Love this song, too!

Watch "Steve Holy - "Brand New Girlfriend" live at The Grand Ole Opry" on YouTube

Love this song!

Watch "If You're Going Through Hell-Rodney Atkins Lyrics" on YouTube

Greatest Fear

My greatest fear is that this is as good as it gets.

I spend every day learning about different things I can do to be healthy. But I'm not living in that same reality. It hurts just to move around the house. I'm embarassed to be seen in public with my family and friends. I hate food even more than I love it.

I know I am the only one who can change it. But that doesn't make it easier.

I didn't work out yesterday. I accomplished other things that needed to get done. Sure. But I didn't work out. I thought about it all day. I ate well, too. When my brother had cookies after school, I only ate a serving size - which is saying something because cookies are my weakness.

I was watching Extreme Makeover - Weight Loss Edition last night and the contestant's goal was to lose 100 pounds in the first 90 days. If I could do that, I would be more than halfway to my goal by Christmas. But they workout 2-4 hours a day in cardio, 6 days a week. Plus strength training three times a week. I don't think I'm that motivated...

Chris Powell guides their programs, and the contestants always do well. Since I'm out of work right now, maybe I could work out that much and drop some serious weight. I think that losing a lot of weight in the beginning is healthy as long as you do it by properly fueling your body and working out consistently. It's extreme, but what else am I doing in a day anyway?

After all, if you want great results, you have to do great things.

Protein Poppers!

Click for the recipe here! These look really simple and tasty... Perfect for 5am runs!

Mathematics Challenge

I like numbers. So I decided to try this concept for fitness in the upcoming months:

Make everything number-based.

For example, I am reading The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper. There are 21 rules to learn and follow, but to be able to adapt to 21 rules in just a day, or even a week, seems a bit crazy. So I am going to take it one rule, one day at a time.

At the same time, I'll be incorporating my own daily goals into my routines. Mathematically, I will adapt a new rule per day for three days. On the fourth day, I will add a personal goal. In total, it should take a month to adapt to all the changes. I will be starting with a personal goal, and then jumping into the 21 rules.

Here are my seven goals:

1. Workout daily. I've always loved the phrase "go big or go home," and exercising just three or four days a week doesn't seem like enough. Plus, then I get lazy(ier) and end up telling myself I can always work out tomorrow. Until I don't workout at all. This way, there is no debating with myself on whether I have to exercise that day.

2. Mediate at least once a day. I learned how to do this from an Indian doctor, and I never felt less stressed than when I was meditating regularly. I miss it.

3. Weigh in daily. I know there is some debate about this, but Bob says that sometimes it is easier to handle the stability of watching your weight every day than waiting until the weigh-in time each week. 

4. Blog every day. This timeline goes along with my sentiments from #2. If I say my goal is to blog three times a week, it doesn't happen at all because I am a serial procrastinator. 

5. Sleep well. This means through the night, seven to nine hours, on the same schedule every night. Of course, emergencies happen, and there is always that chance that I will get a job with a schedule to throw this off. But I can adapt for that.

6. Log my food. I'd like to be really optimistic and say that I will count calories, but I hate doing that. For this month's challenge, I am just trying to write down what I eat so I can look for eating patterns and make sure I'm not overloading on sugar or underestimating my water intake.

7. Worship my skin. I am fortunate enough to have skin that has yet to show signs of aging, sun damage, or any serious blemishes. But I know that won't last forever if I keep skimping on sunblock, fail to have a skin care routine, and sleep in my make up. 

In addition to my seven challenges, I will incorporate the 21 Skinny Rules from Mr. Harper. Since they all pertain to eating well, I tried to make the above seven habits relate to other aspects of my own wellness.

Finally, when I am working out I'd love to get into a routine that had me doing cardio and yoga daily, and then alternating days and muscle groups with strength training. The mathematics challenge for this comes in with the body weight workouts and kettlebell exercises. I also have the Wii Fit, so that should some in handy, too.

Basically, I am going to try and out-compete myself. My first time through any of my exercise routines (I have almost a hundred options at this point) I will go my hardest, and record my reps. The next time I do that routine, I will try to beat my previous numbers. Once my muscles adjust to a workout, I will change either the workout, the number of sets, add weights, or adjust the individual moves to more difficult positions. 

Here's some numbers to finish off this post:

It takes six months for a change in routine to make enough neural pathways in your brain to become a routine.

I run (walk) an 18 minute mile.

Your muscles become accustomed to a workout routine after you complete it 6 times.

I need to lose about 150 pounds.

The ideal amount of time to wait before training the same muscles group when strength training is 2 days.

My BMI is about 46.

A healthy BMI is 18-24.

It takes four weeks for you to notice a change in your body, eight weeks for your friends to notice, and twelve for everyone else.

Until tomorrow, folks. Hopefully. Monday's challenge: Workout daily. 

Confirmation

I don't know about you, but the beginning of each year for me is filled with resolutions. After all, that is what each year is supposed to represent, right? New beginnings, and a fresh start. But why do we need to limit those resolutions, which often fail or drift away before Spring even gets here, to January?

This time last year, my life was completely different. I was working towards a presidency in a club I felt passionate about. The completion of my undergraduate degree was just over the horizon. I had jobs I loved, a great apartment, and friends who had my back through anything.

All that is gone now. People change. Mistakes are made. LIFE happens. I get it. And right now, without a job or my own place, after gaining back the weight I lost earlier this year, and with more debt than I ever wanted to have... things seem pretty bleak.

So I'm making a new resolution. My younger brother is starting his confirmation classes at church in two weeks, and I started to wonder... You can get re-baptized. Can you be re-confirmed? Can I get a second chance at something I didn't really put effort into when I was 11?

I called my pastor with these questions, and I can. So Sunday I'll get my study bible and a study guide. And then, on the 23rd I'll be starting confirmation classes with my pastor and a new mentor. I'll be doing the two-year process with my little brother, too. That might be the best part, because I get to explore my faith with my favorite person in the world beside me, asking questions and being curious just like me.

So that's it for now... Look out for a post tomorrow on Suicide Prevention Week. An issue indefinitely close to home. <3

The 100 Mile Diet

Ok so when I first read about this diet, I thought it would have something to do with running or walking 100 miles. Turns out, my lazy butt is safe for another day with this one.

The 100 Mile Diet is a diet based on sustainability. I'd never heard of it before, so I thought I would explain it to you all, as well. Especially since I'm going to be trying my hardest to follow it.

In a nutshell, it just asks that you don't eat anything that has traveled over 100 miles to get on your plate. This goes hand in hand with the less-processed-foods-more-raw-foods approach I want to take with healthy eating.

In the words of my guru, Jillian Michaels, "If you can't harvest it or kill it, don't eat it." Another nutritionist, whose name is lost to me at the moment, put it this way: "Don't eat anything your Great Grandparents wouldn't have eaten growing up."

Now, this doesn't mean you should be eating EVERYTHING they ate (I mean, lard? Ew!). But pop tarts and gogurt and fruit rollups? So not in style in the early 1900s. I guess I need to stop hanging out with kids...

Back to the 100 M.D. I want to eat locally and leave a sustainable footprint on this planet, so I'm IN. I'll check my produce to make sure it is local, and if not - I'm not eating it!

Apparently, this makes me a "locavore." Heh heh. I like terminology. It's like how I'm a vegetarian except for meat.

Lastly, I just read an article on Twitter about five diet changes you can make. They go along pretty well with Bob Harper's The Skinny Rules, which I am currently reading, so I will divulge them here. (You can check out the whole article on my FB page).

1. Eat fruit for breakfast. Seasonal during the summer, and then frozen defrosted overnight during the winter.

2. Replace lunchtime sandwiches with lettuce wraps. Simply eliminating those two slices of bread a day can lead to a weight loss of 16 pounds a year alone!

3. Swap your afternoon refined carbs (a.k.a. chips or cookies) with spicy nuts and seeds. Not only do you get the benefits of the two, but the spice helps you beat afternoon sleepiness, and the combo keeps you full until dinner.

4. Make dinner a meat and vegetables affair. Lean meats are great in moderation, and the protein helps you stay full and satisfied. Just stay away from potatoes - the family fraud of vegetables.

5. Eat fish or fish oils for the omega-3 fatty acids. Good for your heart, these acids also help you burn more fat throughout the day. Bonus: omega-3s help to nourish dry skin, hair, and nails. They are found in most prenatal vitamins for this reason.

Oh, and my own #6:

Eat mindfully. This goes hand-in-hand with eating healthy and meditating for me. I recently read an article on how people who rush through meals are likely emotional eaters and I can say 100% that that includes me. I even realize I'm full sometimes but don't want to waste the food.

As my guru once said, "The food is going to waste regardless. Whether it is on your hips or in the trash."

To combat the "clean plate syndrome," try this nifty tip: serve your meals as if you were serving a child. And make sure you are eating where you can't see the remaining food. This way, you get portion control and you won't be reaching for more simply because it's there.

What's that quote about theories? Oh yes... It's all good in them.