Tip of the Week

The tip for today:

If you make tea using tea bags, don't squeeze the bag after brewing. After seeping, just lift the bag up, let it drip for 1 or 2 seconds (not too long) and then throw away. The tea is less bitter if you don't squeeze the tea bag or let it drip too long.

Bonus tip for the day:
When baking a cake from a mix, just go ahead and mix it right in the baking pan. You don't need to dirty an extra bowl. It still comes out fine.

Now of course I wouldn't know anything about tip No. 2. I mean it is not like I just made a cake yesterday or something:)

Friday is Donut Day at Work

Well I had to stop using Tony due to money reasons. I was happy with Tony and I would recommend him to anyone, but I did not think I could continue forever due to money reasons. So now I am on my own. I am still using his plan. For now, I am rotating exercises and following the meal plan.

I had a very good week Monday through Thursday. Today was OK, not great because I had a donut at work and three, ok, four bites of ice cream tonight after dinner! My workouts have been very good this week. I worked my arms hard today and it felt great! That donut gave me extra energy. My weight is holding steady at 113.0 I want to be 112.5 by Sunday but I may have screwed that up due to the whole donut thing. Oh, well. I am disappointed but not crushed by the whole thing. It did taste good! I want to be 112.0 by next weekend so I have to work it hard the next 8 to 10 days.

Tip of the Week:
Pesto or pizza sauce can be frozen in ice cube trays and can be thawed out (about 1 TBSP at a time) and added to vegetables, chicken, etc. during cooking. I like to add a cube of pesto to my gound turkey when making turkey burgers. Yes it adds some fat but it is the good kind (olive oil, if you buy the authentic italian kind) and it is not a lot of fat and adds a lot of flavor. Pizza sauce is actually pretty good on steamed shrimp and you don't need much.

Feeling better

I feel positive today. I did it before and I can do it again!
Today's positives:

• I worked out for 45 minutes and I pushed it hard. (Total body CRIT)
• I drank a lot of water today. I made it a point to fill up my water bottle and drink it.
• I took my suppliments.

Some negatives:

• I had to cut my workout short due to time limitations and didn't get back to it.
• My third meal I had a cookie.

I need to get my "glycogen stores" depleted in order to lose fat. It seems that is when I see progress in the fat loss department. I know when they are down, when I feel like crap! Just kidding, sort of. When I walk into the gym thinking, "Ugh. Walking up steps is a chore. How am I ever going to workout?" Then I know I am on the right track for fat loss. It's when I carb up on donuts and bound up the steps going into the gym thinking, "Alright! I can't wait to get to it! I feel grrrrrrreat!" Then I'm in trouble. Great workouts but no fat loss.

So that is my plan for the next two days, to trim those starches and "glycogen deplete" so to speak. Then let the fat loss begin!

Sunday

Just popping in. I should be honest. I am not having a good two weeks. My eating has been terrible. If anyone has any words of wisdom, I would love to hear it. I just can't seem to get motivated.

Tuesday

Feeling good today. Weekdays are always SO much easier to stick to clean eating and exercise because I have a regular schedule. This past weekend was chaotic.

Everybody says that you should hang pictures up all over your house of your "ideal body" in order to inspire yourself. This just hasn't worked for me. All it has ever done is discouraged and frustrated me.

Well I was reading about Dara Torres and yes she is ripped. Well I read that she spends several hours a day training and more importantly gets personal massages to help her recover. http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3384672&categoryId=3060647&n8pe6c=2 Apparently, given her age, she needs to do "extra" care for her body like frequent massages to help her body repair from her training. Well I think that if you don't have these same "resources"(i.e. time, professional staff, etc.), but you're still trying to get the same results (look like her) then are you SETTING YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE.

Instead, I personally think that you should visualize personal goals that are meaningful to yourself and not just try and "look like somebody else." I am short, 5' 1" and I know that I will never have a body with a long waist. I just won't so I shouldn't even try. I would never look like Dara. I am just not tall enough to have that long lean look. I find it better to visualize what I think MY body would look like without the extra fat and that helps me more than comparing myself to someone else. Just my 2 cents.

And so my TIP OF THE WEEK is this: Think Long and Hard about what these "ideal body" people do every day to achieve their body (and if it is an athlete, then they do a LOT) and be honest whether you have the same resourses available. Yes you want to reach high, but don't go beating yourself up to the point where you are discouraged, especially if you are not a professional athlete.

Bump, Bump

Blah. I am slowly being derailed from my fast track to my dreambody by myself!

Gail!!!!!

Snap out of it! PUT DOWN THE ICE CREAM! Your blowing up like a puff fish! Poof!! See?

STOP IT!

On another note, I wanted to start writing a "Tip of the Week" So here is today's tip;

Cut up a bag of ready to eat spinach and some sweet onion and put in a zip lock bag and freeze. When making egg whites in the morning, just scoop a handful in the pan and cook long enough just to thaw (about a minute), then add your egg whites and cook as usual. It gives boring egg whites a little flavor.

A Dreambody Diva At the Gym

My gym is close to an army base and there are some army guys and girls that come there to workout.

At the gym today, a lady said to me," You're in the army right?"

I said, "Uh no. I'm not in the army."

She laughed, "Oh, I just assumed you were in the army because you worked out so hard."

For those of you who don't know, I am using Tony DiCostanzo of Dreambodies BTS as my trainer. Yeah, I think he is trying to kill me:)