First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

-Epictetus

Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

Rosalind Russell (Auntie Mame)

In the midst of a traveling spell so I’ve been slack in posting. Last weekend I visited friends and you know what? I ate basically whatever I wanted to (within reason/portion). I did go to spin class one of the 3 days I was there, but beyond that, I made a decision not to worry about it. While I still kept my mind on how much and what I was consuming, I also didn’t tamp down my enjoyment of my time with friends fretting over food.

Once you make a plan and commit to it, you have the tools to veer off that plan from time to time and still know how to get right back to your regular routine. When I hit town again, it was Water, Workout and Reset. No backsliding into old habits.

Did I lose a couple of days of calorie deficit? Sure.

Did I enjoy myself and not enslave myself to my rigid routine? Hell yes!

Working on fitness goals, any personal goal, is a selfish endeavor. I mean that in a good way. I love myself enough to work toward being the best me I can be in mind, body and spirit. I will find happiness only by being happy with myself, not based on how I look, but on how I feel about my journey and knowing I’m trying my best to accomplish my goals.

Long story short: You can live life, enjoy life and still focus on your goals!

Spin Class tonight! 635 calories and an amazing burst of energy afterwards!

Spinning and Lifting

Spin class in the morning and KB training in the afternoon. I love feeling strong! And I, so revved up after spin class I feel like I could go again! Of course I want to take a nap not long after that, but the rush is there initially.

Cardio and Strength are the best combination!

2 hour endurance spin today. It was tough but I loved it! Well, I loved it afterwards. I hated it sometimes during.

Hope everyone had a chance to get out and move today!

My 100th Post!

If you’re reading this - thank you! It’s been a wonderful journey so far and I’m just getting started.

More fun to come!

Greek Yogurt and Mori Nu Vegan Pudding topped with fresh strawberries

90 minutes of spin today plus another 30+ minutes of kettlebell training. Bring it!

Whether it’s 20 minutes or 2 hours, everything counts as a step toward your goals.

dailyhealthyliving:

Quick & Easy Moves to Get in Shape: These gifs are great for learning new workouts! #4 is amazing! http://llsama.yourlikes.com/quick-easy-moves-to-get-in-shape

25 Lbs Down and Snow!

As of the morning I’ve lost 24.9 lbs since Nov. 24th! I’m still hoping to be under the 200 lb. mark by the end of February, but I’m happy with my results so far and plan to keep on going until I reach my goal.

Snow Day number two today and so far I haven’t been eating hibernation levels of food. No training since the roads are bad, but good to have a break. Back at it tomorrow weather permitting!

Stay focused- you’ll thank yourself later!

The Snow Is Back!

Snowbound so should have several catch up posts tomorrow!

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shed-a-pound-not-a-tear:

thehealthjourney:

I’m so angry right now.

So most of us know of the show “The Biggest Loser.” I didn’t watch this season (though I have admittedly watched and enjoyed the show in the past). Apparently, tonight was this season’s finale. The winner, Rachel, lost 155 pounds, with a final weight of 105 pounds - which puts her at a BMI of 17.5, meaning “underweight.”

That’s not what I’m angry about, though. What I’m angry about is people’s reactions. Since the big finale, the internet has exploded with calling this woman “ugly” “disgusting” “anorexic” etc etc. Seriously, this is a society that has tons of different weight loss shows because we just LOVE to tell people that they’re too fat and need to lose weight. And we love to watch them do it (while we sit on our asses in front of the television). I don’t know Rachel’s story, but I’m willing to bet that like most BL contestants, she probably struggled with weight her whole life. She probably has always been made fun of for it. Family and friends probably told her that she needed to go on one of those weight loss shows and stop being such a fattie. And she listened.

And then what does she get? What does she get after working her ass off for months? She wins the contest, steps out on stage for her big reveal, and gets immediately mocked. She can’t win. No one can win in this society. You’re a “fattie,” people tell you you’re disgusting and need to lose weight, and then you finally do it, and immediately get told you “took it too far” and “look disgusting” and “too skinny.” 

Does she probably need to put on a few pounds and maintain a healthy weight? Sure. Could she possibly have actually developed anorexia on the show? Absolutely, but that’s her business (though if she does have a problem, I sincerely hope she gets help). 

But I’m just so sickened by the fact that we literally tell people to lose weight, on television, for our entertainment, and then when they lose a bit more than we wanted them to, we turn around and call them ugly and gross and anorexic. 

We have no right to judge this woman. Even Bob and Jillian won’t comment on her weight loss (though they looked pretty shocked, and not in a good way, when she stepped out onto that stage). None of us know her, what she went through on the show, or what she’s dealing with now. She may or may not have an eating disorder - who knows? It doesn’t give anyone the right to call her names and tell her she did a bad thing, especially when these are all the same people who told her to lose weight in the first place.

You think she lost too much weight? Maybe she wouldn’t have taken it so far if she wasn’t being pressured by an entire country to lose as much weight as possible, for our personal enjoyment. People never fail to amaze me. 

You honestly made me reflect on what I thought of her and made me change my mind. I guess I was more concerned about her health. If she’s healthy and loving herself, then there’s nothing wrong. You’re right.

No one forced Rachel to go on the show or lose weight. She chose it because she felt it would give her the focus and motivation to accomplish her goals.

Rachel was a high caliber competitive swimmer not that many years ago- she knows what healthy is. The amount of calories and training you need to be a swimmer is massive. During the regular season she rocked it. Working hard and training her behind off. Maybe her competitiveness got out of control, but I think it is universally agreed she looked amazing before the finale at 150 lbs. I believe she even said then she was 10 lbs at that point from her athlete body. That would put her at 140. She went to 105 and looked dangerously unhealthy.

There are a lot of issues and pressures in society, but in this particular case, I think this was more of a personal battle within Rachel than her feeling the pressure to lose weight from external sources.

The larger issue is she is being heralded by the show and many others for losing weight regardless of whether she is healthy. That is the wrong message to send and we don’t need to continue to applaud drastic weight loss for the sake of being thin at any cost. If she’d gained a ton of weight people would have no problem telling her she’s unhealthy, but for some reason because she lost weight people don’t want to tell that same truth.

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Congrats to Tumi Oguntala on the Biggest Loser 15!  She lost an amazing amount of weight the healthy way and looks fabulous!  Definitely an inspiration as I work toward my own weight loss goals.

 Tumi Oguntala, 40, a brand strategist from Clifton Park who won the $100,000 Season 15 at-home “The Biggest Loser” prize Tuesday night during the live finale show.  Oguntala’s final weight was 144, down 175 pounds from her starting weight of 319 pounds. She fought hard all season, pulling big weight-loss numbers each week, which led to her elimination Week 11. She lost more than 54 percent of her body weight.

Just wanted to highlight a great success, especially after the controversy over the overall winner Rachel looking downright unhealthy. 

Great for Tumi - she did!  I am personally inspired!  My ultimate goal weight is 145 and I started over 100 lbs less than she did. 

I can do this - we all can!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

VIDEO: ‘Biggest Loser’s’ Tumi talks results: I lost a person, ‘and not a skinny person’

(Source: http://download.macromedia.com/)

23 Pounds Down!

Just over two months since I’ve re-committed to my health and fitness journey and I have 23 lbs NOT to show for it.

I have a long road ahead to reach my goals, but I’m getting there. 

I won’t reach my original 90-day goal, but I hope to be close - at the very least under 200 lbs again (30 lbs lost) - that is my informal revised goal.

Then a new 90-days begins and I will continue to push forward.  I was just shy of 230 pounds at Thanksgiving and now I’m close to being back in the 100s!

The best thing is that I haven’t been hungry (not legitimately hungry as opposed to bored hungry or habit hungry) at all.  Bonus, I’ve discovered that I LOVE spin class and am going back to kettlebells!  I love working out when I’m doing things I enjoy.  I love food, it’s just finding the right things to eat that I also love. 

High motivation mode! 

Click here to see my fitness tracker page!

Confessions of a Calorie Whore

I’m a calorie whore - I take no shame in it!

If there is a way to shave 50 calories off of something, I’m here for it and I’ll do anything necessary to make it happen.

I spent some time this morning weighing bananas because it only takes one banana that is just a bit larger than usual to give you another 50 calories unknowingly.  I want to choose those extra 50 calories if I can.

I don’t keep a food journal.  I’ve done it in the past and it’s worked, but it triggers some OCD tendencies in me, so I think it’s best if I just track it a bit more organically.  I can tell you how many calories I’ve consumed during the day, and since I’m trying to stay in the 1500 range every day, it’s pretty consistent.  I may pull out my iPhone calculator and add them up throughout the day as I make decisions on what to eat and when, but beyond that, I try to let each day come and go without being too anal about writing it down.

But I am in a constant state of barter and trade with myself over what I’m consuming and if it’s calorie-worthy.  I try to stick with the 80/20 rule for eating healthy, and I refuse to deny myself anything as long as it fits within my calorie goal.  I love Krispy Kreme donuts, but I haven’t had one in months because I haven’t felt it was worth giving up something else during the day to have one (see my earlier peanut butter post).  However, if the time comes that I do, it will be fine, and maybe its just salad for dinner that night and keep moving. 

So yes, I am a calorie whore, but I also have to live.  That may mean I go out to dinner with friends and order what the hell I want and have 3 drinks to boot, but that is one meal on one night every once in a while.  Then I get up and go to the gym and eat as clean as a can to make up for it. 

As long as you plan and recover, weight loss does not have to be some kind of life prison term. 

Food is your friend, not your warden.

Now - Back to weighing fruit!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bites

I love PB but one serving of it is roughly 200 calories before you even add anything to go with it - add a banana or apple and you’re at 300 calories off the bat. Now your “snack” is turning into a meal, and that is a calorie sucker for me so I avoid it.

The answer is PB2! Dehydrated PB where the same serving of dry powder with water comes in at…..wait for it….45 calories. Yes - now you can actually have some fun with your PB outside of just celery (blech-y’all I really don’t like celery).

Today I used Chocolate PB2 (yes Chocolate!) and a banana to make little banana bites. Yumlicious and depending on the size of a banana you use anywhere from 125-195 calories.

Now that’s more like it!

2 Hour Cycling class completed!

Now let’s see if I can make it back next week. ;)

Menstrual Cycle and Weight

While there may be minor changes in metabolism, food intake and cravings throughout the menstrual cycle in addition to possible water retention, these will not impact weight-loss success.

Article By: The Weight Watchers Research Department

Good info worth sharing!
Menstrual Cycle and Weight

Strawberry Water

Check out my new Pinterest page! Food, Fitness, Fashion and Fun!

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2 Workouts and a Smoothie

Busted it in KB training, but still not back to former endurance. I’ll get there though!

Then went to Spin and busted that out too- 1100 calories combined! Saturday is definitely one of my new “hard” days.

Came home, had lunch and made my infamous ( if only to me) 150 calorie smoothie and now it’s time to relax!

wodmylife:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5FkshLcNLQ?feature=oembed&w=500&h=374]

Woman goes to the gym for 100 days (Weight Loss Motivation)

This is so inspiring!  To see the change in her not only physically but more importantly her spirit was lifted!  18 lbs in a 100 days may not seem like a lot to some, but she kept going and eventually lost 51 and is still at it! 

So amazing to see - may it be a reminder to all of us to keep going and take care of ourselves!

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Kettlebell and Spin

Kettlebell training followed by spin this morning.

I’m in it to win it!

What are your fitness goals today?