7 Week Challenge: Week 3

Posted on by
2

Oh, hai there! It seems as though it’s friday already.. my three day work-week flew by! Last weekend was a long weekend for us Canadians and I had family up visiting. We lucked out and had some beautiful weather all weekend. Speaking of weather, apparently there was snow sighting this morning! Summer needs to come and stay already.

Anyway, some family was here last weekend which meant lots of food and some eating out. Which for me means a rough week. I managed to stay on track the last few days, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to undo the damage that the weekend brought.

7 Week Challenge:

Starting Weight: 239

Week One- May 10: 237 (-2)

Week Two – May 17: 237 (0)

Week Three – May 24: 238 (+1)

That was realllllly hard to admit. I hate admitting to a gain, but I know we all go through our struggles and being honest with yourself (and readers) is key. The challenge is almost halfway through and I certainly haven’t made much progress yet… yet!

For the past month I’ve been doing a bootcamp twice a week and I’m really enjoying it. I was going to join June’s class, but my mom is here for most of June and I know I’m going to miss a couple classes. A couple may not seem like a lot, but when there’s only 8.. it seems like a waste of money. Then I noticed on the bootcamp’s website that the trainer offers online personal training at a very affordable rate. The training comes with customized workouts, nutrition plan and weekly check-ins with her. I know you can find all kinds of workouts and meal plans online for free, but what really grabbed my attention was the weekly check-ins. Back in college when I lost weight (rather quickly!) I was attending a gym (similar to Curves) that included weekly check-ins with a coach. The coach would do your weighs, measurement and discuss any issues that you may be having. This is essentially what the online training package includes. These check-ins helped me tremendously and it held me accountable for many months. There was no way I wanted to go weigh myself in front of someone and gain! I know there are other programs out there that do this, like Weight Watchers meetings, but WW is expensive (and you have to commit with a membership) and I really don’t think that the WW leader would notice if I skipped a week here or there because I know I gained. Where as my trainer is expecting to hear from me every saturday with my weight/measurements… this will hold me accountable.

She should be sending me my customized package today and I’m excited to see what it entails. I will officially start monday, but if I have all the food tomorrow then I will start then.. I don’t want to have yet another bad weekend where I’m fighting to make up for it all week.

I’m really excited to start this and I think (i hope!) it’s the push that I need. The program is 8 weeks and if I like it I will likely sign up for some more.

I’m going to leave you with another picture of Zoee. She’s just so cute. Wednesday night was her puppy class, which she loves! She works and plays hard in the classes and is always so tired and hot afterwards. On our way out, she managed to find the only puddle in the parking lot and after taking a drink she decided to lay down! Luckily I had a towel in the car ;)

919439_10151445136511645_498618410_o

ahhhhh.. nice and cool :)

 

 

 

7 Week Challenge: Week 2

Posted on by
6

It’s Friday and it’s the friday of the May Long weekend and it’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend with barely any rain or cold in sight. Thank goodness! We have family visiting for the weekend and I’m looking forward to spending some time out and about with them.

This past week was pretty great. It was just one of those weeks where I felt really good mentally and physically. The weather was OK for the most part, I got in a lot of workouts and the work week flew by! I barely had a chance to sit down and relax at home this week, but I’m ok with that.

Last saturday it took me literally all day to encourage myself to go out for a run. Finally at 8pm (while I was painting!) I decided I just needed to go… and I’m so glad that I did! It was by far my best run of the season. The weather was nice and cool and it just felt easy.. which rarely happens. I felt so good about myself when I was done.

I got in some great workouts this week as well. Monday and Wednesday evenings I went running with some girls from work and Tuesday and Thursday evenings were spent at bootcamp. Bootcamp is going great and I think we’ll be signing up for June as well. I think the strength training is helping with my running as well, which is great. What I love the most is that we have to run a lap at the beginning of each class and i’m usually around the 6th person to finish (out of about 14!). I know it’s not a competition, but it feels good especially when the other girls are think and “appear” to be in shape. Last night at the end of the class the trainer made us to do another lap (after doing many squats!) and I was one of the few that ran the whole thing :) I felt awsome after every single workout this week.. and I love that.

images

 

You would think that after such a great week that I likely saw a good number on the scale this morning. Well, unfortunately that is not the case. It wasn’t bad, but not what I wanted to see.

7 Week Challenge:

Starting Weight: 239

Week One- May 10: 237 (-2)

Week Two – May 17: 237 (0)

No change… seriously  the scale did not budge all week. It is also that dreaded time of the month where my weight tends to stall or bounce up a few pounds, so I’m confident that I can fix it next week. Thankfully, I didn’t let the number on the scale discourage me at all this week. I kept truckin along and making sure to get my workouts in. Even if I don’t like the number on the scale, I can’t ignore how good I feel and how good I felt in my clothes this week. It could’ve easily been a bad week if I let the scale dictate my feelings, but I didn’t, and I’m quite happy about that :)

This weekend is going to be a big challenge with it being a long weekend and having company. I’m hosting dinner tonight and brunch tomorrow and my sister is taking care of the rest and we’ll likely be eating out once or twice. I need to make sure I get in at least one run and remember that I don’t need to go overboard just because we have company.

I hope everyone else had a great week! I leave you with a picture of Zoee… just because she’s cute :)

SAM_0950

Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs

Posted on by
6

Last Monday I promised that I would share a fantastic recipe for you guys. Well I went to write up the post last week when I realized that I didn’t have the camera cord so I couldn’t upload the pictures to go with it. I tried again on Friday, but WordPress was being finicky and wouldn’t allow me to insert pictures! I was finally able to complete this post today :)

I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and decided to make it for Easter. It was such a big hit that I ended up making it for my work’s bake sale Last week. Out of all the goodies that we were selling, these were the first to sell out.

The original idea came from this pin, but I wanted to try something a little different for the cake. I was inspired by Gina’s cupcake recipe that uses greek yogurt instead of oil and whole eggs. The cake part turned out amazing! The first time I made these, I baked the cake on tuesday and didn’t serve them until Friday and everyone raved about how moist they were (4 days later!).

strawberry shortcake kabobs2

Strawberry Shortcake Kabobs

Ingredients

2 cartons of strawberries (approximately)

1 box of white cake mix

3/4 cup of Greek vanilla yogurt

2 egg whites

1 1/3 cups of water

1 bag of white chocolate chips

Skewers

ingredients

Combine the cake mix, greek yogurt, egg whites and water in a bowl. Mix until smooth and pour into a greased cake pan or dish. Bake at 350 until toothpick comes out clean or according to directions on the box.

strawberry1

While the cake is baking, wash and cut the ends off the strawberries. Once washed and dried, slice each berry into two pieces. Depending on how big you want each kabob to be, you may also want to trim the skewers as well.

kabobs

Once the cake is done baking, let cool for easier handling. I like to bake mine and let it cool overnight (it stays moist for days!). Once cool, cut the cake into square piece. The size is personal preference and how many kabobs you want to make. Place cake and strawberries onto the skewers in an alternate pattern.

Once the skewers are done, begin melting the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. You could use milk or dark chocolate chips, but I like the white. Once melted, drizzle over all of the skewers with a spoon. I line the tray or pan with tinfoil to avoid a big mess.

Once all the chocolate is done, let the chocolate cool on the counter or fridge. Serve or wrap up for the next day!

strawberry shortcake kabobs