it's good to lose some things...

...like extra pounds. :)

i weighed in after yoga class last night and was pleasantly surprised. here's my stats:

current weight: 133 pounds

goal weight: 125 pounds

pounds to lose: 8 pounds

that a 1.5 loss since last week. woohoo! i AM making progress, even though it's slow. i guess slow is the best way, though. although, i think my diet needs some tweaking... i'm training for another marathon with my husband and i just feel so tired during my runs. i have a feeling i'm not eating enough calories to support my running activities, but i just don't know how much is too much. any suggestions?

yoga made beautiful

okay, yoga is already beautiful and wonderful, but why not make it a little more beautiful? i'd like to get a new yoga mat because my current mat is about 5 years old and is getting kind of old and crusty... ewwww. after searching the internet, i found these two that i really love.



green....









...or brown?



delicious! if you want one, too, you can find both mats here.

plus one half

well, i weighed myself yesterday and i had gained half a pound. i was grateful it wasn't more, though. on the 4th we had some friends and family over for a BBQ. there were three different desserts present and i'm not going to lie to you... i had a full serving of each one, plus more. yikes. so here's my stats as of now:

current weight: 134.5

goal weight: 125

pounds to lose: 9.5

i'll just keep plugging away. i'm leaving for washington in a couple of weeks and my goal is to lose at least a pound a week until i leave. i'm also going to need to have a plan of attack for when i'm in washington because when i stay at ben's parents house, all reason and self-control just fly out the window and i can't seem to stop eating. they have so much junk food around... all the time. at christmas time we were there for just over two weeks and i think i gained something like 8 pounds. yeah, totally ridiculous, i know. but i will prevail this time!

ben and i ran the provo freedom run 10k on the morning of the 4th of july. it was great. i absolutely love running. it's definitely my favorite way to exercise and i love the way i feel after a really hard run. you can click here to read my full report of the race on my family blog.

break through!

this week i started running again with a vengeance. i had been taking time off speckled with runs here and there because my right knee had been bothering me since i ran the marathon. i decided it couldn't wait any longer, though, because ben and i are running the provo freedom 10k on july 4th. the thought of running a race without being prepared does not sound fun to me. anyway, i started running on monday and my knee hurt slightly by the end of my run. but i just kept stretching my IT-band before and after runs and paying really close attention to my form and at the end of my run this morning, i realized that my knee didn't hurt at all! totally wicked awesome cool. i've had someone at my local running store tell me before that the best thing to do for an IT-band problem is to stretch it A LOT and keep running regularly, but i guess i didn't believe him until i had no other options. i totally wasted a month of training time. pretty dumb. oh well. we live and learn, right?

in other news, i weighed myself after yoga last night and was quite pleased with the outcome.

current weight: 134

goal weight: 125

that's a loss of 3.5 pounds since last week. only 9 more pounds to go...

a pretty good weekend

i had my parents in town and my friend, janaya, which always means more eating out and more treats around all the time. plus, my cousin, aaron, got married on saturday and we attended a BBQ on sunday after the baptism of an old friend of ben's and then proceeded to another friend's house for dessert. it was a long weekend filled with lots of sugar just staring me down saying, "eat me!" i did pretty well, though. i didn't have any wedding cake, no m&ms, no cheese cake, no brownies, no snickerdoodles... all of these were things that i had at my dispense this weekend. the only sugar i ate the whole week was the last gathering of the night on sunday. it was oreo ice cream pie... um, how could i pass that up? but i was proud of myself for doing as well as i did. it's really hard to have self-control when you are eating what other people put in front of you. even if i don't have a huge amount of weight loss this week, what's most important is that i feel great because i have been eating so well.

First 2 days...Success!!

So the first 2 days of el dieto have gone smashingly. I ate only what I said I was going to and nothing more. Even though both days I have wanted to snack snack snack! But I have resisted the urge! It is so hard. I guess I don't realize how much mindless munching I do. I will just have a graham cracker here, a popsicle there. And watching Casino Royale without popcorn was pretty much torture. The buttery smell just kept teasing my from across the room! Hopefully I will get a little more used to paying better attention to what I eat. I am also excited for next week when I can eat fruit. I feel like just the little bit of sweetness that fruit gives me would make SUCH a difference.

So our parents are coming into town tomorrow, and I am a little bit nervous about eating well. But I think it will help that me, whit, and my mom are all trying to eat better. I am also baking cakes this week, that I know I will be tempted to eat, but I shall prevail!!

Now I just need to be better at my exercise regime, and I'm good to go!!

Off to a good start...

So, Day 1 of the diet went well for me. For my exercise, I ran 4 miles in the morning. Here are the meals that I had planned and I stuck to them perfectly (yeah me!):

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs and a piece of whole wheat toast (no butter, of course!)

Lunch: Spinach salad (about 2 cups of spinach), with one red bell pepper and sprinkled with feta cheese, pine nuts, avocado and 1 Tbsp. Italian dressing - this is like my favorite salad in the world and it's totally scrumptious!

Dinner: at Morg's house, Chicken Marsala, brown rice and salad - also totally yummy!

I'm off to a good start. Hopefully I'll have the self-control and determination to stick with it until I reach my goal weight - actually, let's just say that I WILL stick with it until I reach my goal weight. If I'm positive about succeeding, I'll reach my goal!

Today also went well. I purposely didn't run today because I've been having some IT-Band problems on my right knee. It usually just hurts me for the last mile or so of a run, but yesterday it was bothering me a little more than usual, so I wanted to rest it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get my knee feeling better VERY soon, because running is my preferred choice of exercise, plus I have races coming up that I would really like to run. Here's what I ate today and I'm proud to report that I didn't eat anything extra... none of my kids' fishy crackers, none of their leftover yogurt... just what I planned.

Breakfast: 1 cup Kashi Go-Lean Crunch with 1 cup skim milk

Lunch: Whole Wheat Tortilla with 1 Tbsp. shredded colby-jack cheese, 1/4 c. black beans, half of a chopped tomato, 1 cup romaine lettuce, and 1 Tbsp. of guacamole

Dinner: Easy Balsamic Chicken (recipe below - you have to try this, it's super easy and fast and tastes like it took you forever) and a spinach salad

I rode my bike to yoga class tonight and weighed myself afterwards. This is basically my starting weight since I just started yesterday and wasn't able to make it to a scale before that.

Starting Weight: 137.5 pounds

Goal Weight: 125 pounds

I was a little bummed considering last time I weighed myself before I left for all my trips, I weighed 133. I guess I was a little out of control. Woops. So, there you go. Now the whole world knows how much I weigh. It's a good thing hardly anyone reads this. Haha! I only have 12.5 pounds to go. That's a totally attainable goal. Feel free to leave any comments of encouragement for Morgan and me. We need all the help and support we can get.

Easy Balsamic Chicken
Prep: 15 minutes, Marinate: 1 to 4 hours, Grill: 10 minutes, Serves: 4

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 1-1 1/4 lbs.)
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Place each piece of chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound to 1/2-inch thickness with a meat mallet. Discard plastic wrap.

Add all ingredients except chicken to a zip-lock bag and mix together. Add chicken to bag and seal it. Turn the bag to coat the chicken with marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 to 4 hours, turning bag occasionally.

Grill chicken for about 10-12 minutes, turning once halfway through or until chicken is no longer pink. If cooking in the oven, place chicken in a shallow roasting pan and roast for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Okay, this has been WAY longer than I wanted it to be, but I do want to be completely honest about all of my eatings and doings. :)

Day 1

Good morning! And what a good day it is... the first day of our new eating plan. I have to say that I was dreading this all last week, but I got up and ran four miles this morning and felt renewed and awesome when I got home. It made me really excited to start eating healthier, which was a relief, because without a lot of determination, I would never get anywhere doing something like this. I love the way exercise makes my body feel. After I exercise, I always want to put fresh and whole foods in my body so that I keep feeling as good as I did when I was getting such a great workout.

Tonight I'll report what I ate for the day and how I did. My family is going over to Morgan's house to eat tonight - yummy Chicken Marsala! I can't wait. If anyone is looking for a new eating plan to try, you really should check out the Sonoma Diet, because it has the most delicious and flavorful recipes. I actually look forward to eating this healthy stuff... so good!

morgan's menu for the week...

So I decided to post my menu for the week to make it a little more official. Plus, then if you are reading this, you can get some lovely ideas of your own! I will also spare you what I am having for breakfast and lunch, as I'm sure you probably don't really care. But just so you know, so I can be held accountable, it is going to be a lot of eggs, and whole grain, fiber cereal for breakfast, and lots of wraps, salads, and leftovers for lunch.

Monday:
Chicken Marsala w/ whole grain pasta

Tuesday:
Chipotle steak w/ cauliflower and brown rice

Wednesday:
Wildrice chicken soup w/ steamed broccoli and whole wheat bread

Thursday:
BBQ spiced rubbed salmon (yum!) w/ green beans and brown rice

Friday:
Spaghetti (my yummy cappelini pomodoro sauce w/ whole grain noodles) and salad

Saturday:
Sauteed shrimp w/ tomato and basil w/ brown rice

Sunday:
Pork roast

Also, just so everyone knows, my husband will be getting white rice, white bread, and as much dressing as he wants!! It will be a little bit more work to do that, but I would rather have a happy husband. That is, unless he decides he wants to do this with me. What do you say Nate? It never hurts to eat healthy! :)

Let's get healthy...

So, starting on Monday, June 18th, Morgan and I are going to begin the Sonoma Diet together. We decided to create a blog as a food journal and to help us to stay organized with our meals. Also, we'll record how we're doing with our exercise regimen. We will have weekly weigh-ins on Thursday nights after yoga class... Aaahhh! Hopefully, the fact that our weight will be posted every week will help us to be accountable for our eating habits. :) Good luck to us in our endeavors to have more healthy habits!