September Makeover: Day 30

The final day approached! My scale died sometime between Day 1 and Day 30 ugh!! No update on weight, BUT…the September Makeover, was not so much to make a change on the physical, but rather a change in the day to day mentality. I now have a groove, a nutrition plan and purpose! No more skipping gym cuz I’m tired. 🙂

The September challenge was a success! I am on fire for October and kicked it off with some awesome hiking in the mountains of Colorado

Happy October and happy fall fitness challenges everyone! Who’s ready?!

Hiking with my sis and her pup, Bowzer

After 3 hours of hiking we finally found the waterfalls!

September Makeover: Day 27

Wow this September challenge is coming to a fast close! This challenge was to help me get back into gear and refocus.  The makeover was to help me find my groove, get organized and get it done.  I can really tell that this challenge (though not over yet) has been a success. Groove found.

Today I was able to hit the gym at lunch even though I was feeling sick, tired, and stressed at work. I felt great after my workout even though I still felt sick. But it did give me the extra energy I needed to finish the day strong.

Hope everyone’s challenges are going well!! Shout out to @jersalicious and Nikki who are doing their own challenges! 🙂

I am already revved to crack down with a new challenge! Hmm…I have 3 days to figure that out.

Keep livin life people!

 

Snack Shack:

• Rice cake with protein powder and PB.  Sounds weird, but the PB covers up the dry powdery taste of the protein. Give it a try! Or better yet, give it a twist and let me know how you made it better!
• Tuna packet and 2 cups of baby carrots – easy breezy for the quick and easy

Road Trip Food

We just took a road trip from Dallas, Texas to Kansas City, Missouri (about a 9 hour drive) for a family wedding.  We LOVE road trips! Part of the fun was prepping the cooler 😛

The hubs and I start every road trip by loading up our cooler.  This is great because we can avoid some stops for food, save some money, and keep our foods clean.

In our stash:

• fresh deli turkey meat
• 15 grain bread
• mustard
• skim swiss cheese
• individual Greek yogurt tubs
• individual cottage cheese tubs
• Tuna packets
• almonds
• 1 cup packets of baby carrots
• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• All natural banana chips, no added sugar
• Roasted peanuts, Rice cakes and Kashi Granola bars in case we got bad munchies 😛

Departure Drive

Meal 1:  Eggs and chicken with peppers before hitting the road 🙂 yum!

Meal 2:  Cottage cheese and small handful of berries

Meal 3: 1 slice 15 grain bread with turkey, swiss and mustard + 1 cup packet of baby carrots

Meal 4: Greek Yogurt with 12 almonds

Meal 5: (Catered event) extra lean brisket with raw broccoli salad

Return Drive

Meal 1:  (All Natural/organic/farm-stand bistro) Fresh eggs + veggie omelet

Meal 2:  Cottage cheese and 4 strawberries

Meal 3: tuna packet + 1 cup packet of baby carrots

Meal 4: Rice cake and 1/4 c peanuts

How do you do road trips?

Accidentally Saving Myself For Something Better

You know how it goes: Avoid momentary, fleeting pleasure to be saved for something special and sacred. I’ll cut right to the chase…I wanted a cookie…BAD!!!! I didn’t know what to do! It was such an intense craving!! I sat for about 10 minutes plotting how I could satiate this craving…a soy latte? a cupcake? a cookie from the Deli in my office building? “I should just eat my next meal” was followed by “UGH!!! IWANNACOOKIE!!!”

So I let myself get busy…

Before I knew it I was reading and responding to work emails, texting my husband, and working on my gallon jug of H20. It was an hour later when I realized “Oh, I haven’t gotten my cookie yet”, but…the craving was gone…

I wish I could take credit for the fact that I avoided a cookie and ate my salad+tuna instead, but this was all an accident. An accident I will learn from!

Plus, I am soooo glad I did not eat the cookie because I really wanted to have a cheat meal TOMORROW and today’s cookie would have blown that!! heehee!

September Makeover: Day 21

I have been MIA on the blog, but not on my September challenge! I am still rockin it harder or better each day.

My arms are definitely looking more lean and defined, but my eyes are still too criticizing to tell if I am making improvements on my legs and core.

I have finally cleaned up my dinners! Love me some Orange Roughy!

Last night: Orange roughy seasoned with Mrs. Dash Carribbean Citrus and lime juice. Seared on one side, lightly cooked on the other. Ate this with a stack of random veggies piled up as a salad. Easy week day dinner 🙂

Pay More to Eat?

I realized something about myself when it comes to nutrition plans.  I may have the best nutrition plan, but if I don’t like a certain item, I sometimes will avoid and skip! But when I love each meal, I always get it in.  Example: my next meal was a protein shake, but I was out of the good stuff. I grudgingly mixed my shake and took a few sips. I then got back to working with the intention of sipping on the shake. Never happened. I skipped the meal.  So I realized it is better that I keep yummy proteins in stock for the sake of my nutrition.  Do you do this?…

Protein Powder In My Cabinet: 

• VPX SRO Zero Carb in Graham Cracker flavor, which is delicious even in water, but mach more appetizing when blended with PB just cuz I am used to the creaminess of Beverly International’s UMP. 
• EAS 100% Whey in Chocolate flavor, not bad! I make my shakes in water, but this one does not have the bad chemical after-taste that some proteins have due to other supps in the stack.
• Beverly International in Cookies N Creme, by far my favorite. It is creamy and delicious as if I am having a milk shake. I always mix it in water because it is already so creamy. I’m running out… 😦 but I have 3 lbs of other brands that I need to consume before I feel justified in ordering more Beverly. 😦

September Makeover: Day 15

Be a Dream CATCHER

I can hardly contain myself! My husband is PUBLISHED!!! A long time coming! He has been working hard to break into the graphic novel/comic industry and he finally got his break!! Oh, I am so proud of him!!! Thank you, Lord, for this incredible blessing!

A teaser: www.thefinalseven.com

He’s on twitter: @lukekeith

There are Dream Chasers. And there are Dream Catchers. My husband is a Dream Catcher. He reminds me, by example, that dreams don’t happen to us, we MAKE them. His tenacity and spirit is inspiring. There is nothing he does with just half his heart – he strives for excellence in all areas of his life. This wasn’t meant to brag (but hey, I think he’s pretty remarkable, so I’ll admit it’s totally cheap), I wanted to share this so we can be encouraged and motivated to work hard and with excellence no matter what we’re doing.

Let’s catch those dreams! Want to be on stage?! YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

So proud of this guy. He's my everything.

September Makeover: Day 14

I’m in Auto Beast Mode!! Why?!?!?

For the past week and half I have been kicked into high gear – I feel like nothing can stop me from getting a good workout in.  It’s like as soon as I walk through those gym doors I go on auto-beast-mode.  I’ve been working myself good! I love this! What triggered it??…

I’ve been mulling over this…and I think that it is as a result of:

• My friend Michelle challenging me to her mad leg workout (you know..the one where I died?)
• Posting my makeover HERE knowing that you guys are watching me – after about a week of posting I realized that if I don’t make progress, if I cheat on my nutrition, if I slack, I am doing my fellow athletes and bloggers a disservice.

The only thing that is holding me back from crazy progress –my dinners. I need to clean them up. Sometimes it’s a little too much sweet potato, or sometimes it’s white rice or bread *shudder*.  Sunday I had an ice cream sammie. So you see…I’ve got some work to do! 😀

My goal for this week: Clean up my dinners! My next cheat meal is tomorrow and it will be a “healthy choice off-plan”.

September Makeover: Day 13

For those of you tracking my September Makeover, I apologize for going MIA!

My workouts and diet have been improving every day – love it.

Two of my recent workouts we’re quite stellar, so I want to catch you up:

Workout: legs

• Warm up:
• Walking lunges
• Double walking lunges
• Super set #1 – 4 sets:
• Seated leg press 20R medium weight: 180lbs
• Romanian dead lifts 20lbs/hand
• Super set #2 – 4 sets:
• Seated leg curls – 60lbs -30R , 70lbs -20R, 20R, 20R
• Step ups 2′ box – 15/leg
• Super set #3 – 4 sets:
• Jumping squats in Hack Squat – 65lbs
• Jumping lunges 16 (by the last one I was not able to jump anymore so this became a fast-in-place alternating lunge)

Workout: shoulders

• Tri-set #1 – 4S:
• Lateral raise 15R 10lbs
• Arnold press 10R 15lbs
• Rear laterals 10R 10lbs
• Tri-set #2 – 4S:
• Barbell shoulder press 15R 20lbs
• Barbell front raise 12R 20lbs
• face pulls 15R 70lbs
• This set, do all 3 exercises in a row, no rest. That equals one rep. Repeat 10R for one set:
• 1 DB Lateral raise
• 1 Upright row
• 1 Military press
• That equals one rep, now repeat 10times for one set.
• Do 3 sets – Rest 15-30 seconds between sets

Woot! Who’s killin it? We’re nearly half way through September – Make it count! 😀

September Makeover: Day 9

My goals for the remaining 3 weeks:

• to get my conditioning up (so that when I start training with Susan, she will be like “wow, you stayed conditioned, you are awesome”)
• to lean out – measured by the pinchy-pinchy method …right now I can pinch too much
• to cap my shoulders
• my dream: to grow my vastus lateralis (outer quad…so you can see it from BEHIND me! woot!)

One week down! Things I’ve learned…

• I cheat more often than I thought – denial

• What I am doing about it:
• Keep recording everything I eat
• Pick my cheat days ahead of time instead of allowing myself to cheat when I FEEL like it

• I have a lot of room to amp up the intensity

• What I am doing about it:
• Talking to other fitness friends for tips on how THEY train and GROW
• Cutting my rest limit back down to 0-30
• Take SuperPump250 on my way to the gym on days that I don’t feel like going
• Remind myself that some people would kill to be able to run or workout, so I shouldn’t waste

• I don’t drink enough water!!

• What I am doing about it:
• Keeping a 64oz jug by me at all times
• Setting an alarm mid day to remind me
• Guzzling at night if I didn’t get it all in

Makin it happen. September makeover challenge has only just begun!

Have you made any changes this week? And how did it affect you? I would love to hear what tweaks you made,  how you feel your body is responding and if you have any ideas for next week!

September Makeover: Day 8

My coworker who was recently diagnosed with Ovarian cancer has now begun chemo.  It causes so much fatigue that if she gets up to get a glass of water she has to lay down for the rest of the day! She is a VERY active person, so this has got to be depressing…

At 4:30AM I debated whether or not to actually hit the gym. Then I thought of Amber. She would give anything to workout.  I remembered what it was like when I broke my tailbone. For 8 months of recovery I caught myself unjustly scolding people with my thoughts “You dont feeeeel like it? What a waste! You should go running! How ungrateful!” thinking that if I could use my legs I would run hills, jump rope for hours, climb a mountain, wakeboard, ANYTHING!!

So I pushed myself out of bed and got my gratefulness on.

1 week down. I refuse to waste time in this September challenge. Makin every bite and every day count! Are you?