New York City

These are just a few pictures from our trip to NYC. It was very much eventful and a lot of fun! I got to try Magnolia's cupcakes (they are supposed to be the best) and they were toooo sweet for me! We ate a very late dinner at a place called Dallas BBQ. It was oh so yummy and very reasonably priced. On Saturday we went to FAO Schwarz and it was so fun! I got some smurf figurines and got to play on the piano from Big. All in all the weather was good. We were supposed to be rained out the entire weekend, but we maybe felt one sprinkle the entire 2 days in the city. 

Some thoughts on healthy food

The first Challenge is coming to an end and I am even more prepared now for Challenge 2.

Challenge 2 Details:

Monday June 1-August 22

SIGN UP BY WEDNESDAY, MAY 27th

12 weeks long

16 cheats (make your coupons)

Take a before picture

Check your weight before it begins

Take your inches (waist, hips, chest, arms)

Record your current size of clothing

No fried foods

No sweets

Only 12 ounces of soda per day

Exercise 3-6 times a week

We will only weigh in every 2 weeks

(you will email info on Fridays instead)

Email me the following: 

(tctummy@yahoo.com)

Name

12 week "pound" goal

(That is all I need to know this time. I have all the rest. You need to keep up with your weight, 

inches and all that because we will be seeing how those change)

WEIGH IN DATES 

(every 2 weeks on Fridays)

June 12

June 26

July 10

July 24

Aug 7

Aug 21

Email Tanna if you want to participate. You must email her by tomorrow. This was the first time in a long time that I have started and finished a weight loss program/diet of some sort. You should join even if you just have 5 pounds to lose! The motivation is awesome that the group provides!! 

Now .. some random information that has helped me to eat better. The School of Public Health and my Principles in Public Health class have forever made me think differently about food! 

1. Food that is good for you does not always taste good the first time. Try different veggies at least 3 different times before you decide that you don't like it. You can grill veggies, mash them, season them, boil them .. your options are endless. I have eaten butternut squash, eggplant, celery, and chickpeas all things that I have said "I do not like." They taste good actually.
2. Mix up your salad! Just eating a plain salad with lettuce will get boring, add avocado, celery, carrots, broccoli, chick peas, salsa, you name it you can add it to your salad!
3. Beef is not always a good choice. Make sure you know how your cows are being fed!!!!!!
4. There are other ways to fix your sweet tooth. Cantaloupe, frozen banana slices, oranges, apples, grapes. Limit the processed sweets in your diet.
5. Pesticides are not good for our bodies and are often alllll over the fruits and veggies we buy at the store. If possible by local from a nearby farmers market! 

Chartwells recently made a move in March to include more grass-fed beef into the dining halls.But wait, don't all cows eat grass? Well, they're supposed to. An overwhelming number of farms in the U.S. use confined feed lots, or concentrated animal feeding operations, to raise their livestock. The big fuss about grass-fed or free-range meat is that "it's not about how the animal dies, but how it lives," said University at Albany biology professor Gary Kleppel. Cows and sheep are supposed to have a diet of grass and other things like weeds that are typically found on open ranges and fields. In the feed lots, livestock are kept in cement confines, sometimes with more than 1000 other animals. These thousand-plus animals are force fed corn. Corn has a large amount of protein and fat, so it gets the cows really big really quickly. It is also a cheap and abundant resource. It seems fine, right? But, because of their specialized stomachs, called rumen, cows and sheep cannot process corn. Corn turns livestock with rumen's, which are normally neutral, acidic. This acidity leads to the cows getting sick. "Imagine having acid indigestion all the time," said Kleppel. "Giving cows corn is like putting diesel in a gasoline powered car," said Bill Kurtis, author of "The Prairie Table Cookbook." "It's wrong, wrong, wrong." According to sustainable.org, a website devoted to environmental sustainability, about 12 to 32 percent of all feed lot cattle develop liver abscesses as a result of a high-grain diet. In order to combat the various sicknesses, farmers then pump their livestock full of antibiotics. "Switching a cow from grass to grain opens the floodgates to a host of serious maladies," wrote Star Ledger reporter Beth D'Addono, "which only a constant diet of antibiotics can begin to counter. "It has also been reported that farmers also inject hormones into the cows. "It makes them grow quickly and hold a lot of water so they weigh more," said Kleppel.

The rest of the information can be found here or http://media.www.albanystudentpress.org/media/storage/paper1019/news/2008/04/28/News/Beef-and.Antibiotics.And.Hormones.Its.Whats.For.Dinner-3359116.shtml.

So, I am in a learning process of beginning to eat better for my body and trying new foods prepared different ways. My body feels better, I have lost weight, and I have more energy!! 

Back in Texas and loving it!!

I am back in Texas and loving it!! I have gotten to spend so much time with friends and family already! My sister and I are in close living quarters .. but it will do!! I got an email today talking about another internship that is paid .. I will know about it this week. I do start the one that I have already accepted tomorrow, and I will not know how to quit if that becomes necessary.

The challenge is going good. I bought my favorite dressing today (Drew's Roasted Garlic Peppercorn)! It always makes me want to engulf my salad and veggies!! I also bought some yocrunch yogurt!! I am in healthy food heaven!! I do not have a scale though, I left mine in NY. I plan on buying one on Friday. We will see what "the scale" says! ha! 

So I have decided to set some summertime goals!

1. Get below 200 lbs!!
2. Run a 5K!!
3. Make some decisions about what to do with the rest of my life.
4. Work out, Work out, Work out!
5. Get oober healthy!
6. Continue the challenge until I have reached number 1!
7. And make some decisions about what to do with the rest of my life.

What are your summertime goals? Are they health related? Either way, you can accomplish

whatever you set your mind to!!

So ..

1. I am .4 lbs higher than my original starting weight!! Its quite comical to me, but whatever .. can't do anything but laugh!
2. I am in the next size smaller clothes!! 
3. Boot camp is over lost several inches!! Probably like 4 or 5 overall in the past month.
4. Her scale said I had lost 4 pounds, but this is after I had eaten lunch and it was mid day. (This being two days ago, Friday, completely contradicts today's number on the scale.)
5. I think I am going to do another boot camp at home. I will be looking into that tomorrow.
6. I may be reconsidering med school.
7. I cant wait to be back on a schedule.
8. I hope people are still hanging in there with this challenge.
9. I will be challenging myself until August 1, for right now.
10. Goal is 20 lbs by the end of the summer and/or down another jean size.
11. I start my internship on Wednesday.
12. I hope two beds fit in the room so me and my sister can share a room for the summer.
13. I hope my luggage does not weigh more than 50 lbs tomorrow
14. I hope our flight home tomorrow is smooth!
15. I hope everyones week 5 is amazing!!

Stats and a little rant

So today was the last day of boot camp and we had to redo our mile run, jump roping, and push from the first week. The first week I did 14 push ups, 64 jump ropes, and a mile in 16 min and 21 seconds .. but today I did 45 push ups, 104 jump ropes, and a mile in 14 min and 56 minutes. Yay!! I improved!! I am about to start training to do a half marathon with a friend of mine next Spring!! Now we just have to wait and see what her scale says today when we weigh and do our measurements!! 

I hate when people complain about not seeing the results they want. When you join a challenge stick through with it! Obviously we havent been successful in previous attempts to get fit, lose weight, and maintain a healthy lifestyle in the past for some reason or another. Excuses WILL NOT get you anywhere. If you would rather sit and watch tv on the couch instead of working out for 30 minutes in the day that is your business, but in the long run you will be adding years to your life and your heart will be so much more healthier. If you do what you always do, you will get what you always got.  Don't complain about not having time .. make time!! I don't like getting up at 4:30am to workout, but it has become a priority to me to get healthy. Don't half a** things. My doing that is why I am in this silly predicament. One day I will be able to look back and say, man it stunk having to get up early and workout, it stunk not being able to eat those french fries, but man I look hot and I feel great!

So .. I will keep going and I will keep working out whether it takes me a  year to get to my ideal weight or 6 months perseverance is the key!! Failure is just not an option this time!

Falling off the wagon

This week has been rough. So many cheats, 2. Cake and ice cream, gaaaah I feel bad! I just felt like I was cheating while we were in Montreal, but I ate so good. Today I had a piece of strawberry cake, it was sooo good. I have used 4 of my cheats, aaah, and I am going to NYC this weekend. I thought about the cake for 2 1/2 hours before I ate it too!! 

Montreal was so fun!! It was pretty we had a good time. Walked for like 4 hours one day and then 2 the next. Lots of walking, so maybe I wont gain weight this week. 

Who knows?! 

NYC tomorrow, I will be back into the blogging world so soon! Next week I will be home in Texas!! Yippee!! 

Tomorrow is Friday the last day of boot camp, final boot camp measurements, and weigh in. Wish me luck!

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday ( I think days 18,19,20)

Friday - I went to Boston for the night and had a good time. Walked around Harvard, tried J. P Licks (another cheat to ice cream) My friends uncle had a pizza place and I tried a slice with pesto and chili .. (not greasy like the other choices, but definitely different tasting) I also had a slush from 7 eleven. I had every intention of going in there for some water, but the slushy machine lured me in. I know eating bad one day won't hurt you, but I felt icky. 

Saturday - I don't sleep in anymore because I wake up early to workout during the week, so I woke up early to drive back home in time for the Tulip Festival. The Tulip Festival was so fun and so pretty. I really enjoyed myself. I took the young lady who I work with on Saturday's there. One of the families I babysit for invited me over for dinner, Mexican! Yum!! They eat very healthy in this house, so I wasn't worried about eating bad. Whole wheat tortillas, chicken, brown rice, and low fat cheese .. yum .. it made a good burrito!! Then they had chips and guacamole. I intended on having just one chip, but had about 10. (another cheat used) 

I also got back home in time to weigh myself. I didn't lose the 3 lbs I wanted to lose this week, but overall I have lost 5.4 lbs, my goal for 6 weeks was 10 lbs, so I am more than halfway (not by much, ha) there now. This week I worked out 7 times, and pushed myself beyond measures!! I think the scale and my level of stress this week weren't friends, but I did try on some pants in the next size down!! They are sooo close to fitting, maybe by the end of this week or next .. definitely by the end of the challenge!! 

Sunday- Today is Sunday and I plan on relaxing!! AFter going going going all semester I am just going to read a book and enjoy my day. I do need to beat my mile run time on Friday, so I may go to the gym and have it out with the treadmill. This Friday will be the last day of boot camp, :(. I am probably going to register for one in Texas that starts June 1st!! But .. this Friday we have to do jump rope, push ups, and a timed run that we did on the first Friday of boot camp and see if we improved. I for sure am going to make sure my results vary from after a month!! But, yea .. today will just be a day of relaxing!! 

Constructive Feedback Friday

Yay!! So exciting!! iHeartFaces is hosting a special constructive feedback Friday, and I love to receive feedback on the photos I take so that I can get better. I like the edits that I have made, but I know that it can be better! Any feedback is much appreciated!! 

*For my regular blog readers this is a fellow beauty and she let me play with my camera at the park one day to get some practice. It was lots of fun!! *

Aperture: f/7.1 Shutter: 1/200 Focal Length: 45mm

Original:

Edit:

Day 17 & 18

So these past few days have been rough. My body is tired from all the exercise I have done this week, and from all the stress around studying for finals!! (Thank God they are over! Now I just have to wait for grades.) I have worked out 7 times in the past 5 days this week, and that is something my body just isn't accustomed to! The discouraging part is that I weighed myself this morning and it said I gained almost 2.5 lbs!! Are you freaking kidding me?! I was so angry!! I feel good and healthy, but I believe the lack of sleep and stress counter acted against my working out this week. Is that even possible? Whatever!! I will keep going, weigh myself on Sunday and get ready for week 4 of the challenge and my last week of boot camp. Next Friday we will do our post camp fitness evaluation including all the exercises we did a month ago and compare them to how good we are this time around, and all of the measurements. That will be a real eye opener to see how much I have changes in this past month regardless of how much the scale shows. This next week will be a challenge in itself for me. I will be in Boston this weekend, Montreal some time next week, and NYC next weekend. I already have a cheesecake cheat planned for NYC and I am pretty excited about it. Other than that I am planning to eat smart and still enjoy traveling and sightseeing. I have still only used 1 cheat through this whole process and sometimes I miss junk food, but I am okay without it. I do not crave it nearly as much as I used to, and its a lot easier to say no to things. People tend to look at me like I am crazy when I do not eat crap (basically it is crap), then I explain the challenge and my eating right and they sigh and keep going! I went to a end of the semester get together last night, and 5 tubs of ice cream were brought! Ice cream is my weakness!! I resisted temptation. I wanted some ice cream, so I had a plastic spoon full and I was completely satisfied. (I don't really think of that as a cheat.) 

Now, its time for me to get ready for the weekend. Boot camp was hard and loooong this morning. I am glad for the much needed break from working out this weekend.

Day 16

Wow!! Adding in that extra workout these past two days has been hard. Yesterday was easier than today because I did two workouts in the morning, but tonight I wanted to try a boot camp class at the Y and it wasn't until the evening and I did not want to get out of my bed or off the couch. I did it though, and the class was HARD!! Man .. I was sweating after the first two minutes. I wish I had put this much effort into working out and eating right before. Tomorrow is the day before my last two finals for the semester!! I have been studying diligently, with some study breaks every few hours or so. I think I am tired of bananas, they just don't seem to taste right in my mouth these past couple of days. So I have temporarily retired them.

I thought tonight was the Biggest Loser finale, but I was wrong. It's next week, bummer. 

Still studying and praying about this test. Still trying to get in double work outs for at least one more day this week. Still hoping I reach my personal week weight loss goal. 

I am going to Boston for the first time ever on Friday. I am excited about that, but wont be able to weigh in Saturday morning, so I will have to do it Sunday. It's so hard for me to wait for Saturdays and now I have to wait until Sunday. No cheats used this week, but I have heard there is a good ice cream place in Boston I may have to try. We will have to wait and see.

Life is good. God continues to bless me and provide for me in ways I cannot imagine. I am looking forward to being home soon, spending the summer doing my internship and spending time with close family and friends. A little over one week left until I take a plane to Dallas for 3 months!! 

Time to start studying .. AGAIN!! 

Day15

Well, today starts week 2 of boot camp and the challenge. I worked out twice today which is one of my goals for this week, to get in more cardio. I took a crazy step class, but it was fun and I was sweating hard core!! I felt accomplished after working out twice. I didn't drink as much water as I should have, but the day isnt over yet!! I bought baked cheetos at the store yesterday, and they are delicious. I am glad that I made a healthier snacking choice. 3.5lbs, 3.5lbs!!! I hope with my extra work outs I can achieve the goal I have set for my self this week. 

What is that you ask, am I still studying for finals? Yes, yes I am. Unfortunately! :( Pray that my brain absorbs all of this information!! But really, if you pray ask God that I can pass this class. My stress level is way too high right now, I cannot wait until Thursday at about 730pm!! 

Day 13 and 14

Yesterday and today have gone good. Yesterday I went to a boot camp that she was doing for free and it seemed harder than usual. This week coming up will be week 3 of boot camp and of the challenge and also a week of studying until I drop for my 2 finals. One will be really really hard, so pray oh so hard that I can just make a b even a b- in the class, golly I just want to pass the dang class!! Other than my 2 finals I have submitted everything in for all of my classes. I just need to get my internship approved by my advisor sometime this week. I made a great Chicken Tamale Casserole (if you click on the link it should take you to the recipe) today that I found in the Cooking Light magazine. It is probably one of my new favorite dishes!! I wanted to work out today, but I am not quite sure if it will happen .. :( This week though I want to lose around 3 lbs and around 3 the next week. Ideally 7 lbs in the next two weeks would be great, but that means I need to do more workouts. Since I do not have to work this week and all I have to do is study, I am going to go to the gym after boot camp and do some extra cardio. We will see, sometimes I say things and they don't happen!! So after this week I can concentrate on working out extra hard to get into a new set of digits weight wise!! I like the digits I am in right now, but I don't like them that much. Granted they are better than the previous digits, but I want to say goodbye to these digits forever!! 

To do for this week:

lose 3.5lbs ( I will be happy no matter how much I lose)

study and take two finals

get my internship approved

To do next week:

lose 3.5lbs ( I will be happy no matter how much I lose)

go to Canada

go to NYC

go to Texas

Day 11, 12 and weigh in

These past couple of days have been stressful because I was afraid to weigh myself, but I kept eating right and working out at boot camp. I have turned down some of my favorite foods. I was babysitting last night and they brought home pepperoni pizza from a popular pizza place and told me that "I had to try it" I looked at all of the grease on the pizza and the overload of cheese and decided that no, I did not have to try it. The box sat right next to me while I worked on my assignment on the computer. Torture!! But, I kept thinking that is not good, if I eat this I will suffer in the weigh in and in the bathroom!! Some good things I have had this week are butternut squash, sweet potatoes (baked both in the oven and cut them into french frie slices) veggie lasagna (homemade, light cheese and lots of veggies), veggie pizza (also homemade and lots of veggies), mini meatloaves, grilled chicken sandwiches, veggie omelets, bananas, apples, cantaloupe, and grapes!! I ran out of cantaloupe and went to the store for more, but none of them smelled good. I have been told they will be really sweet if you can smell them when you pick them up. Another thing I do to keep me from overeating at night is after I eat, I go to my room and don't come out unless I have to go to the bathroom. It has worked. I usually just eat my dinner and then nothing else until breakfast.

So my weight loss total for the past two weeks is 4.8 lbs!! I am getting closer to the Challenge goal of 10 lbs in 42 days, and even closer to my lifelong goal of getting healthy and becoming the weight that is right for my body!! 

Keep on going beauties!! Don't give up!! Failure is not an option for me or for you!!