Jillian 30 day shred: Day 2, 3, 4, and 5

Whew.
This workout program is exhausting. Paul and I are sore everyday. But we are pushing through. If I can do all 30 days, I will reward myself by not exercising OR feeling bad about myself for 30 days. It's only fair. And I better see results! As I have been telling everyone, if I don't see results from this killer 30 day program (that promises results), I will eat cheesecake every day for 30 days because I deserve it! So there body!
I am sure this is not the right attitude, but I really really hate exercising. I like leisurely walks on nature trails with Paul and our dog. I like shovelling snow. I like gardening. These are nice exercising things for me to do. I dislike jumping, lifting weights, doing crunches, jogging, etc. These are boring and just brutal punishments. Blegh.

Anyway, we've been doing okay about eating right again. Kinda. Here's our last week:

On Friday, we did day 2 of the program. Then we went on a double date (a nice social event) at Red Lobster for their 'all you can eat shrimp'. Yes, that was bad of us, but so delicious. :)

Saturday, Day 3:
We exercised the program with 2 breaks. I almost puked from overheating afterward.
We made homemade pizza with goat cheese, red onion, spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Yum.

Sunday, Day 4:
We exercised the program with 2 breaks. I almost puked from overheating again (I mention this so that someday, maybe I can read this and be proud that I can do the program without this problem). We also worked outside on the weeding/gardening/transplanting of flowers. I could barely do anything because I was so sore from exercising. Blegh. But I still enjoyed the outcome of having a pretty yard again. I made French onion soup for dinner. Yum.

Monday, Day 5:
We exercised the program with only 1 break! Woo hoo! I am proud of us. I did NOT overheat that bad this time! Woo hoo! We ate leftover French onion soup...still amazing.

Tuesday (Today):
Paul is off on a overnight camping trip with his students. So I am eating with our buddy Rick and not working out. That's okay, though. It's good to take a day off to recover, since I can't even walk up stairs properly right now. We should be starting day 6 of the program on Wednesday, though! I will keep you posted!

Jillian 30 day shred: Day 1

Wow, it's been awhile. And during that long period where I have ignored this blog, I also ignored my health.
I do this all the time. I get all excited about being healthy and exercising, I don't see immediate results, I get discouraged, and then I think, well, if my body refuses to trim down, then screw this, I will enjoy my life and have fun! Because at the end of the day, I hate exercising. It's boring and I hate sweating. And I often hate eating healthy. I hate forcing myself to limit how much I eat. Because I love food.

Anyway, it's usually easier for me to eat healthy during the summer when veggies are cheap, I can get groceries more often, and I can actually sit around and make nice dinners. This doesn't happen so much now that Paul and I are busy working. We get home at 4pm and are busy doing chores, socializing, etc. so that dinners have mainly been frozen pizzas. I try to occasionally make something healthy, like today, we are having french onion soup and homemade bread. And tomorrow and Saturday we will eat leftovers of this meal. But for the most part, working means I don't feel like thinking about food. And neither does my kitchen helper Paul. :)

We decided to try to workout again. This time, hopefully with dramatic results. We have started the Jillian 30 day shred that is so popular right now. I don't like to do 'fads', but hey, if there is a program that pretty much promises results in 30 days, I will try that out! Maybe that will inspire me to keep working on staying healthy and trim.

Paul and I did day 1 yesterday. He is more sore than me, probably because his weights are heavier. And because he is doing T-180i or some kind of super guy workout on the nights that I work late. But I just finished my last night class for 5 weeks, so we should be able to workout every day for 30 days. We will see how it goes with today's workout!

Work work work

I have been too busy to keep proper lists of my eating and exercising habits. Since I last wrote, Paul and I have been devoting all of our time to completely re-doing our bathroom. So I have certainly gotten lots of exercise! I haven't always been eating well, since I have often been too exhausted to make dinner and we just order food or grab something at taco bell. Yikes.
We are getting closer to the end of our project. When that happens, I will try to keep better track of my health. Poor Athena (our dog)! She is used to going on walks almost every day, but for the last week she hasn't had a single walk due to our exhaustion! We need to get back on track for her sake as well as our own sanity. I would like a clean home again, after all!

*Whew* Back from camping!

I haven't been posting anything because I have been off camping and visiting my people in Michigan. Thus, I will just generalize a recap of the last few weeks:

While camping (approx. July 27-August 8), I ate mainly good food: veggies, crackers, few snacks, and approx. 4 liters of water a day(!!!). However, since it WAS camping, I did have some "bad" food as well: red meat (hamburgers one day, brats another, steak another, steak nachos another), smores (four total), and three times to the ice cream store. Yikes. I couldn't help the meat part, since I didn't want to insult my mother-in-law's food ideas too many times in a row. And you know what? I am okay with the four smores and three ice cream cones. You know why? Those are the only smores I had this entire year and I haven't had ice cream since May. And it's camping! Psh, this isn't making my conscience calm down. :)

Anyway, for exercise: Volleyball everyday! Lots of rounds of it, too. I also went swimming everyday and sailing six times as well as countless walks (at the very least, the long hike from the beach to the camping site everyday). So I still feel pretty good. I also went jogging on the beach once, which was exhausting, but it made me feel healthier.

Since we got home on August 10, this is my schedule:

August 11, Wednesday
I woke up late since we got home around 2am. Since we had no groceries, I skipped breakfast and went right to lunch.
Lunch:
Bagel and cream cheese
Water

Dinner:
Fish (cooked in a skillet pan with olive oil and lemon juice) with some tartar sauce
Stir fry veggies
Water

Misc:
No exercise, really, but I DID clean the house and drink a few more water bottles.

Thursday, August 12

Breakfast:
Coffee
Dry Cereal

Lunch:
English muffins (three slices) with mayo, spices, basil, moz. cheese, tomato
Limeade

Dinner:
Penne with Chicken and Gorgonzola sauce
Garlic Bread
Limeade

Exercise:
Worked on weeding my garden: only did 1/4 of it b/c it was so hot and so much hard work!

August 13, Friday

Breakfast:
Dry Cereal
Coffee

Lunch:
Same ole english muffins (three slices: yikes, gotta get down to two again)
V8 fruit juice

Dinner:
Leftover pasta
Garlic bread
Water (three bottles!)

Misc:
Went to a farewell party, had two smirnoff ice alcholic drinks. Had more water. No exercise today due to headache. Boo!

August 14, Saturday

Breakfast
Dry Cereal
Coffee

Lunch:
English muffins (three slices)
Water (two bottles)

Dinner:
Penne leftovers
Garlic bread
Water (three bottles!)

Misc:
Walked the mall for exercise. More water bottles. Also, had a free smoothie at the mall today. It was a fruit one, so maybe not as bad for me?

Day 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Oh man, I got way behind on this blog. The reason: Milwaukee got hit by a huge storm on Thursday/Friday and there was flood damage EVERYWHERE. Paul and I worked frantically on our flooded basement during the storm, and we were so worried that our house was crappy. However, the next day, news of the flooding reached us and we can count our blessings! At least our basement didn't float away! At least 20 Milwaukee homes completely lost their basement foundations! It looks incredible and unbelievable. Hundreds of homes had completely flooded basements and first floors! We only had ankle height water in our basement! Thank God for taking care of us! Paul and I managed to direct the water to the drain and we have mostly dried up everything. We went for a walk the next day and almost everyone had everything from their basement ruined and waiting on the curb for a garbage truck. Anyway, this disaster got a bit in the way of my recording of my workouts as well as my workout schedule. It happens, you know? :)

Day 13 (Wednesday)

Breakfast
Coffee
Water
Dry Cereal

Lunch
Pb & J sandwich
Chex mix
Water

Dinner
Foccacia bread with feta and veggies again
Water

Misc:
Two more water bottles

Exercise:
Four hour canoe trip with our friends Lindsay and Joelle

Day 14 (Thursday)

Breakfast:
Coffee
Cereal

Lunch:
English muffin same ole
Water
Limeade

Dinner:
Bruschetta on italian bread
Water
Milk

Exercise:
8 minute abs workout video

Day 15 (Friday)

Breakfast:
Coffee
Water
Dry Cereal

Lunch:
English muffin same ole
water

Dinner:
Bruschetta
Water

Exercise:
Cleanup in our basement
Walk with Paul and Athena for 3/4 mile (too humid)

Day 16 (Saturday)

Breakfast:
Poptarts
Coffee
Water

Lunch:
English Muffin same ole
Water

Dinner:
Bruschetta
Water

Misc:
Homemade Queso and chips and rum and coke with Rick and Paul while playing games

Exercise:
NONE (Too tired from basement drama...lame excuse, I know)

Day 17 (Sunday)

Breakfast:
Coffee
Water
No food b/c I woke up at 11am and just waited an hour for lunch

Lunch:
Bruschetta
Water

Dinner:
Pizza
Coke
Water

Misc:
Three more water bottles

Exercise:
1.5 mile walk with Paul and Athena

Day Ten and Eleven and Twelve

Still busy as ever, but I am proud of my work on staying healthy!

Day Ten (Sunday)

Breakfast:
coffee
water bottle
dry cereal...blegh

Lunch:
Guacamole with tortilla chips
Water (five cups at a restaurant with awful food that I didnt eat and one water bottle with guaco at home!!!)

Dinner:
Guacamole with tortilla chips
Some pizza rolls
Limeade

Misc:
We hung out with friends at night and I had some wine and a few sweets (a few m&ms, a brownie bite, five pieces of dried fruit)
Two more water bottles before bed

Exercise:
Eight Minute Abs workout with Paul

Day Eleven (Monday)

Breakfast:
Coffee
Dry cereal...this is getting really old

Lunch:
English muffin same thang
Water
Milk

Dinner:
My workshop got in the way of a normal dinner. They provided a meal, but I am trying to stay away from meat right now and the dinner was lasagna that was not very good tasting.
Thus, I had a few bites of lasagna and a stale breadstick and half a tomato at 5:30pm, and half a bowl of mac n cheese at 10:30pm
I also had four water bottles from 5pm-11pm!!!

Misc:
One peanute butter cup (homemade)

Exercise:
Walked a mile with Paul and Athena

Day Twelve (Tuesday)

Breakfast:
Coffee
Dry Cereal

Lunch:
English Muffin stuff
A few bites of leftover mac n cheese
Limeade
Water bottle

Dinner:
Yummy!!! Foccacia bread grilled with feta and garlic/mayo dressing, topped with grilled yellow squash, zucchini, red onion, mushrooms, and green peppers.
Limeade
Water

Misc:
One homemade peanut butter cup
Three more water bottles...or more, I lost count.

Exercise:
Paul and I did a fast pace two mile walk

Day Eight and Nine

Oh, how I love the weekends. :)

Day Eight (Friday)
Breakfast:
Half cup of coffee
dry cereal

Lunch:
English Muffin with same ole stuff
water
homemade peanut butter cup
milk (lactose free 2%)

Dinner:
Guacamole and queso leftovers with chips
water
milk

Exercise:
Walked approx. one mile at the dog park with Athena and Rick and his two dogs

Day Nine (Saturday)

Breakfast:
dry cereal
coffee
water

Lunch:
English muffin same ole style
water
raspberry lemonade

Dinner:
One five layer burrito from taco bell
water
limeade

Misc:
Pistachios around 10pm with two water bottles

Exercise:
8 minute abs video

Day Six and Seven

A mixture of being busy and still not feeling so hot has gotten me behind on my blog...again!

Day Six (Wednesday)
Paul left me for a three day school camping trip. I hate being alone and it made me sad and mopey.

Breakfast:
Coffee
Dry Cereal...but not much (Had to leave to drop off Paul)

Lunch:
Water
English muffin with tomato, basil, moz. cheese

Dinner:
15 Pizza Rolls with ranch
Water

Misc:
Three more Water bottles
A bowl of fruit as a snack (shard with Rick): one nectarine, some strawberries, some raspberries

Exercise:
Walked through mall and grocery store

Day Seven (Thursday):
I had people over today to keep me from getting too depressed in a house all alone. Also, a scary storm the night before left our basement full of water.

Breakfast:
Coffee
Dry Cereal
Water Bottle

Lunch:
English muffin with tomato, basil, and moz. cheese
Water and Raspberry lemonade

Dinner:
People over for dinner. I made: homemade guacamole, homemade queso, also had salsa for tortilla chips. Also: cheese brought by Emily and I had a few pizza rolls that Abby brought.
Had southern comfort tea mixed with lemonade. And a Water Bottle.

Dessert:
I made homemade peanut butter cups and I only had one! I am very proud of myself :)

Misc:
Two more water bottles

Exercise:
I was busy cleaning the house all day and did not have time. Though I cleaned the basement and house vigorously, so maybe that counts as exercise? I did sweat alot... :)

Day Four and Five

I am a bit behind, but that is because I was sick yesterday.

Monday (Day Four):
I had my first certification class for the University of Phoenix, so I was a bundle of nerves. This altered my plans for the day.

Breakfast:
Dry cereal (Special K): I hate cereal, but it's healthier than Poptarts, so I force myself to eat it on occasion! I eat it dry b/c I hate cereal in milk more than anything. Blegh!
Coffee
Water Bottle

Lunch:
Bagel with veggie cream cheese
Limeade
Water Bottle

Dinner:
One fajita (too nervous to eat much)
Two Water Bottles

Misc:
At 10pm, I got home from class and ate one piece of pizza. I don't like eating that late, but I was pretty hungry!
I did no exercise due to nerves...boo!


Tuesday (Day Five)
I was sick, but I forced myself to exercise due to guilt over Monday.

Breakfast:
Dry Cereal
Coffee

Lunch:
1 English Muffin with mayo, tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozarella cheese (in oven)
Limeade
Water Bottle

Dinner:
I made a veggie meal, which was so healthy and delicious that we ate it all! Recipe: Four potatoes cut up, One zucchini, 8oz grape tomatoes, 8oz mushrooms, half an onion. Put in large pan, drizzle with olive oil and spices. Put in oven at 400 degrees for approx. one hour. I also put some parmesan on it and a bit of balsamic vinegar.
Limeade
2 Water Bottles

Misc:
2 more water bottles: This is no exaggeration. I adore water.

Exercise:
Walked with Paul and Athena for approx. one mile

Day Three

Yesterday, after church, Paul and I joined our friends Emily and Joelle on an outing to IKEA near Chicago.

Breakfast:
Poptarts
Coffee
Water

Lunch:
Panini with mozarella, basil, red pepper
Lindenberry Juice

Treat at 4pm:
Cinnamon Roll
Iced Coffee

Dinner at 8pm:
1 tortilla wrap (meatless again, see day two for ingredients)
2 water bottles
raspberries

Misc:
One more water bottle before bed

Exercise:
Walked a three story IKEA for approx. four hours. Very exhausting but fun! :)

Day Two

Yesterday, I woke up late at 11:30am. This is because I couldn't put my book down the night before until it was done, which was at approx 3am. Anyway, this changed my normal morning schedule.

Brunch:
Coffee
Bagel with veggie cream cheese
Water bottle

Dinner:
Meatless Tacos: 3 tortilla wraps with homemade guacamole (avocado, tomato, garlic, onion), shredded cheddar cheese, mix of cilantro, jalapino, spinach, and green onion, and black beans.
Pop

Dessert:
Water bottle
One Jolly Rancher

Misc:
Four more water bottles

Exercise:
Walked the grocery store (it was raining)
10 minute intense leg workout video

Day One

Today is the first day back from a long vacation. So my excuse for our eating and exercise habits is that we have no groceries and no energy. :)

Breakfast:
Poptarts
Coffee

Lunch:
Bagel with veggie cream cheese
water bottle (x2)

Dinner:
Four slices of frozen pizza
water bottle with pkg of rasp lemonade crystal light

Exercise:
Walk a mile-ish with husband and dog

Misc:
Drank two more water bottles between dinner and bed...so far

My Goal

I am hoping that this blog will do two things:
(1): Let me remember and record how I am trying to get and stay fit
(2): Let me analyze how I am trying to stay fit to see if I am succeeding

It will not be interesting to read for other people. This blog is really only for myself. It is the easiest way I could think of for keeping track of my activities. This way, even if I am off on one of my vacation adventures, I can log in to any computer and blog away about my activities.

I am hoping that by recording my workout activities, I can force myself to continue working out. Currently, my habits concerning working out/getting fit go like this: I work hard for two or three weeks. I get no results. I am lazy by nature and dislike most health foods, so I get annoyed and give up. My husband tells me that if I just forced myself to continue working towards my goal for a few months, I would see results. But it just annoys me that I have a slower metabolism than others and the thought of eating boring health food and sweating (yuck) for the rest of my life seems horrible. It doesn't seem fair that alot of my friends are super skinny and have terrible life habits. They go to bars, eat at restaurants all the time, watch alot of tv, drink alot of pop, have alot of junk food, etc. I, on the other hand, LOVE drinking water, drink alcohol and pop no more than once a week, and try to walk alot. It's not that I gain alot of weight. I just don't seem to shrink. I have been the same size since college and I just want to shrink one pants size. Is that so much to ask for?!? Apparently it is impossible for me to get toned.

So here I am trying one last thing before I give up and secretly start using those unhealthy diet pills. :) I will post almost everyday. I will write down everything I eat all day long and all the activities I do. Hopefully, it keeps me going.