Seeing improvements!

Good News!!!!

1-I can once again run a 10-minute mile. Don't laugh. This is good for me. I'm a very slow runner!

2-I've lost one inch around my belly-button and lower abdomen.

3-I've lost about 5 lbs!

4-My Body fat test (the home one) was down to 23.9%.


FINALLY, something is looking up for me!

My "tweener" pictures will be coming soon!

It's like this...

Running on a treadmill pros and cons:

Pro: Makes you feel great

Con: Eat a bowl of ice cream first, makes you feel like crap

Yesterday proved that when you eat something unhealthy, your body doesn't function as well. My body had to work so much harder and after I was done, my head started to spin. So, my eyes have been opened. If you ever feel like eating a treat before you work out so you can "burn the fat" from it, I wouldn't recommend it.

But, on a brighter note, I did work out 3x last week, twice this week, and so far I've lost 2 lbs! I love my treadmill. :D Good luck this week ladies, we can do this!

ETA: I just did the home body fat test (thanks for the link Cami!) and I was at 29.5%.

Idea

I say we post "In between" pictures in 2 months, so April 15th would be a good time. I think it will help us to stay inspired and give us a goal to reach for.

Are you guys with me?


Today is the first day in 2 weeks, I have felt good enough to workout. I did not push it really hard, but I did it.

My goals are to take it easy the rest of this week with my workouts and start my workouts back up on Monday.

Cinch! Meals

The foundation of Cinch! is a five-piece puzzle. Each meal is constructed from five pieces:

1. Produce
2. A whole grain
3. Lean protien
4. Plant-based fat
5. Slimming and Satiating Seasonings


Breakfast Ideas:

Zesty Cranberry Walnut Parfait

1/4 cup dried cranberries sweetened with fruit juice
1/4 cup whole oats
3/4 cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 TBSP chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp of orange zest

Stir the zest into the yogurt and layer food in a dish

Raspberry Brazil Nut Pita

1 cup raspberries
1/2 whole grain pita
1/2 cup nonfat cottage cheese
2 TBSP chopped brazil nuts
Pinch of nutmeg
mix nutmeg, berries and nuts into cottage cheese and fill pita with mixture.

Berry Almond French Toast

1 cup raspberries
1 slice whole-grain bread
3 egg whites
2 TBSP silvered Almonds
Dash of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

Soak bread in eggs. Spray pan with pam, but bread in pan and pour remaining egg over the top. Cook until golden brown, place on plate and sprinkle spices on and top with berries and almonds.

These are some of the breakfast meals. I will post some more soon along with snack and dinner meals.

As you can see they sound yummy and are easy to make for yourself and your family. Plus your family won't even realize how good they are eating.

Cinch!

So I have not done Cinch! in 2 weeks, because I and two of my kids were REALLY sick (Strep, Croup, Bronchitis and Pink eye). But I am going to start back on it on Monday, if you would like to join me.

The first 5 days you eat the same 5 things which are (they can be frozen or fresh):

Eggs
Spinach
Raspberries
Nonfat, plain Greek yogurt
Almonds (slivered) and Almond Butter

You can use the Olive Oil Spray Pam when cooking the scrambled eggs.

1st Meal:

3 scrambled egg whites
1 cup of Spinach
minced garlic
Pepper

1 cup of Raspberries
2 TBSP of Almonds

2nd Meal:

1 cup of Raspberries
3/4 cup of yogurt
2 TBSP Almonds
Dash of Cinnamon

Layer to look like a parfait


3rd Meal:

2 cups Fresh Spinach
1 cup Raspberries
2 TBSP Almonds
3 egg whites (Hard boiled)
Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 of a orange to squeeze over salad with vinegar

4th Meal:

3/4 cup of yogurt
1 cup Raspberries
2 TBSP of Almond Butter
Ice
Cinnamon

Blend in blender to make a smoothie


Rules:

*Eat your first meal within one hour of waking up.

*Eat one of each meal per day, in any order you like, spacing your meals evenly, three to five hours apart.

*Use only these foods.

It really is simple and not hard to do. The first 5 days are simple to do and the food does not get old to eat, plus it is only 5 days.

After the 5 days then there is a list of foods to choice from for each meal and I will list a few options for you to choose from to start the 2nd week. It is only a total of 30 days and she says to make sure you get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.

No self-discipline.

I realized something the past few days. I have no self-discipline when it comes to sugar. Well, let me re-phrase that. I have no self-discipline when I'm "allowing" myself to eat sugar "sparingly". I'm seriously out of control. I was off sugar until Valentine's Day. I did awesome. It was all mental for me. It wasn't a temptation because I knew what my limitations were. It wasn't hard to pass up the brownies at the Relief Society activity because I knew before I went that I wasn't having any. (Just like you learn in church...you make up your mind BEFORE HAND and it's not that hard.) I have, however, been back "ON" sugar for a total of 3 days. So far I have eaten....get ready for this.... 4 sugar cookies, 3 chocolate truffles, 2 pieces of carmel cake, 1 red velvet cupcake, 1/2 of an ice-cream sundae and plenty of spatula licks of cake batter. Does anybody else see a problem with this??? I thought, for sure I would be fine to go back to having sugar "sparingly". Afterall, I had gone 1 1/2 months without it and did just fine. Boy was I wrong. I must be an all or nothing kind of girl. I tell ya though, I have been feeling SO SICK the past few days. It wasn't hard to decide to go off again. I think there needs to be a happy medium though. So I decided this time, I'll take it week by week. That way, when I go back "ON" I won't overkill like I did this time. So, I am making a point to say, I will have NO SUGAR until Next Wednesday night at New Beginnings. Then...I'll take it another week from there. Wish me luck! I'm gonna need it with all this Valentine's chocolate around. (Eventhough, I desperately tried to pawn it off on my Young Women tonight!)

Look!!!

I'M SO EXCITED! I have wanted a treadmill for years and we were finally able to buy one using our tax return! I don't like to exercise, which has been one of my biggest struggles, but I love to run when I get the chance. We used to have a gym membership and getting on the treadmill was my favorite. But we haven't had a membership in a while so I would run outside when I could. But if it was too cold or too hot, it made it hard. Now, I can run whenever I want. :D

This is really going to help me feel better about myself and improve appearance. I've worked out twice already, 40 minutes each. It feels good doing something you love! Below are my pictures you challenged us to post Cami. It's one thing to see yourself in the mirror but it's another to show other people what you look like. More motivation though right?! (FYI The reason my head is cut off is because I don't post personal pictures on the internet, but you get the idea. :) Good luck this week girls! (Cami, how's the elliptical working for you?)

My Turn

These are scary pictures, but Cami, I am taking the challenge to post before pictures. Hopefully my after pictures will look a lot better.

I took the Body Fat % test and found myself at 29%. Not bad, but could be a lot better, which I am working on it.

As for the 7 day detox I did, I gained 7 pounds. So I stopped and went back to what I was doing before. I also picked up the book Cinch! and LOVE IT!! I have been on the 5 day fast track and it has been so easy and I have so much energy, besides having 3 sick kids. On Thursday, I start the 25 day program of it.

I have been doing P90X every morning and on M/W been going to gym and running/walking on the treadmill for 1 hour. On T/Th mornings I go to our Ward bldg and workout with a group of ladies, the workouts are hard, but great.

My goals this week:

Continue to workout and follow Cinch!

Drink lots of water

Picture my end goal

Think positive

Have a great week everyone!!

A few websites...

Sorry, I'm probably getting annoying by posting so much lately, but I found a few websites I thought I'd share with you. The first is the Home Body fat test... (if you want to see what you are). Like I said before, I ended up being 26% body fat with this test, which seemed more accurate then the 35% at the gym on their scale.

www.healthcentral.com/cholesterol/home-body-fat-test-2774-143.html

The other is to do a Metabolic typing test.

www.naturalhealthyellowpages.com/metabolic/self_test.html

I've been doing some research on a few things, health related, and have found some interesting facts. Both online, different places, and I've talked to my brother a lot (Who has a degree in Exercise Science, and worked as a Manager for Personal Training at Gold's Gym for quite awhile.) He is now going to PA school, but I emailed him a few days ago, and he sent me some good information. First, he said to find out my "metabolic type" so I know what kind of foods to eat more of. (protein or carbs). A lot of time this is just a trial and error thing, but I am going to start off by doing what my test results said, and go from there. I also learned that I am probably not eating ENOUGH food. Crazy huh?! I've been working out a TON and have been cutting calories, which has probably been doing more harm than good. Apparently, if you aren't eating enough calories, your body will go into "Starvation Mode". (This is when your body holds onto all the fat in your body becuase it thinks it might be starving, so it won't let break down any of the fats you are trying to get rid of!) Interesting huh? Now....this doesn't mean I need to pig out, but instead of counting calories I should be more interested in eating the RIGHT kinds of foods (raw nuts, whole eggs, 1-ingredient foods such as fruits, sweet potatoes, veggies, meat, etc), and cutting out the bad kinds of foods, ( pasta's,-even whole wheat pastas and bread aren't great for you,- processed foods/ packaged snacks, *granola bars are one of my weaknesses*, health bars, crackers, sugar, vegetable/canola oils, margarine, substitute butters, etc.).

Anyway, I'm going to stick with my test results this week, and try to follow it a little better (with the food guidelines) and we'll see how I do! Good luck this week girls!

BEFORE:

Okay girls. It's time to be brave. I'm going to go out on a limb here and try something I've never done before. "Before and After" pictures. I'm getting so frustrated with the scale, so I thought I'd try another way to "track my progress". Of course, the pictures you see today will be the "BEFORE" pictures. You'll have to check back in a month or two to see the "after". I just thought this might be good so I can actually "SEE" if there are any changes in the way I look. Afterall, pictures don't lie!

I actually took a few more pictures in a sports bra and shorts that are "For my eyes only!" I think I'll be able to tell a bigger difference with those, but for the blog's sake, I thought I'd post a few of the others that were a little more modest.

Okay..no laughing!

I like to call this one the BUM shot.


Look at those flabby arms...ugh...I mean muscles!

Belly shot...
Front on belly and thighs...

Okay, I challenge all of you to do it too, and see if you can tell a difference in a month! If you want to post it, that's great! If not, I understand. (Especially, since this is not a private blog.) But....I think it's a great idea to keep us all motivated!

Oh, and ps... I found a website to check your OWN Body fat (just google home body fat test), and I came up with 26% body fat. Not 35%. Hopefully, that was more accurate then before!