Climbing a Mountain

Where I live, we have a big rock called Stone Mountain. It extends up, but also outward for a LARGE number of miles. We live about an hour from it and there is an area where that same rock surfaces in a backyard down the street.

Anyways, so last Saturday I climbed the mountain. Basically it equals walking up 1.5 miles in rocky and steep terrain. It was a lot of fun and a good work out. Since then I have had 2 lbs of chocolate (hopefully an over exagerated number) and no exercise. I have cooked a number of very tasty recipes.

My favorite is my meaty hashbrown casserole. It is based off this tater tot casserole which does not sound the least bit appetizing to me so I made it to suit my tastes.

1 lb ground turkey
1 can cream of mushroom soup 99%ff. 10.5 oz.
1 onion chopped up.
2 cups cheese, divided
taco seasoning
6 cups hasbrowns.

Pre-heat oven to 350
Brown ground turkey and chopped onion.
Add the taco seasoning and cook as directed.
Meanwhile in a sprayed 9X13 pan, spread out 2 cups of hashbrowns in a thin layer.
Mix 1 cup of cheese, 2 cups of hashbrowns, the cream of mushroom soup and the meat mixture in a bowl.
Spread over the hashbrowns.
Sprinkle the other cup of cheese on top and top with the remaining hashbrowns.
Spray with pam to help brown.

Cook until bubbly and brown on top.

Totally delicious and not too pointy. I think it is 5 points for a sixth of the pan.

Crazy? I'm not crazy!

So the other night I had major anxiety that when it came time for my wedding I would be too fat and my dress wouldn't fit and that of course, is a huge disaster. :-(

But it's all the more reason to stay OP and to keep up with my exercise. It looks like I could possibly do 3 days of Shred in a row this coming up weekend, heck maybe even 4. But I've been doing it so late that I think it is harder than it needs to be. That and I don't like to eat dinner until after I shred because I don't want to puke from working out so hard. Ho, hum.

Anyways, as soon as my slacker fiance (love you hun!) gets my pictures of the meal I cooked off of his camera I can post. They were both a double thumbs up and I can't wait to have it again.

I have a new recipe I'm trying out Friday night called Tater tot casserole. But I'm using hashbrowns instead of tater tots which cuts the points in half. Pics and recipe of that to come also! :-)

The Shred Continues

We did another day of Shred! I get sore from working out but for some reason I'm not sore after and I wasn't sore at all after the second work out. But I definitely feel like my arms and legs ARE going to fall off while working out. So I dunno. However I've gone down a belt loop so I figured that is good.

Tomorrow I"m making a healthy meal for Joe and I and he is going to make our healthy dessert that I picked out.

Smoothies!

So today is void of working out because I have bible study tonight! Of course this weeks Bible Study included nothing from the bible, which was a big odd. However the study still has a good message and point and still helping me more and mroe become more radical in my witnessing. Which, really just means step out of your shell you loser shy girl!

Anyways, so tomorrow I will for sure do 30 Day Shred. Either by myself of with Jaz.

But tonight it's Tropical Joe's Smoothies for a yummy yummy smoothie. Love it and a great dinner. Filling and although a little pointy, it fills me up! And I don't want or need a dessert fix later.

So I'm a loser for not working out, but dinner will rock!

And tomorrow will be another wonderfully sore day! :-)

Day 2 of Sore Muscles

Today was the second day we did 30 Day Shred. We skipped a day between our first and second day but we did another day. So far this is the most consistent I've been with the Shred. Yeah... I know, pathetic.

However, I had delicious, delicious, deliciousness for my meals today. It started out with a yummy cherry, raspberry and yogurt smoothie. I had a Chex Mix Turtle bar for a morning snack. Lunch was this yummy noodle casserole with chicken and spinach (imagine me eating spinach!!) and a chocolate pudding. I had a WW chocolate chip cookie and a Fiber 1 bar for an afternoon snack. For dinner I had this yummy beef and noddle casserole SMOTHERED in cheese. Mmmm, mmmm good!

My muscles are sore, but it feels good. It's a feeling of accomplishment because I'm sticking to SOMETHING! I'm excited. For once I'm excited. Having so much exercise support makes ALL the difference.

Currently Watching: Till Death
Currently Feeling: Great!

Ho Hum

The women in my family have this disease called PMS. The symptoms involve bloating, irratibility and extreme irrational craziness.

Today was suppose to be day 2 of the 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I was excited about it. Thought about it all day at work. Thought to myself "I'm sore, but I bet I can get through day 2"

AND THEN I come home.

In the living room we have two dvd players. The family one that has no remote and then mine that has a remote. I go to put my dvd in my player and it won't open. A little nephew of mine has put his movie in my dvd player and broke the spring mechanism that opens the dvd player. Ok, fine, I'll pull it open, no big deal. I go to plug the red, yellow and white cord into the dvd player and I notice that my electricity cord has disappeared.

:-(

I am PMSing.
I am short tempered.
I'm already irrational.

AND NOW I can't play MY exercise DVD.

Now, a logical, rational, calmer me would have figured something out. Anything out.

The crazed, illogical, pms me says "Screw it all" and goes and pouts and crys in my room.

Needless to say, no working out happened and I am sad. :-(

And I feel bad because my work out partner did work out and I'm just a loser.

But, I stayed under points for the day. That has to count for SOMETHING... Right???

An Introduction

It was two days ago that my fiance Joseph, and his brother Stephen went down to the basement to try out this new workout dvd they had called P90X. Stephen's wife, Jasmine, and I went down and watched them sweat and pant as they did pushup after pushup.

I've struggled for months on losing weight, but I've struggled many times before on previous weight loss struggles. It took me a while to realize that you HAVE to make not a change for a time being, but it must be a lifestyle change. You can not just endure for a while you must change for the better.

There are many things in my life which I need to work on, my temper, my organizational skills (or lack thereof), but mostly my relationship with my body. It's a very depressing thing to hate how you look, but some how that hate is always forgotten when given a treat, or when wanting a quarter pounder from McDonalds.

But, I'm slowly learning the joy of healthy foods. I'm slowly (very slowly) learning that with some good friends suffering with you, that exercise doesn't have to be evil.

And what I've learned the most in the past few days, is that not only am I not alone, but that reading other people's success and struggles with weight loss give me hope! So maybe I can help someone else out, if I can have some success.

So, I want to lose weight, get in better shape, be stronger, more confident, feel beautiful, get my life together, try and figure it out.