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.