Weigh Lifting

this little chart is leading to a competition in my household.  A competition with myself.  :)

I want muscles. 

Weigh In

About two weeks ago the lovely ladies involved in this challenge with me met at my house for a weigh-in.  I don't really want to stress that the evening was all about the poundage lost.  A few in the group are just in the challenge to improve pace or muscle tone.  I'm in for the weigh loss, a conscious awareness of my diet and toning.  And by awareness of my diet I mean understanding the portions and make-up of what I eat, and allowing the balance to include DESSERT!  Yum...
I had a great time with the girls that night!  We decided to weigh in before the meal this time, and that may have skewed my results a bit.  At our initial weigh-in I think I managed to pack away several slices of pizza, salad, cookies and a few glasses of wine.
I hosted a casual dinner of salad and the Chipotle Turkey Chili posted here.   After dinner I served some macaroons I attempted to bake and assemble.  They looked like crap.  I'm still learning.
Well after the weigh-in, I'm convinced that I'm making the right choice "leaning in" to the workout and food changes.  It hasn't been a constant joy ride, but it's not too painful.  I'm down 6-7 lbs.
 :)

Netflix Instant Workout Videos

I've you've got a Netflix account, you can log in and instantly watch a fairly good selection of workout videos for free!  However, I've not seen many videos rated higher than about 3 stars, but if it gets you up and moving, that's what counts. 
I tried a pilates video earlier this week.  It was okay-slightly challenging with room to improve on my part.  There were three levels of difficulty and I was able to mostly stay on the mid-range movements with some of the expert moves, but I know I've got a lot of core-building to do.

Creat your own video workout

I know it's nothing new, but I'm overall impressed with Fitness Magazine's offering of free workout instruction and video online. 

Here's a refresher on the link if you want a new challenge/switch-up/or target area to work on this weekend!

Hearty Somewhat Healthy Recipes

Just as the weather is turning cool again, I'm craving some winter comfort food.  A nice salad hasn't been cutting it.  Appropriately, I just got an email with a link from Fitness Magazine full of healthier comfort foods.

I'm thinking I must try one called Turkey Sausage Cassoulet. I'm a huge sucker for both sweet potatoes AND butternut squash (okay and the bread crumbs and cheese and...). 

Win a Gym!

I get fitness magazine in the mail and I also signed up to receive emails geared towards losing 10 pounds.  The emails are weekly motivators with recipes and exercises for inspiration.
I also get some fun emails with beauty tips.  While flipping through some pages filled with new spring nail polishes to try, I ended up on this page!

Win a $25,000 home gym?  Yes please!  I know my chances are slim, but how cool?  You can enter once per day per email address.

Moment of weakness

I felt pretty good about my workout efforts this week.  I've done Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred every day since Sunday (okay that's only 4 days) and some weight lifting, but tonight I'm a slacker.  Does walking around the mall count as a workout?  I find that the wriggle into jeans in the dressing room causes great effort on my part.  Ugh.  A warm-weather vacation is calling and I was searching for shorts.  The results were disappointing-searching and finding cute shorts that gaped in the back and fit too tightly on my thighs. 

So what did I do? Called my husband, ordered some Chipotle to go and headed home, straight to my bar to mix a screwdriver.  Hubby didn't settle for that and insisted on making me a Cuba Libre.  I wasn't having it.  So I had nothing.  Well besides my delicious barbacoa burrito bowl.  YUM.  Apparently it's the lowest calorie meat at Chipotle.  I asked burrito artist what it was, and he replied "magic."  It was.

My plan for the rest of the week? I hope to try this butt-kicking workout! And maybe I can squeeze in some power squats in before I hit the hay.

Yummy White Turkey Chili

This recipe I found for a white chili is by far the best healthier version of a chili that I've tried in a long time!  I made this once as per directions, except for adding two additional chilies (I like spicy foods) and once for the superbowl in a crock pot.  I'd recommend making this in a big skillet versus the crock pot just because the liquids are easier to monitor and the beans won't turn to mush.

Competetion Begins!

Last night, six lovely ladies got together and enjoyed an evening of food, drink, games and a movie.  After a few tear-producing, laughter-filled rounds of Apples to Apples and too much yummy pizza and cookies (at least on my part) we got to talking about efforts to stay fit.

While we all understand how to get results, it's the initiative that I lose rather than the pounds.  Enter some great competition!  Within a matter of minutes, the six of us shouted out that we'd love to compete against each other, but still encouraging all, to lose the highest percentage of weight.  After all, that move where you sit and then pull your jeans over the pooch was becoming much too familiar to me.  Or maybe it was realizing that I was waiting for my thighs to stop moving after the rest of my body had.

We don't want this to get out of hand, and our goals range from weight loss, to training for a half marathon, to just toning up without bulking up.  In addition to all of the moral support, we've added extra incentive with a reward!
We all agreed to throw in $25 each into a pot. $150!  The lucky challenge winner will be the owner of new jeans (or a new purse or whatever else they choose).  We all weighed in on one scale for consistency and gave ourselves until May to calculate the final percentage lost at the last weigh in. 

So follow along as we report our progress, long for chocolate (kidding, no way am I giving that up) and share links for fit moves, fit food and fun ideas.