Transformation

Sometimes it is really hard to see what you have accomplished in life without reminders. Today I was reminded at how well I have done with my goals with weight loss. When you look at yourself everyday you look the same...then you look at old pictures and say wow...I really have come a long way.





I feel proud.

Highlights of the week (thinking every wednesday i'll be posting because I seriously, SERIOUSLY have no time) I'm out 14-16 hour days right now.

Best meal:

Egg, spinach, and sharp cheddar Cheese on whole wheat english muffin



Best TV show episode:

Chopped on Hulu "Flower Power" season 3 episode 7. Former drug addict vs. volunteer sky diving nurse! Check it out!!



Music listened to in class: Gustav Holst






It was actually really fun because we got to listen to each song and tell where each one took us on our adventures! To keep it really short I decided that Mars was a battle tune and I was right behind the drum line. Venus I was Cinderella waltzing with her prince. Jupiter I was a country girl in New York trying to make it in theater! How fun! The last one was my favorite!

Best workout:


Only one more super long day and it'll be Marc's birthday! Plus, We go to chicago in less than 72 hours!

LOVE YOU GUYS, THANKS FOR STAYING WITH ME...EVEN THOUGH SOME DON'T COMMENT AND THAT MAKES ME SAD BECAUSE I'M TALKING TO MYSELF lololol! j/k

New Ideas and Routines

With school starting up, I have less and less time to sit around and be unproductive. This means I need to prioritize and make PLANS! Monday through Thursday I have 4 to 6 hours of school per day, and 6 hours of work. This equals BUSY. I need to streamline my life, and make everything a tad easier to accomplish goals and required errands.

The above paragraph basically means I need a schedule. It is also to explain why I have decided to call it quits on the 17 day diet. Yes you read it correctly. I'm going to be having NO time even make food than to consume it. I will be living off of frozen meals and cereal until I can get back on my feet and figure out my health needs. I'm promising myself, and you that this does not mean I'll be eating junk food. This also does not mean that I'm going to eat carbs every meal. This does mean that if I need to eat on the run, I'm not going to be shoving hard boiled eggs into my mouth every day while running to my next class (which has only a 5 minute window to get from one side of campus to the other). I am a little nervous because I don't want to mess up...but I feel that I have learned a lot from the 17 day diet and know how to balance my foods in a healthful way. I also know that if I ever run into trouble that I can revert back to the first cycle of the diet to lose a few if needed. This is not the end, this isn't a white flag. It's a strategic move to KEEP losing and not get pummeled into a starving corner at school and succumb to a bag of vending machine chips.

How do you feel about my diet revamp?

I am now going to be eating wheat breads, "healthful" frozen meals (lean cuisine, amy's), and as much added vegetables and fruits. I'll still be using sparkpeople.com to track my daily foods and exercise.

Speaking of exercise, my physical education class is going to really give me a kick in the butt! On Tuesdays and Thursday mornings I'll be learning how to use all the weight machines in the gym, self defense, and CPR. The instructor told us that we will all be doing 150 crunches a day at the end of the semester. For a whole hour we will be workin' it! Fun!

My weekly exercise routines will be as follows:

Monday: Treadmill 30 mins
Tuesday: Strength/Cardio Training at college 1 hr
Wednesday: Treadmill 30 mins
Thursday: Strength/Cardio Training at college 1 hr
Friday: Off
Saturday: Yoga/ Pilate's 30 minutes
Sunday: Yoga/ Pilate's 30 minutes

Sounds pretty good to me!

I need to be extra careful and work out a lot in order to keep the pounds off and keep losing.

Today I made a delicious recipe from Eating Well, called Avocado and White Bean wraps.

Holy Yum! It included a carrot and cabbage slaw (I used romaine) with a chipotle and cider vinegar dressing, and yummy avocado mixed with sharp cheddar cheese and cannelini beans. It was wonderfully filling a delicously healthy. I made mine using a flat out wrap and gave Marc a few with flour tortillas. Only sad thing is i forgot my other wrap at home :(



Yesterday was kind of a bad day for me, so I went shopping to cheer myself up! Here I am today sporting my new outfit which cost only 5 dollars! The jeans were marked down to 97 cents and were 40% off! HOLY MOSES! I ended up only spending like 58 cents on them. The shirt was also on sale! 40% off! Marc kept trying to look and find what was wrong with the jeans HAHA!

I tried to take a decent picture and ended up getting really frustrated. So I painted a smile on my face. I DIDN'T MEAN TO LOOK LIKE SUCH A DOUCHE!


Tomorrow is the start of my school week so I'm tryin to implement my ideas and new routines starting then. I have to go to the college early tomorrow to get my algebra book so wish me luck with my goals! I want to be able to say I've lost a total of 25 pounds by March 1st, which I have about 13 pounds left to go (give or take)..I'm dedicated, I'll keep you updated! I love you guys! Wish me luck with juggling my life!

Plus I want to paint to pictures for my neice and nephews birthdays coming up...next weekend Marc and I are going to Chicago, and this Friday is his Surprise BIRTHDAY! God I need to take a breath!

Exhausted.

I am beyond exhausted right now. No post tonight, hopefully you can forgive me!!

First day of school review

I'M TIRED! How will I survive this? I know I can do it but sheesh I'm ready for bed! Isn't that a good thing though? Usually I have to force myself into bed.

The only thing that was kinda "unpleasant" that happened to me was that I totally ripped my pants before class. LOL! Oh well. I talked about it on facebook so I'm just not going to delve into it right now. This must mean I'm really exhausted.

Tomorrow is going to be even harder though. I'm going to be at the downtown campus. I'm nervous because I have a five minute window to get from one class to the other but I don't exactly know where they are. All I know are that they are in two separate buildings. JOY. Plus I have a class at 10am meaning I have to be up a lot earlier than Mon and Wed. This isn't too terrible, just imagine if it was every day that this happened. I would burn out pretty quick.

I'll be leaving my house extra early tomorrow to locate both classes and figure out the best route in getting there in the shortest amount of time possible.

I totally flunked out with my nutrition today. Well that sounds a bit harsh but I didn't fuel my body correctly. I only had a banana before school and had a kashi bar between classes..seriously kashi bars taste like nothing, I will be making my own granola bars from now on. I was supposed to be on the first part of my diet today so both of these items were a no-no. I think I did good on the second half of my day though. Lots of greens and salmon with mushrooms and a sprinkle of pecans. I must say that McD's chicken and fries sounded really good when I was famished leaving school. I have to figure this out. Maybe I just need to eat a feast for breakfast so I'm really full for school? I just need more time. Plus I really don't have the time to make anything so I'll have to really try and think ahead this weekend with pre making foods and snacks for the week. GUYS I NEED HELP LOL!

Well wish me luck for tomorrow. Talk to yall later.

School starts tomorrow!

I'm on to my second semester..and I'm still nervous. Will I always feel so jittery about school? Yes, probably. Marc starts tomorrow too so we both are feeling the same right now. This is his first semester since quitting college back in 2001.

We started off our day getting all of our paperwork together for receiving our books and went to the school bookstore. We have gotten all of our books (amazon, and the bookstore) except I FORGOT to pick up my algebra book CRUD! So I think I'm going to get to school extra early in order to pick it up. The lines at the store are crazy right now with school starting up but I have to try and get it!!

My first class tomorrow starts at 11:30am so I can have some time to get over there and get prepared. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to go Downtown for a 10am phys ed class so I'll be leaving the house around 9:30am. My only real problem is that M-Th I will be getting out of College at 3pm and I have about 5 minutes in order to get to my other class...one ends at 11:55am and the other starts at 12pm. So I hope they are really close? I'll be talking to my teacher about it to see if she will be lenient in case I'm late. Last semester a few people were in this situation in other classes and said that it wasn't a problem. we'll see...anyway my really problem is that I won't be able to eat on Tues and Thurs from 9:30am to 3pm..UGH THIS SCHEDULE SUCKS. I'll have to figure this out..Maybe have a protein filled snack in between classes, protein shakes in bottles so it looks like coffee or water? I'll figure it out. Tomorrow I'm going to bring a couple hard boiled eggs, just in case.

After spending lots of money at school, I was STARVING. We went to the closest restaurant called Branded Steer. I was on the second part of the diet (meaning I could have lean red meat, shellfish, and two natural starches today) so I had steak and shrimp with sweet potatoes, salad, and unsweetened iced tea. DELISH! Sweet potatoes are seriously what I've been craving lately OMG! It was soooo good.

When we got home I decided to burn off some of that good food with some snow shoveling (20 minutes of shoveling snow burns an estimated 170 calories!) and some stability ball exercises!

I didn't break a sweat from the ball exercises but I was really off balance a lot!! I think the ball is really good to keep you body engaged because one moment I'm on the ball and the next moment I'm using every muscle I can so I don't fall on my FACE!

Here are a few lovely moments after my workout horsing around with the camera HAHA!
playing with the big bouncy ball is fun! Here I am trying to get my balance on my belly.
This is me becoming superman.
Here I am falling off the ball!!! Save me!!!
Is this risque? LOL! I wanted to show you my yellow socks! Plus, there was some kind of move that was like this?? maybe??
So with my workout accomplished, I spent a few lovely minutes watching Giada at Home Reruns (new to me!) on Hulu. It was fun and relaxing. I took a shower after my workout (and playtime with the camera haha) the only thing was we ran out of freakin clean towels so I had to wrap up in a blanket LOL!

Now I'm at work and trying to make the hours on the clock go by as fast as possible. I hope you guys had a lovely day!

So tell me have you ever used a stability ball for fun, or exercise?

Freedom

That's kind of how i view my weekends (Friday and Saturdays) much needed freedom!

Friday was just the perfect day, kind of surreal how everyone was in such great moods! Marc and I got a lot accomplished and were able to enjoy every moment together. We put together a bookshelf, some other shelves in the closet, and I set up the printer, and we just got sooo much done!

Here is the bookshelf. Isn't it cute!! We really have a ton of books that needed a home so this was a much needed purchase.


Next up, we have little ol' me learning how to use a power tool!! It was actually really heavy! This shelf hangs above our bed (and I cracked my eyebrow on the corner) and it needed to come down, so I got to take out the screws! I told Marc this is a perfect blogging moment so he laughed and got out the camera while I tried not to laugh.


I loved Friday so much that I didn't want it to end! So I told Marc we should go to the bar (HUGE MISTAKE) I ended up chowing on some ranch seasoned french fries and had a few too many vodka tonics. I don't regret the fun we had chatting (like which country would you want to live in if you couldn't live in the USA, Poland, or Canada, he picked Australia) but I shouldn't have splurged like that! Not for the weight gain but the freaking SIDE EFFECTS! Do you know what happens when you eat like really really crappy after eating super clean for almost a month? Needless to say Saturday night was spent in the potty room. HAHA!


It was snowing like crazy too! Here are my heels, which I felt wayyyyy stupid in walking in the snow with half bare feet.


This is my "I love you world" tipsy face...I can laugh about it now.. :)


Saturday, while sick as a dog I watched Princess and The Frog! How cute! I love Disney princess movies (what girl doesn't?) so this hit the spot.

Look how funny the prince looks..HAHAHA! When he first showed up in the movie I laughed out loud!!!

Today I went out with my mother in law on a date! So fun! We went to see the movie Burlesque with Christina and Cher :) I of course loved it and I'll name the reasons..
1) Burlesque has the vintage makeup/ costume awesomeness
2) Lots of singing and dancing
3) cute guys butt shows LOL!

It was cute, and reminded me a lot of the musical Chicago.

On the weight loss front I'm down 12 pounds now!! 2 more pounds and I'm smaller that I was starting HIGHSCHOOL!

Okie Dokie, I'm off to find other mischief...See ya latah

Poll winner! Classic pinup hair and makeup

my first video blog..or VLOG!

enjoy!

It's my Friday!

Oh how I love Thursdays! Mostly because Friday is the next day but oh just HOW HOW HOW I love Thursdays!

Marc had the night off tonight so of course he was in a grand mood and I joined his mood gratefully ;)

I woke up yearning for a green monster! Have you heard of the Green Monster? It's a smoothie made with spinach, fruit of choice, and milk! I swear it actually tastes great, and you can feel good knowing you had something healthful and gotten in quite a few fruit and veggie portions for the day!



This one isn't mine (as you can tell the photography is much better quality than mine haha) but looks quite like what I had, except mine was a little muddier in color because I added blueberries!

For lunch I had planned to roast up a chicken and try a new recipe, grilled romaine by Alton Brown...but we ended up going shopping instead! We hit up Walmart and Target and I didn't get home until 3:40pm ekk time crunch!

While at Walmart both Marc and I realized that we were famished so we hit up the subway! Marc had a Turkey Melt with chipotle sauce, provolone, spinach, and some other veg but I can't remember what it was.

I had a oven baked chicken salad with banana peppers, olives, pickles, tomatoes, and red wine vinegar. Wish i had a picture, but I did indeed leave my camera at work UGH!

I had all intentions of finding something to eat before leaving for work but i forgot my dinner at home (really can't call it a dinner it was just two raw eggs and half a bag of frozen veggies to both be microwaved at work!) So my glorious husband came to the rescue and brought me Thai food!

He is so awesome he even asked the waitress for help in order to make sure it was following my diet HAHA! The sauce, and rice were on the side so I could easily throw them away.

This was SUCH a big amount of food. I could only finish half! Two whole chicken breasts and a mountain of vegetables underneath including cabbage, carrots, onions, and broccoli. DELISH! On the side I had half of a diet coke, it was tasting really nasty to me I don't know why.

After work I think I'll have a tablespoon of peanut butter and a glass of milk mmmm..mmmm!

TGIF (almost!)

New Computer!

Hello All!

I'm posting a l ittle earlier today because I am playing around with my new computer!

It's a Lenovo (a cross between IBM and some Singapore brand) So far we love it and have been really enjoying seeing what new things have been going on with Windows since we haven't had it in a long time! Windows 7 ROCKS!

This was a fun little picture I drew just to show you all of the brush options in paint! This is wicked! MY favorite is the last one which is watercolor.

Hopefully you can see how awesome that is!!

I'm pretty sure I forgot my camera at work..which sucks, and is scary but I'll deal and try to figure out where I left it. Hopefully my sissy will send me pictures through email...one day i'll get a data phone but right now I'm happy with the amount of technology I have!!

Please VOTE on the right hand side of the screen is a poll about what you would like to see a dedicated post on! I'd love to do them all so I think I'll do them in order of popularity! Voice your opinion! (it's anonymous)

Today is a yoga day!

See yall later!

Way to go ME!

I told myself that I was going to wake up at 10am this morning and actually had the discipline to get up around 10:30am. This might sound dumb to some of you but working the late shift makes it really hard to go to sleep and wake up at the right times. I think 10 is a perfect time to wake up, but I will have to wake up a tad earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays for school downtown.

I feel like I got a lot accomplished today! I took care of a couple errands (warranties, bill payment, prescription pickup) and did my skincare routine all before breakfast...plus my breakfast wasn't at 2:30pm...this is a big deal!

Some might have remembered that today was the first day of the second part of my diet! I've graduated onto the 2nd 17 days!!! This means I can get started on eating two natural starches, and lean red meats every other day.

For breakfast I had Oatmeal (read: yum). This oatmeal was made the same way KathEats makes hers except I used plain nonfat yogurt in place of the milk. I don't think I'll do that again, I had a kind of sour taste through the oats. I made two servings so I'll be eating the yogurt oats on Friday morning..Oh well, some oats are better than none!

The oats included:
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 cup water
1 banana
1/4 of a Kashi Chewy Peanut Bar, chopped

After my breakfast had digested some I decided to walk on the treadmill while watching The Worst Cook in America from the Food Network on Hulu. This was filmed back in 2009, and I remember seeing the first couple episodes. I really liked it, and was rooting for Jenny Cross, I love her style. she's the one on the left side of the chef on the red team.

I really surprised myself on the treadmill today! I was on for 40 minutes and walked 2:15 miles. I say walked because thats what I mostly did, BUT I also jogged at 4.0 mph for 9 minutes! I was proud that I held on and that I had the energy. I am a bad runner so it felt good!

After my workout, I did the breakfast dishes (also a major feat since I seem to have an allergy to dishes) and took a nice long shower!!

Lunch time!


I had a pork loin chop (looks huge but it was razor thin), California mixed vegetables and half of a medium potato, mashed with plain nonfat yogurt. Did you know a medium potato is supposed to fit in the cup of your hand??!! Wow, that's tiny! I ended up having the same meal for dinner except not the potato. I didn't boil it enough and it tasted weird.

Before I left for work I enjoy 6 ounces of some Dannon Light and Fit STRAWBERRY! yogurt which was a really tasty treat!


After work I'll have some plain yogurt mixed with lemon juice and Truvia, plus a cup of tea.

I feel good! I must also mention that at the end of my 17 days on this diet I've lost 11 pounds. It's amazing what we can do when we are dedicated and disciplined enough to follow through with our goals! We are all worth it!

Have a good night, see you tomorrow!

What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Come to work with me!

How do you deal with stress?

We all deal with stress in our life, but I think we all deal with our emotions differently..So I want to know what do you do to take the feelings of anxiety and stress out of your life?

Today I woke up and went directly out the door to go grocery shopping. It has been snowing since yesterday morning so Marc told me to take his car since it is better to drive in slushy weather. I did all the shopping no problem, only to realize that Marc had to leave to go to work in 10 minutes! I, of course, forgot to charge my phone, so I had no idea what time it was in the store...plus I couldn't call him and tell him to take my car to work..this was bad. I tried not to cry on the (20 minute with traffic and snow) ride home hoping that Marc would not be upset with me. I got home and he was not even upset at all...I had just stressed myself out for nothing! Anxious feelings continue with me for a while after the event so I would usually have a snack and lay down to calm and comfort myself. WELL, I can't do that anymore!
So I need a new plan on how to get myself a little less wired! This time I turned on my pandora channel and just moved with the music with some yoga breathing and it really did help.

I'm also feeling stressed because I have yet to finish moving everything around from getting the new computer and it's so disastrous. I found myself yelling (I was by myself) a few times "I HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS"...or "THIS IS SO RIDICULOUS". I'm just so frustrated with all of the stuff that we have, and that the things I have I feel like I shouldn't throw them away. I just need a better way to organize..and maybe 3 more flats this size.

I'm working on my temper :)

On a more fun note, I thought it would be fun if I showed you a few pictures from my ride to work. It is starting to get lighter out so I can show you some random stuff at dusk.

My walkway

This is either my stressed face, or my ugh winter face..

The weather= winter!

Still in my neighborhood. Both this driver and the driver on the other side of the road stopped and got out to fix/de-ice their windshield wipers. I wonder if this is their first winter? Not in a racist way, but my neighborhood is predominantly Hispanic with a lot of them not knowing English so it's a possibility. I feel bad for them if so!

There are so many churches around here..very beautiful.

Getting on the Freeway

This is the Historic Third Ward. I can't wait to hit up the farmers markets in summer!!

Off the Freeway

Buildings

More Buildings

The new channel, probably a weatherman or something.

Pretty buildings on the East Side

We're here!

off to another day at work :)


I was bad today and didn't have breakfast until 2:30pm. I know I know...My schedule is just a tad different since I work 5pm to 11pm.

I had:
Plain yogurt with lemon juice and truvia

Salmon with Bokchoy, which was really good because I bought some liquid smoke! I put some in my greens to taste maybe like smoky bacon, and it really did taste just right! This was a great way to add flavor to my food without a lot of calories, fat, etc. I marinated the salmon for a few minutes in canola oil, seasoned rice vinegar, onion powder, and dill. It was delicious, plus it gave a nice crusty layer.

1 TBSP of Parmesan and Romano cheese (this looks like so big for a tablespoon, I remeasured and it really was only a tablespoon lol! Looks like when I measure by hand I'm always low on the herbs and spices in my recipes!
This gum is okay, but doesn't taste like icecream..BOO.

I had another serving of Salmon with Bokchoy for dinner here at work plus...peaches :)
I couldn't find peaches that weren't in syrup! I ended up getting this kind made with fruit juices and just rinsed them. The fruit juice was made from concentrate. Chalk this up to another sad thing about living in the far north, scarce fresh fruit (except apples, bananas, and pears).
when I get home I'll have my second serving of yogurt with a few more peaches, and some flax meal.

Today was a long long day.

Marc and I woke up and went directly out the door to Best Buy to pick up our new computer..

Yes, we did get a new computer....and yes I am now broke as hell.

We blaming this on needing the computer for school. Which is partly true. It's really for convenience and I think it will really help us out with trying to study and finding a printer hither and yon.

Anyway, after Best Buy we went to a restaurant for breakfast called The Bakers Square. Have you heard of it? I think it's a chain, very much like Denny's. I had an Egg white Omelet with mozzarella cheese, two turkey sausage links, and two servings of fruit. It was just so-so the omelet had a lot of butter on it but I sucked it up. I felt like we were in a hurry so I didn't ask for it to be redone. Later I find out that Marc wanted to sit and talk in the booth for a little while oh well.

We then promptly got lost trying to figure out our way home. I was getting stressed out because it was snowing, and I wanted to get the computer up and running and rearrange our bedroom/living room.

I went upstairs when we got home and was so thankful to see Nana had made herself something to eat and wasn't crying. She sometimes cries due to her disease but cheers up once we get her on a new topic other than "bad American weather".

When Marc had to leave for work at about 2:20 I focused all of my attention on rearranging the room and then Nana started knocking on the door and I had to explain to her that her heat is working and not to be afraid. She thinks that once the blower turns off (because it's reached the correct temp) it's stopped working. She needs that constant heat. So of course I have no idea how to tell her in Polish (around this time of the afternoon she pretty much stops speaking/listening in English) that the heat is on...so I just grab her and put her over the heating vent on the floor and cranked the heat up so it would turn back on. LOL, my life is awesome.

So needless to say I didn't get as far as I would have liked in the computer/rearranging project. I think it will be finished tonight when I get home from work. Also, while I was moving the tv I dropped it and cracked the top. I think I broke it, but when I called Marc he told me it probably wasn't, since the screen wasn't broken. He was fine with it too because we weren't even needing the tv anyway since we got the computer (hulu, netflix).

So I'm going to be doing a major overhaul of all of our BULLSPIT! We have way too much stuff and I can not tell you how much that bothers me...we live in a tiny tiny flat we need more space, more room! This doesn't help when your husbands a self proclaimed "collector" and you yourself isn't white as snow either.

On a better note, Marc called me from work and told me he got a PROMOTION! He is now the Lead Caregiver and will be getting a dollar more an hour..Thank you God, we needed this!!

Love you guys!

Oh yes other foods today include:
Chicken vegetable soup
and apples with yogurt and smart balance PB

I need to go grocery shopping so bad tomorrow!

The new phase of my diet starts Wednesday! I'm so excited!

I DID IT!

I LOST TEN POUNDS

HIT MY GOAL

I'M PROUD!

Roller Derby

Can I please be a roller derby girl???? It looks so much fun!

I'm pretty sure my alter ego name would be Earthy Quake :)

I just need to learn how to skate!

Well here are some pictures from the event.





Today I must confess to cheating. I had some alcohol. One vodka tonic at my mom in laws and half a miller lite at roller derby. I wanted lots of concession food but I tried to think through it. After we got home from the event I made some yogurt chicken salad. It was pretty good but not like a yummy hot dog or churros at the event lol. Oh well!



Well I hope you had a wonderful Saturday..looks like my weekend is already over :(