Feel Good Friday

Hi!  MIA blogger- sorry :)  Vacation is so awesome, though, even if it is just with the in-laws in Illinois.  I got to sleep in today, then did a ladder type interval session on the elliptical machine followed by some ab work.  Then out for brunch, then out to a farm to cut down our Christmas tree, then we went ROCK CLIMBING!  It was soooo exhausting on my upper body.  It was AMAZING!  I went my my father-in-law, sister-in-law, & brother-in-law to an indoor rock climbing gym all afternoon.  I climbed all the way to the top on three different routes!  There were lots of others that I didn't get to the top on, but that's ok.  It was the craziest workout I've ever done.

So, being all crazy metaphorical, and because I'm a little loopy from my exhaustion still, I see a little of our fitness/weight loss journey in rock climbing.  Sometimes we have our eyes set on a goal and we see the path clearly.  We plan on following the path undeviatingly (if that's even a word).  We set up a zero-sum-game for ourselves.  We tell ourselves, "Well, there's the plan. How simple is that? Even an idiot can do it if they stick to it."  I mean each handhold and foothold is color coordinated for the path you're attempting.  But then what happens?  We start climbing and we might get stuck, not able to find a good handhold or foothold within reach.  Sometimes when we're climbing, our arms and legs start shaking because they're so spent.  Sometimes we climb and the wall above us is blocked from view by a protrusion.   Sometimes, we're so scared standing on the ground that we don't even put our first foot up on a grip.  Sometimes, we look over and see phenomenally talented climbers zoom up the wall while we're still struggling on a lower grip.  And then WE feel like the idiot.

But be gentle with yourselves, girls.  Set your sights high, and believe in yourselves, but be gentle with yourselves.  This journey towards our goal weight or our goal fitness level is going to be crazy.  It's going to have its ups and downs.  Sometimes when we're progressing, we will find ourselves stuck, and it may be hard to see that the solution is to go down a step and then over, and then you can continue up.  How many of us (Me &  Meghan for sure) have had a great go of this weight loss journey already, but have gotten to a place where our old workout and old foods just aren't showing us the results we need.  What if we stuck over on a different path?  Tried new exercises, new routines, new food strategies, etc.? If you're on one path and you get stuck, look over to a different route to the same goal, and be strong & adventuresome :)   Sometimes we aren't forgiving enough to ourselves for slipping.  Ok, so if we had a breakdown kind of a couple of days, ate a lot of chocolate, whatever your demon is, and then what do you do?  Do you toss in the towel and say forget it all?  "The whole 6 week thing's shot."  No!  You can and you should get right back on the wagon of working out and making good decisions!  Love yourself more than that.  Forgive yourself quickly and get back on.  Starting out on this journey, standing at the bottom of the rope, have the courage to take the first step, but also, have the love and forgiveness for yourself that if you stall or stumble, you will swing until you get back onto that wall and continue climbing up.  Don't lower yourself all the way to the ground again- you can pick up where you left off!  Losing weight is hard.  Keeping it off is hard.  BUT you are capable of it.  You were designed beautifully.  You were designed with the capacity for great things.

Be courageous, adventurous, light-hearted, forgiving, loving, and believing :)  Have a phenomenal weekend, girls!

Feel the Burn Thursday!

Happy Thanksgiving, ladies!  How did the Berbee Derby go for you, Amy C., Meghan, & Abrey???!???!??  I hope it felt great.  You should be really proud of yourselves.  I just got back from a great relaxing jog here on a bike path by my in-laws.  A change of scenery is so nice!  

I LOVED this article I came across about bouncing back from a Thanksgiving feast.  If running isn't your workout of choice, you could easily change it to elliptical training, spinning, biking, walking, anything :)


I love how it's so positive- that our carb loads today can be changed into a great workout tomorrow! 
"Alas, you really did get intimate with a gravy boat yesterday. On the bright side, however, your body is perfectly primed for a workout that can burn off a chunk of last night's meal. "With all the potatoes and stuffing, Thanksgiving is a big carbo-load," says McMillan. "That means the glycogen stores that fuel your muscles are full to capacity." In addition to lots of muscle-fueling carbs, your feast contained a good amount of protein, essential for rebuilding muscles that break down during a long run."


They point out that the key, though, is keeping it long and easy, relaxing and cleansing.  Try a slow jog outside or yoga!


I am so pumped up for some great workouts this weekend!  Burn off all that turkey dinner & then some :)  Rejuvenate your resolve.  Continue to be thankful.  


What workouts have you been doing this week?  What are you going to fit in this weekend?  Decide now what workouts you're going to do Friday & Saturday :)

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday

One of my favorite days of the week- when we all swap snack ideas and recipes :) 

First, though, here's a little ditty about protein from a post we did on October 14th.

Protein 101: Eat LOTS of it. According to Runner's World magazine, if you want to lose weight, about 25% of the calories you consume each day should be from protein sources, and furthermore clumped to just after your workout. Benefits of getting in your daily protein include:

• Making you feel fuller for longer,
• Helping to build and maintain lean muscle mass,
• and Repairing your micro-tears in your muscles following a workout.

How do you get in your protein each day?  Skinless chicken is always a good bet, as is yogurt, skim milk, low-fat cheese, low-fat cottage cheese, lean meats, fish, etc.  Some prefer protein powders and shakes, though, or Clif bars, etc.  What has been your protein strategy?

Check-in with what you've eaten the last 3 days, what yumminess you've bought or made, any delicious new healthy recipes you've made.  Did you know you can do a recipe analysis online?  There are several ways to do it and different sites you can google that do just that, but I prefer to just use My Fitness Pal, jump forward to a blank day, enter in the full recipe's ingredients like I was eating the whole batch, then divide my totals by the # of servings the recipe makes.  For instance, if I'm making a big batch of soup, I'd enter in a whole 48 ounce container of reduced-sodium V8 juice, a whole head of cabbage, 4 carrotts, etc.  Then when I got all that entered in as a meal, I'd take the total calories, total fats, total proteins, etc. and divide that by the 20 servings or whatever the recipe makes.  You can save your homemade recipes in there, too, for future use.  Or you can jot down the totals on your paper recipe. 

Here's a granola recipe from Tara:

Honey Cinnamon Granola

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups whole oats (not quick cooking kind)
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Handful of Craisins

1. In a small pot, combine honey, brown sugar, and vanilla. Heat over medium until sugar and honey are combined and smooth. Make sure to stir it a couple of times.
2. In a bowl, combine oats, wheat germ, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well.
3. Pour honey mixture over the oat mixture and stir well.
4. Pour granola onto a sheet pan that has been sprayed or has a silpat.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Make sure you stir the granola often. Maybe every 5 minutes or so.
6. Let cool on sheet pan. Stir in Craisins and enjoy. Could add chocolate chips. You could also try dried apple slices!
7. Store in air-tight container.

Last night I tried a new recipe that someone posted on the My Fitness Pal recipe forum and it was YUMMY! My hubby and I both really liked it.  Served w/ a big mound of steamed green beans.  I forgot to take a picture, though- sorry!

Sweet Potato Turkey Meatloaf

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed

1 pound ground turkey breast
1 large egg
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped (I only did about a tablespoon of chopped onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup honey barbecue sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 slices whole-wheat bread, torn into small crumbs (I had to use 4 pieces)
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 tablespoon salt, or to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 2 quart baking dish.
2. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the sweet potato, and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes, and mash or whip until smooth.
3. Mix the ground turkey together with the egg, sweet onion, garlic, barbecue sauce, ketchup, Dijon mustard, and whole wheat bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the sweet potatoes, and stir until evenly combined. If the mixture seems too wet, add more bread crumbs. Use your hands to form the turkey mixture into a loaf shape and place in the prepared baking dish.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 1 hour. Slice the loaf to serve. {Serves 4)

Per serving:
Calories: 336
Total Fat: 2.7g
Cholesterol: 123mg
Sodium: 2478mg
Total Carbs: 43g
Dietary Fiber: 5.3g
Protein: 33.8g

I'll bet you could make this dish with leftover sweet potatoes and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving!  Probably just put it in a food processor or Magic Bullet to grind/puree.  And I think it could serve 6 no problem. It's pretty big.

And forgive me- the posts Thursday & Friday will most likely be late in the day, not bright & early :)

Tuesday's Motivation

Good morning, ladies :)  How are you awesome challengers doing?  Did you succeed at day 1?  Did you get in any workouts? Is anyone having problems figuring out My Fitness Pal?

Something I forgot to mention previously, is if you're currently a nursing mom, be sure to add in about 500 extra calories per day to your diet above and beyond what MFP suggests :)  And that's just a result of Googling the subject- I'm sure you all know more than I do on the subject!

So as the intro pointed out, the format for posting and discussions I try for is Check-ins on Mondays, Motivation on Tuesdays, Recipes/Snacks on Wednesdays, Workouts on Thursdays, and Motivation on Fridays. 

Forgive me, but this week all that's on my mind is Thanksgiving!  I am so excited for a little getaway, new trails to run on, maybe more rest & more workouts than usually afforded in a work week.  Thanksgiving tends to be such a food-centered holiday.  America plans to wear their "stretchy pants" to the feast and gorge themselves uncomfortably and painfully full.  Our "I'm full" valves don't function on the last Thursday of November.  I've been thinking a lot about it, thinking of what my strategy is going to be that day around all my mother-in-law's yummy goodness and sinfully scrumptious dishes.  Obviously we could all get in some extra workouts and having a Thanksgiving feast not affect us much in the weight department. But it bugs me about myself that at such a family schmorgusboard as Thanksgiving, I make myself uncomfortable.  I want to be comfortable.  I want to not be clutching my tummy.  A good taste of everything should be great. So for this Thanksgiving, I am going to enjoy with thankfulness and happiness a serving spoon of everything, but that's it.  No mountain 'o guilt piled high on this plate.  The holiday is not about the food.  It's about spending time with family & friends, about sharing your blessings, about recognizing the little things in life that bring you joy.  What are your strategies and thoughts?

Here are some non-food-centered ways that you can really celebrate Thanksgiving in a spirit of gratitude this year:

1. Make a Thankful Turkey: From Meghan, "Every November I make a "Thankful Turkey". It's simply an empty tissue box decorated to look like a turkey with a slit in the top for you to put papers inside. We sit the turkey in the center of the kitchen table with a tiny stack of small papers and a pen next to it. The idea is to write down things you are thankful for and slip the paper into the turkey. Whenever we think of something, we slip it into the turkey. On Thanksgiving, we "carve" the turkey and read aloud all the things we are grateful for. It's a lot of fun!You are all inside my turkey waiting to be read aloud on Thanksgiving Day!

2. Take a Thankful Walk (& continue this throughout the year): From Jon Gordon, "Take a simple 10-minute walk each day and say out loud what you are thankful for. This will set you up for a positive day."  Maybe you could take your families out for a group Thankful Walk!

Fill your heart with gratitude and you'll be healthier!!!!  Here's an excerpt from an article/newsletter from Jon Gordon, a motivational author & corporate consultant, positivity guru, & whose idea the Thankful Walk was up above: "THANK YOU. They are two words that have the power to transform our health, happiness, athletic performance and success. Research shows that grateful people are happier and more likely to maintain good friendships. A state of gratitude, according to research by the Institute of HeartMath, also improves the heart's rhythmic functioning, which helps us to reduce stress, think more clearly under pressure and heal physically. It's actually physiologically impossible to be stressed and thankful at the same time. When you are grateful you flood your body and brain with emotions and endorphins that uplift and energize you rather than the stress hormones that drain you. Gratitude is like muscle. The more we do with it the stronger it gets."

Did you know there were so many health benefits to being grateful?  Slap that smile on your face, lace up those gym shoes, and revel in all of those blessings in your lives, INCLUDING an amazing body with wonderful potential for strength and willpower.  And of course, who couldn't use more endorphins?!? :)  Have a fantastic day, ladies!

Day One!

Good morning, ladies!  (Usually this will be posted earlier in the morning than today- by 7 am)  I am so excited to start up this new challenge!  There are some pretty awesome new challengers, so check them out on the right side-bar.  I hope you all read the previous post about instructions for getting started- but let me know if you have questions or if you're having a hard time getting the My Fitness Pal profile set up or finding the badge code.  I'd be happy to walk you through it.  This morning you should have weighed in before breakfast if possible, and measured whatever body parts you want to monitor (we'll measure every 3 weeks only, and weigh in every Monday).  Enter in your starting values in My Fitness Pal.  If you didn't this morning, no problem, try it tomorrow morning.  Check out the link on the left sidebar for accurately weighing and measuring yourself.  And at any time when you're on this challenge and it's your time of the month, do yourself a favor and don't step on the scale.  Still be good and work hard of course, but just wait and report bigger #s the following week :)  The My Fitness Pal (MFP) is kind of a free version of a weight-watchers calorie counting system with a big database of foods and exercises (& of course you can add your own).  You'll see you can eat whatever you want as long as you account for it.  Whatever calories you burn in exercise you get to eat over and above your daily calorie allottment goal.  And over time you'll learn the more wholesome or nutrient-rich your food choices are, the more bang of energy and satisfaction you get for each calorie.  It will be a journey of learning and adjusting your body to a healthy lifestyle.  Accept now that it won't be without stumbling blocks, plateaus, learning mistakes, etc.  A healthy lifestyle change or a weight loss kept off for life journey is a marathon, not a sprint. 

I love the mantra "Challenge Your Excuses."  This is vinyl lettering on the wall of my office.  It's positioned right next to a mirror for maximum in-your-face-ness and self reflection :)  If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.  Each of us has excuses for why we didn't get fit before.  Some of ours are the same; some are unique to our individual life.  "I'm too tired to workout." "My job is too stressful to eat healthy foods." "Fast food is so much easier than cooking." "My kids only eat junk food." "I will do it tomorrow." Figure out what your excuses are.  Maybe write them down.  Then make the consious decision to challenge them.  We make our own stumbling blocks and only we can overcome them.  Challenge your excuses every day.  It's a decision every day when you wake up.  Are you going to let your excuses win or are you going to beat them?  Believe in yourself and in your capacity to beat them- because I know you can ;) We were designed to be in control of our bodies, not the other way around, not to be constant victims of our bodies' whims & cravings.

The BEST thing about this free little group blog is that we're all in the same boat.  We're all working to get fit, to let our healthy selves find the way to the surface, and to find that sometimes ellusive self-confidence that hides behind the pounds.  Encourage each other.  You'll get to know the other challengers a little bit, what they struggle with, what they are doing that works, etc.  Celebrate in their successes, be happy for each other, pump each other up.  Know that we can't wait to hear all of your joys and little milestones.  Swap ideas, recipes, tips, & tricks with each other.  There's really only one rule- try to keep comments on here as positive as possible.  If you're having a horrible, rotten, good for nothing kind of day, perhaps your describing in detail the ooey-gooey five pizzas you downed all by yourself might not be that uplifting for all of us.  Attitudes are contagious.  We all have bad days.  Still try to find something little that you can say to build yourself up or others up.  Or just sit back and let the spirits of the other challengers lift you up.  You'll all come and go in cycles.  Sometimes you're up and you help lift others up.  Sometimes you're down and you are lifted up by others.  But that is why this group is so awesome, and why I think this group works so well.  We're all on hear waiting to hear how you're doing!  We're uplifting each other and keeping ourselves accountable for what we said we were going to do.  In light of Thanksgiving, here's a little excerpt from an anonymous Thanksgiving poem I recently received, that made me think of this challenge just starting up fresh and the need to challenge our excuses and be happy on this journey:

Be thankful for your limitations because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary because it means you’ve made a difference.

So anyways, that being said, here we go! Day 1!  How are you feeling?  Are you excited!!!!????  Please share with us all by commenting on this post why  it is that you want to lose your weight goal in this challenge (even if you shared it with us in previous sessions).  What are you going to feel like when you hit this goal?  What is your motivation?