I am kicking ass here, ladies!

20 minutes kickboxing. That's hard stuff!

12 minutes interval on the treadmill with jogging stints of mostly 5.8 and 6mph!!  Even if only for 35 seconds at a time, I'm improving my health and endurance for sure. 

I am feeling so proud.

Oatmeal for bkfast 160 calories

boiled egg for a snack  70 calories

turkey sandwich for lunch with one egg white for added protein  271 calories

And I've burned 366 today!

Time for a snack to refuel my body!!  A rice cake with some natural almond butter sounds yummy.

Down 1.2 pounds to an even 181 this morning!  Any movement downward is better than none.

So I'm doing the right things.  I'm exercising.  I'm making healthy food choices.  I look forward to another loss this next week!

Gotta get to work.  Y'all have a fantastic day.

A great day.  I've gotten in some cardio and some strength training.  I've eaten healthy foods and have a healthy meal planned for dinner.

Got a call at 8:30 am wondering what time I plan on being at my job.  Uh, the job is at 11:30, so i told them 11.  Well, apparently I goofed and had it wrong and it was due to start at 8:30!!  Oopsy. So I got dressed quickly and headed downtown with a power bar as a last resort lunch.

We had a 1/2 hour lunch break, so I went to the cafeteria of the building I was in and absoutely love their quesadillas -- had them before -- but opted for a bowl of chicken noodle soup instead

I even got in a bit of exercise on my way to the cafeteria.  I was on the 4th floor of the buidling and figured I'd just take the stairs down while talking on my cell phone to my best friend.  Well, I got down and realized there was no way out except the emergency door with which the alarm will sound.  So I went back up and every door at every floor I checked was locked!  I couldn't get out!  I panicked.  I thought I was going to faint.  LOL  So I went back to the 4th floor and kept pounding on the door, knowing there's a ladies room right next to the door, and some lady heard me and let me back in.

But at least I got a bit of activity going up and down 4 flights of stairs! 

Got out of my job and ate half the protein bar to keep my energy going and then came home from work and had a rice cake with 20 grams of organic almond butter on it.  Yum yum.  Either tacos or pork chops for dinnner and I still have 900 calories left and be at 1600 for the day.  That's guesstimating on the chicken noodle soup i had for lunch. 

A great day!

My legs are tight today from the lower body strength training Sunday and then the running yesterday and my abs are killing me from the 10-minute ab video I did Sunday and then I think running on the treadmill yesterday  made it worse!  I held in my stomach as tightly as I could while exercising  and am really trying to do it throughout the day as often as I remember.

I was on plan yesterday, 1700 calories in and burned 351 in exercise!!  Today is my day off from exercise but I gotta go to work. Oh, joy!  But it's money and money is good!

Only 9 more days and i'll be on a plane to Florida with my daughter to visit my best friend and her family.  I told her i don't want to give up my exercise for 5 days and so I'll bring a video and she has one we can do too once all the kids are in bed at night.  I refuse to gain weight just cause I'm out of town.  I want January to be a productive month because I am really going to do my best to get into a size 10 before my birthday, which is 4/7.  And we're going to visit relatives that I haven't seen in a year and a half in March and I want to look my best!!!

Onward I go to a healthier me.

I started with egg white of a boiled egg, 16 grams of almonds and oatmeal for breakfast.  I'm going to pack a sandwich for lunch because my job is from 11:30 - 2:30 and not sure about a lunch break.  I can at least eat it on my way home.

I'm glad to have the right frame of mind back.  I feel so in control again.  Yay me.

Read today in Prevention magazine how effective very high-intensity cardio intervals are, so I took their advice and ran/walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes.  It was a lot of fun and seriously hard if you really push yourself and make it worth it.  I ran a couple short stints at 6 mph but averaged 5.4 mph for most of the intervals.  I've never gone above 4.2 mph before!  I'm moving up in the exercise world   I followed that up with some upper body strength training and tomorrow is a day to rest after three great work-out days.  I work out three days on, one day off, three days on.  It seems to be a good plan.

Also read how effective the eating monounsaturated -- MUFAs -- with every meal is and am going back to that concept.  I got a few servings in today.  Studies show those who eat one ounce of almonds a day lose more body fat than regular dieters.  It's worth a try!  Also lowers cholesterol too.

Tried on snow pants I bought a year ago that were snug then and they are way big on me now!  20 pounds down from January of last year, but I didn't really realize how much smaller I am until I tried on those pants, since I have no other "fat" pants to compare.  I got rid of those as soon as they were too big!   i wish I had my size 20 jeans now to take a picture in.

I was at just around 1700 calories yesterday and I burned about 500!!  yes!    One day down and many more to go.

On track today.  I had organic high omega granola for bkfast and an egg white for a snack and will have leftover pasta with veggies for lunch or a turkey sandwich.  No junk food in my house, so all is great.

I'm feeling strong emotionally to tackle this.  Angela mentioned maintaining is hard, but I find that part easy.  I've maintained 180 now since September. I maintained 190 for most of last year.  I can manage my calories with my exercise to stay put, but i want to lose!

I was thinking this morning . Crazy thought!  But I was doing some thinking

I work out diligently.  I'm becoming more fit, but i'm not getting smaller!!!  That's cause I eat too damn much.

So today I decided enough of the food!  I know I've said this before.  But I want to get to my goal so I am done losing. And then I can just work on maintaining.  That part is easy.

So I worked out hard today -- lower body sculpting, dance fusion cardio (thanks Ang!!) and some ab work too.  I have had about 1500 calories today.  I'm on track for success.

I read this somewhere yesterday.  I can't remember where!

Boost breakfast

I often skimp on breakfast because I want to save my calories for later in the day.  I often don't want afternoon snacks, though -- which is my biggest downfall -- when I eat a bigger breakfast and/or lunch.  So i'm not skimping on my calories anymore in the first half of the day. It's been a detriment to me for so long now!!  I finally come to realize it's doing me no good.

I love the new breakfast skillets at Cracker Barrel but am trying to save money, so I made our own yesterday morning and it was AWESOME!  And it's not too bad on calories when I'm in control of what goes in it

Just finished Body Resculpt and 25 minutes of cardio in addition between two different videos and time to go shower.  I also walked around the Phoenix Zoo this morning!  So I'm doing great on activity and decent on food. I had leftover pizza for lunch but organic granola for bkfast....  it will all work out fine in the end.

Today is the first day of the 2009 year.  Wow!  I remember last year and vowing to be able to wear a sundress.  Umm, that didn't happen.    but I surpassed 190 FOREVER! And that's a great feeling.

I already got in my exercise for the day.  I did a 30-minute treadmill weight loss program with varying speeds and inclines.  A bit easy but after my hard workout yesterday, i'm sore today so it worked out well

Off to eat some lunch and take my munchkin to the park again.  She wanted curls again and she got them and I ended up with so-so hair    This is the first time I have not been able to recreate what the stylist did, and it's bugging me!!  I spent probably 3 hours yesterday messing with my hair to no avail.  So today I didn't waste my time.  I go back on the 9th to have my hair colored, so I'll talk to her then about the style and probably just go back to a stacked bob with it longer in the front.