I've been bad.

Renee I hate treadmill running. I really do. I may do 3 miles lately but that's it. I remember training for the marathon and doing like 18 miles on the treadmill and being in absolute hell. I hate the treadmill. I would so much rather be outside. And because I hate the treadmill, it's so hard to get motivated to run on it.

So anyway, I've been bad - not really excercising. We've been busy so we haven't had much of a chance but I need to get back into it today. I hope to run today - I guess on the treadmill - at some point.

I hate the treadmill.

Luckily, my eating has been good though. I made the mahimahi with edamame succotash from this month's cooking light (although they didn't have mahi mahi so I used pollack) and it was good. Even Harper ate it - well, the succotash. And I made the chili with beans and pasta from this month's issue last night - it was really easy and good. And Harper ate a ton of that. (so did Eli - but I'm excited Harper's eating our food now too!)

That's it from here. I need to get more motivated to excercise. I think every time I start to think about getting into some plan, I think about how Andrew's going to be gone for 3 weeks in March and decide it's not worth it to start anything until he gets back. And I know that's silly. So if anyone has any ideas for me, please share!

Is there anybody out there....

Hi!
I hope you all have Pink Floyd playing in your head.

How is everyone doing on the Flab front? I'm improving little by little. Every time I want a snack I've been eating fruit. It's been good. I do miss salty snacks. I haven't totally stopped but I try to wait till the weekend. I also cut back on my wine consumption. This makes me sad :-( I could have a glass nightly but shouldn't.

Workouts are strong, loving my Step class! What do you girls do for miles when you run on the treadmill? Approx?

Good Night!

Cold cold cold

aargh - I just wrote a long post and it got deleted. Anyway long story short:
Jamaica - one water aerobics class after 2 mimosas - it included massaging a stranger's head and neck - excercise? Maybe.
Today - ran - did ladder of higher speeds. Also sit-ups and push-ups.
I wish I had a regular schedule so I could take a class like you guys - they sound fun.
We want to go ice skating - we all got skates but maybe too cold today.
Andrew took out 2 of my ghiradelli chocolate squares that I had him hide last night for me to eat during a movie (Burn After Reading - funny) and I only ate 1 and had him hide the other one.
Also, had fish tacos for dinner last night - very good and easy and healthy. So I felt good about that.
That's it from here!

Moderation

Everything in moderation right? Although everything I read in my health magazines says to eat light, part skim cheese, there's nothing like a real whole milk sharp flavored cheese. All the flavors and styles of cheese, the light ones just aren't the same.
I say, go with moderation!
So it's been 3 good steady weeks of weight training and I feel really good. The sore muscles have subsided and I'm feeling stronger and slightly more toned! Yeah! I got a DVD for Christmas with 5, 10 min. sessions using a stability ball, love it! Now if I could just see my belly area shrinking!!!! That's my trouble spot!!!

So Debbie and Danielle, are you going to rub it in that you walked the Jamaican beaches, swam for miles in crystal clear teal blue waters, blah, blah, blah. Or maybe you took Yoga on the white sandy beaches with the warm breeze blowing! I hope you at least report back some exercise, and not bicep curls lifting your drinks!

Can you tell I'm TOTALLY jealous!!! Hope you guys had a fabulous time getting all fat! ;-)

Say Cheese

How bad is cheese for you? I eat a lot of cheese and crackers, and I was wondering if that was a bad thing or not. Generally the crackers are low fat triscuits (or the trader joe's version), so I'm not so worried about them. I know cheese has a lot of fat, but can I count it as the "good" fat? I figure it's good that I'm getting some protein with the snack, right? Should I try to cut back?

Happy New Year!

Hi all,

I'm so proud of the way everyone has gotten back on the blog. Way to go. I thought it was going to fizzle.

I've been doing a pretty good job at keeping up with my goals. I've been going to that Dailey Method class twice a week. It is so hard. I'm shaking after the first 5 minutes. But they say that's a good thing and my muscles are working. I've also been to my other class (the core strength one) every Sunday. She had a special day after Christmas class that I went to as well. It felt good to work off some of the giant meal. I went to Tahoe for 5 days, so some of the classes were on hold, but I skiied for two days and my muscles certainly were working. We did stop at McDonalds both directions though because we wanted playlands for Noah to work off some of his car energy. (The ride home took us 9+ hours because of the snow!!!) It had been a long time since I had McDonalds.

I did make those chocolate things from CL for Christmas dessert. They didn't come quite like the picture - not gooey inside. But they were very good. I have to admit that I used eggs instead of substitutes, because the substitute at the store had already expired. Not really sure how they were exactly light then. Except that they were in individual small ramkins that allowed for no leftover, so that made them somewhat better on the health front. No one renewed my CL subscription for this year (usually someone gives it to me for Christmas), so I might just buy it off the shelf or just use the internet. And I totally agree about the planning meals. The more I plan, the better I am at resisting take out. I've done a somewhat good job in the last 6 months or so of making some meals and freezing them, so if I remember to pull them out to thaw the night before then we have a nice healthy meal with little prep and cleanup. Always a bonus!

Keep up the good work!

Another Snow Day!

Hi Ladies,
We love Salmon so I'm going to try that recipe Deb, thanks!

So I joined the gym on a great deal. A friend was looking to get out of her membership so to transfer names on the account it only costs me $50. and then I pay the monthly fee $19.99, not bad. I joined for the classes. I've been going to the Sculpt classes on Mondays and Fridays and I've been trying to get to the Pilates and Step class but snow days are getting in the way! :( My muscles are screaming! That's the best feeling, isn't it! I've been keeping up with running as well. I'm afraid to step on the scale because I don't want to be discouraged. I hate the scale!!!

I have everyone in the house on a "Healthy Eating" kick so I hope that helps out as well.

Ladies keep up the awesome job! Deb, your looking fine! ;-) No, seriously you looked great over Christmas. Your hard work is totally paying off!

Renee

Salmon link

Here's the link for the salmon recipe.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1860147

Very good!

Cooking Light

By the way, we went crazy with the Cooking Light recipes from last month (the one with the awesome chocolate things on front - did you ever make those Jen?) Anyway, the salmon with the chili sauce was awesome and I don't like salmon. Eli liked that was served with the soba noodles - although he kept calling them spaghetti. We also made the chicken calzones - very good and very easy. We made broccoli with that. And we made the bow tie pasta with the chicken sausage and cauliflower which I really liked but I don't think Andrew was too crazy about. Eli liked it too. We got the yellow cauliflower. Oh and we made the lentil and edamame stew too which was really really good - although I really love lentils and edamame too. Oh and we also made the black bean soup - because we had leftover ham from Christmas. That was a bit too spicy for me but Andrew and Eli liked it. I don't think I've ever made so many recipes from one issue of Cooking Light before. But they were good. And it was fun looking through it - I look through it with Eli and pick out stuff the beginning of the week. Definitely planning a week of meals helps so much in not getting takeout or stressing out about dinner. Okay, that's it from here. Oh, and if anyone's interested in the recipes and doesn't get Cooking Light - you can get them online. Just ask if you're interested and I'll give you the exact name of the recipe - or just type in the keywords and find the recipe from this past issue. Happy Eating!

Happy New Year!

Hi All! New Year New goals and all that grand stuff, right? My neighborhood actually had a 5k run on New Years eve which was a lot of fun and reminded me that I could run outside in the winter and snow and not be so bad. So I've done that a few times - it's so much easier to run outside than on a treadmill. It's amazing. Anyway, I've done that, and Runners World this month has a cool ab workout so I've tried that a few times - doesn't require any balls, bars, etc., and only takes 15 minutes so I like that. On the food front, I got rid of most of the candy from Christmas and the last few pieces of Ghiradelli dark chocolate and caramel, I asked Andrew to hide for me. So I know they're there if I really need them but I have to ask them for it so it adds another barrier and so far I haven't asked. So no chocolate for a while - yey! And good meals and stuff too so I'm pretty excited about that. That's it from here. I hope you're feeling better Renee! And I don't have any good books on fitness. Sorry!

Happy New Year!

Hi Ladies,
Happy New Year! I'm recovering from a terrible stomach bug! I hosted my cousin from Canada and his family for 3 days and each day one of them got sick. One by one, then after caring for them you think God would have mercy on me... nooooo, I got it worst of all! Oh well, that was last year. This year I'm focused on my health and well being. Thank you for your constant Blogging, it encourages me to keep on.
Has anyone read a good book on nutrition or well being?
Take care I'm off to bed now. It's early but Alex came running out of her room saying she felt like she was going to throw up. It was a false alarm but I'm preparing for what could be a long night!
Renee