Feeling Excited & Goals

I'm going to start this post by asking something really random:

Do you ever just get super excited about life?

I have the day off of work today, and I was just sitting in my kitchen, making lots of goodies (breakfast pot pies, homemade pesto, french bread), and I just got really excited.

Photographic proof of my "making lots of goodies"

Sundried Tomato Pesto, which will be served with chicken and linguine tonight

 Breakfast Pot Pies with egg, veggies, bacon, and cheese

 It was a giddy/euphoric feeling.  I was thinking about training for races, exercising, good food, my best friend, Nick...lots of things were going through my mind when my heart started to race, my face broke out into a great big smile, and I thought about how lucky I am to live the life I live.  It's not perfect, nor will it ever be, but I am still pretty damn lucky.  I have a beautiful home, great friends, a loving man, an awesome family, two adorable furbabies, and I am healthy.  I know how to cook (and I'm damn good at it), my body is able to accomplish amazing things, and I have a great support system.

Where am I going with this?  I really have no idea.  Maybe it's the beer I had with lunch talking, but I just feel really excited about the future, and about my life.  I am lucky to have so many great things in my life, and may I never take any of them for granted.

Anywho....enough of my random spiel, let's talk about goals!

My goal for last week, we to do 5 2-a-day workouts.  Um,  I did that once.  Only once.  I missed this goal by a long shot.  I did work out at least 30 minutes each day everyday except for Friday.  That's got to count for something, right?

This week, my goal is to burn at least 3,000 calories.

I've been on a mission to burn 3,500 calories in a week, but have yet to conquer that goal.  I'm in the last 2 weeks of my Diet Bet, so I need some heavy calorie burns this week.  I set the goal a tad under 3,500 to make it a little easier to reach.

I hope everyone has a GREAT week!

5 on Friday: Feeling Healthy Edition

I am dedicating this 5 of Friday post to the healthy changes I am feeling in my body.  Now that I am working out consistently, and have been eating quite well, I am starting to feel wonderful!  I was feeling bloated, tired, and sluggish, but I am slowly doing a 180 to an improved, and healthy me!!  Here are the top five health changes I have noticed so far in 2014.

{ONE}
I no longer feel like/think I need coffee in the morning.  The first thought that used to pop into my head when I opened my eyes in the morning was, "I need coffee!"  I would have my 2-3 cups in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, I would sometimes have 1-2 cups more!  My mind/body no longer feels dependent on coffee to get me through the day.  Instead, I am getting energy through exercise and eating the right foods.  I do still enjoy coffee in the morning, but I'm down to one cup.

{TWO}
I was having the most difficult time getting out of bed.  Seriously, I was hitting snooze for an hour or more most mornings... I could have been using the precious time to work out, but instead I wanted 5 more minutes, just 5 more minutes.  Those 5 minutes turned to 10 to 30 to an hour!  I am still guilty of hitting snooze, but I now only do it once or twice.

{THREE}
Tying in with both one and two, more energy!  I feel energize when I wake up, not tired.  When 2:30 hits, and everyone else at work is tired and sluggish, I'm peppy and feeling great.  I don't feel the need to guzzle coffee or take a nap.  I have enough natural energy to power me through the entire day.

{FOUR}
I don't feel as bloated and gross.  'Nuff said.

{FIVE}
Less cravings.  I used to crave salty stuff like Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream chips, or chocolate.  It was a struggle battling these cravings, and they unfortunately won most of the time.  I still crave chocolate after dinner, but I am now more aware of what I eat.  Instead of downing an entire candy bar, I'll have one square of a Lindt dark chocolate bar.  The salt craving is nearly nonexistent.

If I already feel this great after only 17 days, I am beyond excited about my healthy future!!

Happy weekend, everyone!

WIW

Remember last week how I said I was going to start taking pictures of the scale for my weigh-ins?  Well, I completely forgot until I sat down at work to type this.  Oops.  Next week for sure!

Last week I weighed in at 175 on the dot.  This week 174.3.  

Not as big of a loss as I was hoping, but at least it was a loss!  

Aunt Flow is currently visiting, so she may have to do with my less than a pound loss.  If not, well, I just need to work a little harder.

There are 16 days left in my Diet Bet, and I still have 4.2 to lose.  Totally doable!!  I am confident the scale will show a bigger loss next week!

30 Day Shred

Nick and I had such a great time on our Madison adventure this weekend!  Unfortunately, we never made it to the Chazen art museum.  Instead, we added another brewery to our list :)  In total, I ended up sampling 18 different beers in one day. 

18.  Different.  Beers.

That right there, is heaven to me.  

I had plans to take a million photos of our excursion, but this ended up being the only one I took...fail.

All these fun shenanigans kind of threw off my rhythm though.  I weighed myself this morning just for a check-in...not pretty.  Hopefully by my weigh-in on Wednesday, I'll be back to normal!

Time to talk about goals.

Last week, I gave myself one goal.  That goal was to get at least 30 minutes of activity in each day.  I was not 100% on this, but I did do really well!  Friday after work, I had lady cramps, and was just drained from the work week, so I didn't work out at all.  Otherwise, I did either dancing, the at home workout I shared the other day, yoga, or walked.  

This week, I am continuing with that goal, but I am bumping it up a notch.  I still need to get at least 30 minutes of activity in each day, but now, I will be doing 2-a-days at least 5 days this week.  On these 2-a-days, I should get in at least 45 minutes of activity, but I am shooting for more like an hour.  

I really, really, really want to win my Diet Bet this time so I feel like I need to be a little extreme.  To help me get my booty in shape, I have enlisted the help of one, Miss Jillian Michaels.  I started her 30-Day Shred this morning.  I also took some not so great (chunky/not quality) before pictorials.  If you're not in the mood to see a not-so-fit half naked chick, you'll probably want to stop reading now...  

I took the pictures though so that I have a comparison after the 30 day are up.  I'm really hoping to see some big changes!

  Without further ado, my almost naked body!!!!!

Oh. My. God.  It is sooooo hard taking a full body shelfie!!!  Shit. I'm not sure why I don't have Nick just help me.  For some reason, I'm self-conscious about it.  He sees my naked body on basically a daily basis, TMI...sorry I'm not sorry...but for some reason, I don't want him to know about the pictures.  Is that weird?  Does anyone understand where I'm coming from?  

5 on Friday: Madison Edition

As I have already mentioned in two other posts, Wednesday was Nick's birthday.  I didn't buy him a present...gasp!  

Instead, I'm taking him out in downtown Madison this weekend.  I grew up in a small town close to Madison, and I went to college in Madison, but Nick is from Illinois.  Nick has never gotten to experience downtown Madison's nightlife.  We only live about 30 minutes away, but I got us a hotel for Saturday night, so we can both fully enjoy the night, and not worry about driving anywhere.  

In honor of our weekend, and a few things I LOVE in this awesome city, I am doing a 5 on Friday Madison Edition. 

{ONE}

 After dropping the dogs off at a friends, our first stop in Madison will be the Chazen Art Museum.  This is more for me than Nick, but I think he'll like it.  They recently opened a new contemporary wing (right side of the building) that I've only been in a for a few minutes so I can't wait to fully check it out.

{TWO}

My favorite place to eat in Madison!  The Brasserie V is an awesome European inspired restaurant near my work.  Not only is their food a-maze-balls, but they have over 250 beers selections from all over the world.  Nick loves beer, and has never been to BV so I'm pumped to take him to lunch there. 

{THREE}

Breweries galore!  A few microbreweries have popped up in Madison, and as I said above, Nick LOVES beer.  Not only does Nick love beer, but I love beer.  This weekend is mostly going to be about drinking a lot of good beer.  No shame. The above are 3 breweries we will be checking out.

{FOUR}

Madison Comedy Club on State.

Nick is a big fan of stand up comedy.  It's really a hit or miss for me, but I will admit, the few times we have gone to the CC, I've enjoyed it.  Going to a show was Nick's one request for this weekend, but since I'm such an amaaaazing girlfriend, I had already reserved our tickets before he asked :)

{FIVE}

 If you like martinis, this is the bar for you!  The Icon has the most amazing martinis, and after 10pm, they are on special for only $5!  These martinis are potent though...only one and you're going to be feeling it.  Besides the martinis, The Icon also has a great ambiance.  They play old black and white movies, and the decor is based around pictures of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, John Wayne, etc.  

I could go on forever with this list, but these are the top 5 things we will be doing this weekend.  I am just super excited to show Nick all of my favorite old haunts, and for him to have a little taste of my life as a college student.  It will also just be nice to get out of the house for a night!!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Super Sore NSV

It has been a while since I've linked up with KTJ to share a Non-Scale Victory.

Maybe that's because over the past few weeks/months/eons, I haven't had any victories...on the scale, or off.  Now that I am committed to making 2014 the year I make my fitness dreams a reality, I am hoping I'll have tons of victories to share.

On to this weeks victories.

Yesterday was Nick's birthday.  I was an awful girlfriend, and didn't make him a cake (I am taking him out for an AWESOME weekend though!) so I decided to buy one on the way home from work last night.  Enter this temptress...

Heaven in a box!

This cake is intended to have 8 servings with a whopping 240 calories per serving.  It is a fairly small cake, and once I had the 8 pieces cut, my first thought was, "These pieces are tiny!  I'm so having two."  As I savored my first piece though, I thought about my Diet Bet, and what I said yesterday.  I am currently a little bit ahead of the game, but is having a second serving of cake really worth losing that advantage?

No.  No, it's not.

I finished my piece.  Got up from the table, rinsed off my plate, and immediately put the cake away so I wouldn't stare at it and be tempted.  Sweets are one of my biggest weakness so I am extremely proud that I was able to just walk away.

Instead of my usual routine of blowing off workouts, I made a goal this week to get 30 minutes of activity in each day, and so far I am 100% on track.  That being said, I sooooo did not want to do anything last night.  My legs and arms were still sore from the jumping jacks I did the night before, and work had me drained.

 As I was laying on the floor, whining to Nick that I didn't want to work out, running through all of the "good" excuses as to why I could skip working out, I started feeling extremely guilty.  I started thinking about how badly I want to feel confident in my bathing suit this summer, and not worry about how my rolls look, or sucking in my stomach.  I started thinking about all the cute clothes I have, that I never wear because they're a bit too snug.  I started thinking about how I am supposed to be in the prime of my life, but instead I'm tired and sluggish all the time.  All these thoughts made me pick myself up off the floor, and get my sweat on.

This is the workout I did last night, and it kicked my ass!

I thought I was sore from the jumping jacks...  My entire body hurts today from doing this 3 times.  When I read though it, I was all like, "Oh yeah, I can totally do this.  Super easy."  Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.  It was tough!  My 3rd time was a struggle, and I couldn't wait to finish, but I felt GREAT afterwards.

It took me just over 20 minutes to finish the 3 circuits, so I played Just Dance for 10 minutes to finish out my 30 minutes of activity. 

WIW

'Tis that time of week again, Weigh-In Wednesday.

Last week's weigh-in, which conveniently fell on January 1, and was my official weigh-in for the Diet Bet I am competing in, was 177.2.

This morning, I weighed in at 175!  A 2.2 loss.

I'm pretty sure this is the biggest weekly loss I have ever had.  To win my Diet Bet, I need to lose a total of 7.1 lbs by 1/31, or 4% in four weeks.  That means at least 1.78 lbs a week.  I have a little bit of a head start this week now, but I need to keep working hard.  Just because I'm a little bit ahead, doesn't mean I can slack.  I still have 4.9 lbs to drop in 23 days.

I've decided from now on, I'm going to take a picture of the scale for my weigh-ins.  It feels more official having photographic evidence...

One last thing, Happy Birthday to my Nick!!!  He turned the big 2-6 today.  Happy Birthday, Pookie!  I love you!!!!!

Jumping Jacks

This week has been off to a great start!  I hope it's going well for each of you also!

A made a goal this week to do at least 30 minutes of activity each day.  Last night, I ending up playing Wii Just Dance for 40 minutes. Dancing with the Wii may not be much of a workout for some, but let me tell you, I get sweaty!  Instead of just moving my hand around to follow the Wii character, I get my whole body into it.  Nick always scores more points when he dances with me because he focuses more on his hand movement, and I focus more on entire body movement.

Last night, I also randomly decided to do 100 jumping jacks consecutively.  Holy shit!  When you're out of shape like me, 100 jumping jacks is tough!

For my workout tonight, I decided to wear my heart rate monitor to see how many calories I burned while doing the 100 jumping jacks.  It took me 1:38 to finish the first 100, and I burned 14 calories.  This led me to try another 100...this was 1:38 again and 15 calories.  I then made the decision to do a total of 5 sets of 100.  At the end of 500 jumping jacks, I burned 80 total calories and it took me 8 minutes and 10 seconds.  I quick, semi-easy burn!  My shoulders and calves are already super sore from this mini-beast of a workout. 

Since the JJs took me 8 minutes, I rounded out my 30 by dancing again.  I did 6 songs, and by the 3rd, I was ready to be finished because my arms and legs were so jello-y.  I stuck it out though and got my 30 minutes of activity in. 

This morning I had my Almond Joy smoothie that I was so excited to try, and I was not disappointed.  It was fantastic!  The flavor was almost identical to an Almond Joy candy bar, without the oiliness.  Here's the recipe.

1 C fresh spinach

1 C unsweetened almond milk

1 banana (frozen)

1 pear

1T unsweetened coconut flakes

1 T cocoa powder

Blend all ingredients until smooth.  Enjoy!     

Smoothies & Goals

Despite most of Wisconsin being shut down today because of the extreme cold (-13 as the high!), I still had to work.  Boo.  I work at a college...considering all other local schools were closed,  you would think that we would be too...nooooope.

Anywho.

Today is Day 2 of the 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge I'm doing.  Yesterday, I had a smoothie called Gorilla Punch

1 C fresh spinach

1 C unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 banana

1 apple

1T cocoa powder

1 T peanut butter

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

I thought I was going to love this one, I mean, peanut butter and chocolate, what's not to love?!  I wasn't really a fan though because I forgot to freeze my banana, and didn't use any ice.  This led to a room temperature, nasty-looking, green/brown smoothie.  The color and the warm taste was NOT appetizing, and I really struggled to choke it down.  Next time, I will DEFINITELY freeze the banana ahead of time.  I think that if it was cold, I would have liked it a lot more.

Today, I had Morning Sunshine

1 C fresh spinach

1/2 C oj

1/2 C water

1 banana

1 orange

1/2 C pineapple

I wised up after drinking the warm smoothie yesterday, and I froze the fresh pineapple overnight.  This smoothie was delicious!  The recipe I used made a little extra so I gave some to Nick.  He thinks green smoothies are all gross just because they're green so I was surprised he even tried it.  Not surprisingly, he loved it!

Tomorrow, I am going to try an Almond Joy smoothie recipe.  It sounds so delicious, so I can't wait!

On a final note, I am super pumped that one of my favorite link-ups is back!  Carolyn over at Fitnasty for Life is now hosting this link-up solo, so stop by her page, and give her some love!  And, of course, join the link-up!

I love this link-up because it's interesting to see what kind of fitness, and life in general, goals my fellow bloggers have.  Setting mini, easily attainable goals, can really help boost a person's motivation.  If you're stuck, and cannot think of any goals, it's always nice to see what your peers are up to, and get some ideas from them!

Since I've been such a lazy-ass lately, and am slowly getting back into the swing of a healthy lifestyle, I am only setting one goal this week.

At least 30 minutes of activity each day. 

5 on Friday

{ONE}  Two day work week!  

I was off of work for the holidays from 12/24 through 1/1.  Yesterday was my first day back, and today is already Friday!  It has just felt like another normal week though, so I thought today was Tuesday.  Yippy for it actually being Friday already!

{TWO} Diet Bet

Not only is is Friday, but I officially start my Diet Bet today.  I have done one other Diet Bet before, and I did nothing during the entire four weeks.  Guess what, I lost that one.  This time, I'm going to work hard because I NEED to lose some weight.  The Diet Bet is just an extra motivator.  

{THREE}  Green Smooth Challenge

Via Rachel's blog, I heard about this 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge.  I am hoping this challenge will help me jump-start clean eating habits.  This challenge started on the first, but I haven't made it to the grocery store yet.  I will be starting the challenge tomorrow. 

{FOUR}  FREEZING

Can we talk for a second about how ridiculously cold it is here in Wisconsin!  

This is the forecast for the next 5 days...

Area schools are already talking about being closed on Monday because the high is -11... negative 11...for the HIGH!  The Green Bay Packers are currently facing a television black-out for their play-off game on Sunday because ticket sales are so low.  Can you blame the people for not wanting to sit outside in -1 - -22 temperatures to watch a football game?  I sure hope they win, but I will definitely not be participating in any tailgating.   

Even though it's super cold, I'm glad we're not getting the crazy amounts of snow that the east coast is!

{FIVE} Costco

For Christmas, Nick and I got a membership to Costco.  I CANNOT wait to start buying stuff in bulk!  Nick has never been to a Costco so I am pumped to see him get his mind blown!  Costco has everything.  I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.  Did you know you can buy a motherfuckin' casket from Costco's website...whaaaat?!

A'ight, hooligans, have a fantastic weekend!

New Year, New Me

Hello, friends.  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!

To jump start my New Year, I decided to join a Diet Bet.  I joined Blogilates January DietBet, which officially kicks off tomorrow.  If you are looking for a little extra motivator to help lose some post-holiday weight, you can still join this Diet Bet for $30.   

This, unfortunately, was my official weigh-in from this morning...

Waaaaahhhh-waaaaahhhh-waaaaaaaaaaaa

I need to lose at least 7.1 lbs and get down to 170.1 to win.  Imma kick this DietBet's booty, and make some mad cash!  I'm excited for this challenge, and to start working on my bikini bod ;)

As many other people are doing, I would also like to share a few long-term goals I have for 2014.  Some are health related, others are just for fun.

Run a marathon.

Run a sub 2:00 half marathon.

Read 40 books.

Blog at least once a week, at the VERY minimum.

Complete a 30-day Green Smoothie Challenge.

Get into the 150s.

Log my food and activity on MFP, every day.

Go on 1 date with Nick every month.

I still have my on-going 30 before 30 list and 101 in 1001 which a few of these tie into.