The cold battle

There are a few battles in life that define you as a person and I truly believe that this COLD is one of them. I am sicker than a dog. This is no ordinary cold. I can't move. The funny thing is my appetite has increased to heights that are baffling. All I want to do is EAT! I know the old timers say that you are to feed a cold but this cold has pulled up at the buffet table and wrapped a napkin around it's neck. I can't imagine the weight gain. Hopefully I'll feel better soon.  My only goal for this week is to get better and order my Herbalife products. Til the next post

1 Luv
KL

No cheat days + new goals

So it's been 4 days sugar free from me and I am overjoyed. Today I really wanted banana pudding. Someone said "Go ahead ... indulge! You've been good". See here's my thing .... would you tell a crackhead to indulge in a "little" crack because they've been clean for so long? Probably not. Well you shouldnt tell me to indulge in sugar because sugar is my crack. I'd rather go clean turkey and not have it, then have a piece and fall back to eating cookies, cakes and pies on a daily basis. So no banana pudding for me.

This week starts week 5 for me. Last week was a review week and I did a great job on 10,000 steps and no sugar. I did not do a great job at water intake. My taste buds are tired of it and I'm lucky to get a good 8 cups in. It's definitely something to keep working on.

Last week I had more than my fair share of fast food. Scatterbrains leading leaving my breakfast home caused me to find myself in line at the local Mcdonalds and Chick Fila getting an oh so delicious, but not oh so healthy breakfast. Late night open house at my school found me at the KFC <---- a="" about="" and="" but="" can="" crap="" do="" dont="" eat="" even="" fast="" food:="" food="" found="" goal....="" going="" here="" i="" is="" it="" just="" know="" led="" lot="" me="" my="" nbsp="" no="" of="" on="" out="" p="" part="" planning="" reminiscing="" s="" take="" that="" the="" this.="" this="" to="" week="" what="">

** Junk Food Affects Your Energy Levels

** Junk Food Contributes to Poor Performance and Obesity

** Junk Food Can Damage Your Liver and Your Heart

** Junk Food Can Lead to Diabetes

Basically -->

Chile aint nobody got time for any of that! Til the next blog

1 Luv

KL

Sugarfree .... that's me!

For the past two days I have been sugar free! It would've been longer than two days but my dad brought me a slice of pound cake that he swore upside down was the bomb ... and well I had to taste it for myself and be the judge. It was the bomb! But it also went against my bootcamp rule so I was forced to start over. Yesterday I did a great job and then I ran into Walgreens to get something. Without thinking I had picked up a chocolate muffin for my son and a honey bun for myself. Before I knew it I was standing in line and then it hit me

Chile you're not suppose to have any of this!!!! I quickly put it back but it's funny how I'm so use to doing some things that they occur without me even thinking about it. My son was disappointed that he did not get a chocolate muffin but like I have told him ... I need NO distractions in the house. This is important to me. So yesterday was my first day without sugar. It was hard. I wanted that honey bun but today was easier. I went to Winn Dixie and didnt have no single urge to visit their bakery section. Talk about progress!

I have not cut out sugar completely but I have cut out pies, cakes, cookies, donuts, and well just ish that I should not be eating. Ish that I love with all of my heart but it does not love me back. And I know it does not love me back because look what I found out about sugar.

• One of the primary sources of calories for Americans is sugar—specifically high fructose corn syrup in soda and processed foods. Because of advances in food processing technology in the 1970s, fructose derived from corn has become very cheap and is widely used in the majority of processed foods for increased sales.
• Sugar takes a devastating toll on your health. In fact, excessive sugar consumption may be the largest factor underlying obesity and chronic disease in America
• Your body metabolizes fructose much differently from glucose; the entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, where excess fructose is quickly converted into fat, which explains the weight gain and abdominal obesity experienced by so many Westerners
• Fructose is the primary cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver and elevates uric acid, which raises your blood pressure, stresses your kidneys, and leads to the chronic, low-level inflammation that is at the core of most chronic diseases; metabolically speaking, fructose is alcohol “without the buzz”
• It would be wise for most people to limit their daily fructose consumption to less than 25 grams per day; a table showing the fructose content of many foods is provided, especially if you show signs of insulin resistance such as being overweight, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes

And chile I'm a living witness to this one

Sugar had me seriously considering finding and attending a sugar's anonymous. It was at my house like it paid rent. But that is in the past. Here's to being sugar free! :0)  Til the next blog

1Luv

KL

week 4 ..... review

So tomorrow makes week 4 of my self imposed boot camp. I started off Week 1 with water intake and then returned to work .... therefore limiting my time to blog about my progress. Well here goes an update. Week 1 was water intake and I did a fabulous job. I never went less than 8 cups.


Week 2's goal was 10,000 steps per day. Week two's goal was easier than I thought it would be. I am on my feet ALL day at work ... add in walking around the parking lot for structured PE time and you have me exceeding my goal of 10,000 steps. Eventually my goal(once my body adjusts to waking up at 5 am and working all day) is to exercise but honestly I am NOT there yet .... so until I get there 10,000 steps will have to suffice. Back to the goal, there are several websites dedicated to walking 10,000 steps a day. Here are some neat quotables that I found

Research shows that walking 10,000 steps a day will significantly improve your health. Putting one foot in front of the other can build stamina, burn excess calories and give you a healthier heart. 

 

 The average person walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day, and 1,000 steps is the equivalent of around 10 minutes of brisk walking.

 

 

To achieve good health, strive to take 10000 steps a day (the equivalent of walking roughly five miles). A person who walks 10,000 steps a day will burn between 2000 and 3500 extra Calories per week, which will result in achieving a vastly better health profile and longer lifespan. 

My goal for week 3 was no sweets. Sweets in the form of cookies, chocolate cake, cupcakes and brownies have been a weakness for me. I have started craving chocolate cake in the worst way. If I have a bad day, chocolate cake makes it better. If I have a long day, kicking off my shoes and enjoying a slice of chocolate cake was my way of saying "awww I'm home".  I knew this week would be difficult and it was. I didn't do a horrible job but I didn't meet my goal either. The first couple of days were ok but then walnut-fudge brownies from Publix entered the house and well .... that's the end of that story. I devoured them. So for week 4 I am not taking on a new task. My goal for week 4 is to do better on the first three goals.....which means NO sweets! Today is Labor Day and while grocery shopping my mind said "it's a holiday....you have to have a dessert" and I started walking towards the bakery. I stopped midway there and went to the produce section instead. That's to say that this week may be challenging but I just have to commit and remind myself of what I'm doing and WHY I'm doing it.

Basically, sugar is white death and aint nobody got time for white death! Til the next blog....

1 Luv
KL

It's all about MEAL PREP

I'm really into Instagram. I also follow more than my fair share of healthy accounts on there and the common thread on all of the accounts is MEAL PREP! All of the people say that PLANNING was key to their weight loss.

I guess. The first time I meal prepped, I woke up at like 7 am and went to Walmart. I came home and instantly started prepping for me and my son. I took all of the frozen fruit and bagged it so that for breakfast I could grab a bag, grab some whey, grab some spinach and voila .... breakfast smoothie.  I bought a big bag of sliced apples. I put 7 apples in a Ziploc bag and placed a small container full of almond butter in each bag. I placed carrots in a bag with a small container of hummus. I sliced strawberries and placed them in separate baggies with a contained of vanilla greek yogurt. I made egg white muffins and sliced 2 ounces of turkey sausage for breakfast. I mean I WORKED! It took up time but my mornings were heavenly. I woke up and just grabbed bags for breakfast and snacks. It was perfect and it was then that I fell in love with MEAL PREP!

How did I live without it? I'on even know but I do know that my Sunday mornings or evenings(depending on how I feel) are dedicated to prepping for the week. So since lettuce wraps are on the menu for this week I have cooked my chicken, brown rice & black beans, separated my lettuce, put greek yogurt in a container and placed fresh blueberries in various baggies. I'm ready! Til the next blog ....

1 Luv
KL

Water, water, water, water EVERYWHERE

All I have seen for the past three days is WATER! It's been a water life for me. As stated previously my goal for this week has been water intake! That has been my SOLE focus and I am so happy to say that I am doing great things in that area. On Monday I took in 13 cups of water, on Tuesday I took in 8 cups(I returned to work and forgot my water bottle at home) and today I took in 12 cups. Chile I looked at my water log on my iphone and was like

Water has been my motto! I've been doing it and doing it well. Go on girl! Woop! My goal for tomorrow and the rest of the week is 16 cups. That's equivalent to one gallon which is eventually where I would like to be on a daily basis. I bloat really bad and it has been said that drinking plenty of water on a daily basis can aid in decreasing your bloat. I am truly looking forward to that! We shall see. Til the next blog

1 Luv
KL

Week 1...and a possible reboot?

So for the past week I've been detoxing with Jillian Micheals and bootcamping. Instead of taking the bootcamp week by week, I had a genius idea to combine all of the weeks. Chile this was an

 

 

See I am ADHD with a touch of autism and a touch of OCD .... my mind stays all over the place. I am the type of person who needs structure at ALL times. You cant let me hang all willy nilly and expect great results. This week, while trying to follow ALL of the rules at once, I've been all over the place. So I came up with the decision to take it week by week. The control freak within me is not going to be pleased because I know all of the steps but that is ok. If I can focus on just ONE thing all week I feel that I will be more successful ..... and less likely to beat myself up and binge eat because I feel that I have failed. So it's Monday .... I've gone an entire week and now I'm ready to reboot! So for the rest of the week my focus .... my ONLY focus .... my SOLE focus .... .is on water intake! My goal is at least 16 cups a day and I know that by solely focusing on this goal that it will be easy to obtain it.

 

So since this is my goal and only goal this week lets talk about WATER! Drinking water fills you up. Remember when you were little and your mother told you to eat your food and stop all of that drinking(now as a mom I say the same thing. Karma!) Well it was because liquids have a way of filling us up and preventing us from overeating. Many health books(websites) recommend drinking a glass of water BEFORE your meal. Water also aids in increasing your metabolism. A quick trick to this is drinking a glass or two of cold water(some people say lukewarm but whatever) as soon as you wake up. This will get your metabolism going. Water flushes out the toxins in your body and also lubricates your joints(my joints need lots of lubrication). It's really good for you and plus it has ZERO calories .... I think that's the thing that I love the most about it. If you find it to be boring, add a little umph to your water but adding sliced cucumbers, cayenne pepper, sliced fruits or lemon. For me the easiest thing to do is keep it in the freezer until it gets ice cold and then proceed to guzzle it down. Whatever works for you. Til the next blog post .... 

 

 

1Luv

KL

I AM my hair

India Arie once wrote a song that was called "I am not my hair".  I get what India was saying(she is not her hair, she's more than her hair, don't judge her based on her hair yada yada yada)  but I feel differently ... I AM my hair! My hair IS me! We are connected. When one looks good, the other feels good and vice versa. My hair is a part of my identity. It has been with me for my entire life and that is what made the last couple of months so difficult.

Between having a baby, having extreme hormonal issues, filing for a divorce, being fired, looking for a job, being harassed, and just being stressed to the max period ... my hair has changed. When it first started falling out, I went to my beautician and had it cut thinking that would help. It did not. My hair continued to thin out and fall out to the point that I developed two small bald spots in the back of my head and my edges were gone. My hairline was reminiscent of Lebron James' hairline and it did wonders for my self esteem. Did you catch that sarcasm? Some nights I was all like

So once I finally got my hair together, I decided that I wanted it all off. I have eliminated much of the stress that was in my life and now it was time to fix the one thing that was holding me back. My HAIR! I didn't want it to be a distraction and it was the only thing holding me back from being the woman that I normally am. So I headed to see V. When I sat in the chair, my beautician asked me what I wanted. I showed her a picture of my hair cut short and we proceeded. First and foremost, the BEST thing ever is having your hair washed. I am addicted to that feeling. I would marry two people without thinking: a man who washes hair for a living and a man who does pedicures for a living. Both give me life but I have digressed!

The first time she cut my hair I knew it was not right. My head felt heavy and I could still feel the hair on my neck. So when she turned me around I immediately said "Nope not enough, shorter".  So she went back to cutting. As I felt the scissors snipping my hair away and as I watched the hair fall all over me, I blinked back tears. It's crazy but I felt so much better. When I felt the clippers buzzing through my head I just wanted to shout. Finally she was done. It still was not as short as I would like but I didn't have any hair on my neck and the style was cute.  More than anything once I stepped out of the chair, I noticed the extra bounce in my walk. I noticed the way I stood and the huge smile on my face. Everything that I have done since "the cut" has been done with energy and spunk. I just feel so much better and that lets me know that "the cut" was the right decision for me.  I'm going even shorter in 3 weeks. I can't wait.



My new cut!  :)

1Luv
KL

Bootcamp day 4

I sucked today. There is no excuse.  I could say I was in the pits emotionally, I could say that hormones had my stomach feeling like a black hole, I could say mother nature was rearing her ugly head but all of those reasons are irrelevant. The point is I overate, I did not workout and I sucked. I don't even feel like talking or blogging about it but I have to so this blog entry will be short.


Water: My water intake was aight. Every morning I fill my 8 cup jug up with water and place it in the freezer. Once it's good and cold I begin to drink it. Well how about today some mofo drunk half of my water. This totally threw my water intake off. What can  I say .... today was just a shitty day.

 

Food: My food intake was horrible too. Two slices of pizza for breakfast, cereal for my morning snack, a cookie for a snack and spaghetti for dinner complete with garlic bread. I do not even wish to spend time on food. It was what it was.  

 

 



Exercise:  No workout

Success: Spices(oregano, garlic, parsley)

Keep working on: Fast food, water intake, meditation, sweets

Til tomorrow

 

1Luv

KL

Bootcamp Day 3

For some reason I could not sleep last night. Oh it was not for some reason...it was because my 8 month decided that she wanted a girl's night and would not go to bed. So I finally dozed off at midnight and sure enough, at the crack of dawn I was up again. I DO NOT GET IT! Maybe my body is preparing for my return to work. All I know is that I got six hours of sleep which is no bueno!


Water: My water intake was much better today. I took down 10 cups of water. Still short of my goal but better than yesterday. I'm trying not to beat myself up. The last time I did the bootcamp I beat myself up over everything. If I did this wrong or did that wrong, I'd come down on myself so hard. If someone lost 9 inches and I only lost 1, I'd beat myself up about it. That's not life and I refuse to do that again. I'm truly trying and if I am giving it my all, that's all that I can ask. I also made sure that I took my water jug with me to work today. That helped A LOT!

 

Food: I had a good idea for breakfast in my head. It's too bad that didn't translate over to my plate. A while ago I had wheat French toast made with egg whites and cinnamon, topped with greek yogurt and strawberries. It was the BOMB! However this morning I did the same recipe with peaches  and vanilla greek yogurt mixed with vanilla whey protein. Chile I had a lot going on. I thank God for that turkey sausage link because it was my saving grace. It wasn't nasty but it was delicious either. It was just blah! After breakfast I headed to work armed with a fiber one bar.(Look at me planning and ish). The only problem that I had was that I only planned on being at work for a little minute. I ended up staying there way past lunch and by the time I left, I was starving. I wanted fast food so bad but I reminded myself that it was simply not an option. It didn't help that I passed by a thousand fast food restaurants before I got home. Every time I passed one I was like

 

I wanted a cheeseburger and large fry so bad. But I made it. I stopped by Walmart to pick up a few last minute ingredients for dinner and grabbed a bag of chips.

 

 

Chile those bag of chips was 450 calories. I could've had a cheeseburger and fries for that. Ok maybe not the cheeseburger but definitely the fries. Guess I have to cross chips off the list too. That was an insane amount of calories. Anyhoo, the highlight of my day was dinner. I see that I'm being limited to one great meal a day and I really need to get that in check lol. Dinner consisted of wheat spaghetti and homemade meatballs, corn on the cob, and garlic bread. The meatballs were oh so yummy. One of the rules of bootcamp(and the one that I really love) is limiting processed foods. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipes and boy oh boy....it was delicious! Like seriously...they were so freakin delicious! And easy to make too.(ground pork, beef & sausage, 2 eggs, breadcrumbs, milk, oregano, parsley, white pepper, salt, thyme, minced garlic, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese ... baked at 350 degrees). And I wont even go on the smell in the kitchen while they are baking. Just know that my house smelled lovely for about a good 60 minutes.

 

 



Exercise: My workout was me unpacking at work. When I finally made it home, me and the fam loaded up the truck and hit the tennis courts. I must say now that my level of respect for Serena Williams went up by 100. Tennis is no joke. We had a 25 minute game before I had to wave the white flag and give up. My clothes were soaked in sweat and I could hardly breathe. It was awesome! Definitely a great workout. Of course my legs are sore but that's ok. Tomorrow I plan on working out my core.

Success: Spices (use oregano, thyme, garlic, parsley), water intake, no fast food, no sweets

Keep working on: Making better choices ..... 450 calories for a bag of doritos is ridiculous. Also planning better. I am away from home a lot so healthy snack options need to be researched.

Til tomorrow

 

1Luv

KL

Bootcamp Day 2

I woke up at like 5 am with enough energy to strap a truck to my back and drag it down the road. Ok ... I'm exaggerating but still you get my point. I was crunk ... at the crack of dawn. Where is this done at? Apparently at my house.  After showering, eating and watching the ghetto soap opera (Love & Hip Hop) I fell into bed and called it a night. That left me with a good 8 hours of sleep and baby my body was appreciative. I think it was the basketball game. My body was tired and I slept like a baby.


Water: My water intake was aight.

 

Like seriously, I gave my water intake the Phaedra face. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't good either. I managed to take in 8 cups of water. That's nowhere near the 13 I took in yesterday or the 16 that I wanted to take in ... but its better than 1 or even worst ... none! *gasp*  My water intake would've been a lot better if I had PLANNED! I was gone most of the day and did not bother to take a water bottle, water jug, water hose ... nada! Chile that messed me up. So when I did finally make it home...which was at 7:30 pm, I chugged as much as I could. I chugged so much that my belly ached (now I'm singing he bought me home with a belly ache...ugh!) I wanted to add an additional four cups but it just was not going down. Oh well tomorrow is a new day ... and I definitely will have some form of water with me at all times!

 

Food: Breakfast was beyond good today. I can't lie ... the egg whites left a sour taste in my mouth. I just was not prepared to go down that road again. So I went in a different direction. I had oatmeal with a dash of cinnamon and ground flaxseed and a large peach. I had greek yogurt out but by the time I finished the peach and oatmeal I was beyond full. It was yummy too. When I added the peaches to the oatmeal, my mouth had an orgasm. Dude it was

 

 

I tell you no lie. I didnt have a lunch and dinner was the same from last night.  Snacks consisted of a multigrain bagel from Dunkin Donuts with strawberry cream cheese (oh gosh its so delicious) and strawberry ice cream from Baskin Robbins



Exercise: I had plans to work out early this morning ...... and then I have no clue what happened. Seriously, I looked up and it was no longer 6 am but 9:30 and I needed to head to work. It didn't matter because work was my workout. My body is aching at the mere thought. I recently got a new job which meant I had to move all of my things to a new school .... and my classroom is on the second floor. Moving in and setting up my classroom consists of me running around like a chicken with its head cut off, going up and down stairs, carrying boxes, etc. And I was there for hours. Needless to say my legs are sore hunty! If I even think about walking, they send a quick signal to my brain that says "STOP IT GIRL! Don't you know we are tired"  I tried to go and play tennis with my son and my legs were like

 No but seriously, I'm sore. Workout complete .... if you ask me.

Success: Spices (use oregano, cumin, garlic)

Keep working on: Fast food, sweets, water

Til tomorrow

 

1Luv

KL