A weekend of Archery

What a great weekend. Pre-making and packing the green smoothies is such a great way to have a nutritious meal before a competition. Adding in the Lean gives the smoothies enough oomph so that even shooting for four hours I don't need a snack like I use to with the regular smoothies.

Saturday - about 160 arrows shot over 7 hours. I started my day with green smoothie and an english muffin (dry). The sponsors of the shoot provided a bbq lunch and had Boca burgers available. I passed on the mayo, brownie & soda and loaded up on the produce for my veggie burger. I wouldn't buy those for home, I am just not crazy about the flavour, but a healthier alternative at least. I think. Then out for a beer and dinner afterwards. I tried the Vegetarian Thai pasta - thick noodles and broccoli in a spicy peanut sauce. It was a little too sweet and not enough spice, but at least I got some more carbs in for another day of shooting.

Sunday - Same breakfast; it seems to work well to satisfy my urge for 'a treat since we're eating out' to get the muffin while not going crazy on fat and salt. Then another morning of shooting - this time head to head matches, getting our ranking in order for the afternoon's olympic round. Today we headed out for lunch and settled on Togos. I had their hummus sandwich, but skipped the may, subbing in avocado, and passed on the bread in favor of a sun dried tomato wrap. I'll have to look that up and see if it's really healthier or not. Then another afternoon of shooting, bring the total to about 150 including practice arrow. And these two days were really fast paced, with not much time for any sitting. We were on our feet either shooting or walking all day both days. I made it to the gold medal match, but came away with silver - which I might add I am not unhappy about at all! For dinner my honey drove through and picked up food from Carl's Jr. while I went to pick up the dog. For me he brought home their bean & cheese burrito, sans cheese plus rice. Once I was home I chopped up a quick salad of romaine & red peppers, cut up the burrito to throw in with some taco sauce and some more avocado. Hmmmm, maybe I'm eating too much fat :) But I'm on my last avocado, so tomorrow should see the end of that for a bit. I do tend to splurge in batches. Not really binging, but buying in bulk and then eating the same thing for a while, then going without for a while. I guess it all balances out.

Mostly this weekend was a little different because even though I had them with me I didn't snack on the nuts and dried blueberries. Well, except for dessert Saturday night - I almost forgot about that. But tonight we didn't pick up any ice cream or anything sweet. We hit the hot tub with a big glass of cold water once the sun had gone down, and I had one sun warmed tomato off my plant in the back yard - that was good enough for me! All in all a great weekend, and I mostly remembered to use all my Core4 products. Speaking of which, blogger now can link the title to a web page, so I will use that to make access to my Core4 site just an easy click away. If you're interested in Cheating and Eating to lose weight and\or inches, that's the place to sign up for free and order!

Friday

I started this cool morning with a mug of hot chocolate! Into a magic bullet mug I poured a cup of lite soy, a spoonful of my 100% cacao powder and a scoop of Lean. After blending I put the mug into the microwave for a minute and viola! Hot Chocolate! I also had water to take my vitamins and the Accelerate, getting in a couple of cups early is always a good way to break my overnight fast. The chocolate was different but good, and I'll ask if it's okay to heat it up so I can do that again.

Lunch was guacamole ( I have to use up the big bag of Costco avocados before they go bad) on two small corn tortillas that I had crisped up in the microwave, and a small salad of romaine, cauliflower, green onion & carrots with a light Caesar dressing. I put Cheat on everything and took my afternoon Accelerate.

Then in the afternoon I made two green smoothies, both with a scoop of Lean and lots of spinach, banana & blueberries, and they are in bottles in the fridge ready for our drive north. These are the special smoothies, with extra banana and flax meal, that I like to have on competition mornings. They keep me strong till lunch, and it's a great way to have breakfast on the road without fast food. Yuck. I mean, who wouldn't love a sausage biscuit, but they don't love us. Plus I was reading how a liquid breakfast is a great athlete's meal before a competition since it's easily digestible and full of nutrition. Since the blender was already dirty I made my afternoon Lean shake with blueberries, dates & spinach. As always, it was very good; It's so wonderful to have something so sweet and creamy be so good for me.

A big bowl of steamed broccoli and some italian pasta (another Costco purchase that is taking me forever to use up) for dinner (loading up on carbs for tomorrow) with spaghetti sauce spiced up with a section of poblano pepper that I blended with a date. I really love my magic bullet and use it every day for at least one thing or another. Adding a couple of ingredients can make the cheapest bottled spaghetti sauce wonderful. Not that we do that often, it's still too high in sodium usually.

All in all a good day, and I'm ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning.

A Mac n Cheese moment

I started the day out slow and didn't eat breakfast until ten. I've figured out by now that when I do that it sends some kind of trigger for me to eat more later in the day. I had a burrito bowl at noon, using up the leftovers from last night, but by two this afternoon I was craving something more. Which would have been fine if I had been home to have a Lean shake, but I wasn't, I was out and about running errands. What follows is a little embarrassing, but oh well. I had stopped at the bank in Safeway, and all of a sudden I heard my old friend Mac n Cheese calling out to me from the Deli. So I just cruised the display case to see if there was any there...and sure enough, half a pan of creamy sticky gooyness was waiting for me. Now this is not the regular Deli counter, this is that hot buffet in the middle of the store filled with fat and sodium rich entrees steaming and ready to eat. I grabbed a couple of scoops and a fork and checked out. Thankfully, as I reached the car I remembered that I had a 30-Day pack of Core4 in the back; how fortuitous that I hadn't opened one yet for my 2nd month. I opened up that case and unsealed a bottle of Cheat and sprinkled my pile of sticky golden noodles quick as a bunny. This is the sad part, I ate as I drove home! I did at least wait until I had cleared out of the parking lot, but I haven't ever done this before; fast food yes, but not eating hot deli food out of a container from the store - just a random act of craziness I guess. But I counted it as my dinner and then had a 2nd green smoothie later on in the evening around dinner time. I have to admit I have been thinking about that Mac n Cheese for some time now, I just hadn't taken the time to pick any up. It's a once in a while indulgence - seriously once in a while, like once a year - since I try to stay away from dairy as much as possible, usually getting my cheese on the occasional pizza. I shouldn't feel guilty about this, I did use my Cheat, but it's more the behavior that sticks in my craw more than anything. But this is exactly the behavior that has slowed down my weight loss over the past year, so I'm glad I have the support of Core4 this time. On the positive side, I only took a 'regular' serving, not enough for a family of four, and the Cheat took care of a quarter of those calories; all in all I had a treat, more like an early dinner, and didn't have to pay for it in excess calories. So why am I even stressing? Because in my mind eating in the car is taboo, and that normally equals failure on my part. Not this time. Don't get me wrong, I do not now think that it's okay to eat in the car now that I have my bottle of Cheat, and I won't be doing this on a regular basis, but it's no longer the horrible start of a binge that it might have been in the past. I did get out for a walk about an hour after I got home, and earlier in the day I had shot off 30 arrows and done 30 push ups, so the exercise portion of my day was spot on. Then a small handful of mixed raw nuts and a luscious nectarine for dessert completed the food portion of my day. Now that I have talked myself around the whole experience, I guess I'm making a big deal out of nothing. So I guess the point is that it wasn't a big deal this time, and I need to quit beating myself up so much!

4 Weeks on Core4 :: One Month Review

197 :: I've been using the Core4 system one month now, and as of this morning I am down 1.6#'s and I have lost at least 10 inches between my waist, hips, thighs, arms, bust & chest. I realized this morning I was only measuring my left leg and arm (I've lost 1.5" off my thigh, .5" off my calf and 1" off my upper arm) and that I can double all those measurements to count towards my total inches lost. Despite how awful these pictures are, I am so excited to see that specific parts of me are SMALLER!

Keeping in mind I didn't do all nine measurements that I have used in the past to track at the start of my Core4 month, I'm down a total of about 15 inches since I last measured them all in June of 2008. And this gives me a new perspective of my progress. I lost ten pounds in the year from May of 2008 to May of 2009, but only about 4 or 5 inches. But in the one month that I've been using the Core4 products, while I've only lost about 2 pounds, there are a whopping ten inches gone - I would call this SUCCESS!

So I am starting my 2nd month of Core4 today with a renewed excitement and a positive attitude. I will try very hard not to obsess over the number on the scale in the upcoming weeks and just keep using the Core4 products knowing that they are working on me in ways I can feel and see. Ooh Ra! And of course the whole time I'm typing that I'm thinking..."yesterday I had potato chips, pancakes, funnel cake, beer, how much salt was in that and what would I have weighed this morning if..." Old habits are hard to break, but I am working on it!

About the pictures, I can't help but notice that my posture is better (better core strength) and that in the side view I can really tell the difference in my arms, stomach & "hips". The freshly laundered top is loose instead of pulling snug up against me like in the first picture. And I had to wear a smaller support tank underneath to keep from bouncing when I walk, so a big difference there. I can see differences everywhere now in addition to feeling them, and it gives me great confidence that the products are working as advertised - creating leaner body mass and focusing on getting rid of the fat at my core! I can hardly wait to see what this next month brings :)

<- Wednesday's Food Log
I have been loving my green smoothies for breakfast for a while now, but the Lean adds a creamy richness that I look forward to adding. I indulged in bread at lunch, but instead of eating fast food in the car I waited until I was home to sprinkle some Cheat on my veggie burger - I've noticed that the compulsion to eat has lessened quite a bit, that's probably the Accelerate working. But dinner was the highlight meal of today; I made a dressing for the veggies by blending up cilantro, pablano pepper and dates with a little water. Spicy and sweet this was the perfect compliment to both the veggies and the brown lime rice that I tossed in my burrito bowl - there wasn't enough lettuce to actually call it a salad :) I remembered to sprinkle on my Cheat too, which takes away the guilt of using avocado - which is a great food because it's a healthy fat, but it is still a little high in calories for someone trying to lose weight. NOT ANYMORE! Whoo hoo!

I got all my exercise in early today; seeing my arms look thinner is really motivating to keep push ups as part of my work out routine. Michelle Obama watch out! Sorry to sound a little manic today after my slump of the last few posts, but it is exciting to SEE progress I was only FEELING :)

So there ends day one of my 2nd month, which is a good time to mention that I won't be keeping track of days on this blog anymore, just weeks and months - I think that will work just fine now that I am past the first hurdle. Something I haven't written about yet is the money back guarantee on these products - 90 days! So I am super confident heading into this 2nd month that even at the worse case scenario and they stop working for me, I can always recoup what I've spent trying. Says something about how confident they are in the products, no?

Day 30

<- Tuesday's Food Log

I felt heavy this morning, or rather, I din't feel lighter. Last night's depression hadn't lifted, plus I woke up wondering about my finances - not a good way to start the day right now. I'm suppose to be losing weight, sharing the Core4 products and earning money so I can work from home. That was the plan. So right now I need to focus on the inches I've lost, keep exercising, and per a conversation with a friend who is losing using the products I need to make sure I am eating enough calories. She says 1600 a day if my goal right now is 160#'s. I'm probably eating around that, less some days, but I will go back to tracking calories for a few days to make sure a 'normal' day is enough calories. She also said that to have a 2 week plateau is normal, and to start taking a 2nd Accelerate in the morning to jump start my weight loss.

My lunch salad was wonderful, the home made cilantro dressing a success, and then afterwords I made a dent in the yard work out back. Since I had pancakes for breakfast I made a green smoothie for an afternoon snack and to get my Lean in for the day. Nectarines are so sweet right now, it was delicious.

We met the kids at the fair for a small birthday celebration, and so potato chips & funnel cake were my dinner; I have to say I missed having 'real food' and it wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be to splurge on some junk. What was fun was watching the guys on two crazy rides that I couldn't even watch they made me so dizzy. It was good to get out of the house, but all in all it was a quiet, strange day. I miss my good mood, I wonder where it went.

Day 29

<-Monday's Food Log

Well, I wasn't happy with my numbers this morning; I'm not posting until Wednesday morning, giving myself the full month, which is silly since I have been doing weekly updates. Suffice it to say that for this week I am not happy. That little voice of despair is trying to get my attention and I keep pushing it away. It did feel good to get out and walk, and there is nothing like noticing a slimmer shadow to buoy my mood in the morning.

The mornings are cool again and I took the time to make pancakes. I only had two instead of the whole batch (4) and I did use my Cheat. So yummy and satisfying. Then for lunch I used some home made beans from last week and some green enchilada sauce to make both a bean salad and soup this afternoon - spicy and yummy. Spending the day catching up on laundry and household stores may not sound like much, but it sure felt good once it was done. The Accelerate definitely makes a difference in how active I am now, without interfering with my sleep.

Left over soup from a different batch last week, this time with wild rice, made an easy dinner, but definitely not enough calories and I had fruit for dessert. At least I had a nutritious day!

But still, when all is said and done I am fretting about my weight and wondering why I'm not losing. Do I really want to do a 2nd month? I need to call and get some upline support, but I don't want to call and admit I'm not losing despite my slimmer figure - somewhere inside is that insecure little girl wondering what I am doing wrong, wondering why the magic isn't working or if I am just being impatient.

Day 28

<- Sunday's Food Log

I packed the cooler this morning with my pre-made smoothie and headed back up to Sacramento for some more archery, drinking my breakfast on the way. I was able to pass on anything from Mickey D's when my honey stopped for his breakfast, feeling sad for just a second at the thought of a hot biscuit. After the long drive (well, only 1.5 hours, but still...) we had hours of shooting (better than last weekend thank heavens) in beautiful weather with friends. What a lot of busy dragonflies there were - the lawn looked like an airport full of tiny helicopters! Anyway, I had a small snack of trail mix to tide me over, and then we stopped for lunch by the river before heading home. I did splurge on my lunch, ordering sides of some things I really wanted and having a cold draft beer; what a wonderful day! On the way home we hit tons of traffic - guess everyone had the same idea about heading home early after a long weekend today, but I had my audio book to listen to and my honey was driving so what do I have to complain about??

Cool weather arrived with evening so I popped a frozen pizza in the oven - I know better than to have beer with lunch, it makes me so tired and lazy! But it had been so nice to relax and have a drink after the shoot. I did use the Cheat on my portion of the pizza so my calories should have been just right for dinner at about 510.

A friend popper over to chat and we had a nice visit while the dogs played, then it was time for a movie, a computer game, and early to bed. Today ends four weeks on Core4, so tomorrow I will weigh and measure for my weekly report, and to 'see' where I am before recording my official 'monthly' stats on Tuesday.