick, freezer meals so hubby was able to come home and just throw it in the oven.  So, I've gained it all back.  But I will do this....slow and steady wins the race.  My parents have planned their next trip for the end of October so I'm trying really hard to stick to it so I can lose some weight for that and then also, we are trying to go to Kansas for Christmas and I don't want to look like a fatty.  Ultimately, I want people to look at me and say "She had a baby?!"  Haha, wishful thinking right?  Hubby and I have also made a conscious effort to start getting up earlier in the mornings, spending time in the word, and I am hopefully going to start using that as my workout time.  Anyway, love to you and yours!

Suzanne