Planning Part 2: Food Plan

Daily Calorie Budget:  around 1462 calories
Tracking Tool: LoseIt! App
--I will track my daily intake with the LoseIt app, which I'll use to sync to the web site.  Weekly, on "Week In Review Sundays," I'll post my progress for the week.

I have a few ideas for what I'll eat for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks.  There are a lot of really good shakes I found on Dashing Dish for breakfast.  I'll be eating those almost every day.  Once in a while, I'll throw in some eggs or oatmeal.  For lunch, each week I will plan a "Salad of the Week."  I have a lot of good salad ideas from Undressed Skeleton.  Once a week, I'll get all ingredients together and ready for the salad I choose for the week, and I'll be eating that each day.  Some days, I'll eat it with soup, and/or a breadstick.  This is one way for me to get my veggies in.  Snacks will be planned each week.  They'll mainly be fruits w/ a protein (cheese), or Chobani mixed with some Mio or sugar free pudding mix.  Dinners will be planned each week.  These will vary.

And, absolutely NO SODA!  I'm going cold-turkey with that shit.  No way can I let myself drink it in moderation.  Doesn't work for me.  I have a water bottle on my desk at work, along with some iced tea mix.  The iced tea mix, and coffee, will be my new best friends.        

Planning Part 1: Workout Plan

The "planning" posts are going to go up in separate posts.  But as you can see above, my plan is starting to come together!   :)   I have lots of ideas.  Let's start with the workout plan.

Morning
Monday - CTX Power Circuit
Tuesday - CTX Step & Intervals
Wednesday - CTX Leaner Legs
Thursday - CTX All Step
Friday - CTX Kickbox
Saturday - CTX 10-10-10

Evening
Monday - Zumba (5:30-6:30)
Tuesday - BodyStep (5:25-6:25) | BodyPump (6:30-7:30) OR Dance (7:30-9:00)
Wednesday - BodyStep (5:30-6:30)
Thursday - BodyStep (5:25-6:25) | BodyPump (6:30-7:30)

My morning workouts are Cathe workout DVD's - her Cross-Train Xpress series.  All videos (except Leaner Legs) have about 30 minutes of intense cardio, followed by an upper body part workout, which is about 15 minutes.  Evening workouts are YMCA workouts.  In 2 weeks, dance will be starting - that'll be on Tuesday nights 7:30-9:00.  It'll depend how I'm feeling each Tuesday - I may go to the BodyStep class AND dance, or just dance.  We'll see.

I know it's intense.  But I need intense.  Let's do this.  Stay tuned as I post more planning posts!

Zumba

Has anyone else tried Zumba?  I am a dancer - I've been in dance for nearly 20 years now, so of course this Zumba craze was intriguing to me.  Can you believe I've waited so long to try it?  My first try at it was on Monday night - I went to a Zumba class at the local Y.  I always was afraid it'd be too easy - I'm used to hardcore, leaps and turns, type of dancing.  Not the shake your booty for fun type of thing.

So what did I think.  Well, it was okay.  I know it probably depends on the teacher.  And I don't mean to be prejudice or anything (because I, myself, am overweight), but as soon as I saw that the instructor was overweight, I was turned off.  Before the class even started.  When I think of Zumba, I think of Latin.  When I think of Latin, I think of those sexy and curvaceous latinas.  Our instructor was not that at all.  I know, it sounds really mean, and I feel really bad saying this.  But it's the truth.  But I decided to stay and give it a try anyway.  

My boyfriend being Hispanic, I know a lot of the Hispanic songs.  I really love Latin/South American music - so fun to dance to.  But the songs the instructor picked out were not motivating.  Some of them a couple of them were fun, but the rest were just not Latin enough.  Sorry Beyonce, I know you're Bootylicious and you want all of us Single Ladies to embrace our single-hood; I just don't want to dance to your music when I'm in a LATIN class.  

Will I give it another try?  Maybe.  It will have to be a different instructor.  And I do have a Zumba game for my XBox 360 Kinect that I plan on trying (that way I can pick out my own songs).  It just sucks that instructors like that can ruin a class for someone only on their first try.  I know enough to know that not all Zumba classes should be treated equal, but some don't know that.  That's why gyms really need to be strict on who they hire as instructors, and make sure their instructors follow the tradition of the class they're teaching.

Sick

I know I promised a post last night.  But life got in the way.  So sue me.  I got a lot done yesterday - cleaned the apartment, did the huge pile of dishes, did the laundry, and cooked.  Oh, and of course I watched Big Brother.    =)    LOVE that show.

Today is going to be a slow day at work, so I may be able to put something up.  I'm actually feeling under the weather though.  I'm getting a cold, and last night I took some Nyquil before bed.  I was exhausted this morning and could not get out of bed.  I almost called in to work, but I have no vacation time right now - I'm actually at a negative balance.  That's the one thing that sucks about this company.  The vacation time absolutely sucks.

Well back to work.  And I need to get me some coffee before my head plonks down on this desk and I start sleeping.

What Do I Weigh Wednesday

149.8

So, not as bad as a couple weeks ago.  But still not where I want to be.  I'd like to get out of the 140s at least by the end of October.  At least.  I think it's do-able.  Scratch that....I KNOW it's do-able.

I keep promising that I'll put up my plan.  Life has been so hectic.  Having problems with the ex/boyfriend/who know's what the hell he is.  Yeah.  Lovely.  But it certainly has given me drive.  I marched right back to the YMCA this weekend to get a membership again.  Like hell if I'm going to let him degrade me the way he did.  I'll show him.

I promise tonight I'll post my plan.  Yes, really.

Twins

So I recently found out (last week) that I won some Twins tickets!  And I've never been to the new (outdoor) stadium, so I'm pumped.  And now?  I'm even more pumped.  Why?  Because the game is September 25.....and they're playing the YANKEES!!  How awesome is that??  My first ever Twins game, and my first time in the new stadium...and the flippin' game is against the YANKEES.  Who is Derek Jeter dating right now??????  **Racing to Google**    

 ......oh.  Hannah Davis.  Whoever that is....some fashion model I guess.  Ewwww...and she's younger than me!!!   :O    Derek, can you please go back to Cameron Diaz before then and have a little fling with her so she can go to the game??  Please, pretty please??   :)    (And yes, I know he reads this)

Still working on my plan.  I will say that I came up with my meal plans for the week, and got some yummy snacks and healthy dinners/lunches squared away.  So far so good this week.  I'll post more on that later.  It's a little busy at work today, so not sure if I'll have time to do any planning.  Maybe tonight....not much going on.  Other than Big Brother, but I can multi-task.    =)  

Make it a good day!

Crabby Pants

I know I said I would come back last week and write about my plan.  But life and work got busy, and I just didn't have time.  We had our company picnic on Saturday, and I helped to plan it (because in the future, I'll be in charge of planning it).  It was close to 1500 people, so yeah, it's a huge deal and a lot of work.  Seriously, though, that's not something that someone in benefits should have to be doing.  I have a lot more important things I could be doing, rather than the "fluff" side of HR.

I'm just in a crappy mood today.  I really need to catch up on my sleep.  I got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep Friday night because I was so worried about the picnic.  Then Saturday night, it was my boyfriend's friend's birthday party, and my jerk of a boyfriend sure didn't care that I got NO sleep the night before, and we didn't get home until 4:30 in the morning.  Yeah.  I was pissed to say the least.  Then we had to get up at 9:00 because he had a soccer game.  I was not amused.  I'm still not, because I'm dying over here.  I feel like a zombie.  I just want my bed.

And I'll leave you with that.  Because I don't feel like being all cheerleader-y and motivating today.  Deal with it.

WTF?!

I stepped on the scale today....just for shits and giggles.  People...it was horrifying.  I about collapsed and had a heart attack right there.  Imagine the frightening image my cat saw when I cursed the scale and lost it.  The past month or so, I've been holding steady between 147-149.  Today?

153.8

Gross.  Now I know it's not all real weight...I was a pig yesterday and ate pretty much everything in sight, so I'm hoping it's water weight.

This has to stop.  My eating is starting to get out of control again, and I keep telling myself I'm going to start an exercise program, and never do.  I try to get up in the mornings to work out, but I don't.  No more of that.

Expect another blog post from me today.  I'll be making plans.  This is happening.  And I know a lot of people (including myself) make huge, grand plans, and then never follow through.  But that's what I have this blog for.  And I need to force myself to stick to it.  I'm tired of living this way.

I'll be back in a bit.

Plan A-Z

I wonder why it is that whenever I start to think about eating healthy and try to keep track of what I eat, I end up eating more.  I seriously feel like a marshmallow right now.  I'm not having a fat day....I'm having a fat week.  It's so hard to find a healthy eating plan to stick to - especially when you have a boyfriend who is one of the pickiest eaters in the world.  And I don't have the money to be buying ingredients for us to be eating two separate dinners.  *sigh*

I know.  I am the queen of excuses (but yes, he seriously is worse than a kid - he will hardly eat anything.  And I'm not an expert at Ecuadorean cooking).  Not all of it is due to food though.  I can certainly learn to get my lazy butt out of bed in the morning and actually try to workout.  It happened once.  I'm just not a morning person, and apparently I'm not an afternoon or evening person either.  I'm just lazy all-around.  *sigh again*

I need to have a plan in place.  And a plan B, a plan C, and all the way to Z.  Because I sure as hell am good at making excuses...if I plans A-Z, certainly I couldn't make 26 excuses.  Oh hell yes I could.

Anyway....back to work.  I'm leaving work early today because the HR team gets to go paint a house.   :O   It's some charity work our company does every year.  Should be fun.  It'll just be nice to get outside and off my office-made pancake butt.

Cooking and Big Brother

Well well look at me....so excited to start blogging and I disappear for a few days already.  Typical.  Ha...at least no one reads this blog.    ;)

I really wish Big Brother was on tonight....I am obsessed with that show.  I would get the live feeds, but I'm a sorry-ass broke girl with no money right now.  *sigh*   But there's always my BBDish.    :)

I'm making dinner right now - chicken and onions/corn with some South American spices (the Boyfriend is from Ecuador).  And of course a side of rice.  No Ecuadorean meal is complete without a side of stick-to-your-abs-thighs-and-butt white rice.    :)   I need to work on not eating so much rice if I want to lose that 30 pounds I plan on losing before the end of the year!

And while I'm at it, I should probably get my butt in gear and start working out.  This sedentary girl needs to work out if she wants to eat yumminess, and not live off of cardboard in order to lose the weight (I'm only half-kidding - I know I need to watch what I eat....but I also believe in moderation and not limiting yourself so much that you're miserable!).  I ordered Cathe's Cross Train Xpress series, and it should be arriving in the mail some time this week!  My workouts will basically be planned out for me.  Can't ask for anything better than that.

Okay, time to get back to my cooking and Big Brother obsession.  Laters!  <----Yes, that's a 50 Shades of Grey reference.  GET.  THE.  BOOK.    >:-)

Mountain Dew...And All That Jazz

Eat, Live, Dance, and Repeat.  My new blog.  I'm Heather, and I've been an on-again, off-again blogger for a few years.  I like to write, but I never have much time (or the internet) to do it.  It's time to change that.  I'm going to make time, and now I have an internet connection at home, so I have all the access I want.

So why this blog?  I've always been one to constantly try to improve myself.  Not that there's anything wrong with me (pfft, I'm damn near perfect), but I believe that one should always work on creating a better version of themselves.  The one big aspect that really needs some work is my weight.  I've been on a constant struggle with my body since I started college.  All those Mountain Dews I was chug-a-lugging in high school really didn't do anything to me because I was dancing a billion hours a day (I'm a dancer, hence the "Dance" in the title - no, not that kind of dancer, perverts).  I could eat whatever the hell I wanted when I wanted.  A quadruple-sized fry for a snack?  Sure.  15 billion liters of Mountain Dew?  Bring on the diabetes - I'm still skinny, bitches!  A whopper for breakfast?  Bring. It. On!!  Okay, maybe not for breakfast, but you get the picture.  I ate a lot of shit, and threw a few veggies in there now and then for good measure.  And being from Minnesota, our dinners were generally of the meat and potato type (see, I told you the veggies were thrown in there............what? Potatoes are a starchy veggie).

I love food, but sadly the dancing stopped for a few years once I entered college.  But not the food.  Oh hell no...I was in college now.  I could eat my diabetes in a bowl cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I could eat my scary science experiment mac n cheese in a blue box every day without someone giving me the stink eye.  And Mountain Dew.....mmmmmm, Mountain Dew.  I could take that stuff, rub it all over me, and swim in a pool of mountain dew.  I bet I could even breathe under a pool of mountain dew....it was like my life line (don't you all want a Mountain Dew now?  You're welcome.).

Okay, but you get the point.  All that food + no exercise = one lumpy Heather.  It's not pretty, and with my (boring and un-motivating) desk job, it's even harder to stay on track.  I'm 5'1", 27 years old, and weigh 148 pounds.  And my boobs are the size of Texas.....yes, they're real.  I really don't think I'm terribly disgusting, but my boobs make me look like a beached whale.  If losing this weight doesn't change that, I'm thinking of getting a breast reduction.

But I digress.  I've gotten off-topic.  This blog is not only going to help me in my journey to lose weight, but I want it to help me become a more organized person.  My apartment is a mess y'all (yes, I'm Minnesotan and just said y'all).  I have no sense of organization or cleanliness, and I spend hundreds of dollars a month on food that eventually gets thrown away every month.  All this is because I don't organize and plan my meals.  And I'm really bad at finding recipes with the same types of ingredients, so when I do go to the grocery store, my eyes pop out of my skull when I see the bill is almost $200.  For the week.  For two people.  Yeah.

So there you have it.  This is my blog, and I plan on using it to create a better Heather.  And to pretend I'm famous among the 0 people that read this.   :)