Everything hurts today...

Seriously...everything from like my neck down is stiff and sore. Getting up and down from my desk is a challenge...walking is painful...Crossfit definitely kicked my butt yesterday! It's that good kind of pain though -- the kind where you know you did something that works. My eating has been good so far today. I had scrambled eggs, a banana and a handful of almonds for breakfast. For a mid-morning snack I had some grapes and then for lunch I had a salad w/ stir-fry steak strips (cooked in olive oil and seasoned with salt-free tony's and a little lite soy sauce), sun-dried tomatoes and balsmic vineagrette dressing. So far, so good. :)

I just needed a little jump start...

Hello everyone! I know I have been M.I.A. a lot lately. I've posted several entries with empty promises of getting back on track, back on the wagon, blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to ramble on tonight about what I am going to do, or what kind of changes I am going to make...I'm going to talk about what I did tonight and the small success I've had over the past two weeks.

First off, without putting in much effort, I am happy to say that I have lost 2 more pounds...so that brings my total to 25 lbs! Woohoo! Now, I know, that had I been doing everything that I was supposed to be doing, that total would most likely be much bigger BUT I'm happy to have moved forward - not backwards.

Sooo, let's get to tonight. I tried something new tonight called Crossfit. If you haven't heard of it, check it out, http://www.crossfit.com/. Lately, I've been getting bored with my workouts which has lead to finding EVERY-EXCUSE-IN-THE-BOOK to not go or to go and half-a$$ it. Not good for reaching my goal - not.good.at.all. Anyway, I had heard a little about Crossfit before (via Facebook) and everything I heard sounded pretty scary...picture extremely sweaty people throwing up in the parking lot and going back for more...needless to say, it did not sound like a good time. So, last week I was getting my hair done and my hairdresser said that she had started going and absolutely loved it! I still wasn't sure about it, but I figured that I would give it a try. I am so glad that I did! The workout tonight was exactly what I needed to get myself going again. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to handle it, but I surprised myself - I was actually able to do a lot more than I thought. My motivation is back and I'm ready to jump back into reaching my goal!

Ok, now for a brief explanation as to why I have been so off and on with my blog, my weight loss and healthy living. It always seems that when I get going on something good, life tries to butt in and screw everything up. When I first started this journey, I was so focused on getting Myself back and I was proud of that. I felt like this was going to be the time that I actually set a goal and met it - I wasn't going to give up. Let me rephrase that - I AM NOT going to give up. Did I lose focus for a bit? Yes. Without realizing it, I started to focus on other things going on in my life that seemed more important - but really, what is more important than yourself? How can you be any good to anyone if you don't take care of yourself first? The answer is simple....you can't. Putting all of my energy into trying to control things that are out of my control, will get me absolutely nowhere. Taking care of ME has to be my priority - everything else will work itself out as it should. Life's complications will always be around, I am just having to learn how to balance it all.

Thanks to all of you that have continued to follow me through out this journey and I apologize to those who have stopped because my recent lack of motivation and determination.


P.S. The soreness in my butt and legs just hours after my workout is insane...and I like it. Watching me hobble around the office tomorrow should be great entertainment for my co-workers. Thank you, Crossfit.

Good day yesterday and off to a good start today!

So, I had a good day yesterday...great workout last night and I ate fairly well throught the day. I felt like I snacked a little way too much yesterday, but I made healthy choices for everything, so I guess that's not so bad. I've decided to increase my calorie intake to about 1400 per day and keep my calorie burn goal at 3200. This should give me an average weight loss of 2-3 pounds per week - I would definitely be happy with that! I know I will be more likely to reach my goal if I am realistic about what I can do forever. Eating less than 1000 calories a day is not something I feel like I could stick to long-term, nor is it very healthy. I've got to remember that this is not a "diet" - it is a complete life change and nothing that I am doing is temporary.

My scale is still telling me the same thing almost everyday...still at -23 lbs...better than going up though! I'm going to attempt to stay off of it for a few days - we'll see how that goes!

I've been terrible...

at blogging lately. After my last post, I had every intention of getting back to blogging everyday and staying on track, but life got in the way and threw me off a little...again. I'm not going to go on and on about it...all I can say is I'm getting back to work today. I've got my BodyBugg on and I'm ready to get this weight loss going again. So, I'm back to where I left off...23 pounds gone! I'm going to Key West easter weekend, so I am setting a mini-goal to lose 15 pounds before I get there. Also, I'm going to get back to listing my food and calories at the end of the day. Ok, so that's the game plan...and I promise it won't be a week before I post again! :)

I'm back!

Well, I have to admit...I been kind of slacking on my plan, my blog, and my exercise lately. My last few posts were about how I was "getting back on track" and getting "back to work." My intentions were good and sincere with every post, but I kept having to "re-start" every couple of days. My motivation didn't go away completely, but, let's just say, it took a mini-vacation. I was out of town every weekend for a month, and just couldn't seem to get completely refocused during the week. Finally, this weekend I was at home, and what did I decide to do on Friday night and Saturday????? I had a date...with my couch...all. day. long.
So sad. I was completely lazy. I stayed in my pajamas and watched movies all day. Every time I would start a new movie, I would tell myself, "after this one, I'm getting dressed and going to the gym..." Lies. All lies.

There is some good news in all of this:

1) After a girls weekend in Austin, two weekends of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and a St. Patrick's day my weight stayed pretty much the same. I fluctuated a couple of pounds here and there, but for the most part, I stayed the same. Apparently, I'm making better choices and eating less without really realizing it.

2) I'm back on track today (for good this time).

3) In all of the weeks that I felt like I had gotten completely off track, I still made it to the gym at least 2 times...most of the time it was 3 or 4 times.

So, I feel like even though I got off track a little, I really didn't un-do any of my progress. I started with a clean slate today. I woke up this morning, put on the bodybugg, ate healthy and had a good workout at the gym. The only thing I didn't do today was record my food on the bodybugg website. I am going to make sure I get back in that habit tomorrow...when I don't record what I am eating, I've noticed that I am much more likely to cheat a little...like have a few m&m's from my co-worker's evil candy dispenser, or have a cookie that someone put in our break room...I didn't have any of this today - but last week was a different story.

Great Day!

Today was good...it started off good and it ended good! I feel like I'm back on track and ready to starting losing some pounds again. I was pleasantly surprise this morning when I stepped on the scale and I had gained one pound. Normally, gaining any weight at all would be disappointing, but after being in New Orleans for five days, and participating in the Mardi Gras festivities, I expected to see a much larger gain. I guess I am starting to eat less without really realizing it.

I got back on track with my eating today and got back to drinking lots of water (I kinda slacked on that this past weekend). Also, I went to the gym tonight and got a good workout in...it wasn't a super long one, but I worked up a good sweat and burned a little over 400 calories. Tomorrow, I will be headed back to New Orleans after work but I am going to make healthier choices this weekend and try to get a little exercise while I'm there! :)

Getting back on track...

Ugghhh! I have got to get with it! These past few weeks have been really tough...and have really stalled my progress. I knew all the Mardi Gras temptation would be hard to pass up...and it was. I was able to make some good choices here and there, but also made some not so good choices too. I guess life happens sometimes and you just have to find a balance with enjoying life and staying on track. Tomorrow is a new day - back to healthy eating and exercising. I'm headed back to New Orleans this weekend, but it will be a much more relaxed trip. I'm going to make smarter choices and not over-indulge. I'm going to get in some good workouts between now and this weekend, and make sure a get a few good walks in while I'm there. Also, I'm going to blog daily, instead of leaving all of my readers in the cold for the weekend, then, come next week, it's back to some hard workouts and no more slip-ups for awhile! :)

Those smaller victories...

Today I chose to eat a small salad as a snack instead of a delicious bag of cheetos.

Cherice      1
Cheetos     0

Go me!

Late Night Posting...

I'm going to keep it short tonight because I need to be asleep like an hour ago! Anyways...today was a good day. My eating was good and I had a good workout tonight. I tried to keep my calories low during the day because I knew my dinner would be a little higher in cals than normal. My friend, Dana, came over tonight to work on some hats for Mardi Gras, so we picked up some dinner to eat while we worked. I had a sushi roll and some shrimp fried rice...sooo yummy! Hopefully the sodium won't kill me on the scale tomorrow, but I drink a ton of water today so I should be fine.

I promise I will have a much more interesting post tomorrow. Goodnight everyone!

Just a Temporary Change...

in honor of Mardi Gras! Decided to be a little festive on my blog today! Happy Mardi Gras, Y'all!

Overcoming Struggles...

Well, today definitely had it's fair share of struggles... the good news is that it ended much better than I thought it would. I started the morning off HONG-RY!!! Seriously, I felt like I was starving (even though I know that would be impossible with the amount of body fat I'm carrying around...lol)...I just woke up with the empty, rumbling stomach feeling. My normal breakfast did not sound good, so I thought about going to Subway to get one of those new breakfast flatbreads. After some contemplating, I chose to just eat my Michaelina's breakfast muffin (which has about half the calories.) Good choice, right? Wrong. I wasn't satisfied...at all. So, the snacking began. First it was a bag of 100 calorie popcorn, then a few popchips...then a Jell-o mousse / pudding thingy...then finally, it was time for lunch, where I did make the trip to subway. I got a flatbread sandwich with turkey and veggies, but decided to add the cheese...it's only 50 extra calories though, so no biggie -- no biggie if I didn't feel like eating everything in sight!!! After lunch I went back to the Popchips and had about 3/4 of a serving...a little later, I had another mousse thingy...then I had a few mini cookies that have been hanging out in our break room -- they're from Germany, I think...all the info looks like it's in German to me, so who knows what the calorie count was for those...they are really small though (like very small bite-size cookies), and I only had three, so maybe they weren't so bad. Anyways, after that I found some fruit snacks hiding in my desk and finished what was left of those. Ugh....  I know that most of what I ate wasn't necessarily "bad" food, but it's all about quantity, and my quantity of food today was way over what it should be.

It didn't stop there either. When I got home from work, I realized that I needed to go to the grocery store. I hate to grocery shop while hungry (yes, at that point I still felt hungry...) so I decided to have another snack. I heated up some Lean Cuisine spring rolls (200 cals) and then took off to the store to get a few things. For dinner I made some whole grain pasta with chicken breast, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, goat cheese and onions in a reduced balsamic sauce. It was delicious...so delicious that I had to have TWO servings!!! Aggghhhhhh! What was wrong with me??? Not to mention that I completely forgot to measure out my dry pasta by servings so I could figure out the calorie content.

MY STOMACH WANTED ALL THIS JUNK...

Okay, so after Eat-Fest 2011, I decided to get my butt to the gym. Starting my workout was tough -- I'm sure I have the carb-overload to thank for that. I felt like I could feel all the crap I ate today just bouncing around in my stomach...I felt tired and sluggish and thought I would never get through the hour workout I had planned. I was watching The Biggest Loser and started to really get into it. Before I knew it, 30 minutes had passed and I was feeling good. That crappy feeling had gone away and I got a burst of energy. I finished watching the show and had completed 50 minutes on the elliptical. After that, I did several sets of lunges and squats and also did some upper body strength training. I worked up a good sweat and finished my workout in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Even though my eating was a little out of control today, I am proud of myself for not just giving in completely. I could have easily went even more overboard than I did...those Cheetos in the vending machine were screaming at me today!!! I snacked way too much, but still stuck to my healthy foods when doing so....and, most importantly, I didn't stay on the couch tonight like I wanted to. I made myself get up and go to the gym! I made myself finish my workout and pushed myself to work hard during it! So, all in all, I pretty proud of myself today and I feel like this little bump in the road is only going to make me stronger! :)

Back on Track!

Today was a good start to getting back on track! I stayed within my calorie intake limit, got in a good workout and met my calorie burn goal. I drank over 100 oz. of water, so hopefully my water retention will go away.

I'm sleepy, so I'm keeping this post short...I'll update again tomorrow! :)

Blog Neglect...

For the last two weeks I feel like I have kind of gotten off track. I've gone out of town for two weekends in a row, gotten off of my plan and neglected my blog...good news is, I am back on track today!

This past weekend, I went to New Orleans. I tried to be "good" and I actually did ok with NOT going overboard, food-wise. I ate foods that were not on my plan, but I tried to watch my portion sizes - I feel like I did a pretty good job with that. Although, I did okay with my eating, I really blew it with the drinks this weekend. I had way too many fruity, sugary mixed drinks & daiquiris. I planned to stick to wine or rum & diet coke, and not to over do it with either one....BUT I got into the Mardi Gras spirit a little too much and overindulged. :(  

Even though I "messed up" this weekend (and last), I am starting to learn how to avoid making the same mistakes twice. After the girls' weekend at the ranch, I decided I would not go out of town again and completely go off of my plan...no more mindless eating. I realized that it is ok to have a little treat here and there, but it is not ok to throw out everything that I know about healthy eating and go nuts with the cheese dip! I've also learned a valuable lesson this weekend -- being in New Orleans at Mardi Gras,  did not give me a free pass to "sample" every drink on Bourbon Street! I will be going again this weekend, but I will do things totally different. I will still make the healthiest choices possible when eating at a restaurant, and limit myself to 1 or 2 glasses of wine. The rest of the time, I will stick to drinking water. Also, I am going to make sure that I get some exercise in while I'm there.

I knew that I would face my biggest challenge by going out of town. It's much easier to stick with it when I am at home, doing my normal routine. I have to find a balance with staying on track and still being able to take a weekend trip or a vacation and enjoy myself. I enjoy traveling and I don't want to feel like I can never leave town, for the fear of "falling off the wagon" again. There is no reason why I can't go an do the fun things that I love to do, and still continue to lose weight. The reality is, to be successful, you have to find a way to live a normal, healthy lifestyle - no matter where you are. Calories still count when you leave your zip code. ;)

Quick Post

I'm just going to give a quick update before I go to bed. I've been up wayyy too late packing for my trip to New Orleans tomorrow...I am so sleepy!  My eating and exercise were both great today...looks like I'm back on track! :)

Not going to list all my food today - just going to give a total because I have got to get some rest -- I consumed a total of 890 calories for the day. Not too bad...I probably should have had a little more to eat, but I was too busy packing to even think about food.

Goodnight everyone! :)

Back to normal!

Whew! Today is going MUCH better than the last few! My eating is back on track and that tired, sluggish feeling that I have had all week is finally gone. Tomorrow I leave to go to New Orleans for the weekend, and I am determined to do much better on this trip than the last one. As long as I can get a lot of walking in and eat and drink in moderation, I should be just fine! I can't wait to get there...Mardi Gras is my favorite!