Quick post here for Wednesday!  

I just weighed in and I was up +0.8 lbs, overall loss 8.2 lbs.  I wasn't surprised since I let things go last week eating wise and I didn't stick to my workouts.  Why? I caught the lazy bug. 

Can we talk about temptation for a bit?  I am a glorified child & adult babysitter  for 60 hours a week (48 with oldies & 12 with kids) which means I'm not home a lot.  First, what is it with elderly people and their desire to keep four types of ice cream, cakes, chips, cookies, and sugar sculptures in their house?  What's worse is they want to offer it to me multiple times a night despite the fact that I've told them I'm trying to eat healthier as I sit and munch on my celery sticks and pretend they are peanut brittle. Let's not even get started on the kids...they eat pretty healthy but they still love fruit snacks, pb&j, and the almighty Cheez-its. Homemade cookies are everywhere but don't mind me...I'm eating my enormous salad.  

Enter these babies: 

Look!  They are even "natural."  No, I didn't give in.  But I did eat some Lay's last night.  I couldn't take it anymore. I was starving at 3 am & that little bit of salt hit the spot.  So much for standing up to those cravings.  

Temptation is a tricky thing. I don't know whether it's better to indulge or to build up my "willpower."  It's something I'm trying to figure out.  Any advice?  How do you deal with temptations and cravings?  I realize these first few days are going to be the hardest - hopefully it will get better.  It's just really hard when you do decide to give in and end up feeling so crappy. Ugh.

Enough of the negative...I'm reenergized & doing MUCH better this week (handful of Lay's aside).  I even did an impromptu workout yesterday just because I had a little extra time to work with than usual.  It felt GREAT to move just because I wanted to instead of because I "had to." I'm super sore today (I really need to do a better job of stretching) but I'm determined to get a run & boot camp in today.

My workout from yesterday:

I started my watch too early - only a 30 min workout

 I did a 15 minute HIIT with Chalene on Turbofire.  In college, a few of my friends and I would do her Turbo Jam workouts in our sorority living room.  It was hilarious!  That's when I decided to buy TF but I never actually completed the whole program...consistency is an issue for me.  I don't really enjoy working out alone so it was kind of depressing to do the workouts in my room everyday. Whomp Whomp.  I also did the Summer Arms with the TIU girlies from their Beach Babe DVD!  

Here's to a better week! 

Hello Pumpkins!  After my deliciously disasterous weekend of less than perfect eating, I knew it was time to hit the reset button and recommit to clean eating.  

I started getting interested in clean-eating a little over a year ago when I found Tosca Reno’s book The Eat Clean Diet Recharged.  I highly recommend picking this book up!  The basic principles are simple - eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods as much as possible.  The great thing is the plan can be tailored to any of your diet needs - vegetarian, gluten-free, food allergies, etc.  Tosca stresses the importance of getting LOTS of water, eating smaller, more frequent meals, and combining lean protein and complex carbs in every meal (along with a little healthy fat).  Read her books for more details! 

The biggest problem with the plan is you MUST plan ahead...at least I have to.  “A failure to plan is a plan for failure.” I need to have things ready to grab-and-go or I will get lazy (like I have been lately).  It’s a lot easier to be tempted by what others are eating if you don’t have proper meals and snacks planned. 

In addition to Tosca’s book, I also purchased the Tone It Up plan a little bit again which pretty much follows all the same principles while being a little more specific about when and what you should be eating at certain points of your weight loss; obviously there will be a slight difference in what you eating when trying to lose weight vs. maintain.  Please go check out the TIU girls!  They are so inspirational and amazing. They put out new weekly workout calendars, new workouts, and always have challenges and contests going on.

Today I went to the grocery store and loaded up on yummy foods!  I hard-boiled some eggs and made grilled chicken for the next few days - see, I’m planning!  

Here is my haul (I already had some of the items - just showing some examples of what I would get):

I obviously picked up more than this...these are just some examples!  As far as protein goes, I love almond butter, eggs, turkey, greek yogurt, and chicken.  The salmon will probably not be eaten by me but I might try it :) 

In my freezer there are also frozen vegetables, berries, bananas, and other smoothie items.  There might  be a frozen dinner or two but I actually am not a big fan of them.  We also have fruit bars which are loaded with sugar but are still probably better than my ice cream that I love.

For produce, I'm a biiiig fruit fan!  I love it all so I have mango, all sorts of berries, lots of apples, and peaches.  I got a veggie tray because I'm too lazy to cut everything up (at least I'm honest) and some romaine lettuce & spinach for salads and green monsters.  

You'll see I managed to sneak some treats in there too - chocolate milk for post-workouts, protein & fruit/nut bars, and I have some cheeses in my fridge as well.  I plan on doing a whole post about protein bars in the future!  I'm trying some new ones.

So that's my grocery store trip!  It's not perfect, but I'm taking it one step at a time.  I REALLY wanted to add some not so good options to my cart today but I resisted!  NOM NOM NOM

Tonight was an 80 degree boot camp - I was dripping sweat!  It felt soooo good to grab a cold shower when I got home and enjoy the AC.  Now it's off to bed early!  I love when I actually get to sleep at home in my bed.