THE best exercise program....EVER!!

Moving is a lot of hard work. Moving is exhausting. Moving sucks. Royally. I haven't gyrated, groaned, or sweat along with any of my exercise DVDs in weeks now. Instead I've been packing, cleaning, and preparing for the big move. I don't need no stinkin' exercise DVD at this point! I'm still maintaining my weight at 180 lbs some days I'm a little less even. I feel good just exhausted from all the physical and mental exertions. Nothing much else to report. My life now revolves around me packing enough shit for 10 people...by myself...and cleaning up after the previous tenants at the new place...did I mention that they had 3 big dogs living in the house with them? Yeaaaahhhhh.....

Just desserts

For dessert tonight I had the choice of chocolate cake, chocolate covered donuts, ice cream, or nothing. What's a girl to do? Make your own healthy dessert that's what!

1/2 cup Nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 cup frozen mixed berries thawed in microwave...I'm sure fresh would be fantastic, too
3 Tablespoons Kashi GoLean cereal
1 packet no calorie sweetener

Combine everything in a bowl.
Stir.
Consume.
Enjoy!

How I get my groove on

Part Two of this whole Mandi Makeover deal has officially been underway for 1 week and 1 day. I've decided to weigh myself every Monday and record it via that cute little fishy swimming through bubbles over there on the top right side of the blog. If you click on him you'll be able to see my progress chart. Like I said, I've been at this a week now and I'm already down 5 lbs. I feel great! I'm eating better, drinking a lot more water, and moving around. My energy level is already up, my stamina has improved, my skin has greatly improved, and I'm getting stronger. The best part is that I already feel so much better and it's freakin' sweet!

The week before I started doing anything I bought 2 DVD sets from Big Lots. The first was a 2 DVD set from Winsor Pilates. It's the Power Sculpting With Resistance series and it also came with a resistance band. The first DVD is more total body while the second one focuses on the abs. The next set I got was Gunnar Peterson's Core Secrets Training Camp. This set also included two 3 pound dumbbells. The best part was that both sets were $10 each.

What I've been doing the past week is working out with a video in the morning and then walking at the local park in the evening when the weather permits. I didn't want to jump into anything too over my head to begin with because that usually ends in me either hurting myself or giving up. The first day I did both Pilates DVDs, the next I did Core Secrets, and the third day I did a Tae Bo with Billy Banks video....which I've had for ever. So far it has worked for me, I cycle through the 3 workout videos and I don't get bored. I think my favorite one is the Core Secrets. The instructor is very straight forward, knowledgeable, and hot..ha! And the routine really works the core....go figure! All the videos I have are for beginners. I'm sure at some point I'll want to up the ante and go for something a little more challenging but for now I think I'll stick with what works.

2-Ingredient, Guilt-Free Recipes

These recipes come courtesy of my new favorite foodie blog, Hungry Girl! I have yet to try any of them but I do plan to in the very near future.


Yum Yum Brownie Muffins
PER SERVING (1 muffin): 181 calories, 3.5g fat, 357mg sodium, 37g carbs, 2g fiber, 20g sugars, 2g protein.


Ingredients:
One box devil's food cake mix (about 18 ounces)
One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix the two ingredients together. The mixture will be very thick, but don't add anything else! Place batter into a 12-cup muffin pan lined with baking cups or sprayed with nonstick spray. Place pan in the oven, and bake for 20 minutes.

MAKES 12 SERVINGS



Hungry Girl's Sweet 'n Sassy Slaw
PER SERVING (1/4th of recipe): 60 calories, 1.5g fat, 415mg sodium, 10g carbs, 3g fiber, 6g sugars, 2g protein.



Ingredients:
One 12-ounce package broccoli cole slaw mix
1/2 cup Newman's Own Lighten Up Low Fat Sesame Ginger Dressing

Directions:
Just toss the slaw and dressing together, and then give the two some alone time in the fridge. (The longer this stuff marinates, the better it'll taste!) Enjoy!

MAKES 4 SERVINGS



Soda-licious Baked Apples
PER SERVING (1 apple): 70 calories, < 0.5g fat, 10mg sodium, 19g carbs, 3g fiber, 14g sugars, 0g protein.

Ingredients: 4 medium-sized Rome apples 1 can diet black cherry soda

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Core apples. Place in a casserole dish. Pour the entire can of soda over apples. Place dish in the oven, and bake for 45 minutes, or until apples are tender. Serve warm, hot or cold.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

For more guilt-free recipes, plus food finds, tips, tricks and more, visit hungry-girl.com and sign up for free daily emails!!!

Long time no post

I suck. I guess that just proves that I am human...right? So my weight is back up to where I started from and I'm feeling like crap again. I guess the time feels right to start all over again. First things first, a fresh look for the ol' blog. That should happen sometime today or tomorrow. Nothing major, I'm thinking of going to a white background, something that looks clean and fresh. We'll see. There are a lot of nice templates out there to choose from. Anyhoo, I'm baaack!

T-E-N

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm down another 5 lbs. I haven't been walking as much as I did in the beginning mainly because it's been too hot (to stuff my face or walk) or I've had more pressing matters to attend to. The weather is starting to break now, and Mom is back on the mend so hopefully I'll start walking again. I don't really know why I started this blog now. I don't really have any great tales to tell on a daily basis. I don't even have before pictures. I guess I could dig some up somewhere, although I shied away from cameras for a while there. I just hope that with Fall coming my cave woman instincts to pack on the pounds don't override my good judgment!

ps...any ideas for some more exciting content?

Pssst

I'm going to call it official...I have lost 5 lbs. Actually it, and possibly a little more, has been off for a while now. I just didn't want to count it "officially" until I was somewhat certain that it couldn't sneak up on me out of nowhere and return! I'm feeling great and that..is..awesome.

Plateau

Is it possible to start out on a plateau or is my scale just playing tricks on me? I've started eating less and moving more and still ever other day I've lost or gained the same 5 pounds...which reminds me, I need to take some "before" pics. I've been avoiding salt and caffeine like the plague although I've never had a problem with either one. I've even started forcing myself to eat one square of dark chocolate everyday which has been a real struggle.....NOT! Has anyone else heard about the latest health benefits found in dark chocolates? You can read about it via the link. I'll eat my chocolate until they come out next month and tell everyone that eating dark chocolate causes babies to be born with two heads and pee to turn an unnatural shade of neon purple. I guess on the upside of all this I have been feeling a little better and that's what this whole adventure is all about. I'm learning to read labels and make healthier food choices. I never realized all the crap I was eating and in turn feeding to my kid. Now that's one hell of a wakeup call.

Speaking of wakeup call, and it may be that crazy hippy in me but I've become obsessed with all things green. I'm not talking about the color but the healthy options out there for my family and the environment. Since becoming a mother I worry more about the legacy I will leave behind and the environmental impact I have and how it will affect future generations. It's a lot to think about. I could go on for a loooong time about all that but that's for a different blog. There is a show on the Discovery Health channel called Get Fresh with Sara Snow that I've found really interesting. I don't get that channel at home but I watched it while visiting my parents last week. There were a couple points brought up that have really stuck with me. The first was about how babies nowadays are born with traces of industrial chemicals in their bloodstream. Click here to read about it. Here's a excerpt which pretty much sums it up...for all those non-clickers out there!

In a study spearheaded by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in collaboration with Commonweal, researchers at two major laboratories found an average of 200 industrial chemicals and pollutants in umbilical cord blood from 10 babies born in August and September of 2004 in U.S. hospitals. Tests revealed a total of 287 chemicals in the group. The umbilical cord blood of these 10 children, collected by Red Cross after the cord was cut, harbored pesticides, consumer product ingredients, and wastes from burning coal, gasoline, and garbage.

Granted the study only tested 10 babies and I didn't see anything about where these babies were from (ie living right beside a coal mine or industrial plant, etc) or if they tested a range of babies in the country, city, etc. I'm sure all that would change study results. The fact that bothers me is that all this pollution is floating around out there even in the food we eat, which the government says is safe, and that it's tainting the bodies of unborn babies. That is just not right and it makes me sick. It honestly makes me want to move to a farm and live self-sufficiently. It really bothers me that the problem feels so huge and I don't see a solution that every man, woman, and child could benefit from.

Another big polluter out there are dead people! Sounds funny doesn't it? Actually it isn't the dead people doing the polluting it's what we do to the dead people before we put them in the ground. From the vaults, to the caskets, to the embalming fluids used the whole process is very bad for the environment, not to mention unnatural. There is a thing out there now called a Green Burial. There are eco-cemeteries that offer environmentally friendly burials. Only non-toxic/eco-friendly embalming fluids, biodegradable caskets, and natural grave markers are used. Markers used could be a big beautiful rock, a tree, etc. creating a living memorial to the person buried beneath. Talk about returning to the earth! I really like this idea a lot. I never even thought about this option or that traditional burials could be so devastating environmentally. Really makes me think...

...boy I sure got off topic, huh? I started out talking about my stubborn first five pounds and end up talking about burying dead people!

What you gonna do with all that junk?

Geof and I have been walking every evening after supper. We go to our local park and walk the trail. I'm not really sure how long the trail is exactly but it winds around in a long oval shape. It runs along a river and is nice and well maintained. My best guess would put one lap at maybe a little over a mile. The other day I was feeling extra energetic and fit and decided that a nice little 50 yard jog would be nice. The good thing is that I wasn't gasping for air at the end, bad thing is that I felt all of my fat for the first time. Seriously. I think my ass cheeks were slapping my shoulder blades. I don't think that's what they mean when they say "pat yourself on the back." Ok, I guess it wasn't that dramatic but it did bruise my ego a bit and boost my motivation at the same time. I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

The Numbers Game

I've decided to get into shape...well, any other shape besides round. Certain health concerns have come to light recently that have really helped to get my ass in gear. While I was out on the road with my husband Nathaniel, I had my blood pressure taken by one of those machines you usually see by the pharmacy in many chain stores. The machine said my blood pressure was 150/88 and according to the American Heart Association, I have stage 1 hypertension. I knew I haven't been feeling quite right for the past year, plus my ankles started swelling pretty bad while Nathaniel and I were on the road. For those who don't know, he is a truck driver and I went out on the road with him recently for a few weeks. As you can imagine my days were spent doing a lot of sitting, which I'm sure is one reason my ankles began to swell.

Seeing my blood pressure reading really hit me hard. My Mom recently had a brain aneurysm, my Dad and both of his parents are diabetic, so I don't come from really healthy stock to begin with. Both of my parents also smoke, at least Mom quit after her health scare. I smoked for a long time and quit at the beginning of the year and also put on about 10 extra pounds. I weighed last Friday and I am 195 lbs. @ 5'9" tall. I don't think I look grotesque or anything, but I definitely look like I haven't missed too many meals!

I'm ready to get healthy now. I want my fat pants to fall off me again! I want to be here to nag my husband and son for as long as I can! I'm moving more, eating better, and staying away from cigarettes and salt. Hopefully that will get my numbers down. Stay tuned..!