Ahhhh!!! D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R

We took an impromptu overnight to Sedona ... Flagstaff ... Prescott and came home thru Phoenix, which turned into an overnight with my folks ... which has turned into a weekend in San Diego with the fam. Normally tons of fun, however .... Can I just say NOOOOO We have a challenge to do!!!!! LOL

So I've totally had to slack with the exercise routine - I don't think the pool really counts as a workout. But you do have to swim with kids attached to you. LOL Did do a hike in Oak Creek (had the dog who was banned from the water. so we hit the trails while Jon and the boys enjoyed the H2O) Still no soda - but please, how many FF salads can one person stand!!!! Calgon ..... So, needless to say - with every meal on the road - the whole FF point thing is out the window.

On the flip side, we've traveled with scriptures and journals and I still can't believe we've survived road trips without soda ... scratch that. without caffeine. (Really? Not one Mr Dew to stay awake and punchy? Amaza-za-za-zing!)

So, there you have it - we'll be back late Monday or early Tuesday so we'll be tardy in posting our points, but now that I write it out, it's not looking quite so doom and gloom. And ha..ha...

Missed checking out your posts though - See you all next week.

(on a side note Laura & Amber ... if you don't see Ian on Tues, you'll know where we are, but I'm pretty sure we'll be back in time. :) And L, did you get the little "gift" in your door the other day? Just want to be sure it was found. )

We're Going on Vacation

And I am nervous! I can tell many of you are going to put up a fight for the prize and it is going to be hard to keep all our points while we're relaxing in Pinetop! But we will try! Wish us luck!

another sugary question

Heidi brought up a good point. She is going to be doing a TRIATHLON soon (GO HEIDI), and it is suggested that she has power bars and Gatorade to help her with her intense training. When I started doing this challenge last time I stopped having that stuff because of all of the sugar, but I'm sure I wasn't working out quite as vigorously as someone training for a triathlon. Anyway I don't think she should lose points for something like that.

SO - in the end - we all might interpret the rules differently. Just be as honest with yourself and us as you can. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I will certainly give you my opinion. Or you can post it on the blog and everyone can give you their 2 cents!

Why do I have nice neighbors?

So my neighbors brought us some cupcakes on Tuesday. I've been strong and I think my kids finally finished them off! I was really wanting some chocolate yesterday. I guess my instant breakfast will have to be my chocolate fix. Monday and Wednesday went jogging. Tuesday was a low energy day so I did yoga and today it was Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. There, can I count that as a journal entry? :)

40

Is it just me,, ok first 60 big ones for me please.. but no really

so its getting closer to that hour,, you know the dreaded 8pm curfew of sorts.... and then well I kind of go into "hey the world just might blow up tomorrow and well I need to eat b/4 its too late & its all over" and ok i dont eat the bad stuff,, but like the fruits, and yes V8 juice too.. well at times I must admit I almost thought about baking a cake or running to Safeway for a slice of some yummy chocolate cake.... don't worry I dont , my mind tells me "DO IT, JUst go NOW!!! then I come back to real world & I drink lots of H2O and go for bike ride, walk, shawdow box, dance anything to get that monkey off my back, Ha Ha, you bad monkey..... i hate that monkey.
;) keep up the good fight ya'll

Question/Answer

Robin posed some good questions. Here are the answers in case you have been wondering too. :)

So I am wondering about a few things. I know that bad fast food is out, but what about restaurants or crappy food at home. For example, grilling hamburgers at home okay, but not as fast food , right? And what about ordering a pizza or making one at home, is that considered fast food? What about a hot dog or slice at Costco/Sams, is that considered fast food?

Anything you buy already made would be considered fast food. So restaurants and Costco would be fast food. And, yes, you can grill hamburgers to have. There are really no restrictions to your meals other than "no sweets" (pancakes with syrup is out), but as for ME, I still try not to fry anything and stay away from mac and cheese. I suppose if I had it though, there would be no point to lose......

And the sweets thing, is that no sugar, because I haven’t been doing desserts or candy, but what about honey on a sandwich or snacking on animal crackers or granola bars, those have sugar, but I don’t consider them sweets. I just want to make sure I am doing the right stuff.

I consider "sweets" anything sugary. Animal crackers and most granola bars are usually pretty sugary and would also fall under "no unhealthy snacks". When in doubt check out the label. How many calories and grams of sugar does it have? You don't have to cut it out completely completely, but make sure it's more health and little sugar. I don't have a problem at all with honey if used in reasonable portions. Honey, Peanut Butter, and sliced bananas on a slice of whole wheat toast is delicious!

healthy snack ideas

*pistachios or almonds
*rice crackers (oriental mix)
*savory thin mini crackers from Trader Joe's
*protein shakes, (sometimes just protein & water)
*string cheese
*apple w/ some peanut butter
*ants on a log (celery, pb, raisins)
*hummus and pitas
*string cheese
*cottage cheese
*try fruit you don't usually buy
*1/4 cup cottage cheese (low fat)
1/4 cup pineapple, diced
1/4 cup grapes
1 teaspoon slivered almonds
*1/4 cup craisins and/or raisins and a small handful of slivered almonds mixed

protein shakes

Peanut Butter/Banana/Chocolate Shake
(I still haven't tried this one, but looks good...)
1/2 c milk
Ice cubes
1/2 med. ripe banana
2 tsp. peanut butter
2 tsp. cocoa powder
10 gr. (1/2 scoop) protein powder
Blend together.

194 cal
15 gr. protein
6 gr. fat
20 gr. carbohydrate
From The Formula cookbook

Blueberry-Banana-Spinach Protein Shake
sooooo good...
1 c. skim milk
1 c. frozen blueberries
1/2 frozen banana [or fresh]
1 tbs. flaxseed [grounded]
1-2 c. fresh spinach *can't even taste it
1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
ice if needed
*place in blender and whala! this makes a large serving.

calories: 412
carbs: 53
fat: 8g. [*most of which is good fat from the flaxseed]
protein: 37g.

Neely=65

Wahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! We are both sad we lost points last week, but Austyn told me from the beginning it was never about winning, it was about him feeling better! I totally agree (although the money would have been nice.... doubt it's possible now!!!!)

However, both of our point losses were NOT for soda or fast food!!!!! YAY!!! (Although, Austyn went a little crazy with soda on his free day... is there a number you can go over, or is it just a free for all the whole day? He totally threw away all the good he did the whole week on that one day!!!)

Okay, any good ideas to get motivated to exercise???????????????

Austyn=64

70 points for Holly & Jon Russell

OK .... if you can get credit for unused "free points" then I woulds actually have 74 and Jon 78 ... I thought about using the free points for Soda, but I am still standing a week later ... and No Soda. Seriously, the last time I knocked off the soda it was with the help of morphine. LOL I had fully expected to sacrifice a point each day to soda but after going this far, I'm hoping I can keep it at bay. Not sure it will be so easy to stay off it once I get a taste of that carbonated bliss!!

I'm surprised at how easy the week was ... OK not easy, but surprised it hasn't been as horrible as I anticipated. And I'm proud of myself for not using all my freebie points. (I'm sure many of you didn't use yours either ... but seriously, I'm a mess. HA) Thought about posting my uber-sexy "before" photo" to shame myself into compliance, but thankfully, I haven't downloaded it them yet. LOL (trust me it puts the My Biggest Loser folks to shame. ugh...)

It's been really great to have Jon doing it too - takes a bit of the edge off and it's nice to compare and remind each other to grab another F&V or workout together. A nice bonus! The best part has been Ian joining me each day to exercise. He'll holler from the other room when he hears the music starting, "Don't exercise without me!!" and come running in. He prefers the YBB Latin Flavor and is not a fan of one particular Yoga Vid. ha..ha I love when he sits on the floor in the "easy pose" with his hands in prayer position and asks. "can I open my eyes yet?"

Thanks to everyone for you posts, I love reading them and am so thrilled we're doing this! Here's to a Successful Week 2!!

65 Points

I loved this week :) I feel really good about the challenge...hopefully this week is even better!

54 pts.

1st week was a little bit of a struggle for me. Plan on doing better this week!

60

week 2 here I come.

70

I so needed this challenege. I didn't realize how little water I drink.

68

If it weren't for the free points I would have done worse, but we were traveling and its hard to get a good nights rest with a 5 month old. There should be some kind of free credit for mom's with babies who don't sleep through the night. Wahhh...wahh..wahh.. I know, "no complaining". I'm just saying...

Whats also weird to me is that is hasn't been as hard for me to cut out sweets as I thought it would be. That is my only down fall. The other things are like writing in my journal, and the whole vegee thing. I didn't realize how horrible I am at NOT eating vegees.

70 Points

Week one accomplished! With the help of the FREEBIE'S I was able to get 70. Hardest night was the last night of the week when we were going home from Stake Priesthood meeting and everyone was talking about their favorite steak places, and Popeye's chicken and other foods. Lets just say if it was not the sabbath, I might have broke down. But due to my Awesomeness and Attractiveness, I stayed strong.

36 and embarassed

This is not as easy as I thought. I am pretty junky as far as eating and other habits. I am here to make everyone else look good......yeah thats it. Good job everyone.

70 for Justin and 70 for Kristin

this week has been so good. the first couple of days were hard to adjust for me and my cherry coke ... i had major withdrawls. justin did good without his daily FULL-THROTTLE. we are seriously focused and are ready to win this thing!!

69

I am posting tonight for my sleeping husband- he got 69 points and I am so proud of him!!!! Seriously him and soda have been like "going out" and I have been trying to break them up for a while, and this just might do it!!!!!!!!!!! Good job!!!

70!!

Had to use 3 free points. I made the mistake of making strawberry ice cream for the young men and couldn't pass it up. Then I forgot my journal on the first day and didn't exercise today.

70

I got my 70!!!! It was difficult at times, but what a good feeling to be done with week one. It's the little things with me that I struggle with. This is going to be interesting and I am excited for week two. What is everyone eating for a snack? Any good ideas?? Good luck, well mostly...:)

70!!

One week down! I made it, but thank goodness for one freebie in each category. (I had my field day today. It was nice to eat some cookies.) Bring on week 2!!!

66 Points- Boo

I am pretty disappointed. I really thought with the free points I could do the full 70 points. I am pretty sure there are some people that will pull off a perfect score and so I feel like I have already blown my chances of winning, which is a huge bummer to say the least. I guess now it's just about remembering why I decided to do this in the first place. It wasn't just to win. I want to change my habits. I want to do better in all of these areas. I know that my wellness is important and that these are things that I want to do consistantly. So let's hope I can do better next time and not give up.
On the upside, I am seeing my habits change already. I am not craving coke as much as I thought I would and my muscles are sore. In a good way.
So, party on Garth.

70 - BAM!

I know the day is not over, but I'm anticipating getting the rest of my points for today.... :D SO, it's really interesting having so many people around me doing the same thing this time around. I feel like there are eyes watching me everywhere!! (...and I'm watching you tooo...) It's fun though having so many people to talk to it about and I love your comments on the blog.