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

Bootcamp day 1

So I know that I would like to blog my daily progress with this boot camp but I don't know what format I would like to use. So bear with me. There are a couple of rules to the boot camp but since I know them all I'm just going to do them how I want to. Sue me.  Maybe that's how I will blog too. Ok so here's a recap for Day 1--Monday, August 06, 2013


Water: My water intake was good today. I did 13 cups which was pretty good considering that I have not had a drop of water in like two days. I have an eight cup water jug that I filled with water, placed in the freezer, and drunk throughout the day. It worked .... I hate water but ice cold water is something that I love to indulge in ... especially in this Florida heat.

Food: Breakfast consisted of egg whites, veggies, and turkey sausage stuffed in a wheat pita pocket. I cant lie ... it was nasty. I have not had egg whites since my last day of school and my tongue did not miss it. Lunch was better. Lunch consisted of a green smoothie with spinach, kale, fruit and a scoop of vanilla whey protein. It was yummy. My only regret is that I shared half of it with my spouse and the shake was so yummy that I would've preferred to drink the entire thing by myself. By far the best meal of the day was dinner. I tried a new recipe from Allrecipes.....stuffed chicken breast with spinach, yellow rice and steamed carrots. Looking back I should've done something healthier than yellow rice but it was delicious. I had to make myself stop eating the chicken cause I could've easily eaten more than what was placed on my plate(despite my full stomach saying otherwise). I look forward to making that chicken again. Snacks consisted of the new Cheerios cereal(which sucks by the way) with a cup of organic soy milk and a chocolate rice cake topped with almond butter. I tried a new almond butter because Jif has some strange things going on with their ingredients and it was oh so yummy.



New Almond Butter Brand

Whoever came up with almond butter needs an award. I mean seriously. The ish is so delicious. I can eat two tablespoons of it without blinking ...... it's great on everything .... on bananas, on toast, on celery, on apples, on rice cakes ..... you see what I'm saying? This ish is delicious. How do you like those apples almonds?

Exercise: I have not exercised since the beginning of July. Honestly I've been lazy. Here's the thing about exercising ... you have to be consistent with it. Once you stop, your body adjusts and it's hell to start back up again. I was trying to decide what I would like to do and finally decided on basketball with my son. I'm competitive. Chile I hate to lose. So I went hard for 20 minutes on the basketball court and

my exercise for the day was done. I had a great one too. Sweat was everywhere and my body felt as if I had gone round for round with Roy Jones ... .from back in his ya'll must've forgot days. (Act like you know). Chile I was sore.

Success: No fast food, no sugar, water every hour, spices (use oregano, cumin, garlic)

Keep working on: Better options .... yes Vigo I'm talking about you.

Til tomorrow

1Luv
KL

The weightloss struggle is REAL

Weight loss is like everything else in life. It is a job! Like seriously... you have to work at it. You cant relax. You can't think that you have it under control. You cant think that you have mastered it because when you do, weight loss will change it's mind and you'll be stuck wondering what in the hell happened. That's what happened to me.  Just sip and read.....

I guess the last time I blogged I talked about returning to work after having my baby. Well a lot happened in between THEN and NOW! I was determined to lose all of my baby weight and I did. I started a clean eating boot camp with a couple of women from one of my Facebook groups. The camp was informative. I truly learned a lot and not only did I learn a lot...I LOST a lot. I finally ditched my 16's and was rocking 12's. I side eyed my extra larges and comfortably slid on mediums. I was fitting into ish that I had not fit into in years .... years I tell ya!

Medium snitches!

The camp was 16 weeks long and each week consisted of a new rule. After it ended I was confident that I had learned the basics to continuing with the weight loss. Not long after completing the clean eating bootcamp I started another challenge. This was for 30 days and consisted of no alcohol, no sugar, a gallon of water and exercising. I did great with it. I thought it would be hard to give up alcohol but I stopped cold turkey and did not miss it. The sugar was something else. I am a sugar addict(as I found out) and cutting it completely out of my diet was very hard to do. Imagine Pookie from New Jack City .... .well that was me. I had serious sugar withdrawals. Still I managed to complete this challenge and was eyeing the pants in my closet that I've never been able to wear.


Then New Orleans happened and I have been struggling ever since. I took a trip to the Essence Festival. A trip that consisted of delicious food, wonderful sweets, and lots of alcohol. I did a lot of walking but exercising with weights or with Jillian or with Shaun was pretty much thrown out of the window. Then went I got back it was a trip to Orlando. While alcohol was not on the menu, eating out and lack of exercise were. To sum it up in a short story, I gained 8 lbs back.

People who were commenting how nice I looked when I lost the wight, were now side eyeing me and asking"dang you're gaining it back huh?"  Yes it was/is that noticeable. My belly looks as if I am a good 4-5 months pregnant. Can you believe someone actually asked me how far along I was while grocery shopping in Publix? I finally realized that I had a huge problem when I went to attend my cousin's wedding. I had purchased a beautiful dress and on the day of the wedding, I found myself unable to zip the dress up. I knew then that something had to change. I had worked so hard. I could not let it all be in vain. I remembered how I felt when I was able to shop without worrying about the size and I wanted that feeling back. So I'm going back to what I know works....I'm back boot camping. And this time I plan on blogging my journey. That is my goal .... welcome to my journey.

1Luv
KL

First Day Back To Work

Today was my first day back at work. It's been 7 weeks since I delivered my child and a good two months since I left for leave and I had no idea what to expect. My love affair with this thing called education has been an emotional rollercoaster. God knows I love what I do but I'm not "in" love with it anymore and I want that feeling back. I prayed really hard to God and found myself quite excited as I left the house.  My first day back was interesting to say the least. The most interesting thing that happened is people kept passing by me as if they didn't know who I was. Say what now?  I watched as they squinted their eyes, did a double take and then gasped! Do I look THAT different? Yes I know the last time they saw me I looked like this

 

 

lol  And today when I came back after two months I look like this
 

 

 

 

 And yes I took that in the bathroom. I wanted to see what everybody else was seeing. I promise when I look down at my belly it looks bigger. While its not the size that I want it to be, it definitely has gone down a lot! I appreciated all of the compliments.  I cant lie it was a confidence booster. All I've heard all day is "You look so good! You look great to just have had a baby! Your belly is going down" ..... major blushes! Thanks yall.  My ultimate goal is

With the gym, running and dates with Shaun T, I think I can achieve it! Lets go!

1 Luv
KL

Back to church I go

I missed my church! I missed my church like a dieting woman/man misses cake. I missed my church like a celibate woman misses sex. I missed my church like a broke man misses a paycheck. I MISSED MY CHURCH!

I love my church. I am very particular when it comes to what type of church I will attend and even more particular when it comes to joining one. A lot of black churches sprew hatred, sexism and racism and I cant get down with that program. Especially when God said to love your neighbor. Hate the sin, love the sinner is always my theory and when I can find a church that has the same ideology, I've found the place for me.

I've been gone away from my church since the end of November. Today was my first day back and the holy spirit hit me as soon as I hit the door....that and the older African American women who dashed to view my baby lol I felt so good to be home again. I enjoyed everything from the pastor's sermon to the choir.  Even my kids enjoyed the service. I cant wait to return.

1Luv
KL

Song of the Year

Last year I really got into meditating. Before and after I would meditate I would listen to Kurt Carr's God is a Healer. The song was PERFECT for meditation and prayer. I couldn't and still cant listen to it without throwing my hands up, getting my praise on, and allowing tears to flow. The song speaks about believing that no matter what is wrong in your life, that God will heal it and make it better. I needed that last year because it seemed that so much was going wrong...I needed  a healing. That song brought me through some difficult times. Seriously there were times when I just wanted to throw in the towel and give up on everything and it was during those times that I'd sit in the corner and listen to God Is A Healer, cry and feel so much better. It was as God himself spoke to me each and every time through that song.

Now it's a new year and while I love God Is A Healer, I wanted a NEW song for meditation. While the message within GIAH is a great one, it also can be very depressing because it makes you focus on what's wrong in your life instead of what's right. Yes it encourages you to have faith and God and know that he will provide but I wanted something different. I wanted to claim 2013 as one of the BEST years of my life. I wanted to believe that God was going to do AWESOME things with me this year. I DO believe this! So new year .... new song? Right!  I'm riding in my truck and I keep playing Mary Mary's latest hit over and over again and then it hit me.

This should be my new song of the year for meditation. The crazy thing is that when Mary Mary first released this song I did not like it. I didn't agree with the lyrics .... but the more I played it the more I felt it. It's all about claiming YOUR BLESSING! Isn't that what I was doing? Wasn't I claiming that 2013 was going to be one of the BEST years of my life despite what was going on around me? Sure I was so this was the perfect meditation song for me.

1Luv
KL

36 inches!!!!

I'm not much of a scale girl. But I live by my tape measure. I don't recall where I got it from. Either Shaun Tee or Ian Smith......nope now I remember. It was Dr Oz. I was on the You on a Diet or whatever it's called challenge and I remember reading in the book that a waist over 40 inches puts you at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. So  I went out and bought a tape measurer and I have lived by it since. Before I got pregnant I was rocking a good 34 inch waist. I had lost 6 inches thanks to Shaun T, the gym, brown rice and baked chicken. The first time I measured my waist since having the baby I measured in at 38 inches. A week later I measured and was amazed to find that I had dropped to 37 inches! I was so excited. That's only 3 inches away from my previous waist. So today I woke up and for some reason I just grabbed the tape measurer and measured. Honey child I came in at 36 inches! I had to give MYSELF two snaps

So I am two inches away from my previous waist. Now here's the bad thing. Oh you thought this entire post was going to be full of fabulousness? It's not :( The bad thing is when I look at pics of my 34 inch waist I see something totally different then when I look at myself now. I'm totally shocked by the numbers because I truly did not believe that my waist was at 36 inches. Child those haters have really done a number on me smh. My hormones are still not 100%. I'm not totally ME yet! But I cant focus on that. All I can do is keep working! 2 more inches \o/

1Luv
KL


PS: Here's a video on measuring your waist :)