Falling off the Wagon... For Real this time...

Well I just noticed that I had been bloggin away but not putting in my results on the Results page. Oops. They're all updated now.

As you can see, the events occurring in my life did affect my journey, as well as Thanksgiving.

We had not one, not two, but three deaths within a span of 5 days, right before Thanksgiving. It's been difficult, but we are making it through.

I was definitely having a hard time keeping myself together after all that. As you can see, my weigh in last Monday was great, and I'm proud to say that I won all 3 of my DietBets and made about $50 on top of what I put in. So that's a win for me.

But as soon as the final weigh-in last week, I fell off, and kept on falling for days.

And this time, it was for real.

I overslept on Tuesday morning, missing spin class. So I decided to make it up by going to spin at Time Trial on Wednesday evening.

Well Tuesday night we found out about the third death, and I was up later than usual with high anxiety and emotions out the wazoo. Therefore I also overslept to go to the gym for strength training and cardio on Wednesday morning. Doh!

I did go to spin on Wednesday night, and then again on Thanksgiving morning, but continued to skip out on the gym on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Woof.

Speaking of woof, a brief intermission to tell you how much I love Home Alone and that it has to be one of my favorite Christmas movies.

Anywho, I also spent the weekend wallowing in sadness and procrastinating work around the house.

So in addition to this melancholy mood, eating my emotions, and sitting on the couch a lot, I also had not one, not two, but THREE Thanksgiving dinners. Gobble gobble gobble.

I made Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, but I made an organic turkey with an entirely gluten and dairy free meal. It came out pretty good for my first Thanksgiving dinner ever. I'm also psyched because I don't have to do meal-prep for the week now. I can just have the leftovers! Yay!!

But the other two meals were not as healthy, although just as delicious!

So that's my explanation for my giant weight gain this past week.

The good news? I'm back on track. After our third and final Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, I decided to head home earlier than Joshua so that I could do laundry, pack my gym bags, and prep my food for the next day. I even got into bed by 9pm, and was successful in starting up my routine again this morning; the start time of my warm up was 5:15am!

Eating crappy usually makes me hungry when I get back on track, and that is no different today. I am so hungry! Luckily it's my lunch time and I have some chicken and green beans waiting for me ;)

So back to it today, trying to leave the sadness behind and start looking forward to driving home for Christmas in 3 weeks!!!

Another great week...

It really was, although you might not think so from my dot dot dot...

It was a great week nutrition, exercise, and weight-loss wise. It was a sad week emotionally though.

I'm not ready to post what happened to cause the sadness, but just believe me that it is very sad, and makes me cry.

Exercise for the week was mostly on point. I didn't work out on the weekend, but was still successful in my efforts for the week. It's good to know that I could take a weekend off if I needed to. I wanted to increase my weights this past week, so Monday morning I went for the 25s instead of the 20s dumbells for my chest presses. Needless to say, on my first set I biffed myself right in the face with one of the dumbells! Luckily it wasn't bad, and I still pray that no one saw it!!! I went back to 20s for that exercise, but increased weights on more.... safer exercies. lol

Nutrition was really good last week too. I stuck to my diet, except for wanting to get sushi one night. I did order sashimi, which is fine for you and all, but unfortunately it was TERRIBLE!! I thought it was just me; then the next night Josh went to cook it (you know, to salvage a $25 entree) and he said there was something wrong with it too. Yuck. I have a $25 credit at the sushi/thai place, where I now will not eat sushi, and have no idea what Thai food I would get. Ugh. I'll figure something out.

Weight loss was fantastic again this week. Another 3.8 pounds, and I'm under my DietBet goal, which ends tomorrow, so I will be winning some money!

Thanksgiving is coming this week, and I'm totally psyched to be cooking a small dinner on Thursday. I'm going to pick up the Organic Turkey tonight, and the rest of my ingredients.

That's all for now. Just feel like I can't talk freely at the moment, so I'll wait until the time is right.

XOXOXO

It's All Good...

It's all good in the hood.

I had a fantastic week.

Let me elaborate... Was I perfect? No. Absolutely not. But was I successful and happy? Absolutely.

The Breakdown

As usual, I was on point with my exercise. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I did my weights/cardio training; Tuesday and Thursday I did my cycle classes at LA Fitness.

What I did NOT do, that I normally do, was go on my lunch walks. My lunches were filled with things to do last week: Go shopping for Mom's birthday gifts. Ship said gifts to Dom. Go grab nuts for snacking at work. Go grab lunch because I didn't prep any food last weekend. 

I also changed up my weekends a bit. We've decided to change our spin day to Saturday. This works FANTASTIC for me!!! Because we went to spin on Saturday, I then was able to do my grocery shopping that day (which I like doing), and then prep my food that day as well. Sundays, Joshua does not work. Therefore, it's best for me to get all my personal things done on Saturday while he IS at work.

While Joshua does not work on Sundays, he does still sleep in. This leaves the perfect opportunity for me to go to my favorite yoga class at LA on Sunday mornings now!! I did this yesterday, and while I hadn't taken a yoga class in a few months, I could still tell where I was stronger than I was before. I also was sweating like a pig by the end of class!! That's never happened before, but I'm glad it happened because it means I'm working hard!!


So onto nutrition. For a week I didn't prep any food, I have to say I did extremely well. I mean, my bank account didn't like me much but hey, sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I started every morning with an apple before the gym, a Detox Island Green smoothie with Probiotic and Fat Burner for Breakfast, and then snacked on nuts all day everyday whenever I got hungry.

Lunches were different all week. On Monday, I realized that I could order a smoothie AND a salad first thing in the morning, then save the salad for lunch. It saved me a bit of money because it was then considered a meal and "discounted". So Thai Chicken Salad from Tropical Smoothie for lunch on Monday.

I ran into a great deal on Monday night; Stir Crazy had 2 Fresh Market Bar Bowls for $22. I took advantage of this as they have all-natural chicken and local grown veggies to make these with. Of course, I chose brown rice for my starch. I had it for dinner on Monday, then lunch on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

I was running out of apples by Tuesday evening, so I went to the grocery store. I also needed something for dinner. While this wasn't the best option, I ended up getting a fully cooked rotisserie chicken, and a frozen gluten free dairy free single serving of macaroni and cheese. I ate half the mac and cheese and some of the chicken. I was then able to have the same meal for dinner on Wednesday night.

By Thursday I was running out of ideas. Money was getting low and I needed to get through one more day before payday. I sucked it up and purchased another Thai Chicken Salad for lunch that morning, and dinner was solely whatever I had left on the rotisserie chicken.

Friday was payday, so lunch was sashimi from Komoon, where I realized I actually like tuna MORE than salmon! Big surprise for me because I was totally on a salmon kick for a few years there... Only salmon. Only raw. Nothing else. What a surprise there!

Since it was payday I went back to the grocery store to make a nice dinner for Joshua and I. I picked up grass-fed strip steaks which I made with sauteed zucchini. It was absolutely delicious and delightful!

There were times during the week when I was eating my dinner and took a few of Joshua's french fries or cheese curds. So there's why I wasn't perfect. And I didn't regulate how much nuts I was eating. I just ate them when I was hungry. They're actually a pretty good stress food...

So I made it through the week without prep, but I wouldn't want to have to do it again anytime soon. My savings account took a hit for all that, and it needs to be growing, not diminishing!



Here's to a new week, one that I've actually prepared for.
XOXOXO

What a Revolution really is...

I've had a lot on my mind tonight.

I actually downloaded the Blogger app just to write this post, so be happy; you're getting a bonus post while I'm laying in bed about to pass out. 😏

Anyways, I just wanted to clarify that starting your own Revolution isn't only about eating healthy and exercising. It entails so much more.

It's a state of mind. Being a better person all around. Going that extra little bit to be nicer to someone, or try to relate and sympathize when others are hurting. Being thankful, and grateful for what you have. Giving to others when you can, even if it's not much. There are plenty more things, but I think you get my gist.

I always focus my posts on my nutrition and exercise every week, but I'm going to try to incorporate more real life things to talk about and elaborate on.

We're all human. Let's start acting like it.

XOXOXO

Season is coming

If you're a GOT fan, you're familiar with "Winter is coming."

Well in my world, Season is coming. Which is the same thing as winter but... in the sub-tropics and we're mainly affected with massive amounts of traffic on the roads and in stores, as well as our workload picks up about 600%. So the main purpose of me telling you this? Blog posts will probably go on the back burner.

So while I have time, I will recap last week...

My weigh in Monday was... ok I'll just say it - TERRIBLE. A gain of over 5 pounds is just terrible.

I'll tell you what happened though, I completely went off plan.

Ok I still worked out last week and I did eat good for MOST of the week, but then my BFF showed up on Friday and everything went out the window lol

I account most of my weight gain to the following:

- I am not a drinker - at all - but the BFF and I had a steady diet of coconut rum mixed with pineapple vodka all weekend. Kudos that we mixed it with a zero calorie coconut pineapple sparkling water. (you can roll your eyes at me now, I would). Lots of drinking means lots of dehydration, even if I did alternate every 2 mixed drinks with one bottle of water.

- Lots of drinking usually means lots of mindless eating! Cheese and crackers were always available, and I also happened to eat bagels with cream cheese for breakfast all weekend? Guess it was my hangover food... We also went to a BBQ and instead of me eating the healthy chicken and veggie kabobs, I indulged in the jambalaya and mac and cheese (you can roll your eyes at me again. that alcohol just took over!)

- I could have fixed myself up when we went to Universal Studios on Sunday, but I started my day with a bagel with cream cheese (like I already told you), then I NEEDED (yes it was a necessity) a Monster Rehab, and apparently I still wanted hangover food and got these fried chip things with cheese and bacon at a restaurant we stopped at. I also shared a Butterbeer with my BFF (hey she wasn't going to drink the whole thing by herself, I had to help!) and then Joshua and I got Tijuana for dinner. And I STUPIDLY got a chimichanga!

Yes. The alcohol took over all weekend. BUT - I had a fantastic time, AND I actually didn't get sick or have a hangover, so I still see that as winning.

The obstacle to overcome...

I now have some serious poundage to drop by the 24th, but I know I can do it.

Oh, another thing that happened while the BFF was here, I RUINED my myfitnesspal streak and forgot to log onto it on Saturday and it completely reset my days :( I was so close to a year straight! But I got over it quickly.

My new goal is to keep a new streak, with actually logging all my food and STICKING TO THE PLAN!!!

This has been working well thus far. Just another thing to keep me focused.

I also started back at the gym first thing Monday morning, and yes, I smelled the coconut and pineapple pouring out of my sweat. Yuck lol

The good news is that the number is already going down, and I have over a week to get to my DietBet goal.

This weekend will be dedicated to getting my meal plan together, as I've been flying by the seat of my pants all week since I partied all weekend instead of prepping.

I should also be getting a shipment of supplements soon from my Mom/Brother, so that will help as well. This will also help my wallet since I've had to buy smoothies every morning from Tropical Smoothie. Mind you, they are DELICIOUS! But just kill my wallet unfortunately.


Cheers to a better weigh in on Monday!
(I'm toasting with lime perrier by the way haha)

XOXOXO

Do This, Not That

I had a pretty good week, once I started the DietBets and really focused on my food. I do have to say that this weekend I was a little bad, I had sushi twice - two rolls each time. I could have made better choices on what rolls I chose, but there was a limited selection at Publix unfortunately; so no sashimi and no brown rice. In hindsight, I had the sushi on Friday, I should have done something else on Sunday, but alas, I didn't -- and now I have to live with it. Oh well!

I still had a loss of 1.8 on the scale from Monday to Monday - noting that I actually started my Dietbet on Wednesday weighing more than I did last Monday... Eek! Good thing I got back on track.

I've been thinking about numerous things lately, one of which, I just want to write out some of the things that I've changed in my lifestyle that I thought I wouldn't like, but actually do.

First - waking up early in the morning to go workout. Waking up early is HARD. Does it get easier over time? Yes. Is it ever easy? No. Taking that first step of committing to a workout routine and setting the time for the mornings is very hard. There's so much more you want to do with that time (SLEEP FOR INSTANCE).

Did I start out waking up early at 430am to go to the gym 5 days a week? Absolutely not. I started out going 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and using Tuesday and Thursday to sleep in a little bit and take Brockton for a walk instead.

Technically I still apply this principle, although I don't get to sleep in nearly as much on Tuesday and Thursday as I did before, but I'm getting a much better workout.

In the end of it all, I never thought that I would be a morning person. I wasn't excited about becoming one and doubted that I would last as one. Once I was able to stick with it for a few weeks, I can't imagine my life any other way. Getting up early is the only way I will fit in my workouts, and going to bed early makes me happy and content. I don't hate it at all, surprisingly.

Second - My go-to-kill-hunger-on-the-spot snack is salted deluxe mixed nuts. They are delicious and filling and perfect. I can't think of anything else I would rather have. It's kind of like my replacement for cheese, because these nuts are a healthy fat, where as cheese is really just a fat! Haha.

So on with my story about salted deluxe mixed nuts - I always forget them at home. Doh! I even portion them out into 1/4 cups in baggies, and I still forget them. I started incorporating them as an afternoon snack; but how is that supposed to help when I don't have them with me?!

The story of my life now is that I have 3-4 containers of salted deluxe mixed nuts because I keep buying more because I keep forgetting them at home. I learned my lesson this morning though. I am keeping one container AT WORK. See, I can be smart sometimes.

And third - well I don't have a third. Those were the two random things I've been thinking about a lot lately and wanted to share. I have also been thinking about adding another page for Motivation, but I'm not motivated to do it yet. See what I did there? Yes, I am lazy sometimes.

Until next time...

XOXOXO