sorry…blah blah….busy…yada….etc.  </apology>

I have actually been doing pretty dang good and so has JP.  Work gets crazy, life gets nuts and it doesn’t get recorded here.  So sue us.

I’ve worked out 3 times this week already and plan to go again today.  JP joined up at my gym and is officially official, so she won’t have to drop $10 every week to join me at Funky Fit anymore.  I have been trying to integrate more protein into my life…and more interval training on the elliptical.

But I want you guys to be confident that we are still watching our waistlines and working on ourselves.  Sometimes life gets in the way or reporting to our adoring fans…but we’re doing well.  I know for a fact JP has dropped a few more pounds and I have to have, though I haven’t weighed myself in a few days.  I am feeling good though.  Sticking to the plan and getting more energy in the process.

Just stick with us…and we’ll do better with sticking with you.

The holidays are coming. Thanksgiving and Christmas (Hanukah, Kwanzaa, whatever you’re into) both are huge invitations to take those extra trips up to the buffet-style set-up your mom and aunt have in the kitchen. It’s a time where we all mix up the egg nog, sit around watching football and catching up with relatives we haven’t seen in far too long.

What can we do to stop, or at least minimize, the inevitable holiday weight-gain? How can we nip the tryptophan comas in the bud? One thing my mom and I do is put on the tennies and go for a walk in the morning or after our food has settled. Its a nice time to catch up with her, since she lives 1100 miles away in another time zone, and its a great way to not sit on the couch.

Another good tip is to think about all the ingredients that are going into your meals. If your stuffing requires canned creamed soups, consider low-sodium, low-fat versions. Try a little Splenda, vanilla and cinnamon in your sweet potatoes instead of all sugar.

Don’t forget your water either! Keep on chugging water while you’re cooking, while you’re sitting watching the game, and even have a bottle with you while you walk the mall for Black Friday deals.

what other ideas do you guys have about watching your holiday weight? Leave your ideas after the jump!

Jenn is absolutely right. We have seriously fallen off the wagon with sharing our stories…and taking this dieting thing seriously. Yeah, I watch what I eat a little but the weekends totally run my diet off the tracks. Yeah, I make it to the gym sometimes, but not nearly enough.

Life gets busy, time gets scarce…but we are given but only one body and we need to treat it the right way. I always use my stress level as an excuse for eating more/worse and not exercising. That is not a good habit to get into…and all the more reason to hit the gym and eat right.

I sat on the couch last night and looked over at my boyfriend. I looked down at myself. We are getting soft, I said. Not good. Today I have my workout bag and iPod in my car and will be taking full advantage of the gym at lunch. I hope to do some interval training to get my heart rate up and blast this fat off my gnarly body.

I’m getting really discouraged in my will power and disappointed in us for not taking this seriously. I laid in bed last night on my back and my saddle bags puffed out from underneath my legs. My soft belly muffined over my sleep shorts. Something has got to give. I need something to work towards, a reason to lose weight, other than, I look a little puffy naked.

This morning, I had a cup of coffee, some dried mangoes and some oatmeal. I’m doing everything in my power to save my Ravioli Lean Cuisine and carrot sticks for lunch time…not 10:15. I’ve been chugging water like a fiend too. I really hope this can be the start of a much longer stint of caring about my health.

Well, don’t weigh me right now, because, as you can see from the title, I’ve flat lined.  It’s time to step it up.  I’ve been building on my consistency and retraining my intake, but that’s not enough at this point.  SO, this morning, I introduced my body to just a little bit more: 3 sets of 30 sit ups after my traditional morning walk.  Twist that walk a bit with some intermittent jogging and we’ve got increased caloric output.  That was just this morning.

My uber-intelligent 7th grader informed me that there is such a thing as the Fit channel on Time Warner Cable, and that we could DVR some of the workouts and see which ones we like.  If we find one we particularly enjoy, we can just save it and use it at our own convenience.  Now, I don’t want to brag, but she’s a freakin’ genius… yeah – she gets it from her mom….just sayin’.

This is my plan.  I’m still working on the food part – as you well know, but I’m thinking that an increased exercise plan, and incorporating good portions of my life into them (i.e. my new puppy – taking walks, utilizing my DVR, actually visiting the workout facilities at my complex) will actually help me with my goal.

Anyone want to chime in on this one???

 

I am with you – 100%.  We’ve dropped the ball.  We’ve fallen off.  We’ve totally ignored our lovely blog intended to hold us accountable to our new goals of weight loss, fitness, proper nutrition, and all things good.  I’M SORRY!!!  Okay, maybe not that extreme -My Bad…. is that better?  LOL – Here’s my most recent update:

I’m STILL walking each morning at 5:30am.  NOW – this has not been as consistent as I would like – such as taking the last 4 days off – but the important thing is that I deprived myself of sleep and got up this morning and I’m still feeling the effects, 10 hours later.   

The food thing is still a work in progress.  As with anything in life, it’s hit or miss.  Some days I’m absolutely fabulous – eat a minimal amount of fat/sugar, the right amount of good calories with all the veggies, etcetera, while other days I eat cheese and sour cream and the chips I deprive myself of on those other days.

The goal of this blog, though, is to hold ourselves and our friends accountable for their actions.  I have not been behaving myself and I have not been providing any important tips or routines for you lovely readers to take to heart in order to assist you with your own personal goals.  With that being said, I’ve created a list:

1 – Just because you’re out to eat with friends does NOT mean you need to have the chicken fingers and french fries.  Go for something broiled or baked and go easy on the condiments (butter/sour cream/cheese on a baked potato, while yummy, adds the calories and fat to our ever-widening hips)

2 – Walk the extra flight of stairs.  If you are headed to the 2nd or 3rd floor, why not just grab the stairs?  The elevator could be old and rickety and quite possibly not deliver you safely anyhow, so just be sure of your arrival and hit those beautiful cement stairs…. your butt and thighs will thank you for it later.

3 – Park a little further away.  Seriously, is it THAT important that you drive around the parking lot 5 times in order to get that rock star parking space in the very front row?  I mean, the time you’re wasting driving and the gas you’re spending could save a small country from distruction in a very low budget sci-fi flick.  For realz.

4 – Eat a pickle if you want a snack or have a sweet tooth.  Don’t ask me why, but this ALWAYS gets rid of my appetite and makes the sugar cravings disappear.  Plus, they’re a vegetable, and thus, must be good for you.  LOL – don’t eat too many though – you’ll turn green.  Maybe.

Okay – so those are my insightful thoughts for the day.  I’m getting back to pounding my head against my desk in frustration and I will make every effort to follow my own advice.  Let me know what you think!!!

 

I find Halloween to be all about the candy.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never been big on all the dressing up so much as counting the loot when we got it back to the house and then making trades with my brother to get as much chocolate and candy bars as possible.  It was always a score when we hit the rich neighborhoods up to get the BIG candy bars……

This year, I’m abstaining from the holiday.  My office has gone nuts with a football theme and a “tailgate” potluck.  It should be great, calorie-filled fun for them, and I think it’s great.  It builds the team atmosphere and people are able to put aside their differences for just one day and focus on creativity.

I am contemplating a juicy, cheesy hamburger for dinner, and possibly some french fries.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you when the last time I partook of such a delicacy, but I’m craving one like I don’t know what.  AND – if I don’t indulge myself now, I don’t know what I’m liable to do later, like steal my daughter’s candy-loot and shovel the sugary-sweetness into my face, but I will make an effort to refrain.

ACTUALLY, I probably will behave myself food-wise, but I AM considering heading out to party it up with my fav’s, Ash & Pash – so stay tuned for whatever alcoholic binge tonight may bring.  NO, I’m not going to count calories, and I probably won’t count drinks, though I DID have a 2-drink maximum, I have waived the limit for the evening.

SO – enjoy this wonderful holiday folks, and try not to put yourself into a diabetic coma from over-sugar consumption.  It’s okay to slide here and there.  There are really no rules to eating ONLY good stuff ALL the time.  Once in a while, we have to feed our inner fattie to stay happy.  I don’t see that as something wrong.  I’m holding steady at 20lbs gone, and I plan on upping the workouts and pro-weight loss goals very soon, but for tonight, it’s game on – let’s rock this MF’er!!!

Water is good for you in many different ways and is essential to good health and great when you’re dieting.  Why?

Water gives you a false sense of fullness.  Experts say that a majority of the time that you think you’re hungry, it’s really just your thirst mechanism.

Water cleans out your system of elements it doesn’t need and gives your cells the water they DO need to function at their highest level, metabolically.  The reason you feel hungover after a night of drinking is because your cells don’t have enough water because your body’s process to break down the alcohol (carbs) you drank used it all.  It’s called your Krebs Cycle, bitches.  Know it and love it.  Feed it with water.

It’s great for your skin, as it clears away the yuckies mucking that up as well.  Expect clearer and healthier looking skin with your eight glasses a day.

Doctors recommend you imbibe 8-12 glasses of water a day, minimum – more if you’re sweating out at the gym or in some other physical activity.

Some tips to sneak in more water into your diet:

1. Take a bottle in the car with you.  I know when I am bored, I’ll drink it just because it’s there.
2. Have it at your desk while you work.  It’ll give you something to do, again, just because it’s there, and with the need to get rid of it (potty breaks) you’ll have an excuse to get up and stretch your legs.
3. Drink a glass of water before you eat each meal.  It takes up a good amount of space in your stomach so you eat less.
4. Always have it on hand while you’re working out.  I know I drink a lot more water when I have a bottle in the cupholder on the elliptical than if I have to wait until my 20 minute workout is up.  Then you can drink when you want, as much as you want, without the skeevy guy breathing down your neck, waiting behind you for the water fountain (or “bubbler” if you’re from Wisconsin).

Hopefully these ideas and tips will get you into the habit of drinking more water.  Do you guys have any more tips for integrating more water into your day?  Leave your ideas after the jump.

This pretty much sums up my weekend.

So…the weekend has come and gone and I am back from Myrtle Beach a little sore from the surfing we did, but a little plumper from the eating we did.

On the way down, we stopped at Hooters to kick off our trip.  We hit up a Plantation House of Pancakes for breakfast one morning.  We cooked up a whole rack of ribs, potatoes and corn on the cob.  We had our share of s’mores and cold beers by the fire.  We had fast-food chinese to save a few bucks on our ride home.  Not a stellar weekend for my hips and hynie.  But today….We are back on the boat!

I had had about 800 calories today so far.  A Smart One, an egg white omelet with some cheese and veggies and toast…not bad at all.  Definitely back on the wagon.

While I made a fat pig of myself this weekend, I realized that everyone has the same problem as me.  Keeping it real during the week is no problem. The days are so routine and regimented, packing a healthy lunch, making it to the gym and making the right decisions are a lot easier.  Maybe you go out for lunch with coworkers once a week or something, but on the whole, dieting is a piece of cake (bad analogy).

What do you do on the weekend to help with your dieting goals?  I’m always caught up in going to have a beer with friends or getting some chicken wings with the BF while we watch the game.  We’ve tried to bake wings, do light beers, etc., but in the end, we end up going through more calories than we’d want.

Why do we get lazy on the weekends?  Is it our chance to let our hair hang down in every way possible?    No work, no schedules, no diet?  I am just not sure exactly how effective we can be at losing weight if we crash and burn like I know I do on weekend days.  I’m all about a treat here and there, but can two days of completely reckless abandon be too much?