Day 27: something you (I) ate!

This is a great challenge/post to write about our new dieting plan!

About a month ago, I decided that I was going to loose the remaining few pounds once and for all. I could not understand why I was not loosing even though I was exercising, nursing and trying to diet. So I decided I was going to write down everything I was eating and joined (or rather, re-joined) myfitnesspal which even has an app for on the go. That is how I found out I had my body on starvation mode as I was eating less calories than recommended, so my body needed to store that food hence the not loosing weight. Once I fixed the problem, I lost over 2.5 lbs and DH, who joined me on this next step, lost almost 4 lbs in just ONE WEEK! Oh boy, could we see the difference!! In addition, we have changed our eating habits, after I did some research, and we are trying the healthy foods approach - non processed foods like whole wheat bread and pasta, vegetables, fruits, legumes, among other foods. We feel great, more energized and are loosing weight!

But as in any diet plan, we let ourselves enjoy a treat once in a while so we can keep on track. Yesterday was treat day, since we are with my mother-in-law, and we decided to go to Red Lobster!!! And what do you know? They are doing Lobster Fest and had this amazing dish that I had to try. However, in the spirit of eating healthy, I decided to eat just a small portion and take the rest home. The dish was so big that today both, DH and I, could eat from them and were satisfied!

This is what we had.

Don't forget to check out my store!

"Run, Forrest, Run!"

That is how I feel every time I get on the treadmill; like my inner voice is shouting at me words of encouragement so I don't give up and I reach my goal. (If you have never seen Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks, you should. It's a classic!)

I was never much of a runner when I was growing up. Who am I kidding? I was never an athlete growing up, except for dancing. My asthma would always get in the way and I would feel like I couldn't breathe just a few minutes after I started running. With the dancing, I would sometimes run out of breath, but the stopping between exercises would help me to catch it back. But running the two required miles during physical education at school, that was almost impossible for me. I would always be one of the last ones to finish.

Now, it is a different story. I had decided a month or two ago that I would re-start with P90X which I had been doing before getting pregnant. However, having an infant makes it almost impossible to keep up with the rigor of the program and the hour-long workouts. So I decided that I would set a different weight loss goal: to run a mile in 9-10 minutes. I asked DH, who was teaching English at a specialized school that focused on sports, how were his kids doing. He told me that they would run a mile in 8 minutes, but for me, that seemed a little extreme. So I set up the aforementioned goal.

Running has always been hard, but I focus on my goal and that keeps me going. Also, I am in much better condition than before and don't get asthma as often. I am so excited because I started last week and ran a mile in 14:31 minutes and already today (just the third time running), I managed to cut back the time almost 50 seconds to 13:33 minutes!! Yay me! It is pretty exciting and it's a much easier goal to accomplish, plus it helps me loose the weight. I still go to zumba twice as well. So soon I will shed those last pregnancy pounds and hopefully look and feel great again!

      "The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies 

to one problem without growing weary."
Thomas Edison

Don't forget to check out my store!

Healthy living

Yesterday, it was my turn to go grocery shopping. I left our daughter with Egy (the husband) so I could have the famous "me time" that all new moms need every once in a while. (Too bad that it was the the supermarket, but I still enjoyed every minute of it) While at Shop Rite, I decided that my family has to start eating healthier for  a variety of reasons: we both need to loose weight, we want Eli to learn to eat healthy, and we want to find alternatives to what we already eat. So I decided to buy whole wheat organic couscous, among other things. 

So today, I prepared the couscous along with ground chicken in curry (my very own recipe!). The meal looked very healthy and had a great taste. I say good job for my first try at couscous. After Egy had lunch and headed to class, it was my time to workout to Kempo X from P90X (in my goal to loose the baby weight and I have recently started again my P90X program). Needless to say, it is not easy working out when you have a 5 month old! At least I got half of the workout in.

Now, as I write today's post, I realized that I need to start documenting even more. My new goal is to keep on trying new healthy recipes and photograph them, as well as my P90X transformation. Keep checking in.