A Come Back

WOW! It has been a while. A lot has happend in the short time I stopped writing. I now work for Pure Barre, a fitness boutique. I truly believe in pure barre. But, that is whole different post. I also moved back to California. It is great to be back and I am starting to find the positives in being back here.

I also have stopped writing because I felt like I was starting to offend some or sometimes become pushy and I have had to find ways not to do that. I have come to an understanding that it is hard to be healthy and sometimes people don't want to or may have a hard time commiting to a different lifestyle than what they are used to. That is so hard for me to understand because all I want is for people to be healthy, it is exciting to me! It has also been very busy and I have been single -momming it for a a good 4 months while my husband was away in San Fran working. Through all that I was able to lose 12 more pounds (without stress). Then seeing my husband (the bad influence) I gained 6 more pounds! That was and has been very frustrating! I still want to get down to goal weight and hopefully I can do that soon. I am going to give blogging another try. Hopefully I can be inspiring and not pushy :)

Marissa

Journal

Have you ever felt like your life is in chaos?!?! Well…that happens to be mine right now. Between working out, being mom, and wife, there seems to be no time left in the day! I have found that protein shakes have become my next best friend! Great for breakfast which is when I seem to always be in a hurry, with the thkid’s breakfast has become more challenging. Running has gotten more challenging. I love the run however; I cannot wait to race the half marathon. What’s in store for me next? I am sure…maybe a full marathon.

Food tip of the day

DIETING SUCKS!!! Right? Here is a suggestion, stop DIETING! We are changing our lifestyle towards better health. Losing weight is a great benefit to this change. When we think of dieting, we think of restrictions and then we feel deprived and sometimes guilty. STOP FEELING THAT WAY!!! It is ok, really, it is! You want Chocolate? Have it, just remember to have it in moderation. When we are “healthy”, our bodies don’t even want large quantities of sugar. Enjoy the small portions, trust me, you will feel better in the end J

Challenging workout of the week

Try circuit training. Burn more calories by tricking your heart rate! Jog /walk/bike/elliptical for 30 minutes then lift weights at three sets of 15 (or whatever is more challenging to you) lifting weights should take 10 to 15 minutes. Repeat the cycle till you have reached 90 minutes of cardio and 45 minutes of weights. This should be a challenge but it is well worth the workout! You’ll be sweating in no time.

Journal

Journal – Yesterday was the last day of my “cleanse”, I usually do this twice a year to remove all the toxins from my body. Sometimes it helps to do this when you start to eat better and exercise or when you have binged. It also helps to do a “cleanse” just to keep your body pure from toxins to help with your weight loss. Unfortunately, I had to do this cleanse because I had binged! That is right people I too binge. I ate cake, cupcakes, chocolate, pizza, you name it and if it had fat in it, I was eating it! I got a point where it didn’t even taste good to me but my body was starting to crave it. I swear, those foods are addictive because of what is in them! I of course didn’t start to feel well and when I ran I felt so bloated and muggy. It was time to get clean! This cleanse felt good and wasn’t that hard to do. You have to use self control. It was torturous cooking meals for my family and watching them eat dessert at first. But, after day 4 my body started to feel better and I did too! I was no longer tortured by their junk food, I became disgusted. The first three days I had to constantly talk to myself, “No, Marissa, don’t eat that!” and “Marissa, do you really want to eat that, is it really worth blowing your cleanse you just paid for?” This helped, me continuously silently talking to myself, it really did. Sometimes you just need to listen to that voice in your head and talk back to see how you really feel. If you do decide to cleanse, I highly recommend GNC 7 day fast loss pre diet cleanse, I have done many cleanses, but I was pretty impressed with this one. I was able to come over that “scale stump” that I was stuck in and I had a lot more energy. I did not follow it all the way. I did not eat the fat free, half fat, low fat, no fat suggestions. I just ate organics and less of it. So instead of eating “Margarine” I had organic butter and instead of 1/3 fat mayo, I had ranch dressing. I recommend “Bolt house yogurt ranch dressing”. It is super yummy and it is all natural. If you decide to cleanse and need some tips on alternating the food or need recipes please email me and I will help you out.

Food tip of the day

Try controlling your portions by eating on small plates. I never knew how much I was eating until I measured. If you need to, measure your servings. Keep a food journal. Do whatever it takes to know what and how much you are putting in your body, it is crucial to weight loss. Try not to eat low- fat, low -carb, fat- free, etc. foods. They don’t help! I found that I gained weight eating like that because of what is in those foods. Eat the real thing; just eat it in smaller portions. J

Challenging workout of the week

Not a runner? Try something different like spinning? Don’t have a gym? Walk and Walk fast! Trust me you will sweat! Remember to keep your cardio to at least 30minutes a day. Get that heart rate up and burn those calories!

Journal

Sorry! No one can take a pick of me right now! So this is the best I can do....Look at those guns though! I am getting pretty buff! hehe..

I have been writing...I promise! I just haven't been posting. Life has gotten the best of me and I have no idea how I have managed to lose pounds in the end. I have been running (I need that for sanity) and have continued to discover how to eat. The more I do this the more I learn. I have learned that I should have been eating a lot better and that what I was eating was either not good or to much!

Can you guess what I am going to talk about? Of course, food! What we all love. I love food....I love how it tastes, I love that it makes me feel better, and I love that we can all gather around together and be happy, eat, and enjoy one another's company. I am not saying that this is bad, I am just saying that when we do these things, we just tend to lose control. I am saying a good majority of America is obese and that is scary! We are unhealthy and we need to do something about it! What are eating? Has anyone asked that question?

My daugther goes to a school where junk food is not encouraged. This has helped me see the purpose and good in "natural food". I have had to really learn to research what is healthy and what is not. Let me tell you a grocery shopping story. It was Feburary and my family and I decided to all go to the store together. Mike was picking up some milk and I thought...where did that come from? Were the cows treated with hormones? What kind of quality of Milk is it? I mean, we as Americans trust our farmers and trust that they are treating the cows well. I never used to think of even asking these questions. It was scary to think that my family and I could be drinking something harmful. So after that we went to get some yogurt. I thought well, the store brand is cheaper than the brand name yogurt lets get it. I strongly felt that I needed to look at the back of the yogurt, so I did. I discovered that the yogurt has HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it!!!! What? Was I feeding my kids PURE SUGAR!?!?!?! Argh! Who puts that in yogurt?!!?! So I went and got the name brand and it was safe. May I recommend that you eat Stoneyfield ...it is great, thick, and healthy! My kids are very hyper and sugar just makes it worse. I have to be careful because sometimes what I think is healthy may not be healthy and may be making the problem worse. Not only that we as Americans are feeding our children this food and giving our kids juice and soda and ...I hate to say it, but that is why our kids are hyper and obese. We are just giving into their addictive sugar cravings that lead to more healthy problems.

Long story short. I am learning how to eat and it will continue to be a process. Some tips: When you choose to eat all natural make sure you read what is in the product. When something says "all natural", it may not be "all natural". This issue of Health Magazine was great because it described what I had been trying to tell people perfectly! I love going to the healthy store and buying my groceries but, I don't like seeing that they do sell not so healthy things. I am not talking about baked goods here, I am talking about things that have persevities, food dye, and Fructose in it. Things that are not that great for you. Health Magazine gives these tips on what to look for. "It probably isn't all natural if..."

Tips:

1. It has three or more ingredients you can't pronounce or have never heard of.

2. Any of the ingredients on the label list en in -ol or -ose; that means it is probably an arificial sweetner (maltinol, sorbitol, sucralose)

3. It claims to be sugar-free, fat-free, low-carb, light, or double fiber;

4. It contains one of these ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated or paritaly hydrogentated oil.

Credits: Heath Magaine April 2010 issue

As I continue to learn how to eat and exercise the pounds keep coming off. I have noticed however that the pounds have come off a bit faster since my discovery and I am now happy! I was frustrated for a bit. I was running 6 - 8 miles and running every day and on top of that I was doing Bikram Hot Yoga! I wasn't losing any weight and if I was, it wasn't consistent. I then kept a food journal and kept track of what I was eating. When I did that I was shocked because I had no idea at how bad I was eating! Lets just say I had some kind of sweet every day that was double the portion I thought it was and the fact that it had preservatives and lots of processed junk in it which I like to call Toxins. I had to detox all over again, I feel much better now and hope to stay that way in the near future. Good luck this week! I am excited to continue to blog. I miss it! I am so glad I have my computer back, for those of you who didn't know, I was out because my wonderful and sweet son killed my computer. It was in the shop for a while and I was stuck with an I Pod touch as my computer! So needless to say that I am soooo happy to be back in the blogging world!

Marissa

Delayed!!!!

So I know...I promised I was going to blog more...I know, I have been horrible! It has been almost a month since I have blogged but, I do have good reason. My wonderful playful son broke my keyboard on my lap top and left me stranded without a computer! My computer is still in the shop but, I have gotten a very long ethernet cord and have connected my desktop to the internet! Thank goodness...I was starting to lose it not having a computer! It is great to be back.

I have started my training for the half-marathon and It is going well. In November I kind of fell off the deep end with running and eating right and just let stress take the best of me. It really did not feel good letting that happen. I felt out of control and it was an odd feeling for me. It feels good to be in control of my body, it really helps me stay focused.

Since I have been back from my California vacation, I have been stuck with 9Ibs to lose and the start of running ALL over again. I basically took a month off running because life was just way to hectic to run, how I let that happen...I am not sure, but it did. It was frustrating when I started running again. I had lost all of what I had worked for....really, in just a month I had went from 7 miles to nothing! When I started running again I could barely run 2 miles! Sad, I know, but its good to be running again. The first week was a struggle and a bit discouraging, all I wanted to do was go home and eat! I barely ran 4 miles that week. Then, I got a runner's log, a lifesaver, this thing is awesome. It gets me excited to run. I plan my speed workouts, my easy runs and my outdoor runs. I end with notes and how I felt. It gets me so excited to run! I also have a food journal. I needed this because I had lost control of portions and I had to figure out how much I was eating and why I had gained the weight in the first place and what I had to change in my newly created bad habits.

This week I will be starting week 4 in my running long and to date I have ran 20 miles total! Awesome! I can not wait to see what it will look like when I am done training for the half-marathon. Before the half-marathon, my goal is to run a 5 k and a 10 k to get those race jitters out of the way. I also started doing Bikram Yoga (Hot yoga). I absoluetly love it! It is about 105 degrees in the room and with that heat we do various poses that really warms the body to get a deeper stretch. I feel great afterwards!

My last biggest accomplishment that I have achieved is learning to say NO to the bad influences. I feel like I have over come this and I am just so proud of myself. My husband is a bad influence, he eats horribly. He has at least 3 sweets a day. I have learned to say, "NO thankyou", unless It is my lady time, I say it politely but firmly and I just think about the end results. I feel the "bad food" especially when I do yoga. It helps me stay in tune with my body. It just makes it harder to run and do yoga when I eat bad. In the end, it really isn't worth all the calories, weight gain, and gross body feelings. I hope your week went well. Stay tuned for more next week!

*Please if you have any comments or questions, leave a comment below*

- Marissa

Oh ....the joys of eating out

Eating Out...oh Eating out.

How many calories is in this chicken ceasar salad?

Think about it and I will answer the question at the bottom.

A. 546 Nordstrom Cafe B. 1010 Chili's Bar and Grill C. 767 Cheesecake Factory

So here is the reality of eating out. It is not really that good for you even if it is at whole foods. It is always better to cook your own food because you know what is in it. You know if it is fully organic or not and how much fat and oil is in it. When you eat out there is always that question..."What am I really eating?"

Yesterday I could not make my food while I was out with my family. Because I am a stay at home mom, I do cook most of the time, but there are those times where you are out and you can not cook your own food. So what do you do? I find that it is very stressful and sometimes overwhelming to where I think, "I am not doing this anymore!" I don't care." A secret, it really is a simple task to complete and there are some things that you can avoid doing.

So here are some tips:

If you choose to eat a salad, ask for the lettuce to be romain or green leaf. Ask for more veggies rather than crutons. Since most salads are tossed in dressing, ask for it on the side. You will save yourself a lot of calories since most of the fat is in the dressing.

If you choose to eat a meal. Ask for it grilled or steamed. Don't get something that you know will be fried or cooked with tons of oil or sauce. Again, ask for you sauce on the side. Order poultry or seafood. You should only eat about 3 to 4 oz of meat and most restaurants give you more than that. Control your portions and eat half of what is given to you. Your food is not going anywhere, enjoy it the next day at home. :)

For dessert, share it with your guest and enjoy two or three bites together. Also, choose a dessert with fresh fruit. It will taste delicious and will be less that fat and calories.

I know this seems like it can be so hard but try to think of it as an easy task that can be done quickly. The more you eat like this when you are out the easier it will be. Use self control. It usually takes you 20 minutes for your body to know that you are full, eat slow and enjoy your food. Again, it's not going to crawl off your plate so what is the rush?

The answer to the question above is 1010 calories! I can not believe a salad can be that many calories. I used to work for Chili's. Not the best place to eat at. Along with this salad and many other things I thought were healthy, I gained 30 Ibs eating there my freshmen year of college. I went from a size 4 to a size 14! Think about that ...it only took my 7 months to gain that weight eating like that. Make sure you know what you put in your body, it is really important!

Please, if you have any questions or comments please share!

Before and After 2009!

I stumbled across this picture as I was going through our family blog. I said, "Wow, I guess I did lose a bit of weight!" Lol....I forgot what I looked like before I lost all that weight!

Enjoy

Feburary 2009

Christmas 2009

Happy New Year!!!!!

This year has been great! I made a commitment to maintain a healthy lifestyle and run a 5k race and I did it with losing 45 Ibs total! I had time to reflect upon my last year and I was pretty happy with myself except for the binge eating that I acquired the last 2 weeks before the year ended. I just got sick and then I ate all the junk from Christmas and then I stopped exercising for a 1.5 weeks! Why do we do that to ourselves saying, "I will stop when the holiday ends" we work so hard and then we ruin it by giving in to our weakness! I hope that I can have better self control this year. Some of my goals are to continue to keep a healthy lifestyle and lose about 20 more pounds. I will be a happy camper if I do that. I also would like to train for a half-marathon this year and possibly run a marathon? I am not all sure about that however, I would like to try at least. I remember when I first started to exercise I couldn't even run 1 mile...haha and then the more I exercised and the more goals I set, I was able to improve on my time and run more miles. Before the year ended I could run about 7 miles! It really is amazing how our bodies respond to exercise. I just love that. I also am setting a goal to keep this blog updated...It helped more to talk about the food I ate and my experiences with pictures. Overall, I hope we don't get to busy and forget about the importance of life. We need to continue to be healthy and think of our bodies as something sacred. We need to exercise and take care of ourselves. If we do this we will find peace and happiness within. Whatever your goal is ....set it and keep it. :) It will be worth it all in the end and your body will thank you.

Happy new year to all of you!!!