New Quote

"Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live." ~Eckhart Tolle

I am scanning blogs this morning and I found this quote. Yesterday was rough not hitting the bars but there is no way I would've made it with how crappy I felt. I kinda felt that way just like let me get through this weekend without drinking and eating all the right food I will be fine. So for the rest of this journey I am going to make the most of it!

I have a new crush!

We're in love and I made it official when I signed up to get his live feed twitters. He knows I am following him so I can't get in trouble for stalking.

His name is Dave Zinczenko, who is the famous Eat This, Not That author. I stumbled upon him the other day from yahoo and I followed the link till I got to his twitter account. I love him. In fact I have his updates sent directly to my phone and I only ussally do that for the political candidates that I follow and RedHead when he use to use twitter.

I highly recommend it because he just will randomly send me great advice and it randomly comes when bad things are going through my head i.e. how good would that bacon french onion dip that I ran into while picking up my boring ass Fiber One yogurt. All the sudden Dave will text me a twitter update that says how the FDA is thinking about changing serving sizes because Americans are out of control and it brings me back into focus!

Also, Jillian is on twitter, Tara Costa (BL 7) and couple of other good sites. Highly recommend it!

Winter Weather Struggles

I will admit the first snow storm I was excited about because I usually love snow. 2nd storm and I was amused but now i am not at all amused. I am ready for the spring flowers, windows opened and being able to get out and enjoy but this weekend I am stuck in the house once again.

The night of our group run I realized I needed to step up training and get very serious about boot camp. I had been doing the right stuff and my homework but I want to see real results on March 26-27th so I decided for the month of Feb I was going party free. Little did I know we would have another snow storm.

Thank God I woke up not feeling good because a group of friends are heading to BW3's as we speak and I am staying in...I had the Devil and Angel on my shoulder but bottom line is I can barely breathe so I've decided to stay in and stick the promise I made to myself.

Yesterday was a struggle as well. I met 2 of my favorites for lunch. I met these girls when I first moved to Richmond and we try to get together for lunch a couple of times a year to catch up. It is always good to catch up and hear what is going on and talk political smack talk. They had both had trying times that morning and sat down and ordered a drink and I stuck with the water and lemon. A beer and a bloody mary right in front of me (remember I fell in love with them at New Year's brunch). I tried to focus what they were saying but I was thinking bloody mary is mostly tomato juice...that is a vegetable right? Their fries looked so good but a trip to the salad bar with tons of good veggies and a chicken wrap with no side and it came off their paper menu. Ruby Tuesday's will give you a paper menu with nutritional information if you ask for it. It includes calories, carbs and fat grams. I got out of there with about 55o calories.

If you know me you know I love cake icing and could care less about cake. Cheesecake I can take or leave but RedMama had the cake icing that was actually talking to me. I so wanted to stick my fork on her plate and scoop it up and eat it. Thankfully I didn't because all of the sudden the crackberry went off and this email came in from my trainer, Rusty. I would've felt so guilty if I would've given in to the icing. "I will be there! So glad you are using all the tools I'm trying to put in front of you guys :) I have a soft spot in my heart for you and the other 2 stooges. You're doing awesome, keep up the good work and success will surely come!" He is referring to me making an appointment with our nutritionist on Monday. She consults at a natural grocery store and I am meeting with her on Monday to begin the switch to organic.

It could be my imagination but I think I can tell a big difference in my bloatiness (if that is a word) in my body with just giving up sodas. I've been nazi like this week with what I've eaten. I am not eating any processed foods. I've gotten my fruits and veggies in and had great workouts. I am probably going to make snow cream here in a bit but everybody deserves a treat.

I am attaching pictures of the desserts I watched and the drinks. They totally knew I was taking it and please don't think I made them feel bad. They totally deserve it and chase children around and burn the calories off. They were very encouraging and excited to hear about boot camp. I would love to have both of them in our next session that starts April 7th. I could see the mulling it over. I think if we could have open house and have everybody go to last Wed's class it would be so full. Seriously it was the best class ever. The 3 Stooges are still talking about it!

Hope all of you are staying warm and enjoying the winter weather. I do have a very healthy recipe in my crock pot that I will share. My house is starting to smell good. I made some changes. Instead of salsa I used 2 cans of diced tomatoes and I added lime juice and cilantro and I didn't add the brown rice. I have the minute brown rice and if I am hungry for it when it is time to eat I will just put the chicken on top of it! Enjoy!
Black Bean Chicken

An easy slow cooker recipe that the family will enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
2 cans black beans
16 oz jar salsa
1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked)
1 lb chicken breast

DIRECTIONS
Place frozen chicken breasts in slow cooker.
Pour beans, rice and salsa over chicken.
Cook low 8-10 hours and serve.


Number of Servings: 6

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user LOSER1231.

Nutritional Info Amount Per Serving: Calories: 298.9 Total Fat: 1.9g Total Carbs: 40g Dietary Fiber: 13mg Protein: 30.8g

love balls.......

stop thinking perverted thoughts. tonight we did all of work with medicine balls, stability balls and we threw 12/10 pound balls up in the air and then we threw these 4 pound balls on the ground and picked them up with a squat. I had a lot of road rage when I started this class and throwing balls is a great release. A few of those balls had a few faces on them and god it felt good to smash them into the ground. I loved every minute of class and didn't say one bad word to Rusty. I will admit one time when he corrected my form that my tongue flew out when he walked away but no bad words were spoken tonight.

we did 2 circuits and each circuit we did 2 reps of 15 on 6 activities that involved some sort of ball took a water break and then we did it again. I loved tonight's class. I can already feel it, I worked up a sweat and I really hope we do this class again.

We had circle time and talked about our successes and if we were worried about anything. I just wish this snow would go away so I could get outside and focus on the Monument!

The 3 Stooges came back here and cooked pork tenderloin, corn and a strawberry spinach salad. No wine was had and I feel like a rock star.

Peace out I am tired and I have to go do cardio in the am. I heart boot camp!

Forgot 2 Very Important bits of Information

1. From the run the other night. I was asking Rusty about how to make it better and he suggested www.jeffgalloway.com and I really like him. Great info and I am trying to incorporate some of his stuff on the treadmill and hopefully this weekend if we don't get blanketed again with that white crap!

2. The nutritionist said "listen to your body and the seasons". In the winter you're craving warmth and in the summer you want salads....that is what we should be feeding our bodies. Stews in the winter and salads in the summer. It was interesting!

Day 4

of cutting out diet drinks from my life and I am starting to freak out a little. I love a Coke Zero and I am not saying I will never drink one again but I am trying it for 21 days! We had a nutritionist speak to our boot camp the other day and she basically told us that diet sodas are one of the worst things you could put in your body. The alternative sugars have huge molecules that it is very hard on your liver to process it. My liver needs no more challenges. Also, it makes your body crave other bad stuff....more sweets and all of that stuff. Rumor is that it takes 21 days to make something a habit so I hope these next few weeks fly by....I am doing pretty good with it but any change can be a little rough.

Also, she told us that organic meat is much better than regular meat. I will give that a try in a bit. I had already bought my meat for the weekend so I haven't tried it. I did watch Oprah the other day and she talked with Michael Pollan http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Truth-About-Food-with-Michael-Pollan and he solidified that it needs to be organic and especially pay attention if it has been grain or grass fed. Grass is better!

What else did she say....need to be very careful of reduced, light and all of that. Sometimes the real thing is much better for you!

Ok, I am off to eat lunch!

P.S. I am actually excited about boot camp tonight...we're doing work on medicine balls and stability balls...I think it sounds fun!

The Running Night

I know I've been behind in getting this posted but I really haven't been into writing about it because honestly the night sucked and I dealt with it and moved on but I keep getting emails asking about it so here goes.

It all started when Molly sent out the email explaining what the challenge was going to be and you can find that in my archives. I was thrown for a loop when it had us incorporating running into the fitness challenge. I had been drawn to this challenge because it focused on nutrition and fitness so I agreed I would try it and go from there.

Wednesday was the first time we've run as a group. It started off with an intern that runs a 4 minute mile and completes all over the country for running. Immediately my nerves were shot and I just wanted to yell at this guy "i've only ever run in my adult life if we've realized we were almost out of beer and Food Lion is about to close" but he was telling us how not to run...my mind was mush and I was just ready to be outside and trying to get it done. I had major anxiety and my nerves were a hot mess.

It was dark, unfamiliar with the course and honestly couldn't run hardly at all which I knew I wasn't going to be like the intern but I thought I would be better than I was and that just made me want to kill the world. Even my play list wasn't given me the mojo I needed. I actually pretended Jillian was with me on the run and pushing me to make me go faster. I was walking as fast as I could and it helped pretending she was there.

I was a hot mess and felt like my legs weighed 400 pounds a piece. I wanted to quit, I wanted to sit down and throw a temper tantrum and I didn't. Some of the people from boot camp came for the last part...I loved that and made me so glad we don't have to vote anybody off like the Biggest Loser...I really like our group.

The 3 Stooges were all a little "blah" about how we did. I've decided to kick it up a notch to get ready for Monument Avenue. Do I think I will run/jog the whole way...Hell to the no but do I think I will push myself like I've never done before....yes sir!

So I am making some changes and kicking up the focus. I've kinda felt scattered with the rock climbing, group run and realizing I need to kick it up but I think I am on track right now to get a personal best on March 27th!