Wouldn’t it be nice if you could eat a delicious salad while actually helping your body burn fat in your abs? Amazingly enough it is possible. We show you a quick, easy and delicious salad designed to help you do just that.

Enjoy!!

Everybody wants to believe that there’s some secret out there. A simple pill that will solve all your weight loss problems and leave you with the body of your dreams with the blink of an eye.  These products certainly should work, right?  Oftentimes the products are so popular that the only conclusion is that people must be losing weight.  But if you think about it…70% of the American population is overweight or obese, so it’s pretty clear that these cleansing shakes and diet pills and ab rollers aren’t working. Even if you found one that worked, what would happen once you stopped using it? It’s best to find a plan or program that will help you lose weight naturally so you can keep the pounds away forever.

Hi Everyone!  I hope your new year is turning out to be fantastic so far?  Just wanted to check in and make sure you still have your eye on your new years goals.  It’s often easier to find motivation around the new year when everyone is in the mood to hit the gym and eat healthy..but what happens when that motivation starts to wain around early February?  Make sure to keep inpirational quotes, pictures, and your written goals nearby so you can continue to be inspired every day, even if your friends are starting to lag.  Also, try letting your loved ones know that you still want to achieve what you set out to do, and that will keep it fresh in their minds as well so they will be less likely to start tempting you with dinners out and reasons to skip the gym!

Good luck and know that I’m always here to help if you need it!

Becky

Well, I made it.  9 weeks ago I weighed 140 lbs, and I just stepped on the scale this morning and I now weigh less then 123   So, 17 lbs lost over a 9 week span equals about 2 lbs a week- which is ideal for good health and lasting results.  I had originally stated that I wanted to lose 15 lbs in 6 weeks but I changed my mind because I decided to enjoy myself and have a “cheat” meal once in a while.  It’s up to you whether or not you want to do that.

I want to thank everyone for their supportive messages along the way- I hope my weight loss journey has helped some of you to start on yours! 

So I decided to surpass my 6 week goal because I wasn’t quite at the mark yet.  Since I wanted to go a little easier on myself and allow a few cheat meals here and there, I am fine going a few more weeks.  It’s up to you though, if you want to forgo the cheat meals and go totally strict you can probaby accomplish the 15 lb goal in 6 weeks.

I am at the end of week 8 and I’m at 126 lbs.  Only 1 lb away from my goal!!  I’m feeling pretty good and I have more energy than I’ve had in a while.  I think my body finally got used to what I’m doing   As far as changes, I’ve pretty much kept my diet and workouts the same because I have kept losing.  When you continually lose weight, you really don’t want to change anything- you want to save the changes for when you plateau.  If it aint broke…

There is a recipe I’d like to share with you though.  My mom used to make it when I was little and I just remembered it the other day and asked her for the recipe.  It’s super healthy and it fills you up like crazy.  I was full for 4 hours after having my 4 oz serving size!

Meatballs & Zuccini over brown rice

For the meatballs:  1 lb lean ground turkey, 3/4 cup oats, 1 egg, italian seasoning.  Mix together to form meatballs and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Sauce: chopped onions and garlic, 2 16 oz cans crushed tomatoes, 2 cups beef broth, 2 tbsp flour.  Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil,  add four, tomatoes, and broth.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add meatballs and simmer another 15 minutes.  Add 2 whole sliced zuccinis and cook another 5 minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

I hope you like the recipe!  It’s one of my favorites and, like I said, it keeps me full for hours!  I’ll write again next week, when I’ve hopefully met my goal

I am now at the end of my 5th week of my 15 lb project.  I’ve gotten more into a routine now…I don’t seem to be craving as much, but that definitely doesn’t mean that I don’t want to cheat when I see or smell delicious food!  The other day, my friend asked me to go out to dinner and, even though I really didn’t want to be around temptation, I decided to go because I don’t want to ruin my social life just because I’m dieting!  Plus, I know I can still stick to my diet while I’m at just about any restaurant

My friend ended up getting (my favorite) a cheeseburger…and I could have killed her but I decided not to.  I saw salmon on the menu and I ordered it grilled with lemon and pepper and had it over fresh greens and slivered almonds- it was actually delicious!  Right now I am working on an Eating Out Guide for all of you, detailing what you can order in any type of restaurant in case you are in the situation I was in.

Anyway, I slowed down a little in weight loss the last few days so instead of messing with my diet, I upped my workout intensity.  My diet is the same as weeks 3 and 4.  Here is what yesterday looked like:

Meal 1: Spinach egg white omelet (1.5 cups spinach sauteed in 1 tsp olive oil and 4 egg whites, sprinkle of parm cheese), bowl of oatmeal

Meal 2: 1/2 cup salt free cottage cheese with 1/2 cup blueberries

Meal 3: Salad with grilled chicken, veggies, and 1/2 cup chick peas with balsamic vinegar

Meal 4: Protein Shake (1 scoop chocolate whey protein, 1/2 cup strawberries, 2 tbsp greek yogurt, ice)

Meal 5: Grilled sirloin steak with sauteed mushrooms, broccoli    (delicious!)

Workouts: Weight training still at 3 times per week, but I took away some of my rest time.  I went from resting 45 seconds btwn sets to 30 seconds, and I added more cardio to my weight workouts (like squat jumps, jumping jacks, stairs, jogging in place) after each exercise.

Cardio- I am still keeping the 4 days of cardio but I am just trying to up my intensity and do more hills and sprints.

I will continue this through week 6, see my results, and then reassess

So the 15 lb project is going ok, still pretty hard sometimes to resist cravings but I’m still going.  I do still allow myself one cheat meal per week because, for my body, it works and it seems to help my metabolism stay up.  Last week I went out to my favorite Greek restaurant in Baltimore, Mezze for my cheat meal.  They have mostly small plates, so I enjoyed myself there trying a lot of different things

So weeks 3 and 4 are about the same nutrition and exercise-wise, so I decided to put them together in this blog.  I still eat a small amount of protein and complex carb per meal but now I have taken out the carb from my last meal on 3 nights of the week.  This does make a big difference because I’ve lost another 3 lbs   Here is a sample day:

meal 1: bowl of oatmeal w/cinnamon and truvia, 3 hard boiled eggs (most of the yolk taken out…I leave a little in for flavor)

meal 2: protein bar (I like Myoplex Lite Chocolate Chocolate Chip, feels like you’re eating a brownie…almost.)

meal 3: strawberry chicken salad at Panera (it has chicken for my protein and strawberries for my carbs) with a tiny bit of dressing

meal 4: scoop of whey protein in water, apple with 1 tbsp natural peanut butter

meal 5: small piece of salmon brushed with a tiny bit of olive oil, soy sauce, and a tsp of brown sugar.  Delicious!  Served w/asparagus

WORKOUTS: Moved my cardio up to 4 days per week.  2 of the days are longer runs or bouts on the elliptical, and 2 of the days involve sprints and hill/stair workouts at the park.  Sometimes  I like to run the half mile to the park, then run the hill 6 times, and then run back.  Its simple and takes about 30 min.  Check out my latest video in my last blog for a look at one of my workouts.

My weight training is still 3 days per week.  Here’s a sample day:

I do some kind of chest press or bench press for 12 reps, then right after I go into push-ups.  Follow that by a wide or close-grip pulldown for my back, and some type of row machine.  Then I get to shoulders with an overhead press followed by side raises.  For legs I’ll always do some kind of squat followed by a lunge (either walking, reverse, or stationary), then a leg press and another machine of my choice.  Abs come last because I don’t want to tire them out in the beginning.

Keep visiting and keep your comments coming- I love to hear from you! 

OK, I am 3 weeks into my weight loss project and it’s time to see how I’m doing.

I will be posting a video showing some of my workouts so stay tuned

Ok, so week two went a little better.  My cravings weren’t as bad and I got more into the habits of eating healthy again and sticking to my workout schedule.  It was still hard, but nothing compared to last week.  I did, however, let myself go lax again on Saturday and have a cheat meal.  Last week I actually lost 3 lbs by doing that and I believe that sometimes it works to your advantage to have one cheat meal per week (last week I had two…that was a little much) b/c it can help your metabolism to stay high.  BUT that doesn’t work for everyone so I would suggest experimenting with it a little to see if it’s for you.  Also, I found that I’m still just as busy as I was before and I need some quicker options.  Since there aren’t many fat loss options that are quick (grocery stores have a ton of products that claim to be healthy and quick like “lean cuisine” but they are scams) I decided to make my own recipes that take a few minutes to make!  I’m currently putting them into a book for you all.

Anyway, week 2 is essentially the same except I took out the cheat meal on Sunday.  I also took out the carb in my last meal on two of the nights.  This I found to be a big difference.

Meal 1: 4 egg whites, scrambled with cottage cheese, 1 piece ezikial bread

meal 2: greek yogurt with berries

meal 3: protein shake (ready-to-drink from GNC)

meal 4: chicken and sweet potato with green beans

meal 5: turkey meatballs with zuccini over brown rice (with a little tomato sauce)

Workouts:

Same as last week: resistance training 3x per week, cardio 3 times per week but this week I did all sprints outside because it wasn’t too hot out.  I found a great hill in the park near my house and ran up it 10 times for one workout, then once I did some plyometrics including high knees, butt kicks, skips, and sprints followed by suicide sprints, and lastly I did 100 meter sprints followed by 5 hills.  Now, if you are new to exercise you will definitely need to start slower than this.  Try just jogging up a hill by your house and take it from there.  If that’s too difficult, walk up until you gain the endurance to move up to a jog.

This week was hard.  The first week is always the most difficult…your body has to get used to the changes you are putting it through.  Even though I was already used to exercise, it was the diet part that got me.  Recently, I had been giving in to the convenience of fast food because I went through a busy time in my life, but since there aren’t very many healthy alternatives available in the fast food world I was stuck with highly processed ingredients, simple carbohydrates, and saturated fats…not to mention sodium.  When you eat that kind of food for a while your body becomes addicted to it, and you start to crave it all the time.  Even though I hadn’t eaten like that my whole life, I still became chemically dependent on it because it happens fast, kind of like a drug.   Therefore, the first week of healthy eating feels a lot like a drug detox, and in a way it is.  You are cleaning out your body but your body has a great deal of cravings for the processed stuff.  Anyway, it was extremely difficult for me to stick to my diet but I did it…and I let myself go a little lax on Saturday and Sunday just so I wasn’t going cold turkey and putting my body through too much shock at once.

WEEK 1 DIET

Each weekday I would do something like this:

Meal 1: An oatmeal pancake (see my video on Healthy Recipes: Oatmeal Pancake on YouTube) which consists of 4 egg whites and 1/2 cup oats

Meal 2: Protein bar (I like Myoplex Lite bars)

Meal 3: Huge salad with grilled chicken from Panera Bread or Whole Foods with dressing on the side (limited dressing)

Meal 4: nonfat greek yogurt with 1/4 cup blueberries

Meal 5: 4 oz fish or chicken with 1/2 cup brown rice and broccoli or other veggie

Saturday and Sunday

Meal 1: bowl of cheerios with skim milk and strawberries

Meal 2: greek yogurt w/berries

Meal 3: salad from whole foods with chicken

Meal 4: Out to dinner, had a bowl of pasta and italian bread

(Both Sat and Sun looked similar to this)

Workouts

Weight training x 3 —->   One day upper body, one day lower body, one day total body

Cardio x 3 —–>  One day 30 min on elliptical, two days out in the park doing sprints and hills

Check back next week, I hope I don’t have as many cravings…we’ll see.