Week 5, First post

Hi everyone! This is my first post for this challenge. I really wanted to continue on the blog to encourage myself and others. But these are hard days to diet and exercise. I have a full house (for the rest of the summer) and I have not finished the school year yet. I am drinking around 4 liters a day (with allergies and all, it feels great to drink).

I log on and read some of your entries every once in a while. Keep it up. I am looking forward to trying Dani Joy's Get ripped in 30. I have been doing the 30 day shred, but I don't do it everyday.

If you think about it, pray that I will have relief from allergies. Thank you.

God bless you all.

Maribel

Last Post for Sweating off the fat!

Hasn't this been fun! With the new challenge this week, Gen and I actually ran our 3 mile course! I am not a young woman, nor am I in good shape, but with Dani Joy's encouragement, I was able to run. My 7 year old daughter said, "Mom, you ran?" Not very good when your own family doesn't believe you, but I have Genevieve for a witness. I have had the desire to loose weight and be more physically fit as I enter the latter part of life. I definitely don't want to be a fat grandma, nor a unhealthy burden to my children. This challenge has given me the push I needed. I especially appreciate Dani Joy's encouragement about "not believing the lie" that I can't be slender again. Now, I have a very long way to go, more than 50#, but looking at the photos of Dani Joy at the race in Spain is remarkable. It looks like she has lost half of her weight since I last saw her in person a few years ago. Thanks Dani for your testimony of God's faithfulness in giving you success in fitness. You look great! I want to be part of the next challenge and the ones after that since I have a long way to go! Thank you all for your encouragement and testimonies. I did the last challenge and didn't have much success since I was stressed in the middle of a big move. We may be moving again, but I am going to keep exercising and eating better.

Running the Race!!

Yes, I know, it may seem a little different in the line of missions, but I am using it as a means to get to know more ladies in the community. I pray to use training for The Race for Women, every year to meet more and more ladies.

This year, I ran alone, got to know a few ladies, met my goal, got my prizes, and went to church. Next year however, I would love to have a group from our church sign up, and have a verse ironed on our shirts with the church´s name!

A little bit about The Race for Women. It´s a  5 kilometer (3.2 mile) race to promote breast cancer awarness and to raise money to help support research for the fight against it. There will be a total of 9 races throughout Spain this year. This has been the sixth year that the Race for Women has taken place. Gijón had a great turn out of about 3,000 women! It was amazing to participate in something so benificial and widespread. It even was on the city news this afternoon. I actually saw my head pass by the camera.

Here I am before the start, bright eyed and bushy tailed! literally.

My cheering section! It was so great to see their faces when I crossed the finish line!

I am behind the that lady in front. hehe (my dh tried to get pictures, but someone always got in the way.)

Came in at 29 minutes flat! possibly in the top 200 or so!

Here´s some of the ladies that came in after me.

I finished! Praise the Lord!

The verses that have gotten me through many soccer practices, difficult situations and now my first race is,

Psalm 121: 1-2

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

Let´s keep running the race that is set before us. I am remembering that the spirtual race is far more important.

Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith,

Wednesday

Well, I am pleased to say that the 133 I saw on the scale a week ago was not a fluke but I am consistently keeping from going more than a half pound over that. i am flirting with 132 lbs. and hope I can be firmly there for the end of this challenge. I got the crazy idea the other day since I am getting closer to my pre-marriage weight and since my anniversary is this weekend, I thought I would see if I could fit into my wedding dress. HA!!!! There was a significant gap keeping that zipper from going up. I was daydreaming about renewing our vows for Tim and my 25th anniversary and thought "wouldn't it be cool if I could wear my wedding gown for that?" Well, I don't know if that would ever happen, even if I did lose a bunch more .... i'm thinking that after delivering 4 children that enough may have shifted that my waist will never be the same as it was prebabies. And if so, that is OK since my "babies" were more than worth it.

Did OK with eating today and walked for 70 minutes this morning. (wk3 day 3 of C25K plus more) Unfortunately I am craving junk food right now as I watch a dvd with the family. Can I resist????

This is getting fun!

One more post for one more point this week. I was discouraged since I only lost 8#, so I decided to measure myself. I hadn't posted anything for the last measurement loss of 9.5 inches earlier and measured myself today with another 12 inches total loss. Praise the Lord! I still want to loose more weight and inches and am so glad that Dani Joy has invited me to this blog. Also, for you thin people, it is a long journey left for me to be a normal size so stay encouraged. Can't wait until the next challenge. Thank!

Tuesday's Nix the Fix update

I am glad for the awareness of what I am eating that this week has given me but I am glad that today was the last day to be counting points and dealing with the immediate "punishment" for little slips of "forbidden foods".

Exercise: 70 minutes of exercise. C25K jog/walk and then I walked to the area of town where the bulls were going to run through the streets on the way to the bullring. I took some video then followed the crowd into the bullring to take some more pictures of the crazy people taunting the bulls and then running. I just shake my head at all of it. Then I walked home the round about way. +2

Food:
Breakfast poached eggs on whole wheat toast. Juice +3
Snack before exercising whole wheat toast +1
Lunch: lean meat hamburgers on whole wheat, no chips (aren't you proud of me?) watermelon +3
Dinner: homemade pizza with ham and pineapple, water, diet soda 0
Snacks: Watermelon, raisins +2

post +1

Total +12

I uploaded the following video of the people running with the bulls to my facebook right after I had posted my workout from the C25K program. My brother made me laugh when he commented "I see your workout didn't include 90 seconds of running with the bulls."




To see my facebook photo album of the bulls click on this link

Hannah and Esther's Testimony

Our health and fitness life style started about 3 1/2 years ago when we started reading food labels. We stared doing more research on the concerns of preservatives and additives in our food, we felt convicted to a more biblical diet of God made foods then man made junk! Our love for exercise began when we lived in the city and there was not much left to do but go for walks, this also has built us a great sister relationship with each other. Upon moving to the country 2 years ago we have kept up that walking and also added swimming, Pilates, some running and other fun things such as jumping on our trampoline. Our goal in joining this group is to keep us moving and to have a little fun!

As sisters we have enjoyed cooking and baking together. We love to make healthy tasty recipes and started our own cooking blog , you can visit us at http://www.delkitchen.blogpost/. Please leave a comment and let us know that you visited! Just this year we have started making our own sourdough bread and also raw milk cheese and yogurt. Some of our favorite foods are Greek and Asian Salads, 90% dark chocolateJ Sourdough bread with almond butter, oatmeal with bananas, pb, raisins, and cinnamon, as well as home made pizza on the grill. This next year we are hoping to have a cook book published called “Oats Redefined”, the recipe are all breakfast/brunch recipes with a creative healthy twist.

Thank you Dani for letting us join even though it has been going for a while!

I will Not be Derailed!

WEll, my weekend wasn´t the best. But, I am praising the Lord for many many things.

I will not be derailed!

1. I praise the Lord for good church services yesterday. God really spoke to my heart.
2. Praising the Lord for wonderful sisters who cooked for my family yesterday. They didn´t even know my back was out. Well, didn´t know my back was going to go out. I think I have a muscle spasm in my lower back. But I will be getting it checked out today by a Physical Therapist.
3. Praising the Lord for you all! For the encouragement that you bring to keeping on the fitness journey.
4. Praising the Lord for a restful morning even though the baby I have been taking care of has a cold. God had her sleep her naps well.
5. and most importantly, I praise the Lord for a wonderful wonderful Husband and family!

So I will not be derailed. AFter I get my massage, I pray to do some upper body workout and maybe some walking. I need to do some stretching too. resting.

Lord willing, I will be back at it tomorrow. And then Run another 5k practice Wed. and then On Friday. Then rest on Saturday for the big day on Sunday.

I took a free day yesterday as well on food and exercise, but I am back at the food part today. Good eating! healthy eating! IT´s for Life, ladies!

I will also be joining up for another challenge  in July that I see even more important than this fitness journey. I will be reading through the Bible in 90 days with Mom´s Toolbox.com. Of course my fitness journey will not end, but I have been trying and trying to get more disciplined about my Bible reading ie. reading it through in a year, but failing, that I was so excited when I found this blog! She has done several challenges and many many have completed or "graduated" as she puts it. Want to join in? the schedule is there on her blog.

Have a great start to a wonderful week in Jesus,
Dani Joy

Starting anew on Monday

My desire was to get up early and get my walking/jogging in first thing, ending my walk at the part of town where they run with the bulls through the streets. We are in day 3 of 4 days of town fiesta days and each morning they run the bulls through the streets to the bull ring where they have a bullfight later on in the day. I woke at 7 am when my husband stirred but then must have fallen asleep again immediately because the next thing I knew it was almost 9 and he had already left for work. The bulls run at aprox 9:30 and I wanted to get more workout in than just 15 or 20 minutes, and did not want to be just starting the workout after the bull running was done. So I did the C25K program for today and kept walking quite aways to bring me to 1 hour and 15 min this morning. I will set the alarm for tomorrow so I can get both things in ... I like to take pictures of the bull running to share when we are in the States on furlough.

Exercise -- +2

Food:
Breakfast - bran flakes with raisin and semiskim milk, juice +3
Lunch - chicken parmesan with potato wedges (not fried), water +1 (chicken was frozen patties so not the best and was fried in oil before adding the sauce and cheese)
Dinner - lettuce and tomato salad, watermelon +3

Snacks - banana, wheat crackers, peaches +3

post +1

Total: +13

Sunday Update

Wish I could count this as a free day but since I didn't see that option in the rules for Nix the Fix, I will fess up and take my deductions.

It is Sunday and I am not feeling good (coming down with a nasty cold) so I didn't do much today but go to church and rest.

Food Never seem to make time to eat breakfast at home on Sundays. When I was buying donuts at the bakery for my husband's SS class, I got a "trenza" for myself for breakfast. It is a braided roll with sugar on top. -2

Lunch I did get some meat in the crockpot before I left for church. Microwave baked some red skin potatoes and made peas to go with it. Picked the smallest potatoes for me and went very light on the butter. Skipped the sour cream. +3

Snack while walking to the car from church banana +1

Dinner Had peanut butter sandwich made with small slices of whole wheat bread +1

Evening snack my hubby and daughter made frosted brownies. I had managed to resist snacking on candy and chocolate earlier in the day when the family was raiding the stash but decided the warm brownies were worth the penalty. -2

snack I don't drink enough milk normally but I had a glass of lowfat milk tonight +1

I thought about starting the next week of C25K but ended up just staying on the couch all afternoon/evening. I hope I am able to breath better tomorrow and plan to do it first thing in the morning. I need the points and I need the activity.

Total for the day: +2

Saturday update

Food: Breakfast -- poached eggs on whole wheat bread, juice
Lunch -- The kids had pepperoni and cheese on Spanish bread but I bought myself a whole wheat roll and filled it with turkey. Water to drink
Dinner -- I wasn't feeling well so my hubby scrounged for supper from what we had in the fridge... Spanish sausage and scrambled eggs. I also had a slice of oatmeal bread.
Snacks: apple, almonds,

I am in the crunch time with preparations for our annual VBS and I am still translating lessons so I was stuck at the computer for most of the day -- no exercise today. :-(

Today's points: post +1 meals/snacks +10 chorizo -2 total +9

Friday Update

Today was the unofficial last day of school for my kids.Technically they have a school day Wednesday (no school mon and tues because of town fiesta days) but it is just going to be games and water games and we have told them they don't have to go if they would rather just sleep in ... they already have their report cards. After the end of the year program the AMPA (like the PTA) is in charge of setting up tables and providing snacks and soda. I was very good and did not take even one bite of the chips on the tables and wasn't going to drink anything but found a bottle of diet soda so I had a glass of that, and then water. After school (which was done by 1 pm) the kids and I got changed and I made a picnic lunch to bring with us for the rest of the day. We picked my hubby up downtown and drove over to the zoo and bought our annual family passes that will get us into the zoo, amusement park, and teleferica for free till the end of the year. We can also go to the water park near our house for just 2 euros a person on weekdays this summer. I packed turkey sandwiches on whole wheat for myself, with just a half slice of light cheese. I was smart and did not take even one corn chip that was packed in the lunch for the kids but brought red pepper slices to nibble on for a crunch. We each had a water bottle and refilled it when it was empty and walked around the zoo for a couple of hours. Then the kids talked their Dad into leaving the zoo and heading about a mile down the road to the amusement park where we walked around and rode a few rides for another couple hours. In all, we were walking around the 2 parks for about 6 hours. I think I will just count 1.5 hours. My hubby decided to go to Pizza Hut for supper and I did not notice that I could have bought a salad for myself until after we had our pizza. There was no option for diet soda so I will have to lose a couple points because I drank some regular Pepsi as that was all we had.

Today's points: exercise +30, meals +6 snacks (plums, pepper strips, nuts) +3 pizza, Pepsi -4 post +1
Total +36

Thursday update highs and lows

In some areas I did really well today and in others ...not so well.
I did a ton of walking today between errands, a doctor's visit where I inadvertently parked farther away from the office than I had planned, a "quick detour" to find a new store that turned into a long walk because although I turned onto the correct street, we were a good 5 or 6 long city blocks down the street from the store I wanted to find, and then my planned walk/jog in the morning (day 3 week 2 of the C25K program plus extra warm up and cool down). In total I walked over 7 miles today! I am sneaking up on Gen but every time I look at her ticker she keeps staying ahead.

Now, about Nixing the Fix ..... that was up and down too.
Breakfast was ok with whole wheat toast with the thinnest spread of homemade strawberry jam and orange juice and later in the morning I ate a small apple.
Lunch was tough. The kids and I had hotdogs and I made sure mine were from the package of turkey dogs and not the normal kind. I also used whole wheat bread instead of white buns. Unfortunately my hubby bought a bag of Doritos at the store the other day and it was open and right in front of me. Aaaargh! I have no self control with those things! I had a small handful on my plate and then proceeded to nibble and graze on the rest of the bag. Oh brother!!!
Healthy snacks included a small baby bel cheese, red pepper strips and a plum. The watermelon still didn't get sliced --maybe tomorrow.
Dinner was an attempt to use up leftovers and there was some spaghetti left from the other day and a good quantity of meatballs. I served the kids lots of noodles and then made my plate mostly the meat with maybe 1/4 cup of noodles. Apart from the juice at breakfast, i have only had water to drink, and I have had several large glasses.
What to do with the points? Exercise +30, post +1, food +9 -4
total +36

Woo Hoo!!!

Thanks for all the support Ladies this is so exciting I've been waiting to post my pounds to make sure they were really gone and not still yo-yo-ing I've offcially as of this morning lost 10lbs since the beginging of this challange... and a pants size:) along with counless compliments on my changing looks and even attitude... DH told me last night he could feel/see the difference in how I feel because of how I look at things now I feel healthier and happier instead of being couch potatoes this summer we have tons of great activities planned already :)
Thanks again for all the support <3
Catherine

Journal - June 17th

Hello my Inspirational Friends!
How has your week been? I have been loving that school is "out"! The kids and I get out and they ride their bikes and I ride the scooter (to keep up) mostly every morning and then hubby and I get our evening walk!
Goals:
exactly the same =(
Measurements:
Weight +1
Bust -.25
Chest same
Waist -.25
Hips same
R Arm same
L Arm +.25
R Thigh same
L Thigh +.25
Total 0

Food points: total wash ... Wed. breakfast- healthy +1, Pepsi -1, Lunch - healthy +1, fries -1, Dinner - healthy +1, ice cream sandwich -1. total for the day 0 (right?) Thursday -2 already!
It's good to remember these points, though. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be doing better. =)

Have a great week!

Dani Joy´s Nix the Fix day 1 - Involvement!

I am soooo excited about the involvement I see! It seems that many of you are jumping on the extra points. How fun! It is motivating isn´t it?

Today, I started out so well. Had wasa crackers with soft cheese, half a banana, and my coffee. And lunch too was good lean pork, veggies, and a couple of potatoe wedges. 2 good snacks, cherries, and some sugar free chocolate. But by the afternoon, I bought the boys some candy and had one in my mouth without thinking. uhhhgg. they were my favorite licorice. -2  Then I had a small piece of home baked fresh white sub bread with my omelet. -2  Soo, my food points are 8 today.

My exercise was really exciting. My men got on their bikes while I jogged. It was so fun. Joseph biked the route with me. (pictured above) This helps me so much. Walked home. total of 43 min. Then I got home and did 17 minutes of ab workout. There´s my hour.

Be encouraged ladies. Exercise profits little as the Bible says ,but discipline is so important. Spiritual Food, and  exercise along with physical food and exercise. Let´s get it all in balance.

Welcome to the challenge Hannah and Esther. I hope you really enjoy the blog and have a wonderful fitness journey for life!

Sweatin it,
Dani Joy

nix the fix day 1

Thanks to Dani for the push to work a little harder this week. I started the day with 30 minutes on the wii fit plus doing a routine of stretching and balance exercises that I had set up back in the winter. It was very obvious that I had not done it in a while. I need to do this more because my balance and posture are not what they should be. Some of the strength exercises may help me see some toning in the abdomen .. at least that is what I am hoping. I took the kids to school, then did week 2 day 2 of the couch 2 5k program, walking/running for another 3 miles/ 42 minutes. Breakfast lunch and dinner were all healthy but I did not get any snacks in today -- had a nap attack this afternoon so the watermelon I bought for snack will be cut and served tomorrow instead.
Total ntf points 20 for exercise, 9 for meals = +29

Hi Every one!

Thanks for the encouraging extra points this week. I didn't see the point counter worksheet and got it from my daughter Gen this morning. Our friend Hannah just joined the blog and told Gen she exercises 90 minutes each day. This motivated Gen and I along with my oldest son to walk our normal 30 minute course twice. I was so tired after the second walk that I said I was done for the day, but after sitting here at the computer I may be able to do another 30 minutes later when it gets a little cooler. Thanks Hannah, Gen and Dani Joy for your encouragement!

Update week 5

I was so excited last week to see the scale go down to 133. It has since bounced around a pound or two but never settled firmly back at 133. today was 133.6 so that is good. Unfortunately Dani gave us warning of the nix the fix that starts tomorrow and I have been quite rebellious today doing things like finishing the bag of Doritos on the table. I will work hard to make good choices this coming week, though. Things are really busy and I am really going to have to get creative to get the exercising in but I want to see that number increase in my miles category.
Are we really down to just 2 weeks left? I don't guess I will reach my 129 lb goal but I am going to see how close I can get. For some reason i thought this challenge was going into July but the spreadsheet just goes to June 30th.
For some reason I am hesitant to measure but I think tomorrow I will dig out the measuring tape and see what change, if any, there is in my body. In just the past few days I have had several people comment about my weight loss and how they are noticing the change. That is sooo encouraging for me.

Well, I need to get myself off to bed. But first, my allergy medicine. I am so ready for whatever is in the air to go away so I can breathe again.

E-mealz

I wasn't sure what to post this under, but since this does have to do with food I figured I would stick it under a diet tip.

Probably a reason I struggle with weight is because I feel like I never have time to make meals at home that are nutritious. It takes so much time, energy and planning to even get a meal on the table that often times we just grab whatever is in the freezer - pop it into the oven and eat it. Or to save even more time - we just go out to eat. I know this is a very unhealthy practice and super expensive.

So, you can imagine how excited I was to find a website that will take the planning out of it for me. All I have to do is pay $5/mo and I get a weekly menu complete with a grocery list to print out. Now the reason I'm sharing this with you guys is because they have many lists to choose from including low carb, low fat, points system (i.e. if you are using Weight Watchers), vegetarian etc.

As a side bonus for me, if you click through the link below and decide to sign up, I'll get a referral bonus. Even if I didn't get a referral bonus, I'd still be telling you all about it because I'm just so excited about this. Hopefully this will even help those of you who aren't in the states since most of the menu's include a shop at any store option. Hope this helps you guys too!