Holiday Tidings

This is going to be more of a catch-up post than anything else.

I'm having a hard time getting back in the groove post-vacay. Traveling right up till the Thanksgiving holiday made our return home a bit challenging. As soon as we got back in to town, before we had had a chance to decompress, it was Thanksgiving. So on top of taking care of everything we needed to (due to us being gone for a month) we also had family obligations. Things have calmed down this week, it's starting to feel more like the holiday season.

I just love the holidays. While I don't appreciate the Christmas retail season, I do appreciate the Christmas season. The spirit of Christmas, if you will. I love having my tree up, I couldn't wait to get a poinsettia, and I'm most excited to pick up a few Christmas decorations at Hobby Lobby tomorrow. The hubby and I are also having our third Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, with his sister's family. I happen to love Thanksgiving food, so I'm perfectly fine with third round of Thanksgiving goodies.

The thing that really feels like the holiday season around here? The weather! It has been unseasonably cold and rainy here. Well, I say unseasonably, but really this is only my 4th winter in Kentucky. It could also be that I'm noticing the weather more this year because I started running. I can tell I'm going to have get creative with my workouts for this month, and maybe January as well. I completed my first indoor workout in 3 months today, thanks to Winter Storm Cleon. Strength training is important, and I have been neglecting that. It was a tough workout with some reluctant muscles. I can see how obsessed with running I've been! If I get desperate enough (i.e. the weather gets bad enough), I may even do the gym thing for a couple of months. That's a last resort, I hate gyms. With a passion.

Lastly, I was going to make muffins today. After an hour and a half of lazy yoga, a shower, lunch, a mani and a pedi- I'm not really feeling like baking. Curling up with my current read, Apart From The Crowd, sounds more in order. Or maybe Friends :)

Who am I kidding? Friends is already on.

Muffins may or may not follow this weekend. The hubby and I are running in a Jingle Bell 5k on Saturday, so baking might not happen then either. We'll see. I hope everyone's having a fantastic week, because it's almost over!

Happy Thursday!

Wednesday- By The Numbers

50- minutes of cardio I've done today
100- amount of crunches done today
25- reps of lunges, squats, and jumping jacks done 3 times today
60- seconds of planks done today
6- lbs I've lost since I started detox
94- the high temperature for the day
82- % the humidity is supposed to be today
21- days since we signed our construction loan with no construction having started on our home (argh!!!)
40- days we have been staying with the hubby's aunt and uncle with no construction having started on the home (double argh!!!)
3- business days after signing our construction loan that construction was supposed to start
2- cups of coffee I've had today
11- new beauty products I've tried this month
7- number of those products I would buy again
5- amount of times the dogs have gone to sit by the door to go outside
45- amount of minutes I will spend vacuuming up dog hair today
7- hours spent slow cooking a pork shoulder yesterday
20- minutes it will take to bake a pizza with yesterday's leftover pork shoulder
1- amount of days until I get my hair done!
0- amount of patience I have left with the home construction situation

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday! Once again, hoping today is that special day that construction starts. Sheesh, I'm breaking out not 1, but 2 bottles of champagne the day that someone actually shows up!

Detox, Continued

I'm still trying to shed the recent weight I gained. I've been working out every day, watching what I eat, and avoiding alcohol. I've been making sure to get my cardio in, and I've been concentrating on different areas every day for strength training. I've been rotating between ab, arm, and leg/butt workouts. I weighed yesterday, and discovered I had lost 5 lbs! A great start, as this lady won't be telling you how much I gained :)

I was having major chocolate cravings all day, and I knew I had to give in. I had to give in before the cravings became an all out free-for-all. This was a reasonable treat that felt like a major indulgence. I put together a sugar-free dark chocolate pudding cup at 60 calories, 20 calories of sugar-free cool-whip, and a banana at  a 105 calories. OMG. Life changer!

I made a batch of quinoa salad to eat for lunch this week, and so far it's been clean eating since the 4th. I think my detox is going to last at least one more week. My running shoes get a little more broken in every day :)

I may have to reward myself with a cocktail when I've accomplished my mission. But just one!

Move in May: Bikini Buster Workout

http://mommiecouture.com

Needless to say, I hated the Brazil Butt Lift. When I hate something, I don't do it. It got to the point where I didn't want to work out because I knew I should be doing the Butt Lift. It had to go. What's the point of an exercise regiment if you aren't going to do it?

http://carharttsandcoachbags.wordpress.com

In February, March, and April, I got out of shape. I had a lot of headaches, some low moods, and not a lot of energy. Working out fell by the wayside. May has come along with its 90 degree weather, and it's like I suddenly realized, "Hey! I'm going to have to be in a bikini soon!". Yikes. May has become Get Back Into Shape Month.

I started up again 3 weeks ago. To say it was hard would be an understatement. I can't believe how out of shape I got. I had to start small, doing 10-minute circuits on the elliptical. I'm proud to say I'm working back up there though, I got in 4 workouts this week. Hard workouts too! I'm tired and sore today, and taking a much needed day of rest.

Here's what I've worked myself up to and what I'm hoping gets me back in fighting shape:

20 minutes cardio- 1-minute warmup, followed by 2-minute intervals of sprinting, then resting. 3-minute cool down at Minute 17. I do my cardio on my elliptical machine.
Ab Toning- 25 crunches on stability ball, followed by 30-second plank. Repeat 3 times.
Butt Toning- 25 squats, followed by 20 arabesques on each leg. Repeat 3 times.
Arm Toning- (Using 5-lb weights) 15 push-ups, 15 lateral raises, 15 bicep curls, and 15 tricep extensions. Repeat 3 times.
20 minutes cardio- same as above.

Whew! That's a good workout. I also do 5-10 minutes of stretching pre and post-workout, as well as some dancing in between moves if a booty-shaker song comes on (there's just something about One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful"). It also goes without saying that if you are doing a workout like this, make sure to eat enough calories during the day. I don't have a problem getting enough calories :)

If you need some inspiration to get moving this month, here are the requisite cute animal pictures to get you going :)

http://www.jokeroo.com

http://newslite.tv

http://uberhumor.com

I love that polar bear :)

Mondayisms

Happy Monday! Since I was so productive and cleaned the house from top to bottom last week, I don't have a super-busy day on my hands. Here's what's on my mind today:

1. Breakfast: I actually made myself eat breakfast today. My New Year's goal of eating breakfast has been hit and miss but I am trying to "hit" more than I "miss". I made oatmeal today, topped with blackberries, toasted almonds, and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

(Used frozen blackberries as it is not exactly blackberry season here in Kentucky!)

2. A nice, long workout: The hubby and I spent a couple of hours in the bar at O'Charley's on Saturday enjoying fried appetizers and vodka cocktails. Fun? Yes! Healthy? No! I plan on spending some time today getting to know my elliptical machine to help me feel better about splurging this weekend. I will probably throw in some work on my stability ball and some free weight lifting for good measure too.

3. Baking: I wanted to try a new recipe I found for Banana Bread Muffins but these were the only bananas I could find at the grocery store-

I guess those muffins will have to wait till later in the week. Boo! I do have this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Muffins I have been wanting to try so I might give it whirl today. Of course it's from YourHomeBasedMom. That woman is good!

4. Cooking: I am trying my hand at roasting a chicken again. Last time I roasted a chicken, it was pretty good. Not perfect though. I am determined to get there! I think I only roasted the chicken maybe 10 minutes too long last time, so I think today I can get it perfect! And actually, now that I think about it, I might not want to tackle muffins and roasting a chicken on the same day. The muffins might have to wait till tomorrow.

And finally, I was completely floored that Whitney Houston passed away over the weekend. I loved her when I was a kid, I grew up listening to her! I loved "One Moment In Time". It may have been an insanely cheesy song, but man, it inspired my 13 year old self. When she made her comeback, I was in college and I loved the remix to "It's Not Right, But It's OK". I may be one of the only ones who thinks this, but Jennifer Hudson did not do her justice at the Grammy's. You will be missed Whitney.

I picked an older picture of Whitney, as I choose to remember her

Battle of the Bulge

My 2011 New Year's resolution was to get in shape. This resolution was different than my normal go-to resolution which was to lose weight. While resolving to lose weight is a valiant notion, year after year this goal got me nowhere. This year I decided it was time for a change. Instead of judging my progress on the scale, I would judge my progress by how my clothes fit. Instead of going on a "diet", I needed to change how I ate for life. As a fairly successful home cook I was used to healthy and fresh cooking. My problem was I had gotten to a place where my healthy choices were fewer and far between than my unhealthy "splurges" (more about cooking later, this post is about exercise, not cooking!) I just needed to get back on track. And instead of just expecting to lose weight by diet alone I would judge my progress with - surprise, surprise- exercise!

It is now June 1st and I feel I am well on my way to my New Year's resolution! When I started down this road in January, I was a size 10/12 and about 137 lbs. My physical activity level was... well, to be honest, zero. I started small, 20 minutes on the elliptical 4-5 days a week. After a couple of weeks, I was able to increase my cardio time to 30 minutes on the elliptical. Gradually, I added in 30 minutes of weight lifting 3-4 times a week and 45 minutes of Pilates 2-3 times a week. For a while, I did circuit training with 15 minutes of cardio followed by sets of crunches, squats, and lunges and then repeating the whole routine 3 times. My current routine is 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical, followed by about 30 minutes of strength training. My strength training consists of crunches, planks, lunges, squats, and some free weight lifting. I am following all this up with 30 more minutes of fat-burning cardio. My hard work is definitely paying off though!  I am down to 130 lbs and just bought a pair of shorts in a size 6!

This may seem like an extreme workout. Let me say that most (ok, 90%) people do not have the time for this! I will just say that I do have the time for it right now and I haven't felt this healthy since I was 18! I can successfully report fewer headaches and stomach aches as well. My healthiness is spreading to Jerame as well. Jerame and I have started a new Saturday morning tradition of running a mile across the street at the high school. As part of my quest to judge my fitness, I decided I wanted to see how fast I can run a mile in. A couple of Saturday's ago, Jerame and I woke up at 7 am and headed across the street. My first mile time was not what I hoped and also helped me realize that I still have a long way to go! Oddly enough, I found this to be an exciting challenge which I will conquer! My PR running the mile was my sophomore year  of high school. I finished in 7 minutes 26 seconds. I wanted my time to be comparable to this. It wasn't! My first mile time was 9 minutes 23 seconds. Ugh! My second mile time was 9 minutes 21 seconds. I have since come to terms with this, consoling myself with the thought that there are many more Saturday's to prove myself.

I must say that I am extremely proud of myself for sticking to my resolution. While I by no means consider myself a flaky person, I can probably count on one hand the number of resolutions I have stuck to. I am just glad that this is one of them. Here are my progress pictures!