Day #3

Well today is day 3 of this lovely diet. I weighed in at 313 pounds. I weighed myself before leaving to go home 2 weeks ago and I weighed in at 324 pounds. So that's down 11 pounds at least this month.

Today was a good day. I got a lot done and got some amazing news from the Boss Man! I love that he values me enough to keep me sane and happy so that I don't go anywhere.

Alright so I'm really getting into a routine with my food choices. I even ventured out to some different veggies than what I normally eat. MMMM...Cucumbers! Taste like tangy water lol.

Breakfast

Activia Yogurt

1/2 Orange

Snack

Activia Yogurt

Lunch

Spinach salad with cheesoning, Fat-free Creamy Italian Dressing, cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots

Dinner

Fried Tilapia (fried in Olive Oil with Cajun Seasoning)

Repeat Spinach salad

I of course had green tea with all my meals and drank all of my water. The hot lemon water was not amazing this morning.. It really made my stomach upset so I only drank half of it. Overall another great food day!

Here's to Day 4

Day #2

Alright so Day 2 started off really well. Today was a day of simple meals. I made it to the doctor's office which I thought I was doing good by being 5 minutes early...turns out that I was 25 minutes late...OOOPS! So I had to reschedule my appointment for Wed. Sucks having to move the appointment. So no weight and I forgot to do it while I was at work today. Thing to do tomorrow...

Today's Menu:

Breakfast (1,3)

Activia Yogurt

1/2 Orange

Green Tea

Snack 1

1/2 Orange

Snack 2

Activia Yogurt

Lunch (1,3)

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Steamed Broccoli

Green Tea

Dinner (1,3)

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Steamed Broccoli

Green Tea

So I wasn't really adventurous with my meal planning today. I'm gonna try for some variety tomorrow. It will be a big fish day! I picked up some seasoning which I need to double check for carbs. The one thing that I forgot to mention yesterday is that when you wake up in the morning the first thing your supposed to do is have an 8-oz glass of warm water with half of a fresh squeezed lemon to get your fat burning juices going.

I'm gonna be honest green tea is not that delicious with no sugar. I'm trying different varieties to see if they taste better. So far the best is the Lemon & Honey. I'm hoping that I get used to the whole green tea.

Again today, all I've done is go to the potty! But I got my water in and still lacking on the 17 minutes of working out. I am really full after meals and not wanting for anything except sugar, chocolate, and carbs!!!! But I'm gonna fight the wants and just really try to make a lifestyle change. Here's to Day 3!

Day #1

Alright, so I made it through Day 1, barely...

All I've thought about today is chocolate, sugar, coffee, and pop. I have peed roughly 15 times since I woke up this morning (definitely losing water weight). I think I followed the Hunger/Fullness Meter to a T! The one thing that I wasn't expecting was to feel so full after meals and for the couple hours following. No starving myself on this diet.

What did I have to eat today you ask?

Breakfast (1 & 3)

2 eggs with Black Pepper and Cheesoning

1 cup of Strawberries

1 cup of Green Tea

Snack

Activia Vanilla Yogurt

Lunch

Spinach Salad with broccoli, 1 can of tuna, and fat-free Italian

1 cup of Green Tea

Dinner

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Steamed Broccoli

1 cup of Green Tea

Snack

Activia Vanilla Yogurt

So I missed out on my 2nd serving of fruit because it was after 2pm after I tried to eat it. I think that this might work for me. Doctor's appointment tomorrow...dun dun dun! Time to get on the scale. This will be my first time on the scale for almost a month. I will be weighing myself on day 7, day 14 and again on day 17. I will be checking in tomorrow night. Until then Happy Dieting!

17-Day Diet...WHAT!?!

While eating my breakfast this morning I came up with a brilliant idea...I'm going to blog my way through the next 17 days while I am on the 17 day diet. I am going to try to be as candid as possible about my feelings and missteps over the next 17 days.

The 17-day diet book says that I should lose 10-12 pounds over the next 17 days. Wait...10-12 pounds over the next 2 weeks and 3 days? 10-12 pounds in just over 2 weeks...I don't know anyone that could pass on that. How did I get to this idea...My cousin and my aunt were visiting from ATL last week and were on this (it of course got ruined by all the delicious T-Town food). So here I am about ready to embark on this journey.

Here are the basics of this diet:

1. Proteins must be lean (chicken, fish, turkey)

2. 2 eggs/day

3. No fruit after 2:00pm and only 2 servings (NOOOOOOOOOOO! I love fruit especially because it's a way to get sugar...see #4)

4. No sugar, sweets, or refined carbs...

5. Use Hunger/Fullness Meter (2 & 4 are bad!!)

- 1. I'm a little hungry; my stomach feels as hollow as the promises of a politician

- 2. I'm so hungry I could eat the lining of an empty Spam can. My stomach growling so loud it scared off a junkyard dog. I've got to get something to eat and fast.

- 3. I am starting to feel full. I will stop now so that I can save on my grocery bill.

- 4. I'm so stuffed I'll have to waddle over to the couch to collapse.

6. Avoid Alcohol (I can handle this no drinking for 17 days)

7. Drink eight 8-oz glasses of pure water a day (tea and coffee though water based do not count!)

8. Probiotic foods are your friends.

- yogurt, Kefir, Yakult, Breakstone LiveActive cottage cheese

9. Eat as many veggies as you like!

10. Seasonings are allowed. But Fat-free dressings are a must (which are really difficult to find)

So my thought about starting this diet...

I am so excited to have the possibility to see a drastic weight change. One of my hold ups with doing a diet is that I have to eat bland food and miss out on all the good things for an extended period of time before I see any results. So the fact that I can see results in 5 days, 2 weeks, 17 days really appeals to me.

I was reading through the book and after reading a section in the book where it talks about feeling more sexy and becoming more dateable this really appealed to me. I haven't had the best luck in the dating category over the last couple years and I've said more over the last couple months I wonder what would happen if I weighed 200 lbs.

Another portion is that you need to visualize what you would look like thin...Insert here fantasy of being able to wear a bikini and shopping where ever I want...hmm...

So here I go... I invite you to take this journey with me if you are so inclined. I would love to have people to keep me accountable and for me to help accountable as I go through the next 17 days! Today is Day 1, more on that to come!

2011

Wow... a new year, already! 2010 seemed to go by so fast. Who would have thought that this year would be one of the most challenging in my life. But now I look to 2011 for a brand new start. This year for me is going to be about personal growth. You really learn a lot about yourself from the people that are in your life and ultimately the people you seem to lose touch with as time goes by.

My New Year's Resolution is really something that I really debated about. Everyone looks at this as a way to keep yourself motivated throughout the whole year, when in reality it really just keeps you motivated until February or March for those of us who are true die hards. So what is/are my resolution(s), you ask...

1. Continue to work out at least 3 days/week.

2. Begin saving money for rainy days/vacations/miscellaneous.

3. Pay down some debt so that I can really work towards family and homeownership.

4.Take the time so that the people that are in my life that mean a lot to me, know that they do.

5. Value the friendships that I have, both old and new.

Now the key is going to be to remain accountable. So I ask my friends out there in blog land to really help me. For those of you that are struggling with any resolutions that you might have I will be more than happy to be that source of accountability for you as well.

Here's to a great year!

Live Laugh Love ♥

The Big Apple+ Women’s Sports Foundation=Amazing!!! Pt. 1

Although I'm not normally a blogger I thought that it would be appropriate to become one on this occasion. One of my student-athletes, Sherrita Hall, and I had the luxury of being selected to attend the Women's Sports Foundation dinner in NYC on October 12, 2010. This awesome honor was bestowed upon us by Bennington, VT Businessman Richard Ader and SVC President Karen Gross. So after weeks of planning yesterday we were off!

This was a number of firsts for me…I've never been on a train, other than a subway (in France & Chicago), for an extended trip. So we left Southern Vermont's Campus at about 8 in the morning to begin our day long journey to the Big Apple! We hit some snafus first thing in the morning. Neither one of us ever having traveled by train before were a little lost as to the process of boarding, whether to check bags or not, and just where to sit. Our train was delayed 30-40 minutes to begin with. I think we were both getting very anxious. Finally came our time to board the train… We made our way and found two seats and settled in for what would be a 2.5 hour train ride to the city. Along the way we made many stops along the route, they included; Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Younkers and many others. The scenery was absolutely beautiful as we traveled along what I believe was the Hudson River. As we could see the city we had to wait for another train to clear the tracks…after another 15 minute delay, we were soon making our way into the city.

Nothing is more thrilling than walking out of NY Penn Station and seeing and immediately feeling the buzz of the city! Not to mention that when we walked out of the station we were immediately greeted by Madison Square Garden…yes I said Madison Square Garden!!! Not did we see MSG, but right across the street is one of the biggest Post Offices that I've ever seen in my life. Sherrita and I made a plan to go and see if our room was ready in the infamous New Yorker Hotel, then grab lunch, and explore. Our room was unfortunately not quite ready so we left our bags with the concierge and made our way to lunch.

Sherrita was really excited to go to TGIFriday's so that was one of the first places that we saw and so that was our destination. We decided over lunch that we would try in the short time we had to see as much of the famous NYC sites as we could. It was a good thing that we had on our walking shoes! We walked from 8^th St to 2^nd St and then from W. 35^th St to W. 42^nd. We started off walking to see all of the shops and find the Macy's. Let me tell you that we walked into the cosmetics and perfume floor of the Gigantic Macy's and all I could think was how overwhelmed I was.

Sherrita and I made it through most of that first floor before we decided that it would be a good idea to continue our journey. You know how you expect something to look way different than it actually does…that was the way that we felt about the Empire State Building. Matter of fact, we almost walked right by it. I just happened to be looking at the signs on the street and spotted the sign. So we checked that off of our list.

We called Coach Quinn, Women's Basketball Coach at SVC, to find out where exactly all the other sites we needed to see were. He gave us instructions on how to get to all the other things that we were looking for. So we started walking. Me being the great tour guide that I am, I may or may not have had us walking almost all the way to Queens…Oops! But again Coach Quinn was our savior and gave us directions to get us unlost. So we decided that whatever we could find would be the next landmark we stopped at. Finally Grand Central Station appeared in front of us.

Wow what an amazing building from the outside, we had no idea that the inside would be just as spectacular. The ceiling was absolutely amazing. Painted up there were the constellations in gold paint.

Not only that but it was awesome to see all the shops and all the places that movies have depicted so many times. So after spending some quick time in there we made our way out and headed toward Time Square.

We could feel the electricity of Times Square as we headed toward it. Not only the electricity in the air but the increase in the amount of people that were on the streets. As we got closer we noticed that we could walk right down the middle of the street and not have a problem so we did and immediately began taking pictures of all the things that we saw.

On our list of places to go was the Toys'R'Us in Times Square. It is at least 3 floors and has a normal sized ferris wheel inside the store. There were special sections for everything: Wonka, electronics, video games, leggos! Really an awesome place to take kids. We even saw Spidey!

So after exploring the store we decided to make our way back out to the street where we would take in more of Times Square. We saw the famed Minskoff Theatre, where Lion King was playing. (One of my favorite Broadway shows.)

As it was getting late in the day we decided to make our way back to the Hotel to check-in and start to get ready for our night out on the town. But before we left we got to see another one of the NYC/Times Square Icons…The Naked Cowboy!!

On the way back we walked down Rogers and Hammerstein Boulevard and checked out all the musicals that were playing. Heather...thought that this sign would work for you even though we couldn't go see it!

We finally made it back to the hotel after our day of walking…To Be Continued….

Try Again

After speaking with my friend, Heather, who has the most amazing blog ever with a lot of followers, (check her out here) I thought I would try this blogging thing again.

More to come soon!!