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!!!