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Fitness challenges-do they help keep me on track?

December 9, 2009 By 5 Comments

We are now on Day 3 of the cross blog conversation with Shannon over at The Shrinking Mommy blog.  This is so fun!  Shannon answered my CBC questions from Monday in this blog post and then asked me another great question.  So here we go….

Shannon asked,

I noticed that you have done several challenges, like Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred or the Whittle My Middle challenge you are doing this month. How have they helped you keep on track?

Yes, I love participating in fitness challenges like these.  They help keep me on track because once I put it out there on my blog that I’m going to be doing a challenge, I have to then stay accountable to everyone.  Sure there have been times I started a challenge and didn’t complete it for one reason or another but once you say you are going to do something you are committed to it.  I feel that challenges like these also help give me a boost by showing me I CAN do this weight loss thing and accomplish anything I set my mind to.

Both Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and the Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge are 30 days long so I really stepped out of my comfort zone to do them but it totally feels great to accomplish challenges like that.  I look forward to more!

My question to you Shannon is:

Have you ever participated in any exercise challenges and if so would you consider doing more in the future?  I am in the process of planning a  fitness challenge for my blog readers in February and would love for you to consider joining in but we’ll talk more about that challenge later.

Looking forward to hearing Shannon’s reply to this question?  Be sure to check back on her blog tomorrow where she will also be asking me another question.

You can keep up easily with our cross blog conversations by clicking on our cross blog conversation blog categories

Angie’s

Shannon’s

Hope you’re enjoying getting to know us better!

Do you participate in fitness challenges?  If so, please share more about what you have done in the past and any plans for future fitness challenges.

 
Filed Under: Cross Blog Conversation Tagged With: ,

Stop the soda addiction craving

December 7, 2009 By 10 Comments

Shannon started a cross blog conversation (CBC) on  her blog last night and I’m excited to get started (you can read a bit about what a cross blog conversation is over on Shannon’s 1st CBC post).  This conversation will go back and forth until Sunday so you’ll definitely want to check back to both of our blogs daily so you can keep up with it.  And with that I will answer her first question to me.

Angie,

I noticed on your blog that you have managed to give up soda. I’m really struggling with giving up soda altogether. I haven’t had a sugar-laden soda in 9 months, but I’m really having a hard time with diet soda.

Can you share any tips on how you managed to give up soda?

Great question, Shannon!

I’m sorry to hear you are struggling with the soda addiction craving. I have definitely been there so I understand.  I’m happy to hear though that you went from regular soda to diet BUT you will feel awesome once you can let go of soda altogether because from what I hear diet can be just as bad if not worse than regular soda.

I personally gave up soda cold turkey so I really don’t have a story about how I did it.  It was back in May 2005 that I just decided it was time and I have been soda free since then.  There have been times I had some ginger ale but only when I was sick (it always settles my stomach) however after being soda free for so long even that is very hard to drink.

Soda addiction cravings can be detrimental to your health so I challenge you to start cutting back as soon as possible and I would love to hear in a few months that you were able to totally kick your soda habit. Your body will thank you for it!

Of course, it’s not going to be easy.  As I said, I decided to do it cold turkey and although I’m glad I did, my experience wasn’t fun. I did get headaches for a while and and was just grumpy LOL  I just started drinking 8-12 glasses of water a day and finally started to see a difference after a while with weight loss and my teeth & skin just felt better overall. So worth it!

Now it’s my turn to ask Shannon a question so here we go.

Shannon my question to you is

Have you ever read the Craving Secrets e-book?

I highly recommend it.  I have the e-book and think you might find p. 39 helpful because it shares some examples of how to conquer your craving of soda but it has a ton of great info on how to help stop cravings for so many other things like fast food, salty and sweet things and much more.

We have discussed our struggles with weight loss and I wonder if you would care to share another struggle you might have when it comes to weight loss and/or fitness?

OK, maybe that was 2 questions in 1 ha ha!  Now be sure to head back to Shannon’s blog tomorrow to read her answers to the questions I left above.  This will go back and forth until Sunday so it should be a lot of fun to get to know us a bit better.

Now a question to my readers:

Do you you struggle with the soda addiction craving?  If not and maybe have overcome it, what tips would you give to Shannon?

 
Filed Under: Cross Blog Conversation Tagged With: ,

December is finally here

December 6, 2009 By 1 Comment

Happy December! I’m so glad it’s finally here because it’s not long now until we head off to Jamaica for a MUCH needed vacation!

As for workouts this week, I would say it was a pretty decent week.  I could do much more for sure but it’s definitely better than what the past month or more was.  So far I have completed 19 days of the Whittle My Middle challenge and I’m impressed I have stuck with it.  On Sunday’s Kev and I have started to take some time after spin class to do some ab work at the gym so it’s been fun. Here is what I accomplished this week.

Monday-

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 13)
Time: 7 min.

*Elliptical
Time: 25 min.
Calories burned: 278

*Spin class
Time: 1 hr
Calories burned: 646

Tuesday-

*Walk Away the Pounds
Time: 29 min.
Miles: 2
Calories burned: 285

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 14)
Time: 6 min.

Wednesday-

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 15)
Time: 8 min.

Thursday-

*Rebounder
Time: 24 min.
Calories burned: 225

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 16)
Time: 8 min.

Friday-

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 17)
Time: 8 min.

*Rebounder
Time: 20 min.
Calories burned: 178

Saturday-

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 18 )
Time: 8 min.

Sunday-

*Spin class
Time: 1 hr. 5 min.
Calories burned: 688

*Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge (Day 19)
Time: 8 min.

My goals for this next week:

Whittle My Middle Ab Challenge every day

Weather permitting, M, W, Su. spin class (otherwise in home workouts)

Tu, Thurs, Fri. in home workouts

How did you do this past week?  And what are your  goals for this coming week?

 
Filed Under: Daily Exercise Log Tagged With: ,

Link love Friday

December 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

Today I’ll be sharing some great links I found around the web over the past few weeks.  Hope you enjoy!

Bobbi from NHerShoes blog wrote a great guide on staying fit during the holiday season.  We can all use these tips!

Mary, one of the cool bloggers I follow over at A Merry Life spent some time recently at a weight loss program and spa for women called Green Mountain at Fox Run.  It’s been really interesting reading and hearing about her experience.  She made a neat little video too!

I have posted about it before but you really need to check out Operation Beautiful!  I adore Caitlin and she’ll be coming out with a book soon. Go Caitlin!

And Shannon from over at The Shrinking Mommy blog has a simple and yummy recipe for Roast Potatoes and Sweet Potato fries. Be sure to check it out! Oh and Shannon and I have something special coming up on our blogs next week so be on the lookout!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Did you find or write any interesting blog posts or articles this week?  Feel free to share in the comments!

 
Filed Under: Friday Fit and Healthy Lifestyle Tips Tagged With: ,

Winner winner and pizza dinner

December 1, 2009 By 3 Comments

OK, first order of business is to announce the winners of the two giveaways in my 2009 holiday deals post from the other day.  According to Random.org, Felissa and Courtney are the lucky winners.  Felissa will take home the awesome Ultimate Body Applicator from It Works body wraps company donated by Jennifer, an Independent rep for the company and Courtney will receive the Power House Hit the Deck set.  Way to go ladies!  So excited for you.  Please email me with your shipping info by Friday.

Now on to dinner!  Tonight Kev had a business dinner so since I was on my own I made myself a mini pizza and it was TO DIE FOR!  Just a simple Multi-Grain flat out wrap, Pomegranate Chipotle sauce from Tastefully Simple (I’m sure it wasn’t healthy but I didn’t use a lot, just a little spread on the wrap), fresh spinach, yellow squash, zucchini, black olives, red, yellow & green frozen peppers, frozen Okra (yep I did!) and a very small amount of cheese.  Put it in the oven at 350 for 20 min. and it came out perfecto.  The flat out was crunchy but I loved every last bite of it.

flat out pizza

Sorry for the bad blurry pic. As you can tell, I am not the best at taking or resizing pictures.

Oh yea and I might have had 4 pieces of Trader Joe’s sushi too but I left the rest for lunch tomorrow!  Yum! I’m off to have some Greek yogurt with fruit and granola for dessert while I watch The Biggest Loser.

Oh and workouts were good today. I actually woke up with a migraine and didn’t want to exercise BUT I went ahead and did a 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds dvd and the Whittle My Middle Ab challenge.  And guess what?  I truly believe in exercising for headache relief!  Headache fully went away about 1/2 hour later.

Hope you had a great day!

 
Filed Under: My Thoughts
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