Exercise Tools – Nike FuelBand vs FitBit

Do I Like To Exercise? No – But I’m Going To Learn To Love It!

Do I Need to Exercise? Absolutely… big time!

I’ve gone through so many phases in my life, and even on this blog, where I’ve started to exercise and get in shape. I’ll do good for awhile, and then I tend to fall back into my old ways. I think there is a part of me that doesn’t think I can ever be one of those “in shape” people. I know that sounds dumb, but after watching my mom struggle off and on for years with exercise (Jack Lalanne and soup cans.. for some of you who might remember), I just have this block in my head – that I’ll never be that person out running a marathon.  Do I have a desire to run a marathon. Nope. Would I like to be able to run for a few miles? Yes!

I have a zillion excuses, I have plantar fasciitis and my Podiatrist said that walking should not be an exercise for me. The nearest club is over 1/2 hour away and my work schedule won’t allow it. My heart rate goes into the 200′s when I try to jog. Oh… there are more, believe me. But I have to break through those.

At the beginning of this year I decided I have to get 70 pounds off.  I did it in 2008, I used Jenny Craig and took off 50 pounds, but I went off their plan and slowly gained it back.. plus another 20 pounds. Menopause hasn’t helped either… along with sitting on my butt for at least 12 hours a day working.

When I lost my 50 pounds, I wasn’t exercising. This time I have to do both. Now I have the fat arm stuff happening, the big belly.. (I never knew your boobs could touch your belly when you sit certain ways! lol) As always my hips, legs and butt are huge. There are things I never have experienced before. I was always very thin growing up.. and this extra 20 pounds in the last year has thrown me over the edge. I’ve had to buy new fat clothes, the backs of my arms will bother me because things are too tight. It’s the pits and I feel gross.

Nike FuelBand

Part of my inspiration is because I feel terrible.  The other part is watching all my co-workers at Collective Bias show all their pictures of running and working out on Path and Facebook. This company is so awesome to work for that they gave us all Nike FuelBands this Christmas. How cool is that? John Andrews and Jay Thornton both got a Fuelband and liked it so much for themselves, that John decided to get them for all 50+ of us.  For a company to care so much about it’s employees, that they REALLY want to see us healthy. That is just one of the reasons I love working at CB. Not because they gave us a cool gift, but because they really care about us. They want the best for us. Love that!

This is really neat. I love the look of it. It comes in a white/clear one or a black/clear one.. or this solid black. You get fuel points for your activity. If you are walking or working out, doing laundry etc. It also tells you how many steps you’ve walked, calories burned and what time it is.  You set a goal and you work to meet it each day. The little red dots at the bottom.. go across as you work towards your goal. They get green when you are into the good zone. Then you can share on Facebook or Path your progress and compare with your team. That is where Collective Bias has been really productive with this. There are several runners at CB, and many of us that aren’t, but they have had fun with sharing their fuel points with everyone. It shows the path they have run, or walked. It syncs with your computer and your phone, so you can easily track what you’ve done.

I think this is an awesome tool if you want to get in shape. If you want to track your progress for the day, have competitions to see who can get the most fuel points or just track it yourself. It is a great way to inspire exercise. You want to get more fuel points to hit your goal for the day.

FitBit

Before I knew I was getting one, I had asked Dave for a FitBit for Christmas. He got me one, so now I have both tools. I also got one for Dave for Christmas. He’s been using it and is happy to show me how far he does walk at work everyday, inspecting the job site he manages.

They are both awesome tools to tracking your exercise and activity. I highly recommend them both. The FitBit is small and clips onto your clothing. Dave wears his clipped inside his pants pocket. I wear mine clipped to my bra. It tells you your steps for the day, calories burned, time of day and a growing flower for your progress. It has an automatic sync (this model of FitBit at least) to your computer and your phone. You can also share with your friends and post to FB or Twitter.  Very similar features of the Nike FuelBand.

What it does do that is different, than the Fuelband  is that you can track your food intake and it also tracks your sleep. There is a wrist band that you slip the fitbit into. It comes out of the rubber clip you see above and easily slips into this Velcro wristband. Then you just hit the timer to start it. In the morning you turn the timer off. The wristband doesn’t bother me at all to sleep, although I did see on a few people who reviewed it, that they didn’t like it.  I like being able to see my sleep patterns. I was surprised I woke up as much as I did through the night.

This also has an alarm feature on it. It will wake you up in the morning. I have yet to figure out how to set that, but I think I saw a way, and just haven’t taken the time to try that feature out yet.

This is what the dashboard looks like. You can earn badges for your accomplishments. Climbing stairs, steps, miles.  You can see where I did my short work out in the morning.. where the yellow spikes are.

The feature I like the best with this FitBit is that I can track my food intake. I picked a program of easy, medium or hard (I picked hard) in order to lose my weight. It has me losing 2 pounds a week, so that I’ll hit my goal of 70 pounds in August of this year. It then calculates your food intake (you plug in the food and there are many options that come up to pick from. If those don’t fit, you can enter your own food item with the portion and calories.) and exercise for that day.

It tells you how much more you can eat for that day… or if you’ve gone over your calories for the day. Several times when I’ve gone over, then it has inspired me to go up and do more exercise.

For me, because I am trying to lose weight along with the exercise.. the FitBit is a better exercise tool. It has been more inspiring to me due to the calorie intake feature, than the Nike FuelBand.  If your main goal is the exercise and getting in shape, then I think the Nike Fuelband would be ideal. I think the guys like the look of the FuelBand.

The FitBit One that I have is $99. I got mine for Dave at BestBuy. He got the one for me online.
The Nike Fuelband is $149.

I can highly recommend both of these exercise tools, and I’m very thankful to Collective Bias and my husband for giving them to me. Neither one expected or asked for a review – I just wanted to share part of my big inspiration for exercising and losing weight.

So far since January 1st of 2013, I’ve lost 8 1/2 pounds. What I was thrilled with, was that it also included a six day trip to Bentonville, AR for work, and I’ve always gained weight when I’ve traveled before. I’ve always had an attitude of “I can eat whatever I want when I’m traveling, because it’s too hard to try and eat healthy”.  But not this time. I exercised 3 of the 4 available mornings I was there with Debba from Girlfriendology. Of course she was far past me in her running and exercising abilities, but she was great encouragement and  inspiration while I was there.

 

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Green Smoothie Recipe

Spinach Green Smoothie and it’s Yummy!

I found this recipe for this green smoothie on pinterest and decided to try it and loved it!  I know… looks gross… like something for Saint Patrick’s day or something. Am I a total healthy freak who thinks all that gross healthy stuff tastes good? Nope.. not at all.  I am a total sugar-holic (but going through sugar de-tox now! LOL ) I do not have a taste for veggies, they are hard for me to get down, so this is a great way to do it.

Does it taste like spinach…. NO!  Believe it or not.

I have been having one each morning and it holds me until lunch… easy!
This has been referred to as a diet secret weapon…. and I can see why!
It tastes like a banana peanut butter milk shake.

It is around 350 calories per serving – but remember, it is a meal and it is so healthy and will help you not to have those in between cravings.

Ingredients

1/2 cup fat free or low fat yogurt (Greek yogurt would be good, but it is more expensive, so I don’t use it)
1 cup skim milk
1 banana (you can slice & freeze ahead if you want, I use ice cubes instead)
1 T peanut butter
several cups of leaf spinach
hand full of ice cubes

Cup up your banana

Add 1/2 cup yogurt

Add 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Add 1 cup skim milk
Fill the rest with spinach

Add a handful of ice.

Pulse your blender until the ice has made it’s way down. I like to put it on top because it seems to push the spinach down a little better.  Once your ice is chopped pretty well… then let it blend on smoothie or high for about a full minute.  There shouldn’t be any pieces of spinach left. (at least that is how I like it)

You get a large serving. Drink it all.

It tastes like a peanut butter banana shake!!!  Honest! My 11 year old tried it and liked it (the other one wouldn’t try it)

So happy I found this… you’ll have to try it!

 

I made the shake myself. These are my pictures. Please do not use them without permission, other than pinning them to pinterest. That I would love! :)

Nutrisystem Week 7

I’m a Yo-Yo

Up and down and up and down.  I feel like I go down, then have a day or two that I’m not as good, and back up the weight goes, then I spend the rest of the week trying to get it back off.

The thing is, when I have something that isn’t Nutrisystem, I usually try to still really try to limit it, much more than I would have previously at least.  So in a sense I still feel like I’m not being terrible.  So why does the weight go up and down SO much?

Last week I was 191 the day after Thanksgiving. I think that weekend with left overs was worse than actual Thanksgiving.  I went back up to 195.  I then worked the rest of the week to get back down to my weight today.

190.5

I feel a bit discouraged. Christmas is coming up and I know all the good stuff that is going to tempt me.  I need to get exercising, but have I done that in the last couple weeks.. nope. I know, I shouldn’t be complaining then should I. I just need to do it.

I’m considering doing a Zumba Gold class with a friend. I’ve wanted to try Zumba, but knew that I would feel like a fool. I don’t dance and never have been able to, but always wanted to.  But I’ve been too self conscious to try.  But this is a class for baby boomers, and the girl who is taking it says everyone feels uncomfortable, that is part of what makes it nice.

Hopefully next week I can get out of these 190′s!

 

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

 

 

Nutrisystem – Week 6

Weighing in the Day After Thanksgiving Should Be Outlawed!

It sure wasn’t fun to have to weigh in today for Nutrisystem.   I did get my weight yesterday and then again today to show you (if there was a big difference.)

I got yelled at by my family for taking a picture of my plate and I was told to fill it up more.  I had more than enough to eat and I didnt’ finish eating all my dressing. I should have taken white meat (I know) but I LOVE the dark meat. I had a taste of the yams, a very small helping of the green bean casserole and 1 crescent roll  (without butter)

Now for my weigh in.

I weighted 191.0 today.  Last week I was: 193.5   I lost 2.5 pounds this week.

Yesterday I weighted 190.5, so I only gained 1/2 pound yesterday on Thanksgiving.   I mentioned the meal, but I also ate some desserts.  I had a very tiny slice of peanut butter pie, and another tiny slice of pumpkin (with whipped cream).  We ate around 1:30 pm.  We went over to my Dad’s house around 6pm. Of course the food from their afternoon meal came out for “left over” dinner.  I only had a small piece of chocolate cake. (I know!… that isn’t what I should have eaten.)

When we got home around 9pm I was really hungry, to the point I felt nauseated.  I didn’t want a whole meal from Nutrisystem, instead I opened a can of light chicken noodle soup and had that to calm my stomach.

The week prior had been a good one.  I wasn’t good about taking pictures of the food this week from Nutrisystem, but I’ll give you a surprise “good” pick and one that wasn’t very good.

I had the pancake mix this week.  I had thought that tiny package was only going to make about 2 quarter size pancakes by the look of it.  But it actually made me two very nice size pancakes. I didn’t feel like I was being “cheated” at all. I’m sorry I didn’t order some more of that this month (but will next month).

The item that I didn’t like at all and couldn’t even eat was the package (pantry version) of chicken salad.  It was in a packet and I had to squeeze it out (which kind of grossed me out). But the consistency was pasty and I scrapped it off my plate and didn’t eat it at all.

So the week went much better than I expected with Thanksgiving.  One holiday down, now the whole month of Christmas celebration torture is about to begin.

 

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

 

Nutrisystem Week 5

Getting Back in the Groove

I’ve been home from my travels for 5 days now. I’ve gotten myself back into the routine I needed to…. well, not completely. I haven’t started my walking/running yet.  Planning on that for next week… honest! (I know.. that’s what they all say right?)

Ok.. here is the dealio -

Starting weight 200.5
Week 1 – 197
Week 2 – 193
Trip 1 – 4 day weekend
Week 3 -194.5
Trip 2 – 4 day weekend
Trip 3 (back to back) 5 day trip
Week 4 -when I got home
this last Monday am – 201.5!
Wow!! Gained it all back plus some. I know I had a lot of water weight on me. When I was in CO because of the altitude problems I didn’t take my diuretic at all. In AR I took it twice of the 5 days. That weight was just  5 mornings ago.  I have been back on my Nutrisystem and drinking water & taking my diuretic.

This morning I was 193.5!! I’m excited!  Sad that it is still up from 3 weeks ago, but glad that I was able to get it back down into reasonable range so fast after my trip.

I’m going to share some of the things I like to eat in the morning… muffins!

This is the chocolate muffin – love it! Doesn’t that look great? Only problem? It’s too small!  Not really, but I was used to being able to get those huge big muffins at the store. You know which ones I mean.  This one is much smaller than that.

You can see the size of it. Once you have cut down your intake, it really is enough.  This is what I had for breakfast the other morning. A banana, light fat free yogurt and the muffin. I also had 8 oz of skim milk and my coffee.  I was completely satisfied.  I could tell you that I actually felt too full (which was true) but you probably wouldn’t believe me.

This morning I had a banana nut muffin.  Because I felt too full yesterday with the banana and yogurt, I just had the muffin this morning, with my coffee.  It was enough too.

This muffin isn’t quite as moist as the chocolate muffin, but I still enjoyed it and it was still good.  It is the same size as the choc. one though.

For dinner the other night I had the mushroom risotto. I love risotto so was really excited about it.  The flavor was pretty good and the texture was thick and rich – but for me it was a little too spicy.  I ate the fat free cottage cheese with it to cut the spice. (remember.. for most people who aren’t spicy wimps it is probably fine). But combining the two of these together I got too full and couldn’t eat all of it.

Tonight for dinner I had the thick crust cheese pizza.  I forgot to get a picture of it before it was gone (sorry).  The crust is separate and you put the sauce and cheese on yourself. This way they can have it as a pantry food, and not frozen food.  I wasn’t super thrilled. The reason – the dough was a little damp on the bottom and very chewy.  I have another one to try and I think I will put it in the oven. I bet then it will be good. The flavor was good, everything else about it was good, but the chewy crust and the moisture – which I’m sure is the microwave part of it.

I’m frustrated this week that the first two weeks that I did so well when down the toilet when I went out of town for the three trips. But I can’t let it defeat me. I got back into this week and go things going again.

 

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Nutrisystem – Week 4

Vacations and traveling = Ugh

So obviously I’m still in the mist of my almost two weeks of traveling. Do you think I’m doing well? Nope…. I’m not. It is going to be one of those … get home and be SO mad at myself – kind of things.

Dave and I traveled to Divide, CO and stayed at this awesome cabin with an altitude of 9,000 ft.  That started some of the issues with my eating. I had issues with altitude illness.  Headaches, and some nausea.  You would think the nausea was the kind that you don’t want to eat. Nope, mine was that I needed to eat something to feel better.  But I wanted more crackers, breads and things. Salad just sounded terrible to me.

The other factor for me was that I didn’t take my diuretic (water pill) when I was there.  I have been taking that for a couple months because I retain fluid (especially when I travel).  But because of the altitude I was advised to not take it if I could help it.

I didn’t go hog wild and eat everything, we had grapes to eat, fat free yogurt and cottage cheese in the cabin, but Dave and I split a dessert one night and I ate crackers several times.

I got on the scale on Wednesday morning and was back to 198 pounds.  ugh!!   If I was then staying home I wouldn’t have been as upset… but I left that same Wednesday morning for Arkansas.

I did pack some of my Nutrisystem food, but I haven’t been eating it.  (insert sad face here)   I look at the lunch time bars and I’d like to eat them as a snack in addition to my lunch, while others are snacking on cookies etc.  But I haven’t done that.

I still have turned down lots of good stuff, but certainly not everything. I’m eating a lot I shouldn’t be too.

For breakfast this morning there was a buffet breakfast at the hotel. I had them make me an omelet with veggies only, no cheese.  I ate that and a fat free yogurt for breakfast.  I know… egg white omelet would have been much better.

The rest of the day wasn’t so good.

This is classic travel/vacation #FoodFail for me.

Hoping next week will be more positive. I will get home on Sunday and will hopefully get my butt in gear on the treadmill again!

 

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

 

Nutrisystem – Week 3

Traveling and Maintaining

I think we all know how hard it is to eat well when your away from home.  I am in the middle of several trips.  The first five days were in Virginia visiting my sister and brother in law.  I drove my Dad and brother to visit.

Last week was a good week for me… this week – not as well. I gained 1.5 pounds from last week.  (plus I need a pedicure real bad.. lol) What scares me is the next two weeks is full of travel too…

I took a few lunches, breakfasts and a dinner with me for the trip. It was nice to have meals that I could travel with. I didn’t have to worry about a cooler.

The frustrating thing is that I was SO good! To realize what I would have normally have eaten!  First night we went to a Greek restaurant. My favorite thing ever at a Greek restaurant is spanakopita. Although it has spinach in it, it isn’t low cal!  I got a greek salad with chicken. (no cheese or croutons). I did have one bite of my Dad’s spanakopita though.

Dinner the next night was at a French restaurant.  I got lemon chicken breast. There was a side of fresh veggies with a fried potato cake on top. I took a little bite of the potato cake and gave the rest away (it was good!). I only ate half of my chicken breast, measure the amount by the palm of my hand. My sister and her friend got awesome looking desserts. I didn’t order one, but did have a bite of my sisters and a little bite of her friends.

Our last night was a homemade meal that my sister made. She is a vegetarian and eats healthier than I ever do! She made a whole slew of things! There were two kinds of mushrooms,

onions, peppers,

butternut squash – no butter, no cream or anything. It tasted a LOT like sweet potato casserole.

salmon,

steak, and small potatoes.

She didn’t use any butter or anything fattening to cook. She said she calls it “clean” food. A very healthy meal.  It was awesome.

My cousin’s wife brought some Russian desserts… now those are not “clean” or unfatting! lol But  I took a very small 1×2″ piece of each piece. The chocolate I had one bite and didn’t eat the 2nd bite. The other (not sure what it was) I did the same thing. One bite only.  Now the Napoleon… that was a different story. omg was it awesome! I had my little 2 bites, and then I did get a small 2×2 square, but it was only the bottom 1/3 of the piece. It is multi layered dessert.  That was the worse thing I ate the whole time I was there!

Yet when I got home on I weighed myself the next morning. I had gained 2 pounds!! Yuck!  I felt SO disciplined and was so proud of how good I was. So I have worked the rest of the week trying to get back off the 2 pounds.

The big problem is that I leave on Saturday for Denver for 5 days, get home for less than 24 hours and leave again on another trip (business) for another 5 days. I’m hoping I won’t end up back at day one after all this!

Exercise? Ok… I haven’t exercised this week either, and don’t know if I will again before I get back on the 13th.

It is hard to continue to “behave” when your away. There are so many temptations and you feel like, “this is vacation” so you want to give in. I just have to be strong!

Here are a few things that I had from Nutrisystem this week.  This is one of the lunches.

 Take off the lid. See the little very light little intended marks? That is the water line. It would be nice if this were marked a little better. It is kind of hard to see and I had a hard time believing this was the line I was looking for when I opened the first one.  Just add water, stir it up and microwave for 45 seconds.

  You stir it up good and let it sit for a couple minutes.  It is hot and I really like how they taste. A nice warm lunch. It is actually pretty filling too.

I had this for lunch today.  It was cheese and broccoli potatoes. You didn’t microwave it. You add boiling water and stir.  It was ok. I wasn’t super impressed. Kind of mushy (I know potatoes are mushy) but the favor wasn’t bad.  But I don’t think I’ll be picking it again.

This is one item I WILL be picking again. It is the peppermint cookie. Dessert time at night! Yum!

I will be packing some of my cookies for my trips.

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Nutrisystem – Week 2

Couch to 1 Mile Revisited

We all know that we are supposed to exercise.  You have those people that do it everyday and love it. They feel good, they usually look good and they are healthy.  Then there are the rest of us. Those of us who WANT to want to exercise, but simply stated we don’t like to do it.  We come up with a million zillion excuses why we can’t.  Let’s see, for me…. something always ends up getting inflamed or injured and I have to stop, I don’t have the time and how about I don’t want to wake up the kids exercising before they get up. (actually I don’t use that one, but thought it was a good one to throw in for a 3rd option.)

I was told by the Doctor not to run until my heart rate could stay under 160 while walking a mile.  That threw me for a loop. I was actually enjoying my beginning phases of being able to run a mile.  I took off all last week.  To just walk a mile, that is boring, and takes longer in the morning. But I have revised my plan and have made it doable for me.

Here it is:

5 Min Warm up Walk at about 3.2 on the threadmill
60 second very slow jog 4.0 (this is a 15 min mile)
90 second walk 3.4

Alternating until 1 mile.

This isn’t much quicker than walking the mile, but when I go to the 4.0 on my treadmill it is too fast for me to walk. I have to go into jog position. It’s funny because I am actually feeling it more in my legs after I finish doing my workout this way than when I was doing a faster jog.

I’ve done this three times this week.  The next 3 weeks are going to be a lot of traveling for me, so I’m not sure how it will work into things, but I’ll try.

Food!!

I’m down to 193 pounds. I’ve lost 7.5 pounds in 12 days!!   I’m really excited about that!   This morning I am driving my Dad to VA to see my sister. I woke up at 4:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep. My hubby was leaving for work by 5:10. I laid there trying to decide if I was going to try to get another hour sleep because I was worried about driving 8 hours with only 5.5 hours of sleep, but I thought my body would probably feel better if I got up and exercised instead.  I feel great!

I’m going to go over some of the food I had this week. The good, the bad and the ugly. (just kidding) But I will tell you what I honestly thought of each item. Heck, everyone likes different things, so there is no way that someone is going to love every item they have.

One of the mornings I had the Breakfast Burrito.

 You just have to cut the end off it and mircrowave it.  It looked good and smelled good.  But I took the first bite and couldn’t eat anymore. Why? Because I am a spicy whimp!  I just can’t do spicy at all.  This was spicy, much too much for me. Now, for those of you who like it, I’m sure you’d love this.

Here are a few other things I tried this week.

The Chicken quesadilla was for lunch and I was scared it was going to be another adventure into spicy-ville.

It had just a touch of spicy, but not bad at all. I enjoyed it.  I had some fat free cottage cheese with it, and that really worked. The cottage cheese reminded me of the sour cream that I like to mix with mexican food, so I kind of ate it together.

One of the evenings we had one of Elise’s volleyball games and didn’t have much time for dinner. Dave picked up pizza on the way home. Ugh…. I knew that would be a killer. Pizza is so good.  BUT…. I jumped into my handy dandy freezer and popped out one of my lunch meals. I had it for dinner with the family.

While they were eating this….

I got to enjoy having pizza with them. Although mine varied just a bit in appearance, it really satisfied the craving for pizza and I didn’t have the desire to knock everyone out of the way and grab their pizza box and dive in!

I did learn that I liked the pizza better baked in the oven rather than microwaved. Although it still came out pretty good in the microwave, I liked the oven version better. I also prefer the turkey sausage pizza to this veggie one.

Experimenting with all the different foods is good the first month on the program. There are things I might not have tried normally, but find I really like them over what I thought I might like.

Eating Out

Dave and I tend to eat out a lot the week we don’t have his kids.  We don’t do a lot of fancy dining, but we might run to Subway or Roosters (chicken wings)

Since I’ve started the program we’ve actually gone out for several meals. Let me break down some of what I’ve done to manage these meals.

Japanese Steakhouse -

Ate all of the broth they brought out. I ate most of the salad. It was lettuce and they had already put on the dressing. I tried to work around the blob of dressing and get the “unaffected” lettuce, but didn’t eat it all.  In hindsight I should have told her to leave the dressing on the side for me, but I had no idea when they were bringing it out.

I ordered the chicken dinner. Of course he grilled everything in big blobs of butter. ugh.  I didn’t eat the shrimp, I gave that to my husband. When he served my chicken (huge amount) I gave my son about half of it right away.  I ate about half of what remained with a little bit of white rice (brown rice wasn’t an option and I knew I didn’t want to order the fried rice). I did try to eat more veggies. Even though they were cooked in some butter, they were better for me than the rest of the food in butter and I need more veggies. I then brought the rest home and my hubby had it for lunch the next day.

It was Dave’s birthday celebration, so they brought out one of those pineapples with the sparklers in it. I did eat several bites of the pineapple.

Subway

I got a 6″ sub on wheat bread with turkey breast, spinach lettuce, regular lettuce, tomatoes and mustard. I had a yogurt and water.

Roosters

Side salad without cheese, or crotons. I did get blue cheese dressing on the side. But I didn’t put it on my salad. I dipped my fork into the dressing and then took a bite. I ate all of the salad.

I ordered 5 all drum BBQ wings. I asked for a to-go box when we first sat down and put 2 of the wings into the box. So I only ate 3 wings.

 

I know each of these meals I ate more calories, fat etc, then I would have if I stayed home and had my Nutrisytem meal, but I also know that I have to be able to live a normal life and learn how to eat less.  Dave and I enjoy going out to eat and I know that will continue to be a part of our life after Nutrisystem. Being able to still enjoy these events are important.

I have not felt deprived this week.  I still need to work on more veggies (yuckie poo) though.

 

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Nutrisystem Week 1

I’m Ready To Lose This Weight!

I started the Nutrisystem plan on Monday of this week.  I’m happy to say that this first 5 days has been easy.

I’m going to show you a few of the breakfast foods you can choose from.

The reason I need to be on this plan an on an exercise plan is this one!  I have only seen this number one other time. It was in 2008 when I realized I had to do something serious!

Starting weight: 200.5 pounds (yuck!… ok..Sis.. you didn’t see that!)
Day 5 weight: 197.0
Loss= 3.5 pounds!

Here is the dreaded “Before” picture.  Can’t stand it, but you know what? I always tell my clients and others here on the internet to take “before” pictures before they organize a space.  It makes you realize what you don’t want that space to look like again.  It also makes you feel much more accomplished when you look back and see how terrible that space looked before you organized it.  So….. pretty obvious – take the before picture for the same reasons.

I had Dave take this picture with my camera phone up in our room.

Then he got a couple more with my camera downstairs.    You can see the side view.  Sorry… the back view no one can see, until my “after” shot when I have lost my weight.  It is a bit too tortuous to make you, my readers go through!  My hips are obviously my major issue, but with as much extra weight as I have on right now, I also have a stomach now. One thing I always prided myself on was a flat stomach (even after 4 kids!) The only positive thing about this extra 50 pounds on me… is that I actually have some boobs! lol

The plan is simple. I had month of food delivered. Half of the order were pantry items and the other half was frozen food.
Everything is color coded for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
We are given a book to write down our daily meals and how much water we drink, time exercising and weight.
There is a lot of space for other items that do not come with the plan (at least that I have). Vegetables are extra (and you can have lots!). Daily allotments in either skim milk, low fat yogurt and other items. I have had fat free cottage cheese and string cheese also this week.
I have not gotten all of the vegetables that I should have. That is my weakness. I don’t like them, or very few of them. I have to make myself eat vegetables – even when I’m hungry.
I did just buy some Genesis Today juice yesterday so that I can use that as some of my vegetable servings.

You saw the cinnamon roll above.  It is one of the breakfast items you can have. I had heard how wonderful they were.  It is very small, look at the half of banana next to it. But the taste was good.  I do need to look at the directions a little better on the next one. I thought it was just microwaving it for the given time.  But it was actually very tough to eat. The dough was dense, even though tasty and I had a difficult time eating it without a knife to cut it. It wasn’t my favorite.  Here was my breakfast the other morning.  Skim milk (8oz) coffee , 1/2 banana and the cinnamon roll.

 I also have had a chocolate chip scone.  I enjoyed it. It reminded me of one of those large choc. chip cookies. It was nice with my coffee.

Several of the pantry foods have this little packet underneath the food. It kind of bothered me. Reminded me of those packets you find at the bottom of a new purse or such.  But I’ve since seen that it is a non-toxic oxygen absorber.

So far this first 5 days I have not had anything that I haven’t liked the taste of.  I would say the only thing I might hesitate to get again might be the cinnamon roll.  But I’ll leave that judgement until after I try the next one!

I have felt good this week.  There have been times that my stomach has been growling and very hungry. But that was my own fault.  Actually it felt good! But, I could have had some more of the extra vegetables that I wasn’t always having and a couple days I did not have the afternoon snack because I was too busy working to get up and get it.

I hate to admit that I did not exercise this week.  After being told by my Doctor that I had to stop my plan to run a mile (because my heart rate was so high… she told me I had to walk 1 mile keeping my HR under 160 before I could start running) that it took my drive away.  I know I need to get it going again though!

 

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

I’m Going To Start Nutrisystem!

I’m So Excited!

I am So out of shape and So heavy that I have to do something!  I was thrilled that Nutrisystem accepted me to do a  four month review* of their system!

I received my first months supply of the pantry – shelf life products already!

It’s like opening a Christmas present! lol   What stood out to me really quickly and that I thought was really cool was that the meals are color coded.  Breakfast is Blue
Lunch is Green
Dinner is Red
Snacks are Pink

Being an organizer I love to color code! It makes it quick and easy to see what you need.

I lost almost 50 pounds with a similar system back in 2008.  It worked well, I just didn’t stay on it after I stopped the plan and over the two years all the weight came back.  The combination of menopause, sitting and blogging majority of the day and not exercising, along with a huge sweet craving… you will gain weight.. just sayin’

I think it is interesting that although I weight as much as I do back in 2007-2008 it has distributed a bit differently this time.  My arms are now very heavy looking, my hips & butt are huge  of course (where I always gain) and I have a stomach.  ugh

I actually about 25 pounds MORE than I did when I was pregnant with any of my 4 boys!

I always weighted in the 130′s until after my 4th son. Then I got up into the 140′s.  Now I’m higher! lol

I’m still have to get my frozen products.  They should be coming soon.

I’m planning to start the program on Monday, and will be reporting to you every Friday on my progress.   I’ll be using the hashtag #NSNation which stands for Nutrisystem Nation.
I will do my weight in and show you my gross.. gag.. before pictures.   Since I had been doing the Couch to 1 mile (my plan) to start running, on Fridays, I’m going to add that into my posts.  My Doctor put a halt on my running because my heart rate was going up to 200 on my 60 second runs. Sad huh? She said I can’t run until I can walk a mile keeping my heart rate below 160.

I’ll let you know next Friday how my first 5 days has gone!!

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation.

Celebrate Chocolate Tuffles Review

Eating yummy chocolates and losing weight? Ok…something just doesn’t seem right here does it? I LOVE chocolate and I seem to always be trying to lose weight (I’m sure the same is true for many of you) so when asked to sample these Celebrate chocolates (see disclosure) I jumped on it! (who wouldn’t…it’s chocolate after all!)
The first hint that these were going to be good was when I was told to watch my mail because this is “chocolate that Does melt in your hand” as she put it in the e-mail. (I thought that was cute). Above is pictured a box with the classic celebrate and the one on the right is the creation celebrate box.

This is the cherry truffle. There is a pretty printed design on the truffles.

Here is the yummy insides.
What I noticed about these chocolates was that they really were good. I did not get the feeling I was eating some kind of “diet” chocolate. I will tell you what…when you are hungry eating a piece of this actually does help. Because I knew I couldn’t eat all of them at once…I did savor each piece. There was no after taste or pasty feeling left in my mouth. I was actually sorry I only got the 2 small boxes sent to try because I would have enjoyed more! LOL

This is the cocoa covered almond. It was very good, although I have to admit that if I had to choose, I would pick the truffles before I would pick the almond…but that is just me.

The premise of these chocolates that are made with Avocado, Macadamia nut, and Hemp seed oils. Here is the write up of how these help you lose weight straight from the Celebrate site.

“When you savor one or two Celebrate Chocolates about 20 minutes before a meal – when your stomach is not full – it passes more quickly into your intestinal track. There, as it is digested, along with the natural cocoa oils, it begins to tell your body you are beginning to get full.
Somewhere in the middle of your meal you will notice your appetite fading away. As a result, you eat less.”

To Purchase Your Own:
Go to Celebrate Chocolate Truffles and order them for fast delivery or look for a retailer selling them near you.

To Win: You will win the 2 boxes as pictured above! (can’t you just taste them now!)

1) Go to Celebrate Chocolate and tell me what the percentage of cocoa the dark truffles have. Then come back here and comment. Your e-mail address needs to either be on this post or easily accessible.

For Extra chances to Win:**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment written please. (I know its a pain, but other wise you won’t have as many chances if you don’t.)

1) Subscribe to my blog with the feeder or by e-mail. 5 extra chances.
2) Blog about this giveaway for 5 extra chances.
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See….lots of ways to enter to win!

This Contest Ends Monday Sept. 17th at 11:59 pm est.  *THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED*

This contest is open to US mailing addresses only. Only one person from home can enter.

You will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail if you win to be eligible. If I don’t hear from you then I will go on to the next winner.