Days 5-8

Sorry for the laps in posts Spring Break has had me busy! :)

It started off great! Mike and I went to Richmond Friday-Sunday and on Saturday I ran the 10k with my sister and she got a PR! I am so proud of her she really worked hard and it showed! The overall weekend was great. I did split dessert with mom and picked at a few things at the race party but overall I am very proud of myself! My sister and mom came back with me on Sunday for some much needed girl time:) We had a great time on Monday and then my sister left Tuesday morning. We woke up pretty early on Monday and I worked out (I started the Sculpt and Sweat 1-2 video today. I started with the Sweat with the Abs 100 at the end. I was a great workout and the abs were fun but tiring), we ate breakfast, and went on about out day and had a BLAST! Today (Tuesday) we, again, woke up early and I worked out (as my mom and sister watched) and it was tough! I did sculpt 1-2 and I haven't bought the lighter bands so I decided to use my weights... well I only have 8lb. weights which normally isn't that big of a deal but the amount of reps we were doing definitely made it a little tough but I pushed through! The rest of the day has consisted of my mom and I shopping around Northern Va, which was Oh so fun! :) We got back at 5 just in time for my cleanse... yes I said cleanse. If you know me, you know that I have a weird/messed up stomach, so tomorrow I'm finally getting my last and final test to hopefully figure some things out. In order to get this "test" I have to have a full 24 hour cleanse (I'm sure you get the hint) Anyways my mom and I have also been Spring Cleaning! My room looks great! Well, my closet and drawers looking amazing I still have some dusting, cleaning, etc. to do but it's a great start! I love having my mom here:) Even with her hurt shoulder (she just had Rotator Cuff surgery!) she's so helpful! I just love her:)

That's all for now, I'm still on target with my weight. I've lost about 3.6-4 lbs. to date. I can tell, I think, that my body is getting stronger and leaner. I know it's only been a week and a half but with the way I'm eating it's speeding things up and I feel great! Since last weekend when I had a few things not on the "exact" menu (which is reality) I was really beating myself up about not being so strict but my sister keeps telling me, "Kendayl you need to be realistic about this and realize that you aren't going to be eating every meal at your house under your careful watch. It's about making smart decisions and every now and again realizing you aren't going to have/choose the best choices but that's life! We all slip up, its just realizing it and making the next choice a better one." She's great, I must tell you:) We've eaten out a bit the last few days but I have done very well.

That's all for now... I'll let ya know what the Doc tells me tomorrow and then it's back on track with yummy eating... I can have carbs so the menu that Tony has in the book has a lot more variety and it all looks so yummy!

Spring Break!

Spring Break has officially begun! Can I get an AMEN! I'm so looking forward to 9 days without children that yell Miss Cooper 999 times a day. :) In the mean time I am on break...BUT not on break from Tony:) I've done so well this week, I'm really proud of myself. I even said NO to cake balls. I would sit here and explain their almightiness but I don't have time for that. Just imagine the greatest thing in a ball form and you'll have a cake ball. It was hard saying no especially when my team was eating them and saying, "their small this time just go ahead and have 1". I resisted and chose pineapple:)

I'm packing up and heading to Richmond for the weekend to run the Ukrop's Monument 10k with my sister this weekend. It's her first race that's she going to run and I wouldn't miss it for the world! She asked if I'd run with her and help motivate and encourage her to the finish. I know she is going to do awesome and I'm excited to be there when she crosses the finish line! (Hopefully she doesn't kill me on the way there because you better believe I'm going to motivate her butt over that line! :)

After the race her in-laws have a race party at their house which is load with carbs and alcohol. What's wrong with that? Right? At this point in my journey EVERYTHING is wrong with that. I plan to eat a normal dinner before hand and not eat there. I will say, that I will be indulging myself in a beverage or two:) Mike is coming with me and I've given him strict instruction to push, shove, and/knock me over if I go near the food. Needless to say he gladly took the offer:) (hahah) He's been a great support this week and really is helping me fight the cravings:)

I'll write again after the race/party tomorrow night... which should be interesting, running 6 miles I mean, when I haven't had carbs all week and have felt slightly light headed during workouts. It's ok! I know I'll be ok and I can grab some Gatorade during a water stop to refuel!

Until then... Happy Friday!

Rise above

I'm so proud of myself... and yes I'm tooting my own horn! So last night I went to have dinner with the family that I'll be nannying for this summer. (I've been babysitting these girls for 6 years now, they're like family to me) I was kind of nervous about dinner because I wasn't sure what we were having, I didn't want to ask for a carb free Tony Horton dinner, and because I have been good all week with my meals. However, it wasn't too bad! There was baby ravioli, asparagus, tabulah (which I'm obsessed with!) and rice and beans. I had a couple baby ravioli, asparagus, and a little bit of rice and beans (probably about 1 tbsp). I'll admit, watching the girls have cheesy mac N cheese was a bit hard but when they got to dessert is when temptation really set in. "E" had a Kit Kat bar and "R" had a brownie and some M&M's... yummm! I kept drinking water to curb my cravings:) I was definitely still hungry after dinner for two reasons. 1. There was no protein (beans yes, but my portion might have had 3 beans) and 2. I was stressing about eating bad (off the beaten path of the week) that I had a baby portion. When I say baby, I mean that maybe 1/16 of plate had food on it. It looked like a birds plate...

Needless to say, as soon as the parents left I was left with an open kitchen and 2 girls in bed... DANGER ZONE (no witnesses!!) Usually I'd go for the M&M's or yummy crackers and cheese and while these things aren't terrible it's the portions and "in moderation" part that I really struggle with. I opened their fridge and what did I find? Blueberries!! I took a handful of blueberries and a full bottle of water and left the kitchen. There were a few times I was tempted by the sound of my growling stomach to go find another snack but I resisted the urges and boy was I proud of myself! (You might be saying to yourself, it's not that hard to say No... but for me it is! I just LOVE food!!)

As for today, I feel like I should get a gold star. I found a full bag of Rollos in my cabinet at work because the Leprachaun came and dropped off the yummy "gold" for my kids on St. Patrick's Day and left the bag. Now, normally the bag might have been polished off by now or at least have a good dent in it but I've really held strong. I took a big wiff of the bag and passed it off to another coworker to get out of my sight. Go Me!

After work I was going to dinner with some friends which again I was nervous about because I didn't want to crack to the temptation of yummy out-to-dinner food. We arrived and of course we made it in time for Happy Hour and their special 1/2 personal pizza deal... Did I crack???

NOPE! :) Everyone ordered their Happy Hour beers and I got my water. They all ordered their pizzas and I got a salad with chicken and the dressing on the side. I really didn't want to be "that girl" and order a salad but I'm thinking of my long term goals and if I crack this early on who knows what I'll do later down the road. So I stuck to my guns and while I drooled watching the others eat their absolutely delicious pizzas I tired to focus on how amazing my salad was... and it actually was really good!! After dinner we said our goodbye's and I went home slightly dreading what I knew was waiting for me at home. I knew that 32 minutes (doesn't seem like a long time but it hurts!) of Tony was awaiting me. I got home, did some laundry aka procrastinated for about an hour and then got my butt up and worked out! My legs and butt were on FIRE and as much as it hurt I knew it was one step closer to a toner/fitter me:)

Between the Rollo's, beer, and pizza it was a temptation filled day but I rose above! :)

The first test...

Today is the second day and I woke up feeling great... but definitely feeling a little sore. I could feel it in my butt and my legs the most, boy were those muscles burning! :) but that's a good thing! As far as the goes I did pretty well... notice the ...'s. In math today we were doing a fractions activity with icing and graham crackers (warning!!) I went into the day saying to myself, Kendayl don't eat the icing it's not that good anyways. Well I was doing really well I even wiped off some icing that got on my finger from passing it out. However, my knees started to buckle (not really ahah!) and I CAVED! I dipped my tongue depresser (that's all I had to serve the kids) in the icing and scooped out a little bit. I will say that when I say little I mean LITTLE, less then 1 tbsp. Anyways, I fell guilty and checked the calorie count and promised that I would do something extra in my workout today to burn off the cheating I had done. I told some co-workers what I had done and they reminded me that if I wasn't doing Power 90 I probably would have had more then I did, so in reality I held up strong today! BUT... icing is NOT on my carb free, or any of my new menu plans, so I felt that I needed to make up for it.

As soon as I got home, normally this would be a time for me to snack, I popped the fat burning video in and went at it. It was definitely more challenging today as my muscles were sore, but it felt great and I really pushed hard today! After the video I went straight down to my gym and ran a mile (yes, only a mile) to burn off the icing and a little extra. :) Normally 3 miles is my warm-up/average but with no carbs and these intense videos I want to take it slow so I don't burn out. Not to mention, I have to go to dinner to figure out plans for my nannying job this summer.

That's another slight bump in my road for today... I'm eating at someone's house and while it would have been nice to let them in on my restrictive eating habits I didn't think that was appropriate. So, I'm going in with a strong hold on my stomach and I'm really going to watch what I eat. I'm going to stick to the protein and veggies. (Lucky for me, this family is pretty healthy so I'm hoping tonight is one of their healthy nights) I'm in the process of chugging water to help fill me up some just in case it's not the healthiest meal I can already be a little full (hopefully long enough to get through the dinner without eating everything!) :)

I'll let ya know how tonight goes, tomorrow! :)

PS: I know I'm not supposed to weigh in right now but I did... and I've lost 1.6 lbs! HEY it's a start!!!

Day 1: Hello Tony, goodbye carbs!

Well today kicked of Day 1 of 90... I try not to think of the end, just day to day!

Today went great! I planned all my meals out last night for the day: breakfast, AM snack, lunch, PM snack and dinner. I'm staying at Mike's tonight so I had to prepare and pack tomorrow's meals too, which was a lot of work! (but I don't mind:)

Anyways, all my meals were delicious today and I must admit, again, that 4 oz. of turkey is A LOT. I was nervous that since I have 6 days of no carbs that I was going to be tired, have no energy, and be starving. Much to my surprise I didn't experience any of those things (nothing out of the normal tiring day that is). Although I'm not eating carbs I'm eating a lot of veggies and protein which keeps me full and energized. My breakfast was an omlet with spinach, mushrooms, and feta cheese (I made mine a little smaller then they called for so that I could add my activia yogurt in: I can't live without it!) I had 20 raw almonds for my AM snack, a salad with turkey for lunch and my afternoon snack was 4 oz. of turkey and 1 slice of low fat swiss cheese. Let me tell you, that it was a good snack and definitely filled me up and gave me the energey I needed to do my first workout with Tony. For dinner I'm making Dijon chicken and asparagus! yum-O! :)

As soon as I got to Mike's I put the DVD (Fat burning system) in and was ready to go... 1 issue... Mike lives with 4 other guys. Needless to say when they heard the thumps from upstairs (jumping, high knees, etc.) they came running to see if there was an elephant up there. Much to their surprise it was just me! :) They laughed for a bit/look intrigued and asked Mike why he wasn't doing it with me... heheh :) Mike kept popping in and out of the room and encourged me which made me feel great! I proceeded on with my work out and while it was tiring it was fun and I got through the whole thing doing exactly what Tony was doing. He gives you easier options to do for moves in case the regular ones are too much but I was able to keep up with the regular ones. That doesn't mean I wasn't out of breath and sweating... because I was!
To be honest, by the end; although I was tired, I was wondering why the video wasn't longer. It was a good work out but I feel like I could have kept going. THEN I realized that this is ONLY day 1 and my excitement is through the roof, I'm sure I won't be saying "let's keep going" as the days/weeks progress. So for now I'm going to be thankful that I feel so great and can keep up!

Day 1 down.... T-minus 89 days to go!

Tony has arrived!

My package didn't arrive this weekend and I was very disappointed because I wanted to start the week off with my new routine. So I called my dearest sister and got the scoop on what I should eat this first week of limited/no carbs. She filled me in and I put together my AM snack, lunch, and PM snack. I wasn't able to eat breakfast because I had a doctor's apt. that I had to fast for. That definitely threw my day off because I didn't have any energy to start my day off. All day I felt pretty good; however, as the work day came to a close I felt myself getting really hungry. What I wouldn't have done for an apple and peanut butter... instead I settled for an orange. Because I wasn't ready, meal wise, for the week I did eat roughly in my range minus a few calories and breakfast (no carbs!). 4:30 came around slowly but as soon as that clock hit 4:30 I was out of work! I stopped by Bed Bath & Beyond so I could get my scale to help me with amounts/portions. After that I headed home.

I arrived home from work to see a package slip on my mail box. I quickly ran to the office and swiped my package. Needless to say I was excited: TONY WAS HERE!! (Tony is the trainer on all the videos); I was tearing into the box as I was in the elevator! As soon as I got into my apartment I flipped the box upside down and all its contents fell out... and boy were there a lot of things to look at! I immediately found the first 6 day meal plan booklet and started reading through it. I made a grocery list of what I needed and hurried to the grocery store (Tony says you need to eat 3 hours before going to sleep. It was already 6:00 and if you know me, you know I go to bed early!) I'll save you the boring details of my shopping spree but it was good and I got everything I needed for the first 6 carb free days.

For dinner tonight I made tilapia with shallots, garlic, thyme, and lemon with asparagus (2 cups... which is A LOT!) and 1/4 of a tomato (I thought the tomato was random but I love tomatoes so I didn't mind). I anxiously waited for dinner to be ready and I dove in as soon as it came out! I honestly thought I was going to be starving after dinner but I wasn't! After dinner I Tony says I can have some tea... so I did:)

While my dinner was cooking I got tomorrow's menu together. At first I was worried that the portions were going to be ridiculously small, again if you know me, you know that I love to eat and I don't do well with anorexic portions (excuse the words). But as I was measuring things out 4 oz. of turkey is A LOT! So that alone got me really excited!

I'm supposed to do the first video called "Fat Blaster" tonight, or I can swap it for the "Sculpt and Sweat 1-2" since I'm a beginner. To be honest I didn't want to do any working out tonight. After this weekend, Shamrock 1/2 Marathon, I'm beat. It wasn't the greatest weekend for me; for starters I was recovering from a stomach bug, I lost a really important ring, our hotel room was gross, I got a blister on mile 3, and my knee was angry...really really angry. I didn't do what I wanted to do which was to get a PR. Instead I got what I call, a WR (worst record). waa waa :( However, it was my 2nd half in 2 weeks so I feel like finishing was good enough especially with all the odds against me. So, thinking about having to workout today is daunting. So I'm not going to. I feel like I'm wussing out but I just need 1 day off to recover from this weekend. So I've decided that while this is a 6 day carb free plan, I'm going to do it for 7 and make up for today.

So today is Day 0 of my journey (kinda) and in 7 days I'll be done with the carb free part.... Let the count down begin!

On your Mark, Get Set....

Well, I wish today was Day 1 out of 90 BUT it's not. I did however, order Power 90 on Saturday. They said it will arrive in 5-7 days so now I'm just waiting for it to arrive in the mail! This week I'm focusing on the Shamrock 1/2 Marathon I'm running this weekend... which I'm very excited about. It's my 4th 1/2 Marathon and while I don't always enjoy the training I love and look forward to the races. My package (Power 90) should be arriving this week but no later than Monday. Which means this time next week I'll be blogging about how Day 1 or 2 went! Until my package arrives I'll be enjoying my last few days of a Tony-free world and yummy carbs!