Happy St. Patrick's Day and More!

Well, it has been a while once again but here I am! I have been pretty busy this month! :) I hope to add a few pics if I can figure out how to do it! LOL

Food:
I lasted about a month on the Paleo diet and have kind of "fallen off the wagon." I would like to get back into better eating habits again. I unfortunately have not been doing the planning that I was doing prior regarding my diet. I am looking forward to planting a garden soon with John so that we can have our own fresh veggies. Yum!! I also had a yummy and nice healthy meal when I was in Virginia with Belynda. We had some tasty salmon and delicious veggies and pasta. Thanks Belynda! Also, lots of fruit and peanut butter for my drive home.

Finances:
Again, I have not really been as vigilant in this area as I was at the beginning of the year. I took a trip to the D.C. area and spent some money on running gear and travel. I have also been stopping for coffee and lunch some days and I have not been keeping track of what I am spending overall. On the positive side, I haven't been making trips to places like Target and Wal-Mart and buying unnecessary odds and ends.  I did bring my Pampered Chef products and attempt to do a cooking show at Leah's house to make some extra money to help fund my trip. LOL. I will work harder on this area in the upcoming months.

Fitness: 
This is the one area where I can say that I have been doing fairly well. On St. Patrick's Day, I ran a half-marathon in Washington D.C.  I have also been running at least once during the week and once on the weekend. John and I have been meeting once a week at the Watervliet Bike Trail after work these past few weeks and I have been running about 4 miles each time. I just purchased a GPS watch with a heart rate monitor so I've been tracking my runs. I have also become one of those people that you see at the end of a race looking down at my watch in the finish-line race photos that I always used to make fun of.  Hee hee. I also ran a 2-mile and a 5-mile run with John today in Bristol, CT. It was the Shamrock 2-Mile and 5-Mile run. I was able to run the 2 Mile run with an average 10:17 min mile, which is an improvement for me. :)  The 5-Mile run was a struggle for me because I had less energy at times but the best part of the 5-Mile was that John ran the whole thing with me. :) And my official recorded time was 1-second faster than him! There are pictures online to prove it! LOL Check out Bristolct.net. Once I figure out what number our pictures are, I'll comment on my post. :) I will once again try to be better about posting! For now, I'm going to call it a night! I'll try to be more entertaining in my next post. I'm just a little tired today.

Hello Again! :)

Once again, it's been a while since I have posted an entry in my blog. Thanks to John for encouraging and reminding me to blog. :) So glad to have a network of supporters! Thanks to all of you for keeping up with me and providing encouragement and reminders. :)  I'll try to give just a brief synopsis in each of the categories. I will admit that I have somewhat "fallen off the wagon" with my habits but plan to get back on. LOL. Here goes...

Food:
This past week was February break and I started by going out to dinner and having some wine. Then it was all downhill from there! LOL. The good news is that so far, I have maintained my 10 pound weight loss. I continue to use coconut milk or almond milk instead of dairy. I have enjoyed my week of eating "regular" food, but I'm planning on going back to my better eating habits, but perhaps a bit less strict. I will limit my sweets and my bread intake and try to make better overall choices. I will keep you posted on how I do.

Finances:
This is another area that I have not been keeping track of very well. I haven't gone crazy, but have just not been as careful as I had tried to be at the beginning of the year. My biggest downfall is books I think. LOL. I went to Boston with my friend Sue to visit our friend Jen and we went to this great used book store and I just couldn't resist getting a pile of books. LOL. Then I went to TJ Maxx today and found these particular "Look and Find" toddler books that I have been looking for so I bought three of them and I also bought a pair of running pants. I have been trying to work on refinancing some of my larger bills in order to make my overall financial situation better.

Fitness:
As always, I save the best category for last. Even though I haven't been doing great about attending my boot camp or exercising during the week, I have been running on the weekends with John.  Last weekend I ran 5.5 miles as part of a marathon relay team with John and Jessica. We called ourselves "Team Butt Freeze!"  LOL.  This weekend I did a half-marathon in Colchester, CT and it was very windy with lots of uphills!  I completed it in less than 3 hours, which wasn't my best half-marathon time, but it was better than several of my half-marathons.  I also attended a yoga class when I was visiting Jen. Starting on March 8th, I will be taking a Zumba class with my sister-in-law. I am looking for a Pilates or Yoga class to take in order to work on my stretching because I keep pulling my calf muscle. Ugh! If anyone knows of any classes that are cheap, please let me know! :)

I'm Still Here. :)

Hi there! If anyone has checked in on my blog lately, you've probably noticed that I haven't written in a while. Oops! I will try to do better. This will be a short one (I think! LOL) but I wanted to at least add an update.

Finances:
I haven't been spending willy nilly, but I haven't really been keeping track very well either. I could definitely do better with my money if I would plan my lunches better. Even though the weather has been warmer than usual, I think I lose some of my motivation in the winter to do the things I need to do. Yikes! For example, if I were to take the time to make my lunch the night before, I would not need to stop for lunch to buy a salad because I would already have it made. I take the time to go to the grocery store, so I should take the time to make my lunch. Sounds simple, right? Now I just need to DO IT! I will keep you posted on that! :)

Fitness:
Here is another area where I have been lacking. :( Can I just say that I HATE to get up in the morning. Ugh! Sometimes I feel like I could sleep all day! It is hard enough to get up and get ready for work, but to get up and exercise - YUCK! That being said, I know I just need to DO IT! I went to boot camp once last week and am planning on going tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! I did do a 4.34 mile run on Sunday for the HMRRC Winter Series and John and I are doing a Sweetheart run on Saturday. Thankfully we do at least one run a week so I do get in some exercise along the way.  I just need to become more consistent. If any of you are reading this, feel free to harass me to exercise! LOL

Food:
I did save the best part for last, because for the most part this has been an area of success. I began the Paleo Diet on January 17th and have been doing well. I have lost about 10 pounds so far and its been about 3 weeks. I will admit that I have cheated on some things, such as cream and sugar in my coffee and I have had two pieces of cheese over the three-week period. I have even had hot cocoa a few times. I will say that I try not to make these "cheats" a habit. I am happy to say that I haven't had any bread or bread type foods at all. I almost always have salad for lunch with some kind of meat on top and usually meat or fish for dinner with veggies and sometimes sweet potato fries. I coat them in melted coconut butter and sprinkle some salt and pepper on the top, put them in the oven for about 20 minutes and yummy! Ask my niece Jamie (she LOVED them when I made them last night! :)).  I also have not had dessert other than the dark chocolate that is allowed on this diet. Here are my two little dessert cheats. I had literally 1 bite of John's cheesecake and I ate the leftover strawberries with sugar and whipped cream that my niece left last night. I resisted until the end when it was left on the table. I even gave Taylor the whipped cream spoon to lick so I wouldn't be tempted to do it myself. LOL.  That's all for now! I will try to do better about posting. It's not always very exciting, but I'm trying to make progress! :)

A Recap of the Week

I would like to begin by thanking my friends for reading and keeping on top of me! Thanks Christine for noticing that I haven't written in a few days and for sending me an e-mail to check in. That's why I have invited you all to read my blog. :) I am very lucky to have such supportive friends. I will say that being motivated in the winter to exercise has been extremely difficult, but once again I have a brand new week to begin once again! Yay! I am going to start today talking about my successes in the category of Food. Here goes!

Food:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I began the Paleo 45-day challenge on Tuesday. My goal is to follow it strictly in order to measure my progress accurately at the end. March 1st is the last day of this challenge. I didn't weigh myself until Friday morning and I had John take my measurements on Saturday, but its close enough to determine results. I am embarrassed by the number on the scale, but I am going to post it here now so we can all see my progress in the end. Here is is: I weigh 205 lbs. Yikes! The good news is that although I am supposed to wait until the end to weigh myself again, I couldn't resist checking the scale one more time and it had gone down to 202 in just a few days. Part of this was because I was bloated when I first weighed myself, but I'll take it any way I can. Ha ha!

Before I tell you about my progress this week on my diet, I would like to talk a little about my goals with this Paleo Challenge. This diet is pretty restrictive and does not allow sugar, dairy, grains, or legumes including soy. That leaves out a lot of the things I like to eat but it also allows for lots of meat and veggies, which I love. So, my goal with this diet is to try to curb my cravings for sweets and bread type carbs and to develop healthier eating habits. I came across this diet through the boot camp that I belong to and they say that it can be a lifestyle change, but I'm not sure that I would be able to maintain it completely because I do love my sweets. But, I am hoping to modify this and have limited sweets rather than eating tons of junk like I sometimes do! (Which is probably why I gained around 20 lbs.) Yikes!

So, now for the synopsis of my diet for the week. I am happy to say that other than my unintentional cheat of peanut butter on a banana in the beginning of the week, I have not cheated on my diet! Woot woot! I have been drinking coffee with coconut milk, which is non-dairy and no sugar. This has been a challenge for me, but I am getting used to it. I have also begun to really enjoy the taste of coconut milk on its own, which was surprising to me because I never really liked coconut.  Today I even had half a cup of coffee black because I was so cold after running outside and then standing out in the cold weather for two hours as a volunteer. It wasn't my favorite, but it warmed me up!  I made a salad every day from Tuesday to Friday and made my own salad dressing with olive oil, vinegar, and spices. I generally use walnuts, craisins and when available leftover cooked meat such as chicken or steak on my salad. I have been eating lots of veggies and since I am not allowed to eat regular potatoes, I have been making sweet-potato fries (coated in coconut oil with salt, pepper, and seasonings), which I surprisingly love as well! :) This is surprising to me because I have never before liked sweet potatoes. Oh, and I am able to use almond butter on my bananas and it is yummy! All these things that I never would have tried! I think I need to stop talking about food because I am getting hungry! LOL

Fitness:
Other than today, this area has been a difficult one for me. The winter weather has made me so unmotivated. I need to get over this and get my butt out the door to run and to go to boot camp! I missed every day this past week and it starts again tomorrow. I will be there! Today I ran 3 miles on the SUNY Albany campus for Winter Series #4. Then I went out and volunteered flagging runners in for the 15K and 30K races and was out in the cold for 2 hours! The good news is that my time improved from Winter Series #1 3 Mile Run. That means something is working! :) I will keep you posted tomorrow regarding my fitness regime and hope to have good news!

Finance:
My finances have been OK, but since it's winter the heating bills are higher of course. I am working on getting my mom to pitch in, since she lives here too but as you know I can ask her one moment and she will forget the next. This is why I mentioned it to my brother as well, hoping he can help me with this point. Overall, I still have not spent any outside money, but the bills still come in every month as you all know too well! I have some things I need to do to decrease some of my larger bills and need to work on that soon. I will keep you posted if I figure anything out! LOL

Blah!

**NOTE** I wrote this post earlier in the week and never published it because I fell asleep writing it! LOL! This was written on Thursday. :) Sorry, I didn't elaborate at the end. Oops!

I find that during these cold windy winter days, my motivation is completely lacking! I talk to my friend Leah every morning before work and this week she started her fitness and healthy eating program. She has the motivation that I need right now. I know I will get there, but right now I am just Blah about exercise. The thought of going outside in the cold when I don't have to is just not appealing to me. Anyway, way to go Leah. Keep up the good work. Now to just give myself a kick in the butt. Hopefully boot camp tomorrow will give me some momentum.

Fitness:
If you read above, you can see that this is an area where I am lacking these days. I usually manage to get a few days of exercise in, which I guess is better than nothing, but I want to do better than that! I will say that my one positive thing is that I will continue to try and I will continue to move forward despite my backsliding. I just want to be better about my running schedule so that I can perform better for my half-marathon in March. Thankfully, on the weekends John kicks my butt and makes me run (except this past weekend). Missing workouts can be a slippery slope. My excuse for missing boot camp this morning was that I was trying to finish up some work for my job. While work is technically a "good excuse" I really must hold myself accountable and say that I should have gotten my work done sooner so that I wasn't scrambling at the last minute. Winter is such a hard time to stay motivated!

Finances:
Not really too much to report in this area today. I did not spend money on anything today. I did pack my lunch and my gas tank was filled yesterday.

Food:
I did pack my lunch, but of course I didn't do it until this morning so I was scrambling as usual to pack it up. But, I packed it! That's the important thing right? I made a salad with mushrooms, walnuts, tomatoes, and of course lettuce. Later on, at lunch time, I found a bag of dried cranberries to use for some sweetness. I didn't plan very well again and simply had a banana with a little bit of peanut butter. At lunch time I had some almond butter. I felt very hungry at times today but managed not to cheat! :)

A Brand New Week!

I would like to begin by thanking all of my friends that are reading my blog and for your words of encouragement. I appreciate all of you! :)  Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but it's the beginning of my week because yesterday was a holiday. I gave myself an extra day to eat lots of crap before I begin my Paleo 45-day challenge! I will talk more about this in the Food section of the blog. As you know from reading that this past week was kind of a bust in all categories, but I am back and ready to go!

Fitness:
I'll start here today, since it will probably be the quickest section. LOL. No exercise today because I have boot-camp at 5:30 a.m., which I MUST attend tomorrow. I am paying for it so I NEED to go! This does of course put me a little behind on my running schedule, which I will post below (I haven't actually looked at it yet. hee hee).

Stretch & strengthen

3.5 m run

35 min tempo

3 m run + strength

Rest

3 m run

7 m run

The week starts on Monday, so as you see I have missed two days already, but I can substitute my "rest" day on Friday, so I will really only be missing 1 day. Wouldn't it be great if I could actually have a week where I did ALL of my runs? I'm aiming for that! I have to be ready for March 17th when Belynda and I run the Rock-n-Roll half in D.C. I wanna be READY!

Finally, in this fitness section, I would like to give a shout out to Leah who began her healthy eating habits and exercise! She has made it to the gym twice this week, which is far better than me. :) GO LEAH!!

Finances:
I went to the supermarket on Sunday with John and he bought the first round of my groceries, which consisted of veggies, walnuts, and an onion. I think that's it. Anyway, I didn't spend any money there. Yay! I finished up and did the majority of my shopping at Shop-Rite yesterday. Since this is the first week of this specific Paleo diet, I allowed myself to go over my $50 allotment and spent about $75.  Luckily, some of the things that I bought will not have to be purchased every week, including the coconut oil, which was $9 for a small jar. I also purchased some mustard powder and some other things that I cannot recall at the moment. The point is that some of these items were a bit pricey and contributed to the higher grocery bill.  I also bought gas for my car, which is a necessity. I should hopefully be getting my mileage reimbursement from work on Thursday, which I will keep in a separate area and allocate those as the only funds to use for gas. Since it is from November AND December, it should start me off nicely and I shouldn't have to dip into my weekly budget for gas anymore. Yay! It will at least make me feel like I am getting ahead. :)

Food:
This was day 1 of the Paleo 45-day challenge. Can I do it? Yes I can! (Although I am a little hungry right now. Yikes!) Today I had a banana for breakfast with peanut butter. (After I had the peanut butter, I realized that may not have been accepted because of the soy protein. Oops! I will get back to you on that). I was going to have almond butter, which I purchased last night, but it was very oily and I was having trouble stirring it and I was running very late! (I know that's a shocker for me, huh?) Anyway, with my banana, I actually had coffee with Coconut Milk creamer and I am happy to say that it wasn't bad. I didn't have any sugar or dairy, because this particular diet does not allow most dairy and no sugar or sugar substitutes. I thought of Stacia today who always drinks her coffee black. I didn't think I could do it and still not sure if I could do it black, but this is a start. OK, enough rambling. LOL. For lunch I had a salad with a lettuce mix, tomatoes, mushrooms, and walnuts and my own homemade oil and vinegar dressing with lemon and some spices.  I had another banana for a snack because I was admittedly very hungry. Dinner was tilapia with pampered chef garlic and peppercorn rub cooked in coconut oil and a side of mixed veggies. It was very tasty.

My challenge now is to prepare all of my food for tomorrow and give myself enough time to make breakfast in the morning. I can have eggs for breakfast, but need to leave myself time. I also need to prepare my lunch tonight so that I am not rushing around in the morning. This means that I need to get my butt off the computer soon to do all of the preparations. This is not easy for me. :) I will tell you tomorrow how it went. Have a nice day! :)

My Downhill Descent! (1/12/12-1/14/12)

I made it back to work on Thursday after two days at home with no car. Let's just say that I stopped being so disciplined and I can see how it can be a battle to stay on task. It's definitely a struggle at times. It takes work to get out of the habit of being lazy! LOL! But the good news for me is that I look at every Monday as a new beginning! I'm looking at each new week as a chance to start over again and get it right. So here's to Monday! Bring it on!

Food:
Rather than talk about my very POOR food choices of this past week, I will talk a little about my plans for next week and for getting kind of a head start. I am starting the PALEO 45-day challenge. This is a diet plan through the boot-camp that I attend (sporadically at this point). Anyway, this will be difficult for me because it doesn't allow you to have dairy or sugar (or sugar substitutes). There are other specifics as well that I can't remember at this point, but I will post about it and let you know how it's going. I really want to try to do this religiously because it is supposed to be good for you and help you feel better and perform exercise routines more effectively, etc. I think that's why I have been indulging more this week. I'm trying to "cram" in all the stuff that's bad for me. All that food definitely tastes good, but I also notice a difference in the way I feel when I'm eating better to when I'm eating "junk."

Fitness:
My goal for next week is to follow my running schedule AND my boot camp schedule. I know that 5:30 a.m. is early, but it will be worth it in the end. I want to be BUFF! LOL

Finance:
I have not been as careful this week with finances as I was last week, but I am much more careful than I have been in the past. I did buy a 6-inch sub and a pick-two at Panera on Thursday, but I started the week with $40 cash and ended with about $7 at the end of the week from "non-essentials" My spending habits overall are improving. Now I just need to find a better deal for internet service. I am paying $65 after taxes right now through Time-Warner. If anyone else knows of other deals, let me know. I see that Verizon is $49.99, but that's before any taxes, so I'm not sure how much of a savings that will be. I thought about getting T.V. with internet for my mom and having her contribute for that, since I don't really watch T.V. It would give her something to do in the winter. Just thinking. I haven't made any changes yet. Just looking for ways to cut costs and keep up with my goals. :)