Just do it- no seriously do it

Getting my butt to the gym was a process tonight. I just didn't want to go, I don't feel well, I'm hormonal and bloated, I really wanted to veg out.

Fortunately, I have cheerleaders. I knew Sheizka would be waiting at the gym, and I never want to let her down. So I called Jodi, and asked her to tell me to stop being lazy and go to the gym. She pep talked me and sent me a motivational photo. I packed up and went.

Thank God I did! I really feel a ton better. Well I do and I don't. I can't lift my arms the whole way over my head because I lifted my butt off, but everything else is better.

So just do it. Even when you don't want to. You will always be rewarded

What's in my fridge- Sunday Prep Day

I have been fighting bronchitis again and I think my allergies are to blame... Stupid pink blooming trees. Since I am sick, I haven't been able to work out, which blows, but it also means what I eat is extra important.

Here's what is on the menu for me this week.

This is everything I bought to eat this week. You will find I buy a lot of this stuff at Costco. Our family of 3.5 (Jackson doesn't really count yet) can easily eat fruits and veggies in bulk, but if you are the only person eating it, you are blowing money if you buy it in bulk and it goes to waste. C- means Costco, W- Whole Foods, G- Giant Eagle

Veggies
Corn on the Cob- C
Organic Lettuce- W
Celery- C
Tri Color Peppers- W
Asparagus- C
Carrots- C

Fruit
Bananas- C
Apples- C
Plums- C
Kiwi-C
Pineapple- C
Lemons- C

Everything Else-
Protein Powder- for daily shakes. Watch the sugar content in any that you buy!( I like Pro Complete One V    Core in Fudge Caramel)
So delicious Sugar free Almond + Milk- W
Fresh Ground Peanut Butter- W
Low Fat Cottage Cheese- G (I used to eat light yogurt, till I realized the amount of sugar it had)
Tuna in water- G
Eggs- G
Multi Grain 100 Calorie English Muffin- G (The only "bread" I still eat- Yummy, high fiber, lo cal )
Skinny Pop Popcorn- C- OMG Have you tried this?! Amazing 39 calories per cup, all natural, 3 ingredients)
Frozen Marinated Salmon Filets- C
Shrimp Cocktail- C- Im obsessed with this right now.

Always in my fridge/pantry (but didn't need to buy this week)
Chicken Breast
Walnuts
Pistachios
Low Fat String Cheese
Hummus

My food prep this week was easy. I really just loaded up my fridge with produce, brewed some coffee so it would be cold and ready in the fridge for protein shakes and made my favorite Tuna Salad to eat this week (recipe is below)

Make it a great week!!

My Tuna Salad
2 Hard Boiled Eggs chopped
2 Cans of Tuna in water- drained (do yourself a favor, get the good stuff- not the cheapest can you can find)
1 cup chopped celery
3 Tbs Dill Relish
3 tsp Yellow Mustard
2 Tbs Hellmanns light mayo

Mix and chill for 2 hours before serving.
1/2 cup serving- 99 calories, 4g fat, 4 carbs, 11g protein

So I ate a potato...

I have promised to start posting my recipes and meals to give everyone ideas on what I am eating exactly... and I will... in a second. First, I have a confession. I ate a potato for dinner. I feel like I did something horrible, but I had reasons. Normally I don't eat carbs at all after lunch... and its rarely something as nutritionally void as a potato. But today we had a meeting at work and there were potato chips and I realized I really wanted some ruffles bad, like take the bag and hide in a room and scarf them all down, bad. I didn't- mainly because there were people near the bag who would have noticed me running out the room with them. It was so hard though. So for dinner I made two small red skin potatoes and ate them joyously. It may not have been that great for me, but it wasn't the ruffles bag full of shame.

Okay on to my meal plans. Today, aside from the potato, I feel like I ate great. I was super full all day. I had 94 g of protein, 25 grams of fiber, and only 6g of saturated fat. As of now I am at 1100 calories, but I will eat some sort of snack before bed to make it closer to 1300.

Okay so for breakfast I had a protein shake.

I love my morning protein shake!!
My recipe is
12 oz- Unsweetened Almond Milk (I use "So Delicious Almond +" because it has 5g protein)

 1 scoop protein powder (I use Pro Complete One V- Core in Fudge Caramel)
and 1 cup cold coffee (Brew it the night before, stick in the fridge)

It tastes like a frappuccinno! LOVE!

For Lunch I had a random plate of yummy stuff

On the plate is 3 oz grilled chicken (make it on Sunday, eat it all week)
Baby Carrots, Cucumbers and Raw Zucchini dipped in hummus (Sabra singles at Costco- OMG!!!)
Half a Kiwi and 1 cup of Seedless Grapes
Tasted great! Like summer on a plate.

My husband was pumped to see red meat!

I cooked the potatoes in the microwave (5 minutes wrapped in a wet paper towel) then I sprinkled rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper on them and a small squirt of olive oil from my pampered chef oil atomizer.

The zucchini was sauteed over medium heat with just two small squirts of olive oil and garlic and salt. I could have eaten 3 servings

Lastly the grass fed beef- Broiled in the oven- 6 minute per side on low then 2 minutes per side on high (they were super thick) I used Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and Lawry's seasoned salt on it while they cooked.

I had lowfat string cheese for a snack today and I will probably eat celery and all natural peanut butter as soon as I am done posting this.

Hope this gave you ideas :)
I promise to get better with posting yummy food ideas.

25 days to go- What I have learned

So I officially have 25 days as of tomorrow left in the Lifetime fitness 90 day challenge. Through the first 65 days I am down 20lbs. It has been a hell of a learning experience. Pretty much everything I thought I knew about diet has been thrown out the window at this point.

Here's just a few of the things I thought I knew, but clearly did not.

1.) Doesn't matter what I eat as long as I am under 1300 calories at the end of the day-
I blame weight watchers for this stupid idea. I have been on weight watchers twice, this is what I remember from it. I can eat fun size bag of cheetos for the same amount of points as a grilled chicken. Really? Nutritionally void food vs a high protein, low carb food- same difference in my daily points. Cheetos won out on every stressful day I had, and I wasn't cheating on my diet, woo hoo! I gained every ounce back I lost on weight watchers as soon as I went off it. I never learned better habits cause I didn't have to. I am learning now. I have learned that on weeks where I submit to stuff I know in my heart I shouldn't eat instead of healthy options with the same calories, I lose less weight and I'm hungry. Or I I feel terrible, french fries absolutely piss my stomach off... so does donuts.  I know now- being under 1300 calories matters but what matters more is that you fill that 1300 calories with nutritionally dense, protein rich, fiber filled food.

2.) I can still eat all the carbs I want and hit my goals.-
I'm not gonna pretend for one second I cut out carbs, cause I didn't. I still eat fruit daily, I still eat a bag of baked lays when I am dying for a salty snack, and oatmeal will always be my favorite breakfast. What I have learned is to control my carb intake big time. I eat no more than 50-80 grams of carbohydrates a day. Carbs are mildly evil. They cause insulin spikes which cause fat storage. Insulin also makes you more hungry. I made the mistake of a skinny cow ice cream right before bed a couple weeks ago, I woke up the next morning and it felt like I had been starving myself for weeks, ravenous. I also try to eat all my carbs prior to 2pm. It gives my body time to burn it away before I go to bed. I know now- curbing carb intake is a key in healthy weight loss. You will stop being hungry if you watch the carbs, I promise.

3) If I skip breakfast, I have more calories to eat through out the day.- 
I hate breakfast, well I hate morning in general and breakfast is a part of it. Putting food on my stomach first thing in the morning used to make me gag. Unfortunately for me, study's show that people who eat breakfast daily weigh less than people who don't. A belly full of protein for breakfast will keep you full and going strong all morning long. I completely advocate bacon and eggs in the am. Well egg beaters or egg whites and turkey bacon (we are trying to get healthy right). As far as I go, I have one of 3 things for breakfast. Oatmeal because I love it, a protein shake, or if its the weekend egg whites and turkey sausage. I know now that I feel better and have more significant weight loss when I eat breakfast.

That's it for tonight. I hope you all learn from my mistakes, because your health journey will be easier for it. Tomorrow or Wednesday I am going to begin posting some of my favorite recipes to help you all along!

Make it a great week!

Pumping

 I have said from the start I would share my mistakes on this blog, well Sunday I discovered I was making a big mistake and I hope you all learn from this.

I am a cardio girl. I love it. From the time I was a teenager, I could park myself on an elliptical for more than an hour at a time. When I was on swim team as a teenager, practice in the pool at 5:30 didn't bother me... lifting weights bothered me. Now as I am on this health journey, the main way I have been loosing weight is through pure cardio. I rarely have crossed the dreaded line into the weight training part of the gym.

Enter my trainer, who happens to be one of my closest friends Sheizka. From day one, she has forced me into strength training. I have dreaded every minute. Complaining the whole time that I am just not burning calories and right now all that matters in getting rid of fat is cardio.

I was wrong. So fricking wrong.

Last weekend I bought a heart rate monitor. The first time I wore it was Sunday for our normal training session. I jumped on the elliptical for 30 minutes and according to my heart rate monitor, in that 30 minutes I burnt 325 calories- awesome right! Enter Sheizka. It was leg day so we did 45 minutes of leg strength training and 15 minutes of abs. I burnt 613 additional calories in that 60 minutes. 938 CALORIES TOTAL!!! For those of you doing the math... I burnt the same number of calories per minute doing cardio as I did when I was strength training. But while I was strength training I was building the muscles that would speed my metabolism and help me burn more calories when I am not in the gym!

So because I am always skeptical, Tuesday I decided to try 30 minutes cardio/ 30 minutes arms, chest and back to see what my calorie burn looked like. 350 calories on the elliptical, 375 strength training, 725 total.

I am a believer in strength training. Sheizka, sorry I have been so whinny.

What you should learn from this-

#1- Get a heart rate monitor, a real one with chest strap. It doesn't have to be really expensive- I got mine from Target it was $69.00 (its a pink New Balance). The machines at the gym are usually 30% off... if your trying to lose weight, 30% can screw your weight loss. Also, you work outs will be more productive and dare I say more exciting when you can watch those calories float away.

#2- Strength train. Even if you don't have a gym membership, you can still strength train. Push ups, squats, lunges... find a way to get it in.

#3- If you are paying someone to help you get fit (which I recommend if you can afford it!!!) don't whine. They obviously know what they are doing or people like you wouldn't be paying them.

Happy Calorie Burning!!!!

My heart rate monitor after Sunday training session.

Start

Warning this post is going to be long because its the foundation of what I'm doing to lose the weight.

So how did I start untrapping my healthy girl?

It all began February 9th this year. It's a really random date, but I had reason. Lifetime fitness was hosting a spring 90 day weight loss challenge... and I love a competition, so I joined. My weigh in was at 9am February 9th. The minute my weigh in was over I jumped right in. The competition was springboard I needed to find a healthy me.


So here was my plan, It's been modified along the way and I will share all of that... but I figured lets start from the beginning.

First, I set my goals.

• My goals-  50 lbs by my works trip to Punta Cana in Jan 2014
• I want to get rid of my baby pouch. C sections ruin your body
• I want to be proud of my arms and be strong enough to do real push-ups

Second, I found my Cheerleaders

You need cheerleaders, cause you are gonna want to quit at random times. When you slip up and eat an entire bag of chips, when you have a bad day and want comfort food, when it's that time of the month- you will be over the diet. Your cheerleaders wont let you quit. Find people who can tell you no! I wish I could say my biggest cheerleader is my husband, but he's not. He cheers me on for sure, but he will always give in when I say I really just need french fries. My biggest cheerleaders are my cousin Jodi and my good friend Sheizka. I couldnt do this with out them. Jodi is the best at random inspirational texts, I get them all the time- and each one pushes me or helps me to make better decisions. Sheizka aside from being my good friend is also a trainer (wait till we get into my training stories, LOL) and knows massive amounts about nutrition. Shes who I turn to most to tell me no. Actual conversation Me- I've got the flu and can't hit the gym today Sheizka- I will say a prayer for you to get better. Also, dont eat any sugar- I know you want to but it suppresses your immune system, so don't. I love them both and hope they both know how important they are in my journey

Third, do some sort of  detox "cleanse"to begin

People are terrified of cleanses, I was originally too. The principals of all detox cleanses are pretty similar. You drink or take fiber supplements, as well as pills that detoxify your system. Then towards the end of the cleanse you begin taking probiotic supplements to restore your healthy intestinal bacteria. While on the cleanse you eat fruits, veggies, meat, and nuts. Aim to drink at least a gallon of water a day.  No dairy, no gluten, nothing processed! This truely clears out all the gunk out of your body and preps your body to better absorb nutrients from all the healthy foods you are gonna be eating. Your gonna spend alot of time in the bathroom the first few days and probably have a monster headache around day 3. But it passes and if you are like me you will drop some weight (5lbs in 10days). I used the cleanse from Advocare, I love it. But all nutrition stores and gyms like Lifetime sell them as well.

Fourth, decide what method you are going to use after detox to continue weight loss

There are a million plans to lose weight. Do your research, find one thats realistic for your life! I have friends having success with all of them Medifast, Paleo, Weight Watchers. Whats important is that you eat less calories than you burn every day, and that you eat nutritionally dense foods.

I dont use any plan- except my own. I eat 1300 net calories a day of healthy, real food and I give myself one cheat meal a week. Whats net calories. It's calories you eat minus calories you burn doing cardio and strength training. I am currently loosing 1.5-2lbs a week

Fifth, I made myself accountable

Get the "myfitnesspal" app- or sign up on myfitnesspal.com- No, seriously do it. Without a doubt it's the best tracking tool I have ever used. Almost every food you can think of is preloaded into it... just type what you eat and it adds it to your tally. You can "friend" other people using the app and they can encourage you!

So there's how I started. As the blog goes on I will get into more of what I actually eat and how its prepared. But Its definately working.

Addicted

I feel like I should introduce myself to the people who dont know me like I am at a 12 step meeting. "Hi, I'm Amanda. I am addicted to carbs."  That's how weight loss blogs are supposed to start, right? But in all fairness that isn't me.

I'm Amanda.
I'm addicted to my kids. I've got a 6 month old and an 8 year old, both boys.
I'm addicted to my husband. We are coming up on 10 years of marriage.
I'm addicted to my career. I am with a Fortune 200 company as a State Operations Coordinator.
I'm addicted to high heels and Coach handbags.
That's me.

All of those addictions above have put me in the situation I am in now. I'm 33, I'm overweight, and I'm not happy with the way I look or feel.

My job kicks my butt daily... and most of the time because of that, I am too tired to even think about preparing dinner. So fast food or takeout it is. Oh, did I mention I am a stress eater?

My family keeps me busy and I care most about taking care of them... I could care less about taking care of myself.

 How do shoes and handbags play into being overweight? They are comforting. No matter how heavy I get, no matter what pants wont button, they still fit. So I buy them, a lot of them.

In January of 2013, I decided I needed to change my life. Why? I wish it was something of major importance; to live longer for my kids, to get to spend more years with my husband, so I am not so exhausted after at work.

Don't get me wrong, those things matter. But this is happening because for once in my life I decided to be vain. I want to look good. I'm gonna be spending a week in the tropics with my coworkers in Jan 2014 and I want to look good in my bathing suit. Mostly, I hate fat girl clothes, and I hate having to shop in the "Womens" section, barf.  I wanna be able to shop where ever I want.

So I'm here. 60 days into changing my body. I am down 17.5lbs. Why the blog now? Today, 5 separate people have asked me what I am doing to lose the weight. So I started it. The people who want to follow my journey to learn from my success (and probably more often than not, my mistakes), can... and if you are already skinny you don't have to hear me preach it on Facebook.

Oh- and the title of my blog- Healthy girl trapped.... Originally, I was thinking "Skinny girl trapped in a fat girls body"... but its most important to me that I stress I am being super healthy about this. No fad diet or miracle pills here. Healthy.

I am a healthy girl trapped... with awesome addictions that have caused unhealthy habits.

I have a feeling that some of you are healthy girls trapped too- whether its in a fat body, or a situation you don't wanna be in. This is for you, and I hope this blog gives you an outlet- because a healthy weight loss journey can be a lonely place. Lonely sucks.