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You Scream. I Scream.

Making progress.
The gym I was taking classes at is super expensive now so I'm just going to Planet Fitness and using the treadmill and weights. It is better than nothing and is also open 24 hours a day which rocks but I work harder in the classes. I need to find a class that keeps my attention and motivates me. I will let you know what I find. I like Zumba a lot but it's a little too repetitious to old my attention every week.

I went grocery shopping and got a lot of stuff to try some new low carb recipes. Last night I made Schmorgurken. Schmorgurken is a german dish with cucumbers and beef. It was good.
It felt like it was missing something then I read about it an found out it's usually served with rice or potatoes. It has creme freishe in it (which is kind of like a mild sour cream) and I could see the starch being good to balance the sour notes but being low carb that is not an option. My roommate loved it as is and my boyfriend that it tasted great with Parmesan. I enjoyed it but thought maybe some garlic would enhance it. If you want to try it I'll link the recipe I used bellow and let me know if you try any variations.

While on my quest for low carb meals to make I kept in mind that I am a busy person who doesn't always take the time to  cook especially if prep time is more than 30 minutes. I also know what kind of sweet tooth I have and in order to stay on track I knew I needed some easy things to keep on hand. Celery and a Low carb peanut butter is good. I also found some low carb ice cream choices that I'm excited to try.

 Where as they aren't void of sugar they are better than going to Cold Stone's for some Birthday Cake Batter. I am human and after a quarter of a century eating ice cream I'm going to be hard pressed to turn the habit off. Rather than saying to myself, "No more ice cream ever. Never again!" I will try keeping the low carb options on hand to help sooth the ice cream beast within.


Schmorgurken: My Kitchen in the Rockies: Schmogurken

Dear Gym...

I am sure I am not the first person to discover this but I found the best time to go to the gym is during a show I really like.
 
My gym has a field of elliptical and tread mills that face a series of TV's you can only hear the audio on the TV if you plug your headphones into a machine and keep moving. If you stop moving- the sound stops.

I am addicted to this show Master Chef. Hey, I'm a fat girl inside and out.  If I can't eat all the foods I want I can at least watch someone else make delicious food I would want to eat. Doesn't hurt that Gordon Ramsey is the best soccer player turned chef ever and he is one of the hosts.
The show is an hour along so even though I usually only do 30 minutes of cardio and then weights I stayed on the machine for over an hour because I wanted to see who would get eliminated from the competition. Not only did I double my time it felt like less work because I was distracted watching something I enjoyed. On top of that whenever it went to commercial I would go as hard and fast as I could for that three to four minute break so it was a pretty good work out and then I still did the weights.

I like to mix it up. I have a cheap gym I go to for just machines and then another one I take classes at. I think it is important to keep it interesting and not let it get stale because when it gets boring is when it becomes hard to do. Of course the hardest part for me has always been getting the motivation to go I just have to keep reminding myself I know I will feel good once I'm there and feel even better when I'm done.


So lets hope soon there will be less of this...

If You Are What You Eat, I'm a Big-Fro'd Broccoli

I just want to take a moment for salad. Once you've eaten salad for lunch everyday for a week you can start feeling like your nose is twitching like a rabbit. I have found I sometimes need to take a break, come back to salad after a few days, and reset my mind. Another thing I've found is not all salads are created equally.

The salad I make myself is always the best salad.

When I've bought the veggies, cut them, tossed them, and then immediately eaten them it tastes wonderful! Grill some chicken on my George Foreman's and it's perfect. More often than not I don't have time for all that though.

I am a big fan of Farm Fresh's salad bar. In the middle of the day it's nice to get away from the office or I can get it on my way to work. All the veggies and toppings are pre-prepared and you get to be choosy of what you want on your salad. The only downside is none of their salad dressings are particularly low carb and therefore not the best on my diet. They have oil and vinegar which works but that gets old after a while. They do almost always have shredding rotisserie chicken that is very yummy.

Nothing kills my diet faster than being in a hurry. The area I live in is speckled with fast food places every few blocks so in that "I have 10 minutes to get where I'm going I needs something I can eat in the car NOW" feeling can easily be silenced by a burger and fries but I have found Wendy's has an awesome salad I can get down with.
The Chicken BLT Cobb Salad

Chicken, eggs and bacon? Hello, Protein! I'm a big fan of blue cheese, and then it has mixed greens and tomatoes. It comes with an avocado ranch dressing that is the real star. The dressing only has 3 carbs (2 from sugars) which makes it superb for me. The salad in total has 6 sugars and 14 carbs. My guess is the other sugars probably come from the tomatoes. Even though tomatoes have sugar they have so many other awesome benefits I think they are the super hero of the salad world.
A few other stats on this salad if anyone is interested: 590 calories, 24g protein, and 4g of fiber.

Salad's I don't like...

Chik-Fil-A and Tropical Smoothie. The chicken Cesar salad from Tropical Smoothie is not bad health wise just a little bland. Most salads from Tropical Smoothie have a lot of carbs and specifically a lot of sugar. Chik-Fil-A is the same way but they are also pretty high in sodium probably due to the breading on their chicken.

If you have other quick to-go salad suggestions please comment. I am open for trying more to keep the salad game interesting.

Back in Style

I'm still here!!!
I know it seems I disappeared just as things got started.
I did but that doesn't mean I am off track. Things got a little crazy with work, I had surgery, I moved, and went out of town to watch a Muay Thai tournament my boyfriend was coaching.

So first a confession: The gym and I had a falling out. Entirely my fault. In addition to crazy work I had an unpleasant demotivating medical issue. I had surgery Thursday and then got back in the gym last night. I can tell I am behind, Not lifting as much as I have before on the weights, but no matter because I'll be back up to speed in no time!
Basically, I've just been dieting and here is where we are at as of now...

Waiste 42"
Hips 49"
Thighs 29"
15.5 "
So, that is 6.4lbs down from where we started. Measurements have all gone down but not enough to be note worthy. Not the greatest progress but considering life's setbacks the real winning is 1. Not losing motivation and 2. Not giving into fast food fries. Considering I work a desk job, been laid out for surgery, and have only really been dieting (sort of) I will take it! I am going to set a goal to get that other .6lbs by this time next week.

And a recap of today so far...
Breakfast was a handful of almonds and black coffee (I was running late. Sue me)
Lunch was Tuna salad in lettuce

Still trying to decide on dinner...

Rubber Legs

Dear Sweet Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?

I went to Zumba class after work. If you don't know what Zumba is, it is a dance fitness class created by a spanish devil in the 90s that is high energy and sexy.




I like dancing and high energy music so this will be fun, I tell myself. The first 20 minutes I was really into it enjoying jumping up and down and I was doing alright keeping up with the instructor. I could tell my enthusiasm was starting to come down by the first half hour but I was determined to push as hard as I can. Then the squats came... So many squats... I was pouring sweat too and then came the jumping jacks. You didn't have to do just jumping jacks either. It was dance in a circle slap the floor then jump high in the air, repeat. Repeat over and over again. My body was screaming "fuck you" at me. My legs feel like rubber and on top of that I can tell I don't look sexy I look more like...


 Nonetheless, I had fun listening to the music and being down right uncoordinated. I owned my clumsiness and when I got lost in the complicated foot work I just did my own thing. I sweated a lot and though I am sore all over I know ultimately that is a good thing. Had some grilled chicken and green beans after my work out for a healthy dinner. Tomorrow I probably wont go to the gym but on Wednesday I am going to be taking a sexy chair work out. I'm not sure exactly what that means. Regardless, I'm sure it will include me doing some ridiculously exaggerated version of what the instructor wants me to do and I'll end up on the wrong end of the chair.

The Starting Point

So here is our starting point...

Measurements are as follows...
Waiste 44"
Hips 50"
Thighs 30.5"
Biceps 17"



Now let the work begin.