It's almost...

My favorite time of the year. I love fall. I love the weather, I love the clouds, I love the colors of the changing leaves, I love apple cider and bonfires and hoodies. I love fall? My dad keeps telling me it's not fall yet, and Mother Nature is on his side... 90 and muggy today, but that doesn't stop me from being excited for Saturday which should be a nice, chilly high 60's kinda day on the lake :)

One of my BFFs, Danielle, and I share a birthday month. She made me the cutest OSU wreath to display on my front door. She got my creative juices flowing and I made her a wreath for her own birthday. We were both inspired by Pinterest, go figure.

 

Annnd now I want to make a crap ton more and try to sell them. They are SO cute. In other news... I have a cold that will not go away. Urgent care insists that it is my allergies. I'm sorry, but this gunk coming out of me is not allergy gunk, it's head cold gunk... get it right Mr. Volunteer Dr.

 

This weekend my cousin Michael and his gal Jenna are getting married. This will be my 5th wedding this summer with three more to go. So excited to see all my cousins and family and celebrate the happy occasion.

 

I've officially gotten into Insanity. I did my day five workout last night. I was supposed to do Cardio Recovery but I didn't have that video available to me... so I did Pure Cardio. I had gone to the gym earlier in the evening to get my chest/tricep lifting in, then got a quick 10 minutes in on the elliptical, then Insanity and then went for a walk with Kristy and Colbie. I'm tired, BUT I feel like I'm slowly getting back on track with my exercise... now to get hardcore on diet.

 

 

Today's lunch is similar to this photo below minus the sweet potato. I'm having a clean the cupboards month... so I found a can of tuna for a tuna salad sandwich and a side salad.

 

Alright, I'm not feeling very bloggy today, so here's your update, have a great weekend!

 

Fit Test Time

Alright, I started Insanity officially. I randomly did a random workout about a month ago, it was not the fit test although that's what I thought I was doing. That one went well... this one, not so much. How did I do better on the harder and longer work out than the fit test?

The only thing I can think of is that I ate a horribly heavy breakfast/lunch and then attempted to work out without a water bottle handy.

Moral of the story, is the next 60 days will more than likely suck. Bring it on Shaun T, bring it on.

Hello Rut, my name is Lindsay.

I'm having the hardest time keeping up to date with this thing... similar to losing my drive to continue towards my skinny life. Even knowing I'm in a wedding in March hasn't gotten my weight loss juices flowing.

Hello Rut, my name is Lindsay.

The one thing I accomplished was successfully turning in my petition to get the clubhouse gym open from 6-8AM in the winter. I would love to get half my work out done in the morning so in case something popped up that evening at least I wasn't too far in the hole. I don't know how the board received it, but I should know by next week!

In an effort to show some of my half hearted efforts (I had a semi good streak going for a week), here are some meals that I've downed recently.

 

Alright, so the above picture was the one and only cookout I've had on my deck. For some reason the cookouts have all taken place somewhere else. We have here a sweet potato (with non of the butter and brown sugar I would normally add), romaine with light balsamic and then a black bean veggie burger with extremely low cal bread, fat free Kraft Single and Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce.

 

This was delish, hands down, a new summer favorite. I'll be sad to see my summer squash go into hibernation. Above we are looking at spaghetti squash, zucchini, summer squash and red onions. Add a little salt and pepper to taste and boom. Scarf time.

 

Last but not least, whole wheat, flax seeded low cal tortilla roll ups with grilled chicken, red/yellow/green peppers, onions, fat free ranch and fat free cheddar cheese.

Kates said...

give paleo a try. I did well on Monday then Tuesday I went to Hoggys. :)

Let's start at the very begining... it's a very good place to start. When you sing you begin with do re mi...

I promise not to let this blog get anymore scatter brained!

Alright, so Monday was a good day. I had a peach for breakfast, an apple for a snack, a sweet potato and grilled chicken for lunch, and finally spaghetti squash, green and red peppers, red onion, grilled chicken and light spaghetti sauce for dinner. It was delish and I wish I had taken a picture BUT I was too hungry.

I didn't go to the gym but I was so long in calories that I didn't feel quite so guilty. Then Tuesday happened. Hoggy's totally happened. Corn muffins, bbq pulled pork and mac and cheese so happened. Everyone will cringe when I say that after my apple for breakfast followed by that cluster fudge of a lunch I didn't eat for the rest of the day. I went to the gym, started my new weight lifting routine for an hour (see paragraph below), did ten minutes on the treadmill before heading outside to walk with the dog for an hour and fifteen minutes. I'm sure that didn't completely offset my dangerously bad lunch but I feel better for doing it.

Now, to share with you my new inspiration. Behold.

http://lauramustloseweight.com/

Laura is a girl, just like me. Imagine that! Laura is a girl who was almost my height, almost my weight and just as unhappy as myself. She made a change in her life and BOOM, girlfriend is looking diesel! She's inspiring and listed the weight training regimine she follows, the diet/food she eats and the cardio plans she uses.

For the first time, I went to the gym and did a workout that I put together, not my trainer... While I still felt a little out of sorts and like I was doing something wrong (which I did), for the first time I felt like I could do this on my own again. Yesterday I did a combo of the shoulders, biceps and back exercises she listed. Tonight I move on to legs... FUN!

Today I've had a banana, some delicious bag o' watermelon, I plan on downing a peach here soon and following up with a lunch of my sweet potato and grilled chicken. Dinner is a plan of peppers, onions, zuccini and squash paired with the light spaghetti sauce. (I know that the sauce is processed and not really following Katie's paleo, but I need a little somethin somethin!)

Completely Insane

Today was pretty good. I only had two cups of coffee... BUT coffee is good for you! So take that! I also had my gallon of water, boom boom!

For breakfast I had reduced sugar oatmeal because it was left on the counter and I took it. I had no breakfast food, sooo yeah.

Snacks today consisted of watermelon, hard boiled egg whites, and a banana. Lunch was a lunch and learn on nutrition, perfect right? They brought in Subway. I had a 6" veggie with no cheese, no toppings on wheat. It was delish.

I went to the gym do to some lifting and of course, everyone in the neighborhood decided to hit that tiny gym. Sooo I left and tried my first attempt at Insanity. I found a link that had all the workouts, so I decided to give the fit test a try.

Guess what, it wasn't the fit test :( As you can tell by my expression, I'm not quite sure what happened, but I think it was an actual work out. It was hard. I sweated, and now with this breeze blowing on through the house, I'm FREEZING! Colbie just sat and watched me the whole time and she desperately wanted to join in...

As I was preparing to cook my dinner, I realized that Colbie didn't have any food. Soo we took a little trip to the pet store and I got my lifting in after all! I got the giant bag of food and had to muscle that around the store with a dog pulling me every which way ;)

So now on to the fun part! Foooooood! Here's what we started with...

We always have to include my peppers and onions, dinner just wouldn't be complete without them! Pre-heat the pan to medium and layer the whole wheat tortilla with fat free mozzarella and peppers and onions. Fold over and spray the top of some cooking spray, flip, spray, flip, flip and take out of the pan once the cheese has melted and glued everything together. Cut and serve with the Light Prego sauce and you have a yummy pizza quesadilla!

I'm really excited for lunch tomorrow, not gonna lie. I packed another whole wheat tortilla, fat free cream cheese mixed with freshly chopped green onion and basil, turkey breast and lettuce... I'ma gonna have me a wrap!! Pair it with a salad covered in peppers and I'm gonna have a fantastic lunch hour.

I'll try to document it, but I'm pretty sure I'll eat it before I realize my camera is still in my pocket.

It's ok, I know I suck at updating.

Thanks to my cousin Becky, whom I've tasked with riding my butt for blog posts, I'm finally writing an update.

Work is NUTS! My team lead was out this week on vacation and I essentially was tasked with covering his list of active candidates on top of my own. Mind you, my list can barely be considered a list. I've now learned how to get H1 documents together and ready for the immigration department to send out to our attorneys... lesson learned, don't forget to make copies of your offer letter and employment agreement before turning them in to HR. I sent one of his candidates his offer letter and employment agreement and then I helped two candidates get their new hire appointments set up so they could start with ICC. Now if only I could do this for my own candidates, life would be swell.

Last week was a good week for me and the gym. We were buddy buddies. Then this week happened and with it went the gym visits and my good will to eat well. I'm getting p-r-e-t-t-y bruised up from falling off this wagon so many times. It's getting harder and harder to jump back up and climb aboard. But ima gonna give it another go, especially in light of the five weddings I still have yet to attend this summer.

Today begins the renewed urge to track everything that goes in my mouth. So far we've broken the over night fast with pineapple Greek yogurt (I'm still an advocate of Aldi's brand, $.89 a cup, come on!), I had a salt craving so I had a serving of chips and I'm fine with that as long as I drink extra water to make up for it. Lunch is comprised of delicious watermelon and this num num entree.

Can anyone guess what I have here? One hint, it's only 200 calories give or take for that entire thing.

Also, why did summer decide that she wanted to visit early? It's so dreadfully hot that I've had my air on continuously for over a week. I dislike not being able to sleep with my windows open, Colbie hates it too. I'm also grumpy about the hot weather because I'm not able to enjoy it poolside on the weekends due to having to drive home so often! I bought two new swim suits that I'm dying to wear (first off, I never die to wear a swim suit, does that tell you anything?)

My cousin Katie has said that she's enjoying a diet that consists of zero processed foods. I've come to realize that when I buy groceries on my own, I don't usually buy the standards of processed foods ie: cereal, bread, pasta. I do however, for convenience purposes, get things like rice cakes, breakfast bars, and veggie straws (my chip attack was a random thing that should never have happened). I used to have lean cuisines at lunch almost every day, and those were easy for me and kept my intake to a minimum but I no longer buy those because my wallet always says no.

This weekend I'll be heading back up to the Dusky to visit Put In Bay with a close friend of mine who will be in town from DC for the weekend. It should be beautiful and not too hot. My challenge will be to make the right decisions for my body. Try to eat before I leave or if I have to get food on the island, make it a dry salad. Drinking will be the biggest hurdle. I've adopted the lowest calorie approach of vodka and diet soda or water when not available. I will be sure to put a water or two in between every drink, but need to be conscious that every drink adds up!

As I stated to my cousins in a conversation a few weeks ago, next summer I want to be in a bikini on a beach, making men stare long enough to run into signs when passing by. Instead of "who let that whale on the beach" it'll be "hey, can I get your number". Take that!

My name is Lindsay

and I'm addicted to food. I'm always honest in my posts... and it is so hard for me to say that I've gained 15 pounds total ever since I stopped watching what I was eating, working out and training with Heather... I think since before the start of the year. That's way too much weight to gain in so little time.

I feel bad and tired and grumpy all the time now and know that I need to re-learn the smart choices, re-dedicate myself to the gym and eating right.

I had a long week this week. It was MidwestUX 2012, a conference that I was part of planning and running. It was quite tiring and I was only home to sleep for 5-6 hours a night before heading back to start the next day of the conference.

Since I haven't had any time to walk or cook my own food, today I woke up and immediately went to the gym to hit some weights and get some cardio in. I was dripping sweat and feeling so tired after only an hour... disappointing :(

Came home, had a salad with fat free ranch and two veggie burgers. Then I tackled painting the kitchen. I'm going to log that as exercise, cause let's be honest, painting is a WORKOUT. Especially in tiny spaces where you are standing on the counter, ducking and painting at the same time.

I succeeded in giving myself a migraine, so the rest of today was spent sleeping, ordering a pizza (which I only ate a little of, considering I had nothing the rest of the day, not such a horrible decision)

I am going to try so hard to be a gym rat again by taking my clothes to work and changing so I can go directly after.

Wish me luck, I have to do some damage control.