Trick or Treat

 Happy Halloween!

The scale seemed to be playing a trick and not a treat this morning for the weekly weigh-in 164.2.
 
Today I got my butt out of bed early for a workout after 2 weeks of sleeping in.  I really am only a morning workout type person I have definitely confirmed. 

I skipped yesterday's run due to the snow/ice on the ground (in OCTOBER!) and not wanting to chance injuring myself before my first 10k on Sunday so today I did a run.  The temperature in my van (yes I rock a mini-fan) this morning at 4:30am confirmed my need to hit the treadmill and not the outdoors.

I'm really not a cold weather person and thankfully by the end of the week it will be a bit warmer.  I do have to go shopping for some warmer clothes to wear on Sunday though since early in the morning it will be in the 40's most likely. 

So it took me a bit to get into the treadmill run.  I find treadmill running just about as much fun as watching paint dry.  I'll do what I have to do to get me through the cold winter and not lose my motivation for running but it's not going to be enjoyable.  Yesterday though I did find out that they play TBS on the tvs in the morning.  That meant I was able to watch Saved by the Bell and Friends.  That really made the time go by quick.  It might be my key to keeping up with running.

My goal for the night is to not devour the chocolates that the boys might get while Trick or Treating while watching Ghost Hunters Live.  

Eat Right for Your Blood Type

My mom sent me this site last night.   A co-workers wife recently started seeing a new aged type doctor who recommended this diet.  I haven't looked at it in full detail - just skimmed the 'O Type' since that is my blood type - but I do have to say that much of what is said describes me.  A few highlights from the home page:

Type O-People with type O blood fare best on intense physical exercise and animal proteins and less well on dairy products and grains (check), says Dr. D'Adamo. The leading reason for weight gain among Type O's is the gluten found in wheat products and, to a lesser extent, lentils, corn, kidney beans, and cabbage, Dr. D'Adamo explains. Ideal exercises for Type O's include aerobics, martial arts, contact sports, and running (running really is the best workout for me).

Type O's are the most likely to suffer from asthma, hay fever, and other allergies, (check, check, check.  Luckily they haven't been bad in long time though!)

So now I'm thinking of going very low on the gluten in my diet.  I have already noticed in the past that I lose the most weight when I lower my carb intake, but gosh I love my carbs.

So sore!

This week has been horrible with making it to the gym because of my husband's work schedule and I just lose all motivation to go at night, so I have been doing workouts here at home.  Mon and Tues I did Kinect Sports.  Yesterday I did a 3 mile at home walk.  It's not much compared to what I normally do, but it's something.  Oh my goodness am I sore!  I guess with playing the sports I'm using different motions that I'm not use to because my arm and back muscles are killing me!  This morning I said to my husband "I can run how many miles and weightlift and I'm ok.  Have me play a Kinect game and I'm so sore!".  I'm anxiously awaiting the Twister Mania kinect game that I won from Houseparty.com.  This morning was my son's Halloween party at school and he came home with a bag full of candy cookies and other great goodies.  I'm trying to pretend they're not here in the house. 

A few giveaways on other sites

I'm trying to avoid the chores I should be doing right now so I'm trying my luck in winning some giveaways.  Check these out!

FuelBelt Spring Palm Holder ends 11/2
$25 credit to PlanetGear.com ends 11/1

New balance sunglasses ends 10/31

The Run Home necklace ends 10/29
$40 to spend on PlanetGear.com ends 11/1

News Flash

Try it Tuesday

This weeks Try it Tuesday is a Weight Watchers recipe that I made for dinner last week.  When I make it again I will make it so the tortilla wraps aren't overlapping as I wasn't a big fan of the thickness of wrap in some sections.  But all in all it was good.  I also think it would be tasty as a dip if you shred the chicken up more and just mix all the ingredients together sans wraps.  Then use baked chips to dip.

Layered Mexican Chicken

	2 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray
	2 pound(s) uncooked boneless skinless chicken breast
	30 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
	2 1/2 cup(s) fat-free sour cream
	2 cup(s) shredded reduced-fat Mexican-style cheese, divided
	8 oz chopped green chilies, two 4-oz cans
	2 tsp ground cumin
	1/2 tsp black pepper
	13 medium corn tortilla(s), cut in half each
	1 cup(s) salsa, mild, medium or hot

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a lasagna pan with cooking spray.
  
• Place chicken in a medium saucepan and fill with enough cold water just to cover chicken. Set pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes; drain. When chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into 1-inch pieces.
  
• Transfer chicken to a large bowl and add beans, sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, chilies, cumin and pepper; mix well and set aside.
  
• Arrange 10 tortilla halves in bottom of prepared pan, overlapping pieces to cover surface. Top tortillas with 1/3 of chicken mixture and then layer with 8 tortillas halves. Spoon 1/3 more chicken mixture over top and then top with remaining 10 tortilla halves. Spoon remaining chicken mixture over top and sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese.
  
• Bake until filling is bubbly and cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing into 12 pieces. Serve with salsa on the side.

the difference of a year

As I said in yesterday's post, it's been 1 year since I decided to take charge of my life.  I did a snapshot yesterday for a comparison.

We finally got our Xbox working again so I had fun playing the sports games on Kinect last night instead of sitting on the couch playing online and watching tv.

Hello new week

Let's just say I pretty much just wrote last week off as a bad week.  I ate alright for the most part, minus the delicious brownie/cookie cake I made for my sons birthday oh and the ice cream but I SLACKED in exercise.  As in - in the last 7 days I only worked out once.  ONCE!  And that was only a 20 minute kickboxing workout from On Demand.  I woke up yesterday cursing the world for being a woman with horrible cramps so I skipped my run.  Tonight we're having our family pictures taken so I opted to sleep in rather than wake up at an ungodly hour and look like death for the pictures.  But I'm getting back on the wagon (how many times have I said that in this blog? lol) again.  My 10k is quickly approaching on November 6th.  I know I'll finish - even if I have to walk a bit.  I just need to get my calorie counting back and making sure I'm staying hydrated enough which I have been slacking on.  So here's to a new week a new beginning.  Speaking of new beginnings.  Today marks one year from when I had my awakening of "Holy crap I'm HUGE and I need to start taking charge of my life".  So here we go again.  Time to take charge again.  Hopefully one year from today I'll be rocking it even more. 

Mid-week motivation

Try it Tuesday

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I saw this recipe for Crock Pot Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili posted on Gina's Skinny Recipes.  I had to make it and luckily I already had Chili on the menu for the week.  Even my oldest who has been very picky recently with foods asked for seconds!  I did add a bit more cumin and chili powder than what is called for, but it was delicious and the husband was surprised there was pumpkin in there.

Weekly Weigh-In & schedule

So I'm beginning to think that maybe I need to change my scale battery.  For the past 5 days I have been weighing in at exactly the same weight - 161.6.  I would think there should be at least some fluctuation, especially after the weekend when I wasn't all that careful with what I ate.

Yesterday I did my longest run yet - 5.83 miles.  It was a rough run - my legs felt like a stuff rubberband.  The one thought that got me through it was thinking of a friend who the day before ran a half marathon.  If should could run that many miles, surely I could do what was on my plan.  Actually what was on my plan was 5.5 so I over achieved a bit.

This week is going to be a somewhat difficult week - my baby's birthday is at the end of the week.  He's turning 2 so I'll be busy with prepping for his 2 little parties but I will try my best to get all workouts in.  

Funny Friday

And walk walk walk walk

This morning was supposed to be a sleep in morning for me.  The husband had to be at work early which meant no gym or run for me.  Unfortunately I heard the husband's alarm going off, and then him getting ready.  I never fell back asleep.  I was laying in bed using my phone to browse some sites when I decided to get up and do a workout.  I ended up choosing Leslie Sansone 3 mile indoor walking.  This afternoon I was really regretting the decision to get up as I was feeling a bit tired, but it was a great start to the day.  And now I can have an extra Black bean brownie.

Perspective

Over the weekend we went enjoyed the beautiful weather that we had by taking a family walk around the neighborhood.  We decided to take the wagon.  The oldest likes to walk a decent mount of the walk and the youngest is starting to enjoy getting a few minutes of walking rather than being pulled in the wagon.  This time the youngest wanted neither.  He wanted mommy to carry him ... 1 mile.  As we were walking and I started to comment on heavy he is getting it hit me.  He stepped on our scale the other day and weighed in approximately 25 lbs.  25lbs is how much I've lost in the past year (and I stepped on the scale this morning and the number is back down to where it should be!).  Here I was carrying the same amount of weight that I lost.  And it was getting difficult.  I can't believe how I used to carry around that extra 25lbs every day. 

Try it Tuesday

I have yet to try this workout posted by Courtney Crozier from Biggest Loser 11 on her Facebook page, but I found it to be interesting to try so I thought why not post it here so I won't lose it for when I do want to try it.
 
Brett's Treadmill Workout!:
Warm up in any way you usually do (I walk at a 12 incline at 3.0 for 5 minutes)

-5 sets of jogging intervals! 2 minutes on, 1 minute off
2 minutes on run at a fast jog/slow run (I run at a 7.5-8.0)
1 minute of walking at a very slow pace (2.0-2.5)
Do that 5 times for a total of 15 minutes
THEN
-6 sets of sprint intervals! 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off
30 seconds at a full out sprint (I do these at a 10.0-11.0 depending on the day)
30 seconds walking at a very slow pace (2.0-2.5)
Do that 5 times for a total of 12 minutes
THEN
-Jog a half mile at your own pace (I usually do it at a 6.0)
THEN
Cool down! Walk it out at your own pace.

Weekly Weigh-In

I think my scale was broken today.  I weighed myself on Saturday and today's number was significantly higher.  So high I'm not even going to post the number.  I haven't seen the scale that high in a few months.  I know I had some bloat going on this morning from a lack of water yesterday so that is what I feel was the culprit.  Oy.  Hopefully that number is way back down next week.

So this weekend was a bust for working out.  I wore shoes I haven't worn in a while, at least last winter the other day without socks and that resulted in a blister on the heel of my left foot.  I didn't want to chance running and having the blister be worse so I took a few days off from running.  Yesterday we spent the beautiful day on the boardwalk in Ocean City so I did get some walking exercise.  This morning it was back at the gym on the Arc trainer for a nice sweaty workout. 

Funny Friday

And this is how I felt most days this week. 

Proper form

I stumbled across this while on my favorite website Pinterest.

Yesterday during my 3 mile run i tried to keep some of these pointers in mind and focus on my form.  I do have to say that when I did remember to keep form in check I ran faster and felt much lighter.  There was a spring in my step.  I didn't realize how much I slouched when I ran. 

Try it Tuesday

This weeks Try it Tuesday is courtesy of the Biggest Loser:
  
The Biggest Loser tip of the week: Trick Yourself! Sometimes the hardest part of your workout is just putting on your gym shoes. Next time you're in that situation, tell yourself you'll exercise for just 15 minutes. Chances are that once you get started and the endorphins are flowing your excuses will disappear.

Motivational Monday

Normally today is a weigh-in day, but my routine got messed up and I never weighed myself.  I ended up doing my long weekend run (5 miles) yesterday instead of Saturday, which I actually liked.  So what that means is today instead of my normal 3 mile run, it's a stretch & strength day, all of which I can do here at home anytime during the day.  So I got to SLEEP IN!  I fell asleep last night while doing my night snuggles with the little guy.  All in all I got about 10 hrs of sleep, which is amazing since I normally get about 6. 

Now this weeks workout schedule is looking like this:
Monday - stretch & strength
Tuesday - cross train 45 min
Wednesday - 3 miles
Thursday - cross 60 min
Friday - 2 miles
Saturday -  rest
Sunday - 5.5 miles

Now for Motivational Monday