21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 21

Woo Hoo!  Round 2 is Done. This round I'm down 2 inches and 10 pounds. Which puts me at a total 21 day fix loss of 20 pounds and 8 inches I think.  (Also total weight lost from my heaviest-non pregnant weight is 37 pounds!) I feel so much stronger and healthier.  Apparently I've been living dehydrated.  I've never been a sweat-er before. Even when I was doing marching band and drum line in high school. But this past week especially I've been just dripping when I'm done working out. 

Today I went to the gym again.  I'm going to use it while I've got it.  I did a STRIKE class again.  Its really fun.  I tried using the weighted gloves today, and that was a bad idea. Had to take them off as soon as we started using the bar. It was just too much too soon.  I've got to start working on my cardio more. I got accepted for an audition at a theater that I never thought I'd have a shot at, but they're rehearsal schedule is CRAZY, so I've GOT to get my cardio working better, just in case. I doubt I'll get it, but you never know



I just realized I never changed the settings on the camera back after taking my head shots yesterday, so today's pictures are kind of blurry.

Breakfast was berry oatmeal

1 Yellow, 1 Purple

Lunch was an awesome chicken wrap, with Hummus, basil, spinnach and tomato with Kale Chips on the side.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue

1 Green, 1 Spoon

 Tonight was nacho night, but I don't get chips so I did a Taco salad-y thing.  with greens, sauteed onions and peppers, lean beef, tomatoes and cheesy chips  (literally just cheese baked into a chip they're AWESOME.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue

1 Blue container makes 5 Cheesey chips

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable durring this journey. I know its not always fascinating, but accountability is part of the process. Over the next few days I plan on putting together some compilations of my favorite recipes. As well as a more detailed list of how I did the 21 Day Faux without having all the information.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 20

I was a bad girl today, food wise at least.  We went back to the fair today (we had free tickets) so I got a lot more walking in, but I also ate some junk food. I also did the Full Body Cardio Fix workout video tonight.


Breakfast was half a banana with coffee, I made fruit oatmeal with some leftover fruit salad, and it was weird.  I don't know if the salad had some weird fruit in it before i got it as leftovers, but it tasted seedy.  Like big chunks of grit. So I had to toss it out and have a banana.


Lunch was good, my Aunt brought me some leftover chicken she wasn't going to eat (she doesn't eat dark meat) so I made a lovely wrap with some hummus, 1 Green container of spinnach and tomatoes, 1 Red of diced chicken and mustard.

1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 1 Green, 1 Red

Dinner was supposed to be soup, but the rice sucked up 4 times the moisture they were supposed to, so it wound up as an immeasurable casserole. Its rice, chicken stock and split peas which wound up entirely unmeasureable on plan because the 1 cup of rice sucked up 4 cups of broth... it should have only used half of that. oh well. I threw cheese on because I knew we were going to the fair and i needed to keep my energy up.

At the Fair I had 3 fried oreos and about 5 spoon fulls of Ice cream.  I've done worse, but its still not great.

Tomorrow morning at the gym where i have my trial membership is another one of my favorite classes so far, so I think I'm going to drag my kids there in the morning

Thanks for reading!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 19

Well I reached one goal today, sort of.  I swam my goal distance today, not all in one go, but 500 meters.  Now I just gotta stop stopping between laps and lengths. I didn't do a fitness class or tape.  I had an opportunity come up where I needed a head-shot really quick, so I used my pre choir time to shoot some head-shots with Hubby. So it was either stay out in the garage to work out after I got home, cause its bedtime for the kids, or go to the gym after choir. So i went to the gym and walked for 5 mins on the treadmill, but i forgot my headphones at home, so that was really really dull. so i went and swam laps for almost half an hour.  I kept it varied enough so it worked multiple muscle groups.

Anyways onto food.

Breakfast was coffee and berry oatmeal.  when I cooked the oatmeal I put half of the fruit in it while it was cooking which gave the oats good flavor and then put the rest of the fruit on top, was quite delish.

1 Yellow, 1 Purple

 Lunch was a salad with turkey dressed with lemon juice.

1.5 Green and 1 Red

 Dinner was roasted chicken thighs and carrots.  I browned the top of the chicken in a skillet while i cut the carrots into circles.  Then i layed the carrots in the pan around the chicken after turning, and put the whole pan in the oven for about 20 mins.  They tasted sweet and awesome.

After my work out I had a bowl of cottage cheese. I didn't take a picture, You've seen my cottage cheese before, I put lots of pepper on it, otherwise its just a bowl of cottage cheese.

Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 18

 I'm starting to get sore from all this exercising, but I TOUGHED it out. I went and did LifeBarre... which I won't do again. I mean it was fine, and my shoulders are super sore tonight, but it wasn't as fun as yesterdays.  I'm not sure if i'll be able to go tomorrow. I've got choir tomorrow night and there weren't many classes during the day, but I'll check the schedule again.


I did really well with my food today.  Breakfast was half a banana and coffee as usual.

I worked out in the morning, so lunch was my recovery meal.  It was a Tuna Salad.  1 Green container of spinach, tomatoes, and carrots.  Topped with the leftover tuna steak from last week.  Dressing was a little sesame oil, mustard and lemon juice with a small sprinkle of stevia.

1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Orange

 I was hungry after lunch for something a little savory, so I had some sunflower seeds

1 Orange

Dinner was a Kick But quesadilla.  I used a whole wheat tortilla, One blue container of Cheese and 1 Red container of Chicken breast seasoned with home made taco seasoning. with Cilantro too. Toasted on my griddle.

I also had a chocolate Shakeology with the rest of my banana in it, I forgot to take a picture.

Thank you for Reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 17

 I now understand how people can become addicted to exercise. I'm having so much fun and getting healthier.  I went to the gym with a free trial again and did Strike! It was awesome.  Battle based. It was punching and kicking and using a weighted quarter staff (well actually a little shorter, but thats the feel). I swam a couple laps and sat in the hot tub for cool down, because there wasn't really much of a cool down in this class.  I'm loving the gym, but I'm not sure if I love it enough to pay that much for it. I've got a lead on a cheaper gym with child care, but I'm going to use out this trial membership, because I LOVE free stuff!

I didn't eat super great again today.  I ran some errands with my mom and she took me and the minions out for lunch (this was the first restaurant lunch were i didn't have to physically chase them around the restaurant so it was good!)  I got a Pick 2 luch with the Tai shrimp salad with the dressing on the side and the chicken tortilla soup.  i used the smallest drizzle of dressing and picked all the salsa off the top of the soup (it had jalapenos in it) and Then I had to put some sour cream in the soup because it was just too spicy.

1 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 orange, 1 spoon

Dinner was spaghetti (at Monkey's request)  I used 1 green container of diced and crushed tomatoes and 1/2 a green container of sauteed mushrooms, onion, bell peppers and carrots.  I also had a 1/2 green container spinach salad with lemon

1.5 Green, 1 Yellow

1/2 Green

After working out I had some yogurt with fruit. I took 1 purple container of blueberries and strawberries and heated them on the stove until they were soft enough to mash. Then added half a banana and mashed it all up.  I poured all of that over one red container of low fat yogurt and stirred it in. It was a BIG portion, but tasted yummy :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Red, 2 Purple

 Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 16

I learned something new today.  Apparently I've been doing the "Triangle" pose in Yoga wrong.  I've always looked like the picture (even the little wii fit lady) But I went to my first real yoga class today (I have a free membership at Lifetime Fitness until the 1st, and I'm using it for classes, because I can).  I highly recommend going to a real yoga class if nothing else, to correct your form on things, I still can't figure out how they do that scoop thing from down dog into up dog, without going all wonky weird, but whatevs.  I did a full hour of yoga (in a STUPID hot room,  why WHY is it so freaking hot)  then I swam a few laps and sat in a hot tub for a bit, so I didn't do the 21 Day fix video today (and probably won't for a while. I'm going to try some different classes, while they're free :-) )


Breakfast this morning was my typical half banana and coffee. I even managed to skip on the doughnuts at church today which is a real victory for me.

Monkey had his first day of big boy Sunday School so he got to have his favorite meal for lunch (the chicken bite box at rallys).  The best thing I could find on the menu for me was their 5 Piece classic wings.  Its white meat and hot sauce... They might be fried, but they're not super greasy so who knows.  I did it the big bucket of ranch dressing (because I can't have that much hot sauce without ranch, and I am all out of avocados)  but I only ate 4 French fry pieces (and those Sweet Pea was stuffing into my face going "ahhhhhh" :-) I couldn't say no)  So I counted the ranch and both dressing servings and included my daily oil allowance too.

1 Red, 2 Orange, 2 Spoons

 Healthy snack before going to work out was cottage cheese.  Probably not a great idea to do dairy before exercise, but it worked and it got me through.  though I realized now as I'm going through my day, I didn't eat a single veggie today... whoops

1 Red

Anyways.  Post workout recovery meal was a Blueberry Muffin Shakeology.  No, that's not a flavor.  Its 1 scoop of Vanilla Shakeology. 1/2 a Purple of Blueberries and 1/4 of a banana with 1 C almond milk, a few ice cubes and some cinnamon.  It REALLY tastes like a blueberry muffin, but it was almost pudding texture, needed more ice probably, and is way better cold than room temperature (the ice was a late addition). Its really good, but a little strange.  I was just glad to find a way to eat the vanilla Shakeology, I'm not a huge vanilla person. I like chocolate or fruit or flavor... vanilla always seemed ... bleh.

1 Red, 1 Purple, 1 Yellow (almond milk swap)

Anywho. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 15

I feel like my whole outlook on life has gotten more positive in the past few weeks.  I don't know if its the eating better, or the exercise. But all in all I feel a little more hopeful.  Even though our finances are in the toilet. I feel like it will all be ok eventually.  We'll get it figured out.

Today I did the Pilates Fix and I can tell I'm getting much stronger. Its amazing how much improvement thee has been in just 15 days.  My mom has been discussing getting a gym membership for me for my birthday (since my neighborhood pool closes on labor day and I enjoy lap swimming) So I've got a free trial to Lifetime fitness and I'll probably do some of the classes there instead of the workout tapes at home.  I mean its Free and its something different :-) always good to change things up.

I've pulled out our good camera so my food pictures will probably be getting better (hopefully at least). But I'm still not going to take a picture when its just fruit. Like for breakfast I had half a banana and a cup of coffee... no need for a picture of that, you know what it looks like

Lunch was a turkey wrap. 1 Tortilla, 3 large slices of turkey, 1 Green container of veggies and some mustard

Isn't it pretty!  1 Yellow, 1 Red, 1 Green

For a snack before I went touring some Gyms I had an apple... I didn't take a picture.  Everyone knows what an apple looks like.  If your curious it was a Fuji apple.


 Fate smiled on me at the grocery store this week when I found a Tuna Steak on Manager special.  Tuna steak is one of my most favorite foods in the world (cooked rare or even "black and blue" of course)  Since it was a little on the aged side (hence the managers special discount) I did wind up throwing it back in the pan for a couple more mins to take some of the "lake" flavor out of it.

The side dish was 1 Green container of diced mushrooms, beet greens and onion mixed with some leftover brown rice from last week.  I seasoned the Tuna with ginger and pepper, and it could have used more ginger, but i didn't want to risk over gingering.  It wasn't as good as the Benihanna one (which I'm going to get later this month in celebration of my birthday :-) ) but it was WAY better than Canned tuna

1.5 Red, 1 yellow, 1 Green

Post workout snack was awesome.  I made a Shakeology Mug Cake Recipe Here.  It has a couple things not on the ingredients list, and it was a little spongey-er than I would normally like (and I'd put the peanut butter on top, not pressed down under the surface)  It could have used frosting, but make an excellent dessert, that I almost couldn't finish myself.

 

 

 

1.5 Red 1 Spoon

Anyways.  Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix- Round 2 - Day 14

 I'm feeling so much stronger now its really incredible.  I don't miss soda, which is kind of a big deal for me.   I don't eat crap anymore. I haven't even cheated on a cookie recently.  I feel better. I feel stronger. I feel great.

Tonight I did the lower body fix again.  Its pretty awesome.  Its amazing how Autumn seems to know right when you're drooping on form or getting close to exhaustion and addresses that even though this video was recorded who knows how long ago.

Food today was great

Breakfast was a cappuccino and an apple sliced with peanut butter melted with coconut oil and drizzled over the top, it was pretty good but next time I will use less coconut oil, but it was still good

Lunch was sauteed veggies with rice leftover from last night and 2 eggs that were sunny side up, but popped as I was pulling them out of the pan, but it was still delicious

1 Red, 1.5 Green, 1 Yellow

 Dinner was roasted potato wedges and roasted Chicken legs (i know legs aren't on the plan specifically but they're so cheap so I ate it anyway.  I used mustard instead of ketchup for my wedges, it was pretty good.

1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Green

 My friend Patti (who gave me the 21 Day kit free) stopped by with a Shakeology cup and some Shakeology samples until I get listed as a coach and can get some people buying their Shakeology through me.  If you're interested PLEASE let me know I can get you signed up for 21 Day Fix or Any beachbody program.  You can also sign up as a "discount member" where you get your shakeology cheaper if you agree to be a coach, you don't have to actually coach anyone to get the discount (which I believe is $30 off your Shakeology)

1 Red

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix- Round 2 - Day 13

 ROAR!! I officially love this program. Today was a good day I went full beast mode durring work out.  I was doing the upper body fix with soup cans as my heavy weight and baby food jars as my light weight (because I'm too broke to buy real weights) and the copy of the DVD that I have is corrupted the last 8 minutes of the upper body fix, so I just rewind to do the seccond time through Round 2 and then instead of doing my own cool down I did the Yoga Fix workout.  BOOM I feel like a BOSS.  I mean Yesterday I did the hardest video in the series and didn't wind up super sore like I did last time, at least nothing more than my baseline sore that I've gotten used to.


Food wise I did pretty good today too

I Started today with a cup of coffee with Hubby.  Sweet pea woke up before Hubbys alarm, so we got to have coffee together before he left for work.  I LOVE my new coffee maker.  Its a Macchinetta and it makes espresso.  Mixed with 1 tsp of stevia and 2 TBS milk makes a fine cappuccino.  I'm working my way down there, I throw in 3 chocolate chips to help cut a little of the bitter that IS coffee, but thats down from a full teaspoon, so I'm well on my way to being a full grown up. I didn't take a picture of the coffee, because we don't have cappuccino cups, so it just looks like a half full coffee cup, because it is.


For breakfast I had about 1/2 a banana (or whatever part was left when Monkey decided he was done with it) and tossed in 1 tsp of Peanut butter, 1 Red container of Yogurt, 2 blueberries and about half a strawberry (pulled out of a fruit salad I have, I didn't just choose to use half a strawberry) and Whizzed it up with my immersion blender.  It was pretty tasty.  I usually have a textural issue with low or non fat  yogurt, but whizzed with the banana it was a non issue.

Lunch was going to ba an avocado turkey wrap, but my avocado went bad :-( so I used my last 4 pieces of turkey and 2 spoonfuls of cottage cheese as my protein source and 1 cup of veggies in a tortilla (yes mine are 8 inches not 6, but I can't find the 6 on wic approved wheat tortillas and 6 inchers are hard to make quesadillas out of)

I realized after I set my plate that I was having 3 carbs tonight not 2, but decided Oh well, I've missed carbs lots of other days, so I had a glass of wine with dinner (an a champage flute holds 4 oz of wine, just FYI)  Dinner was sauteed chicken with cajun seasoning blend with broccoli and brown rice that was cooked in chicken stock.  It gives it some really great flavor, and I make my own stock so I know its low sodium and I skim the fat off before its stored, so its just chicken and water.

After working out I was HUNGRY.  So I had another portion of Cottage Cheese.

I'm going to have to take the minions out for a grocery run tomorrow because I'm out of Greens, and Cottage Cheese, and Turkey and fruit and bananas.... All I have left is fruit salad and sunflower seeds....

Thanks for reading and Keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 12

 Today felt good.  I didn't have coffee this morning, so I was a little snippy with Monkey today (especially when he found the bin from the shredder and decided to decorate the parlor). I did the Total Body Cardio Fix today (which has no right to be the first video on the disks, it is by far the hardest of the videos) and I think I might be able to walk tomorrow :-) but only time will tell

For breakfast today I had a half a banana and some tea that I made and promptly forgot to drink.

Lunch was a salad with avocado/herb dressing.  I smushed up 1/4 of an avocado with about a tsp of oil and some fresh herbs from my garden.  It didn't make a really runny dressing, but I could toss the salad through it and got a pretty good flavor from it.

1 Green 1 Blue

 Dinner was the last of our very freezer burnt burgers. I'm glad we're done with them.  They were getting bad, but I can't throw them out, so we toughed it out. I had one 4 oz burger with 1 Green of veggies and a side of sweet potato chips, I'm still mastering how to make them, but they're pretty good, but not quite as easy as the Kale chips.

1 Green 2 Yellow 1 Red

For dessert I had the last serving of the Fruit Puree Sorbet that I made last week (I think).  Its good :-) Tastes like ice cream, but is just fruit.


Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable.  If you have any questions please let me know!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 11

Today was State Fair Day so on top of my normal exercise I probably walked 2 miles, then I did the Dirty 30 video and to compensate/punish myself for my bad eating today I did the first half of the Ab fix. I was going to do the whole thing until she said repeat... Uh uh.  I was barely getting there the first time. So I'll try again another time, but I'm definitely getting stronger.  I didn't have to modify on half of the warmup and on half the moves and I'm about to have to switch up to using soup cans for weights (I use baby food jars right now, its what I have and its free)

 I didn't have a great food day. I started with some coffee before the fair. And on the way to the fair I got accused of being Hangry, so when we stopped for more sunscreen I picked this up.  It was the healthiest thing in the CVS that looked even remotely edible.

Lunch at the fair was Chicken Tenders and French Fries.  We all shared this, because Monkey would eat the french fries and Sweet Pea will eat the chicken.

These are the reason I go to the fair. Ambrosia of the Gods!  Deep Fried Oreos :-) If  you've never had them before, TRY THEM.  They're awesome.

Dinner had to be at least a little healthy, so it was 2 Green containers of veggies, 1 red container of Chicken and 1 cup of chicken broth

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable!

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 10

I did the Cardio Fix today and I definitely am getting stronger, probably why my weight is plateauing, but that's ok. I'm only checking my weight because a friend of mine started a biggest loser club and the prize money would be fairly significant (to me, not really to anyone not on assistance).   

The kids slept in again, so once again I didn't eat breakfast.  I  didn't want to drink my coffee with vegetables, so I just had some chicken and fully intended to go back and eat a salad before dinner, but completely forgot

 For dinner I tried sweet potato chips. Sweet potato sliced very thin and brushed with coconut oil then baked at 375 for 15 mins. probably could have used more time on some , the thicker ones were still floppy and the dark brown parts tasted the best, so maybe less oil.  The chicken is just sauteed in coconut oil.  Though, word to the wise Coconut oil does NOT keep things from sticking to the pan, in fact it might make it worse.  Won't do that again

1 Red, 1 Yellow

As I was working out and thinking thought my day again. I realized I hadn't had a single vegetable or a single piece of fruit, so I concocted this smoothie thing.  I don't have a juicer, which probably would have made it better.  I used 1 Green of Kale.  1/2 a Banana and 1 purple of Blue berries and 1 Red of Yogurt.  Its a fine flavor, just texturally a little weird. I don't know if its the Kale or the Yogurt (I'm not a big yogurt person, especially low fat yogurt, high fat is so much creamier, and I can't afford Greek)

1 Green, 2 Purple, 1 Red

Once again thank you for keeping me accountable.  Tomorrow is going to be a naughty day (at least a naughty lunch) We're going to the State Fair and I'm getting a Fried Oreo! Its HEAVEN and I only get them once a year. And the fair closes before this round of Fix is done, so I'm going to cheat and I'm going to LOVE it. 

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 9

 Today was not a great day Diet wise- check my dinner for details.  I have a weakness for free food and this played into that. It wasn't too bad, but the cookie after dinner was definetly not approved, nor was the probably 2 tablespoons of butter I ate.

Anyways.  I did the Pilates Fix today for workout, I didn't realize that would be such an Ab workout, but I'm slowly getting better and stronger.  I had someone comment on my weight loss without them being one of the many people I ha talked to about the 21 day fix program (she's very skinny and fit and we don't talk super often), so that felt good. 

On To Food.

Breakfast today was Apple slices with peanut butter and a Latte (espresso with 1 tsp of stevia and 2 tbsp skim milk whipped as much as it could be)

Lunch was a lovely salad, with 1 Green container of greens and 1 Green of diced veggies and 1 Red of diced up rotisserie chicken.

 

My mom invited me and my family over for snow crab (it was on sale) and it was AMAZING I had 3 clusters of legs, which are probably fine on the diet, but the butter i dipped them in was probably not good.  I also had a salad and a corn cob.

oh yea and two of these bad boys


Yummy

Back on the wagon tomorrow.

21 Day Fix - Round 2 - Day 8

 I didn't ACTUALLY work out today, at least I didn't use the videos.  We have been building a patio by hand and I counted that as my excercise today.

Last Night I also cheated, kindof.  I was hungry and it was the middle of the night (so not sure which day should take the points).  But i had one yellow container of whole wheat crackers with a little cheese, tomato and basil. It totally worked from keeping me from having some ice cream (which is what i really wanted.

 for breakfast I had oatmeal with blueberries

1 Yellow, 1 Purple

 for lunch I had a big salad with Turkey deli meat with mustard and lemon juice for dressing (sounds weird, but its pretty good, kinda zingy)

1 Green, 1 Red, Mustard and Lemon

 The dark portion in this picture is what we mixed today. Hubby did more work than me, but I still did lots.  We also went swimming with the kiddos, and durring adult swim I got to swim some laps too.

Dinner was phoned in because we were exhausted, the chicken is grocery store rotiserie (breast) and cut in half is almost exactly the size of the red container.  and the veggies are cucumber slices Ifrom the farmers market this morning) and Garden fresh tomatoes and Garden fresh basil topped with ground pepper

1 Green, 1 Red

Thank you for reading and keeping me accountable!