It is FINALLY the end of Tyson's school year! Yes, I know tomorrow is June 19th and he is still in school.  To be honest I am sort of glad he went a little late, because I was not prepared with an end of the year gift for his teacher and his teacher aide. After a lot of thought and hours wasted on Pinterst and coming up with NOTHING to give to these amazing women, I thought about what I would have liked from my students if they decided to get me anything (it is a rare occasion when a high school student gives a thank you to their teacher). What I would have wanted was to know what the students enjoyed and my favorite a cup of Starbucks, iced grande soy vanilla latte to be exact. Keeping this in mind I decided to make a mini album with pockets so Ty could write a few things he liked this school year and we could add a few goodies as well. Here are some pictures of how the album came out!

Tyson is super excited to give this gift to his teachers tomorrow! If you are looking for a fun gift to give I would highly recommend this!  Happy Crafting!
Breanne

My Progress

My progress.

So here we are two and two days later and I want to report my progress.  I wanted to be able to type that I have lost tons of weight and I am a whole size smaller, but that is not the case.  When I took a hard look at what was realistic for me, I realized that if I want to make a lifestyle change, then I can’t do anything drastic.  For me it is not realistic to completely cut out carbs, or to eat clean 100% of the time or to get eliminate dairy.  I just don’t have the desire or will power to do this.  Not only do I not have the will power, but I have the constant question of, “what happens if I did eat simple carbs, or if I did eat dairy, or if I has a week of not eating clean.” So my husband (an ex-wrestler) says there are a lot diets you can try, but what it comes down to is calories in vs. calories out.  Now don’t tell him I said this, but he is right.  Knowing this I had to decide how many calories a week I was willing to eliminate.  Using my fitbit I decided that I would cut out 500 calories a day, which is 3,500 calories a week, totaling 1lb a week.  I thought this would be easy, 500 calories a day no problem….WRONG!  I have never been so angry when a handful of almonds has put me over my caloric intake.  Really almonds…come on! At least I am exceeding my calories with something healthy right?

 If I am being honest I do go over my allotted 1,400 calories a day, however with an increase of exercise I get an increase in calories, so my allotment increases.  I have never been so excited to exercise, simply because I get to eat something else. My husband and I are doing the Insanity workouts, they are going well. Yet, the last time I was this physically exhausted was when I was pregnant.  Last night I did a fit test and I improved in all areas! Whoo-hoo. What I was most excited about was I went from doing 6 push-up jacks to 12 push-up jacks (completed in 1 minute) in just 2 weeks.  I am getting stronger!!! J  I am also running two mornings a week with my running partner Cindy.  Thank goodness for Cindy, because I like my sleep, but having her hold me accountable for running has been great. I will say that on the days I both run and do Insanity I am happy that I get to consume a few more calories.

My shortfalls.  I am not going to lie. I have made a few choices that have not been so good.  Now I have not gone over my allotted calories, but I may have used up my calories with some unhealthy choices.  For example on February 17^th my husband and I went out to dinner and a movie. At the movie I wanted popcorn and chocolate.  I ate about 3 cups of popcorn and ½ a box of milk duds.  I stayed within my calories for the day, but I felt a bit guilty.  On Sunday the 24^th I was craving chocolate, really craving chocolate. I needed it, I had to have it.  So I decided I would make brownies, the Costco Ghirardelli brownies, with the chunks. I told my husband I was going to make them and he said, maybe we can find a healthier version.  Feeling guilty I went online to look and I found a recipe.  It had wheat flour, apple sauce, coco-powder, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and the other usually ingredients.  I added some chocolate chips which ended up making them 103 calories a brownie (2x2). I am not going to lie, they tasted healthy and did not satisfy my need for chocolate. In fact they just made me mad that I ate 103 calories of not so yummy chocolate.  I learned my lesson; next time if I am going to splurge, I am going to splurge. 

So here I am 2 weeks and 2 days after starting to get healthier and I am down 2.5lbs and getting stronger and stronger.  I know 2.5lbs is not much, but my pants are looser and that makes me happy.  I’ll update again soon.  Have a great day!

Week 1

Well, today is the day!  The day I REALLY work to get healthier. I am not going to lie, it is just after lunch and I have been obsessing over food and movement all morning.  I happen to be home from work today, it is Lincoln's birthday and my school district takes the day off. I enjoy having the day off, but being at home all day is testing my will power. I am winning so far.

I knew going into week one of getting healthy, I needed to be prepared, I needed a stocked refrigerator, an eating plan and an exercise plan. So I decided to share with you all what my plan is. 

Breakfast options for the week

Yogurt with homemade granola +fruit
Oatmeal with Fruit
Egg burrito in a multigrain tortilla

Snack ideas

Almonds
Celery and Peanut butter
Fruit
Yogurt and Granola

Lunch Ideas

Minestrone soup (homemade)
Chicken Salad wrap (no mayo)
Quinoa Salad on Avocado

Monday

Dinner- Stuffed Portabella mushrooms (not sure what I am stuffing it with) roasted Broccoli
Exercise-Insanity Day 1- Fit test

Tuesday

Exercise-run 5am 3-4 miles
Dinner-Fried brown Rice (FRIED?!?  1tbls of olive oil for 4 servings)
Exercise Insanity Day 2

Wednesday

Dinner-Stuffed Zucchini and Roasted Cauliflower
Exercise-Insanity Day 3

Thursday Valentine's Day!

Exercise -Run 5am 4 miles
Dinner-Stuffed Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, asparagus (I will probably have desert on this night too)
Exercise-Insanity Day 4

Friday-DATE night

Exercise-Insanity Day 5
Dinner-Salad wherever we go out

Saturday

Exercise-Insanity Day 6
Dinner-White Chicken Chili

Sunday-SNOW day with the boys

Exercise-3 mile run (to Starbucks)
Dinner-leftovers

A busy life almost got the best of my preparing for this week.  My oldest son has had a high fever for the last three days and I felt bad leaving the house to grocery shop. But, I was able to sneak out during nap time and stock the fridge.  I almost let having a hectic schedule be my excuse for not changing this week, but it is too important to me to make excuses. I am changing NOW.

I faced the dreaded scale this morning and I knew it was not going to be good. I mean I sort of ate some chocolate,  ice cream and Oreos this weekend. I was just trying to get those foods out of the house and rather toss them I put them to good use ;).  In reality I knew I was starting my getting healthy routine this week so I decided to just eat junk this weekend. Not the best choice, but it is the truth.  Taling about those yummy, not so good for you foods is making me want them...STAY STRONG PHILLIPS STAY STRONG.  It is time to clean up the kids lunch mess so stay tuned for my progress! Have a great week!

 

 

Fruits, Eggs
Maybe a little temtation in the back
(pudding snacks for my son's lunches)
Notice I place the fruit  in front so I can grab them first.

 A drawer full of veggies. Those that know me, know that I do not like bell peppers, but I am willing to try to use them.











Fruit on the counter for easy access.  My boys eat apples like crazy!  Hopefully I will too.

Healthy Change Set-up the Technology

Let me start out by saying that I do not have a technological bone in my body and that I have a fear that if I try to set something up on the computer that I am going to download a virus or change my search engine.  Last night my husband had a meeting and I thought I would spend the evening setting up my fitbit and my aria. I went over the directions and it seemed easy enough.  Yet, of course one thing after another did not work.  This was not because it was difficult, it was due to user error.  No worries though, it only took me 40 minutes to get my fitbit working (should have taken 5).  My advice for new users, take a few minutes to charge the fitbit before trying to set it up (my initial problem). Use a USB port that you do not have to access often (second problem) and follow the directions (they are very clear).  Also maybe don't watch an episode of The Bachelor while you are trying to preform this task, it definitely had the majority of my attention. Yet, I was still able to get the job done.
It was still early in the evening so I thought I would give setting up my aria a try.  I paused The Bachelor, there were two episodes this week :), and started setting it up. My first hurdle was that it stated that I did not have Wi-Fi. WHAT?  Come on, we have Wi-Fi, we have had Wi-Fi forever!  Then I remembered we switched to cable Internet and that our desk-top was hard wired. Now I was stuck so I unpaused my show. As I split my attention between my show and problem solving I saw that you could set the aria up using your phone, so I tried and I failed.  Now I was really stuck.  My husband came home shortly after that and of course it was right during the rose ceremony on The Bachelor so he was hushed as I asked him to try to figure it out.  In the end we grabbed a laptop and finished the aria set-up using that.  I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place, oh I know I was watching drama unfold on my show and yelling at "You picked her?!?" at the screen.   Both my fitbit and my aria are in working order and in fact I used both today.  My experience will be another post!  Have a great day and get healthy with me!

P.S. I did manage to change the setting on my Internet search engine during my setup, but my dear husband fixed it and didn't even say a thing about it.  I just love him to pieces! :)


I have provided a link to the Fitbit if you are interested in seeing what it is all about. 
Fitbit

A Healthier Life

I debated whether or not I wanted to blog about this, but I thought why not, there has to be other individuals out there who are in the same boat as me. So here I go.

I have decided to begin to blog about getting healthy...well healthier. If you have read my blog before you know that I have run a 1/2 marathon, in fact I have run two. I completed my second run on January 20th of this year. I will say that training for such a race is hard and one might think that you have to be in peak physical shape in order to complete a 13.1 mile race. Let me assure you that is not the case, my legs were in their best running shape, the rest of my body was not. I kept telling myself that I did not want to add an abdominal workout in because I didn't want to be sore for a long run. The same went for changing my diet, I didn't want to change my diet because I was running well with what I was eating. In fact I would (still) use running as an excuse to eat sweets. So after training then running this last 1/2 marathon and not loosing a pound I have come to the conclusion that it is time for a change.

After my half marathon I was trying to decide what I wanted to do to be healthier. I saw an old friend post on Facebook his before and after picture with the lifestyle change he did and I was sold, until I saw the price. I want results, but not at the cost of sacrificing some of our monthly savings. Another friend is doing Paleo and it is working great for her and her family, but after looking into it I didn't feel it was good for me and my family. Truth be told I didn't think I could resist temptation and I didn't want the feelings of guilt that went along with "cheating". Yet another friend was doing weight watchers and is having great success, I too had success doing that program yet the weight came back. So what do I do? I think I can do it on my own, it is simple right? Just eat healthier.

I tried that, two weeks ago I went shopping and I did just that, I ate healthier and I lost a pound! Awesome right? Well then it was super bowl Sunday and we went to Sacramento to see great friends, by the time we got home Sunday night we were exhausted and it was too late to go to the store for the week. I had no dinners planned, I was out of "healthy" food for breakfast, I did have a a few premade salads for lunches and a few healthier snacks. I of course took all of this as excuses and out went healthy eating and in came Starbucks (my biggest weakness). AHHHHH so frustrating. Just eat healthy, and exercise.

I was sitting at a crossroad and I needed to decide either change things or except that I will not have my pre-kid body (or something that closely resembles it). Then I started thinking of a girlfriend who has been working hard to get her rockin pre-baby body back and WOW it is back! She looks FABULOUS. She has done a variety of different things to get her body healthy, including eating clean and P90X. She also has been raving about a gift she received for Christmas called Fitbit. I looked into it and I thought it is just a pedometer, but no it is so much more! It tracks your sleep pattern, you can set weight goals, calorie burning goals, keep track of the foods you are eating and when you are eating, how much water you have consumed, and daily exercise. Needless to say I was sold. I have come to realize that I need accountability and this is what is going to give me this accountability. I am excited to plug it in and start using it.

I did also buy one other item to help with my new healthier lifestyle and that was a Fitbit aria Wi-Fi smart scale. We have been in desperate need of a new scale. Ours has been weighing us a bit light. I am not going to lie, I like weighing myself daily and seeing low number, but when I go to the doctor and get weighed I am blown away at the number (I do blame it on my clothes and jewelry). So I splurged on the scale and I am excited to use it because it will automatically update my Fitbit account with current weight, % body fat and BMI. I may have been impressed with the technology so that is why I bought it. :) I did have a coupon though so that made it okay in my book!

These next few days I am just going to be playing with my new tools and formulating my getting healthy game plan. I am going to try to post weekly about how I am doing, any yummy new foods I have found and even about my failures. In the end I am hoping to be healthier. Follow me on this journey and maybe you too can get healthier with me. :)  Now to plug in my Fitbit and get started!