Pancakes!

Blue Ribbon Batter!
	It's no secret that HG LOVES breakfast (it IS the most important meal of the day -- that's NOT a rumor). But don't think for one second we're gonna be satisfied with some lame-o boring b-fast. Nuh-uh. We want pancakes. With blueberries! STAT! Check out our simple recipe... An oat-y take on p-cakes makes 'em hearty, filling, and delicious! Ingredients: 1/3 cup regular oats (not instant or steel cut) 1/4 cup blueberries 3 tbsp. egg whites 1 tbsp. nonfat milk 1 tbsp. fat-free cottage cheese 1 tbsp. flour 2 tbsp. water pinch salt Directions: Combine all ingredients except for the blueberries and stir until well mixed. Gently fold in blueberries. In a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray, drop batter into pan to form 3 pancakes (or 1 big pancake). Once pancakes begin to look solid (about 3 minutes), gently flip (if possible, re-spritz the pan with nonstick spray as you flip 'em to prevent sticking). Cook for approximately 3 additional minutes, or until both sides are lightly browned and insides are cooked through. Now plate those suckers and enjoy. Serves 1. (Pssst...we like 'em drizzled with sugar-free maple syrup!)
	Serving Size: Entire recipe Calories: 195 Fat: 2g Sodium: 295mg Carbs: 32g Fiber: 4g Sugars: 6g Protein: 13g *3 Points

Tuesday

Well I am back on track AGAIN!

Breakfast
Yougart
handful of almonds
2 cups of coffee

Drinking water right now.

Snack
1 boiled egg

Lunch
Salad
Grilled Chicken
Cottage chesse
5 grapes

Snack
1/4 of nut bar

Dinner
Omellet made of egg beaters, mushrooms, motz. cheese.

Worked Out - 30 min hard cardio on eliptical. I was sweating!

Expo, Dreams, and Reality

It seems that when I can’t seem to see why things happen for a reason I sabotage my progress. I planned on going to the EXPO. I asked everyone to go with me and NO BODY wanted to go. Except my mom. So we planned to go. Well then about a month ago she told me with all the weather that they are getting that my mom would not be able to afford to go. (My dad owns a roofing company) I was soooooo disappointed. Actually I was devastated! I wanted to go to the BFL and the Arnold Expo so badly. So for the past three weeks I have eaten crappy and I have not been getting all my workouts in. Last week I went to the gym only one time. I finally put two and two together and realized that I was destroying a dream. I am hurting inside so let’s make it completely miserable.

I wanted to go to this expo and meet everyone, plus from my understanding that the BFL will not be held with the Arnold classic next year. I am angry, mad, frustrated, confused, sad, and disappointed. I know there is an underlining resentment there as well. My husband got to go to Dayton 500 last year, I was promised a cruise in January and we were to go to North Carolina for our first family vacation ever and all of it got ripped away because my husband was hunting illegally and tore his Achilles tendon. So for the past three months I have had to cater to him and try to do everything and remain sane. Just when you think you see light at the end of the tunnel. Bam you get hit with a train wreak.

On the flip side, I am so happy for those who are going and I will be logged on all weekend long and watch from afar. I think me just getting this out and not keeping this poison inside has helped me already. The BFL Expo will be here and gone and I will still be fat. So it is time for action to step in again and next year be at the Expo a BFL Champion winner. Make it count!

I think what is amazing here and how dumb I feel that it took me three weeks to really get to my problem and see it for what it is. I seen it, I feel it, I understand it, I have dealt with it, Now MOVE ON!

Learning!

I seem to find more and more about myself as I endeavor on this journey of losing weight. It seems that God puts things in my way so that I can actually see who I am. I read the BFL tracker daily. I don't always comment on it.

I do read tons of articles on how to succeed in every part of my life. I seem to sabotage anything good. Take for instance my losing weight. I have lost 5 pounds and have stayed there. I have not pushed myself to lose another 5 pounds. I want to, oh God do I want to. The past three weeks have been so half heartily done. I have eaten crappy and have not completed my workouts 6 days a week. I can get 3 or 4 in but never to the point. It’s like I give up in everything I do. Take for instance my work. I tell myself I am going to wear decent cloths and makeup and I still wake up late and I put on jeans because it is the easiest and fastest way. I know that to move up in this world you have push yourself. If I had to climb a ladder to reach anything I want to achieve and there is only 10 steps on this ladder. I could only get to step five. I am always looking up. Wondering why I can never get to the top. I know at work there is stuff that could be done that could push me forward but I do things at the last minute. Is it because I am comfortable. Yet I am not! I kick myself all the time because I want to be better and I want to improve. Wanting and doing are totally different I know that, but once I start I stop half way. WTF

Let me list my goals.

1) Lose 25 pounds - In a bikini this summer
2) Ripped Abs
3) In the process of this - Win 2007 BFL
4) Improve my income!
5) Work - Call other directors to acquire information on salary caps, document all job titles, and be prepared for review. SIS set schedule, Erate completed, clean up area.
6) Out with the old in the new. (I started on my closet and a few cabinets in the kitchen)
7) Keep the house, car, and myself clean.
8) Pay off my school loan
9) get out of debt
10) Become financially secure - so that I could buy what I need and WANT

I could go on and on. The secret - great movie. Tells me to create a dream board. Cut out things that you want and dream about it. I have tons of things cut out. But nothing is glued on a board. Why don't I ever finish what I start. I believe I am worth it yet my actions speack other wise. I am done reading all the self help books and I am done talking about it. I am ready to push through this half assed stuff and begin to live the life I want.

So actions that need to take place first. Work, then workout, have hubby take my pictures for BFL, and then begin on my dream board.

212 Degrees, The Extra Degree.

212 Degrees, The Extra Degree.

At 211 degrees, water is hot.

At 212 degrees, it boils.

And with boiling water comes steam.

And Steam can power a locomotive.

Raising the temperature of water by one degree means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine.

The average margin of victory in the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500 in the past 10 years has been 1.54 seconds. The first place winner took home $1,278,813 in prize money, the second place winner took home $621,321 in prize money, a difference of $657,492.

Inches make a champion.

It's your life, YOU are responsible for your results it is time to turn up the heat to the next degree.

Many of life's failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

TO GET WHAT WE'VE NEVER HAD, WE MUST DO WHAT WE'VE NEVER DONE.

Check out the 212 degree movie here..... http://www.212amovie.com/

Weekend Up date - Sabatoge

For the first time in two years I put on a pair of jeans and they fit. They fit good. I could zip them up easy and they are not tight. I am back into my size 12’s! Yes!

Then on Monday instead of eating right and working out. I skip my workout, I go to Krispy Kreme and had two doughnuts (1 the whole wheat doughnut and the other very fatting sour cream doughnut along with a diet coke lol). I was so sick to my stomach that I could puke. Why! Why! Why! Then later that night we went to Wal-Mart and we got Cream Horns (5 in a pack), I ate 3. I ate till I could puke again. I went to bed with my stomach hurting. This morning I woke up with my stomach hurting.

So I have learned that I can NOT eat like that any more. My body said WTF are you doing to me?

So today I am eating clean.

Breakfast

Banana (I could barely get it down)

2 cups of coffee

Cherry Pie

	Very Cherry!
	Sometimes we get a cherry craving so powerful that no amount of Sugar Free Jell-O or Sugar Free Popsicles will cure it. It's the kind of craving that can only be kicked to the curb with a slice of pie bursting with gobs of sweet & fruity cherry filling. That's why we've created our soon-to-be-famous Topless Cherry Pie. It's crazy-low in fat and calories and super-high in fiber. Woohoo! And sure the pie is topless, but you should feel free to enjoy it while wearing your favorite blouse. Ingredients: 2 cups Fiber One bran cereal 3 tbsp. light whipped butter 2 tbsp. Egg Beaters, Original 1 tbsp. cornstarch 1 20-oz. can no-sugar-added cherry pie filling (like the ones by Comstock and Lucky Leaf)** 8 servings (16 tbsp.) Fat Free Reddi-wip Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a blender or food processor, grind Fiber One to a breadcrumb-like consistency. Melt butter in the microwave for 20 seconds. Combine crumbs with melted butter and Egg Beaters and stir until well mixed. In an oven-safe pie dish sprayed lightly with nonstick spray, evenly distribute mixture, using your hands or a flat utensil to firmly press & form the crust. Press it into the edges and up along the sides of the dish. Bake crust in oven for 10 minutes, then remove and allow to cool. In a medium-sized nonstick pot, combine cornstarch with cherry filling. Heat stovetop at medium heat, stirring often. Once cherry mixture begins to bubble, lower heat and continue to stir for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for several minutes. Evenly spoon cherry mixture into piecrust and allow pie to cool and set in the fridge for several hours before cutting and serving. Before serving, top each sli ce with a dollop of fat-free whipped topping. Serves 8!
	Serving Size: 1 slice; 1/8th of pie Calories: 90 Fat: 2.5g Sodium: 105mg Carbs: 21.5g Fiber: 7g Sugars: 4g Protein: 1.5g *1 Point!

Formula to losing weight from BFL Tracker

In general (and this varies depending on weight, diet, salt intake, and water intake):

Week 1-2: 5-10lb water drop. Especially in people at 27%+ body fat.

Sustainable afterwards: 0.3-0.8lb week, though some people can get two 1.2.

If you achieve 5-6lb per month (month after month) you are doing good. Some people do more, others do less.

The initial water weight drop has to do with changes in your diet. You'll probably have a lower salt intake so you'll drop water weight. If you ate more before starting BFL, you'll excreting what you ate prior to beginning. If you were a big "pop drinker", and you taper off... that can also case a water weight drop.

A physical pound of fat cells takes approximately 3000 calories to reduce. (They don't really go away, but they'll deflate into an expended, non-energy retaining state that doesn't take up hardly any space).

Most HIIT workouts (Aerobics or weight) burn about 250-350cal. They come out the same because you to intense workouts with aerobics, but only for 20 minutes. With weights, you are less intense, but it lasts twice as long... so it comes out about the same.

Across six days, that's approximately 1500 (at 250/workout) to 2100 (at 350/workout) of calories burned directly through exercise. With HIIT aerobics, your heart rate will remain higher a while after you finish... so you'll probably burn another 300-600 across the week in the hours following your workouts.

On top of that, you'll drop your caloric intake by about 100-200 calories per day below what you'd normally consume (you'll hardly miss them), and reduce the amount of carbs and fat. That will give you about another 1200 calories of loss.

Off set this by the 3000-4500 calories you are likely to eat on your free day... (You might laugh... but lot's of folks do it!), and you'll net a loss of about 2000-2500 calories per week.

Using the 3000cal per pound rule... that gives us the 0.4-0.8 weight loss per week. It's sustainable and real weight loss.

Of course... you'll also have +/- 3lbs of water weight fluctuations at any point within a day... so you really want to look at the overall trend of your weight (if you look at weight at all).

If you were to keep an eye on the moving average of your weight (Last 7 days divided by 7 -- taken at the same time every day -- completely naked to offset the weight of clothes).... you should see a general drop.

"Moving Averages" are the same type of analysis used to monitor stock markets. It's a statistical way to even out the peaks and valleys of volatile data.

For "Scale Hounds", I'd recommend weighing yourself naked, in the morning after you go to the bathroom and before you eat. That's probably your lowest-weighing point of every day.... because you'll have gotten up 3-4 times to go to the bathroom and won't have eaten for about 8 hours. It's the best "Feel good" scale moment of the day.

BFL Breakdown

In 84 days of BFL you will complete... 36 HIIT sessions 18 Upper Body Workouts 18 Lower Body Workouts 72 clean eating days 12 free days

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I am going to lay out chicken tonight so that I can put this in a crockpot tomorrow. Minus the beans! Yuck! I will add green beans instead. Did you notice there is nooooo tortilla chips in receipe. But if you wanted you could use tortillias, placed flat on cookie sheet and spread low fat shreded chesse and bake for 4 to 5 minutes. Then dip them in the soup. I did that for the enchillada soup I made a few weeks back. OMG it was heaven.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Crockpot

INGREDIENTS: 2 boneless,skinless chicken breasts 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes 1 (28 ounce) can mild enchilada sauce 1 large onion, chopped 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers 2 cloves garlic, minced (I buy the minced garlic in jar) 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth (low sodium) 1 teaspoon cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 bay leaf 1 (10 ounce) package frozen corn 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

DIRECTIONS: 1. Place chicken, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chiles, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in corn,beans and cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours. 2. About an hour before serving time, pull chicken breasts out and shred using 2 forks. Stir shredded chicken into soup. 3. Serve with extras as desired such as corn tortilla, cheese or sour cream.

100 Percent Commitment

I know it's hard to stay on top of your workouts AND your eating every day, and believe me, I know that no one's perfect (including me!). We all fall off the diet and fitness wagon — the important thing is how quickly we recover.


The above is quoted from Jillian's Email today.

Weekend Update

Okay, I am soooo ready to have my hubby home. Friday Vinny went to a Middle school dance, Saturday Vinny and I went to Shell Knob for the day. Then on Sunday we cleaned and Vinny did homework. Not real exciting.

I ate okay. I did take pictures for the BFL Challange. I started today offically. I could tell a big difference in my pictures from last year to this year.

Breakfast
Oatmeal
Coffee

Snack
Kellogs bar

Thursday

Well hello I have had an of and on week. I never realized how much my husband does for me. I know that I want to be a better person when he is around. I clean the house, I cook, I do arrands, I workout, I watch what I eat. Since he has been gone, I have eaten everything I wanted (NOT CHOCOLATE), UI have not cleaned, I have not cooked. I have bascilly have not done much but ruin everything I have worked for. I have gained 2 pounds. UGH!

I am taking my pictures to start my BFL tracker contest. I am also using this challange to enter the BFL 2007 rounds. I can tell with working out my body is already changing. If I can step it up and eat clean then I am soooooo a WINNER! No let me rephrase this. I WILL step it up and eat clean! I am SOOOOOOOO a WINNER!

Breakfast
Yougart 40 cal
Banana 80 cal
2 cups of coffee 60 cal

Snack
Fig Nuten packet 130 cal
Water

Lunch
smartone 320 cal
salad 40 cal
sm cake 80 cal
tea

Walked 30 minutes.

The Secret

I have know about the secert for some time. I have the DVD and I was amazed what I saw. Now Oprah is bringing it out to the world. How amazing. I am quoting from the show...
"When your talking about action, you're talking about walking in the direction you want."

Ask Believe Recieve

Thoughts become things... Choose the Good ONES!

Rhonda defines The Secret as the law of attraction, which is the principle that "like attracts like." Rhonda calls it "the most powerful law in the universe," and says it is working all the time. "What we do is we attract into our lives the things we want, and that is based on what we're thinking and feeling," Rhonda says. The principle explains that we create our own circumstances by the choices we make in life. And the choices we make are fueled by our thoughts—which means our thoughts are the most powerful things we have here on earth.

Tuesday 5/6/07

Hello To me! Today my kid is home sick today. Ugh he is running a tempature.

Breakfast
2 pumpkin muffins 200 cal
coffee 2 cups 60 cal

Look what you can do with Pumpkin

Also, note that you can alter the ingredients, depending on your diet’s needs… ½ cup of pumpkin only has 20 calories!!! And, as I’m sure you all know, a ½ cup of oatmeal only has 75 calories!

 pUMPkin Pie Passion 
Ingredients:
1 scoop Vanilla UMP
½ cup canned pumpkin
½ cup old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon of cinnamon spice
1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
1 packet of Splenda (or Equal)
1 tablespoon of fat-free Cool Whip

Mix oats with water and put in microwave, just as you would make your oatmeal; stir in pumpkin and UMP, adding water to get a thick, smooth, creamy consistency. Add in cinnamon and pumpkin spices and Splenda flavor; top with a tablespoon of fat-free Cool Whip if you’d like! Enjoy!

   pUMPkin Smoothie   
1 ½ scoops of Vanilla UMP
1 teaspoon of cinnamon spice
1 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
1 packet of Splenda (or Equal)
4-6 ice cubes, cold water

Mix all the above ingredients together to create a smooth, creamy smoothie. I like to put mine in the freezer for a while to thicken it up.

 pUMPkin Pudding  
1 container of vanilla Fit n’ Lively yogurt (only 60 calories!)
½ cup canned pumpkin
½ scoop Vanilla UMP
(Optional:  ¼ - ½ cup of Fiber One Cereal to make crunchy)
1 tablespoon of fat-free Cool Whip

Mix all the above ingredients together to create a smooth, thick, and creamy pudding. (Add a little water to make it thinner, if you wish). Top with a tablespoon of fat-free Cool Whip, too, if you’d like!

Hello Monday

Here I go not a very good start

Breakfast
2 cups of coffee
Mc dees egg mcmuffin 300 cal minus the meat I did not eat
Diet coke

Lunch
5 breaded chicken
1 cup of white rice
salad with fat dressing
Low Country Cookie
Diet Coke

Dinner
Brocalli quiche
pumpkin muffins.

Water Water Water

Go to this link and see how many 16 oz bottles of water you need to drink each day!!!!

http://www.muscletech.com/CALCULATORS/WATER/Water_Calculator.shtml

Why do we gain fat?

Basically, it’s because we’re eating too much. People don’t want to believe this, but you gain weight because you eat more calories than you’re burning. If you want to lose fat, you need to eat fewer calories than you’re burning. If you consume just 50 calories a day more than you burn—that’s one Oreo cookie—over a year you’ll gain about five pounds.

You Choose, You Win

You Choose, You Win
There's no such thing as mindless weight loss. You can't sleep off the pounds or take a miracle pill that burns fat. Losing weight is about making the right choices, every single day, in a variety of different situations.

www.jillianmiachaels.com

Weekend Report

Oh My did I eat this weekend.

Saturday
Oatmeal with protien
Lunch at chedders
Talipa
salad w/ blue cheese
cresant (that was like dessert)
Hashbrown cassarole
After that meal which I took half of the fish home cause I was full I could puck. I felt aweful
Dinner
Salad w/ blue cheese
talipa

Snack
Crackers and cheese
I over did it with the cheese!

Sunday
Cherrios
Baked lays
100 cal pack of cookies
turkey sandwich

triskets and some cheese slices

dinner
maybe 3 oz of steak
4 jumbo shirmp
large sweet potaote
salad w/ blue cheese
pineapple (it tasted like candy)
I could puke after this meal too.

Snack
100 cal cookies
Hot tamales 100 cal
jelly beans

I did not work out.

Let me tell you this. I was so messirable and I could hardly move because of all the food I ate.

Lets get together this week and kick ass.

Hubby is gone for a week or so. It is just me, Vinny and jake.

Friday

Home Again cause of bad roads.

Breakfast
Rasion Bran w/ ff milk
1 cup of coffee

Snack
1 boiled egg
baked lays

Lunch


Going to the gym for a few hours. Did messurements and I have lost 5 inches total and 5 pounds. Yesterday it said I lost 6. Ugh I hate the yoyo of the scale.

Thursday

No Work No School Due to 3 inches of snow!!

Cleaned all day, shoveled snow. John & barbara came and got Vinny for the weekend.

Breakfast
Cherrios 1/2 cup
coffee 2 cups

Lunch
Turkey sandwich
Baked lays

Snack
1 slice Bread
cheese stick

Dinner
Pork chop baked
green beans
1 med potatoe