PRE PREGNANCY JEANS!!!

3/18 Weight: 143lbs total pounds lost: 18lbs, 13 more to go
Body fat %: 21.8% total body fat % lost: 6.2%


WOO HOO!! This was a big deal for me. I actually fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans last Saturday, but I am just now getting around to taking a pic. Ever since I started my "fitness journey" on Jan 1, I have been trying on these jeans--about every week. When I first started, I couldn't even get my legs into them. Then it was "I can get my booty in", then it was "okay now I can pull them all the way up" then "ok now I can button them....now I can zip....now I can zip and button, but man they're tight...now I can actually walk in them..." and NOW I can actually wear them with a tight shirt. Sweet!! I'm very excited as this means that I'm basically back to where I started pre-pregnancy, so I can fit into about 75% of my wardrobe now, THANK GOODNESS! Now from here on out will be getting back to "pre-wedding" and then some!!
I was kind of bummed last Saturday, as I didn't meet my goal. But that just gives me more motivation to work even harder. I can't believe I'm already down to 143... I feel a lot bigger than I did before I was pregnant, and maybe that's just because I'm in "fitness" mode and I want to be in really good shape--which I was definitely NOT in shape before I was pregnant. In fact, I was just looking at some of my past body fat percentages, and even back in 2006, I was at 23%. So I am at a lower body fat % than I was when I got married, that is AWESOME! That just means that when I do hit the low 130's I will be even more toned than I was at my wedding.
I'm really excited to get to my goal. I'll be taking more pics in a little bit when I hit 141 so that I can do another "comparison" pic after losing yet another 10 pounds!

A few of my favorite things...

Hi everyone. Apologies for a blogging break. Things are good. I had a terrible weekend. I was up very late on Thursday night due to a small "emergency" and I was playing catch up on sleep. Needless to say I missed my favorite, Saturday workout, and although I did workout later in the day, it just isn't as good. I am a totally different person when I work out in the mornings. It just is such a great starter to my day, that when I miss my morning workout, yikes, I am unpleasant. Mostly because I'm upset with myself for sleeping in and missing my workout. Anyway, I redeemed myself and had a great workout Monday.

Tuesday was a great day because even though Boyd had a meeting in the morning, and I wasn't able to go to the gym, I did a workout video and then went and ran a mile outside (yep a whole mile this time!) and I burned just as many calories as I did at the gym. It was good to do that to know that even when I can't get to the gym, I can still push myself and get in a good workout.

So my jeans that I bought when I was about 2 months pregnant are now getting too big, and although I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans, they are still a little too tight to wear all day. So I put on one of my cute belts that I haven't worn in a really long time, and it looks great! Nothing hangin over, haha. So that was pretty exciting! I'm hoping by next week my pre-pregnancy jeans will be "wearable."

As I was watching The Biggest Loser last night (and doing jumping jacks during commercials to burn the extra calories I needed to meet my goal) they had a little part on how many calories, fat and sodium were in different fast food items. It's frightening. Especially since Boyd and I lived on fast food practically our entire marriage. Now you may think that that's how I was raised, but on the contrary, we hardly ever ate out growing up. I guess it was just easier especially since I was in school, and Boyd was working, and it's such a social thing for us. But since January 1, the only eating out we've done is Subway once or twice a month and Cafe Rio (salads) once or twice a month. I don't think we've ever gone this long without Taco Bell or Domino's. I think we're really on the right track this time. Cooking at home is getting easier and easier and actually pretty fun. I like discovering new things to make.

In addition to that, there are a few things that are my "saving graces" they help me stay on track. I thought I'd share them with you...

My bodybugg. Unfortunately, I have the bigger version (I want this new smaller one), but it still does the same thing. It is AWESOME. Just last night, I checked it at 11:30pm, and I still had 130 calories to burn (before 11:59) in order to meet my goal. So I did jumping jacks during the commercials during The Biggest Loser. Without my BodyBugg I wouldn't have done the extra work because I would have thought that because I worked out, I did enough...but not so. I love my bodybugg!

So even though I'm doing better at cooking at home, there does come times where I don't have everything I need to cook, or time is short, so we need something quick. Subway is the answer! I love that I can have a full sandwich and I know exactly how many calories are in it. Subway is great.

If it weren't for Skinny Cows, I wouldn't be eating good still. Is it included in the "perfect meal plan"? no. But it's a dang good alternative to eating desserts. For 140 calories, you can have a big, yummy ice cream sandwich. ONE cookie has more than 200 calories in it, that's just one small cookie, but I can just have one of these and stay within my calorie budget, but still feel satisfied. I love them!

Weigh of Life digital scale. This scale is AMAZING. If you are not measuring your food, I guarantee you, you're eating more than you think. When you really start measuring out your food (not in measuring cups, but on a scale), you really start to see how small portions really are, and how many calories are really in what you're eating. This scale comes with a little booklet with hundreds of common foods in it. So you put your food on the scale, punch in the code for the food you are eating, and it tells you the EXACT nutritional info for the amount of food you're eating. For foods that aren't in the book, you can just measure how many grams are in your food, then look it up on calorie-count.com. You HAVE to measure your food if you want to really count calories. A digital scale makes it easy too. If I'm having oatmeal in the morning, I make my oatmeal, then but the bowl on the scale before I turn it on, then turn it on and it starts at zero. Add what I want, turn off, turn on, zero again. It's great. Love love love this scale!!

George Foreman Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grill. This grill is awesome. Pound out a chicken breast, put on some Grill Mates seasonings, throw on the Foreman, voila, yummy chicken in about 5 minutes to eat plain, or put in a salad . I also cook turkey burgers on it. It's fab. If you don't have one of these, you should. You can also make grilled sandwiches in it, one of Boyd's faves.

BodyCombat. I know I've said this before, but I LOVE this class. It is so fun, I feel like I'm not only burning tons of calories, but I feel strong and powerful while I'm doing it too. Plus I honestly feel like I'm learning a little bit of self defense at the same time. GREAT class.

So my sister-in-law introduced me to this trick. I don't drink diet soda, but I love soda. Dilemma. So I've started to drink seltzer waters (I like the lemon or lime flavored ones best) and it really gives me my "soda" craving without any sugar or aspartame. I love the carbonation, it just satisfies me enough. Now if you're used to drinking coke or even diet coke, this stuff is pretty nasty. But if you go straight from water to seltzer, it's pretty yum-o. I love it, it helps me a lot.

Presto PopLite Air Popper. I love popcorn. Popping it airpopped is the best way to do it (healthiest). So I'll have this for a night time snack, and I put just a teeny bit of butter on it (not even a tablespoon) and then shake some salt on there, and have a Perrier to drink, soooo good! I feel like it's cheating, but it's not. You can have a lot of popcorn for a little bit of calories. I even pop it and put it in a ziplock before I go to a movie, then bring my own Perrier, and I don't even feel tempted to go to the snack bar (not to mention I save about $10!). Airpoppers are the best! And no mess to clean up either. LOVE IT.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my favorite things, maybe you'll try them and like them too! I really think that with any diet routine, you have to have some tricks to get you through. It's all about preparation!!!

Love

Sarah

Milestones

YES! I broke 150 this weekend! Hallelujah! Goodbye to the 50's. Hopefully I can get the 40's over within a few weeks too. My goal for Thursday is 148, which is exciting because before I was pregnant (a year before) I was 148, so after I hit that I can no longer say I'm the biggest I've ever been! Then 2 weeks from Thursday, I'll be back to pre-pregnancy weight (144) so that's exciting too.
Also, I wore a fitted pre-pregnancy dress this weekend! It was very exciting as it is really fitted around my torso, and I remember trying it on fairly early in my pregnancy and it didn't fit. Now it does!! Woo hoo. I also ran a mile today and have been increasing the levels on my cardio machines. I'm feelin' good!!

Goin for a record...

Tomorrow is weigh in day... and I am just hoping that I break 150. I've GOTTA do it. I'm sick of being in the 150's and ready to get the 140's out of my way too. :) I just checked my calories burned and I've already exceeded my target, so I'm going to go for a record and try and burn 400 more cals before midnight to make today the most calories burned in a day thus far (the most I've burned is 3100). I've already done BodyCombat, 1/2 mile run, 1.5 mile walk, and a 20 minute workout video today. I bought 2 new workout videos since Boyd has been working a lot and getting to the gym in the evenings for my second workout is tough, so I'm going to try out The Firm and see how it goes.
Those of you that have known me for a while know that while I am a decent cook, I don't do it much (now baking, I love...but I've had to say bye-bye to that for a while). I'm not sure why this is...well actually I guess it's because in the past I've looked at cooking as more of a chore than anything--too time consuming. I like doing it for parties or for company but cooking for two everynight? Way too much work. Well being on a strict calorie limitation and making a vow to get healthier, I have developed a new found love of cooking!! I'm discovering new recipes, modifying them to be low calorie, and mixing up different things for creative concoctions-- in addition I've found a few tricks to make it go faster and not be so time consuming. I've found inspiration in my friends Jayme and Loni, they seem to always be making yummy and healthy food and I get a lot of good ideas from them. It is a little challenging as Boyd is still a little weary of home cooking (he thinks it is "too much work" for me) and is also kinda picky, but he's doing good. I tell him that I'll make enough for him and if he doesn't want it, he can have a Lean Cuisine and I'll eat his for lunch the next day--- but he's eaten everything I've made thus far. Tonight I made these AMAZING coconut chicken fingers. I found a recipe online and modified it to make it lower cals, it was fantastic, I got an A+ from Boyd! Woo hoo! Here's the recipe:

Sarah's Fantastic Coconut Chicken Fingers
Cut 1 chicken breast into chunks (or strips, however you like it)
Mix together in a bowl: 1/4 C. coconut, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp garlic powder
Beat 1 egg in a bowl
Dip chicken in egg, then coconut mixture, place in baking dish
Drizzle 1 Tbs. melted Smart Balance (or butter if you don't care about low cal) over chicken
Bake in oven at 350 for 25 mins

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce:
Mix 2 Tbs honey with 1 Tbs. dijon mustard

So yummy!!
Well I gotta get my groove on and break my highest calories burned record!

WOAH! Half-way point pics!

So I decided to do half-way pictures tonight, and HOLY COW. I'm super amazed at how far I've come. Now I still do have a lot more to go but it was nice to see the comparison and see that I'm getting my booty back and I no longer look pregnant! Lol. I can't believe how I still look preggers in my side view start pic! Here they are... (this is why I braved posting my start pic, because I knew there would be progress pics!!)

What a difference 10 pounds makes! It's exciting to me to think about what the end pics will look like... in 20 more pounds!!

I cannot even believe how I still look pregnant in this start pic! I'm so glad I took it because I would have never thought that I looked like that! And look at me now! I'm getting a booty again! lol!

Here is a fun pic, testing out the self timer on my camera, yep it works! Next time you see pics of me, I'm gonna have a rockin' bod! (And maybe I'll brush my hair next time too, hahaha)

This Is What It Takes...

So today was kind of a bummer, I weighed myself and I was a pound more than I was Saturday (even though I didn't have ANY sweets or dessert on Valentines day), but my weight does tend to flucuate throughout the week, so I'll get it back. I'm determined to work my booty off this week (literally!) in order to break 150,I've gotta do it.

This is what it takes to reach my goal...

I elevated my heart rate FOUR times today in order to reach my calories burned goal (and exceed it by a little bit). Normally you would think that doing an hour of cardio and working with a trainer for half an hour would be PLENTY in order to lose 2.5 pounds per work. Nu uh. I basically did 4 workouts today and I BARELY made it. I guess most days I am fairley sedentary, working on my computer and just hangin out with Eli, so I really have to make a consious effort to move throughout the day. Whether that's a walk (thats what I did for my 2nd peak today) or cleaning the house (hey two bird with one stone!) or whatever, moving is really key.

I'm training for the Salt Lake City Marathon 5k. lol I know that sounds funny "marathon 5 K" but they do a marathon, half-marathon, and a 5k. I am NO WHERE near being able to do a half marathon, so my mom and I (and any one else that's wants to join, Laci?) are going to run it. WHen I was working out with Laci, I ran 1.5 miles in about 13 mins (correct me if I'm wrong Laci), so if I can do the 5k in 25mins, I'll be excited.

Day 44 (halfway)

Whew! I haven't done my Saturday workout in a while! I was out of town, and then before that I was sick, so today was a big shocker. I did NOT want to work out this morning (as usual) and was even kind of hoping that my hubby would ask me to stay because he was too tired to watch Eli. But being the wonderful supporter he is, he didn't. So I had to go to the gym. Pump was great and I pushed myself harder than I ever had with more weights, so I really got a good workout (even though my legs were killing me from all those lunges Mike made me do yesterday). Then Combat started. It's so funny to me that I love Combat so much when I'm not doing it. When I'm doing it I think to myself, "what are you DOING?!?!" Every combat class without fail, I think "Ok I give up, after this song, I'm leaving." But then I tell myself that I've never left a class early, and I've even done it while I was sick, so I can't give up. Then of course the next song comes on and I'm like "okay this one is a little easier, I can handle it." Then the cycle continues until the class is finally over. lol. I guess whatever gets you through right? But it is definitely a GREAT feeling leaving the gym feeling AWESOME! Anyway that's my day today...
I was pretty frustrated at my training session on Thursday. I didn't lose ANY weight over vacation, which may sound like a good thing, as I didn't gain any weight. But I tried really hard to workout and eat good. Oh well. Today I weighed myself and I was 151, it would be awesome to break 150 before next Thursday!

So sorry!

Hi All
Okay so I'm a terrible blogger. Sorry! I hope you all haven't given up on me...
A quick update: last week totally STUNK, I only lost 0.8 pounds, and I was sick. I had a cold for almost two weeks and then it ended up turning into a sinus infection. Loads of fun.
Right now I am on vacation in California. But I'm staying strong and have been eating good, as well as squeezing in a workout everyday. It hasn't been as rigourous as my at home routine, but at least it's something. Loni will kick my butt at the gym tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that!
I got on Jayme's scale--which she says is pretty accurate, and it said I was 150! Now I'm hoping that is true, that will help catch me up and get back on track. We will see!!