Ouch my Back

Worked my first NRL4W yesterday. Only did what was in the training log and didn’t add anything on – other than some crunches. I want to read up on what everyone else is doing before I start modifying it in anyway. I have to admit, I’ve missed lifting those weights. I have just about everything I need in my basement except a bench. I’m not sure if I will end up getting one or not as my space is limited with everything else I have down there. Then I just walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes with not a whole lot of effort for parts of it. I did some intervals but then just walked at a good pace.

Friday morning I went to 90 minute deep tissue massage then attended my 90 minute Bikram Hot Yoga session at 4:00. I was worried that it would be too much for my body in one day but I did better in the yoga than I thought I would.  I don’t think I got into any of the positions any deeper because of the massage so I am not sure it was worth doing both on the same day. However the good news is that my massage terrorist could definitely feel a difference in my hips/lower back. She did say that I had a tight left ham, and a tight right quad – I asked her if that was why I kept walking around in circles :)

And since I hadn’t had a deep massage since last October, yesterday when I woke up, I felt pretty bruised in my neck, shoulders, back and hips. Doing squats with a barbell across your shoulders is a painful experience. The skin is tender to touch. But I am drinking lots of water to flush it all through. And then last night I had R just rub my back without any pressure just to get the blood flowing through so I think that helped as I’m only feeling a bit tender in my back today compared to yesterday. Ouch!

Today I’m going to do some intervals on the treadmill, core work and lots of stretching.  I’ve still got lots of the NRL4W book to read through and figure out what I’m really supposed to be doing in that program. Then we are going to go to an afternoon movie, I want to check out GoodLifeFitness, and then hit Costco. It’s going to be an expensive day – we can’t just go into that store and come out with just what we went in for. :)

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day.

xxoo

Sandra

p.s., TMI - the elusive M showed up today so that totally explains the weight disappointment that showed yesterday. It just means that next month is going to show a huge drop :)

January in Review

This is the weekend that I take my measurements and re-do some pictures. I didn’t expect great results because other than the Yoga, I have not done very much cardio or strength training. However, I have accomplished the following:

• I have reduced my alcohol consumption by quite a bit
• This is key for me as I really feel it is affecting my metabolism and my rate of weight loss. I know quite a few of you are asking yourself why I don’t just stop drinking it completely. And you have a valid question. I guess I look at my weight loss journey more of a lifestyle change rather than a “diet” and something I am going to have to live with for the rest of my life. Do I see myself never drinking alcohol ever again for the rest of my life? No, I don’t think so, so I need to find a happy balance and still have it in my life but certainly in a reduced state. I’ve mentioned in the past posts that I used to live on an acreage – well alcohol was a HUGE part of my life back then, I wasn’t an alcoholic but I was darn close to it. My ex had an issue and I got caught up in it. Now it is only social and once a week – I think I can live with that.
• I have not eaten after 7:00 p.m. all month. This was an issue for me in previous months. I have gotten out of the “habit” of late night munching. I love potato chips or anything crunchy and I was getting into a habit of eating chips of some sort before I went to sleep. How dumb is that? Well I don’t do it anymore.
• I have kept my calories between 1300-1700 almost consistently for the entire month except on the “cheat” days. And the cheat days I have to change to more cheat couple of hours or a meal or something and not the entire day. My problem on weekends is that I usually don’t eat enough but on Saturday, is when I will have my beer and those calories usually stack right up – but the food needs to increase to balance it.
• I am sleeping much better because of the Hot Yoga sessions. This is so key. I used to have severe sleep apnea – I had to wear a mask to help me breath at night. As soon as I started to lose weight, I started breathing normally at night and I no longer need the machine. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve used it. But along with that, I have an issue with my hips and since I am a side sleeper, having sore hips, prevented me from having a good sleep. Now with Yoga, I seem to be loosening things up and I’m not in so much pain. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to restart my walk/job sessions and the pain flared up again so I’m going to just walk from now on.
• In addition to above, my hip has gained some flexibility – I can feel it when I move – It has been “cracking” lately which it hadn’t been doing before. I think this means that the surrounding muscles that have kept my mobility limited are finally starting to relax and release. Now I have to make sure that I start strengthening those supporting muscles.
• I am down only 2 lbs in 31 days (boo)
• But I also think this is not 100% accurate. I was at 181 last Saturday and today I weighed in at 184 – that totally sucks as I had a good week but I am also suffering from other things that are affecting the number. Let’s just say I’m in the need of some fibre and I think the PMS with the missing M has me a bit bloated these days. TMI I know… 
• I have lost ~3 inches mostly in my stomach and waist area – even with a bloat. I’m good with that.
• I am down .75% BF – not much but a start.
• AND I am very HEALTHY

I am disappointed in my end weight results but I am also Ok with it. I know I could have worked out much more than I did to see better results.  How have you guys/gals done?

Ttyl,

Sandra

Perfect 10 Wk4 Results

Perfect 10 Week 4 Results:

Log my Food

This is no longer a challenge for me. I think I should add a caveat to this – Ensure my Calories are in the 1500-1700 range.

Lose 10 lbs

Since this is the end of the month, I am going to weigh in and measure tomorrow. I will post the results then.

Exercise min 5x week

Well I certainly got the Yoga hours in at 6 hrs, and Cardio/ST on at 60 minutes. I did not do anything Tuesday/Thursday and really need to increase this. I’ve got it all planned out for starting on Saturday with the NROL4W so I’ll be on a schedule. I work best with a plan.

Schedule 1 (ONE) Cheat day

I did really good last week. Had my Cheat day on Saturday and still kept my calories pretty low. They came in at around 2200 which was mostly empty calories from Beer. Worried about this weekend as we are kid free and we usually go out big time.

Complete 1 "Modified" 7-day Total Cleanse

Stay tuned in February. Planning for a week then to partake in this cleanse.

For the something you don’t know about me (these are getting harder every week because I keep yak’n my stuff in other folks comments J):

I am absolutely terrified of spiders – yup, this country girl is an arachnophobia baby. When I was very young, we lived in a small town where you pretty much could what you wanted anywhere in town because absolutely everybody knew you and so if you got into trouble, there was always someone around to rescue you (or tell on ya). In one of our homes, instead of a garage, we had what  looked like an old barn with a loft. Well I was up in the loft with two mean boys, I call them mean now because of what they did, but at the time I THOUGHT they were my friends. Well they cornered me in the loft with the biggest, ugliest, creepiest spider I had ever seen. It had a large white body and scared the crap out of me. I screamed and screamed and screamed while they laughed their mean little heads off. I remember it like it happened yesterday.  I feel absolutely nauseous whenever I am near a spider – at 48!! Can you believe it? Ron has to rescue them all the time because I can’t even kill them – oh so creepy – see even writing about it bugs me.

Matcha

Ever heard of Matcha tea? It is a very healthy, very good for you, Japanese tea. I picked some up way back in October of last year and I have a cup of it every once in awhile in the morning. I got out of the habit over Christmas and then remembered I had it last week and started up again. It is a lovely green color (not) and the following are its benefits: 

The health benefits of matcha tea exceed those of green tea because when you drink matcha you ingest the whole leaf, not just the brewed water.  One glass of matcha is the equivalent of 10 glasses of green tea in terms of its nutritional value and antioxidant content.  For maximum nutritional benefit, matcha tea is unparalleled.

Matcha Tea – A Nutritious Beverage

·         Rich in Antioxidants and Chlorophyll

·         Contains Catechins Only Found in Green Tea

·         Naturally Mood Enhancing

·         Zero on the Glycemic Index - will not raise insulin levels

·         Sugar-free, High in Fiber 

More detail can be found here

I had a hard time stirring it at first until I bought a little whisk, now I can get it so it looks right and is easier to drink.

Well that’s it for today, I hope everyone had a fantastic week in their Perfect 10 goals. I’m going to go read some blogs J
Ttyl
Sandra

Yum, Low Calories, Yoga, Hip

Yesterday I mentioned that I don’t really have a sweet tooth. Well I think I am wrong and that I have a partial sweet tooth. There is one thing that gets my juices flowing and that is anything with Caramel and Chocolate.  One of my first emails this morning was a newsletter from Betty Crocker and on it was a recipe for Gooey Caramel-Chocolate Bars – they look so freakin good. Good thing for me though is that I would be satisfied with just one bite and not an entire square so I guess that’s where my non-sweet tooth comes in.

I’ve decided that listing my stats everyday is getting old and boring and I talk about my previous day anyway so no need for the extra lines at the top. I ate right on yesterday as I normally do during the day. I don’t have a problem staying on track at work – it’s easy as I can only eat what I bring and I make sure I have lots of apples, yogurt, almonds, HB Eggs on hand if I get the munchies – which I don’t seem to be doing lately. It’s when I get home that my dinner meal might go off track, especially if we go out, but last night my daughter cooked dinner for us. She cooked exactly what I would have cooked for myself. It was very lovely to come home from Yoga and  have dinner already prepared. 

So this morning I added up all my calories from yesterday and I barely made 1200. That explains why I was so tired last night after Yoga. The class just about knocked me out last night and at the time I wasn’t sure why, but this morning looking at my calories, I can see why. The room wasn’t as hot or as crowded as it was on Monday and it was rather nice – at first. I think she upped the heat though because we were soon all sweating up a storm. I’ve had 4 different instructors now and each one of the teaches it differently. It’s nice that way because you hear how to get into a pose a little bit differently from each one and each time you hear something you can improve on. I introduced myself to her before class started and told her that I needed help with one pose and so then she made sure she watched me and corrected anything I might not have been doing 100%. For this class it isn’t about how far you can get into the pose, at least not at first, it’s about doing it 100% correctly, in form, then pushing yourself into the depth. It helps to prevent injury if you make sure you are doing it right in the first place. I am not competing with anyone so it is important that I do it at my own pace and correctly.

I can’t believe how different my lower body feels right now. My hips feel kind of lose, and yet still very tight in some areas. I still can’t bring my right leg up to my thigh without quite a bit of discomfort and difficulty but I can stretch farther in other poses. When I walk, I can feel my lower back moving like it hasn’t before, I hear crunches and groans that haven’t been there in some time. I think it is all a good sign that things are loosening up and this weekend I’m going to start my strength training so between the two, my lower body should get into pretty good shape. Well my entire body for sure, but I really need my hips/lower back stronger. And man am I sleeping good….

I’m sleeping so good I am not getting up at 4:00 to workout in my basement. I’m actually getting 8 hours of sleep and I am used to getting 5-6 hours of sleep. Some days I think I feel more tired because I am getting more sleep.

I picked up the New Rules of Lifting for Women on the weekend and am only half way through chapter 2. Lori-Ann (this lady is amazing) sent me some spreadsheets that will make it easier for me to get the logging of the workouts correctly. Thanks Lori-Ann !!! The spreadsheets are setup pretty nicely and easy to use. I’m hoping to get started on that this weekend. I really feel that between Yoga (strengthen/lengthen) and increased Weight lifting, I’ll be sleek in no time. Well as much as my full body figure eight figure will allow J

I hope everyone has a fantastic week and makes good choices.

Ttyl

Sandra

Day 26, Sugar, Booty, Happy 101

I keep going back to that “Day XX” title just to mix things up every once in awhile.

Tuesday:

• 0 exercise
• Calories ~1400
• No booze

I don’t get why I can’t seem to get up at 4 right now to get exercising. I know a part of my brain thinks that since I’m doing Yoga at 4:00, I don’t need to do anything in the morning but what about those days that I don’t do Yoga? Like yesterday??? I’m sleeping so well right now that  I am having a hard time getting my lazy butt up and out of the bed and downstairs to work off said butt. I love to exercise but right now, I don’t, I’m having issues, no motivation, no get.up.and.go juice. If that makes any sense to anyone, please explain it to me J I want to get downstairs and strength train like there’s no tomorrow. What am I waiting for? Sheesh.

Did anyone read this article yesterday? This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism I subscribe to his newsletters and every once in awhile (well actually quite often) he has a very valid point. This particular article makes perfect sense to me. One of the sweeteners that I do use is Agave Syrup and now I’m thinking I may have to re-think that. I thought it was natural but he states it is processed just like everything else so I’m not getting the true product. I used to drink Pepsi like it was water, and I was addicted to it. In 1999, I stopped it cold turkey and went on the Zone diet, lost some weight, started up the Body-For-Life – lost more weight. And now I drink it on special occasions but no more than one can every two weeks or so. I do not normally have a sweet tooth so I am not attracted to cookies or cakes. I’m more of a salt fiend – chips, popcorn that type of stuff.

I’m down one size of pants today – Yeah! Last year I bought two pairs of pants, identical but two different sizes. I got them at Walmart for $4.00 a piece (can’t pass up that kind of deal) and I figured eventually I would fit into the smaller size – well today is that day. Lately all my pants have been hanging off my butt and I keep referring to myself as “droopy drawers” but I don’t want to spend a lot of money on clothes right now because it seems that everything I buy, it is soon too big and I’m giving it away. So other than shirts, I’ve kept on wearing the baggy pants. All baggy does is give you more room so if you do overeat or bloat up, you just don’t notice it as much – not very attractive otherwise (at least I don’t think so). J My BIL keeps referring to me as his “No-ass” sister. He means it in a loving way but it is so true… I’m just one of those people that is not blessed with a large booty. Hips yes, booty no. Pants hang on me if they get too big in the hips/waist area.

I was awarded the the Happy 101 from hard working, Syl over at Live, Smile, Run. I received the award a couple of weeks ago from Kat and rather than re-do it, I thought I would just point you back to that Happy Happy Happy post.

But I do want to add a couple of things:

11. Music - don't know how I missed this one of the first list. I listen to music all the time and it provides me with a lot of satisfaction.

12. Obtaining a personal best in anything I do - could be work, exercise or even fitting into once size smaller set of clothes

13. Getting new friends and followers on my blog. I think this is a fantastic community and I'm happy to be a part of it.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic day and making good choices.

Sandra

Monday Update & Recipe

Monday:

• 90 Minutes Hot Yoga
• I’m getting quite pleased with my results from the Yoga sessions. This was now my 10^th class and although I am not there to judge at all, which I am not doing, I do notice that ladies that are physically in much better shape than me, and who I have seen in almost all the same classes I have attended, sit out quite often. Now everyone has bad days so it really is an unfair assessment. But this kind of makes me feel good because I make through every pose and have for the last 5 sessions or more. OK it makes me feel really good. But I also find I am getting frustrated a bit lately because I understand more about how to get into the poses but my body prevents me from obtaining it. My legs/stomach/arms are too “fat” in some poses to get into it completely because I physically just can’t do it because the body part is in the way. However, each time I go, it is getting better. I just have to be patient.
• Calories around ~1500 – not the 1700 that I wanted because I forgot to eat my afternoon snack and before I knew it, I had to leave for class.
• No Booze

 So on Saturday I mentioned a recipe that I liked for Zucchini Lasagna.

I found this in the Clean Eating March/April 2009 Magazine and I hope it isn’t against copy-write laws to post it here. If someone knows differently, please let me know.

I add more Mozzarella Cheese than what the recipe calls for so that increases the calorie/fat count by quite a bit. I also make it into 10 servings rather than the 6 it mentions as I find it quite filling. Also the zucchini can make it a bit runny but it still tastes oh so good.

Zucchini Lasagna

Serves 6, hands-on time 10 Minutes, Total Time 50 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 24 oz jar low-fat, low sodium tomato sauce

1 lb extra lean ground chicken or turkey

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1 egg

2 cups low-fat Cottage cheese

1 tsp Whole Wheat Flour

½ c skim mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided

2 ½ cups zucchini (about 2 large) sliced into ¼ -inch thick pieces *

*(I used 3 medium Zucchini as I like to make sure the pan was filled corner to corner).

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a large nonstick frying pan, sauté onion and garlic over medium heat until tender. Add tomato sauce and ground meat**, and bring all ingredients to consistent heat for 10 minutes (until browned). Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove from heat.  ** I added the ground turkey to the onions and garlic to brown, THEN added the tomato sauce.
3. In a small bowl, slightly beat egg, stir in the cottage cheese, flour and ¼ cup of the mozzarella cheese *** I added 2 tbsp of Parmesan cheese here as well – but remember this ups the calorie count.
4. Pour ½ of the meat-tomato sauce mixture into a 1 ½ quart roasting pan. Top with 1 ¼ cups of zucchini slices and cottage cheese mixture. Then cover with remaining meat-tomato sauce mixture and zucchini.
5. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes
6. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and bake for 10 minutes longer
7. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrients per 1 2/3 cup serving: Calories 240, Total Fat: 3.5g, Carbs: 19g, Fiber: 3g, Sugars 10G, Protein 32g, Sodium: 530mb, Cholesterol: 45mg

I hope you all have a fantastic day.

TTyl

Sandra

Keeping Busy..

Sunday:

• 1 hour of Cardio/Strength Training
• Calories ~1400
• No booze J

The weekend was overall pretty successful. Even with Saturday evening out, I still kept my choices pretty fair. I could still do better though.

It was nice to get out and have a chat with Ron about his goals to now start on this program with me – the living the healthy lifestyle. We are not married, for both of us, this is our third serious relationship and although he talks about getting married, I’m not sure if that is what is important to me in our relationship. What is, is being compatible and enjoying our time together. We absolutely love doing things together outside the home (more information on that comment to come). He taught me to golf (I suck still), fly fishing (I’m pretty wicked at fly fishing and can almost outcast a lot of men) and the love of travelling to warm clients (we have a time share in Mazatlan). Before US, I spent most of my life on others – but this past 5 years I’ve been able to get myself back together again. However, Ron is retired, I work full time. Ron does not have very much enthusiasm to get things done and that is because since he retired  he has gotten into the habit of doing nothing. Once you start that, it is hard to get the motivation to get out there and do stuff. He still owns an acreage outside of town which we rent out to a lovely young lady with horses and cows. And since I work downtown, it made more sense for us to live in the city (I really didn’t want to do that winter commute thing anymore and all the work that comes with living on an acreage). But this means he doesn’t have easy access to his shop stuff and if it is cold and miserable out, he doesn’t get out there to do any hobbies.

Getting little Katie was to help him with that, but with winter here, he tends not to get her outside and work her like he should be doing. Anyway what my point is, is that I’m excited that he actually wants to start taking walks with me, eating more healthy, etc. Being active a part of my active lifestyle that I'm trying so hard to incorporate as a daily regime. And if I don’t buy the chips and crap for him, then I don’t have that temptation inside my house. He will want to go out “drinking” less often, and when we go away on our vacations, he  will more easily come on the walks with Katie and I. I am very susceptible and can easily fall prey to his laziness when we are camping or at some tropical location.

On the weekend, I get up at 7 to feed the girl, then I juice my stuff, and start cleaning up, maybe look through some recipe’s, then get my butt downstairs to exercise. Since I used to live on an acreage, I have almost a fully equipped exercise room – actually it just takes over my living space down there. I have an older elliptical – it works fine except the electronics and so I have no idea how fast I am going or the distance, but I don’t care about that really. I have a Treadmill (that we bought for the dog but I use more often than she does), a BowFlex TreadClimber, a Bowflex machine and Bowflex select tech weights (no I’m in no way affiliated with Bowflex – just like their stuff). Along with a Stability ball, tons of bands, etc. not to mention the DVDs J

So I have lots of choices to get my butt in shape down there. Usually I spend an hour to an hour and a half down there doing my stuff. Then when I’m done, I’m upstairs cleaning, cooking, whatever and Ron (who gets up around 11), sits on the couch and watches sports, naps, watches sports. It used to really anger me that he would just do nothing while I did everything in the house but it no longer does. Well I do sometimes get upset but after awhile you really wonder why you spend so much energy being upset about something that isn’t going to change. Now don’t get me wrong, he isn’t like this all the time, just 6/7 days J If I ask him to help, he will but not on his own. Not aware of anything outside of his own TV world. And I guess I HATE to ask for help.

He tells me I need to learn to relax, and some days I agree with him, but for the most part, I enjoy keeping busy. If I was to sit around and do nothing all day, well the house would be a mess, dinner wouldn’t get done, laundry, etc. And I get bored - that's the real key here. I don’t like TV much, nothing of interest on there, I do love to read, but after awhile, that makes you sleepy and in order not to fall asleep, my first thought is that I have to munch on something.

So I just keep busy. All weekend long.

Then Monday comes, and I sit in front of a monitor for 8 hours and when I get up to go somewhere, I can hardly move I’m so stiff and sore. Damn I’m getting old.

I guess this post was just another little bit more information about me.

Hope you are all having a FANTASTIC week!

Sandra

I’m going to YOGA tonight and my friend already told me she won’t be going so I’m outta here early to catch the train and walk. Unfortunately it’s snowing and cold but whatever, I’ll soon warm up.

Weekend Update

Friday:

• 90 minutes of yoga – yeah :)
• Calories at around 1675
• No booze

Saturday:

• 90 Minutes of Yoga – Yup went again.
• Calories – ~2200
• Yes booze

I woke up Saturday morning and decided I was going to do the 10:00 a.m. Yoga class because I slept sooooo good on Friday night and the class just felt so good. And the fantastic thing about yesterday is that I got into one position that I had been unable to completely do and yesterday I did it. It felt very empowering. And the classroom isn’t quite as hot at 10 as it is at 4 so I am so very glad I went. My original plan was to do strength yesterday but I choose Yoga instead. I plan to do the ST today instead.

I also bought a new scale yesterday… I know, I know I’m only to get on it on Fridays. This one measures your BF%, BF Weight, Body Water% and Bone Mass%. I thought it would be cool to track to that detail because as I gain muscle, all those numbers should change on a weekly basis. Seeing those numbers go up or down will make the scale weight matter less…. know what I mean?

I weighed in today on this scale and I’ve recorded these new numbers and then won’t get on it again until next Friday – I promise. Psst…. I’m down 1.1lbs since Friday :)

Thank you to everyone that left comments yesterday about my journey. it isn’t easy finding pictures of me as I avoided the camera like the plague and would do whatever I could to make sure I was behind the lens not in front of it. It is still hard for me to look at pictures of myself but the last year, I did make sure that Ron took the camera and caught me in candid shots so that I could see the progress. You are your own worst criticizer when it comes to looking at yourself in the mirror or on print.  I am in pretty good shape when I look at all the numbers but I have a Lot of fat to get rid of. Somewhere under there are a lot of muscles.

I want to up my strength training and Ron, (gotta love an ex sports athlete with old outdated information in his brain) thinks that I will bulk up because I already have a muscular frame. I’m just going to have to show him that is not the case. He actually came to me yesterday and asked me to start helping him lose weight and get into shape. I’m jumping on that bandwagon because it can only help me along the way. If I can get him working out with me then I finally have a workout partner when we go away on holidays and don’t fall into the lazy trap.

This post is long enough so I will stop here. I’m making Zucchini Lasagne today for my lunches. I will share it if anyone is interested. Low carb, cheesy and oh so good….

I hope you had a fantastic weekend!

ttyl

Sandra

Exposed… but not in the way you think

Since I was going to do the little piece about me at Andra’s website, I thought I should really do it here as well. I have some new readers so what better way to get to know me than me to reveal my life of weightiness.
I’ve been overweight my entire adult life – which pretty much means since I had my children. I did a lot of eating junk and my social time was going to my parents on the weekend and having a few beers. I was single at 24 so had a lot of spare time (after taking care of the kids) to feel sorry for myself and eat my way out of boredom.

In 1999 I decided to try the Body for Life and got down to 174lbs. I was starting to look pretty good, but then my Mom got sick and passed and then my weight just blew up from there. In 2003 I weighed my heaviest at 230lbs and for my short 5’1” frame, that’s pretty big.



I’ve yo-yo’d back and forth ever since, then in September 2008 I had had enough. This picture was taken in Vegas and when I saw it, I knew I had to do something.
Here’s a shot from May 2008 – YUCK (can’t believe I’m sharing these).
I was around 215-220 in these pictures. I do not carry my weight well.





I started eating Clean and walking on my treadmill. Then in November 08, I got below the 200lb mark. I remember being so happy about getting below that mark. I continued on trying to eat as clean as possible but I do have a inclination to drink beer a couple of times a week and that was hindering my weight loss big time. I started working out to the Turbo Jam DVD series then started a learn to run program in April. I did OK but ended up breaking my baby toe in May and couldn’t finish the course. Once I healed enough to start walking again, I took up the C25K outside with a co-worker. I’d get up at 4, leave the house, and meet her downtown to start running by 5:30. I was running up to 10x2 sessions and I was proud of that. Never thought I would ever run. Then holidays happened and I got out of the habit because, other than my dog, I have no one that will exercise with me and I easily fall prey to that laziness (excuses I know).

September I hurt my hip somehow and it inflamed. More info here or here. The initial flare up was pretty painful and although it still hurts, I know how to work it better.

I did not lose very much in 2009 but I am much healthier – you can read about it here. I learned a bunch of stuff about me through digging pretty deep and writing it all out. As hard as it was, it was the best thing for me. AND I have made some friends in blogland and that truly means a lot to me. I don’t have very many friends, which is odd as I’m a fantastic person :) but I just tend to keep close to home with family
.
So for 2010, I seem to have renewed vigour for losing this weight (other than my slip ups this past week).
I discovered Hot Yoga, you can read about it here, and here and here :) and my hip was improving quite a bit so last weekend I thought I would start my learning to jog sessions but my hip became too sore again. I think I just need to wait until I’ve gained enough flexibility and strength in the hip/leg area before trying to jog again.  So between the walking, Hot Yoga, 30 Day Shred and start picking up the weights again, I think I will hit all areas and get it done.

And this is me today. I’m down to 183 and I have a long way to go and I still hate pictures taken of me.There is a difference between 2003 and today but I am a far distance from where I want to be.

I have to learn how to stand so that my arms aren’t sticking out like I don’t know what to do with them… cause I don’t.


So there’s my story, hope I didn’t bore you and if you got this far – thanks for reading.
Sandra

Perfect 10 Wk 3 Update

I didn’t get to go to Yoga last night and talk about disappointed. It really affected me because I was looking forward to it all day. I was to go with my co-worker and she drives and parks her car downtown. So at 3:20 she told me she won’t be able to go and since the class started at 4, there was no way I could have made it on time. I have a 40 minute train ride and a 20 minute walk so I have to leave work pretty early to get there on time. There are two more classes after 4, but I had other commitments last night that prevented that…
So Thursdays stats:

• 0 exercise (again)
• Calories at 1500 – I needed 200 more.
• No booze

P10 Update:

• Log my Food
  
  • Yes I did this every day – even the bad stuff. I still had my calories pretty low though. Next week I am going to concentrate on getting in 1700 Calories per day and increase my protein a bit.
  
  
• Lose 10 lbs
  
  • I was very good and did not weigh myself all week. As of today I am up .6 lbs. After the week I had, I'm actually happy it is only .6lbs.
  
  
• Exercise min 5x week
  
  • I did not do so good with this one. I worked out Sat/Sun/Tuesday this week. I put in a lot of hours on the weekend, but did not do good during the week. Things just didn’t seem to go in my favour – including my plans to go to Yoga last night.
    
    • 90 minutes of Hot Yoga
    • 120 minutes of Cardio
    • 60 minutes of Strength/Core training.
    
    
  
  
• Schedule 1 (ONE) Cheat day
  
  • We all know that I had a few of these this week. Lots more than 1
  
  
• Complete 1 "Modified" 7-day Total Cleanse
  
  • Still working on this one.
  
  

All in all, I could have done a whole lot better this week. I will focus on getting the food on track and pick up the exercise for next week.
Something you don’t know about me:
I used to raise Alpaca’s (12 of them) on 25 acres south of my City.











And 15 Llama’s
(dat’s fat me)







New baby llama










and a LOT of  free range laying chickens. Some didn’t lay in the coop and I would find eggs everywhere. They were so yellow and good.



I miss the life but I also worked full time 60 minutes away in the center of the city. Some days it took me 90 minutes driving one way just to get to work. Winter was worse and I Hated the winter driving. Eventually it became very stressful, our marriage broke down and we sold the acreage and went our separate ways.
I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC day and make good choices.
Sandra

Day 21 - doing better

Wednesday:

• 0 Exercise
• Calories high at ~2000 – that Kung Pao was higher than I would normally eat.
• No Alcohol

I am sooooo much better today, I even feel better today (other than tired). Absolutely had a great time with my sister last night. We went out for dinner and I had the Hunan Kung Pao – high in carbs but high in flavor. I haven’t eaten at this restaurant in quite a few years and I love this dish so I order it when I go there. Then we headed to the concert and by the time I got there, I KNEW I needed either gum or a breath mint. When the guy sitting beside me switched places with his wife, I knew I was in trouble or rather they were – I was so embarrassed – Poor people. Of course my sister didn’t notice because her food was pretty spicy as well…. I’ve got gum in my purse today J

Colin James was very good and is an excellent guitar player. He plays Rock, Blues, Swing and played a little bit of everything of it last night – I really love listening to music. Funny I hadn’t put that on my Happy 101…

I didn’t get much sleep last night as I didn’t get home until midnight and so didn’t get up at 4 to exercise. Got up at 5 to get ready for work, left the house, then went back because I forgot my Yoga bag. I missed my bus because of it but there was NO WAY I was missing another day of Yoga. Nope notta! I am excited to go again and can’t wait for the day to end…. How bad is that? Freakin Hot yoga.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to try to eat every 2.5-3 hours and need lots of high protein snacks fairly low in calories – that isn’t easy to come up with ideas other than eggs. Anyone have any suggestions?

Not much to say today, working on some other blogs to post but have them at home. These short ones come from my work and not much detail J

I hope every has a fantastic day.

Xxxooo

Sandra

oi vey - I'm having one of those weeks....

I’m a little behind on my updates – mostly because I’m not doing so good this week and I'm embarrassed about it. But then I also think that alone is an excellent reason to blog it – I can get it out there, get over it, and move on in a more positive direction.

Sunday:

• 50 min walk/jog on Treadmill
• Food:  ~1800
• Alcohol – yes, the 1800 includes some beer.

We went out for dinner with the Hunt Club, it was their annual meeting and we met up with friends. Before I knew it, I was sitting there with a pint of beer, and one led to two, and by the end of the night I had three. Ooohhhhh

Monday:

• No exercise – I wasn’t feeling good – crap draft beer – this is WHY I don’t like to drink….
• Food – crap  - Since I wasn’t feeling good, I didn’t eat good. My calories only came in at 1100 but my choices were bad. I ate an entire large bowl of popcorn. My only saving grace that day was my morning wheatgrass and juice, and I made healthier dinner choice.
  
• NO alcohol
  

Tuesday:

• 30 Minutes Shred with stretching afterwards
• Food:  1800
• Alcohol – yup L Included in the above count.

I’m also PMS’n without the M - Well over a week late and feeling symptoms but no action (sorry guys). Not sure what’s going on but I have to get a grip. I didn’t go to Yoga on Monday (no transportation) and my body really needs it. I can’t go tonight because I’m meeting up with my Sister after work, we are going out for dinner and then off to see Colin James. I honestly would rather go to Hot Yoga than go see this concert – pretty sad eh? I need to go to Yoga because my body is sore. I did a  LOT of walking/jogging on the weekend and by Sunday night, my hip was so sore, I could hardly move. I did not sleep well at all and haven’t since. I think it is too soon to take up the jogging just yet and I need to keep with just walking until I know it is 100% ready in strength and 75% in flexibility. The not sleeping Sunday night has to do with two things – drinking draft beer and my hip was very painful. Monday, I was at home and hanging out – I could have exercised but my body was so sore, I choose to take the day off. Yesterday, I went to my BioFeedback specialist and then Ron and I went out for dinner – I had beers because I knew I wasn’t going to Yoga today. That is one sad excuse to drink, and I was doing so well too. I made the conscious decision to order that beer. My saving grace is that I had a club soda with each one and drank very slowly. Had less than I used to but still had beer....freak

From this moment forward, I know I can make good choices and it’s a decision I will make tonight when out with my sister. Sometimes I wish I had a 1-800-help-me-I-am-fallin number I could call when the urge strikes me.

My Biofeedback session showed some huge improvement in my minerals this time. Because of Yoga, I have been making sure I am drinking my sole in the morning, taking extra potassium, drinking Coconut water, Emergen-C, and drinking a TON of water. So it has paid off and my numbers look good. She did say however that I am fighting off a virus of some sort – in the manner of a flu I guess. She blasted my immunity and today I’ve increased my Vit. D and took that horrible, horrible Oregano Oil last night and again today and will continue to until I feel 100% better. Anyone ever tried that nasty stuff? It’s the best flu, cold, infection fighter out there – if you can get past the taste. My method to taking it is to shoot it in a one oz glass of V-8 juice – for some reason the tomato and the oregano go together better. So back to Sharon, I showed her what I’ve been eating for the last 3 weeks (my Fitday records are online) and we both agreed that I am not eating enough. I’ve talked about that a few times here. So I’ve got to eat whether I am hungry or not every 3 hours. It goes against all the intuitive eating concepts I’ve been trying to follow but I am willing to give this a go for a couple of months and then move to the more intuitive eating pattern once I get my body back into the swing of things. And I’ve got to up my protein – I do so much better with more protein in my body.

And I have NOT gotten on the scale since last Friday (at least I made one goal this week). However after the two sessions of beer this week I don’t want to get on the scale Friday either.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and making good choices (send your good choice vibes my way would ya?).

Sandra

An Award & Recipe

Wow, I was given another award from Lori-Ann the Amazon Lifter (it’s actually Runner but she is doing such an amazing job weight lifting lately, I like Amazon Lifter). She is one amazing, determined woman with a ton of great advice.
She has honoured me with the Beautiful Blogger award.
So according to the rules I have to list 7 things you don’t know about me and then pass this on to 7 more people. This is going to be hard because I’m pretty sure all of you know everything about me already (I’ve kind of let it all out at one time or another) and I’m going to struggle with my Perfect 10 list one thing you don’t know about me.

1. My eyes are green and when I’m completely detoxed (which isn’t often) they are much more greener than normal
2. Had my first child at 19 and second at 21. Now they are grown with children of their own (well just my son) and I’m still young enough to get my boogy on :)
3. I have a new grandchild on the way. He/she is 14 weeks old. I’m hoping for a girl as I really want to spoil her.
4. I love cats – I used to collect them when I was young. I would bring home any cat I found. Drove my parents nuts.
5. I am afraid of dogs – but not ones that I know and love. I was scared by one when I was a child and I’ve had a fear ever since. But I’ve also had a dog in all my adult life and never been afraid of them… it’s just strange dogs.
6. I am 5’1 – that’s it. Short stuff.
7. Only my ears are pierced and I have NO tattoos- this doesn’t mean that I don’t secretly want a belly piercing when I can actually show my belly or a little tattoo of something beautiful on my shoulder – but I’m 48 – kind of late for that…

Pretty boring list – I know….
Now for that recipe. I kind of winged it and everyone said they liked it. I made a huge batch so you might want to cut this in half. I like to make big batches as I freeze lunch size portions so that I can grab them in the morning. Please note there was a lot of juice from it so we ate it in a bowl with a side caesar salad.
Lazy Lady Crock Pot Cabbage Rolls
Chop 1/2 Cabbage and line on bottom of Crock Pot
Mix together:

• Bison (or lean ground beef)
• 1/2 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/2 c Rice
• 2 Cloves of Garlic (chopped)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 1 oz Onion Soup Mix
• 1 egg
• 15 saltines crushed

Make into 16 meatballs (or smaller)
Mix in a bowl:

• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 litre Beef broth ( 32 oz)
• 1/4 can Tomato Paste

Layer on other 1/2 of cabbage and then pour the sauce over top.
Cover and cook for approximately 6 hours.
Calories per meatball

• 146 Calories
• Fat: 3.49 g
• Sat: 1.48g
• Chol: 47.7
• Sodium: 637
• Potassium: 324
• Carb: 14.3
• Fibre: 2.32
• Sugar: 2.29
• Protein: 16.2

Works out to a 37/42/21 C/P/F ratio
Hope you enjoy it.

Oh and she did try to eat that carrot :)

Not a bad day yesterday…

I’m going to submit a couple of pictures to Andra on living a healthy lifestyle and this morning, before I juiced my wheatgrass and veggies, I took a picture.

 

Then I had to go to the washroom and when I came out, I found this:

She is such a brat these days but Oh so cute!

Her Mohawk is sort of coming back after the summer shave.

 

 

 

So back to regularly scheduled stuff:

Saturday:

• 60 minutes of treadmill
• 30 minutes of core work and stretches
• Food was around 1800 and that did include 4 bud lite beers. And I’m OK with that.

I had a nice day cleaning and organizing yesterday all to myself. I had the music playing loud and just did my thing. My back is sore today because of the core work I did yesterday AND I really never sit down all day until dinner. I work pretty hard on the weekends and considering I sit on my butt M-F, it is no wonder my body gets a little sore. Ron bugs me all the time because he says I don’t know how to relax – I don’t or rather I choose not to. I like to keep busy. If I don’t then I get the munchies – it’s called boredom.

The lazy lady cabbage rolls were a hit and they tasted very good and very filling. I will post the recipe as soon as I get it typed out. I have a HP Netbook where I am typing now but my recipe program won’t load on here so I have to do it on another PC and the boy is that room sleeping. I’ll get it out tomorrow. I estimated on the calories in my Fitday for yesterdays meal so hopefully I’m not out too much.

And it was very very very hard not to get on the scale today. Good thing I moved it out of the bathroom yesterday :)

I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC day.

ttyl

Sandra

No RnR Today

Friday:

• 90 minutes of Bikram Hot Yoga
• Calories ~1500, We went out for Vietnamese last night and I have no idea how many calories are in the dish that I got so I estimated about 510 Calories – could be more but I’m not worried about it… I love Vietnamese and haven’t had it since before Christmas.
• No Alcohol

I’m making lazy lady cabbage rolls in the Crockpot today. I have 2 heads of cabbage from my organic delivery and I wanted to use one of them up. Since we have a new fridge, I’m trying to empty out the freezer so I picked Bison over beef (healthier anyway). I’ve never made cabbage rolls (I know pretty sad) so I investigated many recipes. I read through three different ones and in the end made up my own with ideas from all of them. Hopefully it will taste good – I will let you know tomorrow. And if it tastes good, I can post the recipe if you are interested. If it doesn’t taste good, well we are eating it anyway J

After I got it all thrown in the Pot, I went downstairs and walked/jogged on the treadmill for an hour then did my Turbo Jam Ab session. With the yoga, I really want to increase my core strength so all the extra help I can get the better. Besides - I like that workout, feels more like dancing around than crunches.

Now I have the rest of the day to finish organizing my house. Ron and the boy went to the acreage to work on some shelves that I would like made for the boys room. I want somewhere to put all their “stuff”. My Grandson has a LOT of toys here to play with and each Christmas they seem to be getting bigger. Need something to organize it better. Their room has a bunk bed in it, a dresser, filing cabinet and a corner desk with my Computer on it. The room needs to be organized…..

Today is my “free” day but I really overdid it the last two Saturdays so I am choosing to be much healthier today. I may or may not have a couple of drinks later in the day when Ron gets home. I haven’t decided yet and when the time comes, I won’t feel guilty if I do indulge. It’s all about the quantity really…..

I’m hoping later today I can catch up on everyone’s blogs. Hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend.

ttyl

Sandra

Kat, here is a picture of those dolphins there were thousands of them surrounding the boat.

Perfect 10 Wk2

I took off the word verification and what do I get – a comment from William in the Happy post J (so I turned it back on again) - Thanks to everyone else that has been taking the time to comment – it truly is appreciated. I’m loving the support I am getting from all of you, it truly matters…

Thursday:

•  No time on the treadmill but I did walk outside for about 45 minutes. I’m going to work my butt off on the weekend.
• Food - ~ 1500 but it is hard to estimate as I had a Caesar salad (with Chicken) at the pub last night and I really don’t know how many calories are in it.
• No Alcohol J

Perfect 10 Week 2 Results:

Log my Food

I’m actually quite thankful that I am doing this. It has helped me determine that I am NOT eating enough and need to increase my calories. Because I kind of log it first thing in the morning, the stuff that I bring for the day, I know ahead of time how much I need to increase/decrease.

Lose 10 lbs

As of today I am down 3 lbs. But I have a goal starting tomorrow to not get back on the scale again until next Friday. This is going to be very hard for me to do so I must move the scale right out of the bathroom.

Exercise min 5x week

I did pretty good here. I did workout 6 days, but yesterday was only really just an outdoor walk. Since my hip hurt so much last Saturday, I didn’t walk on the treadmill. I rearranged my house for four hours but I’m not including that J I did make it to Yoga 3x and Walked 3x. It worked out to only 2.1 hours of Walking and 4.5 hours of Yoga.

Schedule 1 (ONE) Cheat day

My Saturday (9^th) was my cheat day but I really need to clean it up better. I will work on that this weekend. Otherwise, I have been right 100% on track all week. I’m proud of this.

Complete 1 "Modified" 7-day Total Cleanse

I’m getting closer to getting this scheduled. I am going to take a week in February and take it off of work and kind of have my own type of home retreat. Since I’m doing the hot yoga 3x a week, I will modify the Cleanse to include 7 sessions of hot yoga. It will be an interesting week to say the least.

As part of the challenge I have to tell you one thing you don’t know about me:

When we were in Little Cayman in 2008 we stayed at a resort that really catered to deep sea diving. We didn’t go there with that in mind, we went mostly for fishing the flats (which we did lots of). It was a very lovely place, and since I booked it kind of last minute, we ended up getting our own private cabin set away from all the other buildings, and for the same price as staying in one of the duplex’s. Anyway, I love to swim and while we were there I tried some snorkeling. I had issues with the fins at first because I didn’t feel in control (there’s that control thing again … stay tuned  it comes up again later), and really like to just swim with bare feet but I really needed to give them a chance so I did. I had an underwater camera and took as many pictures as I could of all the fish. Well a couple of days later, after sitting around the bar at the end of the day with all the daily divers, we decided to book in for a 2 hour pool training session and scheduled to do the dusk dive the same day. I managed well during the training in the pool, worked the fins very well. However I had a problem with flotation. I float… even when I wasn’t overweight, I floated. So he had to stick more weight on my belt to keep me at the bottom of the pool.  We passed and with trepidation I awaited the time to leave. At around 5:00 p.m., we went out with the dive master and a bunch of experienced divers and went out to a very nice and popular spot along the reef (I wish I could remember the name of it), and we went down 40 feet. I had some issues going down because again, I wasn’t in control. Thousands and thousands of pounds of water were in control of me. I was afraid and intimidated. Once I finally reached the bottom, I couldn’t stay down there, kept floating up. My dive master took weights from his belt and put them on mine and I was able to start floating horizontally. Once we went through our underwater testing (which I did well with but was scared shitless), we started to swim around. I wouldn’t let go of the dive master’s hand because I didn’t want to start floating up…. It was weird being a chicken like that. But what I saw down there was so peaceful and beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes. Which I immediately had to try to stop because there is nothing worse than having a runny nose wearing a diving mask 40 feet below water. It was a fantastic experience and one I would love to do again but after I have had proper training here in the city at some deep pool. Then get my certification at some tropical island. Certification here is in a mountain lake that you freeze your butt off in… no thank you.

I hope everyone else in the Perfect 10 Challenge had a successful week and that all of you have a FANTASTIC day!

Ttyl

Sandra

Guess what I'm going to talk about :)

Wednesday Update:

• 90 minutes of Hot Yoga
• Food: 1512 Calories
• Lots and lots of water and then some more.
• No alcohol

Hey, have I mentioned that I like doing Hot Yoga?? Really NO? Well let me tell you a little about it. 

§  Bikram Yoga is designed to "scientifically" warm and stretch muscles, ligaments, and tendons in the order in which they should be stretched.

§  The practice of Bikram Yoga promotes the cleansing of the body and release of toxins and utmost flexibility.

§  It can also reduce stress and increase blood circulation

§  The practice of Bikram Yoga can also help you lose weight and develop muscles.

§  Anyone can practice Bikram Yoga even people with chronic diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and thyroid disorders may benefit in doing the Yoga Poses by reducing symptoms, and also one of the best ways to prevent any ailments by keeping the body healthy.

Really one day I will stop talking about it. Not sure when but if you don’t want to read about it, then maybe skip this post for today. The class was again very very hot last night. Every once in awhile they open the door to let some cool air in and let me tell you, I’ve gotten smart lately and planted my ass by the door so that I get the benefit of that cool air when she opens the door. Last night we had the drill sergeant. I’ve had the same lovely young lady for my other 5 classes, but she must have taken a day off. She owns the place, must be almost 30, and teaches 3-4 classes a day in that heat. She DESERVES a day off in my opinion.  So Ms. Drill Sergeant didn’t let anyone really slough off last night. She mentioned she was getting dirty looks from a few people and that quite frankly she didn’t care as it was doing your body good. If you feel sick, dizzy or extremely tired – good, your body is tossing the toxins. The one position (the Locust) that you have to put your arms flat underneath you, then you lift one leg, then the other, then both.

This particular pose - can't even come close to this height. I'm lucky if I can lift both my legs 3 inches off the ground.

But I am getting better and better. First couple of times, I could only lay my arm out beside me, but last night the lovely drill b*tch (just kidding) made me LAY on my arms. It hurt like hell but I felt proud that I could do it. Does not hurt today at all which is good. Since I have a desk job that involves a TON of typing, this type of stretching is very good for me, even if I feel it isn’t at the time I am doing it.

I truly believe this yoga is not only helping me with my flexibility but also with my detoxification of my body. My skin hasn’t looked so good in years. Between the juicing of the vegetables, the daily dose of wheatgrass and now this Yoga, I’m going to be glowing in a month or so. People here at work are starting to comment that I “look” healthier. Not that I didn’t before, but there is a change.

I am also not so tired today as I was on Tuesday and I’m pretty sure it is because I’ve eaten a bit more carbs (brown rice, WW Bread) and upped my calories by ~300.  We are going out to the pub tonight to play our weekly game of Golden Tee and I will not be drinking any beer (I’m pre-planned) and will have something healthy there, or at least as healthy as this place provides. Gotta keep my liquids up for tomorrows Yoga session.

I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC day and is making good choices.
ttyl
Sandra

 

 

Happy Happy Happy

My favorite lady Kat has honored me with a new blog reward – The Happy 101.

Kat and I are developing a good friendship here in Blogland, DailyMile as well as Facebook (although I’m not very active in FB). We have a lot of things in common and have the same outlook on life. I love her blog title – Fit Mind Body & Spirit – this is all what I strive towards as well.

Here are the instructions:

1. Copy the image and display on your blog.
2. List 10 things that make you happy
3. Try to do at least one of them today
4. Pass on the award to 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

And the 10 things that make me happy (in no particular order):

1. My grandson. I absolutely love that little guy. Since I was a very young Mom (and single), I spent way too much time worrying about money, food, & our well being to really stop and watch my children learn and grow. With my Grandson, I got to see life through a different set of eyes. It’s pretty amazing.

2. Camping, fishing, gardening, anything in the outdoors. Even if it is just sitting on the deck reading a good book.

3. Ron – even though we have our challenges as any relationship does, we get along great and do have a lot of fun together.

4. Hanging with friends and family. As long as all I’m doing is hanging and not doing all the hostessing.

5. Travelling and seeing new countries. I NEVER travelled as a child –my Mom did not like planes but over the years I’ve managed to see and visit a few places. I love sitting in the sun, I call myself the sun bunny even though I know it is for my skin.

6. Books – I love reading all kinds of books. Doesn’t matter what type. I have a wide variety of them in my book case. It starts with authors like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra,  to Christine Feehan…

7. My children when they are being successful. If they are struggling  (like they are right now), I’m not so happy….

8. My job – I’ve worked here for 22 years and love it. I started at the bottom of the ladder and have made it up quite high. Since I am in Information Technology, I have the opportunity to learn something all the time. I basically can do pretty much what I want to here (I have enough seniority) so I get to do the fun stuff. Mind you, not all days are fun (like this morning when my network crashed).

9. Riding horses – I love it, it makes me happy but I can’t do it right now because of my hip. There is no way I could sit in a saddle and if I managed to do it, I would never get out again… OK, that’s not so happy but I love horses. Actually I think I love all animals – especially my dog and my cat.

10. Exercising actually makes me happy and my newest one with Hot Yoga is great!

And the 10 lovelies I want to pass this on to (some of you may have already gotten this award but as the theme goes – you brighten my day too).

Lori-Ann @ Amazon Runner

Chris @ a Deliberate Life

Helen @ Doing a 180

Kat (back at ya) @ Fit Mind Body Spirit

Roxie @ Gravel and Rust

Erin @ Losin’ It

Jenn @ Watch My Butt Shrink

Sandy @ …. 45 and Aspiring

Jack @ Jack Sh*t, Gettin’ Fit

Steve @ Log My Loss

There are quite a few more that I enjoy to read but as the instructions listed, I’ve named only 10. If you aren’t on the list, sorry but please note that I do enjoy your blog.

Thanks again Kat!

Xxoo

Sandra