Day 4 - Thursday, November 12th

Yay! It’s Thursday which means that tomorrow is Friday!! Today was a really good day. I watched this really amazing documentary called War Dance which is about 3 children in Northern Uganda. The documentary follows their journey to the Ugandan National Championship of Song and Dance. Absolutely incredible and so touching. These children are beautiful, strong and so courageous. Their story makes any of our “challenges” seem pretty easy to handle. Even though their story is sad at times, in the end it is a beautiful story about life, family and friends. If you would like to learn more about it go to Shine Global.

Day 4 of my Special K Challenge:

Breakfast: Chocolaty Delight Cereal + Chai Tea Latte
AM Snack: Chocolaty Dipped Raspberry Bliss Bar
Lunch: Go lean Crunch Protein Bar
PM Snack: Strawberry Cereal Bar
Dinner: 3 Cheese Wheat Ravioli with Chunky Vegetable Marinara Sauce + one slice of garlic toast

Workout: Off day! Yay!

Today was a day that proves that Life is the journey, not the destination. Be happy with yourself and who you are and enjoy the ride!

Special K Challenge - Day 3 - Wednesday, November 11th

Today was one of those really tough motivation days. I just wasn’t feelin’ it, but I did it anyway. I followed my workout and my diet, although I did eat a very small piece of bread after I got home and before working out.

Concerning the diet, it does include a lot of bars and I agree with you Linda that bars are not always so good. Pretty much the only time I eat protein bars was for Breakfast which was a habit I picked up on deployment because it was just easier. However, my office doesn’t have a microwave and I was having trouble coming up with creative alternatives. So, I started getting a case of sandwichitis and boring saladitis which then led to the trips to Schlotzky’s and Arby’s. The Special K Bars are very convenient, affordable, and they satisfy my chocolate cravings!!

Day 3:

Breakfast - Special K Red Berries Cereal + Herbal Tea
AM Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar
Lunch - Vanilla Protein Shake + Strawberries
PM Snack - Italian, Tomato and Basil Crackers
Cheat Alert - Small piece of bread : (
Dinner - Turkey Burger topped with Guacamole and black bean, corn and tomato salad

Workout: 5 min warm up, 10 minute interval jogging, 5 min cool down followed by abdominal workout.

Today was a tough day because I wasn’t feeling very well, but I’m proud of myself for following through on the workout today. Tomorrow is an OFF day, yay!!

Special K Challenge - Day 2 - Tuesday, November 10th

I wanted to do a little more explanation on the Special K Challenge today. Technically the challenge is to follow the diet for 2 weeks and drop a jean size. I’m planning on doing this for 6 weeks (minus Thanksgiving of course), but that doesn’t mean I think I am going to lose 3 jean sizes (honestly, I don’t think that would be very healthy for me anyway). I just need to tone up a bit and get back to my “fighting” weight, or so they say and hopefully get into some better eating habits. I was going a little overboard with the sugar...but really, I blame my mother’s side of the family. They have the sweet tooth, but honestly I can’t really only blame them, my grandfather on my dad’s side did eat ice cream every night. Well, I was cursed from both sides, not too mention the fact that when I was a baby my sister poured chocolate syrup all over my face. I have always said that she was trying to drown me in chocolate (not such a horrible way to go), but she claims that my parents made her a sundae and she thought I would want some too. Well all I have to say to that is, “What about the ice cream! Hello!”

OK, so now on to today’s efforts.

Day 2:

Breakfast - Red Berries Waffles w/ Lite Syrup and Strawberries and Herbal Tea Latte
AM Snack - Chocolatey Raspberry Drizzle Bliss Bars (This was ok, it ended up being crunchy which surprised me a little)
Lunch - Go Lean Crunch Bar (I have a few that I need to finish off before I buy the Special K Protein Meal Bars) and Grapes
PM Snack - Strawberry Cereal Bar (This was ok as well, not my favorite)
Dinner - We made turkey burgers (topped with guacamole) and baked fries. Always a favorite!

Work-Out: 20 minute jog with interval inclines (while watching Barefoot Contessa - one of my favorites especially since she has been adding in somewhat healthier meals)

Well, that’s it for today. Overall, a good day with good amount of self motivation. Instead of being hungry later in the evening, I was hungry at lunch. Weird since I had a bigger breakfast.

Special K Challenge - Day 1 - Monday, November 9th

This week I've decided to start the Special K Challenge. It's amazing how easy it is to slip into laziness when it comes to work-outs when you are no longer on deployment and very angry! On deployment I was working out like crazy because 1) I didn't have anything else to do and 2) It was the only way I could sleep well and 3) It was the only way to get my anger out (Anger just goes with deployment). So, because I was working out so much I could really eat anything I wanted, especially since I usually only got 2 meals in a day. Well, that time is well over and I need to start reigning myself in before it gets bad. So, Special K Challenge and a new 6 week work-out program has started. I have decided that I might try to write about my 6 week experience here, just to keep myself motivated. My goal is to lose around 10 pounds, but really the poundage doesn't have to be exact, just need to tone up a bit.

Day 1: I unfortunately didn't weigh myself today because I didn't think about it until I got home from work, but I'm pretty sure it's around 120ish.

For breakfast I had yummy Special K Red Berries Cereal and some Hot Chocolate. Unfortunately I didn't eat my serving of fruit so I ended up being hungry later in the day. Morning Snack - Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Snack Bar (delicious!). Lunch - Vanilla Protein Shake (not as bad as I thought it would be) and Grapes. Afternoon Snack - Italian Tomato and Basil Crackers and Herbal Tea. Dinner - Open Faced Roast Beef sandwich with Black Bean, Corn and Tomato Salad.

The food was good, but I was really hungry after my workout. I am going to have to be super careful to make sure I eat everything I'm supposed to.

For my workout, I did 20min cardio (jogging) and an upper body workout. All in all, it felt good to be back in the healthy swing of things.

Wish me luck on Day 2!! All cardio day and I have to actually warm up breakfast and go in to work a little bit early, so we will see if I actually follow through on the scheduled breakfast of waffles. Sounds so good that it might just work!

Halloween Treats

Last night Z and I made some Halloween brownie bites! They were delicious. I copied the recipe from Bakerella's blog for Spider bites. Well, instead of spiders we went simple and just decorated with Halloween sprinkles. Bakerella also made her brownies from scratch, but I decided to just use a boxed brownie....Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge brownies to be exact.


Then we used some semi-sweet bakers chocolate to dip them in. Z had the job of adding the sprinkles. Didn't he do a great job!! Not only is Z a cutie, but these brownie bites are pretty darn cute too!


These are so super simple and very versatile, they are perfect for every occasion! Check out all of Bakerella's ideas, she is a genius. Here is the link to Bakerella's version.
Happy Late Halloween!

Blog GiveAways

One great thing about blogs are giveaways!! They are awesome because all you have to do is read your favorite blogs and you can win free stuff!! This week, my wonderful Aunt - ok, actually cousin, Linda is giving her first blog giveaway. She has a great blog about all the wonderful things in life and some zany things as well, which I adore reading. I think you would enjoy it as well. For her first giveaway the prize is The Pioneer Woman Cookbook!! If you don't know anything about either of these blogs, start out at Linda's: http://www.ourmushpush.com/

Have fun!!