L-3 Weeks

This week was a very good week. Today will be all about bulleted list…caust that’s how I roll.

Workouts:
•Shredded 5 times this week (week being Sat-Fri) – Advanced from level 1 to level 2 on Friday. I’ll let you know how that went on Monday.
•Ran 3 times this week (Mon, Tues, Fri), I would have liked to have gotten in a run on Thursday but I was fully booked.

Meals:
•I am very happy to report that I stayed on task with my meals all week. No cheating, no bad cravings and I feel great.

Here is what I primarily eat during the week:
•Breakfast
o ½ cup of old fashion oats
o 1 tsp of walnuts
o 1 scoop of Elite vanilla whey protein powder
o 1 pkt of Stevia
o Berry of my choice (this week it was blueberries)
•Mid morning snack
o I must say this week I skipped it mostly…oatmeal keeps me pretty full most of the morning
o If I am hungry I’ll eat edamame or a protein bar
•Lunch (my hubby calls this a freak sandwich)
o All natural oven-roasted Turkey breast deli meat (or ½ of a chicken breast or a salmon patti)
o A wedge of Laughing Cow
o Sandwich Flat (100 calories)
o ½ of red bell pepper
o ½ Luna Bar for dessert
•Afternoon snack
o Other half of the Luna bar
OR
o Beef Jerky
OR
o Protein bar
OR
o Protein shake (when Jodie doesn’t eat all of the ice…sheesh…pregnant women) ;)
•Dinner
o 3oz salmon or ahi tuna filet
o Broccoli
OR
o ½ chicken breast
o Broccoli
OR
o Breakfast for dinner...(my fav)
 Egg whites
 Morningstar Sausage patty
 Ezekiel bread
•Evening snack
o Protein cake (hubby calls this one “freak cake”)
 1 scoop of Dessert protein powder – I have chocolate coconut now…heavenly
 ¼ tsp Baking powder
 1 TBL All natural applesauce
 1 pkt Stevia
 1 egg white
 Mix in a wide, deep cup and cook in microwave for 1:30 sec and you have yourself a nice little protein cake…that is almost as good as the real thing.
 The texture depends a lot on the protein powder you use…I’ve used several diff ones and the best results have been with the Dessert powder…just sayin.

Long and drawn out I know but I thought I should lay out what I’m stuffing in my pie hole.

I put on a size 10 capri’s on this morning and I need a belt to hold them up. It’s way awesome. Operation closet clean up is commencing tonight!

If you haven’t heard STS-132 landed yesterday…it was picture perfect…no really…here is a shot one of my colleagues’ took as she was there to witness landing…if she wasn’t so nice I would tell her she sucked. (I’m just jealous)



I am working on a separate post of all things STS-132 to commemorate my experience.

My oldest bestie (since we were 8 and 9) is coming into town this weekend and a bunch of us are meeting for a little din and shenanigans…I’m way excited. She was in town back in November and we hung out a bit. At one point in our friendship we didn’t talk for ten years. It’s crazy to think there is a reason you connect with someone and more than words can articulate…that reason is for them to be your lifelong friend.

I’ve managed to accumulate several “to do’s” for today so I better get to it.

The crew comes in at Ellington this afternoon and 4 and I’m planning on attending, I’ve never made an effort before, it seems that my opportunities are numbered so I’m going to give it a go.

Before I do…let’s discuss goals:

Recap of goals for week 3:
•12oz of water with every meal– with the exception of 1 or 2 so not EVERY (but doing better) - FAIL
•Shred every day of the week – All but 2 but still not EVERY day - FAIL
•Follow a clean eating meal plan without any deviations – WIN

Note: I’m not a black and white person…I’m about all kinds of shades of gray so even though technically I FAILED I still look at them as wins because I’m doing WAY better.

Goals for week 2: (gonna see some repeats)
•12oz of water with every meal
•Shred every day of the week
•Limit carbs to 1 a day, before 3 – with only two weeks to go I’m going hard core.

Wow…that was wicked long but I apparently had a lot I wanted to say.

It’s a holiday weekend…have FUN, indulge a little, be safe and I’ll catch you on the flip side of May!

Someone is in single digits!!

That’s right. The fam went to the pool for the first time this season and I was hunting for my bathing suit. I pulled a storage box down from the closet that had all my “skinny” clothes and I didn’t find my suit but I found almost an entire new wardrobe!

Capri’s and shirts and more shirts…shirts that are perfect for our upcoming trip to California. Shirts to wear to wear to work...shirts I haven’t seen or fit into in over 3 years but are still totally in style…that’s how I roll. I’m a classic kind of girl.

I was even able to fit into a size 6…let me qualify…the “Kohl’s” definition of a size 6 which in my opinion is really a size 8. To prove my point I tried on my old school “Old Navy” jeans that are what used to be known as size 8’s and although I could fit into them I had a muffin top but I am well on my way to being muffin topless.

I was excited about my find and I plan on rearranging my closet on Friday…out with the old and in with the new old.

Two posts in one day…I’m on fire…I guess I should crack open my book and study for my PMP (Project Management Professional) exam.

Peace and Love!

Professional Maturity

Look at me…I’m blogging way early in the week. I told you my schedule would free up. Not that I’m without stuff to do …I have stuff but I’m not really motivated to do any of it.

I am happy to report I am on day 8 of the 30 Day Shred. I’ve even been getting up at 4:30ish…ok…5 in the AM to get my shred on and then I’m able to run after work. It seems to be working out just fine…this week.

Speaking of running…last week I was struggling to run in the heat and looking back there was a combo of things…fueling properly, my lightening quick (faster than I should be going to sustain a consistent) pace and I blamed it all on the heat.

Since I have been struggling with the runs I decided that running during my lunch hour would help alleviate the heat excuse. On Monday, I had a couple of meetings and headed back to my desk to make sure I was good before I headed out when low and behold I had some work to do…and I had a choice…I could go run and do what needed to be done when I got back…but who knew how long it would take and I needed everyone in their brother to review the pitch and the reviewers are on a one hour earlier time zone OR…wait and run after work.

I made the professionally mature (I love that term) decision, stayed and did what I need to do, missing my opportunity to run in cooler temps.

At 4 I go out to the trails and I start out on my 3 mile run/walk and I’m feeling good, really good in fact. I get to the 1.5 turnaround and I’m still feeling strong. I am now attempting to figure out why it is that I’m feeling this strong after a week of struggling and things start to add up.

I ate properly, didn’t miss any meals and I drank my water. I’ve been shredding and I would like to think that had something to do with feeling stronger and then I noticed the lack of my shadow on the ground. YES! There was a cloud following me and not in a dismal, rainy kind of way. A cloud, that shaded me from the death rays of the sun, a glorious cloud that when the wind kicked up made everything a smidge cooler. I swear that cloud followed me from start to finish and kept the temps at least 5 degrees cooler. And I must also mention I intentionally kept a much slower pace than last week.

It could be a mere coincidence but I’m going to think of it as a reward for making a responsible decision earlier in the day.

L-4 Weeks

No numbers to post this week…and why not…BECAUSE I’m not weighing myself anymore. YAY ME. Numbers don’t mean jack anyway.

What will matter is the before and after pictures I’m going to post to showcase my progress. I’m super duper excited about that.

This week has gone okay in the eating dept…I say ok because I was in training for three days and day one I did well…then day two and three happened. Let’s just say I indulged in the muffins and kolaches…although I didn’t over indulge and that is a positive. As soon as I got home I’ve been eating clean. Such is life.

Due to the time constraints of the week I decided to dust off my 30day Shred DVD. Am I weird that I like to feel the soreness of a good workout? Weird or not…I do. It reminds me of my accomplishment for the day.

I’ve ran twice this week and I’m fixin to embark on run number 3 as soon as this is posted. Man it’s getting hot. Yesterday was rather challenging. (I lied…I’m going to post some numbers) I adjusted my interval times to 2:1. I really missed that extra :30 of rest yesterday.

The STS-132 mission is going great and I got a nice surprise when I came in this morning…an email from space! If you think of it as just an email it’s no big deal but when you try and wrap your head around it…it’s pretty amazing. I never thought I would begin a sentence…”Life on Earth is…”. I have a cool job!

That’s about it…short and sweet for a change. But I can’t leave without a recap of goals.

Recap of week 4 goals:

•12oz of water with every meal – WIN (FINALLY)
•Follow the 14 day clean eating meal plan – FAIL
•Run at least 4 days and lift at least 3 days – half WIN (I changed my plans…I lifted on Monday then decided to Shred) I think that should still count.

Goals for week 3:
•12oz of water with every meal (gotta keep this one there to make it a habit)
•Shred every day of the week
•Follow a clean eating meal plan without any deviations

Off to get my run on…

Out!

L- 6 and L-5 Weeks

Wow…Time flies when you sleep may or may not be an option busy.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve updated my progress and progress it has been.

L- 6w I successfully carb depleted. To be honest…it wasn’t as bad as the first time around and I’m down 6 lbs. Eating clean for the past month or so definitely helped ease the transition into a week with no carbs.

Now L-5w…I don’t even want to talk about it. But I’m going to…the last couple of weeks have been out of control crazy at work with launch prep. Launch prep meaning Space Shuttles…or just one in this case. As the lead Flight Data File (FDF) Coordinator for STS-132 my activities go into overdrive at about launch minus 3 weeks. Throw on top of that a kiddo with a double ear infection and “aunt flo” coming way earlier than expected…my head exploded as well as my need to stuff crap in my pie hole.

I’m riding with it…not getting too upset with myself but upset enough not to continue the cycle.

I ran Monday and Thursday and I am really loving it again. I look forward to the “me” time, pushing myself and I’m feeling stronger after every run. I’m not training for anything in particular just enjoying the exercise.

With launch today I am anticipating my schedule will be freed up considerably, without as many distractions, because there are always distractions (refer to double ear infection above) and I can get back to a regularly scheduled lifting and running program.

At L-4w I will begin again…clean eating with a balance of carbs and proteins and working my hiney off…literally. I’m stepping it up a notch now we are in the home stretch.

Off to see my boys launch! God speed ATLANTIS!

Just I’m back from Mission Control and a picture perfect launch, the only thing better would have been to see it in person. My work here is done.

Recap of week 5’s goals:

•12 oz of water with EVERY meal – FAIL
•Carb delete successfully – WIN, down 6.
•Fuel up before working out – PERHAPS? I seriously don’t remember and I didn’t work out last week because of the deplete but I haven’t been feeling nauseous after my runs so let’s say WIN!

Goals for week 4:
•12 oz of water with every meal – (I’ve seen this one before…)
•Follow the 14 day clean eating meal plan
•Run at least 4 days and lift at least 3 days (running and lifting may happen on simultaneous days)

Alrighty…apparently I am attending a post launch happy hour. I’ve got some celebrating to do.

Peace!