Feel Good Friday

Good morning, ladies! Check out this article on losing weight during stressful times and let me know what you have planned for this weekend to "calm your mind."

Stress and Weight Gain

This was my favorite part: "If you're facing twin battles against stress and weight, calming your mind should be your first priority, Gluck says. "Addressing stress would be more effective than going on a diet," she says."

Keep up the hard work thoughout the weekend! You ladies all push me to do my best :) Thanks for everything!

Feel the Burn Thursday!

Yeah! Last Chance Workout :) Well, you're going to have lots more workouts, but ya know, amp it up in the last week of this challenge- you can do it! So what workouts are on the radar this week? Laura, have you gotten in any swims lately? Jessie, how's boot camp going? Linds, are you fitting in more-active-than-usual everyday activities w/ the girls? Nicki, I heard you got in a run last night- good for you! Kristin, how's the workout routine w/ the studying routine going? Tara, any fun classes you've done this week? Val, how have your runs been this week? Jamie, are you getting excited for your sprint triathalon coming up in two weeks? Sarah F, any fun interval walks around the neighborhood? Meghan, any more long bike rides? Shanda and Michele, have you found any "me" time amidst the busy-ness? Take care of yourselves! This picture's for you, Linds! :)

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday!

I hope you all were busy doing active and healthy things last night :) I loved Abby's comment on Biggest Loser last night- something to the effect of "you keep moving, and you keep counting calories, and it works." Their basic idea is the same as ours...minus the f-bombs and 10 hour cardio routines :) Did any of you learn any good food ideas from their kitchen lesson? I want to try the fresh raspberries w/ dark chocolate sauce drizzle. Or the pineapple chunks skewered and grilled. Yum! So what have you been eating this week? Any fun new recipes?

So I haven't made this in a few months, but I ate this a ton in the spring. So yummy! I pulled it off the My Fitness Pal recipe forum, but I believe it is from Cooking Light originally. I added a few comments as did the MFP girl who posted it this spring.



Meatloaf in a Mug
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons 2% milk
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon onion soup mix
1/4 pound lean ground beef (this is key- it's got to be the leanest possible so there's no grease in the cup)
Additional ketchup, optional

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine the milk, ketchup, oats and soup mix. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Pat into a microwave-safe mug or custard cup coated with cooking spray.

Cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes or until meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160°; drain (I didn't need to drain b/c I got 98% lean meat).

Let stand for 3 minutes. Serve with additional ketchup if desired.

Yield: 1 serving.

Nutrition Facts
One serving: (calculated without additional ketchup) Calories: 248 Fat: 10 g Saturated Fat: 4 g Cholesterol: 72 mg Sodium: 440 mg Carbohydrate: 14 g Fiber: 1 g Protein: 24 g Diabetic Exchange: 3 lean meat, 1 starch.

Tips:
-"Was out of ketchup so I used cocktail sauce! Might do that permanently! The horseradish in it is great with meatloaf!"
-"Used extremely lean ground turkey and there wasn't any grease left in the bottom...so nice..."
-"Didn't trust my mugs in the microwave so I just made it in a one-cup pyrex measuring cup. Didn't look as great but it worked perfectly."
-"Think I'll quadruple this recipe and cook one mug while I line 3 other mugs with plastic wrap and freeze them. When frozen I'll bag them up and save them for a rainy day!"
Edited by ChubbyBunny on Tue 03/10/09 10:02 AM

For me, I didn't freeze them, but I did make 4 at a time (buy 1 lb ground beef or turkey & split into 4 portions), cook them all, and cover and put in the fridge. We would eat them before the end of the week. This recipe is so yummy! And it helps w/ portion control. If you've got a big family, there are also lots of recipes out there for meatloaf "muffins" or meatloaf made in a muffin tin and baked which would get accross the same portion control idea but on a family scale.

Can't wait to hear about all your yummies :)

Tuesday Motivation

"I've forgotten what I've started fighting for" is more than just an REO Speedwagon song :) Do you remember what you are fighting for in this challenge in deciding to take on your bad habits and excuses?

Sarah: To lose weight and feel sexier, more confident, and healthier
Sarah F: To reprogram her brain to reprioritize exercise, to tone up her legs
Nicole: To lose weight to feel better in her own skin again, to teach her kids a healthy lifestyle
Linds: To maintain her weight, exercise regularly, get toned, and eat healthily
Jessie: To get back into her playing-sports-every-day-body, exercise 3x a week, eat healthy foods
Kristin: To feel strong, healthy, and confident, to develop good eating and exericse habits so it's easier to keep good study habits
Valerie: To lose weight and be able to run a 4 hour marathon again
Meghan: To lose weight to look and feel better, to take better care of herself so she can take better care of those she loves
Jamie: To lose weight and keep running half marathons
Michele: To lose weight
Shanda: To lose weight to have the energy she used to have
Laura: To lose weight to fit into her pre-baby jeans
Tara: To lose weight and not eat fast food anymore

All of us have noble causes we're fighting for. YOU are worth improving and strengthening! YOU are worth all the time and effort you've been putting in the last 5 weeks. YOU deserve to hit your goals. No one is going to change you but you. Don't be afraid of the sweat sessions this week, pushing it hard, eating lots of healthy veggies, fitting in extra workouts, and just loving yourself.



Sometime today, close your eyes for a minute and visualize your goals above being achieved. Dream in HD :) Imagine you having hit your goal. How do you feel? How do you look? How is your energy? How does that affect other aspects of your life and relationships? How is your confidence? Are you smiling? Are you doing things you weren't able to do previously? Are you happy?

Monday Check-In

How did this last week go for you? Did you hit your weekly goal? Let us know how much you're up or down and any changes that you've noticed or felt.

Also, let us know how you've been getting your 8 glasses of water! We haven't heard how any of you are doing on that since the first week of this challenge.



If you're sick or have a cold, you might feel it derails your progress, but check out this Cold Guide that links to other articles about what to eat, how exercise can help keep away the cold & flu or jumpstart your immune system if you already have a cold, and how moderate 20-30 min workouts with a cold are fine. Hope you feel better soon, Nicole & Michele! (Michele's had a cold for the last 3 weeks!)

Are you ladies ready for the last week of this Ten in Six Challenge? It's the LAST CHANCE WORKOUT from Biggest Loser :) You all can do it. Push extra hard & be extra good this week. Hit your goals and be proud of yourselves! You can do it!

Feel Good Friday

Hello, beautiful ladies! We only have 10 more days left in this challenge- I can't believe it's been so long already. First, just to flaunt, here are the prizes going out today to the two participants in the t-shirt side-challenge. Congratulations, Linds & Nicole! Linds is getting the Smartwool multisport socks & Nicole is getting the Smartwool running socks.

Second, I thought this quote from the Runner's World magazine's Daily Kick in the Butt (they email a daily motivational quote) was pretty hilarious.

"It's the road signs, 'Beware of Lions.'" -Kip Lagat, Kenyan distance runner, during the Sydney Olympics, explaining why his country produces so many great runners.



Think about that as you're out and about this weekend getting in great sweat sessions, calorie burns, and pounding the pavement. Your lion could be the positive reinforcement/motivation you shared with us at the beginning of the challenge, ie your kids, your happiness, peace, sexiness, etc. Or your lion could be the negative reinforcement of what the old lazy you was like. Let that push you forward into charging your goals! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Monday morning starts the last week of the 10 in 6 Challenge! Make it a great finish!

Feel the Burn Thursday!

It's getting so crisp and chilly in the mornings already and I can hardly believe that fall is just around the corner (well, except for sunny Jessie's neck of the woods)! I have felt the urgency lately to get out and enjoy the last of the beautiful weather this next month before the midwest 6 month winter sets in...brrr...:) But I love autumn; it's my favorite season! So what are your favorite outdoor workouts? Get out and have fun! Be active! Feel the calorie burn! I love this list of ideas:
Ten Ideas for Outdoor Workouts
I think my dog might actually be taken to the dog park this weekend for the first time in over a month :) Relaxed romping around sounds like such a great weekend treat. What do this week's workouts look like for you?

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday?

Wow, so let me first of all get it out of the way- The Biggest Loser premier last night was GREAT! They push it and work it so hard and see such huge losses. They challenge their past & their bad habits and they make it work. It really inspires me to push it harder. I didn't lose my husband and two kids in a tragic car accident, my mom wasn't a heroine addict, etc. The fact that these contestants can have so much strength despite their obstacles and histories, it means that I have NO EXCUSE! NO EXCUSE AT ALL! What about you? I am going to push the workouts harder and longer this week because of it! Have you ever checked out Kristin's Blog? Just came across it. She has a good and simple smoothie idea that she uses a lot: frozen strawberries, half a banana, skim milk, and a packet of truvia sweetener.



Share with us what your favorite workout foods have been! Our favorites this week have been 6 Week Bran Muffins, a family recipe of my sister-in-law Erianne. It makes a HUGE batch, but the batter keeps for 6 weeks in the fridge, so you just bake a fresh dozen when you need more. It's chock full of fiber and energy. I haven't done a recipe analysis yet b/c I'm waiting to see exactly how many muffins the batch made (I'm thinking 5 dozen- we've baked 2 dozen so far) but someone on MFP with probably a similar recipe has estimated it at about 230 cal each, which seems about right. One muffin in the morning for breakfast and it stays with us and keeps us full all morning.



6 Week Bran Muffins

2 cups boiling water
5 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 quart low-fat buttermilk
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup ground flax seed meal
1 tablespoon salt
4 cups All-Bran cereal
2 cups bran flakes (40% bran)
2 cups chopped dates
1 cup chopped almonds

Add soda to boiling water and let cool (I set it in fridge). Cream butter, applesauce, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in buttermilk, then flour, flax, and salt. Add water and soda mixture. Mix All-Bran, bran flakes, dates, and nuts in a large separate bowl. Add buttermilk mixture. Spoon into well-greased muffin tins (I don't use papers/wrappers) without stirring much. Bake at 375 for 20 mins. Store the remaining batter in a covered container in refridgerator- will keep 5-6 weeks.

Share a yummy good-for-working-out recipe or snack idea!

Motivational Tuesday

So from last week, from the post that listed 20 motivational weight loss tips, it said that reading success stories will help you stay motivated and realize how accomplish-able (like how I made that word up? :P ) your goals really are. If they can do it, you can do it, right? Check out these success stories:
You Lose, You Win
This one was one of my favorite before & after pics- check out those guns! Wow!

What I gather from reading a bunch of these is that they sometimes took a REALLY LONG TIME but the women did NOT give up. Hitting our goals probably won't be on our ideal time frame, determination and hard work can get you there. Slow results add up. These stories are great. Love them! Did you find anything helpful or motivational in them? Kristin, share your success story with us! I can post pics if you have them ;)

Monday Morning Check-in

Good morning, ladies! So...what's the verdict? How did you do this past week? Share your progress with us :) If not weight being down, share with us changes you've noticed in physique, energy, clothes fitting, strength, etc.



So Meghan, Nicki, and I all watched the Ironman yesterday. INCREDIBLE! Did any of the rest of you see it? Just think of this amazing feat that these athletes from all over the world come to do: Swim 2.4 miles, then bike 100 miles, then run 26.2 miles. Whoa! I'm still astonished. My muscles are fatigued just thinking about it :) It is so amazing what the body can do with discipline and courage. It really humbled me about this upcoming race that's freaking me out- to these athletes who have mastered their bodies and their habits, a small race like mine is a walk in the park. Our bodies are amazing things that can do incredible things! So I've been thinking about what these athletes did mentally to be ready for this incredible feat. They first of all had to DECIDE to do it. Then they had to BELIEVE they could do it and IMAGINE themselves successfully accomplishing it. Then they had to EAT and TRAIN in such a way that they were willing to challenge their excuses and do ANYTHING it takes to hit their goal. So your goal is to lose 10 lbs or a few inches around the midsection, maybe just develop good habits. Do you see how the same principles would apply and how small and easy that sounds in comparision to these ironmen? We can hit our goals!!!!! You ladies are doing so well- you can accomplish whatever your mind decides to do. Decide every morning. It's not something you decide once and then forget about and lose weight anyhow. It's an every morning kind of thing. Decide to be the best you!

Calvin Klein aint got nothin' on these T's!

End of 2nd Side Challenge! Here we go :) There are 3 submissions and I've posted the artists' own comments below. If you click on each image, you should be able to get it to come up on your computer screen really big.

First is Linds' shirt: "'Never Eat More Than You Can Lift'" I think it's hilarious. I chose Miss Piggy because 1) her advice is true you shouldn't eat more then you can lift and 2) she ALWAYS had confidence even if she was a pig, she still thought she was beautiful."


Second is Nicki's shirt: "'Action expresses priorities'" -Gandhi I chose that one because it reminds me that if I claim my priorities are to get healthier and lose weight then I have to be doing something to prove that to myself that entails something more than just saying it. Actually eating differently, taking time to exercise, setting goals, etc. The little cartoon guys were just cute. You can't see them very well but they're doing all kinds of exercise. One the back it says, 'It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.' -Edmund Hillary. That one speaks for itself a little more."


Finally is my shirt: "'Excuses abound but I decide each morning to challenge them...and eat them for breakfast'" This isn't a cool quote or anything, just something I think about a lot. There's always a negative excuse, things I used for years, like I'm too tired, too busy, too stressed, too slow to see results that it's not worth the effort, too exhausted, too hungry, etc. I didn't lose weight until I DECIDED to lose weight. Making the decision to challenge all of those negative excuses that are inevitable to pop up- that's what takes guts- every day- it doesn't get easy or go away- it's a decision every day that I have to make- the decision to not stop and to not give in to the easy."


Ok, and this isn't part of the official side challenge, but it's too cute to not share- Nicki's kids decorated their own shirts to wear for when Nicki does her first half-marathon!


Thanks for playing along in the side challenge, Nicki & Linds! Since there were only two of you playing, I am not going to bother with the poll, but just send you each a treat :) Yay! Have a splendid weekend, everyone. Get out and be active!

Feel Good Friday

Good morning, girls! Horray for Friday! :) Thanks, Meghan, for posting yesterday for us to keep our chins up and remember each day is a new chance! From that, I want to post something that will make you all excited and pumped up throughout the weekend, re-dedicated to kicking trash and keeping morale high. I came across this list of 20 motivational tips for weight loss. I know some of you aren't trying to lose weight, so just edit these tips to your specific situation and goals. Skim them and let us know which one would help you the most or which one is your favorite. I loved reading through these!



(T-shirt pics & poll will be posted really late tonight or sometime tomorrow. Geesh, was I tired and extra-loopy when I made mine last night ;) Hope you had fun, too!)

Feel the Burn Thursday

What workouts have you done this week and what do you have planned for the weekend? How are you going to break a sweat and feel the burn? :)



I thought this article was awesome. It's right along the lines of what we're doing! Losing weight slowly, making sure it's a lifestyle change not a fad, and having an awesome support group of fellow 10-in-6-ers :) I am so grateful for all of you.
Lose Pounds Slowly
What do you guys think of the article? Keep on trucking, ladies! The slow, steady weight loss and lifestyle changes are paying off and they'll continue to do so as you better yourself :)

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday

Good morning, Ladies! What healthy meals do you have planned for the week? Meal planning (particularly with little ones and busy family schedules) can be tricky. One can only eat so many chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, & drive-thru kids meals, right? Meal planning ahead of time is something that can help us avoid binges, avoid fast food, and avoid headaches and poor decisions when trying to decide what's for dinner. How do you do your meal planning? Here are some ideas:

Healthy Meal Planning Made Simple: this one even has sack lunch ideas, tons of meal ideas, and lots of grocery list/meal planning tips & tricks. Jackpot!

Healthy Meal Planning: this one has good tricks for planning what to cook when, re-using leftovers, & using odds n ends in your fridge as components to future meals.

Healthy Meal Planning/Fruits & Veggies: this one's about incorporating more fruits & veggies into everyday meals.



Let's all comment with a good, healthy, kid-friendly meal idea!

Check-in :)

Hey, ladies! How did the last weeek go? Let us know your ups or downs. This marks the halfway point in the challenge. Re-commit yourself today to making the second half of the challenge just as successful or more successful than the first half :) If you're behind on your goal, it's not too late to push it and hit it! Come up with a gameplan for this week. What meals will you prepare? When and what will you do for workouts? What daily chores or activities can you do to bring on the sweat? What will you do to maintain a mood that enables you to believe in yourself?


Also today is the start of the second side challenge that will run until Friday. Here we go: Come up a personal workout or success mantra. It can be an inspirational quote you really like, a funny saying that lightens your day, or anything that you would consider your theme for this challenge. Put this on a workout T-shirt for yourself. Take a picture of it and email it to me by end of the day Friday. You can pick up a blank bright-colored tee at Michael's, JoAnn's, or Wal-mart for $2 and you can write on your saying w/ fabric paint, Sharpie marker, or iron on letters. Really just do whatever you want. You'll be on your honor to not re-use a T-shirt you had made previously for something else. This idea comes from Valerie and Jamie, who always make such fun running shirts :) Everyone's shirt will be so different, but it will be fun to see them all on here when I post the pictures. After Friday, I'll put a poll on the blog here and everyone will vote anonymously for their favorite, and that person will win a prize. You'll be inspired and laugh looking at all the T-shirts, you'll have your own mantra on your T-shirt to motivate you when you work out, and you'll read through a lot of motivational and inspiration material as you find the right mantra for you and your goals, which in and of itself should be uplifting. I am excited for this challenge :) Have fun with it! Make T-shirts with your kids as a fun craft project :)

Labor Day Weekend Hurrah :)

Do you ladies have fun plans for this weekend? We're headed out of town for a 6.5 hour car trip each direction to Ohio & so my mind is whirling with all the "to-do" list things. One of them is packing a little soft-sided cooler w/ plenty of water and healthy snacks for the trip so I'm not a gas station monger. I will probably over-pack the cooler so that I will always have healthy options on hand while we're visiting family all weekend. I am also going to be doing my longest run ever (gulp!)this Saturday on a neat railroad-to-trail trail I found that's right by their town. Here are my goodies I'll be packing: Water, Powerade Zero, Clif Mini Bars (100 cal each), kosher dill pickles (5-10 cal each), whole wheat pita chips (130 cal for 13 chips), Laughing Cow babybel bonbel cheese rounds (60 cal each), Orbitz Bubblemint Sugarfree gum, & Emerald cocoa roast almonds (100 cal per ounce divided up in little snack-size Ziploc bags), & fresh cut pineapple (74 cal per 1 cup).

I found this neat, particularly the recommendation to pack your workout gear and what fast food meals are decent: How to Take Your Diet on Vacation

What are your tricks & tips for keeping up your diet and workout routine while out of your element and on vacation? What about even if that trip is just an hour away to visit your parents in Milwaukee? (SPOTLIGHT! hehehe....)

Feel the Burn Thursday!

Only 4 more days until the half-way point of our challenge! Are you where you want to be? You beautiful ladies are doing such a great job keeping up the energy and positivity. I appreciate it and you've helped me so much :)

So, Feel the Burn Thursday! What workouts have you done this week? What workouts do you have planned for the rest of the week?

I want to hear what your "internal dialogue" is when you're about to work out or while you're working out. Is there something that you tell yourself to get you motivated to exercises? To get your booty out the door? Is there something you tell yourself or think about while you're exercising to push it to just a little bit harder or just a little bit further?



I was talking to a friend about this last night, someone who's a treadmill newswatcher at 5 am:) When she's running and feels like she's ready to call it quits, she looks at the timer on the treadmill and tells herself, "ok, just two more minutes, you can do it." Then when two more minutes hit, she knows that because she just hit two minutes when she didn't feel like it, she knows that she can push it for two more minutes. Then bit by bit she gets through the end of her workout and is proud. Horray :)

For me, I'm so OCD about organization in life that I workout regularly and best when I schedule it in. I know....da da da da da....looney....but it helps me and my routine development. I'm training for my first ever marathon (Oct 10th Whistlestop Marathon) and I have this marathon training schedule on my fridge. I get a joy out of checking off a day's run. I am so proud that in the last 6 weeks or so, I've only missed one workout! I do a short run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, a medium run on Thursdays, rest on Fridays, a long run on Saturdays, casually walk on Sundays w/ the fam to recover, and rest on Mondays. When I'm not feeling like getting my run in, I tell myself, "Look, you can't break the rhythm you've got going on!" Ha, and I have to say, seeing calories blasted away on My Fitness Pal is pretty sweet feeling! When I'm running, I let my mind wander and I relax. I think about my day, things going on in my life, meditate a little about whatever. Then I glance down at my GPS and am shocked b/c it didn't feel like I had been running that long or that far. By thinking about other things, the time flies I can thus go further and push myself more than I could if I was laser-focused on the timer on a treadmill. So I guess being OCD & a space cadet is working for me :)

What's working for you? What do you tell yourself to get your sweat on? Or are you a git-er-done-no-questions-asked kinda person?

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday

What have you ladies been eating the last week? Have you discovered anything new & fun? I'm really interested today in hearing about your healthy snacks. We've all heard it's better on your metabolism and weight-loss plan to have mini meals or snack lightly all day instead of huge meals.

Snacks: How they fit into your weight-loss plan

The Healthy Snacks Blog

List of One Point Snacks

Snacks to Eat for Weight Loss

Weight Loss Snacks

Best Snacks for Weight Loss

When I'm at work, I usually don't sit down to a big lunch, but I just snack a few times throughout the day and it keeps the hunger beast at bay :) My favorite snack this week has been whole kosher dill pickles I picked up at the Farmer's Market. Yum! And only 5 calories for a whole one :) For you local madison folks, I got them from the Land of Oos Farm tent downtown- check 'em out :)



What are your favorite snacks?

Tuesday Motivation

Today the concept for thought and discussion is more mental than physical, but I think it can have a big impact on your physical goals. Play along with me here. Here's an excerpt from The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon all about surrounding yourself with positive people. This development book is written in story format instead of lecture format, which makes it an easy read. As you read the excerpt below, imagine the "success" the author is talking about is your success in losing weight and/or living a healthier lifestyle.



"It's not easy to deal with the negativity in the world but it's something that's got to be done. Your success and life are so important that you must surround yourself with a positive support team. No one creates success in a vacuum and the people we surround ourselves with have a big influence on the life and success we create. If you want to be successful you have to be very careful about who is on your bus. After all there are people who can increase your energy and there are people who can drain your energy. I call the people who drain your energy Energy Vampires and they will suck the life out of you and your goals and vision if you let them. They will cause an engine leak, make your ride miserable, or even worse slash your tires. But remember, George, don't take it personal. They are just part of the negativity that exists in the world. Your job is to do your best to eliminate any negativity on your bus and this includes negative people, no matter who they are. You got to be strong enough to tell people that you will not allow any negativity on your bus. You got to say this is where we are going and to get there we need a positive and supportive team and whoever is negative will be kicked off the bus or left at the station...Your positive energy and vision must be greater than anyone's and everyone's negativity. Your certainty must be greater than everyone's doubt. After all, George, there will always be people who don't share your vision. There will always be the doubters who doubt, doubt, doubt, and doubt and tell you you can't do this and you won't be able to accomplish that. They think that dreams were meant for others but not for people like you and them. And there will even be people who don't want you to succeed because it makes them see their own weaknesses and failures. Rather than driving their own bus they are trying to ruin everyone else's ride...It's got to be a habit. Positive energy is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets. The stronger it gets the more powerful you become. Repetition is the key and the more you focus on positive energy the more it becomes your natural state. So when someone comes at you with negativity you will be able to respond with strength and positive energy. The more you do it the more natural it becomes."

"A man goes to the village to visit the wise man and says to the wise man, 'I feel like there are two dogs inside me. One dog is this positive, loving, kind, and gentle dog and then I have this angry, mean-spiriited, and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don't know which is going to win.' The wise man thinks for a moment and he says, 'I know which is going to win. The one you feed the most, so feed the positive dog.'"

Ok, so here comes the challenge: Grab a piece of paper and write out the 20 people you interact with the most, including family. Then decide if they are people who build you up with positive energy or if they are Energy Vampires. Then resolve to limit the time you spend in the presence of the Energy Vampires. We can't get rid of them or ignore them indefinitely, especially if they're in our families, but we can consiously choose to be around those friends the most who are positive and help us to believe in our dreams. I think every one of you on this blog falls in the positive people category for me! Doesn't it feel great?!?!?!

Bonus challenge, if you're feeling extra introspective today: Write out the 20 activities you do the most, ie. watch tv, read books, go for walk, exercise, browse online, shop, play with the kids, clean, etc. Decide which things really just seem to suck the positivity and energy out of you like an Energy Vampire. Is there a way that you can turn that activity into something more positive? Enlist the help of a friend or loved one to turn it into a fun thing? Or limit your time doing it?

There are just some things and some people that suck the energy out of us, or fill us with self-doubt. Become aware of which things those are and focus your energy today on those things which build you up and make you feel like you can accomplish your goals! Remember, you drive your own bus in life and you can say who's on it and who's not.

Monday Morning Check-In

How did the second week go? Let us know how much you're up or down, what changes you've noticed, etc. We'll check-in with how our measurements have changed at our halfway point next Monday :) Are you ladies loving My Fitness Pal or not big fans? Are you revved up and excited to start this third week? What plans do you have for avoiding previous pitfalls?