Thursday, September 30, 2010

Insanity: Form over SPEED!

Man oh Man! Today’s workout was INSANITY!!!

The first day of the workout plan called for a fitness test and I think I pretty much failed :(

The test required I time myself doing each of the below moves for a minute and I was huffin’ and puffin’ half-way through. Here are my results:

Count Exercise
32 Switch Kicks
29 Power Jacks
29 Power Knees
38 Power Jumps
28 Globe Jumps
14 Suicide Jumps
17 Pushup Jacks
21 Low Plank Oblique

It was definitely tough! The suicide jumps really got me and I must admit that the pushup jacks didn’t really look too much like pushups. I really need to work on my upper body strength!

This fitness test is scheduled on it’s own day, but since I started the program mid-week, I decided to couple it with the workout scheduled for the second day: Plyo-Cardio Circuit. Doesn’t it sound scary???

Scary it was, my friends!

I didn’t think I would sweat as much as I did. It was a 40 minute video that was broken up into the following segments:

  • 10 min warmup
  • 7 min stretching/pilates moves
  • 20 min plyometric sets
  • 3 min cooldown

I know this sounds INSANE, but I loved it.

I loved that I wasn’t bored and the stretching/pilates part of it, I was definitely feelin’ the burn :)

I didn’t love how I couldn’t keep up with the sets :(

Midway through I was already trailing everyone else on the video, but I was glad the instructor kept emphasizing that we should follow “form over speed”.

I really tried to keep up, just like some of the other girls in the video, which I also loved! It felt like I was working out with a group and it helped knowing that some of them were struggling as much as I was! I hate those videos where there are only one or two people and they always seem to maintain perfect form.

I look forward to seeing what this program has to offer, but I also realize that I will have to work on my pushups on my own. It seems I have no upper-body strength :(

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

A Creature of Habit

 

With our little addition, who is about to be 7 weeks old, life truly is no longer what it used to be! Everything’s turned inside out and I’m lovin’ every minute of it!

How could you not, with this little one in your life!

Brielle 047

She is truly a blessing!

So where does this blog go with a little one in the house?

Well, I decided I still wanted to make it a healthy fitness blog. I may not be able to write all the time, but I will definitely try to as much as possible.

I still want to continue the Calorie Tracker segments because it helps me gage where I am nutritionally. It also motivates me to eat healthier!

In terms of daily pictures of what I eat, those are probably going to go way down. See, I’m a creature of habit. As such, I tend to eat the same things over and over until I get tired, or most likely, until I run out of them.

For example, I’m currently having an egg & cheese sandwichthin for breakfast. It fills me up and I find it quite yummy :)

For my snacks, I’ve settled into having a yogurt+fruit smoothie for a pre-workout snack and an edamame+fruit+chai tea for my afternoon one.

I know, it’s boring, but that’s who I am. Plus, mixing it up with the fruit helps fight that boredom!

Also, for my late dinner/snack I’m having a yummy bowl of oats with fruit and milk. Oatmeal is apparently good for breastfeeding so I have to have it. Besides, I love it! I may venture into steel-cut oats or barley, but I find that having this at night really powers me through the late-night feedings with my baby and gives me extra energy in the mornings.

Thus, in terms of the blog, I’m not going to post pictures of these foods. They are too repetitive and I wouldn’t want to bore anyone :)

As far as fitness goes, I do plan to keep my workout log.

I was so happy to get up and run this morning that I definitely have to keep that up. It makes me feel so good knowing that I’ve already had my workout and the bonus, some ME time while the baby slept :)

Woo-hoo! Who knew ME time was going to be in such a demand?

I got to get ready, make myself breakfast, have my morning coffee while surfing the internet with the comfort of knowing that my baby was sound asleep. I even got to mark a couple of tasks off my to-do list!

I will definitely have to fight to make this a habit from now on. I also ordered some anti-pull leashes for my doggies so I can take them for walks in the morning with Brielle.

Baby + stroller + Labrador + cocker spaniel = ???

We’ll find out when the leashes arrive!

I will also be doing a review of the Beach Insanity workouts. My husband got them for me for my birthday and I will officially start the program tomorrow. I’ll be doing this, some yoga, walks with the doggies and I’m going to try and take my Labrador, Abacus, for some running on the days when Richard is home. I must take advantage of that to get my run on!

So do wish me luck as I try to get back in shape. Ima scarred, but so looking forward to it!!!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The dingo did it…

 

“The dingo ate the baby” said Elaine, I keep hearing that in my mind right now. Except sleepiness is the dingo and the blog is the baby.

Brielle 100 

It’s all worth it when you get to see this little one smile back at ya!

I have to be honest, I haven’t been working out. I decided to let my body have time to heal and establish my milk supply. At this point, any sleep is way more important than getting a work out in.

I have my 6 week check-up next week, and will hopefully get the green light to really start exercising!

On a healthy note, I think I’ve been doing a good job of getting my veggies, protein, dairy and whole grains in :)

I probably have been letting too much sugar in :( On “The Doctors” today, they mentioned the recommended sugar intake was 32 grams of added sugar. 32! I looked at the nutritional info of the AWESOME chai tea mix I scored yesterday, and was so sad to say that one serving had 22 grams.

Crazy!

I’m going to have to see if using half a serving will be ok, or maybe just have the tea as a special treat.

It is so good, though. It tastes just like the kind I get at my favorite coffee place. Oh sugar, why must you torment me!!!

Again, I’m in survival mode right now and any blogging is a welcome treat.

For all the mommy’s out there, got any advice for a first-time mom?

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Are you ready for some football???

Dinner

Everyone at our casa sure was!!!

Yay, NFL season is officially here. Oh the joy and the agony of each game. It's so exciting!!!

To celebrate, we ordered a pizza from Papa John's and paired it with some steamed asparagus. I actually had two slices. Yummy!

I also had half of my yogurt bowl, and will save the rest for tomorrow morning.

The baby is four weeks now, and I'm having trouble distinguishing if the baby is hungry or tired. Specially after having fed her an hour earlier. I know they go through growth spurts where they're nursing every hour, but I just don't know if this is one of them. Or, it could mean that she just wants to nurse herself to sleep.

It's so tough to try to figure out what she really needs!

Off to sleepy land :)

Day #? of Leftovers!

I got a lot of sleep tonight, yay! I still woke several times throughout the night, but we managed to sleep in until 8:30. I can't remember the last time that happened! Grant it, I missed my yoga session but I will try to squeeze it in sometime today!

Breakfast


Breakfast was an egg and cheese sandwich on a wheat thin. Simple but good!

I was able to cross one item from my to-do list before lunch, organizing my bathroom cabinets. It's so nice to have the time to these little things!

Lunch


It looks like I'll finally be able to finish off the leftover whole-wheat pasta and the can of sardines from last week. This time, I added fresh spinach and some of the leftover calabacitas from last night. What resulted was two servings worth, so I may have the second serving as a snack later on. It all depends on whether or not Richard wants to order wings for our NFL Football kickoff later tonight.

Woo-hoo!

Go Cowboys!!!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Baby Talk at Luby's

I once again got up later than I wanted to, 7AM but I did manage to get my run! It was a whoppin 1.25 mile! I walked for the rest of the 30 minutes and then caught up on some tasks until lunch time.

Since we're limited to 3-hr excursions out with the baby, we opted for lunch at Luby's with some of my friends at work. It was nice to hear how everyone is doing, plus some of them got to meet Brielle.

Dinner

I made some tasty green chile chicken enchiladas for dinner. My parents used to fry these when I was growing up, but it's so much easier and healthier to bake 'em.

Since I got my Gmail calendar and task applications going, I'm all set for tomorrow's tasks! We'll see how many I can actually cross off!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Easy Peasy Din Din

After doing my grocery shopping I came home and did some house work. I feel like such the housewife right now. It's a little surreal.

I would actually love to be a stay-at-home mom, but it's not a possibility for now so I will just have to enjoy each and every second of my time off now :)

Snack

I had a healthy snack of cottage cheese, a nectarine and some grapes for my snack. I also had some Cantaloupe water from Mando's Meat & Produce Market, it's a new market I decided to try and they do have a good selection of veggies. I was quite pleased with that, but not so much with the Cantaloupe water that had tons of sugar. I had to add the same amount of water to cut the sweetness.

Dinner


Tonight's dinner was so easy to put together. I got a rotisserie chicken and paired that with leftover potato salad from the BBQ on Sunday. I love it when no food is wasted. I also steamed some broccoli and had a piece of toast.

I also had my usual oatmeal, blueberry & yogurt bowl for dessert. Brielle did not want to go sleepies right now, it took over an hour and a half for her to finally fall asleep. I think we're skipping her bath and putting her straight to bed!

Goodnight all!

Yoga for Running?

I woke up a little later than I wanted, 7AM (instead of 5AM) because sleeping was going so well. Brielle was so much better last night! I am definitely watching my sugar & caffeine intake from now on!

I did manage to get in a 25-minute yoga workout in. More specifically, I TRIED to follow the Total Body & Lower Body yoga flows from fitsugar.com. Tried is the key word because my poses do not look like the ones on those flows!

Believe it or not, I'm already sore and it's only been a couple of hours! Easing back into exercising might be a little tough!

Also, I really need to work on my posture. I noticed I've been slouching a lot more recently and according to this article, it's good for your running and yoga can help.

Bring on the yoga, I say!

I got ready and had a repeat chile relleno for breakfast. Can't let those babies go to waste, I tell ya!

Lunch


I still had some leftover whole-wheat pasta and so I microwaved it with some frozen veggies and added sardines in tomato sauce for some protein. It is such a quick and healthy lunch option!

Now we're off to by some groceries and stock up on healthy foods!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Elevation

I've got no self control
Been living like a mole now
Going down, excavation
I lie in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly
So high
El-Elevation


I got to run today, woo-hoo!
Yayy!!!!!!!!
Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was only a mile, but it was a great mile at that :) I ran on my treadmill and finished in 11 minutes. Not too bad, I guess, since I haven't run in about 6 months. Plus, "Elevation" came on while I was running so it was an extra special session :) The funny thing is, I've never really paid attention to all the lyrics so I have no clue what living like a mole means, exactly.

I probably could have run more, I just really want to ease back into running to make sure all is okay! I'm probably going to try to build up a mile a week up to 5 miles and then start trying to work on my mile times! We'll see how that goes!

Lunch


A plateful of goodness! We drove to Las Cruces and went to Ruby Tuesday since there is none in El Paso and enjoyed their salad bar.


I also ordered 2 of their Mini burgers but would not have done so if I had read their nutritional content. Wow, 900 calories. I didn't have one of the buns, but man 900 calories!

Oh well! Goes to show you should really scope out the nutritional information of restaurants before you order. It pays to do your homework!

We headed to the bookstore after dinner and then headed home and made strawberry milkshakes with that sugar-free stuff Richard got.

We've been watching tennis/napping ever since and I so wish I was coordinated enough to play! It's fun trying, still, but probably funnier for anyone that gets to see me out on that court. I'm a riot!

Hope your Labor day was as fun as mine :)

Down With the Sugar!

That is the mantra for the day. After a long night with Baby Brielle, I came to realize, "what if all that sugar and caffeine is affecting my baby?"

I usually only have one cup of coffee a day, but I had two small ones at the bakery last morning. Then I had that small frap in the evening. That might have led to all those noises she made during the night!

For that reason, I am definitely going to try to consume less sugar and caffeine today. What more motivation do I need?

Breakfast


My lovely Mom made us some scrumptious Chile Rellenos yesterday, so we had that for breakfast. Grant it, they're slightly fried and they're probably not the breakfast of champions, but at least I got my dairy in! Besides, it'd be a crime to let these babies go to waste!

On the agenda for Labor Day, probably a nap followed by a trip to a favorite Las Cruces book store and dinner. Nothing big, which is just what the doctor ordered.

Have a great Labor Day!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

No Pictures Proves It Never Happened!

That's right my friends, there is no photo proof that this Sugar-Packed Sunday ever occurred! No proof whatsoever!

That delicious coffee cake from the International Bakery in the morning, it's still sitting in that bakery.

That piece of chocolate cake with caramel cheesecake ice cream, it was just a figment of the imagination.

With my love affair with coconut, who can forget that tall mocha coconut frap from Starbucks? Everyone can, because it never happened!

Oh how I wish that no pictures proved these deeds never took place.

Instead, I sit here wondering how sugar does it? How it starts in one meal and then invites itself along throughout the day, almost like the domino effect!

This is a direct quote from someone who knows someone that

"talked to a guy who works for nabisco....there are 21 chemical compounds in an oreo that makes us eat more than one....go figure"

Maybe the odds are stacked against us!

Other than my loosing battle with sugar, this day was wonderful!

My parents came by in the morning to visit with Baby Brielle, as well as with us, of course ;) Then we went to a friend's bbq so that his parents could also meet the little munchkin! His parents are awesome and cooked such good food!

Afterward, we went to my good friend's house so that she could meet Brielle and so that I could visit with her little 6 month old munchkincita!!! Too adorable for words. She's so attentive and even held Brielle's little hands.

Such a good day!

Minus, the scuffle with sugar of course. I will, however, continue my battle with it tomorrow! I just have to take things one meal at a time, and see if I can hold back if I've already had sugar earlier.

Down with sugar, will be my motto!!!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Hodgepodge Blog Post

I've taken pictures on my phone and my camera and they're in a random order which I'm probably not going to organize, so I'm writing this post as a hodgepodge of things that I've done since my last post.

I think the below picture is last Thursday's dinner.

Dinner


I made a healthy Beef Stroganoff with whole-wheat pasta, mushrooms, onions and the secret ingreadiet: a can of Campbell's mushroom soup. Seeing as how I didn't have any sour cream and I needed to use this can before it expired in 5 days!

It was a good dinner!

I had my standard steel-cut oats for desert and then went off to sleep. Brielle slept good again, yay. Who knew I'd be happy with getting three hours of uninterrupted sleep!

I was planning on walking again after her 5AM feeding, but I was still to tired. Sleep is good!!!

I woke up, had some cereal and my coffee and got to read some. I'm reading "Lord Jim" now, apparently there's an old movie based on this book. It's an okay book, but definitely not a page-turner. If anyone has a page-turner they'd like to recommend, by all means, please do!

The rest of the day really was just lounging at home. I got to organize my kitchen cabinets and that was so much fun. It does make me feel happy knowing my Tupperware items are all where they're supposed to be!

Lunch was leftover whole-wheat pasta with frozen veggies and edamame topped with some of my homemade sesame dressing. Yummy!

My snack was cottage cheese with some sweet cantaloupe.

Dinner was a D'giorno cheese pizza topped with my own blend of bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, olives and the leftover bratwurst from a couple of nights before. It was good, except for the fact that I used the Conventional Bake setting on my oven and the pizza was a nice color brown because it stayed in there 5 minutes too long. Whoops!

I also made an eggplant casserole made with a can of spaghetti sauce and topped with some cheese! I love eggplant!

I gave in to an ice cream craving and asked Richard to pick some up while he was at the store. He ended up getting a Fat-free, sugar-free brand that was 70 calories a serving, but did not feel indulgent enough. Oh well!

I also had my steel-cut oats, but felt bad about wasted calories on that wanna be ice cream! I ain't having anymore of that stuff!

I'm still playing around with how I want this blog to roll. For now, I'll write when I can, but I think it's going to take me a while to see how I want to structure it. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

What a difference a night makes!

Breakfast


I made myself an egg, ham & cheese on a whole-wheat sandwich thin. Oh so good!

It's even better when you actually get a decent amount of sleep :)

Brielle slept close to a whoppin' 4 hours and that means I slept more than 3 hours straight. Yay!!!

It took me a while to wind down, but I did finally go to sleep.

After her 5AM feeding, I decided to walk for 30 min on the treadmill and then get ready. I know it's kind of early, but I think eventually I'm going to have to get used to this schedule if I want to get a workout in! Plus, I have the peace of mind of knowing Richard is here in case Baby Brielle starts crying.

I have some errands to run, like pick up diapers, and then I'm heading to a La Leche League meeting. Now that I'm breastfeeding, I have lots of questions! Such as: are pacifiers that bad?

We'll see how much I pick up!

Have a good one all!

So Lonely!

Yes, look at these faces! My doggies look oh so lonely!





We're really trying to make sure they're getting as much attention as we can give 'em. They look so sad, though! I'll just have to think of something to cheer 'em up :) Maybe their own special playtime!

Dinner

For dinner I tried to make a creamy leek tilapia recipe, but I'm going to have to play with it a bit because the leeks came out too mushy! I'll let you know how the next batch turns out.

I also made my first orzo batch. I used my mother-in-law's recipe, but it didn't come out quite as I thought. It may have needed more tomatoes. I'll post a recipe for that as soon as I get it just right. We also had some steamed asparagus.

For a late dessert, I made myself a bowl of steel-cut oats, strawberries, Hershey's unsweetened chocolate and 2 tsp of agave nectar. I really like this combo :)

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A Crazy Night

I am so thankful that I have the ability to stay at home during these first 12 weeks of Brielle's life! I can tell it's going to be quite the ride!

For the most part, we'd been doing a good job of sticking to a 3hr, 2hr, 2hr nighttime feeding schedule. Getting those 3 hours really fueled me and I usually woke up refreshed. Last night, I had no such luck.

I don't know if it was the disruption of the schedule, which was very minor. We usually bathe, feed and put her to sleep. This time, we bathed and fed her, but then I handed her of to Dad and got things together to sleep in my room.

Big mistake! It was too hot in there (we need to update our temp schedule settings) and we ended up moving back to the nursery. I tried to get her to sleep, but she ended up feeding again so we completely went off our routine :(

She kept getting up, but the difficult part was getting her back to sleep. Any ideas on soothing her back to sleep would be greatly appreciated!

She also normally sleeps in the morning, and I was planning on catching up on my sleep then. Cut to noon, when she finally took a nap. Trying to figure out her needs is tough! Luckily, she's taken 3 good naps since then :)

I'm definitely going to stick to our routine tonight! Hopefully that will help :)

Breakfast

Because my schedule was completely thrown off, I took some comfort in a big bowl of Honey Nut Chex. Oh the power of comfort food!

Lunch


I was able to sneak in two hours of sleep (woo-hoo!) and I got up around 2. It was great to have a prepared salad ready to go so I can get those veggies in. I topped the salad with some rotisserie chicken and had the leftover mac n cheese. I had some grapes and my iced coffee, too.

I'm off to enjoy some quiet time now :)