Sweaty and sore pretty much sum it up. We just finished day two of the Insanity workout and guess what? It was insane. We actually got into the workout today and it was by far the hardest workout I've ever done. Ever. In my whole life. It was like Biggest Loser contestant hard. Grunting included.

For serious. I loved it though. How is it possible to enjoy something that is so hard? For starters when I couldn't do an exercise like say jumping push ups, I modified it and pushed myself. The 45 minutes went by quickly and while the exercises were hard I liked not having to memorize steps. The warm-up was just as hard, if not harder than the actual workout.

Check out my GoWear Fit results:

See that huge spike around 7pm? That was Insanity, I was burning up to 14 calories per minute. I can only imagine what my body is going to feel like tomorrow.

Oh! I (we) got new workout shoes...this is funny to me, but we got his and her's nike air span + 7 running shoes:

I'm still following the "S" plan (no snacks, sweets or seconds except for days that begin with S or special occasions) and it really has cut out a lot of excess eating. I did allow myself to have moderate seconds as lunch today to make up for not having breakfast, but I'm really pleased with how I feel on this plan.

I've moved my weight loss goal up to April to coincide with our trip to Vegas on the first, I really want to be at 265 by then! What goals are you working on?

You know what? I love unintentionally active days. I realize that I can burn a bunch of calories and actually have fun. Well, for the most part.

Saturday started out innocently enough, we were headed out to our neighboring shopping center so that I could get a new phone and have dinner out. But, I naively drove down our very muddy and snowy driveway the night before preparing for a warmer weekend. Bad idea. We got stuck and between me, josh and his sister we finally dug it out after two and a half hours! Shoveling and pushing a car is hard work, my GoWear Fit says so:

See that 12-2:30 chunk of activity? That's me shoveling snow. Burning calories.

That 4pm-6pm is shopping! Who says shopping is a bad idea?

And in the evening we were invited to a dance club thing in Blacksburg, which since moving to Floyd is something we rarely do because, well, we live in Floyd. That started at around 8pm which you can see above and went on well into the morning:

That is from 12-4am. I forget how much I love to go dancing and realize that this is a fun way to get exercise. I'm not particularly good at it, not that that has ever stopped me. Do you guys like to dance? Do you go out dancing, or crank up the music in your home? Seriously fun exercise.

And now, I'm about to tell you something that will totally shock you (insert sarcasm): I saw an infomercial about two weeks ago and pretty much had to try to program. INSANITY. Have you seen the commercial? I mentioned it to Josh with my usual "you have to see the commercial! it will convince you too!" and so we bought it. I have to try new things, it's in my blood. Anyway, the DVD set arrived a few days ago and we started the program today (as recommended on the poster) with the fitness test. It. was. hard. There were a lot of things I simply could not do very well like jumping jack push-ups (how messed up is that?), but I did the best I could and started sweating withing 2 minutes.

Me and Josh were screaming by the end of each round, it put Jillian's 30 day shred to shame and this was just the fitness test that involved about 10-15 minutes of exercise:

We are going to follow the program for the full 60 days and I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I think I've mentioned that we are in the midst of buying our first home and we definitely need the stress relief.

What's your favorite unintentional/intentional exercise?

hoorah! It's Friday night, we made it. I just realized that I'm going to be 27 in less than a month, hello late 20's!

I have few do's and don't's for 27, it's going to be a good one. Everything I've been preparing for and acting on lately is coming to fruition this year... health, weight loss, self-employment, home ownership that is my 27th year plan. Do you ever have the gut wrenching feeling- the one that asks  "what are you waiting for?" Everyday that I don't chase my goals, it gets even louder.

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You guys love oatmeal too! And for those of you on the fence about it, give loaded oatmeal a try. It's so good! 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup oatmeal (splash of vanilla if you like) and like cook until it bubbles, turn the heat down and let cook for 3 minutes until your desires consistency. I start watching it when it bubbles because i know there is a short amount of time between two thick and two thin.

Have you guys tried chia seeds yet? The new super food buzz going on around the internet? I was sent a packet of Ruth's Chocolate chia goodness to give a try. I said yes, because I rarely turn down free food and because they said chocolate. Oh and that stats were pretty good:

Chocolate Chia Goodness has five times the calcium of milk, more Omega 3 than salmon or flaxseed, along with protein and a powerful wallop of fiber. It’s also gluten-free, lactose-free, and low glycemic – so just about anyone can partake of its benefits. You can mix Chia Goodness with juice, applesauce, yogurt, or cottage cheese. Use it as a toping on yogurt or fruit. You can even add it to pancake or muffin batter for an extra nutritional punch.

That's great and all, but how does it taste?

I liked it a lot in yogurt and dry straight out of the bag, but when I made it as directed I found it to be too salty. I gave some to my co-worker to try and she really liked it mixed in with other foods, but not alone it was too salty for her too. It has sea salt in it, which frankly I didn't want to taste over chocolate. I really liked the health benefits and the protein boost in my greek yogurt. I also liked the occasional cocoa nib.

I've looked for the chocolate flavor online, but only came up with a few other flavors on amazon that have their own reviews:

Have you tried chia seeds? Thoughts? You can read more about chia here.

Okay, it's the weekend! See you tomorrow!

Can I just say that I'm totally addicted to Lost? We started watching in January and we are now into season 4 and the addiction is epic. We will probably need an intervention soon as our lives have been : eat, sleep, work, lost and not much else. help! It's so good!

Now onto oatmeal...

I'll admit I've hated oatmeal most of my life, but I didn't realize that what I was hating was the wrong sort of oatmeal. Dry and instant is not  as good as the real thing cooked with milk, water and vanilla extract. Woah, it's amazing. I started loving oatmeal after having the "loaded oatmeal" at our local diner. Old fashioned oats, butter, brown sugar, pecans and raisins. There are many healthier ways to eat oatmeal, I'm aware, they could throw in some protein powder or a banana, but this is Floyd and as far as I'm concerned loaded oatmeal is an amazing path to travel down.

Behold:

Sometimes with or without the butter, and always cranberries and pecans. I love it because I am full for hours after eating it and is about 400 calories. Are you guys eating oatmeal? I am really late with the oatmeal love.

I finally got around to using some of the spices that the fine folks at Swanson Vitamins sent me. They have a full range of organic spices at really good prices. Their organic cinnamon is $2.62 which is considerably lower than the $4+ prices I've seen at the store.

I've been following the "No s" plan (no snacks, sweets or seconds except for s days or special occasions) for almost two weeks now and my morning oatmeal is so helpful.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Progresso Soup contest, I really enjoyed and related to all of your soup memories. Soup is so comforting!

I had 23 comments and used random.org to help me find the winner. 6 was the magic number, making Erin our winner! yay!

Last week a heavy box was waiting on me when I got home and it was soup! The folks from Progresso contacted me about promoting their new line of soups (most under 100 calories) along with their "Souper You Debut". I am really excited about the Progresso mug, which is not plastic (yay) and trying out their new, no MSG soups.

I'll admit that most canned soups hold no interest to me. Growing up I remember telling my mom we had nothing to eat in the house and she'd always respond "there's always peanut butter and jelly and SOUP". Bah. I like homemade soups, chili, stews etc. but sometimes in a pinch it's nice to just open a can. You know what the calories are, you know the ingredients, and you know they lack  MSG.

So far, I've had the minstrone and it's quite good!

Interested in winning your own mug, jump rope (which tracks jumps/calories) and a couple of cans of soup? I believe this contest is limited to the US, so please keep that in mind. All you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite soup memories growing up, or even your favorite soup. I will pick a comment at random and Progresso will get your package out. Note: Linking to this blog entry (and then showing me your blog entry with link in the comments) will grant you another entry into the contest. Please make sure to include your email address so that I can easily contact you. Contest ends January 19th 6pm EST, I will announce the winners on January 20th. Good luck!

Now, if you'd like to win a trip to NYC (who wouldn't?) Progresso is holding a “Souper You Debut” contest for the chance to win a full makeover in New York City.

Three grand prize winners will be awarded a trip for two to New York City from May 21st-23rd. The prize includes round trip airfare, a two-night stay in a NYC hotel, a full makeover, a $1,000 wardrobe shopping spree and personal consultation at a New York department store.

To enter, you’ll need to do the following:
· Go to http://www.progressosoup.com/souperyou/to learn more and enter the contest
· Submit your essay (200 characters or less) telling Progresso why you love Progresso Light or 100 Calorie Soups and why you would like a makeover
· In addition, please submit a photo of yourself that visually reinforces the theme of your essay

NYC here  I you come!

What was I so excited to share yesterday? My GoWear Fit arrived in the mail yesterday! I considered purchasing one for a very long time and Monday afternoon I got a wild hair and bought it. And just as an FYI, I bought this myself and was not contacted by the folks at GoWear Fit to promote their product, although I would have gladly accepted!

This is what it looks like:

What does it do?
Simply wear it during the course of your regular day, then plug it into your computer and upload your data to your personal GoWear fit Online Activity Manager. The Manager will help you establish your goals, track your progress, and give you tools to help you know how many calories you're eating, on average, per day.

Multi-Sensor Armband
Your armband is a small computer that measures a variety of physical characteristics, including motion, steps, galvanic skin response, skin temperature, and heat flux. It's the only multi-sensor monitor that can accurately track:
Calorie burn
Physical activity
Steps taken
Sleep duration
Sleep efficiency

I've always been curious to know how many calories my body at my current weight burns in an average day. Today I decided to wear it without exercise just to gage where I'm currently at. I read the reviews on amazon.com and they were very good. It is exactly like the bodybugg (used on the biggest loser) but more affordable and tracks sleeping patterns.

I took it off during my shower and so far it feels pretty comfortable. I have really big arms, which makes it slightly more uncomfortable for me and more noticeable that I'm wearing it than someone else with smaller arms. But, it is not painful or circulation inhibiting, you'd be hard pressed to know I'm even wearing it under my cardigan.

From the reviews a lot of people mentioned how the GoWear Fit device has helped motivate them to burn more calories during the day. The online tracker gives you target caloric goals for the day as well as a place to track the calories you are consuming. This tool is definitely not  needed for weight loss, but it is a nice to know where you stand with daily activity, something I struggle with.

I put it on as soon as I got up around 5:30am this morning, took it off for my shower, and then put it back on. I plugged it into my computer around 7:30 because I was curious to see what my calories burned were while getting ready for work. 922. This includes any huffing and puffing while put on hose which it no easy feat.

Tomorrow morning I will log how many calories I burned today and compare them with my calories tomorrow when I resume exercise. I'll keep you posted!!

Food for yesterday:

organic blueberry greek yogurt w/ 1T chocolate chia goodness, 1T carob chips, and a few frozen blueberries: 225 calories

chicken fajitas (grilled chicken, onions, green peppers, lettuce, 1 T sour cream, 1/2 C pinto beans) approx. 650-700 calories

1 serving pizza ( 410 calories)

1/4 C pistachios: 170 calories

Total: 1,480

I have a lot of goals for the new year, but this one stands out the most for me. What do I mean by not wasting food? Well, for starters this doesn't mean cleaning my plate even if I'm full. This means, buying fewer groceries, eating what we already have and preparing smaller portions.

In 2009 it's sad to say I threw a lot of food away. I'd go to the store and stock up on fruits and vegetables only to store them away in the bin of doom at the bottom of the refrigerator to be found two weeks later in very bad shape. Why did this happen? I bought too much, I couldn't see it and therefore forgot about it, and I wasn't organized with my meal planning.

I love to cook, but I get so excited at the store and buy enough for weeks of recipes and end up wasting so much. It's just me and Josh, how much can we possibly eat? So my plan is to create weekly menus. Every Sunday I will sit down and inventory what we have on hand and create a menu based on what I want to make for the week. I will use recipes and create grocery lists based on what can be eaten that week.

I needed a spreadsheet to meet all of my goals. Something I could easily print out, fill out and put up on the refrigerator. I'm really pleased with the result and have it for sale in my etsy shop! It is $1.75 and can be printed as many times as you need! Click here for more details.

I don't know where to start with this, I really wanted to like this game. We purchased Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 on Sunday evening at game stop after contemplating it for a couple of weeks. It was $50 and we thought it would be cool to have another game to use with our wii fit board.

I like the Biggest Loser and I like Jillian Michaels, but I wish I would have read the amazon reviews before buying it. It reminds me of  a game made by college students who are still figuring out the complexities of a modern gaming system.

Its almost amusing how bad this game is, the response time is very slow. The graphics reminded me of my early days of playing sonic the hedgehog and the fitness/nutrition tips are ridiculously obvious.

We started doing the tire walking course and couldn't get our digital person to move with all the work in the world. So in that, it was a workout. And even funnier when Jullian says "that's it! keep it up! you've got to commit" over and over in a loop when you're not even moving. So I did 15 minutes of that yesterday and it said I burned 153 calories, Josh did 15 minutes and burned 43 calories.

The winners are comment number 16, Krissie (!!) and number 5, Olivia !! Congratulations!! And thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and left a comment, your food/recipe ideas were wonderful!

Krissie and Olivia, send me an email at tokenfatgirl@gmail.com.

Click Here for more information on the Weight Watchers Momentum program.