Just ordered a month gym membership.

I WILL be someone that in the end, people look to for motivation with weight loss. Because I am starting my weight loss journey for the last time and I am going to kick its ass. :) Heading out to the store to buy some stuff to set up a cute little motivator. Pictures to come! What? I am ACTUALLY going to post pics on my blog..I know right?! I will also be taking a before picture. I am going to find an outfit. And I am going to take it. Then I will keep the clothes and take an after photo with them. I am doing this ultimately for MYSELF, but I think I may even put in on pinterest with a link to my blog in the end. You never know who will see it and maybe start their final kick to their weight loss and healthy life journey!

Inspiration

So I had a friend on Facebook post a free 7 day clean eating challenge. I met her at OSU, we had a couple classes together there. I signed up for the challenge and it was fun. The online community was great, even though I didn't know any of the people, it was fun!I am not sure how much weight I lost on it, but I weighed in one day, and 17 days later (this would be half way into the challenge) my scale told me I had lost 5 lbs.!!

It was such a nice surprise! And I have been getting pretty excited about eating healthier and trying to start working out, that I am thinking that this may be my time to finally get where I want to be physically!

I should add in that I have been diagnosed with TMJ. So another good motivator is the fact that for my jaw's proper healing, I should be eating soft foods and liquids for the next month...maybe longer. I found a good daily vitamin and protein powder. The protein powder and my blender cup are on their way in the mail. I cannot wait for a nice easy breakfast to go. And it will be perfect for post workout!!

So, I would commit to trying to blog every day, but I think I will just start with eating healthy and eventually getting to the gym. Baby steps. I think one of my problems in the past is I try to jump in too far, too fast...and it leads to me back to junk food and not working out.

I am going to focus a LOT on stretching before and after workouts this time around too. With grooming and needing to be able to pick up 120 lb dogs some days and hold dogs down, I will need to not be in terrible pain. Hahahaha, so wish me luck with that!! Oooohhhh, I bet warm bath soaks after working out will help too! And get rid of the gym staaank. Hahahaha :P

Tomorrow is my first day at physical therapy for my TMJ, so we will see how that goes too!

ZUMBA...

Kicked my butttt tonight. I was TERRIBLE today and only ate once before it at like 1 om today. work was super busy...I worked from 5 am to about Noon and only got ONE ten minute break. Since I THOUGHT I was going to get a lunch today (because I SHOULD HAVE LEGALLY) I didn't eat on the one break I got at like 8 am this morning.

I was very careful while in Zumba to pay attention to if I got light headed or not, so don't worry. And this is NOT normal for me...I love eating. Anywhoooo, after the gym, I went to Market of Choice to get some ingredients for a pasta salad, and TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT LARA BARS!!!! OMG. I was so excited to find a coupon for them and they have a new (to me at least) line that is called ALT. It is packed with extra protein! So you bet your sweet bottom that when I got out to my car I RIPPED that puppy open and consumed it.

What are Lara bars you might ask...they are delicious and every one of them is vegan! So they are kinda like a sports bar (some are, others are purely just a healthy wholesome dessert alternative i.e. the Chocolate Hazelnut one I also bought haha) I am just so happy that I remembered about them! I have an energy bar that I have a HUGE selection from....I don't even know how any flavors they have now! The first time I got one they had mayyyyybe five...and now I would have to say there is AT LEAST 20! But back to the point, I can have any of them, and not have to worry about nasty extras that aren't necessary and I know that they are vegan. There aren't many things in the vegan world that are that easy! LOL, so it is super nice!

Do I regret not doing the other workouts? NO WAY!!! I can tell that from 30 minutes cardio and then an hour of Zumba was at least equal to five of those videos. Would the videos take less time? Sure, yeah they would....are they as fun? NOPE! I really love Zumba!!

Anyways. I gotta get to bed for early wake up.....tomorrow is my FRIDAYYYY!!!! Woop woop!

Goodnight!

It has been a little while....

So I have decided to stop doing the Hiit workouts. On Thursday I went to the gym with my friend Maria. We did an hour long yoga class and then about 35-40 minutes of Zumba right after! OH, and since I was so early, I did like 12 minutes on this weird almost elliptical machine...But, either way...that was WAY more of a workout. I do believe that for people who are short on time that the Hiit workouts are great. For the results I am reaching for though....12 minutes isn't a real cure. So, Monday through Thursday, I will be attending yoga and zumba each night! Plus, it is way more fun to do it with someone else!

Yoga is something I have been wanting to get involved in more for a while, so I am excited to become more and more flexible each class! I did have a hard time towards the end with not moving around and staying still haha. Annndddd I definitely hurt my right knee, but luckily it feels better now! I think I shifted too much weight onto it in a pose or something.

I won't lie.

Yesterday I didn't do the Day 4 workout. So now I have double work to do today!

I had the worst day at work ever today and wished I could have just put my two week notice in right then and there. Days like this are when I wish I was a YouTube beauty guru so that I would love my job (Do they even make money? I assume so?!). Hahahaha. Too bad I am not cute enough for that!

Short post today. I am still trying to pump up my mood and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer on here :)

Day 3 complete.

Today was harder mostly because I am still sore and had to completely take out one of the exercises due to lack of equipment. But like the last two days, I have made modifications and kept moving. :) I am preferring the trainer Melissa so far but mostly because of the fact that her 10 second rest isn't a rest, it is a 10 second plank! And I have enjoyed her exercises more, like Spider-man kick throughs! Those were a lot of fun hahaha.

But I have still only been doing the one video. I think for another day or two I will stick to that to get more comfy..then I will through some extra stuff in :) My muscles have been hurting so I am nervous that I may injure myself from over doing it.

OMG! My Bobble water bottles should get here tomorrow!!!! Thank you Amazon Prime shipping!! :)

Now I am off to watch another episode of Scrubs and get to bed so I can rise early and shower before work! And by that I mean get up at like 3:30 am since I work so early! o.O

Bobble!

For Christmas I got a gift card to Amazon.com from my stepmom's brother. Just the other day I went to get a glass of water from our tap...and ohhhh myyyy GOD. It was awful and had a slight bleachy taste. So that was where I drew the line of not having some sort of water filter in the house!

I was looking into the filtered jugs like Brita...but then I thought, water about the filtered water bottles?! I found out about Bobble bottles (they also make a pitcher I was looking into) So basically I was sold on the Bobble jug, but then I did the math of how many liters of filtered water we would get through the jug versus having our own water bottles. For the price the individual water bottles will get us WAYYYY more filtered water!

I decided to use my Amazon gift card to buy them and I found a killer deal! Two water bottles each with a filter, as well as two EXTRA filters! Only $24.99 with FREE shipping through Amazon Prime! :) Normally the bottles are about $20 each and a two pack of filters is about $10, so I saved 50%! :) Oh and the water bottles are 18.5 ounces each, so it is a good thing that the filters last for a while!

I will still be using my 750 mL Camelbak water bottle at work since I can get filtered water there, so my Bobble will be saved for use at home so I am not drinking nastiness.

Post workout snack time!

I totally came up with the most delicious food idea ever today! I plan on having it for breakfast :)
I am sure there are probably other recipes for this out there, but I will make my own! The recipe idea you ask?


Oh nothing toooo big....just BREAKFAST NACHOS!!!!

I will try to post pics over the weekend! But essentially it will be this:

*One serving of Nut Thins. (I used the Pecan flavor! Since they are crackers they are salty, but I love salty and sweet!)

*Two tablespoons of peanut butter (or other nut butter if you have it!) I heated it up for 30 seconds in the microwave to easily drizzle it onto the crackers!

*One half of a large banana sliced


Place the crackers on the plate, then drizzle the heated nut butter on top of the crackers.
Place the banana slices on top and VOILA! Done, now go eat your snack!!!!! :)


Like I said, I will snap a photo and put it up in a day or two! :) I think it is a delicious post workout/breakfast/dessert!

*Side note: The Nut Thins do have a very similar texture to rice crackers...so if you don't like rice crackers, you won't like this! :)

Day 2 done!!!

Just finished the second workout. Not as shaky as yesterday, BUT I also had to modify like two of the exercises since I couldn't do them. I kept moving though! One of them was a walking plank...I did it through the first round but the second round was hard on my wrists, so I just held a plank instead.

I ate healthier today! (Yesterday I was bad and I had chips, luckily the scale didn't know!) I have been LOVING these veggie dogs we have! Only 50 calories for each dog and then you add the bun. Under 200 calories! That is what I was bad and paired with the chips! And I must say, eating healthy all the time to where having some chips doesn't even matter is AMAZING!

Day One Complete.

So I just did the first day workout from the "Catching Fire Challenge". While right now my heart rate is elevated and I am shaky,can tell that the one workout a day will not be enough for the results I want.  I did have a hard time keeping up with the workout. Not only am I overweight, I am soooo not flexible (Ohh heyyyyy yoga, yeah, let's be besties) so it was tough for me to keep up. BUT, I didn't stop moving for more than a second and I just moderated the exercises to where I was still challenging myself, but not about to break my face. I did LOVE that the workout was in real time. Sometimes in the past, they have just done a tutorial on how to do the exercises and that has been that. Luckily this wasn't that way. SoI didn't have to worry about setting up an interval timer, AND I had the perfect spot to set my laptop up on. :)

Day one...COMPLETE...ish. I learned that I definitely cannot ONLY do the one 12 minute all over body workout a day. And I will be honest, I have been doing TERRIBLE with my water today! ERGGHHHH! So, now I have to CHUG it down tonight :) I can do it though! I might just have to pee A LOT throughout the night. Hahahaha

Tomorrow will be the start of my deathhhhh

I know that everyone says don't put off starting exercise. But I have been focusing getting back to my vegan diet and attempting to drink 3 liters of water a day. I didn't make a new year's resolution. I have ideas of areas in my life I plan to improve...but I wasn't going to set myself up for failure!

So tomorrow (Jan. 15th) I am starting a free 30 Day Challenge through TheDailyHiit.com (or you may be more familiar with Bodyrock.tv!). I have been doing well with sticking to not eating terrible foods! And have come close to finishing the 3 liters of water each day! The days that doesn't get complete are the days my body decides that it wants to sleep essentially all day! Weird note about the water consumption though...I have been having headaches almost everyday since I started! I am hoping it goes away!

But anyways...my workouts! The challenge will be one video and I am assuming it will be like the videos they normally post and the workout will last about 15 minutes. Now, I know that 15 minutes a day isn't enough to make me lose as much as I would like to in the time frame I have. So, I am not committing to a certain amount of the videos each day (I have tried to commit to things in big abundance in the past and have never been successful, so I am trying to psychologically trick myself into sticking with it, hahaha) On a PERFECT workout day for me, I will complete two of the free workout videos that Bodyrock.tv provides and I will go to the gym and perform 30 minutes on an elliptical trainer. A normal day will just consist of the one video and the elliptical.

Let's talk motivation!
I am sure you are reading this and like "Okayyyy, yeah suuure that is what you will do." And even I am doing that to an extent along side you! Lol. In March some of my girlfriends and I are all going to Vegas and it will be the first time for all of us! I think I found the perfect place for us to stay too! We are looking at The Flamingo! It looks like it has good location, and in all honesty, we probably won't be in the room too often! The big draw in for the hotel is THE POOL. A pool party everyday?! Umm YES PLEASE. And this my friends...my motivation! I need to feel a lot more comfortable with myself by then so that I can buy some sort of tankini/ boardshort combo and enjoy the pool!!!

Tomorrow is the first day of my challenge! Oh, and once the 30 day challenge is done, I obviously won't stop there! Hahaha, I will continue to do something until we leave for VEGAS BABY!!!!

New Year. New Blog.

I decided to start fresh! I deleted all my old posts. And am going to try to update this at least once a week! If I cannot keep up with it...I will be deleting it hahaha.


So HELLO 2014! It is close to me being vegetarian for a year! (part of it I was vegan, but for the amount of time I had some dairy and then rarely some fish, I won't claim that haha)

I am thinking about making a "list book". At work I always print the list of what I need to have completed before I leave, so I was thinking about getting a notebook/journal and BASICALLY writing a list of things I want to do EVERY day on EVERY page. IT sounds silly, but I am a list person! Which interestingly enough, I can never keep a planner hahaha.