A Whole New World

On September 25th of this year, I will be a mom for 10 years. Shocking. For these past 10 years I have put myself on the back burner and done everything for these 3 little monkeys while doing nothing for myself. I have woken up before the sun to workout, I have stayed up until midnight so I could get in a workout, but today, that all changed. And, it’s like a new world has opened up for me. One that involved me going to bed at 10pm last night instead of 8  and getting up at 6 this morning and enjoying the quiet time before the troops woke up.

Creepiest self photo ever? Yep. I win.

This morning I sent my two oldest off to school, came home and made my youngest his breakfast and then made myself breakfast

Washed down with this delicious water

And then about 15 minutes later, at 9am, I did one sweaty 30 minute Turbo Fire workout (Fire 30). It was awesome. I feel like a brand new mama. One that actually CAN take care of herself now without having to be up before the sun to get it done! My energy has been through the roof today and I love it!!!

Mamavation Monday {too much too soon}

I joined the 2 Week Challenge for Mamavation and it started yesterday, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

My day started off meeting with a personal trainer at the gym and I learned that I’m trying to do too much too soon and I’m headed for burnout. I was wearing my heart rate monitor and after about 9 minutes on the arc trainer, she stopped it and my heart was beating so totally out of control, she made me get off. We then headed to the recumbent bike and then to the treadmills and even though I was going really slow {to me} on both of those machines, my heart rate was SO much better and I had a really good workout. I told her that I lost all of my weight before using the elliptical and didn’t understand why I couldn’t use the arc this time. She asked what my weight was before, and I told her when I started using the elliptical I was about 180 lbs, she then broke my little heart by telling me that I’m currently 30lbs heavier than that and it’s just too much for my body to handle, but if I alternate the treadmill and the bike, I’ll be able to work my way up to using the Arc. She also showed me a bunch of the various weight machines that I should use and I’m really excited about moving forward!!

As for the 2 Week Challenge, I’m doing the beginner version, and it’s still pretty brutal for me!! Today’s workout was called Down to the Core and you better believe I worked down to the core! I’ve never done timed planks before, and I wasn’t sure I could hold the side versions, but I did it!!! Here are my starting weight and measurements, I’m excited to see where I’ll be at the end of this.

Starting Weight: 214.8

Waist: 42.8”

Hips: 49”

Thighs: 25”

Breakfast this morning was a new favorite, hard boiled eggs with toast

A Banana

And a mug of hot lemon water

In the world’s cutest cup, how can you not smile when you look at this?

Six Week Body Makeover

I meant to get this post up this morning, but it’s currently 12:30pm and this is the first time I’ve had a few minutes to breathe and sit for a few minutes. Two kids are off school today which means I’m going crazy busy all day long and trying to get things done in between refereeing fights…

Yesterday morning started off my long cardio day; 1 hour on the treadmill. It actually went by really fast, thanks to a fun playlist on the iPod. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the time left and it was already down to 17 minutes…gotta love when that happens!

I have been reluctant to share the program I have started. I have no idea why I’ve kept it a secret, it’s not a secret and if it will help me get this weight off…why not?! I am doing the Six Week Body Makeover. Like I have mentioned, it’s focused on lean protein, lots of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. I’m eating 6 meals per day, roughly every 2.5 to 3 hours. I know there is no way I will lose all of the weight in 6 weeks, which is why I’ll be doing it for 6 weeks then a less restricted version for 3-4 weeks and then depending on how much weight I still want to lose, I’ll go back on it for another 6 weeks. I really like this program because I’m not cutting out any food groups and it focuses on eating whole, fresh, real foods. The program came with sample menus and then a flip chart for when I want to change things up a bit. For now I’m just sticking with the sample menus until I feel comfortable with the program to change things up.

Breakfast yesterday was an egg sandwich with 1 cup of sliced strawberries

My mid-morning snack was 2 oz of tuna mixed with mustard, relish and a bit of mayo, with crackers

and an orange

Lunch was such an amazing salad:

broccoli slaw, cucumber, tomato, 2 oz of tuna and topped with mustard.

And a cup of sliced strawberries

My mid-afternoon snack was my new favorite yogurt: this is SO good, I need to get more!!

Dinner was 3 oz of baked BBQ chicken, roasted broccoli slaw and a baked potato with a bit of butter, salt and pepper.

Can’t Out Train a Bad Diet

I’ve heard this before, but I was trying to prove it wasn’t true. Guess what, it’s not. I admire people who can work out really hard every day and not have to count calories or portion sizes and still drop pounds. I’m not that girl. Sucks to have to write that. Sucks even more how much I will struggle with certain “trigger foods” for the rest of my life, but I will win. Food will no longer control me. I’m in control.

I was pretty proud of myself this morning. We had some crazy wind here last night, I was pretty surprised we didn’t wake up with a tree in our house. I woke up around 1 and couldn’t fall back asleep until after 3, I remember looking at the clock and it was 3:05. My alarm went off at 4:15, it’s set on my phone and though I don’t remember turning it off, I woke up at 5:45 holding the phone in my hand, so apparently I turned it off and layed back down. I looked at the time and thought “well, maybe I should just keep sleeping and not go to the gym today.” Then I got out of bed, put my clothes on and headed to the gym. Today was my last day of cardio only, next week I start doing cardio/weights one day and just cardio the next…I’m pretty excited!

Perfect way to start Saturday! Before I left, the husband asked if I would pick up donuts for him and the kids, I got to dunkin donuts and was starving, but thankfully donuts do nothing for me; I think they are pretty nasty. So I got them each a donut and got myself an egg white/turkey sausage/veggie sandwich on flat bread

And an orange

I forgot I had another Mamma Chia in the fridge, so I had one of those as well.

Definitely need to get more of these, they are so good!

Roasted Broccoli Slaw

Yesterday afternoon I was reading blogs and came across a meal changing recipe on Stuft Mama.

This my friends is roasted broccoli slaw and it was hands down the best part of my dinner last night.  I put it in a small roasting pan sprayed with pam and then sprinkled with sea salt, pepper, garlic and onion and cooked at 375 for 10 minutes, stirred and then another 10 minutes. I topped it with leftover marinara sauce from dinner the other night and seriously wanted 3x the amount of this!

Served alongside steak and a baked potato, the slaw was the star of dinner.

I was up bright and early this morning after being up a few times last night, and I was just not feeling the workout this morning. I did it, but my legs just felt heavy and every time I tried to go faster, I got a cramp in my side. The last 5 minutes felt like an eternity today! I’m blaming it on the fact that I slept pretty crappy last night…it’s going to be a long day.

As my brother posted on Facebook this morning, it smells like summer this morning!!

The sun is shining, it’s going to be in the mid 50’s today, but summer is a long way off…we are supposed to get snow tonight. I wish I could be excited, but it’s been such a mild winter, I want it to stay that way and go right to spring.

Want to guess what I had for breakfast this morning?

I was starving and this was the quickest meal I could cook and eat! At least I strayed from the standard banana and had strawberries instead.

Any fun plans for today? My 2 oldest have the day off from school for parent/teacher conferences. I have one this morning and one this afternoon and then home to do some spring cleaning. I fully intend on having some windows open this afternoon and letting some fresh air in. Have a great day!!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

As I’ve mentioned before, I hate wasting food and will usually do what I can to re-purpose leftovers in a new meal. The other night we had chicken parmesan and still had some chicken, noodles and green beans leftover. Yesterday I spotted some chicken broth in the pantry and decided to make chicken soup…best decision all day.

Chicken Noodle Soup

• 1 carton chicken broth
• Egg noodles
• Chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
• Green Beans (and whatever other vegetables you have on hand. I also threw in some corn, carrots and cabbage to the mixture)
• Seasoning (I used sea salt, pepper, garlic and onion)

I put everything into the crock pot, and cooked on high until it was boiling and then turned it down to low until we were ready to eat. I’ve never made chicken noodle soup before and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.

And the best part about having chicken noodle soup for dinner? Grilled Cheese!

This morning I was at the gym bright and early to hit the treadmill. Today was cardio only and it went by pretty fast, thanks to changing up the incline and speeds when the songs change. I burned 420 calories and went almost 3 miles in 50 minutes. One day I would love to do 3 miles in 30 minutes…but I’m a work in progress.

Breakfast this morning was the same as yesterday: eggs, toast and a banana

I love this combo and really love how it fills me up!