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Week 2 Accountability and Week 3 Goals

Posted on April 22, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

As promised – here is how I did on my Week 2 goals. The goal is to achieve 80 – 100%.

Drink 80 ozs of water per day (which includes preparing the night before – filling up my pitcher – seems so simple, but something that I put off). 100% Goal Achieved
Set calendar for every 2 hours to get up and move around (away from my desk). 90% Goal Semi Achieved (got up and walked around every 2 hours – never put it on my calendar).
Have vegetables (non-starch) at every meal. I actually do a good job at breakfast and I’m getting better at lunch – dinner is sometimes the challenge – I use a personal chef and sometimes the meal has a starch vegetable and I don’t have a salad or add something else. I will add a salad to my evening meal. 90% of Goal Achieved – only night without a salad was Saturday night (although I did have asparagus – and do wasabi peas count?)

Other successes: Tried out the Open Studio and made it to Project Sculpt on Thursday (killer workout). Additionally made two yoga classes this week and was able to do a standing balanced triangle.

Celebrate: Got to see a college friend and her family last night who I haven’t had a chance to see in quite some time. It was a great time!!

Notes/Reflections/Revelations: Preparation makes things so much easier!

Week 3 Goals:

Address my coffee addiction – Limit 2 K cups per day.
Add 2 – 3 green smoothies into my weekly menu – most likely pre-workout – good news is I’ve already made them and they are in shaker bottles in my fridge. I had one today – pre 7:00 pm workout. Not too bad (I did add protein mix – didn’t have it in the batch I made last night). (I’ll post later what I put in the smoothie)
Continue the following:
Drink 80 ozs of water per day
Get up and move around every 2-3 hours during the workday
Eat a salad with dinner

I’ll post my results and observations next week.

Week 2 – Goal

Posted on April 15, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’m building on my week 1 goals and adding another goal for this week. My ultimate goal is to make these become new habits. I don’t have a lot of distractions except this Wednesday, I do have a board meeting in the evening – which means I will miss my HardBody workout (and I missed tonight as I had a touch of food poisoning last night – feeling better now – just a little wiped out). I’m trying to figure out if it will go to the open workout during lunch or make it up on Saturday morning (I’ll keep you posted).

Here are my week 2 goals:

Drink 80 ozs of water per day (which includes preparing the night before – filling up my pitcher – seems so simple, but something that I put off).
Set calendar for every 2 hours to get up and move around (away from my desk).
Have vegetables (non-starch) at every meal. I actually do a good job at breakfast and I’m getting better at lunch – dinner is sometimes the challenge – I use a personal chef and sometimes the meal has a starch vegetable and I don’t have a salad or add something else. I will add a salad to my evening meal.

I’ll let you know how I do next week (and try to post daily on my accountability page).

Week 1 – Accountability

Posted on April 14, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Last week started BodyProject Fitness’ (http://bodyprojectfitness.com/) 6 week Spring Transformation. We do these twice a year (Spring and Fall) – a great way to re-focus on fitness and nutrition goals! We were all asked to post our goals for the week so we could have accountability and support.

My goal was to drink 80 ounces of water a day and get up and move around every 2-3 hours (I spend a lot of time on conference calls).

Day 1: Goal Achieved (HardBody Class)
Day 2: Goal Achieved (Yoga)
Day 3: Goal Achieved (HardBody Class)
Day 4: 50% of goal achieved – was in NYC for work and got quite a bit of walking in; however, my water was no where near 80 ozs of water – it is such a challenge to get all that water in when you are in meetings – but I did try (oh and I had an event in the evening that made it a challenge as well). (nice amount of walking)
Day 5: 50% of goal achieved – should’ve had more control as I was at home; however, really busy day on the phone and working on some important projects – just ran out of time in the day. (about 50% of water and 50% of movement during the day)
Day 6: Goal Achieved (Yoga)

So 4 out of 6 days, I hit my goal at 100%! And if I was grading my week based on the scores I’d be at 83% or a B! I knew Day 4 was going to be a challenge. I tried to prepare, but sometimes ‘life’ gets in the way. I’m pretty happy with my results. And the really good thing is I didn’t beat myself up on the days I didn’t hit my goal – I’m understanding the why and learning from it.

Spring Break 2013

Posted on April 13, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Last week, I was on Spring Break for the first time since I was in college and the destination was beautiful Anna Maria Island, Florida (about an hour outside of Tampa). My college destination was Central PA. I was pretty darn excited to be going someplace warm, spend time with my family and just get away as 2013 has been super busy for me so far.

The travel day was a bit of a pain – major airport delays (non weather related). However, I did get to hang with my brother and his family – and we toasted the end of Lent at the airport bar (I gave up alcohol for Lent) – here is my first cocktail – yummy Bloody Mary!

First Adult Beverage post Lent – yummy Bloody Mary

I also treated myself to a last minute 1st Class Upgrade – the downside – the gentleman sitting next to me snored like a freight train – so annoying!

Finally in Florida – Flip Flops on before heading to the Condo – post flight

I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow of what I did on my vacation. However, I will hit some of the highlights:

Lunch and Cocktails at The Sand Bar in Anna Maria – right on the beach – beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico.
View from our seat on the patio at The Sandbar
Getting 3 days on Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach – a great public beach.
View from my chair at Manatee Beach
Fishing on the “Wanna Go” with my Dad and Brother – we caught lots of Spanish Mackerel and one Sea Trout (well my Dad caught that one). Spanish Mackerel taste yummy marinated in Ken’s Teriyaki (low sugar too) and grilled.
Our catch from our morning fishing on the “Wanna Go”

Post fishing beverage

Spending time with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and my niece and nephew
Skinny’s – yum – they post their wait based on the number of beers. Our first order was a 2.5 beer wait – by the time I walked up from the beach it was a 3.5 beer wait (good thing my order was already placed – I did enjoy 2 Corona Lights before our order was up!).
Great burgers, ice cold beer (frosted mugs and a cool cylinder in pitchers) and atmosphere (and 1/2 a block from the beach)!
3 Great Workouts at Island Fitness in Holmes Beach
Having dinner with a life long friend, her husband and my Mom – oh and the food was fabulous – The Palm in Tampa! And we were seated in the Steinbrenner Booth!
Dinner at The Sign of the Mermaid with my parents and the Taylors – food was great and the company was fabulous
Having one last Corona Light or two with the above group at Skinny’s on Friday night! 🙂

It was a great vacation – went by way to quickly (was bummed that Thursday was a complete bust – lots of rain)!

Just one of many pictures I took during the all day rain.

I could’ve used another week as I was just starting to figure where everything was located (and other things I wanted to do). I would go back – very relaxing!

Last Day on the Beach!

Learning about my Metabolism

Posted on April 12, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Since last May, I’ve been seeing a nutritionist. I’ve been seeing results – it is just slow and steady – did I mention it was slow? I don’t miss out on things and I’m not on a diet – which is really important to me as I have a buys work and social life (so I’ve been told). We’ve kept it pretty simple – protein, veggies and carbs – no fruit though – he is treating me as pre-diabetic. I’ve cut out beer too (there have been a few exceptions but not many) – my cocktail of choice is Stoli Orange and Club Soda (and I cut out all adult beverages during Lent). Just wanted to prove I’m not missing out on things in LIFE!

Meanwhile on this journey, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in late November 2012 (I’ll write a post on that another time) (I’m feeling much better too – I just wonder if this is playing a role in the slow and steady part of the journey).

I had some struggles with weight loss around the holidays (more like weight gain) and crazy sugar cravings I didn’t really have over the fall. We decided it was time to do a metabolism test. We scheduled it for 8:00 am – no food after midnight and only water in the AM. The test is a 10 minute breathing test into a machine through a tube with your nose clipped. I was given a gold star for how consistent my breathing was in the machine – 10 minutes is much longer than you realize when your nose is clipped.

For my height, age and weight – my predicted resting expenditure is 1,643 calories – mine came in at 2,189 calories – so my metabolism is operating at a higher rate than the baseline! There was some other data called a RER which was at .82 (which would mean the last few days prior to the test I went into maintenance mode on my eating) (it should be more like .77 – it is that specific – since I did lose weight from the prior mth).

So my metabolism is doing great things – thanks to my work at BodyProject Fitness! Yeah!! I lost 5 lbs from the prio month – Yeah! And I’m down 16 lbs since last May (slow and steady wins the race – I’m changing my lifestyle – my new mantra!!) Great news – still perplexing why my body seems to want to hold onto the weight though (and the day before the metabolism test I had a BodyMetrix ultrasound test and my BF went up 5% – even more perplexing – makes me wonder if the Lyme Disease is impacting it – I’ll discuss my personal hypothesis on another post). And what I’m doing eating / working out shouldn’t be contributing to muscle loss. Things that make you go HMMMM!

All that being said – we have adjusted my morning breakfast to eliminate the carbs as my nutritionist believes I am insulin sensitive. I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks now – my go to breakfast is a 2 egg omelet (and lately throwing in some egg whites too) with veggies and cheese. I haven’t been perfect though – on vacation I did indulge in a Thomas’ English Muffin with my 2 egg omelets. 🙂

So as you are reading this you may think I’m a super patient person. I am anything but patient. This journey has been a pure test of my patience – but I know I’m making long-term sustainable changes and learning lots about myself as I go. I think that is what keeps me going – and I’ve already invested so much time and energy in it. I’d be lying if I didn’t want to see a nice one month drop of 10 lbs to help my confidence and ego! 🙂

Green Smoothie #2

Posted on March 20, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Here is the smoothie I made yesterday. It was a pretty green (and frothy) – more of a St. Patrick’s green than the one I made on Sunday (I’ll post a picture later). It was a bit peppery (and I like pepper – but not in my morning drink) (not even sure what made it peppery). I also meant to put in some flaxseed and I forgot. If I made this one again, I would probably add lemons or limes and maybe a little stevia and pink himalayan salt

Ingredients:

1 – 1 /2 cups of lemon water
Handful of spinach
1 – 2 celery stalks
Fresh Ginger
Parsley

Put in that order into vitamix and blend.

Green Smoothie Recipe – #1

Posted on March 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’m starting to experiment with Green Smoothies. I’m really curious to see how they have a positive impact on my energy level (and selfishly if there are any weight loss benefits). I think many of you know I’ve been seeing a nutritionist for almost a year. One of the things I have to focus on is getting more veggies in each meal. Sometimes I don’t do that great of a job doing getting my veggies. I want to see if this makes a difference. I’m don’t plan on using these as a meal replacement – more of a quick hit on getting my ‘greens’.

Yesterday, I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle. The plan was for the 3 of us to go out for dinner. We tried a steak place that didn’t seem to have their act together and we left before ever being seated. And the next place we went to – we were seated relatively quickly, wait staff was great, I got my salad and then the wait started – and then we waited. Somehow our order got lost – who knows. The manager came over and apologized and told us the meal was on her – which was great – and then we waited some more. Of course when the food finally came out – everything was cold except the plates and my sweet potato fries (which of course I had a few). Needless to say we left (we did give our waitress a tip as this wasn’t her fault). And we can go back for 3 free entrees. The reason I told you this story is I left there and got home around 8 pm and I still need to eat dinner (and honestly I didn’t feel like cooking anything). Perfect opportunity to make a Green Smoothie!

I grabbed this recipe off of Facebook from Amanda Hayes::Nutrition and Wellness Page (post dated March 14th). I altered slightly for my preference though. Her recipe calls for a banana and I skipped that since I haven’t been eating fruit. Her recipe was for Peanut Butter and I opted for Almond Butter instead.

1 cup unsweetened almond milk (Trader Joe’s)
Few handfuls of torn up spinach
3-4 ice cubes
2 tablespoons raw cocoa powder (Navitas)
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1 tablespoon Almond Butter (Trader Joe’s)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablet of Blackleaf Stevia (I would use 2 next time – would’ve preferred a little sweeter)
pinch of sea salt (I used Himalayan)
pinch of cinnamon (I used more than a pinch)

I enjoyed it although it was an interesting color of green – a Happy St. Patrick’s Day Smoothie!

Where I’ve been lately…

Posted on March 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

My posts seem to be few and far between lately. Things have been quite busy at work lately (and I don’t see that changing) – I see that as a good thing!

Since November, I’ve been planning for our Annual Sales Kick-off Meeting in Chicago. It was a the Palmer House Hilton – one beautiful, historic hotel. Same place as last year – and they did not disappoint. I highly recommend this hotel if you have an opportunity to stay there in Chicago. Now back to my post…

I flew into Chicago on Monday, March 11th. I was up late getting all the presentations to flow, etc. The meeting started at Noon on the 12th. There was lots to do in morning prior to the meeting. Everything was going great. I can tell you the whole time, I was wondering to myself (and may even have said it out loud too) – I’m not nervous – What is wrong – I’m usually so nervous before it starts and then once we start I’m good. Hmmm – what is going on?

Our theme was – WE ARE THE DIFFERENCE! The meeting started with a quick welcome and then off to our keynote speaker, Steve Gilliland (check him out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiaQm54ZURM) – he spoke to us about “Making a Difference.” It was great and I can’t wait to read his book. The one thing he mentioned was ‘Prepare Hard and Finish Easy’ – then the light bulb went off in my head – this is exactly what I had done (along with my team)! Long story short – great meeting – great city!

Here are some pictures from the hotel – did I mention earlier? – Beautiful!!

50 Burpees – OH My

Posted on February 20, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’m so happy – I completed 50 Burpees tonight at BodyProject Fitness and Lifestyle (http://www.bodyprojectfitness.com). I haven’t been a huge fan of Burpees – ever – but I do have say I like this new burpee (for me less risk of hurting myself as I can be a klutz sometime). Here is the link – try it out: http://goo.gl/fZB0D (shhh – don’t tell anyone – starting to like them a little)

It was such a great workout tonight. 20 minutes and pushing myself (everyone did) with heavier weights – 12, 15 and 20 lbs for me tonight. I completed 4 rounds – and started my 5th round so I did get the 50 burpees in (did I mention that?)!

Burpee 10 reps
Bicep Curls – 5 reps – 15 lbs
1/2 turkish getup – 5 each – 12 lbs (I did try one round with 15)
OH Press w/ one foot – 5 each – 12 lbs
Plie w/calf raise – 5 – 20 lb kettlebell
Tricep Single Arm Crusher – 5 each arm – 12 lbs (this is the one where you are lying down on your mat)
Fast Run in Place – 10 each leg
Single arm Back Row – 5 reps each – 20 lb kettlebell
Running Lunge -5 each leg

This will be one I’ll take with me when I travel – one you can do in the hotel gym in a short period of time and get a nice good sweat going. Enjoy!!

PS: If you are in Central NJ – check out http://www.bodyprojectfitness.com (changed my life)

2013 Happenings…

Posted on February 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I know I’ve been just terrible with my updates over the last few months. Thought I’d share some 2013 happenings…

A quiet Happy New Year
Got to be a NYC tourist to see the Christmas Tree – going after New Year’s definitely is a bonus – no crowds (and had a great dinner at Virgil’s – best BBQ in NYC – it is good stuff).

Rockefeller Center Tree – 2012 – 2013

Met up with friends post Christmas Tree visit to a really cool pub – Cassidy’s Pub (loved the accents – bonus) – extra bonus – walked outside and hailed a cab in mere seconds! (seriously – fastest I’ve ever gotten a cab).
Traveled to NYC for a quick work trip and had a chance to catch up with some work friends – a nice meal and a quick drink at The Perfect Pint.
PSU vs. VT Hockey game in Philly with good friends – bonus – PSU WON!!

We WIN!

Completed 100 push-ups during our Million Dollar Baby inspired workout at BP (such a sense of accomplishment)
Girls Night Out Wine Party – great friends, time, food and of course wine. New favorites: Layer Cake Malbec ($16.99) and Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux ($14.99)

Layer Cake and Chateau Bonnet – yummy

Drove down to OCNJ – first time down since Superstorm Sandy. OCNJ didn’t get hit anywhere near as hard as other areas of the Jersey Shore – still damage -stood on a dune at 52nd street – it was a small pile of sand – in awe of mother nature.
Held our 6th Annual Bowl Over Cancer Event to Benefit THON – Raised $2.5K FTK
Hanging with my niece and nephew – such a fun time.
THON raising $12.3M for the Four Diamonds Fund – to date over $100M raised since 1977. For more information on THON go to http://www.thon.org

Inspire Tomorrow’s Miracles

Have a fabulous week!