Big girls don't cry, or do they?

Today was a bad day, it was just one of those days where nothing seems to go right. I had to go to the beloved DMV which I am sure most of you know is the Department of Motor Vehicles. I just purchased a car, my official first car and it is all fun and games until you have to foot the bill. Well I paid around $400 in tax, registration, title change, etc. That just put me in a bad mood, not like I was angry I was just sad and frustrated It seems like I can never get a break. If it is not one thing it is another and it is frustrating. I pay for all my things and sometimes it would be nice if i had help but I don't, I am an adult after all :(. Then I came home in the afternoon and was going to start doing homework but could not find my charger and I started crying. It was just a combination of my day, I am in week 5 of my quarter system which means things are picking up (like assignments and exams), I am stressed everything just culminated in a big crying feast and me feeling sorry for myself. My boyfriend came over and helped me look forthe charger which we finally foun in my backpack ...lol, w I was relived I have an assignment due tomorrow. We left for him to get dinner and when I get home my father and younger sister start poking fun at me at the fact that I was crying and it was the straw that broke the camales back. I stormed out of the house crying at 10pm and left to Starbucks to do my homework. It is almost 12 and instead of being home I am sitting in m car writing this blog, I do not want to go home yet. My dad really did nothing wrong but it was the last thing I needed after a crappy day. I feel better now and I just have to pick up the pieces, put my girl panties on and face my problems.

New Year's Resolution

Hello fellow Bloggers,
How are you all doing? Can you believe that we are half way through October. Time flies and pretty soon we will be welcoming 2013. There are exactly 73 days until we ring in the New Year. Most people celebrate the New Year by making resolutions on how to better themselves whether it is to quit smoking, quit caffeine and one of the most popular to lose weight/ get in shape. All this New Year talk has made me reflect on my own resolutions and goals. But the fact of the matter is that we do not have to wait until January 1 to begin this we can start this TODAY. So why not....?
I really want to re-evaluate my goals and what I want for myself in my personal life. Focusing on my health is my number one priority and lately my eating habits have not been the best. I seem to have forgotten my own goals and have submerged in the busy task of my day to day life. I go to school full time, I work a part time grave yard, I am in a serious relationship, ETC. There are a lot of things keeping me busy lately but the fact of the matter is that my health needs to be my priority as well. I notice that when I don't eat healthy mentally I am not 100% committed to what I am doing. When I eat high calorie foods I become lethargic, lazy, I do not seem to want to do much. My feelings toward my physical image are also not the most positive, which leads me to over thinking, being negative. It is just a bad cycle. This has lead me to the conclusion that I can either quit on my goals and focus on something else or I can re-evaluate what I want and focus and do what I have to do. There are no reason for me to quit just unjustified excuses.
There are other things I have been thinking about too, for example, I want to transition this blog to more than just my weight loss/health journey into an overall blog about my life. Of course this will include my weight loss but I want to talk about other things too. That is the reason why I started my Abs diet blog.  My Abs diet blog will mainly focus on diet, exercise, weight-loss and this blog will have a little of everything about my personal life. So wish me luck on my journey and follow both of my blogs please.

Cravings

How do ya'll deal with cravings?

Sometimes it is hard to say no to the piece of cake, cookie or both and other times food is the only thing on your mind. Recently, I have been following the plan on the Abs diet book and it has been going well. I am rarely hungry, I do eat 6 times a day,  nor do I feel restricted but today the cravings began.  I know to achieve the look I want I have to stay away from sweets, my biggest downfall, for a while. I tend to do real well until I have the first bite of sweet, once that happens its all down the drain from there.

(This are literally my taste buds jumping for joy)

It is as if my tastebuds were dorment and once the sugar touches my tongue they wake up and want to make up for lost time. I know this already so I rather stay away  from sweets because I am serious about make long-term healthy changes.

I can usually follow a meal plan without any "cheats", for lack of a better word, about 2-3 days. Once the 3rd day comes I am craving. It starts with sweets and it is followed by salty foods. I hit that 3rd day today and cravings began but I am not giving in, I did the easiest and best thing I could do and that is just saying NO. I refuse to eat sweets because I do not need them, nothing beneficial will come from them. I just plain and simply ignored my cravings. It is not easy but your an adult, you understand that giving in to the slice of pizza or cake is not going to give you the body you want so, just say NO! It is not  that the slice is bad, it's that if you are anything like me, that slice will be followed by seconds, thirds and even sneaking a little bit more before bed time because tomorrow "you will restart all over so you have to get it while you can and you already cheated might as well make it a good cheat" (literally what I tell myself). Any who, I did the ol' fashion no means no trick and it worked. Successfully completed day 3 :) Let me tell you, not giving in is not so bad, it is al mind over matter, that is all.

Night everyone,

Debora


* Follow my Abs Diet here and for healthy recipes click on the Recipe tab above.

Review of The New Abs Diet Book

First of all let me say I Love, Love, Love this book.  The book is written my David Zinczenko, editor in chief of Men's Health (magaizine), Editor of Women's Health and author of the books Eat This not That. I opened the book and I skimmed through the forward. This is the part of the book I rarely ever read however, as I was skimming  I was shocked it is as if the author knew me, he must have been talking about me. The book introduces what it is going to touch on but also the fact that there are some women who like me will skip going out because of the fear of sabotaging their diets. I do that all the time.  Once I read this I was hooked because I knew this book target audience were women like me. Let's face it we have the right intentions, to be healthy, but for some reason or another find ourself "cheating" on our diet or binge eating.  At this point, I had only downloaded the sample to my kindle but  I knew after reading this I would buy it.
 I continued reading the book it is an easy read.  It has 18 chapters although a lot of the latter chapters are picture of exercise, recipes and workouts. Ziczenko offers facts, studies on why his method work and testimonials. His explanations, even the scientific ones, are easy to understand and the easies part is that there are only 12 power foods he wants you to eat constantly. This does not mean you can only at 12 foods although most of your meals will have at least 2 of the 12 foods.  Nothing is off limits on the diet but he teaches you to make good choices about what you are going to put in you mouth. I am excited for this mew eating plan because I already eat a lot of these foods it is just about the structure the book offers.

It is funny because in my previous post I  mentioned I did not like how it was called Abs Diet, Zinczenko, addresses this issue. He too did not like this word because he associates Diets to something you go on for limit time and when you get off a diet you tend to gain the weight back. This is different because it is about learning how to eat and what to eat.

I purchased for $9.36, the kindle version. It is an inexpensive book that I will forever refer to however, it is not necessary for you to purchase it. There are lots of websites that outline the Abs Diet. The book offers recipes, exercise guides, workouts and testimonials so if you are looking for more in depth information I suggest buy it or going to a book store and skimming through it.
Overall I say buy the book if you can, if you can't read about it online. I am excited about the promising results I read about. I can not wait to start, I have actually created a new blog that will describe the plan more detail as well as my day to day foods, exercise, ab exercise and results. I hope you will follow my journey. Here is to the next six weeks.....

Diets, Diets, Diets

Like many of you I hate that word Diet.  For many it represents failed attempts at trying to lose weight, frustration and unhappiness. What does it even mean when someone say: Sorry I can't eat that I am on a diet...
My feelings for the word diet are mutual, which is why I do not consider myself dieting.  I look to think that I  am making healthy changes to better myself. I mean don't get me wrong I want and am trying to lose weight but will refuse to put myself on a diet much more a fad diet. However, I am always looking for ways to improve what I am already doing. I am in constant change when it comes to my eating habits. I am always searching for something new and trying it out to see how it fits my lifestyle. I recently came across the Abs Diet book. It is a meal plan which contains a list of a basic 12 "power"foods which the author, David Zinczenko calls super food. The list consists of foods that I already try to eat, SO why not give it a shot?
 (Here is a list of the 12 power foods, note you eat more than these foods)

1. Almonds and other nuts
2. Beans and legumes
3. Spinach and green veggies
4. Low fat or fat free dairy
5. Instant Oatmeal (note that slow cooking oatmeal would be a better option here)
6. Turkey/other lean meats
7. Peanut butter
8. Olive oil
9. Eggs
10. Whole Grain Cereal
11. Whey Protein Powder
12. Raspberries and other Berries

 These food are already part of my regular meal plan if anything this will give me a regimen on how to eat them and when. I purchase the book on my kindle for $10 and intend on reading it tonight. I will have a detailed plan on this later. According to this book in 6 weeks I will began to see changes that will last me a life time.

For now the only thing I do not like is the name the Abs DIET, however, I am willing to give it a chance.

It is not as bad as it seems

My last post was sad. I was sad and depressed
however, today is a new day. I decided I will not weigh myself for a while I am going to focus on my fitness and nutrition and not on a number on the scale. However, I do need a way to measure my progress so from now on I will measure my progress by taking pictures among other things such as the number of push-ups that I can do or how fast my mile is. Here are the first pics:

Welcome to Downerville

Hello welcome to Downervile where everything seems horrible....

Yep that is me, literally right now laying in bed feeling sad. I have not gone to the gym in 2 days and all  I have done is eat and lay and dwelling in my sadness. It all started yesterday. I was doing so well I was feeling healthy and seriously I thought my stomach was getting flatter, I felt GOOD. Then I decided to weigh myself and I had gained weight. But I had been doing so good I thought it was almost impossible to gain weight, but  I did and I was disappointed. That triggered a day of eating and now I am in my self loath feeling bad, bloated and sad. Although, I feel this is worse I am really depressed. I do not know what is wrong. I am just sad real sad, I almost cried a few times today for no reason. Whenever I feel this low I try to find something to make me feel better, I decided to donate blood. But guess what, I could not even do that, my iron was a point to low. Not even the blood bank wanted my blood...le sigh.    Anyways there is no better cure to feeling depressed than just going through it, accepting it and shaking it off. Tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning and the opportunity to better myself but for now it just me trying to pick my self up. Until tomorrow, I hope your day is going a lot better than mine. 

Keeping up the good work

I am almost sure you guys have seen saying similar to this before. I know I have and it has a lot to do with what I am blogging about today. I do not know if you recall my last post but I had gotten back from Vegas and I was really determined to change my diet and exercise and step it up a notch and I have. Surprisingly I have done real well so far, mind you it has only been 4 day LOL but hey 4 days on a health streak is better than 0...Props to me. The hardest thing has been to not weigh myself, I do not know why I am so obsessed with my weight like wtf?? I have been so tempted to step on the scale but I am not, I refuse. I really doubt I have lost much weight. I did come back from Vegas 2 pounds heavier from my 'normal' weight so I probably just lost those 2 pounds, I mean come on it has only been 4 days so it is only understandable. Plus, I want to measure my success not only by the scale but also by how I feel and I feel good. I never regret a workout or eating healthy, that is for sure.
My "diet" started on Tuesday and I also began a new workout. It is extremely intense but I LOVE it. Phase 3 of livefit trainer is not for the faint heart,as Jaime, the creator of the workout, likes to say. I am completely drenched in sweat when done lifting weight, can you imagen that. The reason is that she, Jaime Easton, includes active rest in between reps. You find yourself lifting doing jumprope and lifting again. It is intense but I am getting my workout there is not doubt about that. I am looking forward the results.
  On another note my work vacation was over yesterday :( , it time to go back. Sometimes I wish I was rich so I would not have to work but hey this is life.

The countdown begins

I have 13  days until my next weigh-in. Usually I'd weight myself every other day or so but my boyfriend made me promise not to. When I weigh myself and haven't lost weight it is discouraging and it leads to a downward spiral of eating too much. Plus, I am excited to just wait and see what the results are. Also, we have no cheat meals, usually I give myself one day but not this time. At least not until Sep. 3 which is labor day. On another note today was day one of livefit trainer phase 3. It was an intense workout, I thought I was not going to make it but I did. I am just missing my cardio so I am doing insanity for 30 minutes and a jog :). I will keep ya'll posted with results and pics. Hope all of you are doing great.

Weight Loss Challenge

I just got back from Vegas and it was a really fun trip. I dont have to explain what I did because "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas " just know it involved alcohol, food and fun. However, now I am back ans ready. Summer is half way down and I have not lost much weight. It is a constant up and down with the scale. But  summer is  whining down I need to get on it. I have set a couple goals and  I am hoping that my scale yo-yoing will encourage  me to lose some real weight. I am doing this with my boyfriend and i am looking forward to it. Our first weigh in on September 3rd. I will keep you updated on how things our going.

Current weigh in:
Taylor:181
Debora:132

"Real Weight Gain"

When I weighed myself on Friday I knew I had not gained 3pounds in a day, that seems impossible (requires the consumption of 10500 calories, which I can not intake in one day ). Although I was weighing in at 133, I knew it was most likely due to the amount of food I ate the day before, the composition of the food (salty fried food most likely bloating me) and the fact that I had not had a bowel movement. It was scary nonetheless, to see that number staring back at me. 133 is closer 135 than 130 and I had worked hard to get rid of those 5 pounds and did not intend on gaining it  back.  So, even when  I knew that the possibility of going to the bathroom and waiting a day would take me back to my "normal weight" of 130 I was scared and disappointed, it was a never again moment.  I am glad I had that wake up call. Lately I have been feeling defeating and not in the right mindset. Today I stepped on the scale and was down to 128.2.  You might think it is stupid for me to obese so much but at one point in my life I was 167.9 and I still feel  like that big girl from time to time.

That's me on the right (I have very few photos of me from that time, I wonder why)

 My struggle with my weight and body are not over. If I'd have to measure my success I'd say I am at the halfway point of where I am suppose to be. My stomach  is my main "problem  area" and I have insecurities, like many other individuals.  In previous post I explain I  will try to obsess less about weight and I will, but it is easier said than done. Now that I am back to my "normal weight" I will stop weighing myself every day. Losing weight is still a priority but I need to focus on changing my relationship with food,  NO more binge days, that is not healthy for anyone. NO more using junk food as a treat. I have to reevaluate my goals and remember why I started this in the first place, I wanted to be healthy and fit, sometimes a number on the scale can not measure those things.

Moving on the a lighter note, there is a blog I follow called The Road to Less Cake, it is also the journey about a  young lady, Nikki, who  like myself trying to get fit and eat less cake (hmmmm....sounds exactly like my struggles). She is such an great  blogger, she has been doing great  on her road to less cake, today post was on Marilyn Monroe.  She passed away 50  years ago today. Nikki has a great post with picture of Miss Marilyn (click here to read), inspired by her I decided to post my all time favorite picture of miss Marilyn

I came across this picture a couple years back at a poster sale, I love it. I think it has to do with the fact that she is lifting weights although, as a weight lifter myself I have to say  her grip seems weird almost a bit off but who cares, it's Marilyn Monroe!!

 Anyways,  keep checking back on my progress I promise I will buckle down with my eating habits and I will keep posting on my successes and my not so successes. 

These are my confessions (Singing voice)

I thought about not blogging about this but I figured I should, I owe it to all of those who are going to the same struggles. I went to the orange county fair yesterday with my boyfriend. The fair is known for its greasy food, carnival games and crazy rides. There were tons of food vendors and food trucks, anything from fried oreos, fried twinkies even fried frog legs. Pretty much fried food galore. I did not eat any of this things in particular but I did share a mexican funnel cake :/ with the boyfriend.

  I did not have anything super unhealthy but I ate stuff that is not part of my diet and a lot of it .

I did eat some waffle fries!

Well I said I was not going to weigh myself but ended up doing so and it was scary , I am weighing in at 133. I had not seen this number in such a long time it is scary. It scared me so much I was not even sure how to approach my meal plan. Many diets recommend a fast day after a beinge day but I  work today an 11hour  day and not eatting is not going to fly. I decided to eat very lean, small meals and take snacks to work. This is like my regular meal plan except I know I have very few slip up room. Maybe this is a good thing, maybe this will scare me straight and I will not beinge eat.

Here I will leave you with some other pictures of the fair:

Boyfriend and I

with my favorite Italian chef- Fabio Viviani

Here are some pictures of some of the decadent food sold at the fair (I did not eat this):

Fried Oreos

HUGE sausage dog

chocolate covered bacon 

Checking In

I have been on this journey for a while and sadly it is something I will probably struggle with all my life. But looking back I have made great strides. Before this blog I was 169 pounds, my heaviest.  Currently, I am weighing in at 129.9 with my plateau weight being 130. It is been hard because I feel I have been doing all the right things but not losing weight however, after reflecting I realized I need to go beyond that number in the scale and realize how much stronger I am today then I was in the past. I can actually do push-ups (off my knees), I see muscle definition on my arms and legs. There are other ways to measure success besides my weight. I am trying to focus on those things and not so much on the scale. I am cycling my carbs and calories with  low calorie/carbohydrate day and high calorie/carbohydrate day. I feel good but I am never hungry and sometimes I am literally forcing myself to eat, but I do it to eat 5-6 times a day. I plan to continue to check in and let you know how it is going.

Hello, do you remember me?

Well I have been gone for literally forever. My last post was published May 21 I believe, It has been a little over 2 months, well I am alive and well.  In those 2 months I have struggled to lose weight. Like previous post my weight goes from 127-132 depending on my eating habits but I cannot get lower than 130 ( for more than a day), that has become my plateau weight.

It has been tough mentally because most of the time my diet is both healthy, varied and includes low carb, high protein. It has been extremely frustrating.  I know I have posted before that it is not about the weight and honestly it isn't, but when your doing the "right" things and the scale is not budging it is discouraging.  I was letting the weight on the scale get to me to the point where it was sabotaging my life. No weight loss = binge day however, I have never gave up because in the back of my mind I was doing it to become healthy. I decided to stop weighing myself, everyday, and start focusing on how I felt. Let me tell you that  when I eat health, when I diet and exercise I DO NOT feel "fat" nor bloated. The last couple of days in June and July I was focusing on that but I still one to lose 10 pounds so I decided to do something about it.

The next couple of post will detail what I have been doing in detail, I have already lost 4 pounds :).

Untitled

I never know what to title my post so I titled this oneUntitled. I am so frustruated with myself, it seems I take one step forward and not 2 but 3 steps back. I am tired of having a bad relationship with food, I do not use it as fuel I seem to abuse it, sometimes. What can I do to change this relationship? There is always more than one excuse to not follow through on my diet plan, whether it is a party, work potluck, event etc. Will I ever figure it out and fight my way through or will I continue stumbling, just getting by? For know I came across the Ultimate 10 day plan to trim fat from good . It was on the Dr, Oz show. I plan to do this diet for the next 10 days, similar to what I usually do on a good diet day. I don't know if I have lost all hope in myself or what but lets see where this takes me. Night!

Hello there Stranger

I have been gone for a while and so much has happened. First of all, my tooth healed great I was out of the gym for about one week. Then I was in and out of the gym throughout. My diet was actually great but I have been missing the exercise part not that I haven't it just was not  consistent. Any who, this post is about getting back on track but most importantly something that happened to me recently.

The Elephant in the Room
This might be a TMI moment so please bear with me, I had a cut on my breast which was bothering me, I thought it was a possible scratch. I work the graveyard shift and on Thursday after work (it was technically Friday in the wee hours of the morning) I was in the bathroom checking it out. For whatever reason I was persuaded to feel around and discovered a lump. Yes a lump. I was not scared but I felt the need to call my boyfriend. I was a little freaked out, I will admit. I mean I am 21 years old I should not be worrying about breast cancer. I am at my ideal weight and am physically active, if I would have to rate my diet I'd give it an overall B-. So what is this lump?
This all happened on Thursday, I went to the doctor's today. She said she felt there was nothing to worry about but she sent me to have an ultrasound done because it feels hard and the area around it is sore therefore it might be a cyst.

Wake up Call
This is unfortunate but it is eye opening, I will never miss a breast self exam again. I will continue to watch my health and this is what I needed to take my healthy search to the next level. If you have been following my blog you will notice I have been struggling with finding an inspiration to take me to the next level and I think this is it. The health scare made me feel the need to pursue a healthier life style with less processed food and more fruits and vegetables. It is only what I deserve and what all of us deserve. Our body is our temple and it needs the proper fuel to keep us going for years to come.

Ill keep you guys updated on my heath but I feel I have nothing to worry about.


Bye for now,
Debby

Taking Time Off

Hey guys,
as you know that I was doing  a challenge where I was going to eat clean and exercise twice a day for 30 days, it was a bikini challenge I made for myself however, that has now been put on hold. I had a real bad tooth ache and went to the doctor on Monday and it was my wisdom tooth and I needed to get it extracted asap. I went in today and had it pulled out. Let me tell you I as so so so nervous. Thankfully the tooth  was not impacted, it was already exposed and all it took was a little general anesthesia and pressure and the tooth came out. Now I am sitting in bed resting. I am icing it every so often so the swelling will go down and I will probably take a nap soon. Thankfully, I don't work until Friday night and might not go to school tomorrow. I can only eat soft foods so jello, pudding and Atkins shakes for me. Tomorrow it will be vegetable juices all day. As for working out, I can't most likely until monday.  I do not want to get dry socket :/. Until later my loves!


xoxoxo
Debora

Motivation

If you have read my previous post you should know I am looking for motivation, I need to find a way to take my diet/exercise to the next level. Besides planning on eating clean (nothing processed, no bread, grain, pasta starch) I also plan on taking my exercise to the next level. Starting Monday I will be doing twice a days, meaning I will be workout twice a day. I plan on continuing this until May 9th which will end with a visit to my schools nutritionist where he will take my weight and body fat percentage. I am excited, I have something to be accountable to. Besides the scale, I have bought a bikini which I plan on debuting soon after the 9th of May and I will take pictures with it progressively. Here are the starting shots:

 I hate taking mirror shots, they never do justice or they exaggerate (by exaggerate I mean make it look better thanyo look, and this clearly was not one of those cases,....)the looks so I took different shots in different places with both my iPad and Camera.

Here is another shot, I can see ab line, can you? NO :(

 Expect the next shoots in a week on t he 16th, 23rd, 30th, finishing with the 9th of May.

Wish me luck!!

xoxoxo,

Debora Hernandez

Quick check-in

Okay so weighed myself on Wednesday and I was 130.5, have not lost or gained a significant amount. I am trying. I have been going to the gym almost daily, 6 days a week but I can get the whole eating clean thing down for a significant amount of time. I am not quite sure how to take it to the next level. I guess it does not help I am in a safe zone (weight wise). I do not know what to do, should I start a goal list? what do you guys do when you need a little extra motivation?

On another note I took my kitty kat to the vet today, here are some pictures of the baby:

Here she is at the vet, yearly check-up. I found out she is a little overweight and needs to go on a low carb diet like her mama. 

All buckled up. She has a cat carrier but my older sister borrowed it, this was an unexpected visit because earlier this week she lost her "meow. But she is okay, just  a little overweight. 

Happy Thursday

Goal weight -

My goal weight since I started this journey back when I was a sophomore in college has always been 130. I was the heaviest at 167.9 and I set 2 weight goals 130 would be my goal and 125 my ultimate goal weight. At me lightest, throughout this journey I bounced from 136-138 and when I returned home from studying abroad I was at 145 but ever since my return in July I can say I have worked hard to get here.

I promised myself I would get a belly ring at 130 but now I am thinking I want to lose more before I get the ring. Also I have a new ultimate ultimate weightless goal of around 120-123. I feel like I have more weight to lose on my stomach and thigh area.
P.S. I added before pictures I took back when I started in February. </ br>

Day 2-6

The challenge started out well, I managed to go to the gym wednesday-Friday but by saturday I had fell of the wagon. I was contemplating not posting about this, but these things happen so why hid it. Let me start out by saying I have been doing at least 30 minutes of exercise daily (Wednesday -Friday I went to the gym and did both strength training and cardio, Sat-Sun I walked) but as for food I have not been as successful. I have been going out a lot with friends and my boyfriend and I am actually really good at studying the menu and ordering but I have been drinking and alcoholic drinks have lots of hidden calories. Maybe, I need to learn how to order drinks so that I can continue to be successful while still enjoying myself.
Today

Today was a great day. After feeling bad at the fact that on Sunday I ate everything under the sun (I did not binge but ate lots and drank too), I started clean. I worked out in the morning and my meals have been healthy. I even have picture:

Scrambled eggs with grape tomatoes and bell pepper on a bed of spinach :p

Day 1

Today was a good day, not only was it a beautiful day in California but I got a chance to do one hour and 20 minutes of exercise, Weights and cardio. I felt for, strong and beautiful. I weighed myself around 132.My weight seems to go between 130- 132. Here is my menu plan, although it was not in this order this is what I ate.

Menu
I am following the Atkins diet but just increasing my protein intake because my goal is to tone up and lean out. The Atkins diet consists of four phases I am in phase one which promises you, you can lose up to 15 pounds in a week, which by the way is not my goal. You are only allowed to eat 20 net carbs a day and for the first two weeks no fruits, nuts, and the carbs have to come from vegetables. I am also eating Atkins product like their shakes, which by the way are delicious, meal bars and snack bars. I recently ordered there breakfast bars and I think I will be writing a review on their products soon. Honestly, I have tried every diet and this is the only one that seems to work. If you go back to the earlier blogs, you will notice I was reading the Wheat Belly book. Atkins is similar to the diet recommended in the book. The book advises from staying away from all grains, at least at first. Atkins is great because as you move through the phases, it teaches you how to add the grains back in moderation to ensure long lasting weight loss. It would be wonderful if I could quit bread and pasta forever, but I do not want to, I like pasta and bread so I plan to add it back in moderation in the future.I will be able to eat those yummy foods, eventually until know I will continue to work hard. I want to clarify something. I am 5'5 and weight 132. I am not trying to be 110 pounds and a size 0 I am trying to be a strong beautiful women that can do push-ups and pull ups and have muscles. I want to be tone even if that means being 125 or 130 or whatever. I am not worried about weight, I want to be toned. I do understand I have more weight to lose to reach my goal , I have a belly, a little back fat and leg fat and I am trying to lose it. I will know when I get there.

Restart

SO I have been following Hollie's weight Loss blog (http://www.skinnyhollie.com/). It has been inspirational and enlightening. I need to get on it, these last two weeks I had finals. It was week 10 and finals week of my winter quarter and was super swamped with homework and of course I placed going to the gym on the back burner.

(That was me literally lol). Because I was so busy, some days I was not eating enough others I did not plan what I was eating, so now I am starting anew. I have about 2 weeks off school so I am going to use it wisely. Hollie challenged herself to 30 days of exercise which by the way she surpassed, she is on day 34 read her blog, and I want to challenge myself too. 30 days of at least 30 minutes of exercise everyday, 30 minutes is the bear minimum, I want to do more. The plan is to create a menu plan of 1200 calories a day and for workout I am finally starting phase 2 of live fit trainer and sticking with it for the next 30 days and hopefully beyond. I am working on the menu and workout plan tonight and I hope to blog for the next 30 days, not everyday of course but hopefully often. I like blogging, I like being able to share what I do with people who are interested and it is also nice to have a space to vent so, I need to blog more. On a side note, I bought a new camera and hope to post pictures every so often. Nighty night for now, expect a new post tomorrow. Debora.

Where is waldo?

I feel like Waldo, I am still here but I have been MIA. Let me fill you guys in on what was has been happening. First of all I have been losing weight slowly but surly. I am down to 129 from 137, from when I started blogging, that is 8 pounds. I did not measure myself (unfortunately) when I started however, I feel like inches wise I am shrinking. My diet is okay, I am still struggling to eat clean. I eat clean about 90% of the time but it is still that 10% that gets me. I need to eat clean and I am trying therefore I am planing to keep a food journal starting tomorrow. Phase II of my workout starts tomorrow, I am excited but scared. The workouts are more intense and sometimes I get intimidated at the gym and it is discouraging. Here is a look at phase II I promise to blog more often, this promise is to myself btw. Pictures coming soon :). For now bye lovers, followers and fellow bloggers <3, Debora

Dislike

Today started phase 2 of my workout. I have before and after pictures to post and let me tell you so much has changed. I feel so much stronger, I can tell that I am shrinking. I have lost weight and I can see amazing changes yet, I am still struggling with myself and I do not know why. When I stand back and look at myself, why can't I praise myslef and be happy for how far I have come? I always seem to find something wrong with myself. Will I ever be happy with how I look...

Weigh-in

I worked out, pretty much Wednesday-Sunday. It was tough getting my butt to the gym everyday but I feel stronger today then when I first started. it was frustrating at first, because I am not lifting as heavy as I am use to but i know Ill work my way up to where I was before. It takes time.

As for my weight, that is going down really slow, I have only lost one pound. 

1/23-137.3

1/30-136.6(-0.7)

This is frustrating and I am not going to lie, I felt I had a decent diet. I did give in and eat cheese one day and maybe had two many Brazilian nuts (I love nuts) but I do not think it was that big of a deal. Today I feel like I am back on track. I decided to start writing down my meals, that will help me see what I have been eating and where there is room for improvement.

We shall see what happens next week, until now goodbye.

Debora

Week 1, Day 1

Like I mentioned in the previous post I started doing the Livefit training from bodybuilding.com.It is a 12 week 3 phase program that is tough but keeps me going. The program starts very basic working out 4 days a week with only a few exercises each day. Each day you work on a different body part, therefore for a beginner it is not to challenging. Plus, you start out just doing weight training no cardio. I skipped week 1 and 2 because it is too basic and started with week 3 as my week 1. I will still do a total of 12 weeks I will just extend Week 3-4 for 3 weeks instead of 2, and so on. I also added cardio although I am still in the first phase, the first phase has no cardio ( the phases one includes week 1-4, phase 2 includes week 5-8 and phase 3 includes week 9-12), but I am doing it anyways. Today was not to extraneous I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes at an incline of 15-18%, so it was challenging.
This is a sample of the workout:

I added other exercises because I feel this is too few but I also made a rookie mistake...I lifted to much too soon. But it's okay I made sure to stretch for a long time. I hope I can walk tomorrow.
All I need was to get started and I did. Tomorrow will be day 2 and I am also going rock climbing ;).

The Plan

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail..."- Dr. Oz

I am not sure if this quote originates from Oz but that is where I heard it from and this is so true. Therefore I need a plan.First of all, I am going to be doing both weight training and cardio. I truly enjoy weight training and I feel so strong afterwards, it is rewarding. I found a weight training plan from bodybuilding.com:

 The whole program is online and it includes meals and a supplement list. It is a 12 week program that I plan on following. As for the meals I will be following along except I have decided to give up wheat and grains. Therefore all my carbs will be coming from vegetables only.
On a side note I have been reading the book:

The wheat belly by Williams Davis is a very interesting book about how our food has changed over the years and it is not what it use to be. I am not done with the book but I plan to finish soon. My diet will consist of lean protein like chicken, and turkey. It will also have good fats like avocado, salmon and lots and lots of veggies but potatoes and carrots (starchy veggies) will be eliminated for at least one month.

As for me today I weigh in at 137.3pounds, I am 5'5. You might be thinking this is normal and it is, but I am not trying to be stick thin or anything like that, I am getting healthy and toning up and that is my goal.My weigh ins will be every Monday and Friday. I will have post and pictures on how I am progressing. First picture will be posted on today, a little later. I want to post at least one picture/post a week for the next 12 weeks.

New Beginnings

I only have very few followers therefore most likely you didn't notice but I deleted all the old post and decided to start a new.
Why you might ask?........
Well, I felt embarrassed about all the old post. Looking back, I realized this endless cycle of yo-yo dieting and overeating. I find this in many of the other blogs I follow, with people trying to lose weight. I am not alone and neither are you. Sometimes it is hard to depart from the foods we like and enjoy and I am living proof of that. I eat healthy for one week and then go back to there or four days of unhealthy eating (or at least a weekend). It is both bad for me, my body and my mind.
So back to why I deleted my blog, I deleted it because I hope to change this this bad cycle I adopted, I am starting a anew.
Other changes
I am giving my blog a title, I still have not figured out what it should be. Any suggestions?