Life Dependent

So I've always been the type of person who goes to the gym and sticks to a general routine and only use the machines I know how to use to prevent myself from either A. Looking like a fool or B. Breaking a bone or injuring myself! (which both have occurred so I speak from experience!!)

BUT I'm always willing to try new things when someone is willing to teach me! Ladies and Gentleman, I give you my new found life dependent gym tool....THE FOAM ROLLER!!
Some of you are laughing and have been there done that, but this was introduced to me by the lovely crossfitters and I have two on order for home as we speak!

 What does it do and how do you use it?
Taken from men's health.com:

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Read more at Men's Health: http://www.menshealth.com/best-life/foam-rolling#ixzz2DZEiwXVg

A.  Exercise induces microtears and swelling in muscle fibers, which impinge on nerves and vessels. Over time, this can develop into adhesions and scar tissue.

B.  Foam rolling helps smooth out these obstructions and break down adhesions, helping to increase blood-flow within the muscle.

Simply put: It helps loosen your muscles before a workout and helps prevent soreness after a workout!

Exibit A:

This is my dear friend using the foam roller after a super intense workout! Her face is saying: "Oh it hurts but it feels so gooood!"  I used it last night after a filthy fifty (tweaked for available equipment) WOD and I am barely sore. A week ago I did the same workout, skipping the roller and was sore for days!

Now check out this textured foam roller for an even deeper tissue massage!!
This is one I have on order and I can't wait!!!
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=sheisjusgetst-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B008NEFDK2&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I'm Feeling that Holiday Bulge!!!

Holiday Bulge

So the truth about the Holiday BULGE is- as we all know, it’s not just the two humongous holiday dinners that can feed the entire population of Indonesia, that you feel forced to eat as to not upset grandma---its the entire season! I truly believe it’s the worlds way of getting ready for winter, gotta have that extra layer of fat to keep us warm right? WRONG!

How do you avoid it? The constant boxes of OH SO YUMMY cookie assortments or gifts of pies and wine, oh the wine! My personal secret: I keep a nice meal bar around with a chocolate or peanut butter flavor and say no thank you! Even thought I’m crying inside I know that my cheat day is right around the corner, and then I can choose exactly what I want! That is what 80/20 Plan for Life is all about! And eventually they will get sick of offering, don’t feel bad as you may get some snarls or snickering, you will feel better when you stand in the mirror and those same people stuffing their faces will be jealous!

Another silly but helpful thing I like to do, when those pounds of cookies start gathering around the break room, offer them up! I know it’s bad, friends don’t let friends get fat? Wait wait these are my co-workers and I think there’s an exception to that rule with acquaintances! So I walk around the department with tin boxes (acting like I slaved away in the kitchen and made them myself) and offer them to everyone! This get’s rid of my temptation and my constant cookie stare down in the break room and I feel like I did a good deed by passively and aggressively sharing! Happy Holidays:)

The best Part of Thanksgiving!!

After the Turkey, comes turkey soup! My favorite part!!
Here's a delicious low cal recipe that can be used with your thanksgiving left overs:

All below ingredients can be used with a reduced fat/low sodium option
-2 turkey drumb sticks and Carved turkey Breast
- 2 Large cans of Chicken Broth
-1 Can of cream of chicken
-1 Can of Beef Broth
1 veggie bouillon
1 beef bouillon
3 cups of water
4 Carrots
4 Celery Stalks
3 Potatoes
Angel hair pasta
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove
1/2 Onion
Parsley
Italian Seasoning/ Light Adobo/ Ground Pepper


In a large Soup pot bring chicken broth, beef broth, cream of chicken, water and bouillons to a boil. Add turkey and seasonings (italian season, adobo,pepper) . Finely chop 1 carrot stick, 1 celery stick, 2 tbsp garlic and 3 tbsp onion and fresh parsley. In a separate pan simmer in 1 TBSP of olive oil on low heat until garlic is light tan color. Then add to the boiling soup. Now chop left carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, garlic and add to the boiling soup. Now remove the 2 Turkey drumbsticks and remove meat pieces. (The meat should slide right off the bone, if it doesn't cook longer in boiling water). Add the drumbstick meat to the soup and lower heat to medium. Add angel hair pasta cover and cook for 15 minutes or until pasta is ready.
Turkey soup is ready to be served!
Feel free to add any additional leftovers, corn, green beans, etc.

Burpees = Death for me! Of course most WODS love to include hundreds of these...
 HOWEVER when you face adversity you must find the will to overcome! So I have vowed to complete 500 burpees a week! Not much but more than I deep down ever want to do, and I'm hoping the more I do them, the more I will learn to love them! It's something about throwing your body on the floor and then finding the strength to throw your body up in the air over and over again. Maybe if I take it symbolically as: When life tries to knock you down you rise up above and reach for the stars!!??? hmm I'll keep thinking up for a moto, I love burpees I love burpees I love burpees.

Fireman+Bra's = Interesting Combo

Unique Decorated Bra's for auction and proceeds get donated for breast cancer awareness! But the best part.....the Bra's are shown off in a runway show...not put on by women no no that's too boring, by Fireman...(with their gear ON and shirts OFF!) No it wasn't like a Magic Mike show, strickly PG, HOWEVER it was hilarious! Take a look:

You don't know until you try!!!

Soo I was a very deprived child and practically lived on macaroni and cheese and frozen pizzas! Partially because we were poor and partially because I'm so darn picky! For the first time in my life I have chosen to boldly go where no one has gone before........and try Sushi(or just me)!!

These are California roles and Chicken Tera something roles. Ready for it.....And the review is??? I loved it!! It was like an array of flavor in my mouth, my taste buds were in heaven! It was different for sure but in a good way! One thing I will do next time though is look up the calorie count, I thought for some weird reason that sushi was automatically healthy but there are some that have a high fat content, for instance the california roll has about 130 calories and 4 fat compared to the chicken one has almost 500 calories!! Yikes:/ off to the gym I go!

Guilt-less Pleasure!!

So let’s face it, when it comes to your taste buds ‘just saying no’ is not so easy! Whether you’re trying to lose weight or just generally trying to eat healthy, when you’re eyes lock on with that cookie or cake, it’s like Medusa! Your instantly in a trance and your mind triggers the taste bud memory and it takes a very large amount of will power to look away! BUT what if we can eat the very things we love without the guilt? Guilt-less pleasure is Very hard to come by so I thought I’d share with you a few I have found!

I have a Peanut Butter and Oreo love!!

And found alternative ‘healthier’ options to the real thing!

First up: PB2!

ALL Natural dried roasted peanuts with NO Artificial sweeteners or preservatives!

And I buy this all the time, it tastes pretty darn good, only downfall is you have to make it each time you want a serving, you have to add water and mix it.

Real peanut butter (2TBSP portion):

190 calories

16 grams of fat

Saturated: 3

PB2 (2TBSP portion)

45 Calories

1.5 grams of fat

Saturated: 0

They also have a chocolate PB2 (which I haven’t tried yet).

http://www.bellplantation.com/nutrition

Second: Who-NU! A nutrition filled cookie???…and to be honest I barely taste the difference!

Now before I get any hate mails, I know some people have stated that compared to oreo’s there is apparently not much difference, HOWEVER, there is No nutritional value to a regular oreo, compared to the added fiber and vitamins of Who-NU. If I was going to have a craving, I would rather have some substance than none.  Now I wouldn’t stop eating veggies and oatmeal or eat the whole box just yet though, added vitamins have a much lower value than the real thing, there are many factors to what your body breaks down and absorbs.

No Pain no Gain!!

Silly me focused so much on trying to press 85 pounds I let the bar drop too fast and landed on my collar bone! Didn’t hurt at the time since I had so much adrenaline going, but it sure is sore today! This past week bengay has been my best friend!! I think this week I’m cheating and moving onto ice!! I’m not used to such high intensity workouts and heavy weight movements and you feel like your muscles are jello by the end of it, but for some crazy reason you always want more! It’s not for everyone I must say, but for those who are looking for a challenge, this is a great one! Lesson learned- Don’t lose focus until the barbell is on the floor!!!

Believe = Achieve

If you believe you can achieve!!!

 I have recently started on the crossfit journey. If you haven’t heard of this before just you-tube crossfit games. It is high intensity weight training and cardio combined. Let me tell you I have never been so sore, yet felt so empowered in my life! I am not affiliated with crossfit in any sort of way, just a little ole newbie member. I have tried to stay somewhat active, always had a gym membership and loved to run or bike, but when I didn’t work out I noticed I would start to feel down and depressed and it became of vicious cycle of not wanting to go to the gym because I was depressed but depressed because I was gaining weight. I was also diagnosed with lupus and not knowing for years, I just thought I was always sick and my body hated me? So since then I have really tried to improve my health a great deal not only because I want to look and feel good but because I have to for my life.

So when you leave the gym after working out pretty hard, you feel pretty good right? You know you burned off some extra calories to make up for the cake you had the day before and you feel accomplished.

But there is nothing like when you complete a WOD (workout of the Day) with Crossfit.

Last night I  had the  WOD mission of the ‘Thruster Ladder’. It’s hard to explain but the ‘thruster’ is when you have a weighted barbell, mine was 35lbs and you snatch it up to your chest, go down in to a squat and press it over your head and back down, which counts and 1 rep. The ‘ladder’ portion is when every minute equals a round and that increases and equals to how many reps you do per minute. So you start out on your first minute, you only have to do one thruster in that minute, the second round you complete two thrusters in that minute and so on until you can’t complete the required reps in a minute. Sounds easy right? Not so fast, that weight feels like a ton of bricks after just a few rounds.

I completed 16 rounds of this and on my 17^th could only do 12 so that equals to 146 total thrusters with 35lb weights. (Now in crossfit world this actually isn’t a lot, but for my first time I feel very accomplished)

By the time I was on my 10^th everyone else had already bailed and it was just me and the clock. But since everyone had finished I had the entire gym routing me on. It is an awesome moment when you have people you don’t even know cheering you on and motivating you to push yourself to a place you’ve never been before. Not only do you feel like the world believes in you but you believe in yourself. I am so excited to see what else I have in store and where my mind and body can take me. Bring it on, because I believe and I know I can achieve.

November Competition!!

The first monthly Competition is up for Sweatsassy.com

It's 20 pushups! Any variation!! (On your knee's, against the wall, military etc)

Entry: Free

Requirements:

ONLY Women can participate

Must be a member of sweatsassy.com which is FREE

You must wear some visible form of Sweat Sassy gear during the pushups.
The video must be sent in via e-mail (You can send the link to your youtube) competitions@sweatsassy.com

PRIZE: $50 GNC

Location: Global! Videos can be sent in from anywhere!

www.sweatsassy.com

The surrounding Temptation!!

So you've been eating good for just two weeks, but already you're feeling great! You have more energy and you're over that hump of constantly craving sweets and carbs! You've even been working out quite often and last night you really pushed it and know you burned a ton of calories! So you walk into to work the next day and "don don don" it's ANOTHER office birthday!!! Holy cow how many birthdays are there?? The center office table filled with goodies jumps out at you and does one of those screeches from a scary movie "ERR ERR ERR"! And of course the goodie table has to be placed RIGHT NEXT to the fax machine so you have no choice but to walk by and have a stare down with a cookie ever hour!!! How are you supposed to maintain your healthy eating with all this temptation around you? You almost feel like your co-workers are conspiring against you!!

Well this is a very good question, its quite easy to just not buy the junk food when you go grocery shopping but you can't control what others do, specially in your office! One thing you can do is motivate others in your office to eat healthy like you! Tell them about your journey and your goals and how you feel so much better by eating the right foods! This may encourage your co-workers to get rid of that "Secretary Spread" and bring in some healthier options instead of the junk!

Another option is to share the love! Most likely when people bring in goodies, they bring in enough to feed an entire army!! Therefore, when everyone has had their first serving, if it's possible, share what's left over with other departments! This eliminates the leftovers sitting there all day while you give in and sneak a second or third serving!! Hey there's nothing wrong with A cookie or cupcake, it's the second, third and forth that stick to those hips!!

I speak from experience! This wasn't even an occasion, someone just brought 50 cookies and cider just because...can you imagine what our birthdays looks like? Getting my office to eat right has definitely been a challenge!! Oye-vey!

 

Please support Breast cancer with a fashionable Sweat Band!

Made with DriFit Material which is perfect for working out!
Embellished with Pink Rhinestones. One size fits all with elastic band!
Only $7!! Will ship within USA

Also a Swavorski Crystal option!

Go to: www.sweatsassy.com
http://www.sweatsassy.com/#!sweat-sassy-gear/cmm8
 

Encourage those around you!

One of the best things you can do when you’re starting to change your eating habits is get everyone around you involved! Make sure your family is on board with healthy eating. The last thing you want to do after a long day of work and stress is to have to cook 2 separate meals! When you think of eating healthy do you picture yourself eating a boring salad for dinner, while watching everyone else eating fried chicken and cheesy macaroni casserole?? Well it doesn’t have to be that way! You can easily create tasty meals that are healthy and that the whole family will enjoy. Again this is Healthy and Happy not healthy and miserable! Checkout my recipes; here is one that I got someone to eat fish and loved it (who has refused to eat fish in the past)!!

Baked Lemon Breaded Tilapia

with Brown Rice and Broccoli

Ingredients:

1/8 cup Bread Crumps

Flaxseed(Optional)

2 Tilapia Filets

Lemon Pepper, Italian Seasoning, Parsley, Garlic, Onion Powder

Broccoli Florets

Minute Bag Brown Rice

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Fill pot with hot water and set on high heat to boil. Pour the bread crumbs on a plate and mix the flax seed and seasonings to your liking and mix thoroughly. Dip the Tilapia in the bread crumbs until it is covered on both sides. Cut up Broccoli and place in boiling water. Place the breaded tilapia filets on a non-stick pan and bake for 15minutes. Microwave or boil Minute Brown Rice.

So I ran out of brown rice and had to use white rice :/

And of course when I say I got someone to eat fish, of course he had to ruin it with ketchup and cheese!! yuck:( But to each his own!!

5 easy ways to cut useless calories

 

 

1. Stop the sodas! If you are stuck on the sugary goodness wean off with diet soda and eventually cut it out together. I'm sure you've heard it over an over but soda's diet or not are useless for your body, and leave you feeling even more hungry because of the sugars! Besides the 8oz or more of water you should drink, try drinking skim or 1% milk, 50 Cal Tropicana, or teas. These drinks have vitamins and minerals that are good for your body and help subside your hunger. Bonus: Have a tea after a large meal, it will help along your digestion and just start your metabolism.

2. Replace those whites with wheat's! Another group of empty calories or those white breads, replace them with wheat!  Not only loafs of bread but anything made with bleached flour, pizza dough, pasta and rice. I know there's nothing like good o'le pizza or pasta but try them with wheat, or they now make 'smart taste' which has less carbs and more vitamins and you can't really taste the difference!

3. Lean out your meats! Do you love your beef and steaks? You can still eat them, but find leaner options! You might spend a little more, but chose leaner steaks such as filet mignon, and look for those extra lean beefs and pork tenderloins.

4. Watch your additives! Are you eating salads everyday for dinner and not seeing the weight melt off? Well it could be your dressing! Dressing has a whole lot more calories than people realize, not to mention the fat content!

5. Limit those Drinks! Many alcoholic drinks pack on the calories, carbs and surgars and do nothing good for your body, they leave you dehydrated and thins your blood slowing your metabolism. Try to chose lower caloried drinks such as light beer or the new skinny girl drinks which have under 150calories!

Bonus: When grocery shopping before you put anything in your shopping cart be sure to check the nutrition facts, you'd be surprised on some of the things you belived to be healthy are in fact loaded with high carbs and sugars.

 

To all the woman out there.... we can do it!!!

To all the women out there...protect yourself!! I had a situation tonight that really made me think of how important it is for women to be able to protect themselves with strength and agility. I did a little shopping....well okay a lot.. but that's beside the point. By the time I was finished it was night time and the store was practically kicking me out. I got the "Okay lady you've done enough damage for one day so leave NOW" look  from the associates.

But as I was walking out a man was walking in wearing a hoodie. I didn't get a good look, but as I passed him I had this awful erie feeling and pure chills ran through my body. Call it paranoia or call it woman's intuition, but I just knew I needed to be very cautious walking to my car. So I did what my momma taught me, I  put my keys in between my fingers, walked fast to my car, and kept looking back to make sure no one was following me. Unlocked my car right away, jumped in and locked the door as fast as I could! Phew I was safe, maybe it was just paranoia, but better safe then sorry!

So I start my car, turn on my lights and BOOM! The man was standing right in front of my car and looked at me dead in the eyes. I just about peed myself and sped off. Could be coincidence, or he could have been eying my purse who knows! Either way it made me so proud of myself that I know I am making the right choices to gain strength and agility to protect myself! Whether or not you have a significant other or live at home by yourself, every woman should have the strength to fight back, God forbid something were to happen! If you don't have the confidence to do so now....make that choice today!
 

Checkout these stories of women who fought off attackers and survived!! They are my hero's and I pray every woman has the ability to do the same if the time comes, because WE CAN DO IT!! This is not to scare anyone, but this is the reality we live in today....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/falls-church-woman-fights-off-attacker-in-her-apartment/2012/09/10/fc0eba7e-fb73-11e1-b2af-1f7d12fe907a_blog.html

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Woman-fought-off-attacker-by-kicking-him-in-groin-161633595.html

This woman was 71 <---that's not a typo and fought her attacker to survive.
http://www.lohud.com/article/20120831/NEWS02/308310069/Rye-woman-71-who-fought-off-attacker-sure-finished-

http://www.times-georgian.com/view/full_story/17494558/article-Girl-who-fought-off-attacker-hailed-as-hero-at-school?instance=TG_home_story_offset

The Buddy Sytem Works!!

The Buddy System

Starting to get bored with your workout routine? Grab a friend and workout together! It doesn’t matter what you do, whether it’s just walking or creating an exercise together at the gym or doing an aerobics class, bringing a friend along will motivate the two of you and make it more fun! You can giggle at the meat-heads that “lift things up and put them down” , but most importantly it will liven up your workout! You don’t have to be an athlete or super fit to show you can go that extra mile or push out that extra lunge! And you’ll have a friend by your side to motivate you to do so!

I had the chance to do just that last night when I met a friend at the gym for Spin Class and I wanted to show her some Crossfit exercises I learned. I was so proud because I’ve never seen her work so hard and it brought out a competitive, fun and motivating spirit to our workout. I mean when my friend announces “Oh no I have to fart” mid squat to the whole gym, it doesn’t get better than that! Of course I took a few steps back and had to laugh before continuing, but it’s just the little things that makes the time go by so much faster and before we knew it, we had been at the gym almost two hours!

A study by the University of Oxford in England found that exercising with friends produces more pleasure than working out alone and consequently more endorphins. More endorphins enable you to work out longer and harder!

http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2011/01/why-you-should-work-out-with-a-friend.html

Now keep in mind, you need to find a friend with similar goals as yours and someone that is positive. We all have THAT friend, the one that cancels all the time, the one that complains all the time and is negative about every little thing! Yeah we don’t want THAT friend to be our workout buddy, he/she can sit at home and melt in their own pot of self pity! We need the lets go out and conquer the world friends to workout with, so try grabbing a buddy tomorrow and have a Friday Friend Fitness workout! (Cheesy I know, just go with it!)

Healthy and HAPPY

When starting to eat healthy and change your eating habits, it’s a whole lot harder than it seems! And you find yourself spinning in circles trying to figure out what you should eat and shouldn’t eat when every book or guru seems to conflict with the other! Well why not continue to eat the things you do but in a healthier manner? I don’t believe I can cut out too much of the very foods I love, therefore I’ve already failed! Just the thought makes me dread the change! I want to be HAPPY and Healthy, not miserable and Healthy! Besides, we all have that inner child that will constantly want the very thing we’re told not to have!! However, I do believe I can tweak the things I already do eat to have less fat, higher protein/fiber etc. I’ve never been into fast food so that’s easy to kick, but I’ve always loved pizza and Italian food! And we all know Pizza and Pasta is loaded with the empty calories- bad carbs, little to no protein or fiber! I’m going to continually create and make different recipes around the foods I love, that are easy and quick and you don’t have to go to a special store to buy weird ingredients! My first meal, I was in the mood for some Spanish spice! I call it:

Fiesta Chicken Sausage  and Rice

Ingredients:

Chicken Broth (Low Sodium/Low Fat)

Pre-marinated Garlic and Herb Chicken Sausage Sliced

½ can of Diced tomatoes with Jalapeños

2 Cups of Minute Brown Rice

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

½ Green Pepper Chopped

1 Tablespoon Minced Onion

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Seasonings-

Light Adobo

Light Sason

Paprika

Chilli Powder

Pepper

Parsley

Microwave the Minute rice for 10minutes. While that is heating pour the olive oil in a deep pan followed by the Garlic, Onions, Green Peppers and Diced Tomatoes. Simmer for a few minutes on low-med heat. Pour 1/2cup of Chicken Broth and Sliced Chicken Sausage, stir and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the brown rice and seasonings and simmer on low-med heat for 5 minutes. Ta-Dom! Fiesta Chicken Sausage and Rice in under 15minutes!

Options- You can use regular chicken to cut down the fat content.

You can add some reduced fat cheese chunks to add some more flavor or any other veggies to your liking!

Servings: 4

Estimated Contents per serving:

Calories: 320

Fat: 7 Grams

Protein: 15 grams

Fiber: 7 grams

You dreadfully walk in with all eyes on you like you're the new person every time....It feels like a sauna it's so hot and Oh that God awful smell!!! Where blood, sweat and tears are made and if you look closely some instructors have a slight red tint to there eyes!! Is it hell??? Oh no it's worse! THE GYM!! I don't know how those twig like, stay-at-home moms spend hours in this place and even fake enjoying it! I like to get in and get out, not see everyone and their mother and have them come and chat with me while I'm mid squat! If my pouring sweat and 'natural' gym smell with a face as if I'm about to give birth doesn't deter you from wanting to start a conversation I don't know what will?! Maybe I should try making a " F off I'm here to actually work out" t-shirt! I wonder how many people are in my same boat....or am I just a bitter person trying to workout my frustrations, who knows! During my cherished workout days, I've had quite a few 'OOPS' moments....I'll just share one for now:

 I was on the elliptical probably for 30 minutes and trying to pretend that my feet aren't going numb (why does that happen by the way??) and of course my ipod dies so I have to resort to watching tv which is never really motivating when every 5 seconds there is a commercial about food and desserts which makes me want to go pick up a cheesecake instead of continue running but nevertheless I hold in my urges and keep going. I hear someone to the left of me on her elliptical cracking up hysterically, I mean she starts crying something is so funny. So my NOSY self has to see what's so funny so naturally I lean over to see what she's watching but don't stop to think I am still moving on the elliptical(Anyone who's been on an elliptical knows how they work, you are pumping your arms and legs at the same time) and BOOM I swear in slow motion I whack myself in the face with the arm part of the machine as hard as I could and saw stars!! I stumble off the machine, and luckily I hear two guys behind me at the same time go "Ooooooo" and I turn around and we all start laughing, hey at least I didn't lose a tooth!!
Anyone else have any funny gym stories??

It doesn't taste as good as Skinny Feels!!

The Balance of Health and Fitness.
Ohhh the 'D' word is completely removed from my vocabulary. It carries this miserable, 'lack of life' notation to me and I refuse to say it! However something has gotta give! You can't lose weight without somewhat changing what you eat right? And eating out and drinking a few days a week isn't helping melt off the pounds! I wasn't lucky enough to be born tall and skinny and be able to eat what I want....I just look at a piece of cake and gain 5 pounds!!
 SO a plan of action needs to be put in place! Yeah that's what I'll call it- "The Plan of Action to Healthy Living". Okay now what.....There are a million different books and guru's for healthy eating from Atkins to juicing to Paleo! For some reason a lack of anything just doesn't sit well with me. I can't eliminate carbs all together, I love my bread and pasta! I don't get full on liquids I feel empty afterwards and usually starving an hour after. And I'm sorry but we're not in the 'cavemen' times anymore. I think I just decided to create my own 'plan'. I'm thinking lean meats and more wheats! Lower calorie alcohols and more control over my sweet tooth...I can create my own recipes, plan out the week so I don't reach for those frozen dinners or order take out for times sake. First Step: Look up Low Fat Dinner Recipes!!
I believe this is the first one I'll try:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/marinated-chicken-breasts-recipe/index.html
Just without the mustard...can't do it

The balance of Life. Everyone wants it all, money, love, success, friends, health, spirituality etc. But how do you get one without giving up another? Or is it really possible to have it all? As a Woman we try to be the best at everything- the best cook, be physically fit, dress fashionable, have a good career, be the best mom...it never ends! We live on lists and Calendars and give so much of ourselves without expecting much in return. This is my journey to having it all....and I'm just getting started.