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.  :)

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?

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

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

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...

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!

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!