Mad Ab March

I had started this in February but then just switched to my own workout, which I am not getting very bored with. So I'm going to try and stick this time for Perf-fect's Mad Ab March! I just make it so Monday is my rest day instead of Sunday. Let me know if any of you try it out and how it goes!

Week 3

Progress! I am currently down a total of 5lbs. Yay! I have to be honest though I didn't work out much this week after I tried HIIT, like almost nothing besides walking around town. Really bad I know and I have tons of excuses but I'm trying to challenge myself in March to really pick things up and get below 200 for my birthday. I have awesome new heels that need a new birthday dress...and I really want to feel good going out with my friends. I'll also try and keep updating more on here about my food habits and more workout routines from the awesome bf. But for now here is the week's progress!

More about Fruit and Veggie Smoothies

After posting this, I got a message from someone saying that after they would think that it'd be really easy to go back to your old diet. And I agree, it would be really difficult. I have to say personally I'm not doing all fruit/veggies for 60 days. I am Irish and Italian people, I refuse to ever give up my beer and pasta, I'd rather be fat and happy-just saying. But I am really focusing on having it less and in more moderation. Changing from creamy pasta sauces to more tomato based, and from regular noodles to whole wheat. I  think moderation is the key to what I'm working on and it's also why I know this weight loss is going to take a lot longer, but I think that will make it easier to keep of and keep my self from bingeing. So I've been having the fruit and veggie smoothies in the morning then my regular meals but still making those healthier. It's been great, I feel a lot better and it has been a lot easier to tell when I'm full.

Another note- I have to warn you because I didn't warn my friend...If you aren't used to having this many fruits and veggies in such a concentrated amount-like the smoothies- they will, uhm, clear out your system. Just a warning. Sorry to get really personal there.

HIIT

So I've heard of this, and I think I'm going to try it tonight with Karen. High Intensity Interval Training is supposed to be the best cardio for weight loss. For example, after a 3-5 minute warm up, go from 10 seconds of fast and higher resistance to 20 seconds of rest, and repeat 7 more times. It doesn't seem long but it really does get your heart going. The goal is to steadily increase your intensity time to 30 seconds. I'd like to try this several times a week and then do a lower paced hour cardio like usual. This kind of exercise is not for building muscle, but for burning calories and help in losing fat.

This guy lost 30 lbs in 2 months with these 4 minute workouts. Maybe this will be harder than I thought, but I'm really excited!

Smoothies and Juicing

I found a really interesting documentary on netflix- Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead. It was really interesting. This man from Australia had this terrible auto-immune disease and had gained a lot of weight. So went 60 days drinking nothing but juice and water-no eating. He had his own juicer and would just get fresh fruits and vegetables and thats all he had. The guy lost a Lot of weight, and also then was able to change his habits after and he is now really fit. Along with that it completely changed the way his disease was. By changing his diet alone all of his flares stopped and he went completely off his medication-This is insane. My mom has had an auto-immune disease for almost 10 years and my sister was just recently diagnosed so I'm very much at risk. Just knowing that changing your diet so dramatically could change your flares amazes me. While they don't have the same disease there are similar symptoms and medications. I just find the whole thing fascinating. This man also inspired another here in the states. This guy is so inspiring, even more so than the original guy. Phil Staples-he was a trucker with the same disease and over 400 lbs. It was too painful for him to move to walk around, his flare ups were unbearable, he wouldn't even see his kids because he was so depressed. After just trying 10 days of the detox, Phil did 60 days and was able to integrate it into his every day life. He lost over 220lbs and completely changed his life. This guy seriously blew my mind, it was just incredible his determination and strength to get this done. While my situation isn't as dire as these men, I think they're so inspirational that if my weight goal is so much closer I can Easily do this. I highly suggest that you watch this movie. It's not even about the juicing its just about really changing the way you eat. I've been thinking about having more veggie smoothies anyway so I really think I want to incorporate them more into my diet. In fact I'm drinking a delish smoothie right now. Loving it. I'll post the recipe later but seriously go watch that film it was just insane! And the reason I say smoothies not juicing is cause I just throw the whole chunks in the blender-its good stuff.

Week 2

Apparently weighing myself today I have gained back two pounds. very discouraging. But I want to get my own scale (not at the gym) so I can have a more consistent reading. However, I have lost two inches off of my biceps, 1 off my calves, half off my hips and 3 off my waist in a week-1 week! I know I tend to fluctuate with my weight more in the beginning while I'm still gaining muscle so I'm not super stressed out about it.

It really bothers me that this says I've only tracked one day lol. It doesn't like it if you don't do it consecutively. I don't track the abs I do at home however and obviously I didn't go once. It's strange. As you can see my graph is a little off now. But not too bad. I can still get this! 

Dang Girl

I'm always gonna have curves no matter what, love it.

She's Finding Fitness

I wanted to post this blog because this girl and I started the same day and have the same goal weight. She's starting lower than I am but it's great to find someone else to communicate there. She's really focused on being healthy and feeling good, not just getting skinny but getting fit and I really appreciate that. She has a great tumblr going and she's doing so well already with just two weeks. It's really great to find people my age doing the same thing and blogging about it. It's a good way to stay inspired and keep working hard! Check out Samantha's blog and you can keep up with her progress as well!

Tuna Melt Toasties

My roomie and I basically make delish food. All the time. Tonight I made these tuna melts and they are so good. They didn't take very long and came to 254 calories for 4 toasties. 

You'll need:

• 1/2 a bagette
• 1/2 a tomato
• 1 can of tuna in water
• 1 tablespoon of light mayo
• 2 cups spinach
• 1/4 diced celery
• 1/4 cup diced carrots
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup cheddar

Drain the can of tuna. Mix in bowl with celery, carrots, and mayonnaise. Slice up your tomato and grate your cheese. I sauteed my spinach in garlic again, because its my favorite and I love garlic. I cut the toast into diagonal slices about 1 inch thick. Then I layered the spinach, tuna, and tomato. Then top with a little cheese in the toaster oven. I also love my toaster oven.

Avocado Sammich

This is delicious. Seriously.
You'll need:

• 1/4 an Avocado
• 2 slices of turkey meat
• 1/3 tomato
• 1 buns or 2 slices whole wheat break
• 1/8 of an onion, sliced and sautéed with 1/4 tblspoon olive oil
• 1 large white mushrooms
•  1/2 cup raw Spinach
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 slices pepper jack cheese

Again more vegetables could be added, but this is what is in my fridge. Some bell peppers or an egg for more protein instead of the turkey. I also used the turkey instead of bacon to cut back fat but it still has a ton of sodium. I slice everything up and layer it on a grilled pan to get it nice and toasted when using sliced bread, otherwise I toast it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese. If I had a panini maker I'd use that. I'm a huge fan of paninis! It comes to 342 calories and is really filling.

Water Weight

Water weight really confused me at first, maybe I'm just dumb and missed something in health class. But if not here is a little info for you.

I was really confused why you would be holding water weight if you are supposed to drink 64 oz a day.  So all these 'how to lose water weight' posts were really confusing to me. You do need to keep your body that hydrated however not to hold onto that water. That amount of water flushes through you (which is why I pee 100 times a day) and helps digestion and removes toxins. When you don't get enough water and you become dehydrated, you body holds on to all the water it possibly can, which stays on as weight instead of flushing through your system. Sodium also helps store water in your body. So keeping hydrated allows your body to lose extra water weight it doesn't need and keep your system clear. Here are a few tips I've found to help keep losing that water weight!

1. Drink enough water! at least 64oz a day
2. Add lemon to your water. It helps you drink more when there is a bit of flavor and lemon is a natural diuretic and remove salt from from the body.
3. Eat foods with more potassium-bananas, avocados, raisins, peaches-they're low in sodium and help keep it from your body
4. Less sugar- too much sugar can make it difficult for you body to excrete sodium
5. Keep moving-Exercise to help keep your body systems working correctly

Along with these tips I'm going to attempt a flush from Jillian Michaels. Although most of the time I just find her terrifying and insane, this looks pretty good.

• 60oz of filtered/distilled water
• 1 tblspoon of sugar free cranberry juice
• 2 tblespoons of lemon juice
• 1 dandelion root teabag

Drink this concoction every day for 7 days and rid yourself of 5lbs of excess water weight, maybe even more depending on how much your body is holding. This along with less sodium, more potassium, and working out can really help lessen the water weight your body is holding.

Egg Cups!

These have been all over pinterest and I love to make them. Here is my own personal recipe, they are each 105 calories and easy to heat up in the toaster oven for breakfast!

My Recipe inclues:

• Eggs, 10
• Fat Free/Skim Milk 1/4 cup
• Cheddar Cheese 1 cup graded
• Bacon 3 strips
• White Onion, 1/4
• Mushrooms 2 cups chopped (about 5 mushrooms)

Also have

• Cupcake pan
• Metal cupcake liners
• Saute pan
• Optional-mixer

Other options to add in could be green onions, spinach, turkey bacon, ham-really whatever you like. More veggies would be great but this is what I had in my fridge today.

Set your oven to 350*! I always forget then have to sit and wait while my oven heats up. Then start by cracking your eggs into a container and add the milk. I give this a good whip with a fork then screw the lid on my mason jar to really shake it up. I'd suggest using a mixer, it really helps get the air into the eggs and makes them super fluffy-but I was tired of dishes today. 

*I did mine a little backwards and put the eggs into my liners first and I'd suggest doing it last. 

Cut up your mushrooms very finely and set aside. Set aside. Same with your cheese, set aside. I then sliced up my onion, again very fine you don't want huge chunks in these cups, and saute them. Set aside.  

I actually had about 5 bacon slices, but they were so fatty and not enough meat that I cut off a ton of the fat-almost half of what I had. Yuck, that is why I suggest either Really good bacon or turkey bacon. 

So once you have all the ingredients, fill your cupcake liners! Just distribute each of the ingredients into all 12 so they have about equal amounts. Then take your egg/milk mixture and pour it over the top of the ingredients. They should be about 3/4 full when you're finished.

Bake these babies for about 20 minutes, or until the egg is set. Then they pop out in the liners (really helps with cleanup) and you can wrap the top with tinfoil and store in your fridge. If I make a lot of these, I usually put some in the freezer and then pull them out at least a day before I want one and let it defrost in the fridge. You could probably use the microwave but we don't have one. 

These are delicious, and I love that they're already made in the morning because I'm lazy. And 105 calories isn't too shabby!

Week 1

One week down. I changed my food and weight tracker to My Plate on Livestrong.com and it's working really well. I decided to go ahead and get the "gold" membership, just because I really want to look at the nutrient values and really track what is going on. I was able to put in measurements for my waist, hips, thighs, neck, and biceps. I'm really hoping to see a change. According to this my color intake should be between 1,149-1,462 calories a day, much different then what I had and what I had been reading. Kind of a restarting but thats fine after really watching my eating habits for a week and I can keep going. I've also decided I will keep tracking what I'm eating personally but instead of posting that here everyday I will once a week with a short update on how I feel about the week. I'll try to post more workouts and recipes as well.
Today is also my first weigh in (meant to be yesterday but I was out of town having an amazing Valentine's day! where I also ate way too much).

4lbs!

Ah yeah baby! That's double the my goal. I'm excited, after two weeks of working out I gained almost 10lbs which was upsetting, but I knew I was building muscle. It's exciting to see that I'm losing weight, and people are starting to comment. I'm really excited for this year and I'm feeling really confident finally. 

Also here is my weekly progress for yall!
*Also, I went from 30 reps to 40 in my circuit today. Feels so good to sweat.

Yoga Ball

I adore my yoga ball! I sit on it all the time in my room, even though its a bit short for my desk, but it is fantastic. It helps my back, works on my posture, and I love working out on it. I've done tons of sit ups on it, but this set of exercises from Oxygen Magazine are great. I'm hoping to get a kettle bell and some 10lb hand weights in the next week or two. Having weights at home will help on the days I can't get to the gym. These moves are seriously great for your butt, trust me, I'm feeling it!

A Lion or a Gazelle

Day 7

I did alright on eating today but I wasn't able to work out. I was working on a Valentine's surprise and getting ready for an early drive to Eugene. But here is my food log for the day, I think I want to start eating more sushi and eggs at home. I'm going to start looking for good recipes to post on here, I'd love if anyone who reads could suggest some! 

Day 6

I added two exercises to my regular circuit. One is for my inner thighs- I lay on my side and do one legged scissor kicks, switch to the other side an repeat. I do another for my glutes- while on my hands and knees, I left one leg back and up as straight and high as possible, then the other side. I do these in sets of 10 following with my ab workout numbers and will increase next week. My lower quads are killing me today, especially above my right inner knee. I think that I may have hurt it playing frisbee yesterday, just twisted it wrong. I was favoring it because my left knee was bothering me from pushing it working out during the morning. I guess it'll get a good rest though since I can't go to the gym tomorrow as well. I'll try and find some more at home workouts I can do and post.

I changed my tracking site-again, I apologize. But here you can track my progress on the lower right side of my blog, and I kept having to go look up food calories on this site anyway. Its much better, My Plate from Livestrong.com. It is the best I've found so far. My calorie goal has also changed to 1500 to try and convince myself to eat better and really push myself. Let's see how this next week goes with this!

Day 5

Thank god I did a hard workout yesterday morning because there was a birthday party. Woo baby. But I still am in the green and that is my goal, I was pretty good about limiting myself on the sweets last night, I just had a few too many fruity drinks but it was worth it. I did go over the calories I wanted to consume, but it's not like I have parties all the time and there's a reason I work out and eat healthier most of the time so I can still go out and have cake with friends and celebrate. I also finally found a way to fit my journal onto the screen so I can screen print. Much easier. 

So when I screen shot this, it tells you a ridiculous amount of information, sorry, but I figure most of you only glance at it any way and It's helpful for me to keep track.

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical in the morning, doesn't sound like much but I really pushed, best time on my mile yet. Then I did my regular ab circuit. I'm starting to be less sore! It's a nice feeling. Also played frisbee for a good hour, workin' on some skills. But really I'm terrible haha. I'd love to play more.

Day 4

I did pretty well today until right now, its girls night which means candy and girly drinks. But otherwise my day wasn't so bad. It would be even better except we forgot the gym closes early so we weren't able to go. Today will be my break day and I'll work extra hard by myself Monday when Karen has class all day.

Kellogg Special K cereal with Berries+Skim Milk 197 calories
Lemon water 48 oz 10 calories
Potato Soup 253 calories
Rice and Stir Fry Veggies 298 calories
Pita chips and pesto 213 calories
Lemonade/Ice Tea/Honey Drink 283 calories
Red Vines 280 calories

No working out, I know terrible, but again I'm using the excuse that it is girl's night.

71 in the green today, at least I'm still in the green!

Reasons to Drink Lemon Water

Lemon water in the morning! Adapted from Amy's New Nostalgia blog-thanks Amy!

5 Reasons to drink lemon ice water in the morning

1. Balance your pH levels. Metabolized lemon acids become alkaline.

"To put it most simply, alkalies help keep the oxygen in our blood at a safe pH level, and this helps our body heal itself, assimilate nutrients and fight off unwanted sickness."

-Nicole Bennet

2. Keeps your skin clear! Water helps keep you hydrated and the vitamin C from the lemon helps prevent wrinkles.

3. It helps with digestion, heartburn, and constipation.

4. It helps with weight loss. Keeping up the alkaline levels in the body can help lose weight, it also is high in fiber, and can help with keeping off water weight.

5. It helps control the coffee and soda habits. Drink it in replace of your coffee, and when you're really craving a soda add it to some sparkling water to get a little bit of fizz!

I got this.

Food Swaps

Found and adapted from She's Finding Fitness blog

Simple & Smart diet swaps for weight loss!

1.       White bread for Low Calorie Whole Wheat bread.

            Save  65-120+ calories PER SLICE! Check your bread nutrition labels.
2.       Butter for Margarine.

3.       Mayonnaise for Avocado

            Avocado is 50 calories per 2 tbsp. serving when replacing higher-calorie mayonnaise containing 180 calories per 2 tbsp.

4.       Meat for Veggie Pizza

5.       Canned fruit for fresh fruit

            Canned fruits that are packaged in syrups are loaded with sugars and extra calories/carbs

6.       Sugar for non-sweetened applesauce(baking).

7.       Creamy salad dressing for a vinaigrette dressing.

            Try Wish Bone Spritzers! Only 10 calories for every 10 sprays. There’s tons of different flavors

8.       One meal for a salad

9.       Ice cream for frozen yogurt and fresh fruit and veggies

10.   Milkshake for a fruit smoothie

            I mix 1/2 cup of Dannon Light & Fit Strawberry yogurt with ¼ cup water, 3-4 fresh strawberries, a banana, and 6-8 cranberries in a blender. This is delicious and it makes 2-3 servings

11.   Regular peanut butter for Natural Peanut Butter or Nutella

12.   Frozen Chicken in bags for all natural chicken

13.   Whole milk for skim milk

14.   White rice for brown rice

15.   Creamy pasta sauces for tomato

16.   Vegetable/Cooking Oil for cooking spray

17.   Ground beef for ground turkey

            Tastes EXACTLY the same but saves you tons of cals & fat!

18.   Tuna in oil for tuna in water

19.   Eggs for egg beaters

            Save 40-50 calories and save fat, cholesterol (beaters don’t have cholesterol)

20.   Sugary cereals for whole grain cereals (cheerios) with fresh fruit

21.   Soda for tea

23.   Oatmeal made with milk for Oatmeal made with water

24.   Salt for Salt Substitute (Mrs. Dash)

Day 3

I started out really well today, drank a ton of lemon water this morning, had a good breakfast and my lunch was some potato soup I'd made last week from the freezer. And I was planning on having a salad for dinner but I forgot we were going to a friends so I had stew, which put me over more than I wanted on calories. That and their daughter had made her first cake and was very proud so I had a small piece. Still I did alright and we hit the gym after. Shorter workout today. I did 20 minutes of cardio, still my heart rate is too fast, abdominal machine, lifted some arm weights, and my favorite, adductions and abductions. I just finished my regular ab circuit, 30 reps and I'm pretty sore today. My arms feel good!

Bartlett Pear 58 calories

Lemon Water 15 calories

Pita Chips 46 calories

Potato Soup 169 calories

Apples 2, 95 calories

Beef Stew 540 calories

Sourdough Roll 73 calories

Salad w light Vinagrette 24 calories

Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake 310 calories-not too sure on this+frosting
76 ounces of water, damn baby

I came out with 602 422 calories in the green today. And some very sore shoulders.

After working out I was still hungry, and after 3 cups of chamomile tea I made a light casadilla. I caved but my body isn't used to cutting back so much, and I'm still in the green. Still getting better.

The voice that keeps saying you can't do this 

is a lying 

slut.

Day 2

The site I was using is already broken, yay! I found another site to keep track but its all weird so instead of a screenshot I'll just type it up. Boy am I lazy.

I did pretty bad today considering that I didn't get up until 12:30, pathetic I know. I still kept under my limit but I really shouldn't have had that much for such a short day. Karen made us some delicious smoothies this afternoon (my morning). Banana, frozen mangos, and coconut milk. We bought some orange juice today so we can use less milk since it has so many calories. We went on a store run today as well and loaded up on a ton of veggies and fruit, super awesome. For dinner I made us veggie melt sandwiches; avocados, tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and pepper jack cheese. Also fantastic, but I could've easily just done with half of that sandwich as I'm way too full now and I haven't had nearly enough water today. Also I used white sourdough bread, big slices. It's just the bread that we have and I'd like to use it up before getting more whole wheat.

1 banana 105 calories
1 Banana Mango smoothie 525 calories
Pita chips 137 calories
Veggie Melt Sandwhich 575 calories
Godiva Chocolate 105 calories
Tums 20 calories
Chamomile Tea 0 calories
Apparently I've developed acid reflux after working out-disgusting and uncomfortable.
48 oz of water today-getting better

As for my workout I did my ab circuit before the gym. Then did the stairs for 20 minutes and drenched in sweat, but I'm trying to keep my heart rate lower in the 60-70% range which is so much harder for me than I expected. I though on the stairs especially I'd be able to keep it down but I was still averaging around 150 bpm. Then I switch to the bike for 15 minutes, averaged 140bpm. I think tomorrow I will just do the actual treadmill which i usually hate but walk on an incline to try and get my heart rate between 120-130bpm. I then did 60 abdominals with 65lbs, 40 adductions (personal favorite) with 100 lbs, and 30 pectoral flys with 55lbs. It was pretty good and I'm more sweaty than usual. Nice right?

Karen and I had an extreme craving for fro-yo afterwards but time saved us and everything was closed. Thats a good thing. But I have a feeling we will probably treat ourselves to some soon, it is our favorite to get.

My total calories today

Consumed Calories: 1,467
Burned Calories: 569

This site doesn't show you the calories you burn on your average activities, but it comes up with 802 calories burned today. A bit less than yesterday but we had some calorie loaded sandwiches and smoothies today. I'll change the smoothie tomorrow with orange juice and less coconut milk.

Ab Goal

This week I've been doing an ab circuit that follows:

• 10 crunches
• 10 crunches to the left, left leg on right knee
• 10 crunches to the right, right leg on the left knee
• 10 leg lifts, lift legs held together vertically, lower till just above the ground and repeat-don't let them touch the ground!
• 10 scissor kicks, bring apart legs together until the right overlaps the left, again until the left overlaps the right-this is one kick and again don't let your feet touch the ground
• 10 pushups-a good pushup not only strengthens your arms and legs but if done correctly tightens your stomach. Right now I'm still on my knees not my toes for my pushups but still holding my arms, legs, and stomach tight until I can do a full pushup.

I repeat this 3 times to get 30 of each. It's my goal to do this every morning and every night, and next Tuesday I will start doing it 4x, the week after that 5x and so on. It's my goal not to just lose the weight and get skinny but to be fit and build muscle. For today I've just finished a full triple circuit and will do another after the gym tonight!

The leg lift

Thank you Cosmopolitan for the pics

Day 1

I did pretty well with my calorie goal today, even with a piece of chocolate and a Starbucks mocha. This morning I did 30 minutes of heavy cardio,  I love the elliptical. Karen (who I will mention often since we are gym buddies and roommates) and I were planning on going again tonight but ran out of time went back to the gym, with just 30 minutes till closing, and biked another 7 miles. Booyah, level 15, feel the burn.

Personally I love the idea of a 24 gym so I can workout during my crazy 3am energy burst. But getting enough sleep and a regular pattern is another goal of mine. I'm attaching a screenshot of my food and the calories from my day, it also includes the calories I burned. This site automatically figures the calories you use each day just from typical movement throughout the day on top of your workout you enter. In the negative today, 816 1066 calories burned. 

My 15 Tips and Goals

15 Things to keep me on track

1. Cut out soda!
2. Drink more water- as if I don't have to pee often enough
3. Stop eating out-no more french fry sides
4. Know when you are actually hungry
5. Wait 20 minutes after your first serving so you can feel that you are full
6. Drink a full glass of water before eating
7. Eat 5 small meals a day
8. Know the proper portions
9. Don't skip breakfast
10. Get sleep! 7-8 hours a night.
11. Get rid of empty calories-but eat when you're hungry, don't starve yourself
12. More cardio! 1 hour 5 times a week
13. Eat more slowly
14. Eat a more 'colorful' plate, more veggies less grains
15. Keep track of your goals and what you're eating, don't lose track and don't lose hope.

Heart Rate

When I'm at the gym I like to keep track of my heart rate, and they always have a little graph with your age and what kind of workout you want, cardio, fat burning, ect. My machine is always beeping at me that I need to slow down because my heart rate is too fast, but I'm just getting into my workout and I feel great. So I looked it up today and found NEMA Health and it made me feel better.
Resting heart rate for someone my age should be anywhere between 50-90 depending on how athletic you are. I am not athletic. My bpm immediately after my workout cooldown is 90 so I'm doing pretty well. NEMA says that you should take 220-your age, and that is your maximum heart rate. My max is 199. You then take that number and you find your upper and lower target zones when working out. Here are my results:
Maximum heart rate: 199
Upper Target: 159
Lower Target: 119

My average currently during a work out is about 170, and for someone who hasn't really gotten her ass up in a while I think it's pretty good. So ignore the dumb gym machine and do what feels good, but know to listen to your body.

Just found this nifty little chart on Pinterest. That site has inspired my health so much it is kid of silly, but it really is an easy way to find good stuff. You can follow my fitness board by clicking the link on the right!

Tip #1 Cut Out Soda

Soda is my biggest weakness. I've grown up drinking a lot of Pepsi and although I don't buy it as much now since I'm a college kid I still find ways to get it. I'm seriously addicted and its gross, but I still drink a lot of it. And then I found this on Pinterest. 

Yuck much? And I drink a lot of soda! My bf is a huge inspiration for me to get back in shape and he gave up soda until he started dating me. But knowing how much it changed his health to cut it out is really helping me stop drinking it so much. So no more soda! More water and more tea.

The Beginning

I started working out again at the new year, but I don't think I really knew how hard getting back into shape would be. I've decided to start this blog as an inspiration to myself, to keep myself motivated and to keep track of my goals. I'm going to keep a daily food journal which I will post along with a daily exercise journal. I want to keep track of what I'm doing but also posting my weight on the web is a big encouragement to keep myself moving. So here it goes. My dear Butt, tomorrow marks day 1 of kickin' you into gear. Prepared to be kicked, Ass.