SteveAx

Yesterday was day #3 of my 30 day challenge and here are the results:

Goal #1 – Stay on the LightenUp eating program every day.
Stayed on and monitored all day.  Was two fruit exchanges under. Score: A

Goal #2 – Exercise at least 5 days a week (home workouts and gym)
I was more motivated, but got caught up in a urget issue with a clients website.  Score: F

Goal #3 – Sleep 7+ hours every day
In bed at 12:50 am and asleep by 1:00… up at 6:40 am.. 5 hours and 50 minutes of sleep Score: F

Goal #4 – Water intake of 8+ servings every day and Limit myself to 1 can of diet soda (or diet flavored water) a day
Drank 8 servings at my desk and had 2 more at home.  Drank only 1 diet soda all day. Score: A

Overall score for day #3 is a C (2.00) The issue with the client was the excuse I need to not exercise.  The issue really needed imediate attention and caused me to stay up late also.  I need to make the time for myself no mater what.

Overal average: or 2.375  of 4    (7.125/3)

Yesterday was day #2 of my 30 day challenge and here are the results:

Goal #1 – Stay on the LightenUp eating program every day.
Stayed on and monitored all day.  Was one dairy exchange over and two vegetable and one fruit exchange under. Score: A-

Goal #2 – Exercise at least 5 days a week (home workouts and gym)
Again I sat and thought about it, and never did.  Score: F

Goal #3 – Sleep 7+ hours every day
In bed at 10:30 pm and asleep by 11:30… up at 6:40 am.. 7 hours and 10 minutes of sleep Score: A

Goal #4 – Water intake of 8+ servings every day and Limit myself to 1 can of diet soda (or diet flavored water) a day
Drank the 8 servings at my desk and then had about 3 more at home.  Drank only 1 diet soda all day. Score: A

Overall score for day #2 is a B- (2.875) Much better.. the no exercise really brought down the overall score.  Today I have the gym scheduled.

So those of you that are members of Richard Simmons Website know that he is helping us do a 30 day challenge in the month of April… no I will admit, I didn’t start mine until yesterday (4/6/09) so mine will go a little into May.  The idea is that we each set goals to improve ourselves for the next 30 days.

I though about what my goal should be quite a bit… and I came up with one theme for them all.. “Back to Basics”… and that made me cringe because that was the term way overused by supervisors at my former employer… every time I heard it I just though “come on.. be a little more creative”.. and now here I am using it in my own life… great 😉

So with that in mind I started to set my 30 day goals (let’s take them one at a time): Continue reading

I have been having problems with some fast food binging the last few days… do great all day then lose it at night so I figure what if I commit to post exactly what I eat everyday (for a few days at least) to make myself accountable and have to show the world what I ate… Continue reading

Today I found a site that is called This Is Why You Are Fat… it is basically a colection of food that people have submitted that are ‘CRAZY’ fattening.. and look oh so good 😉  I suggest you look at the archive to get the full effect. 

So this got me thinking… Exactly ‘why’ am I fat?.. I mean I understand the intaking more calories than what I burn.. and that my diet needs to be balanced and I need to be active… blah blah blah… that’s not what I am talking about… what I am saying is ‘why have I allowed myself to be fat?’ Continue reading

Hello… So I have not been so successful recently on the working out or dieting… but I have been successful in drinking at least 64 oz. of water a day… My water bottle with the 8 oz. marks and the times on it has worked GREAT!  So here is a little more about why water is important (especially when dieting) Continue reading

I got an email newsletter from Richard Simmons a few days ago and it was focusing on drinking eight cups of water a day… I’ll admit that I have been very bad at this for a long time… I bring a bottle of water with me to work pretty much every day, but by the time I am leaving I have only consumed 8 oz or so.. and then when I get home I don’t do any better… I do drink my 16 oz of decaf green tea almost every weekday, but not water.

So I decided to figure out a way to get this working… Continue reading

Cece and I had a nice New Years eve with all the kids… dinner out (I was good and had Vegetable Fajitas) and went to the movies (I was not so good and had popcorn) and saw Marley & Me.. If you are a dog person you will sit there crying your eyes out at the end… (I am a dog person) Continue reading

Ever since I was a kid my family always had this Macaroni Salad (and Ham and Swiss on rye sandwiches) every New Years day… so I decided that I could make is a little ‘lighter’ this year and figure out the exchanges… it’s still a little heavy in the fats, but it is very good in moderation… it makes 16 servings so give some away so you don’t eat it all (like I would) Hope you all enjoy!

1 pound bag of dried salad macaroni
1/2 Red Onion – chopped fine (about 1 cup)
6 stalks of celery – chopped fine (about 1 1/2 cups)
8 small sweet pickles – chopped fine (about 1 cup)
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups lite mayonnaise
2 tsp juice from the jar of sweet pickles
1 1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp celery salt
salt to taste
——
Bring pot of water to boil and add pasta… cook until tender. Drain and rinse in cold water until cool. Drain well. Place pasta in large bowl. Place 2 eggs in pot of water (cool) and place on high heat. Bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, crack shells and run under cold water.

While pasta and eggs are cooking, fine chop onion, celery and sweet pickles.

When pasta is cool add the chopped ingredients and mix. Add White pepper, celery seed and celery salt and mix. Add sweet pickle juice and Lite Mayo and mix. When eggs are cool peel them under running water. Chop into small pieces (just larger than the onion and celery) and mix into salad. Refrigerate overnight. Salt to taste when serving

Makes 16 servings (1/2 cup each)

Our estimated exchanges:
Serving size: 1/2 cup
1/2 Starch
1/16 Vegetable
1 1/2 Fat
1/8 Protein
1/4 Extra

So last Friday was my birthday and I had a really great time… My wife made me (at my request) the Chicken Pomodoro recipe on www.RichardSimmons.com for my birthday dinner and it was awesome!  She made roasted vegetables and as a surprise, Fried Zucchini  The kids all came over and gave me the BEST present ever!  It is a waterproof enclosure for my iPod shuffle with waterproof headphones!  Yes.. I can listen to music while swimming!  I went the next day to the YMCA and used it… I realized that I don’t like swimming laps because it is boring and I have nothing to focus on except that I am bored… so having the music was GREAT!!!  It took a few minutes to get the ear-buds situated so they were fully in my ears, but once I did the sound was really good.. much better than I expected it to be.  In the end I had swam more laps that day than I ever have at the Y before!  Great birthday all around!

The problem with my birthday weekend was my eating… it was out of control again.  No reason other than I just ate.. and ate and ate… so today, I am up over 350 again.  And back on the program again.  I partied too much and now I have to recover from that by losing the weight.