Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Irene & fight to the finish

Hello, helllllo!

Haven't had a terrible lot to blog about, but figured I'd discuss my success w/ Hurricane Irene.  In addition, tonight is my last night to squeeze in my 'last minute workout'; the competition with Erin has come to an end as of tomorrow.

So, this past weekend I went to my friend Jo-Ellen's GORGEOUS wedding and thankfully Irene held out just in time to get the ceremony and pics taken.  It was a fabulous time, good food and drink. In fact, Irene helped me stay away from some calories... How, you ask?  Well myself and the Erin & Colleen aka Party Twinz (lmao) all went together to the wedding and were afraid that if we didn't leave the night of the wedding that the bridges to/from the Cape would be closed.  With that in mind, I was not able to partake in the open bar for the evening.  Now normally that's a cardinal sin for me; however, HELL if I was going to get stuck on the Cape in the middle of hurrican, ya feel me?  So after the wedding we headed home and that was that.

Now on Sunday I woke up to loud crashing noises.  Long story short, my wall A/C unit was near tipping over and falling out of my 9TH FLOOR apt.  That was by the grace of God that it didn't, I'll have you know.  So, fixed that situation along with the soaked nearby carpet and then relaxed and made GOOD choices the rest of the day.

Now today, I did my twice a day (morning and evening workout).  And tomorrow I will be hitting up the gym again, in hopes of losing any water weight to help me with this challenge! Hahaha...

We shall see.  I will be posting tomorrow.  :)

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Car accident/Philly/Hurt knee cap/Oyy vey

I'll make this as brief as possible, cuz I need to head to beddy bye rather soon.

I got into an accident aka fender bender last Thursday after work.  I hate that pretty much ALL read-end accidents are the fault of the driver, no matter what.  Sooo fail b/c 1 second of reactionary time isn't all that just or practical either, esp when a driver decides to slam on the breaks for no reason.  Anywho, I'm still in the process of figuring that out.  I'm undecided as to whether or not I'll pay out of pocket or if I'll take the check from the insurance company.  Based upon the appraisal of the BMW company, if the price is reasonable-ish, I'll pay out of pocket.  Ohhh another thing, if your insurance company has to pay more than $2000 for an entire claim (your car, other car and all other expenses combined), the accident is then considered major.  It doesn't matter if it's a 5-car pile up or a few scracthes on a Jag, just so long as it's over $2000.  Isn't that outrageouss?!? I mean c'mon, what's the point of insurance then? I have full coverage on my paid off 98 honda for a reason!

I instinctively wanted to eat my sorrows away, but instead went shopping.  Not that that's much better, but I didn't eat my sadness. heh.

I went to Philly this past weekend and did my best in terms of eating choices.  Yes, I had 2 small philly cheesesteaks while there, but they were small and I walked a ton.  Can't fulllly deprive myself, right?

In the process of my Philly fun, I went out to a bar with my friend and some girl accidentally tripped me while I was walking downstairs and I hurt the heck out of my left knee cap.  Needless to  say, exercising this week has been non-existent and I'm still in a great amount of pain.  I really need to sign-up for the YWCA officially, because I'm thinking that swimming would be great for this kind of issue.

Sooo that's my dramaful week... this week has been crazy as work with training and whatnot, but still no excuse for a lack of posts.

How has your week been, everyone?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

My new kitchen gadget & How I love Zumbz

So I saw this commerical for Oster's new MyBlend.  So I saw some reviews and ended up buying my $12 Hamilton Beach Personal Blender! I'm the most low-maintenance person when it comes to making food and preparing.  I always try to find the quicker and easier way out, which bites me in the butt many times.  In short, I've been trying this whole Greek yogurt bidness and am trying to incorporate more healthy drinks, smoothies into my diet.  That being said, this contraption allows you to throw all the stuff you want in the blender, after blending you take the cup out of the base of the machine and go.  There's no real messy clean-up, it's legit blend and go.  LOVE itttt!

So now, my next goal: Find tasty and healthy smoothie recipes/experiment.  Any suggestions?

Oh and in terms of my love of Zumbz... I'm just really hooked.  Sarah and I met up at Core Connection to take Elena's Zumba class and it was stellar.  I haven't sweat that much in a good while! She kicked my behind, fo sho, but it felt sooo good afterwards.  I just <3 zumba, it's a legit dance party and I'm pretty sure I burn close to 1000 cals per sesh.  It's the best win win I've seen in awhile. :)

On that note, I need to scout out studies with good prices so I can zumba close to 5 days a week.  If I could zumba 5 days a week and then work out an additional 40 mins on top of that... I'd be quasi-golden!

Any... I'm exhausted b/c I also got my behind beat in my Zumba Tone class.  Good ish!!

Night

Friday, August 12, 2011

One of my bestfriends is in town!

So real quick update... as of a week ago on 8/4, I have lost 7lbs.  In my competition with my friend Erin, 1.8lbs lost.

So it's restaurant week in Worcester and my friend is here.  This is a potential recipe for disaster... only if I allow it.  I'm doing my best to stay on 'track'.  I'm not limiting carbs as I was before, but at least watching my cal intake.

Praise Jesus it's Friday! Boston, here I comeeee... :-D

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Hmmm

Short and simple post, kiddos...

On Monday I went on some pills to help clear up my face, which I'm tots against - btw, and today I started feeling real ill.  I honestly felt intoxicated at work... I'm not sure what the dealio is.  I couldn't even go to zumba and letttt me tell you, I had EVERY intention on going.  Soooo.... I skipped it, it was raining, I felt crappy, came home with friend from work who's staying over to have her car fixed in Worcester and ended up eating leftover pizza.  BAD BADDDD Augustina!!... Then I packed my lunch and snacked on a few items there.  Not good.  Tomorrow is my weigh-in w/ Erin... won't be surprised if there's not a deficit... :(

On the other hand, tomorrow is a new day...

Monday, August 8, 2011

Carb Conscious

Today I began being more 'carb conscious' with my meals.  I was noticing that while I was eating healthy foods, I was carb overloading.

Ex:
Bfast - Whole grain cereal, banana
Snack - yogurt
Lunch - Lean cuisine (usually pasta), side of corn, fruit
Snack - string cheese, 100 cal-pack (usually tons of carbs)
Dinner - 6 inch subway sandwich w/ baked chips
Dessert - Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Now straight up, I could eat ALL of that and still be in my calorie limit for the day.  If I was doing WW, which I've done in the past, I could have easily stayed within my point range w/o going over.  BUT, let me tell you, in the past my pancreas was not a happy camper.

It's no wonder I haven't been losing weight as quick as I thought I should've been and why I was still tired and in a slump.  I was eating 'healthy' foods, but entirely too many carbs.

Now that being said, today I was very good about limiting my carbs.

Bfast - 2 hard boiled eggs, small banana, coffee w/ creamer and artificial sweetener (I know, I know... I need to stick to Truvia)
Lunch - sardines, 5 saltine crackers, serving of green beans
Snack - 1/4 mix of almonds and walnuts, 1/2 apple and 5 grapes, 2 kosher dill spears
Dinner - One of my old Nutrisystem frozen meals (16g of carbs), it was Turkey w/ veggies
Dessert - Trader Joe's Peach Pop

In fact, now that I look at this, I'm not sure I ate 'enough' for the day... lesson learned.  Either way, I am not completing eliminating all carbs, I'm just trying to be conscious.

And I will admit, I was EXHAUSTED this morning... and didn't do my morning workout... :-/  Which is why I must sign-off, gotta head to bed so I do it tomorrow morning fo sho!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Week recap & Goals for the week

On Saturday I went to the Y to use my final day of my 3-day pass.  Let's just say I went allll out.  I went to the hour-long zumba class, elliptical for 20, treadmill for 10, swimming for 30.  It was a fitness frenzy, no doubt!

I did not work out today because tomorrow the twice-a-day regimen commences.

Goals for the week:
-Eat more complex carbs
-Eliminate as many refined sugars as possible
-Have at least 3 twice-a-days (gym in the am and pm)
-Blog at least 5x this week
-Look to my SparkPeople for advice and encouragement throughout the week.

Here's to making it a great week, kidz!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Calorie crisis...

I just made my first post on SparkPeople regarding my calorie crisis.  Soooo, here's the question I posted:

I'm trying to go on a low-carb diet and exercise twice a day, in the morning for around an hour and in the afternoon for around 1hr 30 mins.  I know that sounds extreme, but I want to get serious about this.  The problem I'm having is how many calories do I eat to sustain this weightloss? I use those calculators that tell me how much to eat based upon how much I want to lose, but those never seem to be accurate esp b/c I'll be doing double-duty in working out.

I know if i eat too few calories, I could be sabotaging myself... can someone help me?

Your help is very much appreciated!!


What do you think? Any suggestions?

Thanks!
---

So far the responses have been:
Go to - 
www.freedomfly.net/Documents/calorie_calculator.xls
I guess I would consider this amount of exercise to be very active, but it's saying I need to consume around 2200-2500 cals a day, that can't seem right.  How is it on the BL they only consume 1500 cals and exercise 8 hrs a day! what the....

Also, just went onto a body fat calculator and it says I'm about 44% body fat. Excelllllent!

Friday, August 5, 2011

TGIF & Peach Pops

So Friday couldn't have come any sooner... man this week has been b-a-n-a-n-a-s, as Gwen would say!  So yeaaaa for the weekend! I do get a tad 'worried' about my will power during the weekends, because this has historically been my toughest time to stay on track.  I figured I'd keep myself busy with a mental schedule of things 'to do' this weekend to keep the focus away from food.  hahaa I really do feel like I'm taking the 12-step program for my addiction.  I guess it's not really funny, since it's reality.

So I finally had Chipotle for the first time in like 2-3 months... crazy, eh? And the Chipotz on Route 9 is the first in Mass to have brown rice as an option, so naturally I tried it.  It was good, a little different, but still good.  And the guy skimped on my guac, which upset me, but I thought heyyy.. maybe it's a sign I don't need the extra good fat... heh.  I try to justify things in my head all day... I should've been like, 'Heyyy!... c'mon let's not be stingy here' to the guy, but I go there too often to pull a quick one like that. :-/ heh.

Anywho, afterwards I went to Trader Joe's across the way and bought a few excellent items:
1) bean dip, 2g of carbs per serving... yes plz
2) veggie bird nest... lightly battered carrots, kale and something else. It was the food sample item and I actually bought it. The product sold itself.
3) soy-rizo... chorizo-flavored soy.  I plan on making that with some eggs next week. Gotta stick low carb
4) Peach Pops... Now let me tell you, my love for peaches is deep.  I love peach beer - Dogfish Head's Festina Peche, Green Mountain Coffee's Peach flavored coffee, Peach Tea... only thing I don't like is the peach flavored dum dum lollipops. lol Regardlessss, I bought this and tried one for dessert at only 45 cals.  One word: Delightful.  It's like peach puree & chunks of peach in a frozen pop form.  It's muy bien! I give it my blessing, no doubt.


Alright, last bit.  Tomorrow should be a good workout, we shall see.  It'll be my last 3-day pass at the Y.  I'm hoping it 'sells' me.

Gotta head to bed, must get that workout in early. :)

Playin some hoopz...

So today was the 2nd day of my 3-day pass at the Y.  I hurried to the gym to go to Zumba class all excited and the class turned out to be a huge flop.  The 'instructor' who looked like she was 18 was trying to teach us 'bollywood zumba'.  Ummm... idk about you, but the zumba I know is mostly Latin music and it's upbeat and my fat ass is sweating!... this class was everything BUT that.  Very upset.

Soooo.. I skipped the class early and workout out on my own.

On my way out of the gym I saw the empty basketball court inside.  I looked around to see if anyone was looking and I went inside the glassed-in ball court.  No on was there... just me, jamming to my ipod and a few basketballs lying around.  So what did I do? I started shooting the ball from the left court, then right then free-throw style... dribbling the ball back at forth from each end of the court.  It was like P.E. days, but no one to laugh at my awful moves and no one saying 'hurrrry up, you're holding up the line'. It was actually quite nice.  I got in a lil round II of a workout hahaa... and it was excellent.

I was very pleased with myself.  And... yeah, that's that.  I still have a grin on my face lol.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Day #1 of the Challenge w/ Erin

So my good ol' friend Erin decided she'd help us both jump start our journey... and she knows how Augustina works.  She threw a challenge into the mix, a little friendly competition between the two of us.

It's real simple.  Today we both weighed in on our own and shared our current weight with each other.  The challenge will end on Wednesday, August 30th, so exactly 4 weeks from now.  The winner will buy the other person lunch and have bragging rights... until the next competition. 

Now this has got me thinking of all sortsssss of ideas for our next challenge, cuz there's nothing like thinking ahead, right?  My first spurt of weightloss was the result of a competition with my family members.  Me my cousins Valerie, Christina, Frantina and Melissa all joined in a Biggest Loser type sitch.  We weighed in on Jan 4th, 2010 and promised to weigh in every other week.  Along with weighing in every other week, we'd add $10 each to a pile.  The winner at the end of 3 months won.  Problem was, my family never held onto their end of the bargain, I won the competition and no one paid up.  heh... either way, I ultimately ended up winning.  BUT, I'd totally be down for something like THAT if any of you reading are interested.  Nothing motivates like money, can I get an AMEN?... plz, no need. I know this biz.

Soooo... good luck to you Erin.  Get ready to weap! hahahahhaa... jk... kinda.

;)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

This crazy new Zumba instructor...

Ah helllllll nah.  I leave the gym for 2 months and in comes this peppy little Zumba instructor.  She about gave me a heart attack and I'm on Ibuprofen, no joke.  She decided to turn the class into a Zumba tone session.
I had 3lb weights, which is nothing, right? WRONG. Tomorrow I'll be sore, but that's aiight, it's expected when you go on a hiatus the way I did.  Anywho, zumba toning is doing zumba, but with 2-3lb weights, so you 'tone' while you're working out.  Excellent concept and I get my calorie burn for my bang, so it was good.

I went walking for 20 mins on the treadmills afterwards, so all in all a good workout sesh, I'd say

For dinner I had steak fajitas with these EXCELLENT low carb tortillas, I tots recommend them.
The Brand is Buena Vista and they're whole wheat tortillas for low-carb diets.  They are raw, so you can nook them in the micro or heat them up in a pan.  (I tried to find a google image, but couldn't)  You can buy them at Stop & Shop.
My review: LEGIT.

On a side note, skyped one of my besties tonight.  It was great talking with her, she's the best and she's coming to visit me in the Woot Woo.  It took us forevz and a day to find a decent priced hotel in Boston on 8/13, but we did.  Thank you www.hotwire.com.  You have saved me, once again.  Best part of this all, she's on her own weight loss journey and promised me that we'd be 'good' together.  We'll hold each other accountable.  Now that's a WIN-WIN!

Goodnight.

Monday, August 1, 2011

First Day Back & 5 Things

Today was a toughy...

I was gung ho about getting back into the swing of my bachelorette life and got into work to only realize I left my lunch w/ my bfast and lunch inside the fridge.  Now I normally would've said, 'eff it', I'll start tomorrow... but I backed that truck up and thought 'Ah hell nah, now it's time to put my true skills to the test'.  With my knowledge of eating well that I've gained from past experiences, I knew exactly what to do and eat off the fly when buying at my work's cafeteria.

Had some oatmeal, added 1 packet of sugar

And for the first time, I actually bought a salad at the cafe.  I've NEVER done that... and I found it quite enjoyable.  It's great knowing that the salad wasn't treacherous, but was quite delightful (since I never usually eat salads, I tend to avoid them at all costs).  Soooo, I ate well and didn't snack on vending machine foods or anything for that matter.  What a test of a day to start out the week, no?

Continuing, I tried the YWCA and I liked it.  I wasn't too excited that I had to wait to use an elliptical, but we'll see.  I'm going to go back to the gym at my work tomorrow and take my first Zumba class post-op.  We'll see how this goes... then I'm going to see about 'freezing' my membership.  Reason being, I'm going to sign-up for 6-weeks at the Y to see how it goes.  I mainly like the fact that the Y has a swimming pool and I know just how good swimming is for you and your joints, esp at my weight.

I shall see soon enough...

But now onto the 5 Things portion:

Sarah tagged me to do a five things you love about yourself. The idea is to write about 5 things that make you feel confident in yourself, be they mental or physical. This is not intended to be a brag session, just a way of putting some positive energy out into the universe. Here we go:

Augustina’s 5 Things:

  1. I love my eyes, they're probz my best feat.  Yes they're brown, like most people, but their shape is different.  I try to play them up when I do make-up because hey!, why not flaunt what your momma gave you?...err yeah...
  2. I am people person to the core.  I love people, I love all the different cultures this Earth has and I loveeeee talking and listening to what people have to say, especially in a One on One setting.
  3. I do believe I'm a genuinely good person.  I aim to please, and I want everyone to be happy... and while this does get me in trouble (esp. when ppl aren't happy), I care about how other ppl are feeling and perceiving in whatever is going on.
  4. I do like my sense of humor and enjoy my own company very much so.  
  5. I love my up and coming derriere.  I promise, I used to have the flattest pancake behind in the history of existence, but with those squats and lunges and uphill walking... this culo has and is becoming more bubbly w/ each squat. hahaa
I'm not sure I even follow 5 bloggers, but I'll tag whoevz I can...

Tag, you’re it!

  1. Yetti from And So She Writes
  2. Sara from Veggies For Real
Do it up!!


And I'm over & out.

It's do or die.

I know I'm up late writing this, but I had to get this post in before I finally went to bed.

Tomorrow is a Monday and the first day of August.  It will also be 6 weeks post-op from my gallbladder surgery, which means I can resume regular workouts.  Sarah, when are we zumba-ing?

Anywho, my 'nest' aka apt is officially empty and now it's just me.  My mom was here the entire summer and my dad was here for the past two weeks.  Now they're gone... and I miss them terribly, I really do. :(  And while these next few weeks leading to the big Vegas shabang on Labor Day weekend are going to be super packed, I need to get serious at some point.  I can't keep holding this weightloss effort on until 'the perfect time'.  Life happens and that's it, there is no ideal time to start, right? Gotsta start to-dayyy!

And I keep seeing so many weight loss successes and wondering why I'm not there myself.  I have no kids, no bf, nada to stand in my way.  It is time - this ish is about to get surrrrious.

Getting a 3-day pass at the YWCA down the street tomorrow.  We'll see if I like it... I'm hoping I do!

Oh and a big 'thank you' to those who have still been trying to keep me in check, please don't stop.  The truth hurts, but I appreciate it, I do.

Cheers to making IT happen!