Its been awhile

I have every intention of keeping up with this blog and I've had alot on my mind to write about, but I haven't sat down to the computer in  awhile to actually write it out. maybe I should figure out how to write blog posts from my phone! Anyways...Here's whats happening:

1) I've made the decision to drop weight watchers

2) I've joined a biggest loser game the local running store

3) I ran 7 miles Saturday (Woop Woop)

4) I have new inspiration or should I say Fits-piration

5) VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So bombshell im dropping weight watchers! (Im sure youre shocked (*Sarcasm*))  let me preface this by saying that Weight Watchers does great things and I dont want to down WW, or discourage anyone from joining it. I know there are tons of people who are very successful on WW, but its just not for me. Maybe I am just burned out, (after approx 13 weeks), but I am frustrated with the whole style of weight watchers. I work hard to stay within my allocated "point value" for the day, but it is really unreasonable and virtually impossible to do without dipping into the extra weekly points that Weight Watchers gives people. For Example: Friday I had a Kind Healthy Grains bar for breakfast (Their not incredibly healthy but still much better than a doughnut). This bar is 5pts. Lunch was also pretty healthy. I had low sodium turkey w provolone cheese on a flat out wrap. I had one serving of baked ritz chips to go with my sandwich. Dinner was really great. I had a spinach salad off the salad bar from Ruby Tuesday with very little dressing to start. As my entree I got grilled salmon with Zucchini and Spaghetti squash as my sides. I feel like I ate really well on Friday and I went over my points! It is so frustrating to me that things like Salmon are high in points. Salmon is healthy. It is a lean meat and full of the good fats! I went over my points for the day because I ate!!  Same thing with Saturday!  I had a kind bar before my run (I cant run on an empty stomach, tried it this summer, its not pretty).  then went to brunch with my running group afterwards. I got a yogurt parfait and scrambled eggs. 2 eggs scrambled were 6 points! Why in the world are scrambled eggs six points! So all of this to say I am so over Weight Watchers! I do not feel that there is enough emphasis on healthy eating and real food. There is very little education on how to keep weight off and continue a healthy lifestyle after you stop counting points. I was also reading a blog the other day about a woman who dropped weight watchers for reasons very similar to mine. She made  a really good point that I had't thought of. The goal of weight watchers is to reach your goal weight or "lifetime weight." The point the blog I was reading made was why in the world would you want to reach lifetime weight and become a lifetime member. While its great that you reach your healthy weight goal why in the world would you want to track points the rest of your life! I am over having an assigned point value everyday. I really enjoyed the meetings that I went to. I enjoyed the accountability from my coworkers, but I really felt pressure and anxiety and nervousness stepping on the scale every week. So all of that to say ive decided to drop weight watchers. I lost weight without it and I will continue to do so. To track my food I think I will just go back to the beginning of when I first started loosing weight. I am going to go back to tracking my food in a journal with pen and paper.

Weight Watchers rant over....

Last summer the local Fleet Feet store (the local running store) started their own version of biggest loser, they called it Ton of fun. I absolutely loved it! It was a weekly weigh in, but it also included cooking classes at whole foods & group workouts at a gym. I was so successful with this and I loved it. I also picked up some pretty sweet loot for loosing weight too. I am so excited that they are doing Ton of Fun again. It is even better this time around because participants get a six week free gym membership! How cool is that! So more on this later, while this is a weekly weigh in type of thing, there is much less pressure to loose every week. Their goal is for everyone to get healthy not necessarily loose weight every week.

At the ton of fun kickoff party Saturday the guest speaker was Hannah Curlee from Season 11 of biggest loser. I have never really kept up with biggest loser, other than an episode here and there, so I had no idea who she was. She was so inspirational and so real. She looks so healthy and shes not stick thin either! Can I be her when I grow up please? There was so much interesting information in her talk. Things that blew my mind, and advice that I will use:

              1) Spend money on organic/grass fed beef & cage free eggs. I had no idea that the hormones                    in our meat are causing young girls to hit puberty 5 years earlier! (Holy Cow)

       

               2) There was a Q& A session where the audience got to ask questions. I got to ask what to                       this day does Hannah still avoid or cut out. Her answer was that she tries to stay away                          as much as possible from processed food and refined sugars and carbs (Such as white                          bread and white rice).

              3) The best thing: Jillian Miachels has days where she feels fat! 

Hannah and her sister (who won that season of biggest loser) have a website, a blog, and a youtube channel. They are super cool! 

Last thing to wrap up this long ( as usual) blog post. Saturday I kicked butt! It wasn't easy but I ran the hills of Percy Warner Park. I didn't kick butt as much as I would've liked. I had a goal of not walking any of the hills, but that just wasn't possible. If you dont know what Percy Warner Park is its this park here in Nashville with these running trails of nothing but curvy winding hills. Some of these hills are literally a mile long! I knocked out 7 miles on these nasty hills! That is a HUGE non scale victory! Can't believe its already February! Country Music 1/2 marathon (The race im training for) is at the end of April & were about to hit mid February! Woah!! 

Last but certainly not least! VACATION!!! WOOOOO Cruise time is officially here! Hello Sun and Fun and days away from the office!  If for some reason you're reading this and you dont know me, I am a huge fan of the band Train. I have no idea how or why it started..but I love them so much that I am going on their cruise! I cannot wait to recreate some pictures on the boat for some pretty sweet before and after pics #weightlossgirlproblems . Last year I did really well and didnt really go off the rails in regards to eating. My plan is to do the same this year. I weigh in monthly at the gym, this month I didnt loose as much weight as I would have liked to. So while im still not going to deprive myself of anything (I mean hello im on vacation), I am still going to keep in mind that I have worked super hard to get where I am and I dont want to come back from the cruise weighing 10 pounds heavier.

Thanks for reading!

Will Workout for Cute Workout Clothes & NSV's

This is kind of a non-weightloss related post...sort of...

The hashtag that defines my hair is #whitegirlproblems (no offense to anyone). My hair is stick straight and baby fine. It is a struggle to find headbands that stay on my head during my workouts because my hair is so fine and straight.

I am an etsy addict. I have bought literally 7 headbands from etsy to workout in. I have lost 6 of the 7. Why? Different reasons but mostly because they fall out of my hair and I stash them somewhere and forget where I put them... 

Enter new adorable workout headband. Do you hear that sound? Its me cheering why? Because I bought a headband that actually doesn't fall off when I workout! It actually lives up to its non-slip promises. I did burpees at the gym tonight & my headband actually stayed on! I was so excited! 

My headband is also super cute! I bought the anchor one because there is less than a month until my cruise! Last year I just randomly had a headband in my makeup bag and due to the wind on the boat it ended up being the thing I was most glad I packed! This headband will be doing double duty! Keeping my flyaways out of my face on the windy shipdeck & keeping my hair out of my face during my workouts. 

Here is the website where I got my headband, I gotta give credit where credit is due:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FleurtyBands

Here is a pic of me rocking the headband:

This is my Burpess Suck!! Face!

Today is Monday. A great day to set goals for the week and recap NSV's (Non Scale Victories), from last week.

Goals:

1) Minimize eating out this week. Cook at home..since I spent a ton of $$ at the grocery store this week.

2) Run 5k distance on your own. I'm skipping my Saturday Country Music 1/2 training this weekend b/c ill be traveling. My goal is to have the discipline to run the distance on my own Friday before I leave.

3) Stick to the meals I planned this week

4) Loose weight this week. Really hoping for a loss at weigh in this week so I can say I lost two weeks in a row!

NSV's this week:

1) I meal planned! I sat down & came up with a week's worth of healthy meals for Breakfast, lunch & dinner this week. I made Breakfast burritos, Bought spinach flat-out wraps to spice up my boring turkey lunch sandwich, and came up with some exciting healthy dinner ideas for this week! 

2) I ran 6 miles!! I RAN 6 MILES!!! The best part about CMM 1/2 training is that each week (with the exception of the drop weeks), Im running the farthest I've ever ran! I look back to the beginning of the summer when Running for a whole minute felt like an eternity! Progress is real! 6 miles is almost 1/2 of a 1/2 marathon!

Its going to be a great week!

My ode to Spaghetti Squash

To the tune of all about that base:

Because you know i'm all about that squash no pasta, i'm all about that squash about that squash no pasta. I'm bringing veggies baaacccckkkk, them other carbs just don't know to act.

I've been seeing the recipe for spaghetti squash on Pinterest for weeks. I finally decided to try it. I dont follow any clean eating plans or Paleo, but i'm always looking for easy healthy recipes. Most of the time the stuff I see on Pinterest never actually gets made. This time something healthy from Pinterest actually got made & it wasn't a Pinterest fail! I am so proud of myself.

To make this recipe I googled microwave spaghetti squash and found the nom-nom paleo recipe. I put my own spin on their recipe, I cut my squash in half (Thats the hard part!), sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray sprinkled it with a little garlic salt & Parmesan cheese. I put in the microwave for 3 rounds of 5 minutes. While the squash was being micrwaved I put a little olive oil & garlic in the skilled, let it get hot then added some chopped zuchinni, spinach, and mushrooms. I debated added ground turkey to make it even more spagehtti like...but my ground turkey wasn't defrosted and "ain't nobody got time" to wait for ground turkey to defrost. After the squash was done in the microwave I shredded it with a fork & added it to my veggie mixture in the skilled.


The squash soaks up the sauce so well I really just used a little bit of sauce off the top of the can. I forgot to measure out the sauce to one serving size (1/2 cup) to calculate the WW points for the sauce.

Here's a pic of my spaghetti sauce. I added a little bit of shredded mozzarella & wham bam thank you ma'am you're eating veggies instead of pasta & its ah-may-zing! (It really doesn't look appetizing..but trust me on this one, its really great!)

Here's my source for the Recipe. (I did two years of graduate school...its now a permanent habit to site my sources..) http://nomnompaleo.com/post/7080566496/microwaved-spaghetti-squash

Don't Be Fooled & You don't have to try so hard

This post is inspired by all of the spam Instagram follower requests I get from people selling wraps and pills etc. No offense to anyone selling these products, but im not buying & im not interested. I work my butt off in the gym & try my hardest to have a healthy lifestyle! There is no quick fix to loose weight & im not going to spend money on quick fixes. The problem with these quick fixes is that you dont learn anything. A wrap or a shake or diet pills dont teach you the discipline nessecary to have a healthy lifestyle change. This article I found on a website describes it perfectly..End Rant!

http://www.fitbodybootcamp.com/fbbcblog/dont-fooled/


Im sitting here eating banana protein pancakes & hot chocolate! Healthy food can be good! I posted my recipe for my agave hot chocolate on my previous post. For my pancakes I bought this mix on amazon (im an amazon prime addict, there might need to be an intervention). The mix is called Flapjacked protein pancake mix. I got the Banana Hazelnut flavor and its 5 WW points for 1/2  cup. I mixed it with water and added 1 serving of chocolate chips (30 chips..yes I counted).

This week is a stretch week..meaning im stretching every penny I have until payday. So that means no eating out until payday. I have a bad habit of eating out for breakfast. So to keep myself from eating out for breakfast this week I made pumpkin overnight crockpot steel cut oats. I had steel cut oats in the pantry & some leftover frozen pumpkin in the fridge. I used this recipe & it makes a ton of oatmeal. I put the oatmeal in mason jars & then grab one every morning to take to work & heat up in the microwave! These are so easy! I put everything in the crockpot the night before & their done in the morning. Easy Peasey!

http://skinnyms.com/overnight-slow-cooker-pumpkin-pie-steel-cut-oats-no-sugar-added/


Two posts in one weekend! This has to be a record for me so far! Also posting my new favorite song below. Love this song "You dont have to try so hard"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoZLPSw8U8

Non- Scale Victories, Getting Back on the Wagon, Running, & Hot Chocolate

I weigh in weekly at Weight Watchers. This week I gained. I usually have a pattern loosing several pounds in a week then gaining a few of them back the next week. I think it has to do with rewarding myself for loosing. Unfortunately I tend to reward myself with food, so its a vicious cycle. My goal for the next two weeks is to loose consecutively 2 weeks in a row.

Theres a pattern and a term in all of these weight loss blogs and instagram accounts I follow. Its called a Non-Scale victory. A non scale victory is exactly what it sounds like. Its a victory that has nothing to do with pounds or points or what you weigh. My Non Scale Victory or NSV this week is runnning. Actually my NSV this week is actually getting up to run. It was 12 degrees this morning when I woke up. So I put on all my layers and headed to run with my group. It's only week two but I am LOVING my running group. I dont really know anyone in the group & I havent really talked to anyone (yet, its only week two). But I am loving the sense of community so much. Someone commented on my FB page that I was insane for running when it was this cold & that I could just run in the gym. I could run in the gym but I HATE the treadmill with a passion. I have treadmill ADD. Today I ran (outside) for 55 minutes or 4.87 Miles. There's no way I could run the treadmill for 55 minutes Id get entirely too bored. So yes, Im insane, and yes it was cold...but I loved every minute of it...& you warm up when you start to run. I heard a saying that turned into a funny joke today while running. What do you listen too while running in the cold? Coldplay hahahahha..(ok I thought it was funny). My NSV for today was running the longest ive ever ran. I think ive done 4 miles on the greenway before, but I dont think ive ever gone past 4! Today I ran 4.87 miles!! for 55 whole minutes!! I didnt die and I made it through the whole run!

My usual Saturday morning breakfast after a run is an egg white omlet. This is what I put in my omeltte:

Egg Whites -->Measured out to 1/4 cup

Spinach-->Several Handfulls

Mushrooms-->From the produce section, not the canned kind

Shredded Cheese-->1/4 cup--> I measure this out too bc if not I will go cheese crazy...

I also add whatever else I have in the fridge. For example this week I added some cubed ham I had leftover. 

I usually have a Kind bar on my way to my Saturday Morning run (Im addicted to the Kind healthy grains peanut butter bars).

This weekend I also added hot chocolate to my Saturday breakfast routine. I know what youre thinking, Hot Chocolate! Thats not healthy! But wait!! Dont give up hope! Im not doing any specific diet (other than WW), but I do like the Paleo diet, Whole30, and clean eating.  A few years ago I walked the Country Music Half Marathon (The current race im training to run). After every training run I would drink chocolate milk (Just regular chocolate milk). I really like Chocolate milk & it has some good benefits after a workout, but most brands have yucky nasty High Fructose Corn Syrup in them. So I wanted to add chocolate milk back into my routine, but dont want to deviate from eating healthy & I have a feeling that regular chocolate milk would not aid in my weightloss journey. So all of this to say, I made this really amazing hot chocloate today. I googled clean eating hot chocolate & paleo hot chocolate, but unfortunately a lot of them called for complicated ingredients I didnt have (like raw coconut sugar..ya that's not exactly lying around in the pantry). Have no fear, I found a recipe that doesnt call for strange ingredients & I also happened to have a bottle of Agave (sugar replacement) thats hardly even been touched. I was so excited to find a decent fairly healthy hot chocolate recipe. I also bought chocolate soy milk this week at the store with the intention of drinking a glass after my run today. So after my google search I found this recipe on another blog: 

http://stephcupoftea.blogspot.com/2008/10/hot-chocolate-with-agave-nectar.html

The only modifications I made to this recipe is that I used the chocolate soy milk I already had in the fridge. It was really good! I loved the cinnamon in it! 

Its been a tough week as far as eating and staying on track. I learned I really have to work at being strong & staying on track, Bingeing on the leftrover Christmas chocolate at work isnt doing me any good. I had every intention of staying on track Friday night at Chilli's by ordering off of their lighter menu...but my intentions were squashed when I decided to eat an order of chips and queso This week im going to try harder to stay on track! Every time I want to eat that chocolate at work im going to remember how much it stinks to stand on the scale at my weekly WW weigh in and see the number go up! Out of sight out of mind really is the truth. If I keep the cookies and candy out of sight then I will have less of a chance to binge on them!

To wrap up this (really long) blog post my goal for this week is to get back on track! Sub goals:

 1) Get back on track with my workouts. 

--> I fell off the workout wagon this week because it was cold & I got lazy! None of that this week! 

2) Stay away from the junk at work! This is just self control

 --> I dont have to eat every cookie, candy, and junk food that comes my way at work! I have to be strong and stay away from it this week!

THIS WEEK I WILL NOT GO OFF THE RAILS! I WILL STAY ON TRACK! <-- my mantra for the week

Long term goal:

There are about 30 days until my big cruise! (Woot woot!) & Im planning on giving myself a little vacation from "being good"  on the cruise, So that means that for the next 30 days I need to stay on track!

Thanks for reading this incredibly long post! Cya next time!

The Mug I put my hot chocolate in! Mad props to my BFF http://heyheythirdgradeblogspot.com/ for getting this for me!

Introduction to shrinking Sheila

So....I started following all of these really cool people on instagram that have all kinds of neat-o weightloss blogs. I tried this whole blogging thing once before and I never kept up with it...However, ive decided to start a new blog and make one of my goals for 2015 to keep up with blogging. I also got a new computer for Christmas, so blogging is now super easy on my laptop that weighs all of two pounds.  My main reason for starting this blog is for accountability. I am currently struggling to get back on track after a week of eating Christmas cookies like their going out of style. I'm also inspired by my BFF at the blog http://heyheythirdgrade.blogspot.com/ (shes also probably correcting my grammar as she reads this). The purpose of this particular post is to outline my goals for 2015. If you don't know me then here's my story. February of last year I got tired of paying for a Y membership that I never used. I literally woke up one day an decided to start exercising. I realized that I really had no idea how to workout. I bought a few sessions with a Personal Trainer and I've been hooked on working out ever since. Back in February I had no idea that I was 20 pounds away from being 300 pounds. I didn't feel like I was that heavy nor did I feel like I looked that big. Through a weekly workout routine and keeping a food journal to watch what I eat I am down about 60 pounds. I haven put myself on a strict diet, I don't eat fast food or fried food and I try to eat pretty healthy. When I started a new job I started weight watchers through work. I have to say I have mixed feelings about weight watchers. I love the meetings and the people and the accountability. I also love the tips and tricks that I gain from the WW meetings. The leader is great too! However, I feel that WW doesn't teach anybody anything. How is someone supposed to learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Are they supposed to count points for the rest of their life? Anyways...I digress. Weight Watchers is the only formal diet program I have participated in. I count points and attend meetings. I have lost about 20 pounds since October on Weight Watchers. That's my story so far. I've decided this year that resolutions are stupid and nobody ever keeps resolutions, so I am going to make goals this year. Here are my Goals for 2015:

1)  Reach my Goal Weight --> The recommended weight for my height (5'5) is 114-144 I would like to be about 140.  I have around 50 more pounds to go, give or take a few.

2) I want to RUN!! (not walk) the Country Music 1/2 Marathon at the end of April! Running 13.1 miles ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!! 

-->Side note: I signed up for a 1/2 marathon training program...My first run is 5 miles Saturday Jan. 3rd. I have only ran past 3.5 miles Once..so we'll see f I can make 5 miles.

3) Possibly running the VA Beach 1/2 Marathon. (Depending on if the band Train is the headliner for the after race concert, depends on if I run this one)

So two 1/2 marathons and a goal weight. 2015 its going to be a good year!


*****PS I've lost my weight through kicking butt  & working hard! There is no easy way out! So don't fall for the gimmicks of the it works wraps stuff or the diet plans that want you to choke down 3 protein shakes a day...hard work & lifestyle changes are the only real true way I've found to loose weight & keep it off!***

*****Update*****
Here is my before & after: This before picture is from this summer, Ive been loosing weight since feb. of last year so the before picture is about halfway through. & the after picture is a few weeks ago.