Monday Motivation...Ugh.

I created this mental stigma I use to convince myself if I do not start on my goals for fitness, diet, cleaning the house, being better organized...whatever...all of it...on Monday, I can put everything off until next Monday.  I have discussed this elusive "next Monday" thing a few times for anyone who has followed my pointless ramblings on here, on Facebook, on MyFitnessPal, etc.

So here I am in that fish bowl on the right, swimming along with the other little unmotivated Monday fishies that are playing on Facebook or doing something equally unproductive. Will I make the jump today?  Where can I find the inspiration?

And in asking myself these questions I realize that I already have the inspiration, I am just in denial, and maybe if I write it all out I can go back and read this blog post to get back on track.  Because honestly, this is all the same stuff that pops up again and again for me and the cycle has to stop.  So, how about I write out some of these excuses?

*I don't have time to work out

Lie
I could be at the free gym up the road right now.  The kids are at school and all I have to do is slap on my workout clothes and go.  And really...Hailey is old enough now to go play on the playground with her big sister while I workout in the building next to it. I could take the kids on a walk to the park after school, or take our fat arthritic lazy dog on a walk.  I could fire up Dance Central like I told Kelly from TheMarriedGamers I would and do some challenges with her.

*I will eat better tomorrow

But...why not eat better today?

*There's no healthy food in the house, I'll go shopping tomorrow.

There are healthy things, I'd just rather eat the non-healthy ones. I always say I'm going to plan out a healthy menu for the week, go shopping and have all the things in the house to stay on track.  But then I convince myself that maybe I won't want the thing I planned for dinner, so it's just easier to grab whatever I want each night from the store, but of course it gets later in the day and it's so much easier to go to Panera and not have to cook or clean...

*I have too many other things to do.

This one...this one right here is the main killer of all motivation.

I am always going to have too many things to do, but do I feel good about myself when I sit here and do nothing?  Absolutely not!  But it's easy for me to sit here and get bogged down by my to do list. Right now I am not happy with myself for getting off track on my goals.  The yard needs mowed, my garden is a wreck, the house needs cleaned, laundry needs done, there are a million things I could be doing for my website The Mommy Gamers to make it better, I could be trying to earn money with my Thirty-One business that I have kind of left stagnant, and I think if I continue to make this list I  might have a panic attack.

Even my website logo is annoying me today, how is she juggling all these things and still SMILING? I want to punch her in her face.

So instead of doing anything, I do nothing.  Time to break the cycle.  If you have suggestions of what works for you PLEASE share them with me.  I'm tasking myself with not saying "I'll try" and instead will actually DO things today.

I already logged into MyFitnessPal, logged the breakfast I shouldn't have eaten, stopped avoiding the bathroom scale and logged my weight.  I gave myself a brief moment to mourn the weight I had lost and gained back, and to be disappointed in myself for eating like a hog this morning.  I can't go back and undo anything I've done, I can only move forward.

Can I get all the yardwork done in one day? No, but I can write down everything I would like to do and start ticking things off the list, or I could create an Indiegogo project and raise the money to hire someone to do it for me lol. Anyone want to chip in on that? My stretch goal would be a hottub and a tiki bar :)

But really, I think making a list might help, a realistic list that doesn't have to be all done in one week. Seriously though people, share your ideas with me because whatever it is that I am currently NOT doing is absolutely NOT working for me.

Healthy Recipes - Chicken Corn Crock Pot Chili

I started going to the gym at the end of January. We have since gotten in the habit of stopping at a restaurant on our way home because it's usually close to 6pm and I don't want to go home and cook and clean in order to prepare a meal. I have been making healthy choices and going online to my favorite restaurants like Panera Bread (YUM) and planning out what I can eat before I go so that I know how many calories I'm getting. Chick-Fil-A even has a meal calculator you can use, through this I learned that you can actually ask for no butter on your chicken sandwich, saving you 30 calories. I also learned that I do not like their diet lemonade very much. So when we went on Tuesday night I got a half diet/half regular lemonade along with my grilled chicken salad and my meal was 405 calories.

So for Thursday night's gym trip I planned on stopping at Chili's. We haven't been in a while and I LOVE their food. However, I wasn't sure if I could resist the temptation of my favorite treats there. We usually get their yummy Texas Cheese Fries (half order is 1035 calories) and their Crispy Chicken Tacos (1200 calories). After searching the rest of their nutritional info online I really didn't see anything that would work for me, and I knew I wasn't strong enough to resist the lure of cheesy fries dipped in ranch dressing.

Instead of going to Chili's I started searching online for a healthy crock pot recipe that I could fix and have waiting for us when we got home from the gym. The first recipe I found while searching "Healthy Crock Pot Recipes" was a Chicken and Corn Chili on www.recipe.com. The recipe is low-calorie and VERY low-fat as well. Double win!!

Here's what I put into my chili, I tried to buy things that were reduced sodium or no salt added. The College Inn brand broth actually had less sodium than a brand that had "reduced sodium" on the label. We also have a brand of salt that has less salt...lol.



I had some zucchini that needed to be used so I substituted that for the green pepper. That way I kept the green color in there.

My Recipe:
1 Medium Sweet Onion, chopped
1 Pound Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast Fillets (they were on sale cheaper than regular boobies, and have all the fat already trimmed off of them)
2 Cups College Inn, Light & Fat Free Chicken Broth
2 Cups of Zucchini, chopped (instead of 1 Green Pepper)
1 Jalapeno chili, seeded and chopped
1 3/4 Tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
3/4 Tsp Reduced Sodium Salt
1 can Petite Cut, no salt added, diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 can Reduced Sodium Black Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Topped the soup off with a little Mexican shredded cheese and fat free sour cream

The original recipe called for 2 cans of the cannellini beans, which are white pinto beans. I did half and half black and white just to shake up the color a little bit.

The recipe was pretty darned easy to make. I just tossed in all the fresh chopped veggies, chicken, broth, 1/4 tsp of the cayenne and salt, and 1 1/2 tsp of the cumin and cranked it up to high. Because I used the thin chicken fillets, I was able to pull the chicken out after 2 hours and shred it and toss it back in there as opposed to waiting 4 hours with regular chicken boobies.

Along with the shredded chicken I tossed in all the other crap :) The original recipe calls for cornmeal, but I forgot all about that and didn't add it. I turned the crock pot down to Low and it was on that setting for about 3 1/2 more hours for a total cooking time of 5 1/2 hours. I think it's supposed to cook longer but it turned out great.

I used MyFitnessPal to create a recipe for this and set the servings quantity to 6 because I didn't know how much it would make. Based on 6 servings here are the nutritional facts for what I made:

Calories: 234
Total Fat: 1.9g
No saturated or trans fat
Cholesterol: 33.3 mg
Sodium: 990mg
Carbs: 31.9
Dietary Fiber: 8.5g
Sugars: 6.9g
Also has a good amount of protien, vitamin A and C, calcium ,and Iron.

Because I served mine on a yummy pile of Rotini Garden Pasta, which gives you some of your daily serving of veggies, we didn't use very much in a "serving". I only put 3/4 a cup of the chili in my bowl. Hailey had some (she LOVED IT), and Hannah went back for seconds. After all that we still had enough to fill a 7 cup Tupperware container completely full.

So I would go as far as to say that the recipe really makes more like 10 servings, especially since I added 2 full cups of zucchini. This greatly reduces the amount of calories and sodium per serving. So when you make your batch, just make sure to calculate everything properly. I still logged my serving as the one listed above, I figure if it is less calories that's a WIN for me because I was full after eating mine.

I did top it with a pinch of Mexican shredded cheese and a dollop of fat free sour cream. We added a little salt to taste because the recipe really doesn't have much salt in it. Other than that it was wonderful! I personally would have added more fire to the chili, but because I was feeding it to the kids I left it pretty mild. It still had a nice mild burn to it and although my picture doesn't do it justice, it was very colorful.

We served a Dole Southwestern Salad with it which was DELICIOUS!! Normally we'd have a hunk of bread covered in butter with our chili, but the salad was a healthier and much more yummy choice. Hannah couldn't stop raving about the salad! I'm definitely going back to get more while they are buy one get one free at Winn-Dixie.

If you have any low calorie crock pot recipes you have tried and love PLEASE share them with me. If I can make something like this that the kids will enjoy it will make gym nights much easier. I think we will still go once a week out to eat somewhere healthy, but since I'm trying to go to the gym every other day we definitely need to have more crock pot recipes on hand. Luckily since this made SO MUCH, I plan to whip out the shrinky wrap your food machine and freeze some servings for future dinners, we should be able to easily get 3 more meals out of that batch.

Weight Loss - Month 1 Summary and Progress

Like most people, I have started off many new years with the intention of losing weight. I have yet to ever stick to my goals and have any success whatsoever. This year IS my year, I started thinking about this a couple months before January and when the year started I sat down and spent a considerable amount of time creating a journal to help me track my goals.

In my journal I am tracking my "Ultimate Goal" which is to have lost 36 pounds by my Birthday on May 6th. Each month in my journal takes up just one single page. I do not obsess over my journal, instead it is there for me to log my weight once per week so that I can see if I am tracking for my goal, or if I need to push myself a little harder during the next week. I also have set a slightly higher goal for the month, one that will make me push myself just a little harder and if this goal is attained each month I get an extra reward.

For January my goals for fitness were simple: Exercise 3x a week.

My diet goals:
1.) Track ALL food intake using MyFitnessPal
2.) Reach my 1200 calorie goal each day
3.) Take a multivitamin each day

Weight loss needed to reach my "Ultimate Goal" : 8.48 pounds

Actual weight lost: 9.2 pounds

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

My reward for reaching my goals and attaining the proper weight loss to reach my "Ultimate Goal" this month was a new pair of shoes and a workout outfit. If you remember my "Poo shoe" story from my first day going to the gym you know I already purchased my shoes, they're wonderful and comfortable and do not make my toes go numb like my other pair of shoes did...lol.

My "Pushing myself" goal was to lose 10 pounds, which I did not. I'm definitely not dissapointed in myself at all. During the month of January I battled the flu, the stress of my husband leaving to go back to Japan, the stress of being home alone with the kids, and the evil demon that is BROWNIES.

I have to also take into account the fact that I didn't get started on my month until January 5th, which did affect how much time I had to reach my goals this month.

But I lost 9 pounds. 9 pounds!!! I also have lost 2.5 inches off my waist, which is my most problematic area. I am hoping that I don't look 6 months pregnant when I relax my belly in the near future...lol. I burned over 6000 calories last month by walking with the kids, playing Dance Central 2, and during the last part of the month getting a gym membership and going every other day so far for a total of 5 trips.

I've added many new friends on MyFitnessPal, which is a FREE service for those of you who are trying to reach health and fitness goals. We are all cheering each other on, and the constant contact with my friend Kelly Brown is really helping us both out as we talk about our food, exercise, and our shame when we cheat :)

Also helping me out is my memo board I have at eye level when I sit down at my computer desk. This was the suggestion of another wonderful friend and I currently have notes with my weekly goal, and where I started the month at. My FAVORITE note on the board is the one that says where I will be at the end of the month if I reach my goal. Just seeing that number will motivate me each day.

At the end of February if I meet my goals I will be at a weight I have not seen since before I got pregnant with Hailey. I'll be able to retire my jeans, which are already getting loose, and pull out the brand new pairs of jeans and cute shirts I had purchased to wear to PAX Prime that year I came home thinking I had the PAX flu and ended up with an adorable new addition to the family instead.

If you are my friend on facebook you probably have noticed that I am posting a lot of stuff about diet, food, etc. I have quite a few friends that are also working towards fitness goals and I find that posting my frustrations, or fun new foods I find that work for me, and boasting about my success at the gym, really helps keep me motivated. So I hope that everyone understands that and isn't bothered by it too much.

Feel free to cheer me on and post some motivational comments on this blog. I really did work hard this month and I know that I'll have to work even harder this month to keep the momentum going. I'd love to hear your stories about your weight loss, past or present, any tips you have, favorite low calorie foods, snacks, drinks, fitness tips,ANYTHING you think will help.

If you don't feel comfortable posting your comments below (or don't know how to...lol) Email me at Jaxboxchick@gmail.com and your words will just be for me.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting me through this!

My neck, my back...

Yesterday I finally got started on the Dance Central challenge for week 2. If you want details on how you can participate in this challenge check out the article on The Married Gamers. Kelly Brown is the one who is writing about and participating in this challenge and we have been challenging each other and cheering each other on. This week we are supposed to dance the same song THIRTEEN times in a row! And while I don't completely blame Kelly Brown for the fact that my back is screaming at me today, I do like how gaming can help friends accomplish their fitness goals even if they are on opposite coasts. I see what you did there Dance Central, I'm so on to you!

I selected Cascada's Evacuate The Dance Floor for my torture yesterday. I figured since it was a one bar song on difficulty that it would be easy, so I did the challenge on the "hard" setting. What I did not anticipate was that that one evil move (can't remember the name) would have me sweating and dying. After the first song I immediately changed clothes. You really do need to wear comfortable workout-style clothing when doing this. You don't want to be hitching up your pants or trying to recover your bra strap while focusing on the moves. So I paused and tossed on some yoga pants, sports bra, and a shirt I didn't mind stinking up with sweat...and yes...I got sweaty.

My first playthrough was pathetic, only scoring 175K. However, by the 6th time I was getting the moves down a little better and found my score had gradually progressed to a mildly impressive 488K. Practice makes perfect right? It never went higher...lol. The score started dropping as I got exhausted. The "freestyle" breaks were spent catching my breath and dashing to chug water. The only thing that got me through was knowing that Kelly did her song 13 times in a row, and if she could do it then I could do it and I was NOT giving up. I gave it one final push on the 13th and last time and got 4 stars and 444K. Not great, but much better than my first attempt.

What throws me for a loop is the way they track how many calories you burn. I worked out for 25 minutes. I'm sweating and panting, and had to pop some aspirin last night because my back was so sore and they're telling me I only burned 125 calories?!?!? OH hellz no!

So I hopped on my iPad to the myfitnesspal app that I love and adore and have been using daily and did a search for general aerobics. 25 minutes is 221 calories on there and that sounded better to me so that's what I logged for my cardio for the day on my diary.

I will do my challenge again today. Kelly said the Lady GaGa song Marry The Night is a great arm work-out and that she was able to do it on Medium, so I'm going to try to one-up her and do it on hard.

I need some help picking my song for Friday though. I'll give you all three choices (in order of increasing difficulty) and let you guys pick, just leave it in the comments section:

Sandstorm - Darude

I Know You Want Me - Pitbull

Fire Burning - Sean Kingston

You have until noon tomorrow (Friday) to cast your vote!

And finally I want to add a little blurb about MyFitnessPal (yes again). I made some chili yesterday in the slow cooker and finally took advantage of the feature on MyFitnessPal that allows you to figure out your calories for a recipe you create. All I had to do was scan the things I used in my recipe. So using my iPhone, I scanned the lean ground beef, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, seasoning, etc and it gave me not only accurate calories to log per serving, but the proper nutritional value for my batch of chili. I found this super helpful and look forward to using this feature more in the future.

I still find the iPhone easier to use for scanning. I can never remember where my camera is on the back of my iPad...lol. But I still like the layout of the iPad a little better for other things. If any of you are using or want to start using the app make sure to add me "Jaxboxchick" and we can cheer each other on.

New Year Update - Part 1

I have been sitting here for the last few minutes just staring at this screen, wondering how to summarize all the excitement and changes and ideas I have for 2012. I've come to the conclusion that if I were to attempt to do this all in one big blog update that it would be a million pages long and no one would read it. (Not that any of you actually read through all this crap anyway) So I am going to do this in "parts".

Since I haven't posted in over a month I'll just sum up the holidays for now and say they were great. Bill came home from Japan for a couple weeks, we had the family over for Christmas Eve and had quite the slumber party, waking up Christmas morning and enjoying it with Bill, the kids, my parents, my sis & hubbie, and my grandmother. Christmas should always be like that :)

I finished up my AA in teaching in December too. Because of all the stress and exhaustion and flat out almost losing my mind I am taking a couple semesters off. This is the first time that I can remember where I don't have work or school and can focus on myself and my family and I am LOVING IT!!!

So, my Part 1 update has to do with what I am planning to do with all of this "free" time. I say this in quotations because I do still have a toddler to chase, and a house and kids to take care of while hubbie is away in Japan. My main goal is to take advantage of this time and focus on my health and fitness, and the overall improvement of the way I feed myself and the kids. Moderation isn't a word I use very often, but I'm working on finding a good balance between the right foods and making the fun foods a special treat instead of an every day thing around here.

I'm actually starting to properly use an app I've had on my iPhone for quite some time now. It's myfitnesspal and it is a free app for iPhone, iPad, and online as well. It makes tracking your goals and the foods you eat incredibly simple. Now that I have an iPad 2 (thanks Bill!) I downloaded the app for it and it's my favorite! However using it with my iPhone is the best because you can use your iPhone a little easier to scan your foods. But I'm getting ahead of myself here...

With this app you can hop online and set your weight loss goal. Then using any of the versions you can easily track your foods during the day. There is even a scanner on your phone or iPad you can use so when I make a salad I can just scan the salad, my dressing, and whatever else I use, select the correct serving size, and it enters all the nutritional value for me. It keeps track of everything all day long and provides a summary so you can track your carbs, sodium, etc and see what you need more, or less of as you go through your day. The iPad app does everything the iPhone does and offers even MORE features like a pretty little pie chart that shows you how your nutrition is tracking for the day.

My absolute favorite thing is that you can add your friends and see how they're doing and cheer them on as they complete their diary each day, drop weight, or just give them a "good job!" when they burn off a ton of calories at the gym. Oh, and when you DO exercise those calories you burn off go back into your ticker for the day and can be used for even more snacking, or maybe even a glass of wine at the end of the night. I'll let you check out the rest for yourself, but for a free app it's amazing and definitely a valuable tool. If you use it or plan to add me as a friend: Jaxboxchick

Ok, now that I've got my food tracking I had to address the whole exercise thing. My original thought was that I would get a gym membership that provides child care. I'm still planning to do this later this month. I think it would give me a nice break each day from Hailey (especially since I have NO babysitter close by) and get us both out of the house. For now, we've been taking walks up to the big park in our neighborhood which is a good 2.25-2.75 mile walk depending on which way we go. I push Hailey in the stroller and the kids take their bikes or skates. We've also been doing some Dance Central battles in the house.

The other day I noticed a great post on The Married Gamers about a Dance Central Challenge that Kelly Brown is participating in. Check out the link for all the details. Basically Dance Central is busting out some fitness challenges every week. I came in a little late to the game this week, so in order to get my 3x in by Friday I started last night and need to do the challenge three days in a row. This week you're supposed to do 10 songs in a row by a certain choreographer.

I did this last night on EASY and almost died. My wonderful son hopped in for the last four songs to help encourage me and keep me going and we really had fun doing the challenge. My body is screaming at me today, but I plan to stick with it and try to do all the challenges this year. You can find these challenges each week at DanceCentral.com. Let me know if you're participating and we can cheer each other on.

I think this is good enough for now...lol. Look for more in the next couple weeks from me, I've got a lot more to say...as always...