It was a fishy Sunday...

Overall today was pretty uneventful, in a good way. We watched football just like yesterday and ate and that is pretty much it. 


Woke up around 9am and had breakfast...

Thats Scotty's eggs and oatmeal on the left (2 eggs with cheese in the middle, maple/brown sugar oats) and mine on the right (2 plain eggs, plain oatmeal with cinnamon & splenda). 


After breakfast we took the pup for a 2.5 mile walk. Today is a rest day from anything even semi-strenuous but I still wanted to get some kind of activity in. We then proceeded to be extremely lazy and pretty much only move to change the channel on the TV. 


Lunch was chicken that I had cooked in the crockpot (my best friend). I shredded mine up and mixed it with some green peas, mushrooms and garbanzos. Pretty tasty little protein-packed lunch. I'm really trying to get lots of protein in my diet but it is sooooo hard for me because I am definitely not a meat lover.

After lunch guess what happened? The laziness continued. I did some minor household chores and some homework, caught up on blog reading and fitness magazines and thats about it.


Dinner got a little more interesting however. I've been reading a lot about tilapia here lately. It is supposed to be a non-fishy, low fat/calorie, high-protein fish. Tad bit of information about me: I HATE FISH. ALL FISH. I'm from southeast Missouri which just might be the fish fry capital of the world. I can't even begin to tell you how many people have made me try fish because "my fish is the best, just wait til you try it, no one makes fish better than me, I turn fish-haters into fish-lovers, etc. etc. etc". And every time I try it, I hate it even more. But I thought, since this tilapia stuff is supposed to be sooooo good for you, I'll give it a whirl. So I did some research and combined a couple of recipes. I sprayed the filet with some olive oil cooking spray, drizzled it in lemon juice, sprinkled with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. I let it like that for a few hours in the refrigerator and then right before broiling added a little more lemon (this was supposed to make it even less fishy). It was broiled just as all the recipes instruct and it actually looked kind of appetizing when I took it out...one problem. It was terrible. Not even okay, or edible...terrible. Scotty assured me that he thought it was actually pretty good, and he ate about half the filet (along with some salmon that I broiled for him as a back-up)...but I think he was definitely sugar coating it. So, long story short...I will NEVER eat fish again in life.


After dinner we took the pup for a quick 2-miler and now I'm getting ready to head to bed. I have an early morning appt. with my stair climber to prepare for. One more thing to share with you...

New fingernails and pedicure! I can't believe that I'm showing you a picture of my feet this early in our relationship, haha. I know, I know right...I have the weirdest looking second toe, but I'm really self-conscious about it so please don't make fun, just kidding. I've been teased about it my entire life, so pretty much anything you can say I've heard! But anyways, I love the sparkly red. Except now I'm thinking that these should have probably been my Christmas nails, but oh well...I still love them just the same!


Hope you all had a great weekend! Happy early Monday! Ta ta...


Whitney

I love Saturday, sweatin' and THE STEELERS!

Woke up pretty early this morning, after staying up too late watching "Letters to Juliet" last night. Cute movie.


I whipped up 2 eggs plus 2 extra egg whites and peeled an orange for breakfast. 


About an hour later I hit the gym and got my hour of cardio in...my gym was seriously packed this morning and for some reason I find this extremely annoying. I should be happy that people are taking the initiative to work out. Ran a few errands after the gym and now I'm eating a bowl of oatmeal and a handful of almonds. About to go do my Saturday ab routine (4 sets of the following: ab lounge, scissor crunches, plank, leg lifts) and take the pupster for a walk. 


Last night was seriously kick-butt in the gym. I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill (run/incline walk combo) and the went on to do all of my lower body strength work (including 4 sets of Smith Machine squats, yay me!) and finished up with 15 minutes of high incline elliptical. I must say...I'm feelin' it today.


Not sure what the rest of the day has in store...need to hit up the nail salon...thinking about choosing another color of glittery tips! So exciting! Decisions, decisions, decisions. Another thing that is most definitely in store is FOOTBALL! Gotta watch today to see who my beloved Steelers will be playing next weekend. I felt sorta guilty because I only wore Steelers gear one time this week and that is just a total sin as far as I'm concerned during the play offs. So, what did I do? I cut the sleeves off one of my older Steelers t-shirts thats way too big and I usually only sleep in and rocked it at the gym...

I cannot even believe that I just posted this pic. Please excuse 4 things about it...the disgusting dirty mirror that desperately needs to be windexed, my repulsively sweaty skanky hair, the disastrous closet behind me (I guess I could have closed the door), and the fact that I am totally covering my face with the phone. Actually, that last one is probably a good thing.


Well, Happy Saturday to everyone! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!


Ta Ta,
Whitney

TGIF

Oh my...I'm exhausted and SOOOO glad that its Friday! It's Friday! It's Friday! (doing favorite happy dance right now)


I know it's only been a week, but I'm happy to report that I've stuck to my workout plan and food plan to a T. However, I am thinking of tweaking it a little (mainly the workout)...but we'll see.


Have you noticed that your taste buds change over time? Mine sure have. I've always loved salad and most veggies, even as a little kid. But one thing that I could NEVER, EVER stand is beans. That is beans of almost any kind, except green beans, and I don't even really think those count. I even make bean-less chili. But recently, I have discovered that there are a couple of types of beans that I love...one that I might even be considered obsessed with. These 2 little gems are called black beans and garbanzo beans. 


Back in the summer we went to Cabbage Key, a little island in the gulf only accessible by boat, for lunch. It was a beautiful boat ride out there but I wasn't expecting much from the food (lots of time "beach food" is less than average). I was excited for the scenery and being in the restaurant in general. It's rumored that this little place is where Jimmy Buffet wrote "Cheeseburger in Paradise". The food turned out to be excellent! I had an order of peel 'n eat shrimp and black beans and rice...and so began my love affair with black beans.

Aerial view of Cabbage Key

The restaurant at Cabbage Key Inn

I don't even know how I discovered my passion for garbanzo beans to be honest. All I know is that I can open a can and eat them straight outta there. I eat them sauteed with other veggies and meats, on salads, you name it. It also helps that they are packed with protein. I used them in dinner last night...

Thats garbanzos, mushrooms and diced tomatoes. I ate it with a couple of eggs, and a bowl of oatmeal (sounds weird, but I am actually starting to get use to this sort of diet plan and I kinda like it).

I'm like jelly, on a roll this week with getting up early and making time to cook and eat breakfast. I had 2 eggs with more oatmeal and made my Scotty-pie an egg and cheese samich. He was still sleeping so I just sat it next to his face on the bed...how lucky? How many people actually get breakfast in bed?

Last night I got one heck of an upper body work out in. I started off the first set of each exercise with light weight and exhausting the muscle until I couldn't do any more reps. The next 2 sets of each exercise I upped the weight and did lower reps. It was tiring! I also made sure to get my cardio in. Today is legs which I almost hate as much as abs. I'd rather eat dirt than do a squat. But I'ma rock it today, along with my cardio. 

Not sure what this weekend has in store--hopefully some boating on this bad boy (seems like forever since we've been out)

And some quality time with 2 of my favorite peeps...

Well, off to get this day goin'! Happy Friday to all! Ta ta for now...

Whitney

Oh happy day

Good Morning Blog World!

I am in an extraordinarily good mood today and I have no idea why. I woke up early  this morning and once again had plenty of time to prepare a protein-packed breakfast of 2 eggs and a tablespoon of peanut butter…what? That doesn't go together you say? I AGREE! The plan was to have eggs and oatmeal, but I had the brilliant idea of adding vanilla protein to my plain oatmeal…yuck! Do not try this at home, I repeat, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I think I've come to the conclusion that the only way I can tolerate protein powder is if it is thoroughly blended into a shake with water, ice, peanut butter and maybe a little banana. I also tried it as a snack yesterday afternoon shaken with some icy cold water (the Scottster's suggestion) and almost hurled. It just has the worst after taste. So, back on track, I couldn't eat the oatmeal and decided to replace it with a spoon full of peanut butter.

Yesterday's cardio was cut a bit short (5 minutes) because for the first time in my life I experienced knee pain-weird...and popping every time I bent it. I didn't want to push it, so I'll just add those lost 5 minutes on to today's routine. Everything feels fine today, so thats a relief. Surprisingly, I didn't let the knee pain prevent me from doing my ab workout (I mean, knee pain sounds like a good excuse to keep myself from doing crunches)…and it felt great, I can already feel those little ablets starting to pop…right.

The meal plan for today goes as follows:
Breakfast- Eggs & peanut butter (not mixed together)
Snack- Handful almonds (This was my snack yesterday...eaten right off of my desk...this is kind of disgusting. I heard once that there are less germs on a toilet seat than on the average person's desk! Would it really be that hard for me to get off my butt and grab a plate or at least a napkin to put them on, I don't think so.)

Lunch- Leftover lean ground beef stir fry from dinner and cup of brown rice
Snack- Apple and 3 pieces beef jerky
Dinner- Lean ground beef burger, steamed broccoli, brown rice

The work out for today goes like this:
50+ minutes on the treadmill
Alternating curls, hammer curls, concentration curls, lateral pull downs, seated rows, lateral bar press downs, kickbacks, skull crushers, overhead presses, bent over row, lateral/side raises…maybe even a few stability ball crunches if my knee doesn't hurt too bad.

On a positive note, I had a salad from Subway for lunch yesterday and it was pretty delightful. I ordered it with extra turkey on top to up the protein content, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, light vinegar and oil, and veggies.

It tasted great, but didn't leave me satisfied for long. On the other hand, a more negative note, I also drank a diet coke with this salad. But, trying to be more optimistic--I'm not going to beat myself up about it because it was my first one since Sunday. Hopefully I can hold off on having another until this coming Sunday (that'd be a miracle).

Well, I'm off to do some work now. Hope it's a productive day for us all! Ta ta for now!

Whitney

Confession

I have a confession…

I'm not nearly as technologically savvy as I'd like to be (did I mention that I work for a computer software development company? So this sounds like a total contradiction!). Quite frankly I feel like a bit of a DB. I had no idea that anyone had commented on any of my posts. When reading other blogs I see comments posted below them…well apparently mine isn't currently set up like that and I discovered comments to my posts accidentally while poking around my dashboard. So, I know this is WAAAAY late, but thank you for the comments on the blog, my nails, and shoes! I'm very glad that I discovered the blogging world, though once again very late (hey, I just told you I'm not too technologically savvy). I always look forward to reading all of your blogs. It is truly a bright spot in my day!

Yesterday was an awesome gym day. You know how I can tell? I am one S-O-R-E girl! I did 47 minutes of cardio- stair mill, treadmill and elliptical combo. Followed by 3 sets of 2-legged extensions, 3 sets of one-legged extensions (per leg), 3 sets of one-legged curls (per leg), 3 sets of two-legged curls, 3 sets of regular leg presses, 2 sets of "glute" leg presses (I have no idea what this is actually called, but basically a leg press with feet positioned at the very top of the platform to concentrate the gluteus maximus) and 3 sets of calf raises.

For dinner I picked through the left over veggie beef stew and pulled out the beef, carrots, corn, lima beans, tomatoes and a little juice. I heated it up and added a can of garbanzos and a cup of brown rice. I thought about taking a picture to post, but then decided against it because it was sorta disgusting looking. I actually do this kinda frequently (eating things that look nasty but taste mighty delicious). Scotty even comments on it sometimes…usually something in passing like "That looks disgusting".

After dinner and a little homework we took the pup for a 2.5 mile walk. I was pretty tuckered out when we got home and brushed my teeth and went to bed.

I woke up fairly early and almost on time this morning. I even almost (almost!) had enough time to fix my hair…but on a positive note, this is one way that I know I'm serious about my big goal for 2011. Instead of fully blow drying and straightening out my hair, I half blow dried it, sprayed in some scrunching gel, scrunched it up real good, straightened out the bangs and decided to make eggs for breakfast instead of grabbing something starchy and sugary as I ran out the door. (Pat on the back).

Lunch today is a salad with lots of veggies and turkey and red wine vinaigrette dressing. Dinner is looking like a ground beef and veggie stir fry with brown rice (maybe I can make this look a little less like vomit so I won't be embarrassed to post a pic). Gym today will consist of 50 minutes cardio and core work (probably my most dreaded work out of the week, you know how I love ab exercises), and maybe another walk with my pup afterward (this is truly more for her benefit, she is starting to pack on some pounds in her old age). Then we'll probably head to the new house to do some touch up paint and baseboard paint. The plan is to start moving furniture in this coming weekend or beginning of next week. The Scottster's family is coming to visit the following weekend and we want to be able to stay in the new house then. We're always cramped for space when visitors come so the new house will make things much easier. Plus the pup is going to be in hog heaven with her own fenced in yard! I'm so excited for her!

Well, I'm off to start my day! Ta ta for now!

Whitney

The 2011 Plan

I've had this plan in my head for quite some time now but I figure if I put it out there for the world to see then I'll be more likely to stick to it! So here goes...


I love having fitness goals to work towards, it makes exercising seem even more worth while. Without a goal I become quickly demotivated and lazy. 

The workout schedule-
Monday: 45 minutes treadmill, light arms
Tuesday: 50 minutes cross train, light legs
Wednesday: 60 minutes spin class, abs
Thursday: 45 minutes treadmill, heavy arms
Friday: 50 minutes cross train, heavy legs
Saturday: 45 minutes treadmill (or short race), abs
Sunday: Rest

Because I hate ab work, I plan on hitting it MUCH harder this year to try and force myself to love it (plus thats an extremely important part of a fitness competitor's physique)...so I'll be incorporating 1 abdominal exercise on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday as well. Wednesday and Saturday will be full ab workouts.  If I could get my abs to look half as good as this...

...I'd be happier than a pig in mud!

I'm aiming for a competition in May. Because I don't need to lose much weight in order to be comparable to the competitors that I've researched, I will probably cut back on the cardio around March and incorporate more intense weight training to gain a little more definition.


The food plan (blah...the worst part)-
Most days I'm going to try to wake up and do my cardio on an empty stomach, except for Wednesdays.
Breakfast- Oats or whole wheat toast and eggs (primarily just the whites) scrambled with fresh veggies.
Snack- Handful almonds
Lunch- Big green salad with lean protein
Snack- Spoon of peanut butter with half banana
Dinner- Veggies with lean protein and small serving of a complex carb


I'll also be trying to slowly wean myself from diet soda as much as I hate to. This will most definitely be a slow process because I think I could have a love affair with an icy cold diet coke. I'll be sticking to LOTS of water and teas....and vitamins. I've been taking daily probiotics (I've got a kind of wacky digestive system), vitamin C & echinacea (for a strong immune system), and Juice Plus (endorsed by the Scottster's mom who is a dietician) which is an excellent multivitamin. 


My goal is to one day be able to compete with these 2 ladies...I better get on the ball, thats a lofty goal!

On a not so vein note, I do have some goals, or "resolutions" if you will for other areas in my life.


1- FINALLY graduate. I've been slowly chipping away at it for 5 years now and it is definitely time to get it over with. I'm on track to do this around summer time.
2- Become a regular church goer. I was raised in church my whole life but for some reason, probably sheer laziness, I haven't carried that with me to Florida. But that is going to change starting this Sunday at 9am! So get ready Scotty because you're coming with!
3- Get promoted at work. Not too much to say about this one. I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing and keep learning and I think this will come.
4- Be more charitable.
5- Volunteer for a good cause.
6- Get certified to teach spin.

I plan to revisit this list often througout this year. I find that if I don't the time flies by and it's already another new year and I haven't gotten much accomplished. So, hopefully I won't bore you with my check-ins.


That should do it for now...wow, going back and reading this makes me tired already...too bad I can't have a diet coke! Here's to a wonderful day ahead! Ta ta for now!


Whitney

Backstreet's back...alright!

The sad thing is that they actually are…I saw them on TV New Year's Eve with Ryan Seacrest. I was never a fan…N'Sync stole my heart at first sight. But this is all besides the point, what I was really getting at is that I AM BACK! hehe…I took a extra long break from blogging and pretty much the real world all together, but now its "back to the grind". I had an excellent Christmas vacation. It started out with my mom picking us up at the airport in The Lou. The next day we had lunch at my Mimi and Papaw's (yes that sounds very childish but I will refer to them by these names until the day I die) house with the Aunt & Uncle and cousins. We played a game called Apples to Apples, mucho fun…I recommend it. Then we all headed a little south to my Mimi's entire family gathering. This includes great aunts and uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins, etc. Don't be a hater like the Scottster, I REALLY am related to all those people, haha. That night we went to midnight church service and came home and guess what? Santa had come! My little bro got to open all his gifts and then the old boring adults went last. I got some really cool things…Steelers gear (long sleeved shirt and sweat pants), STL Cardinals gear, a flat iron case, CD, some pretty sweet socks, a new Nike work out outfit, an amazing new camera (from my true love!)…and I know that I'm leaving lots out, but those are just some of my favorites. Oh! I also got some Moroccan hair oil and new Bare Minerals makeup…if you don't wear this stuff, I would definitely recommend anyone trying it. They've just come out with a new matte finish foundation which is absolute perfection for my semi-oily skin. Loves it!

The next morning we went to Scotty's parents house and opened gifts with his family. Then his dad's brothers and sisters and their kids came over for lunch and games. The next morning we went to the gym together and I drove on back to the Show-Me state to spend a few more days with my fam. Then on Thursday they drove me back up to The Lou to meet Scottster and his mom's family for more Christmas celebrations. We flew back to the Sunshine State on New Years Eve and were pooped upon arrival. How do you know your old? When you eat dinner and go home and watch Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest on New Years Eve.

So here we are, back in the real world. I had a fantabulous time up north, got to see snow and spend some wonderful relaxing time with family, but it's kind of nice to be back to normalcy. I did some pretty extreme eating for myself…including mexican food, pizza, cheesy breakfast casserole, an all-you-can eat buffet, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, lasagna, potato chips…and many others that shall remain nameless. I did try to squeeze in some runs here and there, but nothing like usual. I decided that it was more important spending time enjoying my family rather than ensuring I didn't gain a pound.

I also took New Years day off from exercising, except for the 4 mile walk with Mercedes (who was overjoyed to see us when we returned from vacation…thats the greatest thing about dogs!). Yesterday I did a quick 30 minutes on the stair climber, some reps on the old faithful ab lounge, and about a 2.5 mile walk with the pup. I do feel as though I've been slacking, so I'm just about to pee my pants in excitement to get in the gym this evening.

And speaking of training, I've got a new plan. As much as I do love running and know that one day I will train for a half marathon/marathon…now is not the time. One of my goals for 2011 is to compete in a fitness competition. So what does that mean? Continue with the card, but lots more strength training. I'm going to enter in the bikini division because I don't want to get too bulked up or veiny looking. This is something that I've been thinking about for quite some time and I'm really excited and feel really ready to start. The down side- It also means diet modification. Not sure how I'll handle that part. I'm going to have to incorporate more protein and less carbs, which is my favorite food group. But I'm going to give it a whirl and I'll obviously keep my blog updated with my progress :)  Here are some pics from vacation…

From top to bottom: Me & Scotty, Me in the middle with my 2 cousins, Mimi & Papaw (the best grandparents EVER!), Scotty playing with Jack's gift, Jack with the sweetest puppy, Me with the puppy, Me with my bro and sis, and me with my momma. 


Hope that everyone had an excellent 2010 and that 2011 is even better! Ta ta for now!


Whitney