Snowy Day

So being Canadian its the time of year were we come to expect snow and today was the first real storm of the season.  With blowing and drifting snow and totals expected to be 10-15cm it does not entice me to go out and drive around in it.  So after a change in plans, I made it a stay at home kind of day.  So rather then just sitting around on my butt and being lazy I decided to accomplish something.... I wrapped Christmas Presents.

So with that done, I cleaned up the aftermath of wrapping and decided to do some TRX.  What is this you may ask, only the most intense type of workout I've ever done. The TRX Suspension Trainer (I call them TRX Straps) is a workout system that leverages gravity and your bodyweight to perform hundreds of exercises. You're in control of how much you want to challenge yourself on each exercise because you can simply adjust your body position lower or higher to add or decrease resistance.  Tons of people of all fitness levels can train on the TRX.  From everyday people like me who just want to feel and look good to some of the world's most elite athletes and military. Honestly even just 15 min and you will feel it the next day. It looked really intimidating at first but I'm glad my Personal Trainer, Julie got me to try it out. I was lucky enough to have gotten a set as an Early Christmas gift so know I can do it whenever, wherever I want too! Look out this winter I may just get ripped lol.

 

 



For Dinner tonight I tried something new to me, Ground Turkey (shocking, I have never used it before, I know)  I love tacos and am the only one in my family who does.  So when a co-worker mentioned using ground turkey to make tacos, the light blub went off!  I had bought a package awhile back and froze it. I busted it out and got a packet of low sodium taco seasoning, whole wheat tortillas and I already had low fat cheese on hand so I made myself some tacos!  I cut up some cucumber, red onion and red pepper for toppings and all I can say is mmmmm!

 

 

 

Shake it!

 

So tonight, I went and did one of my favorite exercises. Trust me, I never thought that you could use favorite and exercise in the same line. However if you are talking about Zumba Fitness, you sure can! I must admit I have been a major workout slacker lately, and frankly debated on going to the class but I am so glad I did! I have totally forgotten how much fun and what a great workout Zumba is. Notice how I said fun, yet another word I never thought would be associated with working out lol. 

 

So you may be asking yourself, What is this Zumba thing she is talking about.  Well Zumba is a global sensation that blends upbeat world rhythms with easy-to-follow  choreography, for a total-body workout that feels like the ultimate dance party! Seriously you will not even realize an hour has gone by! At first you will not know all the moves, but give it time and you will be shaking it and having a blast in no time!  Best of all it is for anybody, my niece does it, my Mom and 3 Aunts all go. Try I few classes out, its a heart pumping, sweat dripping, good time! You can find a class practically anywhere at www.zumba.com 

 

I totally love it, I just get carried away in the music. Which if you are a fellow Zumba goer you will know whenever you hear a Zumba song on the radio you will never listen to it the same way again. And yes I have broke out in the moves in my car at a stop sign hahaha.  I am so happy I am getting back into my workouts and my healthy eating again, I already feel 10 times better. Its' not easy but....

 

 

Secret Weapon

So when I first started out getting healthy and trying to lose weight it was like going on a Mission.... should I choose to accept it. I am really glad I did accept it but it certainly wasn't easy. Sure I failed my mission a few times but the main part was that I never aborted it and I kept on going. That is until I got to the dreaded last 15 pounds, it really is true when they say they are the Worst! I tried and tried and tried to loose them but that darn number never budged and when it would the next week it would jump back up again. That is when I pulled out my Secret Weapon....

I got a Personal Trainer and saw a Diet Coach. This is just what I needed, With my personal trainer we did things I never thought possible nor would I have done on my own.  Like for instance Running, I got on that treadmill and I gave it my best, and kept working away at and before I knew I was on there for an hour at a time. Trust me this was Huge, I never wanted to run after grade school every again.  I have also had knee surgery so I just didn't think I could do some of these things again.  I think that is one of the causes of my weight gain, after surgery I was afraid to hurt myself again and just figured I couldn't do anything.

Boy was I wrong... push ups, weights, punching bag (highly recommend), you name it I did it. I got stronger, built up my stamina and finally did start to lose those pounds :) With my food, I started a challenge to pick at least 2 or 3 new foods I had never tried before each week.  This helped me break a food rut that I was in, my motto was if its' not broke, don't fix it.  So I ate pretty much the same things every day for months not realizing it was ok to switch it up, there are other healthy foods out there.  I never would have found out that I don't mind zucchini and I will eat roasted asparagus, or tasted what a starfruit was like. So try new thing, you just never know what you might like unless you try it!

There's an App for that

Well it's been almost 24 hours since my first post and I have noticed a few things since then.  I now look at everything and think Oh, I can make a blog post about that, or Oh that would be something I could really talk about on my Blog.  I literally pulled out my cell phone and used my checklist app and started to make a check list of different topics I can write about. So far I have 9 topics (this being one of them), I hope that is good news as I was a little worried that I would not have enough to write about lol.   Now having said that I don't know how often I will make posts but I will try to do at least one a week.

Speaking of cell phones and apps, Do you use any on your phone for health and fitness?  I use a few, My checklist app (ColorNote) is great for making up grocery lists for the week, whenever I think of something I need I pop it and then when I go to the store I know exactly what I need. Another App I like to use is Simple Weight Loss Resolution, It lets you set your goal weight and then tells you how many more lbs. you need to reach it.  One of my all time favorite apps that majorly helped with my weight loss was MyFitnessPal, I Love this app! It is the easiest, quickest app to record and track your food, water and exercise...if you can't find a food in the database, zap the UPC code and in the app it goes! I never really realized until I started tracking my food what I was really eating. Being accountable for my food really helped me start eating the right kind of healthy food. I mean you can have a prepackaged 100 calorie snack that won't keep you full or you can have a handful almonds with fruit and be satisfied longer.

So even if you don't have a smartphone you can still keep a food journal or just ask yourself before you eating something, do I really need this or am I just bored? Am I hungry or thirsty? Will I feel bad about it after I eat it? If you answer this last one yes, I'd say don't eat it.  You are, what you Eat after all.

I Have a Blog :)

Hello, my name is Michelle and I am Learning to Live Lighter. Almost 3 years ago I started out on a mission to lose weight and get healthy.  It hasn't been easy but I managed to hit my goal to lose 50 pounds back in August.  So that was August and it's November, how am I doing now you ask....not at my goal weight anymore is how.  I decided to take a break from working out as hard as I was and eating really healthy so the scale has changed and here I am starting to get back on track again.

I decided to start a blog about my journey of eating healthy, working out and just general everyday challenges of living a healthy lifestyle.  I also want to use this blog to be accountable,  I mean do I want to have to type out that I cheated with a big piece of cake or would I rather write about a great new recipe I tried. I have found there is no manual that tells what happens after you loose 50 pounds but I'm hoping to learn from my mistakes and have a source I can look back on and turn to in tough times.  I hope for this blog to be a motivation for myself and to other who read it. So here I go Learning to Live Lighter :)