Fab 5 Follow Through Friday...lol...

Alrighty!  I have something to share.  I don't want to call it a confession so, I will call it a realization slash admission.

Hi, I'm D and I did not meal prep this week.
I suck
I have spent bookoo money this week on bullish.  No I have been gorging on McDonald fries and whoppers or chicken wings (yack).

What I have spent my hard earn dollars on this week:
Breakfastses:
Monday or Tuesday I had a Spinach Egg Beater omelet that I made at home
Sunrise Subway Melts loaded (with spinach)
Bacon Egg and Cheese Bagel from Dunkin Donuts
oh and those devil Blueberry Donuts (ugh)

Luncheses:
Spicy Chicken Sammich yup with fries and a Caesar side salad
Veggie Lo Mein
Grilled Caesar salad Zaxbys (I only use one pack of dressing) Zaxby's

Dinners:
Shrimp Tacos
Taco Salad
Turnip greens, okra tomatoes, red beans and rice and mashed potatoes (Monday & Tuesday)

Snacks
Dark Chocolate
Peanut Butter cookie
Devil Blueberry Donuts
Total $80 with a standard deviation of $5 (say huh say what!!!!!)
 I coulda mealprepped for 4 with that!

I'm sharing all this because I can get in denial.  A visual is REAL, DEEP accountability for me.  I can log in My Fitness Pal all day but if I can't find it, I won't log it. *shrug*

Meal Prep is my best friend.
What's really mucked up, I BOUGHT ALL THE STUFF TO MEAL PREP!!!
I had my menu TOGETHER!!!


Breakfast:
Egg muffins w/ spinach and low fat cheddar
Lunch:
garlic shrimp w/ Spinach, zucchini, squash and peppers
Dinner:
Baked Tilapia w/ Spinach, Zucchini, Squash and peppers
Snack: Almonds, Dark Chocolate or Peanut butter

THANK GOD I exercised!!! Praises!
I'm probably having a maintenance week that won't show up til next week...damn me.
I have definitely learned that "Failing to Prepare is Preparing to Fail and this week was a #FAIL
Meal Prep makes such a difference in my life. It kills the confusion and temptation.

I read the most beautiful, tearful inspirational post on Wednesday.  This woman had me in tears.  Find it here @ OperationSkinnyJeans . She just laid it all out on the table and I moved my heart.  I'm not a big emotional girl but she got me together. I'm entering my 2nd year of my lifestyle change and I hit a pothole, my tire busted and I in the process and fixing it so I can keep on going.  He post got me to get the tire out of the trunk. Thanks so much.

Today Starts the "Getting My Shit Together" Goal...lol

5 Things are going to happen, going forward.

1. Return to Meal Prep Mondays
I absolutely LOVE chopping up veggies and post them to Instagram on Mondays.  It was fun and gave me something to look forward to.  I also got lots of ideas from #MealPrepMonday post. So, BOOM back at it!

2. Strength Training (at home)
Last Friday or was it Friday before last... *shrug* I came up with a pretty good strength training routine that I have been putting off doing...don't know why.  I enjoy strength training...LOVE THE BURN and the way my body feels, not to mention the inches it dissolves.

3. Increase my mileage.
I'm doing a Miles Challenge and I have been doing the bare minimum.  ugh...just lazy.  Eve's Curse drains the life out of me.  It's done and now I have to get back to the 4-5miles a day. I'm love walking and I know combined with the strength training the calorie burn will be great!

4. Get my Mental Discipline in check
The mind is weak...well mine has been for a couple weeks.  I need to search my brain for the trigger that has set me back...It's more than Eve.  I have had Eve every month for the year I have been in the journey. There is something more going on in my head. (self sabotage)

5. SLEEP
I hate missing my TV shows and I'm usually in the bed 10:30 -11pm.  I'm going to have to get grandma and hit the sack at like 9:30!!!! I am sleepy! It's important and necessary.  I don't like to HAVE to drink coffee...lol

Simply put...I want it like the air I breathe. 
I'm not lost, just confused. Getting that together to match the goals I have set for ME!
Have a Wonderful weekend you guys.

Check out these Link-Ups, Fitness  Friday,  Follow Through Friday and Five on Friday, they have loads of bloggers.  Did I say I LOVE Link ups.lol...

D.   

Battle in the Garden...

So, Eve's curse has invaded my body this week.
It's soooooo hard to just not lay down and go to sleep all week and DO NOTHING!
Alas, I have not, I will not.  I have miles to walk and fat to burn.
ON TOP OF THAT!
Can you say cravings!
I had a delicious Blueberry Donut today, yesterday and Monday.

Devil Donut

I ain't even mad about it. *shrug*
I am a good girl. I eat 4-5 servings of veggies EVERYDAY! I only have carbs before 2pm and  I meal prep (not this week though)
I enjoyed my donuts.  They may have mucked up calorie count for the day/week, but so what!

The other thing I'm have been enjoying, over the last couple weeks, are link ups.
It's a great opportunity to read blogs I would never have come across and make blog friends!!
I absolutely love Liz @Fitness Blondie! She is gorgeous, funny and has some great stuff on her blog.
She does a Hump Day Blog Hop that I like.  From fitness to pumps, the link ups are great!

Adding to my schedule:
I started a Literature class last week.
African American Literature to be a exact.  It's the last class before I finish with my Associates in Business. YIPPIE!
LOTS OF READING! It's an online class so that means LOTS more writing than I would have to do if I was in a classroom. 
Discussion question after discussion question and comment on your classmates discussion.
I have a HARD time commenting on some of my illiterate classmates posts...ugh...1 typo and I exiting. BLAH! I'm not a grammar expert but I FRICKING PROOFREAD before I post in a LITERATURE class...ugh.

Any who, I'm going to finish out the week with walking.
3-4 miles tonight
the same tomorrow and Friday
The weekend I'm heading to Bama (RollTide!) To celebrate my brothers birthday.  He has a cute little home gym so I'm going to f#ck it up...lol

D.

Fitversary FRIDAY!!!!!!...

I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. I'm just merely going to pat myself on the back for a job well done!

IT'S MY FITVERSARY!! (Awsomeness that it falls on Friday!)

I have gone 1 year with regular exercise and developing healthy eating habits!!!!
1 year setting goal and reaching most of them.
1 year working hard on this belly and this bootay!
 

I won't say that I didn't have a piece of cake or a donut or even a box of girl scout cookies, because I absolutely did.

I fell off the wagon, but not long

I got discouraged. I still do.

I have loads of self doubt but I push through it and work harder.

I loose confidence and sometimes I'm not as consistent as I should be, but then I wake up.

 

270 vs 223!

Things I have learned this year.

1. Thou shalt not covet.
• I spent  a lot of time in the beginning of my journey wondering why I didn't look like this person or why couldn't look like the next.  I was loosing my confidence and I was self loathing because  I didn't believe I could do what some one was doing. NOT anymore.  I now have a fuuuuuull understanding that everyone's journey is COMPLETELY different and that my path will not be the same.  I have to Love D and continued to work hard.
2. Time Limit?
• I thought that I had to "Lose 100lbs in a year". I thought that I had to hurry up and get the weight off to accomplish a certain milestone. NOPE! The end game here, is to be healthy and fit.  As I continue learning and leading a healthy lifestyle,  the weight will come off.  I have been a full-figured beauty all my life...I'm not rushing the process.
3. I CAN DO IT!
• I spent A LOT of time sabotaging myself. "what am I thinking?" "I'm never going to loose this weight" Thinking and believing that I didn't deserve to be healthier. Not to mention that every time I would miss 1 workout or have a brownie I would almost give up.  Instagram helped me  a lot.  Every motivational post seemed to speak to me. Telling me not to stop, to keep pushing, a setback is not the end of the world.  The biggest one Mental Discipline, battling my own NEGATIVE thoughts and dispelling them.  Learned to believe I can accomplish my goals and that I am 100% worth it!
4. Eat This And In that order!
• Food WAS a MAJOR obstacle.  I knew Protein/Veggie/Carb,  but SNACK!! WTF man! Eat 5-6 small meals as opposed to 3 big normal sized meals, say huh say what!? After months of failed food decisions I figured out what worked for me. I know what fills me up, what bloats me, what is BORING and what to avoid!  I know there is more to learn but I'm happy with my results so far!

I am in the middle of my journey and very happy with what I have been doing and sooooo looking forward to what the future holds. 

A year from now I would like to be reporting that I'm a runner. (tuh!)

A year from now I would love to have touched someone's heart and have INSPIRED the hell out of them.

A year from now I'm going to be even stronger than I am now, happier than I am now and healthier than I am now.

 

Yeet!!

 

 PS: CHECK MY NEW BLOG DESIGN!!!!!!!! Hubby Jack is the awesomest!!! Thank you!!!

D.

 

 

Yup! Yup!...

Aaaaaah!!! I have missed blogland!

Shortly after my last post, I dropped to 70% and continued dropping. So much so that I ended up in the ER. IMPACTED!! So finally, Sunday,  after evacuating I began to feel SOOOOOOO much better that I'm proud to say that today I'm at 99.5%. The other .5% is because I'm at work and well...blah!

Needless to say I got no workouts in...ho hum.

Take it to the Head Tuesday is in full effect.

I started a cute challenge 100in6.  I found it on Instagram via Naturally Fit & Fab .

It's all about walking /running/bicycling, whatever, how ever, to get in those miles!

100 miles in 6 weeks. Yup I'm excited about it!

Technically, it started yesterday, but so what, and it runs through April 28th...YEET!!

I love walking!  It makes me feel good! I get to think and meditate and I enjoys the burn! It's the one exercise that I'm a pro at...lol...and since Spring is Coming I'm going to be getting it IN!! We have some GREAT trails and hikes around this good city and as soon as Atlanta decides that it wants to have a consistent season I will be hittin' it! Til then it's Leslie, the dreaded treadmill and I!

I even have set some goals this week so I can  have something POSTIVE and worthwhile for Follow Through Friday...lol

Goals this week (should my body choose to accept):

Monday: Last day to veg

Tuesday: 5miles & Arms

Wednesday: 2Miles AM, 3miles PM & Lower Body & Abs strength training

Thursday: 2miles AM, 4miles PM, Arms

Friday: 2miles AM, 3 miles PM Lower body

Saturday: 5miles Arms & Abs

Sunday: definitely Abs  at least 2miles (I means, it's Sunday)

I created myself a nice strength/body weight training routine and I'm excited about it!

I enjoy the weights I have at home and my kettle bell and I LOVE they way my body responds when I do it and walk.

I love T25 however...I love mah walking MORE! Though I was build strength and endurance doing mah T25 I wasn't loosing like I need to...and I was toooooo tired after Shaun T to do anything else...lol

I need to burn LOTS of calories and burn LOTS of fat!

CHEERS!

I'm glad I'm better and back on my ISH!

D.

Get out my belly....

@ about 85%

Yo!
This has been a rough week for me! I have been sick as a dog since Sunday! 
I don't usually get sick and praise God my kiddies don't usually get sick either.
Sunday, something entered my body and turn it into its' little puppet. 
It felt like something was in my stomach swimming laps and was going for a world record.
I was dizzy, light-headed and nauseous with chills.
I passed out in the bathroom, fell off the toilet and then broke out into a cold sweat.
I tried to go to work...nope
Took a laxative Monday...threw it up.
Haven't eaten, haven't WANTED to eat.  NOTHING IS COMING OUT!!!

It was neither...ugh

Today, on this crappy rainy hump day I woke feeling a little better.  My tummy is no longer distended and flatulence has started.  Good signs.  Hope they lead to a movement.

Needless to say exercise has NOT happened. 
Well, I did walk up the stairs in the house 15 times to try and start a movement.  It was a fairly decent sweat.

I have not taken in any calories so, the not exercising things is not hurting my feelings, just yet.
HOWEVER, I was supposed to start my T25 Beta this week BUUUUUUT due to illness, nope.




So, the goal the rest of this week ...

gotta check the scale...lol

• Walk and do calisthenics. 
• Keep my endurance up as I prep for T25 next week

This weekend is supposed to be really pretty so DEFINITELY going to walk outside.
 I may even take my treadmill outside and walk on it out there! HA!

I'm also trying something new, venturing out to meet new blog friends. Today I'm doing
The Hump Day Blog Hop
 and I have read some good stuff and found some new fitness blogs to follow and people to learn from.

Wish me well...lol

D.

#FTF Yall....

FINALLY FRIDAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!! Today is a great day to post a Follow Through Friday!!
It doesn't matter that the weather sucks here in Atlanta.
It's still FRIDAY!

This week has been  awesome! I have been a goal loving whorebag!
Biggest milestone this week is that it was the LAST week of my T25 Alpha!

This week was broke down a lil something like this:

Monday: Total Body Circuit
Tuesday: Ab Intervals
Wednesday: Total Body Circuit
Thursday: Alpha Cardio
Friday: Total Body Circuit & Lower Focus
Saturday: STATurday
Sunday: Stretch

Last Sunday was the most beautiful day all WINTER!! To celebrate I took a 6.5 mile trek at a trail in a nearby city.  It was WONDERFUL and I burned a ton of Calories!! Boom!

Tuesday, I fulfilled one of my March goals and took a Zumba class! Loads of fun! The class I went to wasn't a huge calorie burner BUT I liked it.

Beyond that I'm all about  this being my last week of T25 Alpha
I have done every workout this week.  I won't say it was painless, it hurt like the heezy!
Fridays consist of a double workout.  Meaning, 2 of the 25min T25's back to back,  At the same dam time. (u get it)  WOOSH!

I rose at 5:11am (cuz I was sleepy and trying to find excuses not to get up when my alarm went off at 5am). Made it down stairs to the exercise room around 5:23pm HA!

My shirt is too adorable!

Sidenote:
Let me say a lil something: THE BURNOUT
This is where Shaun T crams a repeat of the previous session all into one quick session. He expects you to go harder, faster, be MORE focused and give it ALLLLLL you got doing, the best YOU can.  So cute.
Painful! Sad! Painful!
I push through it though. I GETS it done!

Moving on
I did the Total Body Circuit first. Yup still hard but so worth the pain. 
Then came the Lower Focus: squats, lunges, lunge pulses, squat pulses, squat jumps, BURNOUTS and one-legged dead lifts... lower body lower body and MORE lower body.
It wasn't a great calorie burn with the heart rate but instead it's one of those burn calories all day for the rest of EVER kinda workouts.

I didn't stop the Polar, so the calories burned are for both workouts...eh

 My booty is sore and the lower abs that I thought were killed during my 1st and 2nd C-section are fricking SORE!!! How the hell O_o ?!

This weekend my goal is to walk.  I will be at my son's basketball tournament all weekend, so walking is the thing.
Monday I begin my T25 Beta!! I anxious and muy scared WHEW!!
My goal is  I'm going to do another Zumba class this week as well, depending on how Day1 of T25 BETA goes.
While continuing getting up in the AM to get those  AWESOME AM workouts in. :-)

Very happy about about the week I had! *toot* *toot*

D.

It's a series 2 and Ruffles...

Yeah!!! It's the day before Friday!! FINALLY!! It has been a fun, full week but loooooong as heezy! Be glad when Sunday comes. Why? because my weekend is going to be BUSY and like God, on the 7th day, I rest. YEET!


Something UBER awesome came in the mail yesterday!! My Ruffles with Love tanks!!  I first saw one of her tanks on Fluffy Girl and I immediately fell IN LOVE!!  I headed over to her website and placed me a nice order.The "Rise and Grind" might just be my motivation to ACTUALLY wake up in the morning and workout!

In other news:  Pushing forward with my T25 spread.

Yesterday morning I DID NOT get up and do my workout however, I did get my arse in gear and do my Total Body Circuit last night when I got home! One word: Hard!  It's not my favorite in the Alpha series.  It has been the top workout for week 5.  On the schedule 3 times this week!! ugh
Much harder to do in the evening than in the morning AND I burned fewer calories. BOOOO! The sweat though, the sweat was insane and I loved every drip! It was gruelling.  Still hated it.





This morning I got UP!! It was CARDIO DAY!!!!!  I enjoy the Alpha Cardio...no floor, no pike, no plank. Just Cardio.
Sprinting, mountain climbers, lunge squats, jumping jacks, knee ups, switch kicks and all that! WHEW!!!!
Heart rate got up there however, my endurance has grown such that, the calorie burn was not the same as it was in the beginning. Burned like 25 less calories than I did in the beginning and I did more work! The sweat was phenomenal!!! Killing the fat!  A sista was tired!


Been a great week thus far.
Tomorrow is a double T25 day :(  Total Body Circuit and Lower Focus. Unfortunately, my schedule is so busy tomorrow that I HAVE to do them back to back...ugh. Horrible.

D.

Me, Zumba...

So...I have heard about Zumba. (I didn't really want to "define" it.  I'm just going to assume that the small cluster of folks that read this knows what it is. Boom!)
 Heard about it from a distance and never gave it a second thought.  It wasn't until last year when I changed my lifestyle, that hearing about Zumba, started getting closer and closer and I wanted to try it.  My closest friend takes Zumba and I have spent the better part of a year asking begging her to take me with her.  Still waiting on that. humph
Last month it was a goal of mine to take a Zumba class. I didn't. I was scared.  Why? I don't know. The thought of my body convulsing in front of other people  kinda freaked me out.  Then, I didn't want to try it alone. *shrug*
I found a couple places that had classes and I even wrote them on my calendar. Eh, but I never seemed to make it. 
There is a fitness studio that is 10 mins from my house.  I really had no excuse not to go.
So, I sucked up the fear and the dash of anxiety, dropped my son at basketball practice and headed to Results Studios.


Tanika

This is the darling, little instructor is a gigantic ball of energy, but I assume you would need to be full of energy to teach Zumba, daily. She was bouncing, jumping, shaking and twerking everywhere.  Lil thing is smaller than my daughter and her daughter is the same size as mine! O__O 
The class was fun.  I enjoyed it.  There were mature women and younger women, different shapes and sizes.


Womp, Womp

My rating: B
I had high expectations about the calorie burn.  I have heard that it is a great workout AND an awesome calorie burn.  I burned more calories doing 50 minutes of T25. Bummer.  There were a lot of stops and starts.  Those ladies had to have their water breaks and my heart rate kept dropping and by the time it got up the song was over. Poo! It was a burn nonetheless. HOWEVER, I would do it again.  I may do a tour of Zumba classes just to find the ONE.  Also to support local, small, women run, businesses I will at least visit Results Studios a couple more times.


Not a bad day yesterday for exercise and calories burned.  Luving how March is starting!!

  D.

It's a series...

I'm in a sharing mood today, this week, every hour...lol!!
To start I go some new shoes!!!!!!
I'm super excited about them.  I save shoes as a reward but after starting T25 I HAD to break the rule and get me some!
They are uber comfortable.
Reebok Women's RealFlex Advance Trainer
They are flexible, very supportive all the way around and SUPER CUTE!
I went for a loooong walk on Sunday and I think they will do the trick!


4 weeks ago I started T25 FOCUS!
I will say that It's intense. It's gruesome. It's challenging. It's invigorating. It's work. It's fun.
It is a take no prisoners workout.  It's like 25mins of little mini Insanity's. WHEW!
After the first week I was in love.  I fell in love with the way my body started feeling.  I could/can feel myself growing stronger and feeling stronger.  LUUUUV IT!!!

So this week is my last week of T25 Alpha.  Can you believe it! I am in the 5th WEEK!!!!
I have decided to share. HA!
So the first workout for this week was...
Total Body Circuit - 25mins of WORK!
It's exactly what it says it is TOTAL body.
Sprinting, lunging, squatting, squat jumping, planking, plank walking and then some. WERK!
The first time I did this I could hardly breath! That was even with following the modifiers sometimes!
Now, its still difficult but I'm much better at it.  I can actually follow Shaun T more often than not. Its the 2nd hardest workout in the series.  However the time goes quickly because you're not watching the timer... hell you can't even see it most of the time because you're on the floor PLANKING!

Check the sweat

Last night was good and intense.  I got a really good
<-- sweat and an awesome burn -->
 I felt great when I was done because I pushed myself, did almost no modification and when he said "Time"  I was still amped and ready to go!

 

Conforming to the goals that I have set for myself this month and even after that ol' gansta workout last night, I roooooolled my behind out of my UBER comfy bed early this morning.  with head held high I stomped down the stars to the good ol T25 Ab Intervals.  I DO NOT like this workout.  Um. WOW!  No matter how many times I have done it, it suck, it hurts oh and did I mention IT SUCK!!

I feel alllll 25 mins of this workout.  95% spent on the floor 1 leg raises, 2 leg raises, hand to feet V leg raises, supermans and pain.  Probably my favorite are the supermans that turn into lat pulls. Awesomeness! There is also a littel cardio which includes sprinting, squats and knee ups. Fun stuff! Its not a great calorie burn but it does work the heezy out of my abs and one day when the layer of fat has rescinded, the world will see my abs! HA!

 

Got a new pic app on mah phone...I likey

 I'm so proud of myself that I dragged myself out of bed this morning!! It was hard.  I enjoy just laying there snuggling my pillows...lol
Tonight I may be doing something super fun! We shall see!

D.

New Month, New Goals...

So February is donezo! March is a remarkable month for me.  My fitversary is in March. It's a great time to  reevaluate and set mah goals for the month!

Read this on activebeat.com

"Aim to Understand Your Motivation
No one would ever deprive themselves of the things they loved without a practical explanation. It’s like saying, “stop eating junk food for no reason at all!” What I mean, is that while you keep your eye on your larger goal—to lose weight for your wedding—let your eyes catch understanding glimpses of why—to live a longer, healthier life with the person you love."

I will say "stop eating junk food", but I will not deprive myself.  This leads me into my goals for March but in a weird way. 
With that being said let me get straight to it...

March Goals

1.   Deeper Commitment  I'm good and commited.  I just have not been pushing as hard as I was in the beginning.  I'm sure it's becasue of the weather. However weather ir not..I am recommitting to my healthy lifestyle. 100% I'm not near where I want to be but I can be closer and will be. Boom!

2.   Schedule Healthy/Fitness Weekend Time My weekends are a FAIL.  Not because I eat out of control but becasue I dont have a plan.  I don't have a set time for workouts or eating.  So I'm going to remedy that this month.

3.   AM Workouts been the goal for the past 2 months....ugh...still working on it

4.   Drop 8-10lbs

Not overzealous, just enough.  I have specific things that need to get done this month and this is not the time to overwhelm myself.

This week also begins Week 5 of T25 Alpha!!! Meaning its the last week of Alpha and then I begin BETA!!!! So this week blogs will consist of me talking about my T25 Alpha, my burn and how I feel about each workout now compared to the beginning!

Thank GOD Spring is coming!

D.