300 Calorie Dinner

That's right, this dinner was only 300 calories and I was full after eating it!

Grilled Chicken Caprese with Balsamic Sauce and Green Giant Basil Vegetable Medely
And as always accompanied by a nice tall glass of water.

The Grilled Chicken Caprese recipe can be found here.  I used 2lbs of chicken which was 3 large breasts that I cut in half the long way.  I also doubled the sauce because I'm a balsamic whore.  LOVE IT!!!  I used approximately 1oz of cheese per piece of chicken.It was delish!  

And bonus for lunch today I have chicken that has been soaking in balsamic glaze to put on my salad today!  Skipping the tomato and cheese makes my 3 oz of chicken for my salad only 100 calories, add 2 cups of lettuce, some onion, tomato and a serving of Simply Delicious Balsamic dressing and you have a nice 270 calorie lunch! (it would be less if I didn't eat the entire package of cherry tomatoes!)  Oh and look there's that water again, this time flavored with Black Cherry Mio.  I love that stuff!!!

Screw Motivation!

I haven't had motivation in a couple of weeks and it bothers me.  It's not that I'm not losing weight and its not that I don't want to do better, its just an emotional thing that I really can't put my finger on.  It's even been difficult for me to eat right for some reason.  Now when I don't feel I put forth enough effort or eat something I shouldn't have, I get upset with myself, I scold myself and tell myself I need to do better.

The problem is, what is done, is done.  There are very few days that I can get in some extra exercise because I didn't do enough in the morning.  And let's face it, I can't un-eat that slice of pizza.  *well I could, but that's gross and even more unhealthy*

My problem is that I can't seem to carry these feelings over to the next day.

This morning, after being down on myself for a few days (even upset yesterday because I was almost 1000 calories short - a whole other topic on why it's bad), and getting my first full nights sleep this week, I ran for 20 minutes!  While not as long as I'd like it to have been, I still need to push to improve, I'm so glad I did it, even though I wasn't feeling motivated.

When I woke up to my alarm this morning (and not a crying baby) I was shocked and only hit snooze once *anyone who has their alarm set for 3:30 am deserves at least 1 snooze*  I had a slight headache and wasn't sure I really wanted to run.  Right now while running on the treadmill I need something to distract me.  Without a destination I'm running to I find it difficult to keep up my energy and keep going.  I almost gave in and did a video, but a video isn't going to improve my running distance like I want to do.  So I told myself "suck it up and get your ass on the treadmill, you will be glad you did later."  I did my 5 minute warm up walk (which I'm proud to say is .5 mph faster than what it was when I started running 2 months ago) and then I kicked up the speed by a 1mph and ran.  After 5 minutes I just wanted it to be over, after 10 minutes and Smurfs ending *There isn't much but infomercials on at 4am* I decided that I just needed to break that sweat barrier and I'd be fine.  You know that point where go from being warm to dripping with sweat, I hate that transition for some reason*  After 15 minutes I said "Hell you can go another 5" and as each of those last 5 minutes passed I kept telling myself "you get to walk longer than you have left of running." (I do a 5 minute cool down) and for the last minute I decided I needed to push a little and bumped my speed up by a few tenths of a mile.

I didn't get the runner's high this morning, but I am happy that I ran and put forth much more effort than I have been.

Now I need to plan out the next two weeks that are going to be very busy with family gatherings, graduation parties, BBQs and camping!

Week 8

I'm not happy with this week and its directly proportional to my effort.  (Like we don't all know that?)  I sucked this week and to prove it, the scale didn't move.  This morning I felt like I woke up with excuse after excuse not to exercise.  *It is very challenging for me not to use the baby waking me as an excuse*

I decided to run this morning because I got out of bed late, I figured it'd give me the biggest calorie burn in the shortest time.  And it probably would have if I actually ran for the whole time I was on the treadmill.  No instead I walked at a 3.8mph pace for most of the 25 minutes I had.  By the time I had only 5 minutes left I was pissed at myself and bumped up the pace to 4.5mph.

I really need to do better this week and I really need to start thinking about what we are going to be eating when we camp the week after the 4th!  Planning now will make this a lot easier on me and hopefully keep me from gaining 10lbs back!

Chase Challenge

Thanks to the wonderful heat and humidity here last night, the race was shortened from 3.5 miles to 2 miles.  I did not realize this until I got to the turn around and there was the 1 mile marker.  At this point I did not know that they also decided not to time the race.  Because of the type of person I am, both of these things disappointed me, but I understand why they did it.  The temperature was 90 and the humidity was in the oppressive range.  Personally, while I like to push myself, I'm not going to push myself to the point of fainting, throwing up or any other negative happening.  I know I'm not going to win the race and I'm not going to push myself to do so.  With that said, I finished in under 28 minutes.  I'm not sure exactly my time because they decided not to time it, but my Nike band said 28:09 when I remember to turn it off after getting my bottle of water and walking for a minute so I guess my actual time was some where between 26 and 27 minutes.

While I know I can run a 5k in 30 minutes of less, this time doesn't bother me considering the time of day and the heat.  I am used to running at 4am when it's maybe 60 degrees on average.  This race was at 6:25pm after working all day and 30 degrees warmer.

Maybe next year it will be cooler.  For more info on this years race you can check it out here.

Week 7

Down another 1.8lb!  Only 2 more pounds to be in the overweight BMI category!

Although I haven't had an actual work out since Friday I'm feeling pretty good.  Tonight I'm participating in the Chase Corporate Challenge.  It's a 3.5 mile walk/run.  I was really hoping to run most of it this year, but with the temperature expected to be about 90 and high humidity I'm not going to push myself too hard.

This is my second time participating in this, I wrote about my first time in this blog.  

Morning Motivator

I didn't realize until now how much better I feel and my attitude is when I get a good work out in the morning.  Last night baby girl was up late and I didn't get to sleep until after 10.  My alarm going off at 3:30 wasn't enough sleep for this girl.  I hit snooze until after 4!  What this meant was that I was only going to have time to do my Ab Jam video and not the run I was planning too.  I was ok with this because I AM TIRED.  After the work out I looked at my HRM and realized I didn't even burn 100 calories.  Yes I know I worked my abs very well since they were sore, but I didn't feel that accomplishing high pride that I normally feel in the morning.  That feeling makes anything the morning feels like throwing at me not seem so bad.  Not so much this morning.  I am irritable and not as happy and energized.  Not to self, next time skip the toning and do the run!  I know I would have felt better if I'd run for that 20 minutes!

Week 6

I am impressed with myself this week.  I'm down 4.2lbs this week!  I finally got over that 205 mark!!!

While I didn't actually try a new work out this weekend I am so happy to say that I did go for a run, a run outside!  We went to my mother's camp for the night and they just put side walks in around some of the side streets.  Well guess what, out the driveway to the right and follow the new side walks back is exactly 3 miles!  Guess what else, I ran THE WHOLE THING!  Yup, all besides about 30 seconds when I had a cramp in my side, but I quickly remembered a picture I saw that said "When I get a cramp I run faster so it will be over with sooner!"  So I picked the pace back up and got myself back!  I finished in about 30 minutes.  This really boosted my confidence for the 3.5 mi Chase Challenge that is coming up a week from today!

Also last week I worked out 6 days and included Strength training on 2 days!  I love feeling my muscles tone, even if you can't really see them yet!  In the last 3 weeks I've lost a total of  5.5 inches.  2.5 from my waist, from my hips 1, and 1 from each thigh.  Getting to put clothes in the too big for me bin is a great feeling!!!

Weekends

I find weekends to be extremely difficult on my healthy life style.  Mainly, because I like to have fun.  Ok, I'm not saying you can't have fun without drinking, I'm just saying, I like to drink!  And most times, this drinking occurs at BBQs.  And on top of drinking, I like to eat!.

My problem is that even without drinking and eating badly, I don't drink enough water on the weekends.  I'm not really sure why, it just happens that way.

How do you handle your weekends?  What keeps you on track?

I was proud of myself this weekend for opting for the beer even though what I really wanted was a daiquiri or something.

Weigh In Days

I'm thinking about switching my weigh in days from Tuesday to Friday.  In reality it may not actually matter, but I'm finding that my Tuesday weights may still be effected by dehydration over the weekend.  I went from 205.2 on Tuesday to 200 today!

These are my weights so far this week:

Monday	Jun 4	206.4
Tuesday	Jun 5	205.2	-1.2
Wednesday	Jun 6	202.8	-2.4
Thursday	Jun 7	201.0	-1.8
Friday	Jun 8	200.0	-1.0

That's a total of 6.4lbs lost in 5 days, obviously it isn't all actual weight!

My point is, although I still weigh myself most days, I don't want my weekly weigh in being effected that much by my hydration level and screw ups over the weekend.

Week 5

I won't lie, it's kind of hard to believe it's already been 5 weeks!  It doesn't really feel like it and I'm happy to say that I definitely feel like I can keep going.  If I can keep going at the rate I am, by this time next year I will be trying to maintain and not working so hard to get it off.

This week I'm down 2lbs!  While this should sound good, I feel like it should be more.  I feel like I've been hovering around 205 for a few weeks now.  A few days I've seen 203, but it doesn't stay, I'm pretty sure it's the damn weekends!  Which is why my weigh in day is Tuesday, not Monday.  I'm debating on if I want to continue to weigh myself every day or not.  I like knowing if I'm making progress or not, but seeing a 203 on Saturday and then a 205 on Tuesday is getting frustrating!  Even though I know in my head that it's the weekly weigh in that counts I sit there thinking "why can't I still be at 203?"  Maybe I will switch to every other day or only Tuesdays and Fridays or something.

I wore my HRM for 15 hours yesterday because I wanted to get a general idea of the calories I burn a day while at work, but then I realized that I also went grocery shopping during my lunch hour, which was extra calories burned, but I burned 2146 during that 15 hours.  Then I reset it when I laid down for bed and I burned 544 cal just during the 6.5 hours I slept.  Now I need to wear my HRM for a day when I'm not going shopping or anything extra at work so I can get a good idea of how many calories I'm burning a day.  Based on yesterdays readings, it's definitely more than I thought it was!  Maybe I really do need to eat more calories to get my milk supply back up!

Weekends

Why do I get “unmotivated” on the weekends?  I don’t really know if it’s unmotivated, but I don’t bother tracking things and I tend to let time slip away and run out of time for a good work out.  It bothers me!  I don’t tend to track my food, but I try to make some what healthy decisions.  And it kills me on the weekend when I do have time to look at my motivational pictures and have time to try some of the new work outs I’ve found, I don’t.  Why don’t I?  

I've also noticed that I don't drink nearly enough water on the weekends, or enough fluid at all for that matter.

My goal for next weekend it to try at least one new work out and track my food for at least one day!

New HRM

My new Heart Rate Monitor arrived yesterday and I was so excited to use it!!!  I got it right out of the box and set it up with all my information.  I even did a 10 minute test drive to make sure I knew how it was going to work for this mornings work out!

I wish I was as excited to get up and work out this morning as I was when I went to bed last night.  Didn't get a good nights sleep, but I did the TJ Fat Blaster (through the 4th turbo) and all of the Ab Jam and burned 314 calories.  I certainly wasn't putting my all into it, but that's ok, it's better than nothing and boy are my abs feeling it!

Can't wait to wear it for 24 hours to get a general idea of the calories I burn in an average day!