Geek Goals

This year is about getting my sanity back. Getting my health my house and my family into a better place by deliberate incremental changes in all areas of my life.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Hooray!

Hey ladies, like I promised, I haven't weighed myself yet. First time I can weigh myself again is on Saturday (March 1st)...that's 3 months after I made my 'no weighing myself for 3 months' rule. Not sure if I'll be stepping on the scale from now on, it feels great feeling healthy and not having the scale tell me otherwise. I have measured my waist and I've lost 1.5 inches :-)

I have to admit that it's been easier because my husband makes lunch and dinner (hey...I do breakfast, clean and do laundry :-) He's prepared some really awesome meals that have ton of great flavors and most of them happen to be vegetarian. The vegetarian thing kinda just happened because we got tired of meat. I have to admit that I don't miss it, the meals are so great without meat, I rarely even notice it. I'm not doing it out of animal cruelty or anything, just laziness - cooking meat takes time and not to mention that our grocery bill has gone down by $20 or $30.

My goals continue to be to eat healthy and if I feel like having a bag of oreos one night (this actually happened Friday night, but I regretted it, felt kinda sick afterwards), then I will. Won't weigh myself and definitely drink coffee as much as I want (which is usually once or twice a week now). I've been drinking 2 cups of green tea daily and would like to keep that up, especially in the winter months when I need something really hot to warm me up. Walk for 30 minutes everyday and do some sort of strength training (whatever I feel like at the time) 3 times a week. I'd like to train for a 5k so I'm starting to run for 15 minutes at least 3 times a week. I plan to progressively up the number of times per week as well as the duration of these runs to achieve a steady 5k pace.

Hope everyone is doing fantastic with their goals!!

Week 1 - Power 90

Hello Friends!

Last week I was pretty wiped out with the FLU. I am still recovering but feeling well enough today that I am starting week 1 of 90 days of the BeachBody Power 90 program.

The program alternates between cardio and weight lifting on different days and encourages 6 workouts a week, as well as has a diet plan associated with it.

My starting stats are not totally figured out yet, but I do know my starting weight.

176.5 yes I lost weight, but sadly it is just because of the flu, not from the working out I did in Jan/Feb.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Week of Feb 3 - 9

Kat and I went to 2 classes at the gym together last week plus I did one class on my own and an hour of snowshoeing on Saturday. I was quite proud as it was the first week I got 4 workouts in this year. Thanks Kat for keeping me motivated and thanks Danielle for joining me for snowshoeing so I'm not the lone female. :)

Top 5 Favorite Snacks

I read this article today about good snacking... which I know I can improve on!

http://www.beachbody.com/product/293.do?code=NEWS_293_10SNACKS#article2

So what are your 5 favorite snacks?

Mine are not healthy snacks... but there are what I tend to eat when I'm hungry and its not really lunch or dinner time yet.
  1. Wheat Thins and cheese
  2. Chips and Salsa or Guacamole
  3. Snack Crackers (like cheese its)
  4. Microwave Popcorn
  5. Chocolate (fudge, mini bar, whatever I can find)

Week 5 Came and Went

Week 5 came and went, and so went all my working out effort!

Last weeks excuses were:
  • Monday night my workout got interrupted by a phone call, and so I skipped the weights, pushups, leg lifts and crunches of the DVD
  • Thursday Girl scout meeting at 6:30
  • Voting in primaries had to be there by 7, so I ate dinner first... never managed to work out after getting home at 9:15
  • Wednesday night felt like a good night to spend some down time with my husband. We cooked together and ate together early in the evening
  • Friday - Duh its Friday and I had plans
Overall I think the real reason for the drop off is the increased time commitment to 60 min made it too hard to get through without interruption or get through if I only had 90 min from when I got home to workout, eat and then get somewhere. With the 45 min one at least that was possible. And why I didn't just do the 45 min workout instead of the 60 min?

If I could answer that question I would probably have the key to being in shape all the time! My commitment level over 4 weeks was decent, but not stellar. That 5th week must have had a few too many hurdles that I did not overcome.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

A *REALLY* good recipe! :)

My boss had this salad last week and it looked so yummy that I had to have some.

Asian Crunch Salad

3 ounces uncooked whole wheat spaghetti (it gives it this GREAT nutty flavor!)
1/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic (I put in a bunch more because I love garlic!)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
1/4 cup red bell pepper strips
1 (12 ounce) package broccoli slaw
1/4 cup chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts


1. Break pasta into 3 inch pieces; cook according to package directions, ommitting salt and fat. Drain.

2. Combine vinegar and next 4 ingredients (through garlic) in a large bowl. Add pasta, onions, and next 4 ingredients (through slaw) to vinegar mixture; toss gently to coat. Cover and chill at least 2 hours. Top with peanuts.

Calories: 126 (30% from fat)
Fat: 4.2 (sat .6g, mono 2.4g, poly 1g)
Protien: 4.7g
Carb: 18.6g
Fiber: 3.6g
Chol: 0mg
Iron: 1.1mg
Sodium: 430mg
Calc: 24mg

I actually made this recipe with a whole box of pasta. It was still just as yummy and it got better as it sat. I highly recommend it!

Friday, February 01, 2008

Me and the Skinny Bitch(es)

Last weekend, while waiting for my parents to get to Maple Grove with my offspring, I purchased the book Skinny Bitch. So far, I'm almost done reading it. It's had a couple of surprising side effects.

1. Me. Vegan? Maybe. I'm out surfing VeganPeace.com. I swear the parts of the book talking about animal cruelty made me nauseous yesterday.

2. I'm realizing that maybe I just need to eat more of good things! Less or no meat. Less or no dairy. It's so sad!!! :)

3. Yes, I can do this.

4. I like books with the f-bomb sprinkled throught! :)

I'll update y'all later on what I end up doing.

That being said - I'm back at 208 after a long week of being fatter than I should. I started eating more yesterday and I guess that worked!