December=Joulukuu=Christmas month

I've been bad. Funny how it seems we all start like this now.
Xmas is coming so I've decided to take it easy. Not worry about too much. There's going to be a lot of chocolate and good food and all that stuff that comes with xmas. I decided I'll start my new life (yet again) after new years. I try to be a bit careful with what I eat. At least my lunches are always (well almost always) healthy and not too big.
Ok so what I'm trying to say is everything is pretty much the same as before only this time I'm just going to take it easy for a month.

xmas is coming...

...and i've been bad!! :(

i picked up a seasonal job at world market, which is nice, but i'm working about 18 hrs a week there on top of my 40 hr/week job. i do run around a lot at world market, since it's retail, but i haven't been to the gym in a while, now...i just get too tired!

and, our vendors often bring in treats for christmas at work, which is left in the breakroom, and is hard to resist. AND at my other job, we get to eat the food that has been damaged (well, their packaging usually is damaged), which is good, but bad at the same time!

i think that tony is getting me the wii fit for xmas, so that might help for days that i don't want to go to the gym. other than that, do you guys have any suggestions?!?!

Hmm,

I haven't been that good lately. I had to go down to Phoenix for the weekend, so I didn't get my runs in. So today I am picking up again with week 4, will do that today and Friday and hopefully move on to Week 5 next Monday. Though I'm afraid of week 5, because the last of the 3 runs is just a 15 min. run, which will be the longest straight run I've done!

I have been doing some hikes, and need to keep it up while the weather is nice, though I suppose I can always run down to Sedona for warm weather :)

I haven't been great with eating, but I do need to start getting better with this. I need to balance better and not allow myself to have snacks! Or, just have more healthy snacks around. We'll see what it is like next month when I am at home for break, we'll see if I can make myself run in the snow....

Sounds like you guys are doing ok, though we all need to step it up a notch!

promises

I promised myself I'd stay away from alcohol, chocolate and candy and that I would think about what I eat and so on. It's day 2, I've been unable to stay away from the chocolate we have in the fridge. And today I made a quiche. I chose the lightest bottom for it, i chose 4%fat cream and skim milk, and veggies and ham. I suppose it would have been fine if I hadn't eaten three large pieces of it. (It was just so darn good.)
As far as exercising goes I'm a bit embarrased to even say.. Basically all I ever do is walk home from the grocery store(about half a mile). One day I was all determined to go for a walk only to realize I really don't have any good outdoor clothes to wear. I've ordered a pair of winter outdoor pants from H&M, hoping they'll be perfect for doing stuff outdoors. I'm really going to need them if my bf isn't all talk and we'll actually go skiing on our winter vacation. It's so much fun! and it's been 9 years since my last time..

For a moment there I seriously considered cross-country skiing. My skiis were bought to me when I was 11 so they're not the perfect fit anymore, would have to buy new ones. Expensive. If it's going to be a white winter I'd have a perfectly good skiing routes very near by, only lacking the proper equipment. But knowing me(I lose interest and motivation faster than anyone else), I don't think I'll go buy something that expensive unless I'm sure it's not money down the drain.

good foods!

i finally went grocery shopping this weekend, because as much as i like mac and cheese, i don't like it every day! (tony has it practically every day!) since tony will only buy said mac and cheese, diet soda, and sometimes bread and cheese from the store, we were seriously lacking fruits and veggies. so i went and loaded up on them!

by the way, have you guys ever used plain yogurt as a dipping sauce for carrots? i gave it a try last night, and it was delicious! :D (i usually use ranch).

i worked out on saturday, once again, kicking my own butt. once i get motivated enough to go to the gym on weekends, i go all out. which is good, but i have to work on staying motivated! last week, rebecca cancelled two early morning workouts, and i had set my alarm to get up and go alone, but when there's not someone depending on me, i tend to snooze. oops. oh well...

how are you doing with workouts and eating?

i need to step up my game!

i was all ready to get up early this morning and go to the gym, when rebecca (my workout buddy) texted me a minute before my final alarm saying that she's too tired to go. instead of being motivated to go alone, i just reset my alarm and went back to sleep. dang it!!

i'm thinking i might go after work today. i really need to do it!! (and it would be nice to have some stress relief)

i do have an incentive to frequent the gym more often: if i get in 120 workouts this year, my insurance will give me $100. rebecca said she has 14 left, and i haven't checked online yet to see how many i have left, but i'm hoping to make it!

and, my most recent downfall is goodies at work. i don't really go to the candy jar very much, because i don't go up to the front desk often. but i DO go to the break room every once in a while, and people have been bringing in goodies more and more often. today i had cheese curds, which aren't SO bad, i think, but there were cupcakes yesterday. boooo!

on the upside, i have been drinking my green tea and water very consistently. i do usually need a diet soda or xs drink to get me through work, but i've been limiting myself to only one a day.

Week 3

I just started week 3 of my running podcast. Today it was 5 min. of brisk walk, then 90 sec run/90 sec walk, 3 min run/3 min run, repeat 90/3 and then 5 min. cool down. Not bad. Hopefully I will actually run 3 times this week like I'm supposed to. Last week I only did 2...

I did sign up for classes at the gym at school for next semester for non-credit. So I will be taking Abs and More, 2 times a week, and Body Sculpt the other 2 days a week. I'm hoping that I can maybe run to campus as my main cardio, and then do the strength training during class. I'm hoping that committing to these classes makes me go! I don't really like the gym on campus, and the drop-in classes are PACKED, so hopefully these will be better :) I do have to pay 59/class, but for an entire semester, that isn't bad. Wish me luck. Though I still have 2.5 months to go before those start.

It's back with highs in the 60's and lows in the 30's this week, so hopefully it will be nice out for my runs. I'm not looking forward to running once it starts to snow...

NO MORE CANDY :) That's what I'm doing to deal with it, I've eaten way too much the last few days, so I am now officially stopping.
NO FRIED FOOD
NO CANDY
NO SODA (once I finish the diet coke in my fridge)

I need to start putting more veggies in my diet, and eating less carbs. I've been eating way too many carbs lately. Maybe I'll make some soup or stew that I can put in dishes to take to school for meals....

Good Week

This week was a good week, other than the candy part. I worked out twice and had some pretty strenuous work yesterday. (Imagine carrying 50lb sacks of corn over uneven ground).

I'm trying to plan meals instead of just eating whatever. Having said that, I have no clue what my bf and I are having for dinner. Maybe he'll think of something before I get home! :)

Have a good weekend/Halloween!

halloween!

so...i'm excited about halloween! not quite sure what i'll do about the candy, though...i have the tendency to eat quite a bit of it when there's a supply. any suggestions on cutting back on the candy?

i did not work out today because my workout buddy was taking a vacation day. kind of stinks that i can't get up to work out in the morning unless someone's depending on me! hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to get motivated to go to the gym....i tend to kick my own butt on the weekends!

i made a really yummy slow cooker soup-type thing last night. not sure how healthy it was, so maybe next time i'll add some veggies to it. it consisted of tomato bisque, french onion soup, italian seasoning, tiny shell noodles and mozarella cheese. mmmm.

i wish i could go for a walk after work, but i have a bunch of stuff to do and it's gross weather outside!

i'm going to have to think of good motivation for working out in the winter, when all i want to do is hibernate! maybe if i eventually got a wii-fit, i'd work out more at home. hmm.

hmm

My gym membership ends on Saturday.
I am going to be suffering from a hang-over on Sat. Tomorrow I'll be busy all day. I though of going to astanga yoga for the first and last time ever. Something tells me it's not going to happen. It's a bit late and it's already dark as midnight..
And it's too far away. Excuses, I know. But I just can't get myself going. I hope I can get motivated again at some point.
Been trying to eat less and more healthy. To balance it out.
It sucks when all the good fitness centers are so far away and all my friends live so far away. Have to get back to the swimming. Maybe next week.

A little about me...

Hi, I'm Lisa, aka Karen's older (but not oldest) sister.

Thank you Karen for inviting me to this blog. This is my first blog, so bare with me.

I have been on several diets but not too many exercise plans in the last 5 or so years. Currently, I'm just trying to make healthier food choices and trying to get back in the grove of working out. I have a fairly physical job, although this year it hasn't been as much. I do belong to Curves, and am trying to go at least once a week. With all the other crazy things going on in my life, that hasn't been a reality.

So, I'm trying to get back on track. I would like to lose enough weight by January to fit into my dress clothes. I have a conference once a year, and have to dress up all week for it. It doesn't make sense to me to buy a whole new wardrobe each year, so hopefully those pounds will come off before January.

Once again, thanks for inviting me, I'll try to post as much as possible! :)

Update

I haven't been awesome in working out. Last week I ran on Monday and Wednesday, but on Friday got busy with other stuff. Despite that, this week I decided to bump up to week 2 in my podcast, and it was easier! Hopefully I will keep making progress. I think my cousin Erin and I have decided to run the Chicago Marathon next October, which means lots of training to get to that point. Hopefully I can do a 5K after this 2 month program and keeping working up. I want to hike Humphrey's (the 12,000 ft mountain here in Flag that can be a tough hike) and do a Rim-to-Rim in the Grand Canyon which is about 23 miles, and can take from 6-10 hrs. I don't have workout times worked in on Tuesdays because I have to be to school early, but tomorrow I will run (though we are expecting snow! I will have to bundle up!) and then hopefully Thursday I can lift. I really need to get back into lifting, doing squats, lunges, all that stuff that I am missing in my routine now.

I do need to start eating a better balanced diet. I am eating too many carbs, and not enough green and protein. I should start doing more meal planning and actually stick to it.

Any good recipe ideas for well-balanced meals/menus?

it's about time...

that i give an update!

things have been going pretty well...i'm still pretty good at hitting the gym on a regular basis, although when i tell myself to go for a walk/jog after work, i always find an excuse. sheena, i'm impressed that you are motivated to go for a run so often!

i had missed 2 weeks in a row at the gym, first because of my work schedule, and then because i was sick. i could definitely feel the difference! i felt like my muscle had gone away and that i was gaining weight (in reality, i was staying the same weight).

i recently lost about 5 pounds, but i'm still not convinced that it's anything other than a fluctuation, so we'll see if that sticks. i have been better about watching what i'm eating, though...healthier lunches and portion control for the not-so-good-for-me food.

i don't know if i mentioned this before or not, but i've added jump roping to my cardio routine. i recently read that 10 minutes of jumping rope is like running an 8 minute mile as far as calories burned. i'm not quite up to 10 minutes straight, but i like the fact that i can feel my heart beating a lot more after jumping rope than after a longer period of time either on the bike or elliptical in the gym. today, i jumped for about 5 minutes and then went on to my strength training. it doesn't sound like a lot, but i definitely felt it!

Keeping going.

Yesterday I did a 30 min. total body workout with weights. Man was I sore today! I've definitely gotten out of shape. I should start doing squats everyday, that's what killed me. Today I ran week 1 podcast again. It definitely seemed shorter, and a little easier this time. Perhaps next week I will actually be able to move up to week 2.

I do need to get better about watching what I eat though, I had pure carbs for dinner. I am just getting weird cravings, I need to just make a meal plan and stick with it. I want to start eating better breakfasts, I'm thinking oatmeal or something.

it's the darkness

I've been very lazy lately. At the end of last month I joined a gym for 6 weeks. I was rather active for 2. I still have a bit over a week left and I'm hoping to have enough energy to go to latino fever on Friday.. but we'll see. I'm really tired all the time. It's really hard to stay energetic with all this darkness.
I'm starting to drink aloe vera today. Hoping it will clean my insides and make me thinner and more energetic. I'm not really sure I believe in it, but I'm willing to try.
I just hate fall and winter.. the coldness and darkness.

Couch to 5K

Hi guys!
I'm starting to do a Couch to 5K podcast. I had my first run today. The podcast is on Itunes, and basically it is a 9 week program that builds you up to running a 5K. I thought I was in fairly good shape, though I don't run, but I had a rough time. I guess it is tougher to run at 7000 ft than at WI altitude, so I'll just hope that it gets better. I'm planning on running the podcast on M-W-F this week, and hopefully next week I'll feel good enough to move up to week 2.

I've been rather bad the last month or so with working out, because it is such a pain to lug all of my stuff to school each day, and I'm crazy busy with homework and other stuff. Hopefully I can get back in some sort of workout habit. I'm hoping to run, and then get back into working out at home. Lifting, lunges, pushups, sit-ups, etc. I think I'm going to buy a calendar so I can write down what I do each week, rather than type it into a program or something.

Wish me luck!
How are you guys doing?

woot!

so, i went into new york & co. randomly yesterday just because i felt like wandering around the mall. they had a ton of sales, and i've always liked their quality of clothes. i grabbed a bunch of size large tops that i liked and headed to the dressing room.

and they were too big!! that's always a good feeling! i grabbed size mediums of the same tops, and they were a perfect fit. woo!

i saw a few suit coats hanging up that were on sale, so i tried on a size 10 (what my other suit coats are). it was too big. how could this be?! i held my breath and tried on an 8, but it was a little snug (like i couldn't raise my arms very high). ah well.

now if we're talking about pants, that's a different story. even though my workout pants have gotten baggy, i don't think i've gone down in size.

i tried on a swimsuit the other day. was not impressed. hmmm. my sister told me that being more tan will help disguise my cellulite. i have to work on my tan anyway so i don't burn horribly again in california. hopefully it helps! :P

oh and i pushed myself really hard at the gym on sunday and am still sore. oy.

i have to keep telling myself that i can do a lot more exercising outside of my regular gym workouts. the women's health magazine site has a bunch of good at-home workouts (including yoga! i should really start doing that!) that i think i'm going to try. luckily, they not only have pictures on how do do the moves, but also video clips. sweet!

Summer :)

Well, it's almost the 4th of July, and I definitely did not lose the weight that I've wanted to by now. But I'm still satisfied by my progress. I'm usually sitting around 175 lately, which means I've lost 20ish lbs. And people have definitely made comments about looking great. Still...have a long way to go. I would love to lose another 40 lbs or so. It might be a little unreasonable, but we'll see.

I've cut back on the gym a bit, I'm only going 5 hrs/wk instead of 7-8, but it was just too hard on my knees. I now have orthotics for my shoes and knee braces that are helping. But I figure working waiting tables is a work-out, and Sarah and I have still been doing our 25 min. walks during lunch. I have been overeating lately though, so that needs to stop. I need to have better will-power.

Hopefully when I move to Flagstaff in a month, the teachers at the rec center are decent, and it'll be nice because I'll fitness equipment again so if I miss a class, I can just go lift weights or go on a machine. I just need to start marking down my favorite work-out routines so that I have proven ones to do on my own.

I'll probably have to get used to working out at altitude though, I'll be at 7000 ft, so that's a huge change. I remember my vacation at that altitude last year, it was hard to walk/breathe for the first few days.

I'm going kayaking on Friday, so we'll see if this lifting has improved my day-to-day activities like kayaking!

Sounds like you are both doing great. It's exciting that you have vacations coming up. My move will have to be my big vacation. I'll only be working 20 hrs/wk for 2 weeks before classes start, so I should have plenty of time to explore Arizona!

5 pounds in one week!!

After the horrible eating weekend I weighed myself and was horrified. Decided to take a serious step into losing weight and it worked. I haven't been hungry or anything but still I managed to lose 5 pounds in one week :)

that should be a great motivator for keeping this up.

Also been biking to work and swimming everyday for the past 6 days. It should also help.

small victories!

it's been a while, huh? oops.

a few things that have been happening in my trying-to-be-healthier life:

*i no longer eat as much junk food as i used to. good motivation for that: it makes me feel sick afterwards. i tend to have like one small treat a day, but nothing huge.

*i've been trying to eat in smaller portions. i'm usually successful with this (unless it's something that's ridiculously delicious and i'm ridiculously hungry! :P)

*i've been hitting the gym 3-4 times a week and have finally been seeing results. i have been noticing more muscles in my arms and legs and...

*my victory of the day? my cut-off sweatpants that i occasionally wear to the gym that used to be tight on me are now kind of baggy! woo!

i haven't really lost any pounds recently. i've been staying in the same 5lb fluctuation that i've been in for a while. BUT...obviously, my body is seeing some changes, so i may have lost some inches. (i tend to lose those before losing weight anyway). i've had a few friends and family members comment on how i'm looking thinner. yay! hopefully more of this will be coming my way! :)

how are you guys doing? hopefully well!

karen

p.s. - i AM going to go to california...july 16th-20th. i'm hoping that by then, i'll have enough confidence to wear a bathing suit in public! ;)

weird

I've lost hunger. I haven't been hungry for a long time. Which is rather good coz it also means I don't eat much. Especially now that I've been hanging a lot by myself. I feel lighter. I don't know if I am. But I'm hoping this lasts..
Although Juhannus weekend is coming and that means lots of alcohol and bbq..

yeah

My neck is still causing me to feel dizzy and sometimes it even hurts, but now that i know for sure what it is, it doesnt bother me as much. I have just started biking to work and have eaten a lot less and a bit healthier again this week. Sunshine is a good energizer.
I didnt gain weight, or at least no more than 2 pounds during my bad weeks so at least that's positive.
I'm alone this weekend and I have planned not to buy food, at least not much. If I go shopping for food just for me, I get a bit carried away and end up buying too much and also eating it all. So I plan to stay out a lot and drink water (and cider tonight).
I just met 2 world class athletes.. made me so jealous. The girl is so pretty and so thin and probably not very poor..

Hmmm...

Well, I haven't been doing too badly. With all the problems with my knees my workouts had gotten less intense. Now that I have knee sleeves, and am getting some inserts for my shoes, I want to bump it back up again.
Sarah and I are walking for 25 min at lunch, and I want to start waking up early to make sure to do my physical therapy, and perhaps go for a short jog. We'll see if that happens, I guess my schedule is freeing up a bit. I am thinking about getting an unlimited paddling membership at a shop by Lake Mendota, so that I can go take out a kayak a couple times a week. That would be a nice upper body work-out, and if i did that a few times a week on top of my normal workouts, hopefully that will push me to the next level. I know I should diet too...but that is SO hard for me.

My main motivation is that I'll be in Michigan around the 4th and I was thinking about stopping by to visit the club I used to work at from 2002-2005, but when I started there I was at least...30-40lbs lighter. I know I won't get there by July, but it'd be nice to be on my way, and at least to be better in shape.

How are you guys doing? Annika, are you feeling better?

me

Ive been feeling quite horrible for sometime now. That's why I've not been eating right or exercising much. I've tried my best but I still think I've eaten far too much.
Now that I know it's just my neck causing problems I can get back on track and stop stressing over it.
My bus card expires today and I didn't reload it so it's back on the bike for me. Glad they're promising summery weather for next week. That helps a lot. And since I can't afford another 2 massages it's good to get active again.

Havent dared to step on a scale for ages. I'll go when I'm good and ready but that's not going to be for a while now.

Good to hear you're getting results Sheena

Under 180!

Hooray, I am finally under 180. Only 179, but that's a big milestone! I'm sure it will still fluctuate, but I am excited that it keeps slowly coming off. I'm doing something right, which is good cause I'm so bad at dieting, so it's good to know that working out actually works! I'm sure eventually I'll plateau and have to diet a bit, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it!

How are you guys doing?

california, here i come!

...well, hopefully. i want to go to california in july this year. it'll be 3 years since the summer i lived there. i'm hoping to be a little more fit by then, too!

here's an interesting article that i found on cnn.com: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/05/lkl.celebrities.weight/index.html

i like how they emphasize being fit for health reasons rather than for looks. :)

hope your days are going well!

I have a goal!

I have a good motivator to keep me away from fats and sugars. (I hope it works)

I'm going to Dublin and London in August. Yay!

I've already booked a hotel in London, now need to find accommodation in Dublin and the flights. Oh and get a passport.

I had a bad couple of weeks when I wasnt feeling too good, so I wasnt paying too much attention to what I ate. Now I'm fine and I've walked home from work 4 times in the past 4 work days! Today I'm driving. 

i'm finally a meat-eater again!

so, being a vegetarian for two weeks wasn't that bad!

as far as eating healthier, it helped me...i didn't go out to eat as much (i usually eat meat when i go out to eat, and many restaurants don't have really good vegetarian options anyway), and i tried eating smaller portions throughout the day instead of having a big lunch and a big dinner.

i tried new recipes and food that i hadn't really thought about (my vegetarian quiche, boca burgers, tofu and bean burritos, and morningstar fake chicken fajitas)...they were all delicious and not-so-bad for me, so i'll probably have them all again at some point.

i don't know if i've mentioned this before, but i decided to subscribe to women's health magazine. there was a really interesting article in the latest issue about the importance of strength training. it's something that apparently not many women think about....and i'm glad that i do it twice a week! i found the article online: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/weight-training-tips

have you guys read any good health articles lately?

Fizzled

Well...this blog sort of fizzled. I've started having smoothies in the morning made with: spinach, mango, banana, strawberries, melon and a little bit of plain yogurt. They are yummy, though look a little gross because of the all the spinach. It is nice cause I can sip on it all morning, and not be super hungry when lunch comes. Also, in good news, I'm almost down to 180 lbs...which is somewhere I haven't been in awhile. It means I'll have lost 18lbs so far in the fight! Hopefully it will keep going down. I'm glad I've been doing it the way I have, without really dieting, so that way I will hopefully be able to keep it off. I was worried over Easter, because we ate so much, and I didn't work out at all, but I didn't gain any back. I'll just have to force myself to continue to work out when my schedule isn't as regimented when i start school in the fall.

How have you guys been doing? Feeling better in shape?

after easter

I'm not even going to mention what I ate during easter. 

but back to normal life

Breakfast - Bran flakes

Lunch - a bit of pasta with ham sauce, 2 glasses of milk, 2 slices of freshly baked bread.

left-over kebab

'jauheliha-perunasoselaatikko'

easter weekend

this has been and will continue to be a weekend of eating. We're heading for the country in a couple of hours and there's absolutely nothing else to do there than eating. And yesterday I got a surprise McDonald's meal. I haven't had any mcdonald's things for about a year.
Today, earlier, I was feeling quite bad and food was the only thing that helped. Good thing it seems to have passed.
But I need to get all the packing done. It's going to be freezing out there. 2 nights in an old house without running water or indoor toilet. (No tv nor internet either. )

good to know!

Contribu
I get a "wellness wire" newsletter through my business. Found this one particularly interesting. Hope it's helpful!
Links Nutrilite Health Institute Past Articles
Popular Dieting Traps That Could Be Making You Fat!
Julianne Downes, R.D.
Certified Weight Management Trainer

Making a lifestyle change is hard, rewarding work. There are many diet gimmicks that won’t provide the long-term benefits you seek. I would encourage that whatever you do, don’t fall into the following traps:

Skipping meals
Skipping meals may seem like the quickest way to lose weight, but it could do more harm than good. Think of your metabolism as a fat-burning machine; if you don’t give it the fuel it needs, it will stop working. And that’s just what happens when you skip meals, especially breakfast. Eating breakfast in the morning helps to jump-start your metabolism. Then, eating several small meals during the day keeps it running. Skipping meals causes your body to go into fasting mode and slows down your metabolism, while causing your body to hold onto the fat it has stored. Plus, research shows that skipping one meal can cause you to overeat at the next. So, not only are you slowing your metabolism, you’re actually eating more calories. No wonder you’re not losing weight! Whenever a meal is missed or skipped, blood sugar levels drop, which may lead to overeating at the next meal or eating more later in the evening. Also, the body’s ability to burn and utilize calories efficiently slows down, causing the body to naturally reserve and hold onto calories.

TRUTH: Eat several healthy small meals throughout the day to help keep your metabolism going strong all day long. Include lean meats, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and low-fat dairy products.

Cutting out “bad” foods
Every time you’ve started a new diet, you’ve probably diligently emptied your kitchen of all the “forbidden” foods you love and replaced them with all things low-fat, light, and even low-carb. But this dieting strategy could be causing you to fail! Good eating habits are all about balance. Including the foods you love in your weight-loss plan is one of the keys for long-term success.And some foods that you think are “bad” foods are actually pretty healthy. For instance, dark chocolate, nuts, and even ice cream or pizza have some redeeming healthful qualities and can be part of a successful weight-loss plan when eaten occasionally and in moderation.

TRUTH: Depriving yourself of foods you love can lead to bingeing or abandoning a weight-loss program. Planning for your indulgence in your daily caloric intake occasionally and in moderation can actually help you succeed.


Dieting, but skipping the gym
Cutting calories from what you eat is just part of the equation. If you lose weight, it means your calories in are less than your calories out. Trimming a pound per week means you need to get rid of an extra 3,500 calories that week. Hard to do with diet alone, but that’s not even the best reason to add exercise into your routine.The benefit of cardiovascular activity and strength training is an increase in metabolism. Exercise will also improve toning and add muscle mass while reducing body fat percentage.So build up your calorie-burning muscle by adding cardio and strength training to your diet plan. Not only will it help you lose weight more quickly now, but it will also help you keep it off.

TRUTH: If you’re dieting without exercising, you’re setting yourself up to gain more weight in the future.

Be good to yourself,
Julianne Downes, R.D.
Certified Weight Management Trainer

Day 4

Breakfast - bran flakes

tea

lunch - chicken, more chicken and light orange pasha, 2 glasses of milk

Sad trek

I'm leaving at 2 to drive to Michigan to be with my family. My grandma on my dad's side had a massive stroke yesterday and is now on life support with not much hope of recovering. I am picking up my cousin erin in chicago (she's flying back from guatemala) and my little brother is taking a bus from minneapolis to madison and driving with us too. I hope I'm not there for a funeral (it would be my third only...and my first in 13 yrs...) What a shock...

Day 3

Breakfast - all bran

tea

Lunch - chicken salad, 2 glasses of milk, small slice of rye bread

tea and a banana

lots of macaroni casseroli

a roll with smoked reindeer cheese

my vegetarian quest

as of yesterday, i am a temporary vegetarian. (for 2 weeks). i don't think it will be too difficult because i usually only eat chicken for meat and that's only when i go out to a restaurant for food.

i think i'm gonna like it...it's making me really watch what i eat. i went grocery shopping yesterday and got a bunch of healthy food. made vegetarian quiche last night (delicious!), and am making sure to get enough fruit, veggies and protein in. we'll see how long i last before having mac and cheese.... ;)

i also am going to try boca burgers and tofu. don't know if i'll like it, but it's worth a try!

Day 2

Breakfast - All Bran, tea

Lunch - beef wok(very very little), 2 milk, a bit of vanilla ice cream. tea

tea

a bit of swimming and sauna

dinner - a hint of mashed potatoes and sautéd game

Day 1

I need to get a grip.

I'm calling this day 1. I need more self control. I need to stay away from sugar. 

It's getting warmer and snow's almost melted away. This means outdoor activities. Jogging, biking, at least when it dries. 

Breakfast - All Bran & green tea

Lunch - a tiny portion of spaghetti bolognaise, 2 glasses of milk, green tea. (didn't take any rose hip quark though it's super good. proud of myself)

green tea&apple

Dinner - Spinach soup with an egg

green tea

all bran

very good, very cheap ice cream at the store. didn't buy any. proud

040409

Breakfast - All Bran
Lunch - Cabbage soup, All Sorts and tea

Friday 3rd

Breakfast - All Bran cereal. Green tea. (took an apple in case I get too hungry before lunch, haven't eaten it yet)

Lunch - crispy fish thing with caramel kissel, 2x milk

had the apple a bit before going home
grapes, cabbage, lots of cabbage
cabbage soup,
black currant smoothie

day something, thursday the second

breakfast - a big apple

lunch - chicken risotto, fruit salad and milk

a piece of Swiss roll with whipped cream because it was for our intern who's going back to school tomorrow. And green tea. My very first cup of green tea. It wasn't so bad. I think I could try to have more green tea in the future.

I walked home via Citymarket and Lukonmäki(a loooong, steep uphill) 8,2 km's in total. I had to buy a small roll from Citymarket.

When I got home I had an orange and green tea.

 for dinner a veggie Sub.

food for flattening bellies

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/9219/best-foods-for-a-flat-belly/

there are some good ideas in there...without me feeling like i have to put huge restrictions my eating habits.

(AND they reference UW-Madison! :) )

Wednesday

Breakfast - regular rye

Lunch - ham-pineapple-tomato pizza, 1,3 slices. Fruit salad. For some reason I didn't really want to eat, but I ate all anyway. 

Then I had a small Suffeli bar since I'm not getting the Toblerone today.

all I had the rest of the day was All Sorts. Bad bad bad. but at least I didn't have anything else 

Thoughts of Smoothies

I've been thinking lately about starting to make smoothies for breakfast. My aunt Carol makes them in the morning, and she said she throws in different greens (spinach etc.) for the nutrients and that you don't even taste it. Perhaps I'll start looking for some healthy recipes. I think that would definitely be better for me than a bowl of cereal, which I have been having. I also found a recipe for pancakes, that I'd like to try one of these days. I also keep thinking about either becoming vegetarian (I'd love to go vegan, since my grandmother has gone vegan, she has no need for her cholesterol, blood pressure or diabetes meds, though i don't think I'd have the will power for that!). or I may start looking into the clean eating way of living.
Clean-Eating Tips
Eat six meals a day

Drink lots of water

Steer clear of sugar and high-fat foods

Eat the food that God gave us, not the "food" that humans created in laboratories


More later!

tuesday 31st

breakfast - pumpkin seed roll
llunch- greek salad with rose hip quark, 2 milks
at home grapes
at the blood donation place a pastry
more grapes at home.
smoothie

monday 30th

breakfast- liver sausage rye sandwich
lunch - ham salad with 2 milks
dinner - black sausage.
Kinder egg
berry smoothie(berries, fat-free unflavored yoghurt, honey, wheat bran, skim milk)
grapes
more smoothie

Day 61 - Annika

Breakfast- rye

Lunch - winer schnitzel with 2 glasses of milk, a small carrot roll and a piece of pineapple pie.
dinner - low fat high protein quark with rose hip pure
2 oranges

Day 60 - Annika

Breakfast - pumpkin seed roll

half a piece of carrot cake.

lunch - tuna-pasta salad, low on pasta. 2 glasses of milk.

Dinner - free left-over (cold)pizza from wednesday. 

Day 59 - Annika

Breakfast - rye

Lunch - tomato-mozzarella salad, a slice of dark bread and 2 glasses of milk 

hot cocoa

2 veggie spring rolls (not from a chinese restaurant)

All Sorts, berry pudding (light)

crêpes(sugar-free)

wahoo!

this morning, i stepped on the scale and i'm a pound less than my lowest (plateau) weight in 7 years!

...although this may have to do with the fact that didn't have much to eat yesterday...a protein shake, turkey breast sandwich, grapes, apple, energy drink, LOTS of water...and that's it. i bought my first car last night, and was too excited/emotionally drained to eat dinner. (one of my sisters was so mad about the warranty i got that she refused to talk to me. what?!)

ANYway...hopefully i can keep off the pounds! :)

day 58 - Annika

Breakfast - rye sandwich

Lunch - chicken chili with wild rice and one small fried vendace. 2 glasses of milk. 

100g's of All Sorts

Dinner - oven fries and 2 fish fingers

Day 57 - Annika

Breakfast - pumpkin seed roll
Lunch - cabbage soup and 2 glasses of milk
small apple
kebab hamburger. explanation: 1. Hesburger's kebab hamburger is absolutely fantastic. It's a seasonal burger, so it's only sold for about a week and half at a time every now and then. It's been at least 2 years since it was last available. 2. I walked home. An hours walk. 3. I had lost 4 pound, it was a good way to celebrate.
The burger was bigger than it used to be. Still I was shocked to see how many points it was.
So I suppose i'm going to have to have this day off from dieting and continue tomorrow. I didn't eat much of anything yesterday, I was starving most of the day so I suppose I deserve something nice.
Also going to have some All Sorts and some light pork thingy later.

Day 55 - Annika

Breakfast - one piece of italian bread, toasted.
pineapple
pineapple
pineapple
pineapple

mom had sent me money, bought a bottle of Black Tower. Have to see how long I can stay away from real foods. Since I'm trying to have a pineapple diet -day.

holy moly!

so yesterday, i was cruising facebook and was looking at a friend's profile...in the "mutual friends" part, i saw a girl i know, but the pic didn't look ANYthing like her!

i clicked on her page and she's lost a TON of weight. she used to be probably a size 16 or something and now she looks like a 4 or 6! and the best part is, she looks really toned and healthy.

i was looking at her wall to see if anyone wrote anything about it, and a lot of people said she looked really good and one person said "can i have your personal trainer's number?!"... don't know if that's what she did or if that person was joking around. i haven't talked to her in years, but am considering asking her what she did and if she has advice.

i guess my only problem is knowing how to approach it. the last person i complimented on a significant weight loss ended up being bullemic! :-/ i was pretty embarrassed, and don't want that to happen again! any suggestions on how to approach this subject? i'm pretty sure this girl lost weight in a healthy way (she looks pretty muscular), but sometimes it can still be a touchy subject....

Ok. Friday

Ok, now that I've been MIA for awhile I don't know what day I'm on. So it's just going to be the day from now on. I haven't been TOO horrible though. I had one really munchy day when I was driving back to WI, but other than that I think I've been pretty good foodwise.

Breakfast-rice chex w. milk (it may have been 2%, I used someone else's)
Snack-small slice of sausage pizza
Lunch- people are getting Dairy Queen, so i'm getting a mint oreo blizzard (small) I don't know if I'm going to get 'food' too or not.
Hopefully I'll get motivated to head to the gym for TurboKick, she's been super motivated so classes are crazy off the wall with energy. Then, my plan for the evening is to go home and get in my pjs and hang out watching tv. I have a gift certificate for a restaurant that I may see if I can do carry-out for dinner.

Day 54 - Annika

Brekkie - grapes

Lunch - it was supposed to be something called Lamminpään Lumous, but it didnt taste like it at all..(what i'm used to) A pork steak in creamy, garlicy curry sauce. 2 milks and apple rice.

More grapes

Dinner - nuggets & pineapple ice cream

Day 53 - Annika

Breakfast -rye 

Lunch - Karelian stew, the milks and lingonberry quark

a kiwi and some grapes

Dinner - oven fries with sausage

lingonberry quark(home-made this time)

You know when you get a pair a pants that are just a  bit too big and then after a while you notice you've grown into them and the old ones don't fit anymore? We'll I'm testing if it works the other way around. Took out my old work pants that are just a bit small. I'm hoping they'll help me get smaller :) 

MIA

Hey,
Sorry I've been MIA for awhile, I've been crazy busy. Will write more as soon as I have time....
Sheena

Day 52 - Annika

Breakfast - rice cake and apple

Lunch - kebab-tomato pizza, 2 milks, lingonberry quark, small exclusive chocolate bar("thank you for filling this form").

Dinner - rice cake and pineapple ice cream

it's been a while!

so yeah, i've been kind of slacking in the blogging lately.

i've been keeping up my exercising 3-4 times a week and have been getting better at opting for healthier food when given a choice. (example: i judged a high school speech competition, and i had the option of a sub meal, pizza meal, or hot dog meal. i chose the sub - and didn't eat the chips that came with it!)

i'm SO excited that it's getting warm out!! i went for a power walk on the bike trail behind my apartment for about half an hour on sunday. it felt really good!

i haven't really been losing much weight...i'm at the lowest i've been in a while (probably when i started college 7 years ago...woah...it doesn't feel that long ago!), but i seem to have plateaued. part of me is like "well, i have more muscles now that i'm working out more...that is probably a factor" while the other part of me desparately wants to just lose one or two more pounds just so i can say i did.

do you guys have any suggestions on how to beat a plateau weight?

Day 51 - Annika

Brekkie - different type of rye sandwich

Lunch - small chicken breast with salad and not so light yoghurt and 2 glasses of milk

had to have a slice of that ->

just because I've never tried it before and my boss bought one for us.. only a small one. it was a small cake too. 

Dinner was left over semolina pudding and rasberry soup. 2 or 3 rice cakes and then later some more semolina pudding.

also had a tiny bag of sugar free low calorie candy.

Day 50 - Annika

Breakfast - rye

Lunch - tuna salad and muesli with vanilla yogu and the milks.

Dinner - chicken carib soup and semolina pudding with super light blueberry soup

Day 49 - Annika

This was a horrible horrible day - foodwise..

Breakfast - semolina pudding.

Then I went to a birthday party and had chicken pie and mettwurst pie and cake and chips and cookies and candy, lots of candy.

Then I came home..  The in-laws had bought us a pizza. It was too delicious to pass. I had 3 slices. 

I was ready to explode for hours. 

But to look on the bright side, this kind of b-day parties don't happen anymore. So I don't get to eat such delicious delights more than once in 2 years or so..

This also means that I'm sticking with salad-soup diet this week. I'm going to eat as light as possible, as little as possible. 

Day 48 - Annika

Breakfast - oatmeal
Lunch - very unhealthy sandwich
Dinner - oven fries and salmon
ginger bread cookie
2 dry ciders

Day 47 - Annika

Breakfast - yogu+rye with liver sausage

Lunch - sautéd reindeer, 2,5 milks and frozen berries with sour cream sauce.
1,5 frozen pizzas
more berries with the sauce.
bad bad bad day. almost double points again. have to make it up on the coming days. shouldnt be too hard.. although the weekend might cause problems..

Day 46 - Annika

Breakfast - yogu+roll

Lunch - Baked potato with chicken filling, 2 milks.

semolina pudding with very light strawberry soup.

pineapple

ginger bread cookies..

more semolina pudding with the soup.

light pineapple ice cream

Day 45-Sheena

Breakfast-pineapple, watermelon, chips & taco dip
Lunch-
Heading to the gym for TurboKick and then to Brass Band. I may get a drink after, but probably not.
Dinner-

Tomorrow I'm driving to Chicago to go to our trade show. Apparently I don't rate high enough to go work in the booth, but everyone else in the company has the option to take the day and drive down there, so I will too!!! Screw everyone else..

Day 45 - Annika

Breakfast - rye&light yogu

Lunch - ham-pineapple pizza. One slice. It wasn't very good. 2 glasses of milk. 

Dinner is going to be pea soup.

also had pineapple and pineapple ice cream

Day 44-Sheena

Breakfast- whole wheat english muffin w. peanut butter/thimbleberry jam
Snack- pickles
Lunch- spinach/chicken/artichoke lean pocket, pickles, pears, applesauce
Heading to the gym for Strength Fusion, then to the mall, and to get my haircut at 7. Skipping Promos tonight, i need a free night!
Dinner- teriyaki chicken w. veggies and some white rice, maki roll

day 44 - Annika

Breakfast - Rye

Lunch - pork wok, 2 glasses of milk and a carrot roll.

Another breakfast rye sandwich.

A pineapple. a full one

potato-carrot-sausage thing 

light pineapple ice cream

milk

Day 43-Sheena

Breakfast- bowl of rice krispies w. skim milk
Snack-small piece of pizza. Damn people for making pizza in the morning!
Lunch- salad w. thousand island, ham & cheese hot pocket, 10 mustard pretzels and a couple dark chocolate cadbury mini eggs
Heading to the gym for Zumba, may have to take my car to the shop, so I might not stay for Yoga Fusion...we'll see..I did both Zumba and Yoga, and had a 20 min walk to/from picking up my car!
Dinner- salad w. thousand island, cottage cheese, 3 hard boiled eggs, skim milk

Day 42-Sheena

Didn't eat until like 3pm...munched at work...had:
Strawberry Stilton Salad
Spinach salad w. cranberries and orange balsamic vin.
Some pieces of garlic steak, and 2 onion rings, skim milk.

Day 41-Sheena

Ummm...let's see if I can remember...
Lunch- open faced egg salad sandwich
Dinner- croissant, and stuffing
Drinks- black & tan, Irish car bomb, strongbow cider

Day 43 - Annika

Breakfast - Rye

Lunch - Turkey salad without dressing, 2 glasses of milk.

2 kiwis

spinach soup and a light pineapple ice cream

Day 42 - Annika

half a frozen pizza, a small one.
sandwich ice cream, greek chicken salad (with light thousand island), cinnamon roll, apple soda

3 fish fingers

half a kebab roll. 

Day 41 - annika

light yoghurt, pineapple
half a Sub
greek chicken salad
cider, long island ice tea... too much.

i woke up at 8.30 and started exercising right away.
Lots of karaoke and dancing at night

Day 40-Sheena

Breakfast-whole wheat english muffin w. peanut butter and thimbleberry jam, skim milk
Lunch- salad w. ranch, string cheese, pickles, and some tortilla chips & queso
Don't know if I'm going to head to the gym today, my joints are pretty sore today so I may have a rest....
Dinner- cheeseburger lean pocket, some hummus/chips/veggies
Drinks- 2-3 beers, shot

Resisted late night pizza! Hooray!

Day 40 - Annika

Breakfast - rye with liver sausage.

Lunch - 2 milks, pork steak with a tiny slice of seasoned butter and fruit salad.

a kiwi.

candy
kebab meat with egg sauce

Day 39-Sheena

Breakfast-4 deviled eggs
Lunch- salad w. ranch, chili, and ice cream w. hershey's and mint
Snack-grasshopper
Heading to the gym for Strength Fusion, went for a 30 min speed walk after
Dinner- salad w. thousand island, cottage cheese

Day 39 - Annika

Breakfast - rye

Lunch- carrot steaks, 2 glasses of milk and some kind of fruit drink for dessert(it tasted like orange juice mixed with berries, it was pink).

 

This has absolutely been a day from hell so I know I deserve a danish later. - So i couldn't find a danish anymore that late. Had to make cinnamon rolls at home. They weren't even nearly as good.

I only made 4 and ate 2. 

Dinner - Chicken Carib soup and oven fries and lots of pineapple

Day 38-Sheena

Breakfast- 4 bruschetta, piece of cinnamon streusel bread, cadbury mini eggs
Lunch- chicken strips, salad, fruit salad, bbq chicken, onion ring, milky way midnight
Heading to the gym for TurboKick and then to Brass band rehearsal.
Dinner- didn't eat until 10pm, had some chips and salsa, a banana and skim milk

Day 38 - Annika

Breakfast - rye

Lunch - potato-meat something, but not much, it wasnt very good. Plus 2 glasses of milk and pineapple yoghurt for dessert. (was hoping to get my favorite pizza of theirs but it was poisoned with bell peppers so i had to pass).

a mandarin

Dinner - wiener schnitzel and pineapple, sandwich ice cream..

Day 37-Sheena

Breakfast-1/2 choco. donut, wheat english muffin w. peanut butter and banana on top, skim milk
Lunch-salad w. thousand island, string cheese, cadbury mini eggs
Heading to the gym for Strength Fusion.
Dinner- chips & salsa, small bowl of chili

Day 37 - Annika

Breakfast - rye sandwich

Lunch - Cabbage soup, 2 glasses of milk, apple-oat thingy with vanilla sauce

and because I had to do candy bags again, I had to sample them a little :) very little in the end. Almost proud of myself.

Dinner - pineapple and a sandwich ice cream.

Going to test those paddles my friend lent me. See if water running actually gets a lot tougher with them.

Day 36-Sheena

Breakfast- lady grey tea, and some candy :( 2 packs of sixlets and a gummy candy
Lunch- rice krispie bar, piece of pizza, cottage cheese, pickles, string cheese
Heading to the gym for Zumba and Yoga Fusion.
Dinner- chips & salsa, and some cadbury mini eggs.
It's the evil, but wonderful season of Cadbury Mini Eggs...my favorite candy of all time. I bought some last night (both the dark and milk chocolate) so I'll be eating some of those now....oh well.

Day 35-Sheena

Breakfast-nachos & diet coke at movie
Lunch- bagel w. cream cheese and peach yogurt
Dinner- brat w. bun and ketchup/mustard

Day 36 - Annika

Breakfast - pumpkin seed roll

Lunch - chicken salad, 2 glasses of milk

DInner - foot long Sub without cheese

dessert - light pineapple ice cream

Day 35 - Annika

Oriental curry soup for breakfast.

some chips

a small taco

a little bit of other type of soup.

Day 34-Sheena

Gym for Turbokick and Strength Fusion. Good workout!

Lunch- pasty
Snack-Tater tots
Dinner- salad w. walnuts, feta, apples and fig grapeseed vinaigrette, polenta w. mango salsa, 3 coconut shrimp, steak, and a couple bites of caribbean chicken, skim milk
Out- Orango cosmo, blue moon, some shot?, miller lite, and water

Day 34 - Annika

Breakfast - light orange-strawberry yoghurt
Breakfast 2 - light orange-strawberry yoghurt. (Started feeling a bit bad so I had to eat something and that was all I had..)
Lunch - oven fries, one small mexican filled ground beef roll.
Chicken carib soup
Nellie Dellies wild berries candy
Crowmoor cider
red curry turkey with noodles.
another cider.

bad day.. bad bad day..

ice and bumps.

i was all ready to work out today, but when i got outside, my car was iced over and i couldn't open the door. :(

i went inside and did situp-type stuff, but it wasn't the same!!

today, we're getting bw3's at work for lunch. i am going to order a wrap....hopefully that's healthier than some of the other stuff on the menu!

i went to the doctor yesterday for a follow up about the weird bump just below my collarbone. i paid a $20 copay for her to say "wow, that is asymmetrical and doesn't seem right. i'm going to consult with radiology to see if you need an mri. i'll email you." yarrrr!

i guess the bump wouldn't bug me so much if it didn't hurt to do the ab machine at the gym. merp.

ANYway, i think i'm going to go work out tomorrow, because my weight has gone up a few pounds and i just don't feel healthy at the moment.

Day 33-Sheena

Breakfast- string cheese and a banana, some chex mix, jasmine green tea
Lunch- sweet & sour chicken, white rice, 3 crab rangoon, and a pack of sixlets
I should head to the gym for either Turbokick or Yoga, but I'm really tempted to just go to the movies instead....we'll see. Definitely going to the gym after eating greasy food for lunch! UPDATE: Didn't end up going to the gym, since I left work too late to make it to class...hopefully I'll go for 2 classes in the morning!
Snack- spotted cow, and chocolate chip cookie before leaving work
Dinner- spaghettios

Day 33- Annika

rye sandwich for breakfast

lunch- pasta with chicken sauce, 2 glasses of milk and a banana.
Dinner- oven fries, salmon
a cider, nellie dellies

After work I'm going to buy Nellie Dellies candy. SO light, full of fibers and so delicious. I'm also thinking of getting a haircut..

Day 32-Sheena

Breakfast- peach light yoplait, lady grey tea
Lunch- diet coke, crackers, potato salad, and a chicken/spinach/artichoke lean pocket, twizzler
Heading to the gym for strength fusion, and I took my tuba in case the weather is bad so i don't have to go home before band. Which means I may be going out to eat somewhere for dinner....
Dinner- bad me, I had a barbacoa chipotle burrito, and a mocha (w. skim milk though)

Day 32 - Annika

breakfast-pumpkin seed roll.

lunch-roast beef salad, 2 glasses of milk.

snack- rye sandwich. 

dinner- habanero hamburger and the left-over macaroni casseroli+ground beef

Day 31-Sheena

Breakfast-piece of banana nut bread, reeses heart, 2 cracker w. cheese; i was going to stop here and wait for pizza lunch, but my stomach was growling :( couple spoonfuls potato salad, tiny piece of danish
Lunch- We're having pizza hut, i am going to try and hold myself to 2 pieces of pizza and a breadstick.
Ok, 1 piece hawaiian pizza, 1 piece chicken fajita, 1 breadstick, salad w. ranch, and fruit salad
Heading to gym for Turbokick and 20/20/20
Dinner- healthy choice chicken rice soup, strawberry light yoplait, couple tortilla chips

Day 31 - Annika

Breakfast - rye sandwich 1,5

Lunch - chicken-rice salad(didnt eat most of the rice though), vanilla kissel with strawberry jam.

pineapple, more salad, mashed potatoes, kebab meat.

6dl milk

Day 30-Sheena

Breakfast-slice of sausage pizza, I shouldn't have eaten it, it unsettled my stomach.
Lunch- leftover chinese food, diet coke
Heading to the gym for Strength Fusion. and then to the radio station.
Dinner- cottage cheese, pbj on flax bread, skim milk and string cheese

day 30 - Annika

I've made a decision. I'm going to weigh myself next on the 23th of March. Not sooner. I'm going to do my best to follow the points and hopefully be pleasantly surprised after a month.

Breakfast=pumpkin seed roll, 2.5

Lunch= lots of salad inc. canned mandarines about, 1.5

2 glasses of milk, 2

a slice of meat loaf, maybe 2 points.

snack= a pear 1 point

Dinner=spicy thai soup 2
2 tortillas 10

Day 29-Sheena

Breakfast- light strawberry yogurt
Snack- cole slaw, small slice of pizza
Lunch- leftover chinese food, diet coke, root beer float
Heading to the gym for Zumba and Yoga
Dinner- black bean burger on flax bread w. lettuce and light miracle whip, string cheese

I need to go grocery shopping so that I can get some more healthy food to have around. My eating habits have been really bad the last week or 2.

Another rejection letter today...man this is getting to be a huge waste of money :(

Day 27, 28-Sheena

Saturday:
Breakfast-1 slice bacon, 3 pieces leftover pizza
Lunch- bagel w. cream cheese, glass of skim milk
Dinner- chips w. salsa and guac, chalupa, 1/2 a taco
Drinks- too many! margaritas, 2 absolut (mango, pear) and sprite, 1 beer, a couple shots

Sunday:
Breakfast-bagel w. cream cheese, gatorade
Lunch- 2 pieces string cheese, banana, chips & salsa
Dinner- crab rangoon, orange chicken & rice, diet coke

Day 29 - Annika

I got frustrated for not getting any thinner so I decided to go back to the points system. Weight watchers points. I lost about 20 pound with that 2 years ago, so I know it works.

Breakfast - rye sandwich with the usual toppings, 1,5 points.

Lunch - salad with dressing - 0,5 points?, meat sauce maybe 2 points. 2 glasses of milk.

Afternoon snack-pumpkin seed roll without cheese, lettuce and margarine and the extra hams..

Need to check the correct points when I get home. But this doesn't look too good a start. I need to get to 22 and and after lunch I'm at 6 or so..

Dinner - 1dl of rice and 2 dls of mexican chili sauce.

Now I'm at 22 points.

Day 28 - Annika

breakfast+lunch+dinner=apple and a pizza.

Day 27 - Annika

Breakfast - yoghurt
lunch- 2 chicken legs and 2 glasses of milk.
now i might have to have a danish and some soda.
did 15 mins on my bike this morning and thought i'd do more later.. if i feel like it. -- so I didn't exercise more..
dinner - rice, and few small pieces of chocolate I had left from christmas.
dinner 2 - liver casseroli. Had to eat more, I need food when I'm drunk.
--since I had to have that delicious danish I figured I might just as well open my wine and drink it. Go back to healthy living tomorrow.--

Day 26-Sheena

Breakfast- grapes, strawberry, some pretzels
Lunch- 3 ribs, potato salad, cole slaw, roll, diet coke, 2 hershey's kisses
Dinner @ Work- spinach salad w. strawberries & brie and vinaigrette, tilapia, steak and potatoes
Out- Absolut peach & sprite, malibu & diet

Day 26 - Annika

Breakfast - very light pineapple yoghurt and an apple.

Lunch - Chicken Kiev and strawberry quark. My absolute favorite. 2 glasses of milk. That's why the breakfast was so light. I don't always remember to mention but I fill at least half of my plate with salads if I have real food for lunch.

I was given a free semla so I just had to have it. A bit later I got three more. Now I'm wondering how to keep then edible and still manage to go to the movies straight from work.. result: eat one, take the rest to R's work place, tell him to either eat them or put in cold and bring home.

Might be going to movies after work. Going to avoid candy, just need to get my free movie ticket used before it expires. And I promised dad I'd go see his computer on Sat..

Day 25-Sheena

Another potluck today:
Breakfast- pretzels & dip, and chips & dip, 1 deviled egg, cracker and ham
Lunch- little bit of potato salad and cole slaw, a roll, 2 bbq ribs, 4 strawberries, some grapes, a cupcake, a little banana pudding, and a diet coke

I'm heading to the gym for Strength Fusion, and then to VFW band. It will be the last of my official working out for the week.

Dinner- a glass of punch, a glass of wine, and 3 pieces of thin crust pizza w. canadian bacon, pineapple and artichoke hearts....yum! I don't feel bad about that, because it was SO good!

man, i'm pooped!

today i did all cardio at the gym and stretched out extra long after because my leg muscles were hurting.

and then i had to do manual labor at work for about 3 hours. this involved lifting probably about 100 heavy boxes full of files and moving them either to pallets or onto different shelves. now my whole body aches! i think i'm gonna take it easy at the gym tomorrow and NOT lift arm weights. phew!

yesterday and today i had half a spicy italian sub from subway and that's about it for lunch. breakfast is usually a protein shake and yogurt or granola bar. dinner last night was buttered noodles. i don't feel as hungry after eating these small portions as i used to, but now i'm wondering if i am getting all the nutrition i need. i am making sure to load up on vitamins, though. hmmm....

i'm getting antsy for the weather to get warmer...the bike trail in the park behind my apartment is teasing me! :)

what outdoor activities are you guys planning on doing once it gets warmer?

Day 25 - Annika

breakfast was the same as yesterday.

Lunch - I had real lunch today. Not just rabbit food. A little bit of macaroni casseroli(makaroonilaatikko) and 3 fried vendaces(?). 2 glasses of milk. one slice of some kind of darkish oat bread.

kiwi and 1/3 of a slice of yesterday's cold pizza(mettwurst&tomato). I looked at the apples and the mandarins and I just had to have something unhealthy. Luckily there was a small piece of a pizza slice.

Now I'm dreaming of candy.
I decided to be very lazy today. I'm going to watch NCIS and eat candy and not exercise.

UPDATE-- my plan to be lazy was cut of by my fathers marathon skype call.. I was watching ncis and when it looked I couldnt get back to it anytime soon I decided to hop on my bike and exercise a bit while he talked away.
I won't feel as bad tomorrow as I thought I would :)

dinner- caribbean chicken soup and half foot veggie Sub.

Day 24-Sheena

Breakfast- chips w. spinach/artichoke dip/salsa

Lunch- Lettuce w. tomato & cukes w. thousand island, tomato/cuke/feta/onion salad, fruit salad (strawberrys, melon, grapes, apple, banana), french bread and a cream soda (there was my downfall because it wasn't diet :( )

Heading to the gym for TurboKick class, and then out for a social w. the Outdoor Meetup Group. I'm going to be working out less this week, since I can only do one class today, and then I work Friday and Saturday at my other job, so I won't be able to go to class either of those days. I will have to try and get out and be active on Saturday and Sunday to make up for it.

Dinner-Chipotle BLT, coleslaw, a pickles, and 2 Capital Maibock beers

Day 24 - Annika

Breakfast - pumpkin seed roll without cheese.

Lunch - I'm going to have the Finnish squeaky cheese salad instead of the tuna pasta(or pizza). I'm going to stay strong and healthy. The salad had lettuce, tomato, cucumber, finnish squeaky cheese, lenses and some seeds. 2 glasses of milk.

Now I'm wanting something good.. a small slice of pizza or anything good really. I'm not going to get any but I would really like some.

Trying to learn to drink water.

had a kiwi and an apple on my break.

I should be out skiing in this weather, not indoors doing nothing..

41minutes with NCIS.

very very light berry soup. small can of pineapples.
a pint of milk. one crostini.

interesting story

i saw this on cnn.com. pretty interesting...and intense! http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/16/oprah.habit.month/index.html

Day 23-Sheena

Breakfast- 7 deviled eggs (so 3.5 whole eggs) about 350 calories i'm guessing
Lunch-String cheese, ham&cheese lean pocket, salad w. thousand island, ice cream sandwich
Heading to the gym for strength fusion today at 4:30.
Dinner- string cheese, couple tortilla chips, some cottage cheese, a small bowl of pomegranate/blueberry cereal, a couple bites of au gratin potatoes

I also gave in and weighed myself this morning, I'm about 8 pounds down from when I last weighed myself, though I don't remember when that was. At least now I have a starting point. I am not going to keep weighing myself though...maybe again in a couple months.

Day 23 - Annika

Breakfast - Activia yoghurt and an apple.

Lunch - Fetasalad, 2 glasses of milk.

fruitcocktail in juice.
orange. light yoghurt.
53minutes with Emmerdale
pineapple later.

watched delicious burgers being eaten and didnt feel bad at all.
I feel like I've started eating very light. I just wish I could see some results. I'm a bit impatient.. when it comes to .. anything really :)

ball exercise!

this weekend, i utilized my new exercise ball. it was good fun! :)
i also use the 'bender ball', which is like a mini exercise ball you put behind your back for crunches...i can really feel the burn with that one!

i didn't eat very healthily for valentine's day (pizza), but when i went to a mexican restaurant with my sisters yesterday, i got a taco salad...although the nacho appetizers probably didn't help much. hehe!

i'm trying out some of the new meal replacement bars from my business....they're really delicious! and filling! my new goal is to not eat when i'm not hungry...because i haven't been as consistently hungry as i had been in the past (that's good, right?).

and a good ego booster yesterday: one of my sisters said "look at that skinny girl!" to me. :) i don't know if it IS really visible, but i've been staying on the lower part of my usual weight fluctuation. so, yay!

what are some ego boosters you have had lately? (or hope to have soon?)

Day 22-Sheena

Breakfast- Peach Yogurt
Snack- some Doritos, small piece of lemon cake
Lunch- cottage cheese, ham &american on a roll, small piece of sausage pizza, baby pickle, diced pears and a chocolate ice cream
Heading to the gym for Zumba and Yoga as long as nausea doesn't set in. I had a very fun and unexpected Valentine's day at the bar! I had a great time, which is pretty rare.
Dinner- diced pears, lettuce & chicken w. thousand island, bagel w. banana, cream cheese, strawberry jam

Overall not a bad day....I'm slowly improving!

Day 21-Sheena

After getting an hour or so of sleep I drove to Dubuque and had:
Breakfast- Diet Coke
Lunch- Gyro/water
Dinner- Culvers single burger/fries

Day 22 - Annika

breakfast was the usual rye sandwich

lunch - lettuce, grated carrot, cucumber, tomato, tiny piece of fish. 2 yoghurt desserts. 2 glasses of milk.

Large can of pineapple.
40 minutes with desperate housewives.
going to have a little pea soup later. and more milk.

Oh and I had the last of my sorbet too..

Day 21 - Annika

I've had yoghurt, blueberry soup, pineapple..
3 fish fingers, oven fries.
2xDanio vanilla quark. lots of calories, but ah so good.
a box of dents.. tooth friendly candy. 92 calories in the entire box.
about 2dl strawberry sorbet, about 60 calories..

DAy 20 : Annika

I had light Activia yoghurt for breakfast and then the rest of the lasagna..
Can of pineapple and very light blueberry soup. maybe 2 spoons of dinner soup. one beer and a bit of cider.
I didnt have much of an appetite..

Day 20-Sheena

Well...the last few days were a write off. I will try to get back on the horse today.
Breakfast- bagel/cream cheese, strawberry yogurt, banana
Lunch/Dinner- salad, couple bites of pizza
Drinks- I drank a little too much...though mainly mixed drinks:
1 leine's honey
3 strawberry vodka/lemonade
1 coke/cherry vodka
a couple of different fruity shots
miller lite

Day 19-Sheena

I won't be going to the gym until Monday, so I need to try and work some walking into my schedule.

Breakfast- some carrots/broccoli and dip, some chips, and 2 chocolate cookie things, lady grey tea
Lunch-
Dinner

Day 18-Sheena

Potlucks are evil. I ate WAY too much all day, to the point of feeling like I wanted to puke. Yuck, i need to learn how to just eat a little bit of my favorite things, and not try everything. I went to strength fusion, and then came home and ate a couple chips/salsa and a bagel/cream cheese.

Day 19 - Annika

Pumpkin seed roll for breakfast.

Lunch: 3 glasses of milk, lots of salad, chicken breast without the skin, half a wiener schnitzel

without the breading. some chili mayo/sauce or whatever it was. I took a chocolate muffin but i'm not going to eat it myself. It looks rather disgusting.. I'm not really into any chocolaty desserts.

I'm so proud of myself. I've really wanted to buy some candy or something a couple of times. Already stood in front of the shelves. But I havent bought anything.

2 kiwis.

41 minutes with ncis.

made lasagna. the problem with lasagna is that I cant stop eating it.. I had far too much.
This is my bad day of the week.

Day 18 - Annika

Rye sandwich with liver sausage, lettuce, cucumber, tomato for breakfast

Chicken wok for lunch. No rice. 2 glasses of milk and lots of salad. Yesterday's dessert, but not as much.

a banana

a can of peaches. then milk later.

frozen blueberries. 38 minutes of biking with lipstick jungle

I weighed myself this morning and it was less than before. Whenever I've lost even a little weight I get this feeling of success and it motivates me.

today will be a good day!

alright, so for breakfast i had light yogurt and my usual two travel mugs of english breakfast tea. for lunch i had the other half of my tuna sub that i bought from subway yesterday and water. i usually sneak in a couple animal crackers as a small snack a few hours after lunch. i guess dinner will be...happy hour. i will have one beer, and they have their free munchies from 5-7 on wednesdays, which usually include veggies, so i'll snack on those.

if i'm still hungry, maybe i'll have some special k when i get home.

oh, and i am going to do some ab exercises tonight! :)

---
i was looking through some high school and college pics the other night, and found them to be good motivation. i was pretty skinny in high school, and visibly heavier than i am now in some of the college pics. maybe i'll put them on the fridge as what i want to look like and what i don't want to look like.

what are some motivational tools for being healthy that you guys have? (besides this blog, of course)

Day 17-Sheena

I just finished lunch...and I ate too much :(

Breakfast-Blueberry muffin, jasmine green tea, couple of doritos
Lunch---here it comes :( 4 little chicken strips with honey mustard and ranch, 2 onion rings, a bbq chicken sandwich and some fruit salad. Man am I full.
Heading to the gym for Yoga Fusion and 20/20/20, then home to finish laundry, essays and cleaning.
Dinner- Salad w. thousand island, cottage cheese, colby cheese, and a piece of coconut cream pie

Day 17 - Annika

Breakfast pumpkin seed roll sandwich.

I read the menu again with my eyes :) and I dont have to have pizza after all!! I can have the salmon salad. So that's good. Still going to have lots of dessert.. It's just too darn good

Went to see Revolutionary Road and I had to buy 130grams of candy coz of the free cat food thing they have going on. Only it was disappointing coz the woman gave me the small sample not the full bag od cat food..

I did 30 mins on my bike. I wasnt going to but did anyway.

yay for nice weather!

hopefully i'll have time to take a walk after work before it gets dark!

i signed up for a fitness challenge at the gym. basically, it's a game board, and for every half hour of working out (whether at the gym or home), you get to move ahead a space (max 2 spaces in a day). every 5 spaces has a "challenge" where, depending on the day, you have to complete an extra workout or diet routine for the day. today i had to do 30 minutes of strength training. once i reach "finish" on the gameboard, i am entered to win a trip somewhere. that would be nice....

i think today i'm going to get subway for lunch and then tonight i'll have special k. :)

Day 16-Sheena

What a beautiful day. When i left at 7:15 it was already 46F! It is supposed to get up to 58 today, which would break the record high of 53. The snow is all melting! I'm sure we'll get more soon, but it is definitely nice to not wear a winter coat (I just wore my fluffy vest!) I'll definitely be taking the dog out for a couple walks today.

Breakfast- bowl of rice krispies, skim milk, banana
Snack- piece of string cheese
Lunch- diced pears, piece of quiche, some cottage cheese, like 5 baby pickles, few mustard pretzels...I'm really having a craving for dessert, but I am trying to resist. We'll see how strong my willpower is. I ended up having a tiny hershey's bar...not bad!
Heading to the gym for strength fusion, then home to do laundry/clean my room/bake pies
Dinner- ummm...didn't really have dinner. Had some chips and salsa, and licked the spoon when making my pies, and a glass of skim milk. Then ran to the radio station, came home at like 9:30, finished making my pies (licked the meringue off the spoon) had some more chips and salsa, a piece of string cheese, and some orange juice...



I went shopping yesterday and bought:
Bananas, string cheese, cottage cheese, lean pockets (for when I'm too lazy to make lunch), some healthy choice soup, lettuce, salad dressing, bagels & cream cheese, jasmine green tea (my new favorite!), and some chips and fresh salsa (my concession to junk food...I just love this salsa though, I could probably eat it with a spoon!), skim milk, sugar-free jello and some fruit juice. Hopefully this will aid in my healthy eating...oh and I bought pie crusts because I'm making coconut cream pie for a potluck on Thursday...that's not healthy, but I figure it's fine to have 1 'bad day'....and I don't have to eat a lot!

Day 16 - Annika

Breakfast was a sandwich roll

Lunch chicken salad. It had rice in it, but I just didn't eat it. or at least most of it. 2 glasses of milk and mango-melon salad for dessert.
Also had an apple and earl grey tea. I dont really like tea but..
At home I made pineapple-shrimp-ham-noodles with garlic-chili sauce.
51 minutes of biking with Emmerdale.
Later I'll have skim milk.

tomorrow is pizza day again and there is no good alternatives. And the dessert is fantastic too(berry-oat thingy.. i dont know what's in it but apparently berries, oat and whipped cream at least). So i'll be having rather bad day tomorrow.

Day 15-Sheena

Breakfast- rice krispies and skim milk
Lunch- rice krispies and skim milk, strawberry yogurt, dried mango, fortune cookie
Snack- 10 low salt almonds, dried mango
Heading to the gym today for Zumba and Yoga Fusion.
Dinner- a couple chips and salsa, string cheese, salad w. chicken and a little bit of thousand island dressing, and cottage cheese.

I think that french fries are my downfall too at restaurants! I do try to get a salad or something on the side instead, or see if they have 1/2 sandwich/soup or salad meal combos.

I went grocery shopping and picked up some good food!

back in the saddle!

so, because of my illness (which i'm almost all the way over, save a few coughing fits now and then), i didn't go to the gym til this morning. that means i went a whole week without working out! but that's ok, because i'm going to work out 4 times this week. it felt so good to work out!! i feel so energized now!

i didn't have the consistency of three meals a day since i became sick, so it'll be nice to get back into that as well. yesterday i went out to eat with a friend and i ordered a turkey sandwich (which came with fries) and a beer. i think fries are my weakness when going out to eat. i know that i can usually substitute a salad, but they aren't as good! i didn't finish all of them, and only at half of my sandwich, so i took that home. i've noticed that i usually can't finish meals at restaurants, and i think that's a good thing, because i've read that they are usually served in larger-than-needed proportions anyway. it took me a while to realize that having leftover on my plate isn't a bad thing...probably because i was raised to finish everything on my plate and be a "good eater", as my sisters and i say. now, when i'm with family, i take smaller portions, so i can still be a good eater, but not feel overly full afterwards.

what are some tricks that you guys use when going out to eat?

Day 15 - Annika

Breakfast was a sandwich. topped with the usual stuff.

Lunch was some grated carrot and cucumber slices with half a hamburger steak. 2 glasses of milk.
a kiwi.
Lots of milk, crushed pineapple.

40 minutes on the bike

Day 14-Sheena

Breakfast- fruit & yogurt parfait, mint steamer w. skim milk
Lunch- Turkey club sandwich w. avocado, potato salad, jasmine green tea
Dinner- Apple, Tandoorie chicken, rice, dal w. spicy tomato and yogurt sauce...yum :)
No workout today since the gym was closed. Back to working out tomorrow. I may try to do this 100 pushups.com thing....it's a plan to work up to 100 pushups. We'll see...

Day 14 - Annika

Woke up at noon.
Had light yoghurt and sun bread for breakfast.

Later I made pizza.

Now I have a berry pie in the oven. Seems like a disaster. Hope it will taste good anyway.

This has been a bad food day for me.

Tomorrow I will get back to normal. Feeling normal enough for exercising again.

Day 13-Sheena

Breakfast- 2 little pieces of quiche (one lorraine, one bacon/swiss), a pile of fruit (melon, grapes, pineapple, strawberries), a couple little pastries and some hot tea, one dark chocolate hershey's kiss.

I have to work at the terrace today from 3-10, so dinner will be there at 8 or so. I will probably eat a little more quiche before I go in. (since they sent me home with an entire quiche!) I am going to try and finish my essays today, though we will see. It is gorgeous out. 45 degrees fahrenheit. Hooray! I hope that people are going out tonight, so I can head for a quick drink after I get off work. Tomorrow I have Book Club brunch at 10 and then I volunteer to answer phones for the radio station's pledge drive from 2-5. I got in to one grad school so far (Grand Valley in MI) and got rejected from U of Connecticut. I have to hear from 3 more, and finish my apps for another 2. This is such a long process!

More later or tomorrow. Good job everyone. I need to definitely look back on my last couple weeks and see what changes I need to make. What do you guys think?

Ok: actual food consumption:
Lunch- salad w. ranch and a bread roll
Dinner- Steak and potatoes, salad w. champagne mustard vinaigrette
Drinks- Miller Lite, Guinness

Day 13- Annika

Breakfast - light strawberry-orange yoghurt, sun bread.
Lunch 3/4 of a small tuna pizza.

we'll be going to an unofficial house-warming party later today. I have decided to do my best not to eat too much of anything good they might be serving.

UPDATE: I managed to eat a lot less of the chocolates and chips and pastries they were serving that I usually would have had. I was almost proud of myself. Until we got a kebab roll and I ate half of it. It was nearly 3am.

Day 12 -Annika

Breakfast was a pumpkin seed roll with lettuce-cucumber-tomato-cheese-ham
I had one mokkapala between brekkie and lunch.
Lunch grapes and pork. Lingonberry quark for dessert. One glass of milk.

Later some delicious sun bread. Dinner was a "salad" made of grapes, cherry tomatoes and smoked chili cheese.

Day 12-Sheena

Breakfast- Yoplait Light yogurt-peach. Orange Juice
Lunch- Egg Drop Soup, Egg roll, and 2 little chocolate cookies
Snack-grasshopper drink
Dinner- bowl of pomegranate/blueberry flakes/cluster cereal with skim milk, a couple tortilla chips
I then headed to the gym for my first Turbokick class. I was worried that I would be kicking and punching people, but it wasn't bad. I look forward to getting a little more coordinated with it so I can push myself to work harder, instead of concentrating on the moves.
Not a bad day!

Day 11-Sheena

Breakfast- Banana and banana nut muffin
Snack- Some cheese doritos and some salsa and chips, mini snickers, airhead
Lunch- I ended up having an apple, 3 little pickles, some mustard pretzels and a tiny piece of chocolate cake.
Dinner will have to be quick since I have class from 4:30-5:15, then drive home/eat/get my tuba and drive to rehearsal from 7-8:30. Busy day!

Will update later.

Dinner: I made a salad that was gross, so i threw it out, and then I just had a piece of salmon, some colby cheese and some jello.

day 11- Annika

let's see
breakfast similar bread roll as yesterday.
lunch lots of fruit(orange, mango, water melon mix), small piece of almond fish and very little chili con carne and very little potato-kebabsomething. piece of blueberry pie for dessert. 2 glasses of milk.

2 cups of hot cocoa.

I had to buy a small bag of candy because I got a free bag of cat food for it.
the I just had to have a tuna-mayo sandwich.. and i had to eat it. and it wasnt even as good as i had hoped.

--later we'll have some chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes, but i am skipping the potatoes. I am going to really start avoiding pasta, rice and potatoes in all forms from now on. shouldnt be too hard. except i'm going to eat rest of yesterdays ham salad with the nuggets. which also arent very light and healthy but at least i wont deep fry them.--
sudden realization while buying milk.. why am i having the nuggets anyway? so I'm going to skip them and have milk instead. that was the idea in the first place. after having some sick days and eating in the evening for strength I forgot my plan.

then i got us Runebergin torttus for dessert for this is Runeberg's day.

also got grapes and smoked chili cheese but i'll save those for tomorrow.

i didnt lose any weight during my sick days.. i must have eaten too much or i have very slow digestion..

i was feeling awful all morning. then suddenly after noon I felt fine. a bit later i felt like a normal person again.

I wore my new running shoes to the milk shop and it was really hard to just walk. good to feel good again.

well...the good thing about being sick is that i've lost weight!

stayed home from work yesterday because i could barely talk and was in a lot of pain.

went to the doctor, and i was a whole 2 pounds lighter than when i went in 2 weeks ago! haha...that's about the only good thing about being sick...losing weight.

when i stepped on the scale this morning, i was a couple pounds lighter than usual still, which is good, b/c i'm getting closer to my goal weight. we'll see how long that will last, though.

all i had to eat yesterday was yogurt, a small amount of pasta salad from the copp's deli, and fruit. today, i had oatmeal. and i will have yogurt, soup, and a banana. haven't decided what i'll do for dinner, though....

still feeling pretty crappy, but decided to come into work anyway. hopefully i'll beat this thing soon!

Day 10-BAD Sheena

What a horrible eating day...let's see if I can even begin to list it.
Piece of Boston Cream Pie cake
Piece of Chocolate Cake
Piece of another type of chocolate cake
blueberry muffin
a couple chips and salsa
some mustard pretzels
some cheese doritos

(and this is all before lunch...SICK, free food wednesdays are EVIL)

Lunch- Lasagna, bread, tomato/cucumber/feta salad, fruit salad, root beer
Gym- I did 2 classes today! First I did yoga which kicked my butt and then 20/20/20 which was Turbokick/Strength/Yoga and that kicked my butt further. I have a feeling it may be hard to walk tomorrow.

Dinner- Open-faced egg salad sandwich, sleepytime tea

Goodnight! Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

day something - Annika

back to work today.
I tried to take things very slow. The fever is gone but I wasnt feeling all that great.

I found a picture of my breakfast roll

had this very very delicious bread roll that had lots of different seeds in the dough. it was filled with lettuce, tomato, cheese, cucumber and liverwust. this was breakfast.

i chose pizza lunch although i seriously meant to stay away from pizza for a while. it was shrimp, tuna & pineapple. only had one slice. I'm very proud of myself for not having another. then 2 glasses of skim milk and pineapple yoghurt.

i bough veggie Subs for dinner. this is my cunning plan actually. i dont want to actually cook anything and i need to feed my bf some garlic coz i had garlic on my pizza.

there's also some macaroni-ham salad for later but i already had some of it. I might leave it at that and let him have the rest.

my friend cancelled her interest towards this blog. she said it's because this is in english..

good start to the week....well, kinda.

as far as eating goes, i've been good today and yesterday. my only "indulgence" was a mini reeses cup today. otherwise, i've had yogurt, granola bars, rice and whole wheat spaghetti with homemade sauce. and fruit. go me!

i skipped my workout this morning because i couldn't stop coughing when i woke up. not good to be wheezing on the machines!

i've been loading up on cold meds and tea (i'm a regular tea drinker as it is, but i'm pretty much doubling the amount now that i'm sick!)...hopefully by thursday i'll be well enough to work out again!

oh and i've been meaning to share a tidbit i found interesting. i have some caramel-scented hand lotion, and i've read that it's a good "dessert option". as in, instead of eating a dessert when i'm craving one, i should just put on my sweet smelling lotion, and that should be satisfying enough. i must admit, the smell is delicious!

Day 9-Sheena

Had a munchy morning...2 little pieces of garlic toast, a milky way midnight bite size, a little butterfinger bell and some pretzels.

Lunch we're getting Buffalo Wild Wings (since it opened yesterday) I ordered 4 chicken tenders w. spicy garlic sauce and fries.

I'm heading to the gym after work for Strength Fusion which is intervals of weights/resistance bands alternated with cardio. It's usually a great workout, and I'm excited to get back into it. I've been thinking that I might start doing some daily walking or jogging in addition to the gym just to get some more cardio.

UPDATE: Dinner- I had a hamburger, a little bit of mashed potatoes and Josie and I made some Jello. Yum to Jello :) I need to get some sugar-free to have around when I have a sweet tooth. I have creme brulee flavored lotion, but I know from experience that just smelling that isn't good enough to sate my craving!

My throat is a little sore today, and I'm HOPING that I'm not getting sick again right after I finally got over my last 2 week sickness. I have been taking echinacea, vitamin d and vitamin c in an attempt to stave it off. And I threw out my old toothbrush, tonight I need to wash my sheets and stuff.

Day 9 - Annika

I probably forgot to mention but I've been ill since Saturday. Still am.. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going back to work.. I'm so not looking forward to that.

Breakfast today was the last of my weight watchers full bran cereal with skim milk.
I'm not planning to go out today at all so I'll be having the second layer kissel(Kiisseli is what we call it) for lunch.

I also checked what wikipedia had to say about kissel and i was surprised. Honestly I had no idea it's russian origin and basically eaten only in this part of the world..

dinner was macaroni casseroli, not self made though. and some more of that layer kissel.

Fast Food Nation

I don't know if you guys have read it before, but on Saturday I read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Man was it scary! It talked about the beef industry a lot, and what those animals are fed! They are fed dead other animals and chicken shit, talk about gross! It really makes me take a serious look at whether or not to continue to eat beef (at least commercial beef) and what fast food restaurants to go to. Not only that, but their business practices of price fixing and union busting are crazy. I think that perhaps I will look into buying only local beef, and look into more humane (and not disgusting) sources!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation

Day 8-Sheena

Breakfast- mini apple turnover bit, white chocolate macadamia nut cookie, tea
Lunch- Whole wheat pasta, with tomato, squash and zucchini, an icee pop, and 2 sweettarts
I'm heading to the gym today after work! Hooray, my plan is to do Zumba (which is a brazilian hip hop dance) from 5:30-6:30 and Yoga Fusion from 6:30-7:30...then I need to come home and eat something healthy for dinner...maybe a salad.

UPDATE: I only ended up doing Zumba because that wiped me out! It's amazing how quickly you get out of shape, hopefully I can get back in shape soon!

Dinner- hard boiled egg, and 1/2 egg salad sandwich with a glass of milk. I am trying to think of a healthy dessert to make to satisfy my sweet tooth, either that or I'll brush my teeth so I don't eat anything else!

man, i have to get out of the habit of eating unhealthily over the weekend!
i had a burger, and mac and cheese, and some dip stuff with chips...ugh....talk about feeling like crap afterward!

i did work out this morning, though, for about an hour. i felt a lot better!

i'm going to have yogurt soon, a granola bar, and i plan to have organic brown rice for lunch. not sure about dinner, but i'm thinking of doing the special k thing...just have a bowl of cereal for dinner.

Day 7-Sheena

Nachos at the movie theatre
Deviled eggs (3 whole boiled eggs)
2 pieces of colby cheese.

Not a very well balanced day...

day 8 - Annika

Still ill.
fruit yoghurt for breakfast.

lunch was red curry chicken with jasmine rice, a large glass of forbidden fruit soda and the rest of my ice cream.

Then I had some layered kissel (is that a proper word?).

Soon we'll be cooking mashed potatoes and sautéd game. even that sounds weird..

btw I might know someone who might be interested in joining this project..

day 7 - Annika

i had weight watchers full bran cereal, cranberry-caramel ice cream(to medicate my throat), canned peaches and a veggie burger. that's all.

DAy 6 - Annika

well I had pineapple, noodles, garlic crostinis and a meat pie.. but most if not all of that came out the same way a bit later.
later I had some french fries and meatballs I made. And some chocolate (as a cure)..

last night i danced for about 3-4 hours.. It was such a crazy night. I was home at 5.30am and woke up again just after 8am.. I believe the lack of sleep made me feel worse than I would have. I managed to sleep an hour in the afternoon and felt much better after..

Day 6-Sheena

Breakfast-3 pieces of turkey sausage, 2 eggs, 1 piece of toast, a glass of milk and 3 cherry cordial hershey kisses
Lunch- Brat on bun---that was at like 3 so I haven't eaten anything else...oh wait, I had a bowl of ice cream. Maybe I should have some dinner before I go out dancing....

UPDATE: For dinner I had a small piece of pasty and a half bagel with strawberry jam. Then when I was out I had a Corona, a Strongbow Cider, and a White Chocolate Peppermintini

Day 5-Sheena

Breakfast- Didn't really have anything, just munched :( pretzels, cracker, piece of sausage, 2 dark chocolate/mint ghiradelli square
Lunch- 2 pieces fish fry, french fries, a mint, root beer
Snacks- 2 grasshopper ice cream drinks
Dinner-Hot Dog and Diet Coke at the movies

Day 5 - Annika

I've forgotten to mention I have 2 cod liver oil tablets each day.

Today I was feeling a bit bad in the morning so I decided I can have my favorite breakfast at work and that is the pumpkin seed roll. It's really good. Probably full of calories so I've been trying to avoid it.

The lunch options today are far too good. 3 options and they are all good. But I chose Karelian stew. Something very delicious but also something I usually get only at Christmas. And the dessert was yummy. apple-oat thingy with whipped cream.

This evening I'm going to have some Thai food and cider.

NOTE: I just love Thai food. It is really really good. I just wish I'd known that before.
I had chicken with red curry coconut sauce. Then we had thai wine spritzers. Also very good

I had ciders, a cosmopolitan, 2 daiquiris, 2 salmari shots. Stayed up until 5.30 am.. Never been out that late.

Day 4-Sheena

Breakfast-2 bananas, hot chocolate, 3 bottles of water
Lunch- 1 piece of thin crust bbq chicken pizza, 1 piece of thin crust hawaiian pizza, 1 can of sprite, 1 ghiradelli dark chocolate/mint square, 1 small piece of chocolate cake, 1 small piece of strawberry cake :(
Dinner- 1 chicken breast w. bbq sauce, piece of chocolate cake
Snacks- couple pretzels, piece of chocolate cake, little cookie

3 pieces of cake today....so many sweets! Bad me. But I will be starting back at the gym on Monday so that is exciting. And I'm going dancing for a Girl's Night Out with girls from the gym on Saturday night!

Day 4 - Annika

Started the day with a sandwich and  a mandarin at work. 

The lunch options are not too good today. Will have to see what I decide. -- I chose Pasta Carbonara for it looked quite alright. I only took a very small portion but I managed to ruin my salad with this horrible fat free Italian dressing so it was more carbonara for me. Also took a slice of white bread coz they had tomato-chili cream cheese. But the bread wasnt good so I didnt finish it. 

A very tiny amount of mangoquark for dessert. It was yesterday's but I didnt have it then. As much as I love quarks, I'm tired of mango. It's not as good. Strawberry quark would be absolutely fantastic or rose hip. Too bad it's made of cream when it's at its best.. 

I FORGOT: I got some free crostinis from work, garlic-parsley and olive. So good and so unhealthy. I tried not to eat too many but I might have failed.

For dinner I had mashed potato-ground beef mix. I dont know what it's called in english but for us it's jauhelihaperunasoselaatikko. I had some carrot and lots of pineapple with it. 

about an hour later I did 38 minutes workout and then I made strawberry quark. I couldnt resist.  

Tomorrow evening is going to be girl's night out. We start with Thai food. Continue with cider and dancing.  

Maybe on Saturday I dare to weigh myself. I'll scream if nothing has happened(no, i won't really).

Day 3 - Annika

Let's see..

for Breakfast I had a bread roll again. I was starving just before lunch.

Lunch was chicken soup with the side salad and 2 glasses of milk. It was really good soup.. Didn't feel too bad for not having the pizza. 

At home I had another bread roll. Then exercised and hour. Warmed up last nights soup for dinner. Then I had lots and lots of milk. And the rest of my marshmallows. I saved the last one for hot cocoa and it was too hot. I burned my tongue.