US meets UK

Guess who just won Smartphone vs Dog? That would be… me!

(sadly… not my dog.. yet!)

I’ve lost 15lbs as of this morning.

so far in the Smartphone vs Dog competition I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds and have kept it off.  I’ve gone back and forth with 3 pounds for over two weeks, and honestly this week of visitors and festivities has me hoping to just hold out and maintain till after the holiday.

I purchased a Groupon to a gym that has locations very close to my apartment and to my office – I even went for a run there this afternoon on my lunch break. I’ve been loving the gym since it’s a bit of a hybrid dance studio and gym. Which means it has all the typical gym things, but local dance companies use the space for rehearsals and part of that is teaching studio quality classes. So I dig.

Post Thanksgiving I’d like to lose about 5lbs before Christmas. Let’s see how I do, eh?

Are you losing, maintaining or gaining this holiday season?

This update is shocking. Despite two boozy weekends, and a few incidents with Halloween candy… I’m doing alright!

Total loss so far? 10.4 lbs!

I’ve also started the Whole 30 challenge (though let’s be honest here, pumpkin pie will be had on Thanksgiving). My friend Holly is super into paleo/primal eating and crossfit. I make no dinero, so I can’t join a crossfit gym – but I can try eating primal.

Recently a friend changed her facebook photo to an old one from college. I couldn’t believe how much smaller I was, I was shocked. SHOCKED that I’d gained this much.

(I was a dance major in college and we were practicing lifts)

Then KJPugs wrote a post that led me to look for other photos of myself that I could use as inspiration to lose weight. One of the funniest parts of this search, was realizing how I thought of myself as overweight then.

Sure, I no longer have time to work out 40+ hours a week (dance classes, dance team, dance teaching, rehearsals, rugby practice, rugby games, rec soccer) but I CAN watch what I eat. In college I ate a very, very poor vegetarian diet. By “diet” I mean breads, cheeses, and candy. Aka: Sugar, Fat and Salt. #WIN!

Diet plays SUCH an important role in your physiology so  I think I can get back (and maybe even lower!) to my old size/shape/weight. Since the true downfall of my weight gain began with ACL surgery and I am technically fixed I should be able to be more active-even with a full time job and life.

So hopefully soon I’ll be going from this:

(via Lisa Rice Photography aka Mrs. Bunny)

to this:

Before the new year!

Aside from an adorable dog like Brutus….

What do you use for motivation?

I gained .4lbs. BOOO. The sad part is that I weighed myself in the middle of the week, and was WAY down.  Then I pigged out at the winery, good stuff after and had eggs benedict at brunch on Sunday. #Fail.

(Sad Panda)

Lesson learned? Weekends are breaks from work, not calorie tracking.

I found this post on FiTori in a round about way and really enjoyed it. As I walk to work, I’ve been  looking at the trees and think- “gosh what a great mindset”.

I have yet to see “America the Beautiful”, but I did put it in my queue.

Which, could possibly be called TV vs Dog. Nick and I are having a competition to see who can hit 15 faster. Me to lose and him to gain.

If I win, I’ll pick out a dog! If Nick wins, we’ll be getting smart phones or a TV or something equal to that.

(how cute is Brutus?!?)

It’s a huge, HUGE bummer that I’ve gained 15lbs since the wedding. It’s tough to have to start back at square 1 ( I guess, maybe it’s square 2) and recover ground I’ve already covered.  So, clearly I’d like to lose the 15 and I’m hoping our competition can help motivate me.

We’re doing our weekly weigh-in on Mondays, which so far has helped me stay conscious of my eating through the weekend. I’ve started working out regularly, and tracking my calories on Fitday/calorie count. I am however, thinking of switching to SparkPeople, but need to check it out a bit more. My ideal nutrition tracking system would not only let me know how much carbs, protein, fats, and sodium I’m consuming it would also tell me how much sugar I’m consuming! I know that the sugar I consume will show up in the carbs I eat, but I’d like to focus on specifically tracking my sugar. An ideal system would also analyze recipes that I make.

Difference between Week 1 and Week 2? -1.8lbs.

I’d be happy if I can keep up this pace, even though -1/week is more likely! Have you gained weight since your wedding? If you’re planning on losing the weight, what steps are you taking to do it?

Om nom. Holy moly these are good. We were pretty tired after our fourth of July weekend and I wanted to make something quick and easy with whatever we had on hand. Which happened to be a few peaches, green onions, jalapenos, garlic, and some limes. and some coconut oil.

Spicy Peach Marinade:

Grocery list- 2 peaches, 2 green onions, 1 jalapeno, 2 limes, 3 garlic cloves,

Put 2 peaches 1.5 green onions (I mostly used the white part and a little bit of the green), 1/2 the deseeded jalapeno, 1/2 a peeled lime, and 2 garlic cloves in a food processor and puree.

Squeeze the 1.5 limes and chop the rest of the jalapeno, single garlic clove, into a bowl and pour the puree from the food processor.Set aside a 1/4 of a cup to brush on while on the grill.

Let your coconut oil heat/cool to liquid stage and pour 1.5 tablespoons in to the bowl with the majority of the marinade. Stick your peeled shrimp into the bowl, cover and marinate for an hour or 2.

Pop them on the grill and grill till you see the first side begin to get pink and flip. Brush the marinade on the newly grilled side and remove once all is pink.

We like to put the vegetables all on one set of skewers and the meat on another since they cook differently. In this case, the veggies take a bit longer than the shrimp.

Enjoy!

to encourage you with what could be a new years resolution! Do you remember this post? Probably not – but it made a huge difference in my life!

This is what i looked like when I began training with Robert. In fact, that’s a week or two in, so imagine me larger than that. In fact, imagine me 20-30 pounds heavier like I was in England – but I’m not showing that picture.

Then, after two months of 3x weekly sweat sessions with Robert and my cousin Rachel, plus a pretty clean, mostly vegetarian diet (okay, I admit it, it wasn’t that clean- I stress ate way too often), and extra running/jillian michaels sessions I came to look like this:

(Evan Bishop)

In case you’re  a numbers person that  looks a bit like this:

7/2/09                                                                      8/27/09

157 lbs                                                                147 lbs

Chest 36″                                                             Chest 35.5″

Upper Arm 13″                                                     Upper Arm 12″ (an inch)

Stomach 36.25″                                                    Stomach 30″ (minus 6.25 inches!)

Hips 42.39″                                                          Hips 39″ (minus 3.39 inches)

Thigh 21.50″                                                        Thigh 18.5″ (minus 3 inches)

some of my caliper measurements

7/2/09                                                                       8/3/09

(I was running a tight schedule the day before the wedding and ran out of time to do them on 8/27)

Upper Back 30mm                                               Upper Back 25mm

Above the hip 26mm                                           Above the hip 23mm

Bicep 16mm                                                         Bicep 13mm

Tricep 29mm                                                        Tricep 25mm

Finding a personal trainer was one of the best things I did for the wedding. In fact, I’d say it was the best.  I had gained A LOT of weight in the past few years and didn’t really feel like myself.  Working out with Robert and my cousin Rachel allowed me to win back my strength and that was such an amazing mental and physical gift that I can’t imagine not having on my wedding day.  I literally cried on my last day because I was so thankful for the experience.

I’m sure I could have worked harder, and my result would have been even more impressive.  But I did what I could at the time within the time frame and I’m pleased enough with the result.  I *may* have backslide a bit and gained a few newlywed/newly-tied-to-a-desk pounds but I’ll be starting with Robert once a week to keep me accountable to my personal goals. I’ll let you know how my war with the newlywed weight proceeds.

So, if fitness is a new years resolution for you, I can’t recommend finding a personal trainer fast enough.  Find one you really enjoy spending time with, one that will make you laugh, but also push you till you cry (sometimes).

Is improving your fitness a resolution of yours?

Zen Habits says to take your resolutions in baby steps. Baby steps eh? Well, in addition to seeing my old pal (by pal I mean I am the Amanda to his Bob) once a week I’d liek to work out 5 times a week.  The largest obstacle for me is my schedule. Did I say schedule? I really meant commute. I need to leave the house at 7:30am to make my commuter train to get to work at 8:30am.

Which means if I’d like to eat, workout, shower and leave the house looking respectable I need to wake up at 5:30am.  This factors in time to actually get up, get dressed, get water and get working. The other option is to workout when I get home, but I typically arrive home around 6:30pm and this has really become “family” time around my house. Plus, I often get lazy at night – I’ll admit it. After a full day of commuting and work I want to lay down, not sweat. The best time, though it means getting to bed earlier, is exercising in the morning.

la baby steps:

1. Get ready for bed at 9:30pm

2. Go to bed at 10 pm. Every night, yes, the jersey shore will replay – not having a dvr is not an excuse.

3. Wake up at 5:30am, even if I just go down and watch the Today show.

4. Say hello to Jillian. 3-2-1 Shred or a 45 min DVD. When it isn’t below 20 degrees I can go for an hour run.

5. Make a healthy breakfast.

I only made 5. I’m clearly a fail already! It’s just so hard to take baby steps. Plus, I plan on doing 1, 2, 3 and hopefully 4 all tonight/tomorrow.

What are your resolutions? What’s your plan for keeping them?