Back home!

I'm finally back home after my Texas adventure. I left Texas with about a half inch of snow and I wake up this morning to the same amount of snow on the ground in VA. I think something isn't fair about all that, LOL.

But onto things that ARE fair - I did my weigh in this morning, curious to see how I did while in the boarderlands...and I am down 1 lb from when I left on Tuesday morning. This is extremely awesome in my opinion, as eating on the road is hard...especially when lunch is being provided to you by the company and dinner is out every night. Here are some tips and ideas from my trip that I will make sure to incorporate in the future.

1. Exercise. This is the easiest thing to control and I made sure to prepare for nights in the gym. I worked out both nights of my stay in the hotel gym. I also brought two dvds - Turbo Jam and Yoga for Weight Loss - with me, so if the hotel gym was full I could still go do something. I also walked a lot for no good reason...took the stairs at the company, walked from concourse to concourse at the airport instead of taking a tram, ect.

2. Bring your own food. I packed two goodie bags as I mentioned earlier and they were invaluable. One was the breakfast bag, which I didn't really use since the hotel breakfast was essentially the same thing as what I brought - oatmeal packets. But the snack bag was always there in a pinch. I packed Z-Bars (lower calorie and better tasting Cliff bars designed for kids but perfect snack size for adults), dried fruit 100 cal packs, almond/walnut 100 cal packs, organic fruit leathers, and mints/gum. You can always steal fresh fruit from the hotel continental breakfast and be on your way, prepared to know exactly what you are snacking on. And since plane snacks historically suck...it'll keep you full when all they are offering are peanuts.

3. Eat the local cuisine. When you travel - don't go to Applebees or Chilli's...go to whatever the locals recommend. This is a smart idea because it usually means better LESS processed food. We went to a steak house that was fabulous - on a cattle ranch. The beef was fresh and amazing. The sides were all natural and delicious as well. The next night we went to a Mexican restaurant (hey what else do you do in the Boarderlands) and I got fajitas - the healthiest and most delicious part of a Mexican menu. They tasted amazing and yet I didn't spend a ton of calories. Go local when you travel and expand your taste buds without expanding your waistline.

4. Don't deprive yourself. This is a non travel tip as well = but you have to monitor your cravings and desires and give in occasionally = in moderation. Something else in my goodie bag I was saving to mention until now - a Toblerone. I brought my own chocolate - something I could eat in small little triangles and when I wanted something..instead of impulse buying...it was there and ready to go. If everyone is eating cookies...have a single cookie if you really want one. Just be mindful of what you are eating and where you are going to account for it in your calories in and calories out equation. But indulgences make a healthy diet livable and more importantly, sustainable.

Those are my travel tips and considering how many trips I think I will have this year...I'm sure I'll be able to refine and add to them over time. I think the most important thing I did on this trip was balance the eating by eating real food and exercising...instead of eating a lot of processed crap. Real food always trumps processed food...and you really can't go wrong if that's what you are eating, home or away.

eat like a [queen!]

I'm not sure if there are others out there like me, but the meal I always focus the most on is dinner. When I create my grocery list, its always centered around the dinners I'm going to prepare, with breakfast and lunch a la carte scattered in afterward.

Yet, I've heard that we should approach how we eat exactly the opposite. The saying is,

- Eat like a king (or in our case, queen) for breakfast
- Eat like a prince(ss) for lunch
- Eat like a pauper for dinner

This mentality makes sense, we spend most of the day active and burning calories, but only a few hours (if we're lucky) after dinner before bed.

Breakfast has always been quick and dirty for me (though I try to make sure I do eat something everyday).

Since I'm going grocery shopping on Saturday morning, I'll try to approach it differently:

Breakfast foods - turkey bacon and sausage; eggs; grits; couscous (my fave!); toast; fruit
Lunch foods - for me, this is usually dinner leftovers, and I think that will make sense with this new approach; fruits; fresh deli meat (no packaged cold cuts, too much extra sodium!)
Dinner foods - same things, but now I'll eat more of it for lunch and just a little for dinner!

I think this just means I'll be eating heartier breakfasts and more of my dinner for lunch. Seems doable.

Health on the Go

Morning! I'm about to head out to the airport, so I thought I'd do a quick post on my plan to stay healthy on the go.

Fitness - Brought exercise clothes, shoes, and 2 dvds (1 yoga, 1 cardio)
Food - Bringing two little snack packs. One has healthy snacks for the plane and during the days. The other has packets of oatmeal and dried fruit so I can have at least one controlled, healthy meal

Anyone else have great tips for how to stay on the program while on the road?

Say Maybe to the Dress

I am FEELING it!!! Seriously. After 2 dates with Trainer Amy and the Painhouse Gym - I am walking a little slower today. She whooped my tail good with an amazing leg workout yesterday. I am really glad I signed up for training - I know it is going to make a huge difference. I am going to train on Monday, but we also discussed the plan for while I'm on travel. It's pretty simple - do cardio, do it hard and do it often. So I'm packing a dvd or two, just in case the hotel gym sucks or is non-existant, along with my gym clothes. I also am going to make sure my iPod is loaded with goodies to keep me entertained while I burn.

So in pain and waddling around today, I did another painful thing - I spent all day today walking around trying on wedding dresses! The good is that I found a definite stand out dress, a dress I compared the other dresses I have tried on too. The bad is that it's literally on the top of my price range (it's $2 cheaper, lol). The worse is that I couldn't really try it on all the way because of the cut and the size being too small. The "worse" is the reason I haven't bought it yet. I have one more day of dress shopping with my mom tomorrow and then it's time to make some serious decisions. Do I go for the standout or the cost effective options? Do I buy a dress that I only was able to half try on but really loved? Argh!

Dress shopping is a total mindfreak. You walk in and they tell you - oh, our dresses are cut European style - you will need a size or two LARGER than your street size. Well, considering my street size is already high...that's a blow. Some dresses just didn't come in my size, end of discussion. And some dresses just weren't flattering on my shape (those are easier to deal with though...it's not your weight that means it's a no). Even on the styles I loved, I know that losing a few pounds will make them look even more stunning and flattering. If anything - it's telling me that I'm doing the right thing by trying hard right now to become a more fit woman - because I want to look graceful coming down the aisle - not like I'm stuffed into a too small or too ugly dress. And trust me - the "women's" sizes that do fit often are too ugly, LOL. I really was focusing on my honeymoon before - wanting to be able to wear a swimsuit on the beach and not feel like a misplaced whale. But now I'm really excited to tone up for the dress as well. I'm actually starting to get that vision thing going on, which is very exciting. I hope my bridesmaids are up for the theme I'm building in my head for their dresses around my favorite dress from today! I think they will be :)

celebrate the small victories...

I'm learning the importance of snacking on good things. I've been bringing extra fruit/veggies to work so that in between meals (or right after work for that long train ride home :) ) I won't succumb to the devil that is the office vending machine.


I see you lingering in the background, oh beloved pepsi machine. i am not tempted by you. (wooooo sahhhh)

My Torturer

Have you heard of this stepmill thing? No? Because I hadn't. Yeah, I heard of a stair climber, but this is a more evil torture device...I mean exercise machine. It's basically a never ending column of stairs that you climb, and keep climbing, otherwise you fall off the cliff. I know it sounds just like a stairclimber...but there is a difference, trust me!

Torture Device - Code Name "StepMill"

Anyway, my trainer, Trainer Amy, likes this thing...a lot. My cardio Rx includes 3 hot dates a week with the stepmill - and she likes to throw it in our sessions. Trainer Amy says that it burns 2-3 times the calories as the treadmill in half the time, and according to my bodybugg, she's right. Tonight was my second appointment with the equipment from hell and as did intervals between levels 1 and 2. Because that's how out of shape I am hard this machine is. And I was pouring sweat and hurting after just 20 minutes. So I guess that means it's working - which is what I pay her the big bucks for.

Tomorrow is my second appointment with Trainer Amy and I'm excited to see what pain she has in store for me. I'm going to be out of town every single day next week and in two different states - so I'm also going to ask her for a plan for while I'm gone.

Fit Momma is here!!

I've been delaying starting this blog because I'm not sure yet what my approach will be to getting healthier. I suppose that is not an excuse, and in fact can be good, because writing now encourages me to be more conscious about my reality and explore as I go what works and what does not.

I'm sad that I missed the Health Fair, but it sounds like Kimmi got some great motivation, and I am motivated by her motivation!

My approach (which I reserve the right to change) is to buy fresh food as much as possible and to cook during the week! That's key. I live in Maryland, work in Virginia, and don't get home until 7PM, and that's if I don't get to the gym.

Alright let me get it together...so far I've been doing well. I have to figure out how not to get hungry at work (I've heard nuts and such are good, I will try those).

OOh! Another thing, I'm considering a fresh/local produce delivery service. Here's the link for all you DC-area folks: http://www.washingtonsgreengrocer.com. I'll let you know how it is!

Decisions and Choices

This past weekend was the DC health and fitness expo. I went down to enjoy the festivities and see what I could learn. I could only go on Sunday, so I thought I missed some of the guests I was interested in. Wrong! Sunday afternoon I got to meet and talk to Shay from Season 8 of Biggest Loser. For those of you who don't follow the show, Shay started as the biggest female competitor, somewhere close to 500 lbs. She lost 100 lbs at the ranch and another 72 at home. She's currently been challenged by Subway to lose the rest of her weight and they will pay her $1000/lb. Talk about incentive, eh? (and if anyone would like to offer me a similar deal - I'm currently unsponsored, lol). Anyway, watching her on the show was very inspiringing and meeting her in person was incredible. She was amazingly nice and gave some great insight into life at the ranch and how she fits in exercise into her busy family life.



Out of the 10ish minute conversation we had, one of the tidbits of information that stuck out to me was her discussing decisions and choices. I asked her how she keeps herself off the processed food and bad decisions and in the gym (aside from the $1000/lb payout). That every decision we make comes down to a simple question - Is this taking me farther away from my goal or getting me closer? It sounds so simple, but for some reason, the way she said it really made me think how simple it is. So that's been my question about everything and so far so good.



Aside from the famous people inspiration, let me just say that Diet to Go is a-MAY-zing. It's making this rough transition to a healthier person much easier. After discussing the meal plans at the expo with some of the reps, I actually decided to change to the breakfast/dinner plan instead of the breakfast/lunch plan - although I'm still eating the meals for breakfast/lunch. I made the switch because the lunch meals are kind of repetative - sandwiches. Looking through the menu - the lunch meals just seemed like they would quickly bore me and were pretty carby (breads, crackers, ect.). The dinners have way more variety. Last week, the lunches I got were a turkey sandwich, chicken salad sandwich, garden salad, tuna meltovers (sandwich). The dinners I got today were chicken fajitas, meatloaf, stirfry. Much more exciting :) I also am switching to the 5 day a week plan, as dinners are more pricey and also because I need to learn how to eat better on my own. So I'll leave the weekends open, which is fine since I can cook on those days with little to no time constraints.

Enough from me for now. I had my first training appointment and I am exhausted! After a week of training I'll fill you in on how it goes and how I like it.

Hey Fit Momma - where are you??

A new beginning

So since we decided to start this blog, I spent this week trying to figure out my plan. I've been kind of going all over the place with diet and exercise for the last few months (years) and was kind of lost. My first decision was to sign up for Diet-to-Go. Diet-to-Go is a meal delivery service of a slightly different style. Instead of something like Nutrasystem that has prepackaged sodium laden processed meals that get mailed to your house monthly, it's a fresh food service. I have to pick up the food 2x a week, it's fresh and never frozen, and it actually needs to go in the refrigerator (real food!). I'm going to use their food for breakfast and lunch, because those are the two meals I tend to really have an issue with. This means I still need to count calories and add snacks and make sure dinner is the right calorie count, but I'll be tracking with my body bugg anyway, so it's not a big deal. Diet-to-Go has all their nutritional info posted online, so I can easily add it to the food log.

Tomorrow I am going to start eating the DTG food - I hope it's tasty! I will give a review after I try it out. I also am starting a renewed exercise effort tomorrow - I'd like to really make a dent in this weight before Feb. I'd like to have a cute valentine's day outfit :)

Kimmi

Introduction

Hi and welcome to our blog! This is the journey of two friends trying to slim down and shape up. We are using different methods and food plans and will have different struggles - but since we are a little far from each other, we thought this blog would be a great way to keep in touch and to motivate each other. So feel free to read and comment and help us on our way :)