Results and the future!

Well, so much for the blogging everyday, but what can I say, this month has brought a lot of new adventures! :)

First, I am done with the 28 day challenge. I am afraid to say I couldn't complete the final week. Partially because I work out WAY too dang much! Between work (I got a new job that keeps me VERY active) and working out, I burn close to 3000 calories a day. To not eat carbs really caused havoc on my stomach! So, in place I actually joined Weight Watchers again.  I'm going to be continuing in on the way I learned from this however.  Natural, few preservatives, and low sodium!

However, these past three weeks were not a bust! In it, I lost 11 pounds and since I measured myself, I've lost 2% of my body fat! That means I'm only 5% away now from where I need to be to get in!!  I last measured myself at the end of October, to give you some idea! As for my pants, I'm almost at my size 6! My 8s are a little big, and the 6s are a LITTLE small...ya know that in between stage? Yeah, that's where I am!

Anyway, I'm continuing on this journey, more determined than ever!! In the next few months I really want to get down to where I need to be!! Maybe by summer? I don't know, all I know is that now, finally, we have time and finally I am getting happy being me!!

Fall backs, fall back ups!

Sometimes diets just suck, I won't lie to you! This morning I woke up feeling great because of the awesome job I did last night at Applebees! After work, we went out and I brought my own food! It was portioned out, I avoided the nachos, mozi sticks and quesadilla! PLUS, again avoided the pop and drank lots of water.

So, like I said, I woke up this morning feeling great about myself and this diet!  While being optimistic, I stood on the scale and what did it say? 2 pounds...UP!!! WTF!?  Oh man, I wanted to give up right then and there! I was so mad.  Yes, I've gone down 8, but now up two is only minus 6! I know, boo hoo, but that is a big mental challenge and an even bigger slap in the face!

Think about it, you do everything you're supposed to then the scale says "F-You Cara, I'm gonna do what I want! And I want to try to destroy everything you've been working for!"  Well Mr. Scale, for about 5 minutes you won!

Luckily it takes me more than 5 minutes to get ready, 'cus otherwise I probably would have eaten a whole dang box of Lucky Charms! Oh..my...gosh, I was beyond depressed.  Then my wonderful husband stepped in and reminded me, I HAVE lost 6 still...in two weeks.  He wouldn't let me give up. So I sat down, turned on my DVR episodes of I Love Lucy, and Colin made me my scrambled egg whites with oatmeal.

So worry not my dear friends, I've bounced back up.  We went to go see The Green Hornet today (p.s. it WAS a good movie despite what critics have been saying) and I drooled over the popcorn, the pop and ALL the candy that was around me.  However, I did not touch...*pat on back* So, back to the diet, back to being strong and back to not touching my Lucky Charms...someday I'll catch you Mr. Lucky, someday!

Week One Recap!

Holy diet time Batman, it's already been one week since I've started this diet!!  I cannot believe that one week ago I sat down with everyone else doing this diet, terrified about how I was going to make it 28 days!!  Well, once I discovered all the food I CAN eat, I realized this was gonna be a great 28 days!

First, I should give a recap about yesterday. I went to bootcamp in the a.m. but then, at night, went to the Buffet at Mystic Lake Casino.  I was SO proud of how I did.  I started with a salad and roll w/fat free dressings, went onto rotissery chicken with veggies and no sauce, and yes, another roll!  Then for dessert I had sugar free/fat free vanilla frozen yogurt (okay, so I added a bit of hot fudge, but it was my cheat meal!! Leave me alone!)

In the first week, from the time I weighed in on her scale, and then today on mine (so keep in mind, there may be some variance) but I have lost 7 pounds!! And I haven't done anything drastic at all!  I changed to natural foods, no sugar, salt and fat, and am drinking a lot more water and no pop!  The exercise I'm doing is what I've been doing before this whole thing started.

Starting this week however, I can expect to start seeing a plateau. It sucks but I just have to keep on, keep on.  My body, for some reason, likes to get used to diets SO easily. Within two weeks it starts slowing down and I have to discover new ways of shocking it! I'm feeling healthy, motivated and back on track to my goals!!  If I have to do a week or two of this every once and a while, so be it my friends, I will! Either way it's a new lifestyle which is leading me to a whole new life!!

First day at T.C.

Last night completed night 24 of this diet! Luckily it wasn't on day 28 that I came across the challenge of *bum bum bum* the target center!! It was quite the feat! The first was avoiding the popcorn! Everyone was looking at MY food and saying "oO, that looks so good!"  While I was looking at their popcorn saying "Oo, that looks so good!" Well I got through the glorious smell of popcorn, but what I'm even more proud of is I AVOIDED THE POP! I was really worried about it, I'm not gonna lie! Before this, Colin and I would go through at least a 12 pack a week! I know for 2 people that's not terrible, but that's still a can a day at least! To avoid free pop was a challenge that I overcame!! I guess we'll see how tonight goes now! :) YAY FOR DAY 23! I'm almost done with week one already, I can't believe it!!  WE CAN DO IT!!

Inspiration In Others

This is day 25, and yes, everything is still going well! New food, great exercise, and changing my life around feels WONDERFUL! However, you all know that already! If you've read even a couple of my posts you know I'm always trying to find something new.

Well, I decided to take a step back today and look at WHO inspires me.  A dear friend of mine made a comment on my facebook the other day saying how this blog inspires her, and I'm not gonna lie, that made every single day of hell worth it!  While I haven't changed the world with this blog, there are a few people who inspire me!  I think every person has a hero and I'd like to share with you a couple of mine.

Besides the obvious women in my life, my mom, my sister, my aunts, etc, there's one woman in History who, every time she opened her mouth, inspiration came pouring out!  Eleanor Roosevelt was the definition of strong! She went through Hell and back with her husband, however, in history, she's not known only as "the first lady," no, she IS Eleanor Roosevelt.  Starting from a young age, she was a world traveler. Even in marriage she went against what people thought was "right." Even with the public saying it wasn't right, Eleanor kept on her own political agenda.  She was active in the African American civil rights, she was active in world relations, creating peace among the other countries. In 1945, she was appointed to the United Nations by Harry S. Truman.  She spoke out actively against many popular political beliefs.  I could go on, and on, and on about how she held her own among everyone! I'll let her do the speaking:

"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
"Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do."
"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."
"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot. "

My next inspiration is John Wooden.  While he isn't in the history books, what he has done that inspires me, is his outlook on leadership.  While the U of MN blew their chances with him, Wooden was a coach at UCLA and won 10 championships in 12 years! Impressive? Yes, but even more was taking his ideals from the court to the real world.  When Wooden graduated from grammar school, his father gave him a 7 point creed:

• Be true to yourself.
• Make each day your masterpiece.
• Help others.
• Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
• Make friendship a fine art.
• Build a shelter against a rainy day.
• Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day

 Also among Wooden's legacy is his pyramid of success. It was his theory that he used both on and off the court:

My dad introduced me to Wooden and his philosophies. Ever since I learned about him, I've done nothing but want to learn more.  In an article following his death, Kareen Abdul-Jabar was quoted:

"There “was no ranting and raving, no histrionics or theatrics.” He continued: “To lead the way Coach Wooden led takes a tremendous amount of faith. He was almost mystical in his approach, yet that approach only strengthened our confidence. Coach Wooden enjoyed winning, but he did not put winning above everything. He was more concerned that we became successful as human beings, that we earned our degrees, that we learned to make the right choices as adults and as parents.

“In essence,” Abdul-Jabbar concluded, “he was preparing us for life.”"

And FINALLY, but certainly not last, is my unsung hero, Tony Dungy. Many of you know him as the man who does Monday Night NFL commentary. Some of you may remember his coaching days in Minnesota, then to Tampa Bay, then onto the Colts, where he finally got his Super Bowl ring. 

I however, know him as not only a GREAT coach whose players respected him, but, as he put it, a teacher who always put his family and faith above any game.  This man was a football miracle.  Any team he touched transformed, yet he always knew where his priorities lay.  He has the philosophy that it took a whole team to win, so while he had his starters, he trained the 33rd player on the team just the same as the 1st. What a philosophy for life. Teamwork has to be equal! 

Tony's personal life is one we all should admire as well. Even with losing his son, Tony has dedicated his life to helping everyone. From starting charities in Tampa to simply giving his time to Big Brothers/Big Sisters, he once considered leaving football to focus on prison ministries. 

He's a quiet man who will never go into our history books, however, he's a man of convictions.  He stands up for what he believes in, no matter the popularity.  I know there are many like this, but there are very few people who give as much of themselves as Tony Dungy.  

So folks, those are my top three heroes.  Odd mix, I know, however all three strong leaders in their own rights. As a future officer it's important to take the lessons they teach me onto the Army.  Why change what is already right?  

In closing, what I learned from each:

Eleanor Roosevelt: Don't take crap from anyone!! Know that, even as a woman, I am one hell of a leader!

John Wooden: Be true to yourself and be loyal. No matter the situation give it your all, and do your absolute best!!

Tony Dungy: Give to others.  You have a lot of life and a lot of love, you can spare some of the love and share it with everyone.  No one is past the hopeless point!

Days 27 & 26

Well there seems to have been a huge change between today and yesterday!!  Yesterday felt a little bit like Hell, I won't lie to you.  Cravings were bad, I was house sitting, so options were limited and I felt like I just couldn't do it!! Everything tasted like cardboard and there was a time (yes, already) when I was convincing myself doing something else would be just as good!! 

I got through the day, and finally got back to bootcamp this morning!!  It felt SOO good! Today was the day where I realized, this diet can be fun!! For the first two days, all I did was chicken with seasoning, veggies, and rice or noodles...BORING! I was terrified that THIS is what the month was gonna be like! Well after talking this morning, doing some more looking around, some playing with food, I've discovered a lot of fun new things! They aren't anything special, but they are going to make these next 25 days SO much easier! 

I've been making some great things that even Colin loves!! I was thinking as I was cooking today, it's been so long since my kitchen has smelled like anything other than take out! I missed having my fridge filled with veggies and good food and tasting the food that I made! I'm a thinkin' this will be a trend to continue on after the 28 days concluded!

So that's pretty much all I have for these two days! No weigh in or anything yet, but I'll keep everyone updated! :)

Day 28- The start of something new.

Well, today was the first day of my diet and it went really well!! The thing that's gonna be hardest is finding new ways to cook chicken...oi vey!  I know I can have other goodies, but chicken is cheap and really dang easy!  Today's biggest victory: making home made salsa!!  Today's failure: I didn't exercise! To be fair, I still have my cold, however, I'm so getting up tomorrow a.m. to head to bootcamp! I didn't get all the pictures of my goodies, but here's a sample of my food day:

      

The first: egg whites and oatmeal!

Chicken, lots of veggies and wheat rice noodles!

Chicken, veggies, and garlic with onion potatoes

The start of the salsa

Egg whites with homemade salsa!!

 So that's just a snip-it of my day!! Pretty nice, eh?  Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard! I'm really excited to see where this leads me! :)  Until tomorrow home slices!

Countdown begins in 12 hours: 28

Because I like to, I'm going to start this countdown tomorrow, starting at day 28!

So tomorrow is the first day of the 28 day cleanse, and I must say, I am super-duper nervous now!! I've never been one to stay on track 24/7, and being I have the worst sweet tooth in the world, it's gonna be hard! The one thing that's different this time than last, is my support group has grown!! I am so excited for this! I am just going to take it, one day at a time, quite literally!

As I'm doing this countdown here, I purchased "The Biggest Loser" calendar, I'm also doing the countdown on there!! It makes it easy when you can see the end! Man, just think of how fast this past year went, what's one measly little month, eh?  I can't believe Colin has been home 11 months already!! Jebus, almost a year!! It just goes!! So, what's 1/12th of a year? (And by the way, it's not even a full month, it's only 28 days!! 4 of those days, I get a cheat day!!)

So, the bad thing about starting tomorrow, is I'm fighting a cold at the same time! Really scared about this one.  A vital part of the diet, as any diet, is exercise.  I can barely walk up stairs right now without being out of breath, let's not mention getting my heart rate up to 185!!! Well, I'll play that one by ear!

So, I'm gonna head to bed and really get some sleep, hopefully kick this cold in the face!!

Obligatory 01 January Blog

So I'm chillin' here in my new Twins Snuggie and thought to myself, what kind of dieter/blogger would I be if I didn't do that first of the year, new year, new change, obligatory blog!?  FIRST, I think to look to the future, taking a quick look at the past is necessary.

2010 was a year of major ups and downs for all my family. For me and Colin it was good for the most part.  He came home from Iraq, and while I'm SOOO happy he's home with me, man did that boy mess up my diet! When he came home, we went to Disney World for our honeymoon, which was the start of the fall! Okay, it's easy to blame him, 'cus he's obviously the varying factor, but I'm blaming me too.  My weight went up and down, up and down!  Sucky, I know! So many opportunities to blow it, and I did!

So, now it's 2011 which means a whole new start! New diet starting on Monday, a whole new exercise outlook, possibly a new full time job (for the meantime)  Colin achieving his goals by going AGR and me getting the heck out of dodge!! 

I'm seeing really good things for 2011! I hope you all take advantage of this and start a whole new adventure, too!!

"We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce