Keeping up with Kate

Healthy Tailgating

Posted on September 20, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

If you don’t know already, I’m a proud PSU Alum! I have season football tickets and I just love fall in State College.

I’m going to 5 home games and 2 away games this year. I have 3 games under my belt for the fall (2 home and 1 away). Last fall I did quite good monitoring what I was eating and my adult beverages (no beer) (stuck with mixed drinks – Bloody Mary’s etc) (you drink less as you sip more).

This year I decided to attempt at adding some healthy options to my tailgates. On most game days it is breakfast and linner (or lupper) on the grill. The first home game I made breakfast – which is usually an egg sandwich with meat and cheese. This year I made my egg with some spinach added to it. It was delicious. When I’m back up for a game in October – I’ll add more veggies as I won’t be having a breakfast sandwich (see my #SHIFT posts) – so it will have to be an omelet. I’m bummed I didn’t take a picture of my yummy sandwich from the other week.

Onto Linner (Lupper) – I tried at the first home game to try Jack Daniel’s pulled pork sandwiches to mix it up a bit – too sweet – off the menu. So last week when I was up with my Mom we had hamburgers and hot dogs – normal tailgate fare. However, before we left NJ we stopped at a local Italian Deli for some yummy, healthy salads – cucumber, tomato and fresh mozzarella and a grilled veggie salad. Delicious and a hit! They will definately be added for future games.

Cheesburger with fresh salads. Nice grill marks on the bun too!

Hot Dog option with salads

Any suggestions for other healthy options?

30 Day Shift Adjustment

Posted on September 19, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

If you read yesterday’s post you read that I’ve been re-energized after reading The Shift by #ToryJohnson. And btw I heard today it is #1 on the Best Seller’s List.

One of thing I noticed that helped Tory on her journey was writing her goals down. Now this is nothing new, but what I liked that she did was – write it on an index card. So that is just what I did yesterday – a little more later as to what I have on it.

For more than a year I’ve been focusing on the following:

Eat 3 meals per day – this is a well balanced meal with protein, carb and veggies. No more than 30 carbs per meal – and enough protein to get me to the next meal. And we’ve adjusted the carbs down to ~25 per meal (and no bread with breakfast) (and I bet most days I’m much lower than that per meal)
No fruit – I’m carb sensitive
Drink 60 – 80 ozs of water per day. I’ve added some hydration tabs as my last two blood tests have shown that I’m dehydrated – I sweat a lot when I work out.
Limit desserts and sweets in general
Exercise 3 xs per week
Enjoy my food – so I don’t eat stuff I don’t like!

As I mentioned earlier, I decided yesterday to create a 30 day plan starting to see if tweaking the above would show any changes to my weight loss (it has kind of slowed down over the last 5 weeks). One of the things Tory did was go cold turkey not having things. I’ve always been fairly flexible as I don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on things. However, I’m curious for one can I do the following and two does being so strict make a difference? Time will tell.

Water, Coffee or Tea only – no Diet Pepsi and no Diet Dr. Pepper. I really don’t drink a lot of soda but I can tell you the next month I will be tempted with some work and personal travel.
No bread at breakfast – I know this is in the above; however, I’ve been known to make exceptions – especially when I’m finished with my 6 week nutritionist appointment – I use it as a reward and know better than to use food as a reward! 🙂
Limit my AM coffee routine to 2 cups per morning – and if I want a 3rd cup it needs to be black. I enjoy light cream in my coffee.
No dessert
Exercise 4xs per week or more!

30 Day Shift Adjustment Plan

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Shift

Posted on September 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Last night I finished reading The Shift by Tory Johnson. I loved reading about Tory’s journey. I’ve been a big fan of Tory since her first segment on GMA. I think it is great how she has helped women get back in the workforce or restart her career.

I really felt a personal connection with Tory while reading the book. As I started reading it I found that the confident woman I enjoyed watching on TV had insecurites just like me. She has struggle with her weight for a very long time – I’m fortunate that mine has only been the last 10 years or so.

Without realizing it I started my own Shift in April 2012 when I finally had it with my weight – I made the first step – I made the nutrionist appointment! Now I haven’t had the quickest drop in weight that Tory saw (and I won’t tell you how much she dropped – you have to read the book – it is part of the journey). But I have dropped enought that when I had my 1 year anniversary going to the nutritionist – it was very emotional. If I had taken that step – would I have been even heavier or the samy unhappy weight? I’m so glad I don’t know that answer!

I found some similarities in Tory’s journey and my own – accountability – getting on that scale every morning, no fruit and a favorite statement (if you’ve read my blog before you’ve seen it before or my mantra) – ‘slow and steady wins the race’!

After reading The Shift, I’m re-energized! And the timing is perfect – the 6 week Fall Transformations starts on 9/23! The Shift is all about getting inside your own head – ready to commit to the best version of you (credit – Lindsay Vastola)!

Get Your ROAR ON!

Posted on August 30, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I can’t believe this weekend is Labor Day weekend. It feels like just yesterday we were just celebrating Memorial Day. I love summer and I’m kind of bummed I didn’t make to to the shore more than on my vacation. So as a say goodbye to summer this weekend – I get to say HELLO to fall – sort of – as Penn State has their first football game this weekend!

And the bonus is I’m not going to be too far from home since they are playing Syracuse at MetLife Stadium (aka The Meadowlands) in NJ – where it is a home game for Syracuse – but it will really be a home game for Penn State. So maybe I can sneak down to the beach on Sunday – hmmm – need to do that (sorry I digressed).

Back to football – I think the fall like weather a week or so ago has me finally ready for some football – it will be a very low key tailgate (I’ll do another post over the weekend with all of my new tailgate toys)! All of the essentials are ready to go – Adult Beverages and Cupcakes – what else does a girl need? 🙂 Oh don’t worry there will be other totally non nutrious items on the menu. Good thing I’ll be walking around a lot – I’ll be interested to see how many steps I get in tomorrow. Sorry I’ve digressed again.

I’m really looking forward to see what Bill O’Brien and this Penn State Football team will do this year. They’ve worked hard and kept their focus. Just as the team last year – they will have all of the support they need from their Penn State family! Here is a glimpse of what Coach O’Brien shared with the team about the our history and the Penn State family:

Tomorrow will be a great day – I’ll get to see some friends I see a lot, ones I haven’t seen in awhile and may even run into people I haven’t seen in forever – you never know who you will run into. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ll have my ROAR On and my BANK Button!

Bank Button – PSU vs. Syracuse – 2013

And I am SO Glad I’m a NITTANY LION!

ROAR LOUD ~ ROAR PROUD!!

WE ARE…PENN STATE!!

I’m back…

Posted on August 29, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

As you’ve noticed, I get writer’s block quite a bit.

I think I mentioned previously that I’ve been dealing with a knee and IT band injury since the end of June. So not HardBody workouts since then. I’ve been concentrating on yoga and pilates. I was able to make many workouts while on my 2 week vacation; however, post vacation I’ve been making it about 2 times per week due to my schedule.

I have re-introduced walking thanks to the UP by Jawbone – gotta keep up with my teammates with the number of steps I’m doing!

The exercises I’ve been doing for my IT band have really helped – so much so I don’t need to go back to the doc unless I have a problem. He still wants me to focus more on my upper body and core during workouts.

Last night was my first time back to a Hard Body workout since June. I’ll be honest I was a little nervous. I wasn’t sure if I would have limitations and I really didn’t want to re-injure anything, because I really missed these workouts (lots of sweat – as the saying goes ‘fat crying’!). I have to say I felt great – it was like riding a bike. I modified some exercises and I got a good sweat in. I noticed I was able to do some exercises much better than before – I give all the props to yoga and pilates.

Fall is super busy for me personally and with work so now I have to figure out how to get all of the things I enjoy – HardBody, Walking (keeping those steps up is so important), Yoga and Pilates in my schedule weekly (and being consistent) since weekends are out for the next few weeks. I’m sure I’ll figure it out! 🙂

UP = Insightful

Posted on August 15, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’ve been wearing my UP band on my wrist now for about a week. I LOVE it!

I’m monitoring my sleep and my steps (and you can add workouts). I tried logging my food for a day and I just didn’t feel like monitoring more – maybe I’ll look into it at a later date. You can connect with friends who are using the UP band. There are settings so you can include only your steps (which is what I’m doing ). I don’t think my co-workers need to know my sleep patterns! 🙂

You monitor you activity by plugging the band in the earbud spot of your iPhone (or for you Android) – so it isn’t bluetooth enabled. You can see pretty quickly how you are doing. The charge on the band lasts about 10 days – a little less when you plug in more than twice a day (I know from experience)! You can see how your are doing against your daily goals. And you can add in your workouts too. One of the things I love is you can set an idle reminder when you haven’t moved for awhile – mine is set to vibrate every 30 minutes I don’t move from 8 am – 6 pm. I get quite a few reminders – even during yoga – not a lot of steps.

Sleep

You can set your personal goal of how much sleep you want (you are provided the ideal amount of time based on your age, height and weight). I believe mine was 7 1/2 hours – I set this as my goal.

I’m doing pretty well on my sleep – last night was one of my least amount of sleep and I’m feeling it this morning. I think what is great about this app is that is shows you your light sleep and deep sleep.

Here is a view of the best night of deep sleep (where you restore your mind and body)

Reach 94% of my sleep goal. Nice amount of deep sleep!

Walking

You can set your personal goal for steps. The recommended is 10,000 steps and the average person does about 5,000. I’ve hit 10,000 steps or more only twice – yesterday I just made it over 10,000 and on Sunday I hit 15,000 steps (6.93 miles). Sunday is definately an anomaly-it was our PSU Annual Freshman Sendoff – so it was a super busy day.

My work day consists of computer work and conference calls. Major wake-up call that even though I try to move around during conference calls – it just isn’t enough. I need to supplement my daily conference call walks with other activity. The last two days I’ve been able to get 45 – 60 minutes of walking in so that has helped. Going to also experiment with 10 minute walks during the day as well.

Typcial Workday steps – too much computer time not enough walking time.

Yesterday with a 50 minute or so walk

Annual Freshman Sendoff on Sunday – Wahoo – almost 7 miles.

Daily Insights

Today my daily insights included some of the following:

You’ve walked a total of 53,347 steps-covering 23.1 miles with an average of 7,621 steps per day.
A regular bedtime means regular sleep. When you hit the pillow at teh same time every night, you’re supporting your body’s natural rhythms and helping battle daytime fatigue.

Thank you KGK for encouraging me to try this out!

My new magic number – 0.7

Posted on August 10, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Back on May 6th, I posted my post called 20 – it was a milestone for me – but I think I was a bit premature – guess I had the original number in my head a bit higher. Anyway if you will recall from that post – my next number in my head that I wanted to hit was 6 – well now it is 0.7. What is the meaning of that number? I’ll tell you at the end.

This past Thursday was a busy appointment day – Nutritionist and Sports Medicine Doctor for an injury (turns out it is my IT band – lots of stretches and I go back in 2 weeks).

I went to see my nutritionist to see what progress I had made since the end of June (and prior to vacation). I’m a bit neurotic and weigh myself everyday (I know I shouldn’t – but it does keep me a little bit more accountable as my body seems to be super sensitive to foods and causing me to fluctuate) but the last time I was in my scale was off by 2 or 3 pounds so I wasn’t sure what to expect. On top of that I was on vacation for 2 weeks – where I did exercise – yoga and pilates at least 3 days a week but I also ate foods I wanted (including Blueberry pie and cobbler) and of course adult beverages – all within reason though (I actually didn’t gain weight on vacation – I checked!). It has been a bit more challenging since I’ve been back with work travel and other appointments – so it has been more like 2 times per week I’m getting to yoga primarily. Pilates just hasn’t been convenient – oh and I had a bit of work travel mixed in. If you notice – no Hardbody workouts – and this has been due to a nagging injury that started before vacation my knee and moved to my thigh while on vacation (see above – IT Band). So what happened at the appointment? I lost 3 pounds!!!! And here is the interesting thing – I completely changed up what I was doing exercise wise. I was speaking to my trainer about it yesterday and she reminded me that she reminds us all the time it is good to change things up as our muscles get used to the same routine. (I’m hoping this helps a blogger friend of mine who is thinking of changing her routine after her half marathon training ) 🙂

So what is the meaning of the 0.7 – that is how much I need to lose to get to that magic number in my head! It is one of the many milestones I have in my head before I reach my final goal! Stay tuned for updates – I won’t post on this until September when I go back for my nutritionist appointment – makes it more official!

Happy Saturday!!

Just got my UP

Posted on August 8, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Just got my UP by Jawbone in the mail today. I’m so excited!! I can get an employee discount and the black medium has been on backorder forever. I was able to order a grey medium (close enough to go with everything) on Saturday – Wahoo!

What is the UP? It is gadget you wear on your wrist and it tracks your steps and sleep. You put in your vitals – sex, age, height and weight – and it monitors your steps and sleep. You can also add food and water intake. Over time it provides insight about you day to day activities.

I’ve already set my goal of 10,000 steps per day (a big challenge for me), 7.5 hours of sleep (I can’t wait to compare this to my sleep cycle app) per night and the notice every 30 minutes I’m not moving to get up and move around.

I’ll keep you posted. I’m off to bed so I can get my 7.5 hours of sleep in the first night! 🙂

My Week in Pictures

Posted on August 4, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I ha a very busy week. Thought I’d share some photos of my adventures.

My week started with a flight to my company’s corporate headquarters in Overland Park, KS. One of the highlights of our meeting was a tour of our Executive Briefing Center. Thought I’d brag on a couple of our awards – 🙂

Emmy Award

JD Power & Associate’s Awards

Wednesday morning I headed into NYC for a meeting at The Empire State Building. I have a friend who I haven’t seen in ages who works in The Empire State Building – had a chance to catch up with her. Before we went out, I had a chance to take a look at her view – AWESOME!!! (and this picture just doesn’t do it justice)

View of Lower Manhattan from the 65th floor of The Empire State Building.

We headed off to CASK Bar and Kitchen to catch-up. It was a great place – very cool on the inside and great food offerings – small plates – great place to share. Oh and pretty darn good adult beverages!!

View of the Menu

Yummy Adult Beverages!

Love the inside of Cask!

No pictures on Thursday – it was a rainy day in NJ.

Friday brought a vacation day with beautiful weather! I was off to Sea Bright, NJ with some friends to celebrate a birthday. We had a great time on the beach, a fabulous lunch at Woody’s and some adult beverages at The Mad Hatter – where I took the picture of Sea Bright Rising!

Yummy Fish Tacos from Woody’s in Sea Bright!

Sea Bright Rising – this says it all!

Yesterday, I was off to see a dear college friend and her family in Sea Girt. The weather wasn’t great but we had a nice visit. Today we had a beautiful day at the beach!

Sea Girt, NJ – Beautiful!!

Have a great week!

Yoga – More than body, mind & soul…

Posted on July 27, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Last night, I went out with the girls to New Brunswick – the home of the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers (note their bars don’t even compare to State College 🙂 ).

My adult beverage of choice is Stoli Orange Vodka and Club Soda (because of the low sugar content and you can make one last forever!) – and I also drink lots of water when I’m out. We had dinner and made one more stop. It was actually pretty cool bar – and I felt like a beer (and water of course). I’ve been staying away from beer due to the sugar in it. And of course I picked a brew that was a sweet wheat beer. It was delicious – sort of like a dessert.

Low and behold this morning, I have a screaming headache. I really didn’t want to take anything for it – was hoping a cold compress would help – it didn’t. I then tried coffee – no help either. Saturday is a Yoga day for me and I had pretty much decided I wasn’t going to go. But finally some common sense hit me and I decided to go to YOGA. Best decision all day! It helped energize me and get rid of the annoying beer – sugar headache! No more sweet, wheat beers for me! 🙂