Squat Jumps

My trainer's name is Shireen. Twice a week she shows up on my doorstep with a big smile and a cheerful "Good Morning!" She is making me stronger and tougher and more confident. Sometimes she tells me to do things that I think I can't do. Like jump up onto things. Jumping up onto things scares me. But we did it today and I survived. 

She does the workout with me. My old trainer at Lifetime just watched me (and gazed around the club) but Shireen is doing it along side me and breathing hard with me and it feels more like a team effort and less like I am suffering alone. She laughs at my jokes about how wobbly I am on the bosu and that makes me feel better. 

I dread exercises with the word "Jump" in it: Jumping-Jacks, Side-Jumps, Jump-Up-Onto-This-Scary-High-Thing. Shireen makes me do Squat Jumps (squat, hands on floor, then jump and try to touch ceiling). I hate them and always complain and we joke about how terrible they are. They are terrible. Just try to do 10 right now. But a few weeks ago I decided to say "Yay! I love these! I only get to do 24 of them!" and smiled and acted like it was fun and guess what? It was SOOO much better! Really, it was such a huge change I was almost embarrassed that it worked so well. 

The power of self-talk is amazing. 

That picture of Shireen was taken at the top of the incline. Shireen is going to drag me up to the top one of these days. I am already starting the positive self talk about this. Lots and lots of positive self talk!

One Grain More

Here is a little video to make you laugh:

Turkeys or Wieners?

Which one are you?

When I googled "Turkey and Wiener" this was the image I found. Ha!

My friend and super-sonic-woman, Sharon, told me there are 2 types of people when it comes to making big changes, turkeys and wieners. Turkeys go cold turkey when making a change and wieners slowly wean themselves off the old and into the new.

I've been a wiener the first 2 weeks of 2013 but today I decided to go TURKEY STYLE! Why? Well, I did my Monday morning weigh in and found that I lost 3 lbs last week. I credit that to working out 5 days in a row because I certainly was taking my sweet time weaning myself off the corn chips and roasted cashews (ahhh salt!) along with other "treats" that really aren't treating my body very well.

So, how well will I do eating E2L perfectly? Very well, thank you! I'll weigh in next Monday and let you know.

Also, can I get a back pat for working out 5 days in a row?

It's Citrus Season!

Yum.

This is my favorite breakfast. It goes something like this:

Stumble downstairs, grab large glass of water and check emails - take care of critical stuff first. 

Notice hunger pains

Think about toast with butter and jam 

Decide no

Make green smoothie

Drink XL green smoothie

Eat a orange & grapefruit salad

Ahh. No hunger for 4 hours (but you do need to drink that water!).

This is how I make the salad: 

1. Make sure your knife is sharp. I have a sharpener and will happily do yours.

2. Slice citrus into wedges

3. Cut citrus off the peel

4. Cut citrus into bite-size pieces

5. Eat it all. 

An orange and grapefruit for breakfast is a lot of fruit, but I used to eat sugar cereal for breakfast, I like a sweet start to the day. This start keeps your blood sugar stable and your tummy satisfied for hours. 

Citrus Season will last into March and almost into April. Then you will notice the quality starting to deteriorate. So enjoy them now!

A New Year, A New You

New Year's Eve found us recovering from a big dinner at our house for our son and his 

friends. After they left for a dance Roland and I cleaned up the mess and parked ourselves on the couch to watch TV. 

Nearly every commercial on every channel was for

 weight loss, viagara, and online dating services. But mostly for weight loss. 

So we got off the couch and did a little exercise on New Year's Eve. 

Much better than TV

 (have you noticed how lame tv is? Blah!)

I completely buy into the whole New Year's Resolutions thing because 

I am all about setting goals and crossing off lists. Losing weight seems to be the 

#1 resolution for most Americans and I am one of them. 

2013 will be a big year as we take several international trips 

(not vacations! no laying around on the beach!) 

and prepare to climb Machu Picchu. 

We need to be in top shape! Join us as we renew our Eat To Live commitment and exercise our butts off. 

Literally. 

Who wants to run Bolder Boulder with me this year? !