Is anyone there, Hello it's me Debora

I have been thinking about blogging for a real long time but I just had not done it until now. In many ways, I am glad because I don't want it to be like before. I want to feel committed and see this through, which I do, Now. I came back because this is helpful for me. Not only can I clear my mind but it also makes me feel accountable. I want to continue my journey with fitness and exercise. I have came so far yet, it seem like I keep sabotaging my own goals and I don't know why. Am I scared that I will never get there? Am I scare that when i do, I wont like it? I mean what does even getting there mean? It is not a certain place, location or anything. How will I even know when I am there? Am I there now? Well, I don't know for certain but I know that as far as my fitness goals,  I am not there yet but I am close. Although,  have recently felt discouraged I wil not give up. I know I have a long way to go but I can not feel discouraged. I will not give up. I am 100% determined and focused. This time it will be different, I know it.

2013

Happy 2013 everyone!!!
I hope everyone had a fabulous New Years I know I did. I spent it with my best friend her boyfriend from New Zeland and my boyfriend.  So much has been happening since I last blogged. I want to make more of an effort to blog. It's mainly for me and it helps get my thoughts down so I am glad to be back. As I told you a couple blogs ago this mainly started as a fitness/weight loss but I want to shift it to focus on everything: health, beauty, love, life, advice etc., so as fitting this being my new post of 2013 I want to talk about my New Years resolutions

Here they are in no specific order:
-finally get the body of my dreams, I deserve it!! I am not talking about a specific goal weight or to be skinny I am talking about fit, healthy and strong.
- eat clean for 90 days. Ideally this would continue for the rest of the year but I need a place to start
- run more
- organize and prioritize and spend my time wisely.
- enjoy life, take time to appreciate what I am doing.
- be more grateful
- love more and give more
- travel more I want to go to the Grand Canyon, Tahoe, Vegas, and or Chicago or Washington, D.C.
- be able to do 20 pull ups by the end of the year
- go for a jog in sports bra and shorts/pants no shirt :)
- sleep more  I work grave yard hours, this one will be tough
-take the GRE and GMAT and do well
-Apply to grad schools/ peace corps

So here is my list, it's a little long but it will be great to see how many of these things I accomplished. What are your New Years resolutions?

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.