….hi

I am sheepishly returning. I haven’t been around in months. I gained 20 pounds back in that time, and I haven’t exercised either. I am still down 38 pounds for my start over a year ago…and as of today I am back on plan again. I seem to be doing a sort of 3 steps forward 2 steps back type thing.

Just checking in… posts to come.

Busy Bee

Don’t think I’m gone! School just started and I am BEYOND busy right now. I will do a comprehensive update this week Happy Wednesday everyone!

Shredded

Just finished The Shred on LEVEL 2 for the first time ever! I’ve never even seen level 2 before, haha! I’m pretty proud – though I did have to do to the modified version on several of the moves. Oh well, I was fully worked out, and now, I’m feeling great!

Plans for today include getting a few groceries, making something for dinner, and making sure the cat is doing alright. He hurt his leg yesterday and had to be taken to the ER. He seems to be doing better, but he sure scared me!

My birthday is on Friday, and it looks like I am going to Indiana to meet up with a bunch of friends. We’re going to have Jersey Shore themed party – complete with spray tans, bumpits, and lasagna. Should be pretty fun. Tonight I’m going to find an inexpensive dress to wear for the event

Have a great day everyone!

Renewed Metabolism

I bought and completely read Jillian’s Master Your Metabolism. It truly changed the way I think about food, and for the past week I have been following her food suggestions and taking her supplements.

In addition, I’ve been religiously doing circuit training. I am seeing results more than I ever have in the past, and I can feel muscle forming (been working with the circuit training for going on 3 weeks now). I can honestly say that I feel stronger than I ever have in my life!

In the book, she talks about really cleaning up your diet. I’ve been eating 100% organic everything – no preservatives, no diet foods, only whole, natural foods. Mostly beans, whole grains, oats, vegetables, milk, fruit, and nuts. It was hard the first day – really hard. I mean, I’m essentially cutting sugar out of my diet!

I should say that I was already a vegetarian, and I avoid non-organic as much as possible – but I’ve never gone hardcore with it before. Now is the time to do it. I’m kicking this show into high gear, and I’m reaching goal this summer. I feel healthy, and accomplished, and happy!

Now that I’ve finished my Jillian plug (she’s my superhero and chick role model) I’m going to finish watching awesome DVR’d shows: How I Met Your Mother (Neil Patrick Harris is so incredible in this show), The Bachelor (guilty pleasure, lots of dramz), and the usual late night lineup, a little Jay and a little Conan!

Snow day!

Today we’re going to be gettign 12 inches of snow! Most people from the office are working from home, so I am too!

I ate a great breakfast of 2 eggs, a string cheese, and a small apple. Now I’m going to make a delicious cup of coffee in the Keurig!

Yesterday I tried the Biggest Loser Last Chance workout and it was only semi-painful. The pain was intensified by the fact that I did it right when I got home from work. I still think The Shred and Jillian’s other videos are way harder. Today, I am getting back on the running bandwagon. Going to try one of the last steps of the C25K, because I know I won’t be able to do 30 full minutes or more. Then, next week, I am going to start my 10k, and then mini marathon training!

I am soooooo happy Biggest Loser is back on TV. I still some Jillian motivation in my life! Per usual, the first episode just about made me cry. I freaking love that show!

Anyway, back to working from home and then hitting the gym! Hooray snow!

Plans for the day…

Work all day until about 5pm. Then coming home to use the rice cooker and veggie steamer for steamed broccoli and cauliflower and peppers. Then while that’s cooking, I’m going to do the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout! Haven’t ever done that video before, so I will have to report back and tell what I think of it. I’m sure it will be painful!

Have a great day everyone!

NYE Pictures and my BAD day yesterday!

Check out my NYE outfit! My face looks ridiculous here because I was laughing in it and giving myself 1,000 chins, but otherwise I like it. I was unsure of wearing that dress, but in the end I’m glad I did. I think it looks pretty nice, and even if it’s not perfect, I could NEVER have fit even my thigh in that dress last year!

After coming home from a great Christmas of tons of exercise and healthy food choices, I realized that I was *3* pounds away from 199. Apparently, that caused a severe freak-out internally, because yesterday I ate so much I cannot detail it here out of embarrassment. It’s quite disgusting actually, how much I ate.

What’s good about all of this though is that my roommate got a Macy’s gift card for Christmas and we got a rice/veggie steamer yesterday! No more cooking with cooking spray or a ton of oil! We’re making steamed veggies for lunch, and I already LOVE this thing! It’s easy to use! We realized we were eating too much pasta, and I was saying that brown rice on a smaller scale would be so much healthier. We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home from Macy’s and picked up some rice that has protein and fiber (and a ton of both!). It has little seeds and stuff in it too. It’s tastes AWESOME and adding a little lemon juice and a TSP of olive oil makes it even better!

I also got the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout video yesterday. I’m going to do that one today! Then, tomorrow, it’s back to work Oh well, I’ll be back in classes before I know it!

Crossed another off of the “Goals” list!

For the first time since I was 20, I attended family christmas. I hadn’t been in 5 years! I stopped going when I started gaining weight, and after losing 50 pounds over the last year, I finally had the courage to go!

It went pretty smoothly, and my aunt even told me that I “really looked great.” I think they thought I had lost weight even since the last time they saw me, which was true! I was shocked that they noticed.

Anyway, that’s officially crossed off my list on the goals page, and I am getting close to being halfway done with that list. The next goals coming up are losing 60 pounds and fitting into my jeans from high school, and those will probably go hand-in-hand in the next couple of weeks!

I am BACK!

Hello! I made it home. Over the last week I drove to Indiana, spent  Christmas with my mom and brother, drove down to Indianapolis and flew out to Tampa to see my dad and step-mom. Then I flew back to Indianapolis and met up with a friend. We then drove north to pick up another friend coming from Fort Wayne, and met several other friends in Chicago. We stayed the night at The Palmer House downtown and bought tickets to  NYE event! Then my roommate and I drove back up to Milwaukee this morning. I’ve been BUSY!

Fortunately, my dad has a gym at his house, and I’ve really, really been liking this Jillian Michaels DVD. I’ve been doing it every day, and I can already feel the difference. It’s helping out my back muscles a lot, and I am slouching less already – even after only a week.

In other news, I start training tomorrow for a half marathon that I will be running in the spring with another blogger friend, Kim!

I am really getting excited with my results from exercise. I am finally getting some definition, and I fit into a size 16 dress designed by Lauren Conrad (from her Kohl’s collection) for New Year’s! I was pretty happy with that. I’ll post some pictures from the night soon!

I start work full-time on Monday until school starts up at the end of the month, but that’s all I’m going to be doing! It feels so good to be finished with classes and available to do other things with friends! I’m really going to be focusing on my fitness the next several weeks as well, and I am going to get to 199 pounds by the time classes start. It’s time, and I’m ready for it!

Today I’m going to lay low and hang out with my roommate. We’re watching Jennifer’s Body right now, and I am happy to say that I have no real plans for the entire weekend except hitting the gym a bunch, cleaning the house, and watching movies. Life is good.

Happy 2010 everyone!

Web Design, Weightloss, and Outdoor Running!

Hello folks! It’s Friday! I am relaxing at home tonight working on my web portfolio design and watching Ghost Hunters.

I don’t really talk about it much, but I am a graphic design student, and I specialize in web design and front-end development. Recently, I have been working with WordPress development. Basically, I have been customizing WordPress as a content management system for a website. All of this has gotten me thinking about this website. I am considering redoing the design and moving it to a “real” domain, like underneathsarah.com or something of that nature. Mostly, I am embarrassed that I am using a template from WordPress for this site! I’m a designer and my own website is so….boring! So anyway, tonight I have been working on my own portfolio site, and I think over Christmas break I will get around to redoing this site. I’m actually pretty excited about the design possibilities, and I want it to look really cute and cartoony. I guess I will be spending my break illustrating scales and measuring tape for a “weightloss” motif! Haha!

I have been back in the gym this week, and I am pretty proud of that. I’ve been drinking my Green Monsters for breakfast, avoiding carbs later at night, and getting a full night’s sleep! As a result, I’ve felt refreshed and happy. I am also looking forward to a loss on the scale this coming Monday!

Finally, I made up my mind tonight that I am going to attempt outdoor running tomorrow. I plan to drive down to the beach of Lake Michigan, park my car in the visitor parking, and run the trail along the water for 3 miles. I’m going to set my pace and see if I can keep up my speed without going too quickly and tiring myself out! We’ll see how it goes. I’m feeling a little bored with the treadmill running, and I think running by the lake will be just the thing to spice up my exercise.

That’s about it with me! My last Final is Tuesday, and I drive home to Indiana to see my mom and brother on Wednesday. Then, Saturday, I fly to Florida to see my dad and step-mom. It will be a week-long trip of seeing family and doing nothing by playing video games and coding websites. Hooray! I will undoubtedly be checking in her over the break!

Happy Holidays!