54 Days (Jennie)

Do you remember those old 80s milk commercials... the "Milk. It does a body good." ads with the small girls and boys talking to someone who is doubting their worth. They see themselves in a few years looking great, all from drinking their milk. I'm kind of feeling like that today, only replace "milk" with "workout". I was on the shy side growing up. I wasn't the cutest, funniest, or most athletic, which didn't help either. I struggle in many ways today with those same insecurities from childhood; I still clam up in social situations when I don't know people and I really hate confrontation. But here comes the "I'm drinking milk" part... working out is giving me a new confidence that I didn't have before. It's helping me to realize that I hate being ignored and underestimated most of all, which makes the discomfort of not knowing people in social situations and fear of confrontation seem not so bad. I work hard, but it isn't always enough to get me noticed and respected- it really is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease after all. So this girl is going to keep moving forward, keep busting out these workouts, keep learning and working. I have a race to prep for, a body to take care of, and most important of all, two precious little girls to inspire toward a lifelong love of fitness. I've got my eye on the prize!

Today's food:
Breakfast: Protein shake (vanilla protein powder, blueberries, spinach and unsweetened almond milk)
AM Snack: Homemade banana bread (couldn't resist- dang it- looove my banana bread!) and coffee
Lunch: Salad with grilled chicken
PM Snack: Almonds
Dinner: Carne asada with avocado, grilled corn, fresh tomatoes, green chiles and 2 small corn tortillas

Total calories: 1880
Total workout: 2400
Workout for the day: P90X Legs and Back, 2 mile walk at lunch

61 Days (Jennie)

Tick-tock, tick-tock... officially less than 2 months til the big day! I was proud of this morning's workout, I've been able to knock out pushups pretty well lately. It sounds cheesy, but I had a pushup epiphany in a way. I used to push up, then lock my elbows and hold for a second, then go again. I'm now pushing up, but not locking my elbows and immediately going down again. This has really allowed me to do a lot more, which is awesome. I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner. It's amazing what a difference a small form change can make!

Food for the day
Breakfast: protein shake with 2 cups spinach, a banana, vanilla protein powder and unsweetened almond milk
Morning snack: coffee and a handful of almonds
Lunch: salad with grilled chicken breast and ranch dressing
Afternoon snack: granola bar and a few more almonds
Dinner: I splurged a bit on a burger. BUT, on the bright side, I was able to bypass the fries, except stealing a few from the kiddos, which I counted!
Dessert: I made granola for the hubby and sampled a bit while it was baking (quality control purposes!)


My hubby loves granola with his yogurt for breakfast. I forgot to pick it up at the store one day and felt bad, so I figured I'd try to make it myself. I looked up a few recipes online and pulled together a quick little recipe that he loves. He actually won't buy the store kind any longer. Darn, what did I get myself into? :)

Bad photo... but good granola!

Homemade Granola with Fruit

2 c. old fashioned oats (these will yield a better texture than the quick cook kind)
1 c. sweetened coconut flakes
1/2 c. almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 c. walnuts, roughly chopped
2 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 c. oil (any neutral oil should work- I used canola tonight, but may try coconut next time)
1/3 c. honey
1 c. dried cranberries, rehydrated in boiling water for a few minutes

Preheat oven to 275F.

Combine oats, coconut, almonds, walnuts and cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk together oil and honey, add to oat mixture. I will sometimes add a small amount of brown sugar for some added sweetness. Spread on to a baking sheet or shallow casserole dish, bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. I wait to add the cranberries in the last 15 minutes of cooking so they aren't too dried out.

The beauty of this recipe is that it's very forgiving and easy to tailor to your taste. Add additional spices, remove the cinnamon if it's not to your liking. Add different fruit (fresh blueberries work well), different nuts (pecans?), even chocolate if you're really looking for a tasty treat! Hubby likes the granola a little sweeter, so I will add a little extra brown sugar (1 T or so). For dried fruit, I recommend rehydrating first, to avoid the fruit drying out to little fruit pebbles. Place fruit in a bowl, cover with water and microwave for 5 minutes, then I add about 15 minutes before the granola is done. Enjoy!

Total calories in: 1725
Calories burned: 2350
Workout: P90X Chest and Back

68 Days (Jennie)

The countdown to Tough Mudder is quickly approaching the 2 month mark. It's hard to believe, it feels like just the other day I was registering, wondering what I was thinking. But September seemed so far away, I had plenty of time to train, right?

From here on out, I want to really focus on upper body strength, that's an area I struggle with. The plan is to emphasize the P90X upper body workouts and sub in some Asylum workouts here and there for variety. I will master a pull-up!

Food for the day
Breakfast: Drew's protein shake minus the banana since I was out. I did pick up more at the store tonight, it adds a smoothness to the shake that I really missed.
Morning snack: coffee. I was in a rush to make a 9am meeting and didn't plan well to grab anything else on my way out the door.
Lunch: salad with tuna and ranch
Afternoon snack: granola bar and more coffee. Sometimes the day just calls for a little afternoon caffeine.
Dinner: two shrimp tacos with cabbage and corn tortillas

Calories in: 1870
Calories burned: 2200
Workout: P90X Kenpo X

94 Days (Mindy)

Happy Hump Day woot woot!

I hate end of the quarter time, work is crazy... and this week is especially crazy because I was out half the day Monday for a doctor's appointment, today I had an all day meeting and tomorrow I'll be out for a few hours at a dentist appointment *uh groan*... but I am proud of myself because despite working late every night this week I've managed to get in something of a workout!  Enough venting....

Breakfast
- Oatmeal topped with 1tsp brown sugar, a cut up banana and splash of almond milk
- 2 eggs scrambled with a little bit of salsa


AM Snack
- Blueberry greek yogurt


Lunch
- Subway foot long veggie sandwich, no cheese and only mustard


PM Snack
- 1 cup cantaloupe


Dinner
- Yummy yummy salad: chicken, lettuce, tomato, avocado, cucumbers, Parmesan cheese, and blue cheese vinaigrette dressing

So I got home tonight at almost 8PM from work and I knew I wanted to do a quick but effective workout I of course turned to the one and only Zuzana!!  She is all about short powerful workouts using maximum effort and I am gradually going through all of her ZWOW workouts... today was ZWOW #3.

Total Calories Eaten: 1576
Calories Burned (at 9:30PM): 1937 so I should hit 2100 by the end of the day

95 Days (Mindy)

95 days and counting... this is week 3 of no alcohol during the week... not that I was an alcoholic or anything but I enjoyed a nice glass... or two... of wine at night most nights to help relax from a stressful day at work.  I do miss it but I am hoping the loss of alcohol calories starts reflecting on the scale!

Breakfast
(hodge podge of different yummy things)
- Plain greek yogurt with a 1/4 of Dark Chocolate & Red Berry Granola (brand is Nature's Path and it is so yummy!!)
- Piece of toast with 1T of peanut butter
- 1/2 cup of cantaloupe

Snack
- Kind Fruit & Nut Bar

Lunch
- 2.5 ounces free range turkey breast wrapped in 1 slice of Havarti cheese
- Smoothie with spinach, mango, banana and Unsweetened almond milk

Snack
- Banana
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 3 oz baby carrots

Dinner 
- 5 oz chicken breast
- 1 cup yellow squash and zucchini

 I found this really delicious chicken seasoning at Whole Foods that I sprinkled on both the chicken and the squash and it was great on both!

My workout was from Bob Harper and it was a quick 20 minute workout but I burned almost 300 calories not too shabby!

Calories Eaten: 1626
Burned So Far (9PM): 2064 so I should hit between 2200-2300 the rest of the night

96 Days (Jennie)

Oh Monday, you always come too soon. Today went fairly well. I had a dentist appointment this morning and was up earlier than normal to get the workout in and get to the appointment by 8. I was a bit worried that my energy level would be pretty bad after a very busy weekend and not a lot of sleep, but I did okay thankfully.

Today's rundown:

Breakfast
Spinach protein smoothie (spinach, vanilla protein powder, blueberries, unsweetened almond milk)

AM Snack
Banana and string cheese

Lunch
Lots o' salad (romaine, mushrooms, red peppers, turkey, cheddar, tomatoes, corn, avocado, jalapenos and a little ranch)

PM Snack
Granola bar

Dinner
Grilled chicken breast, roasted asparagus, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes and grilled peaches. Our little peach tree has been working overtime and the birds were kind enough to leave a few for us, so they hit the grill.

It's grilled fruit!

Dessert
Fresh berries with a little whipped cream. The beauty of making whipped cream is to be able to control the sugar or add a more glycemic-friendly sweetener.

This morning's workout was P90X Kenpo. Total calories in is 1685 and burned should be about 2200 by end of the day. Tomorrow I'm aiming to get a lunchtime walk in to get this calorie burn up!

96 Days (Mindy)

So with the influence of Jackie Warner at my side... at least in paper form, I am probably going to have a somewhat monotonous weekly diet, but hey whatever works.  My goal is 3 meals a day 400-500 calories each then a morning snack and afternoon snack 150-200 calories each.  No starchy carbs after lunch and protein with all 3 meals and 1 of the snacks.  Make sure to drink minimum of 1 gallon of water per day as well.  And during the week NO alcohol... but I refuse to give up my wine on the weekends!

Here is how today went:

Breakfast:

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter smoothie (Oh mama this one was great!!)

- Frozen Banana

- 1 cup of spinach

- 1T peanut butter

- 1 scoop chocolate protein powder 

- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

I also snacked on 1/2 cup 1.5% cottage cheese when I was making my food.

Look at all that yummy spinach!!

Morning Snack

- Apple

- 1/8 cup almonds

Lunch

- Salad from Trader Joes with mixed greens, tomatoes and mozzarella

- 1 leftover oatmeal cookie mmm home made could not resist

Afternoon Snack

- 1/2 cup cottage cheese

- 1/2 cup pineapple

- Strawberry Serenity Kombucha (I rarely buy these because they are so expensive but I was at Whole Foods the other and just could not pass it up)

Dinner

For dinner I had tuna salad stuffed into bell peppers instead of bread

- 1 can of albacore tuna in water (total of 1/2 cup)

- 1 oz of plain 2% greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise

- 1-2T deli brown mustard

- Spoon of relish

- 1T parmesan cheese (the real non powder kind)

- Pinch of dill, pepper, onion powder, parsley

Sliced up 1/2 cucumber on the side

The tuna mixed really well with the bell pepper, it was so delicious!!

For my workout I ran for 30 minutes, then came home and lifted weights a la Jackie Warner.

Total Calories: 1536 

Total Burned (as of 9:10PM): 2564

98 Days (Jennie)

Hooray for Saturdays! I actually had a pretty productive day today. Attended to my horribly overgrown yard, filled the green waste bin with grass clippings, pulled some weeds and still managed to get the workout in this morning (hooray!). We had a busy day with a birthday party later in the afternoon, so it was a bit of a challenge to get it all done, but mission accomplished thankfully!

I love making breakfast for the family on the weekends, it's nice to sit down and enjoy a meal together as opposed to the normal craziness of the week. This morning I made Baked Oatmeal, which I found on Annie's Eats blog here. I love her site, she has many amazing looking dishes and, as a fellow mom of young kiddos, keeps me inspired to keep cooking fresh wonderful food. I do make a few minor modifications to her original recipe, basically eliminating the pecans (kiddos don't like them), sub unsweetened almond milk for the regular milk and today I made it with half peaches and half blueberries. It's a very versatile dish, I always use the bananas as the base, but blueberries, peaches and and raspberries have all done well as the second fruit. Definitely use ripe bananas though, the only time it hasn't been so great is when my bananas were still a bit too green, it made the dish taste very starchy.

Oatmeal awesomeness!

Here's the rundown for the day.

Breakfast:
Baked Oatmeal

Lunch:
Plain greek yogurt with honey and grapes (I was in a rush to get cleaned up from yard work, get to a party and finish a pie... yikes!)

Snack (on the go on the way to the party):
String cheese and granola bar

Dinner (at the birthday party):
6" roast beef sub, watermelon, strawberries and carrots/snap peas from a veggie tray

I did stop for an iced raspberry latte on the way home. Not exactly the greatest, but I was tired and had an hour drive ahead, so I justified it. :)  I'm a little light on the calories today, but didn't want to overdo earlier in the day since I wasn't sure what we would be having for dinner at the birthday party. Total calories in: 1600

Workout for the day was Aslyum Back to Core. Not too intense of a workout thankfully since I followed it up with close to 3 hours of yardwork. 2500 calories burned so far according to my Fitbit with an hour left to go in the day still.

Tomorrow the family and I are heading up to visit my Dad for a belated Father's Day BBQ. So maybe all those saved calories from today will come in handy.

Have a fantastic weekend!

99 Days (Jennie)

I'm cheating a bit and writing a bit early before dinner, but want to make sure I got this in tonight. Today was a lot of fun, we had our year-end lunch for the Controller's group at work (year-end in June since we just finished audit). This year's event was bocci ball, which was so much fun. But as much fun as all that is, work events are a huge challenge for eating healthy. Today was no exception- tasty food everywhere I looked. Pizzas, tons of appetizers, desserts. So what's a girl to do to keep on the clean diet path? Fill plate with salad!

Mmmm... salady

Not the best picture, but it was tasty. Lots of spinach, lots of romaine, some mandarins in one salad, Parmesan, pine nuts and some eggs from the other salads (3 mixes on one plate). I did go back for a few prawns later; salad is great, but doesn't fill me up for long without some protein in the mix. I'm proud to say that even with the dessert table right next to the salad table (even had to go to there to get a fork), I didn't touch any of it. No cheesecake, no tiramisu, no lemon bars... they were all calling to me but I held true to my mission. *pats self on back*

Here's the count for the day:

Breakfast:
Vanilla protein shake with almond milk, spinach, and blueberries
Turkey bacon and coffee

Lunch:
Lots of salad, 3 boiled tiger prawns, a few veggies from the tray

PM Snack:
Granola bar

Dinner:
TBD- but it's looking like we're grilling burgers. My calorie count looks good for the day so far, so I'll splurge a bit here. And it's Friday, so what the heck? ;)

Today's workout was Asylum Vertical Plyo and some yardwork (hey, pulling weeds is hard work!)

Off to get dinner with the family. Cheers to a great weekend!

100 Days (Jennie)

Tomorrow, we're officially into double-digit days left before Tough Mudder, yikes!!

So far so good! I'm a bit of a broken record when it comes to breakfast and snacks which is going to make this a little repetitive... breakfast and snack choices always seem limited for on-the-go. I do start checking out more recipes, especially things that can be made at night and reheated or just grabbed in the morning on the way out the door.

Breakfast:
Vanilla protein shake with almond milk, spinach, and blueberries
Turkey bacon and coffee

AM Snack:
Greek yogurt
Small handful of almonds

Lunch:
Healthy taco salad (sans the "taco")  :)  Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, corn, avocado, jalapenos, cheddar, ground turkey and a little guacamole ranch dressing

PM Snack:
Granola Bar
Small banana

Dinner:
Tuna rolls (tuna, mayo with olive oil, relish, wrapped in butter lettuce)
Fruit salad (bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries)


And because I was having a dessert craving... some plain Greek yogurt with a little honey and red grapes. It was just enough to quiet the sweet tooth and keep me away from the cookies I made hubby last night! Calories burned for the day was 1988, on target to burn 2400 per my trusty Fitbit.

I'm a big fan of Greek yogurt, Chobani in particular. One 6 oz serving of nonfat plain yogurt has 140 calories and 23 grams of protein, twice the amount in normal yogurt. It's filling and very versatile- add fruit, honey, or sub in baked goods. It also provides 30% of your RDA for calcium. Best of all, it's an easy and healthy snack to take on the go.

I am tasty and delicious!

This morning's workout was Asylum Strength. My goal was to make it through the entire workout with 15# dumbbells, thrilled to say I did it! Even knocked out a few of the rotational jumps holding a 45# kettle bell... wowwowwow... that was a challenge. My inside forearms, of all strange places, are even sore. I was planning to do the P90X Ab Ripper X workout tonight, but haven't been able to separate my butt from the couch the past hour for some crazy reason. That's okay, I'll make up for it in the morning with a hot date with Shaun T. and the rest of the Asylum crew.

Happy almost Friday!

101 Days (Jennie)

Last night's post really ignited something in me. While I was driving to work this morning and realizing that there are just 101 days til Mudder, I thought "hey, why not make these days count?" Really count too, as in eat clean and train dirty kind of count. 100 days from now I will not only be ready for Mudder, but will see a drastic change in my body as well (pics to come!).

Breakfast:
Vanilla protein shake with almond milk, spinach, and blueberries
Turkey bacon and coffee (oh sweet nectar...)

AM Snack:
Greek yogurt
Small banana

Lunch:
Chicken and orzo soup
Mixed greens salad (spring mix, edamame, carrots, celery, bell pepper, corn), raspberry vinegar

PM Snack:
Granola Bar
Small handful of almonds (15)

Dinner (my pork chop plan went awry, I must have frozen them too late, yuck!!!):
Scrambled eggs with spinach and salsa
Turkey sausage patty
Fruit salad (bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries)

All in all, not a bad day, although a shade under 2000 calories, which I'd like to lower a bit to try to knock off these last few stubborn pounds. Calorie burn according to my Fitbit should hit about 2400 by the end of the day.

Today's workout: Asylum Gameday... 60 minutes of joy! ;)

So that's it... 1 day down and 100 more to go!

Sunday Workout (Mindy)

Yesterday's workout was light on the calorie burning so today I thought I would put together my own little workout and try to increase the calorie burn...

Sunday Workout

( I take a lot of these moves from one of my favorite trainers Jackie Warner)

5 minute warm-up with the weighted hulu hoop
2 minute stretch

Resistance Circuit : (x 2 times)
- Squat with shoulder press 20 reps
- Renegade Pushups 10 reps (regular pushup but when you are back in plank position you lift your left arm into a rowing pull back motion)
- Lunges with Bicep Curl 10 on each leg
- Outer Dumbell curls 20 reps

Rest 1 minute

Cardio Circuit
- Burpees: 1 minute
- Jump Rope: 1 minute
- High Knees: 1 minute
- Butt Kicks: 1 minute

Rest 1 minute

Resistance Circuit: (x2 times)
- Dumbbell Dead Lifts 15 reps
- UFCs 20 reps (stand in a squatting position then drop your left leg down, then your right until you are kneeling.  Return your left leg to its starting position and then our right leg.)  10 starting on the left then 10 on the right.
- Calf Raises 30 reps
- Sumo Squats 15 reps

Rest 1 minute

Cardio Circit
- Burpees: 1 minute
- Jumping Jacks
- Running in Place
- Jump Rope

Rest 1 minute

Resistance Circuit: (x 2 times)
- Tricep kickbacks 15 reps
- Ab V Tucks 30 reps
- Dumbell Lateral Raise 15 reps
- Wide Dumbell Pulls 15 reps

Rest 1 minute

Cardio Circuit
- Burpees: 1 minute
- Leap Frog Jumps: 1 minute
- Quick Squats: 1 minute
- High Knees: 1 minute

Rest 1 minute

Cool Down and Stretch

The whole thing took me just a little over an hour and burned 570 calories

Today's Workout (Mindy)

So one of my super fit girlfriends introduced me to bodyrock.tv which if you have never checked it out is a free website formally run by Zuzana and her hubby Freddie with loads of workout videos, nutrition advice etc.  Well the couple that ran the site got divorced and although it is still run by Freddie it is just not the same.

I just recently discovered that Zuzana, whose body is just ridiculous, has a new channel on You Tube and a Facebook Page.

I did this workout today... time was 35 minutes calories burned per my heart rate monitor was 430 calories whoo not bad!  Her focus is on short super high intense workouts that usually involve a lot of burpees and squats.

I am going to try to incorporate at least one of her workouts into my weekly workout plan... so go check her out, she is amazing!

Runners.. uh.. Arch? (Mindy)

So about 3 years ago I got into running and started training convinced that I was eventually going to do a marathon, or at least 1/2 marathon.  I absolutely fell in love with running and was about to graduate from the Couch to 5K running program.  Well that did not happen because by about mile 3 I started getting this awful pain in my left arch, like a ripping stepping on needles pain.  I did stretching, icing etc., but it did not help and I was too lazy/scared/cheap/[insert excuse adjective here] to go to the doctors to figure out what was going on.  Fast forward 2 years ago then 1 year ago, I tried to pick up running again but always had to stop after a few weeks of training due to this arch pain.

So the story now should go well I went to the doctor's finally and [insert happy recovery story] but alas I still have not.  I decided yesterday to start my running again and started feeling the pain by about 1/2 mile and after 2 miles I was done... my foot was hurting soo bad.... so pissed at my damn foot... so pissed at all these people running past me without a care in the world and no foot pain... I was 2 inches away from tripping this gazelle looking girl that ran past me... he he but I am not that mean or bitter.... but I was pretty depressed yesterday about it... actually really depressed, but I'm better now.

So enough bitching I am going to go see a doctor...

So on to happy times, I had an amazing workout tonight.

About a week ago I discovered Daily Burn and after doing a handful of their workouts I definitely love it and think it is worth the small investment!  It is basically a website that has a bunch of different workout videos by their designated trainers, nutrition advice, motivation, community boards, lots of different stuff.  I do not really see myself getting into the community boards or the other fluffy stuff but the workouts are great.  I love how they are organized too... say you only have a little bit of time to do a workout you can search for a 10-20 minute, then choose the difficulty level you want and a bunch of options will pop up.... If you love one particular trainer, you can search on only their videos.

To tonight I did a 35 minute cardio workout and then a 30 minute weight training workout and according to my heart rate monitor burned 650 calories and I feel great!

Hopefully they will start posting some new workout videos soon though because I may just whip through them quick!