My food and New Running Shoes!

What do I Eat?

This is the question that I have been asked the MOST!!!

I've decided to sit down and right down what I personally eat every day. This does not mean that it will be the perfect thing for you, but it has worked well for me! I will also let you know what my husband eats, because we have different schedules that allow for different meals for breakfast and lunch.

BREAKFAST:

My typical breakfast is a Zone Bar. I know it sounds like not much, but it really keeps me full!

Total Fat per bar: 6grams

Calories: 190

You can also add a small glass of skim milk if you would like.

My husband has a little more time than I do in the morning so he makes oatmeal or steal cut oats. NOT the instant oatmeal... that stuff has way too much sugar. He adds cinnamon and bananas or raisons. Decide what works better for you and pick something that you will stick with! For me, I do not have time to cook anything in the morning because I'm busy running to the bus stop and carpool!

LUNCH:

My typical lunch is a black bean burger by Morning star and a serving of BAKED chips.

Total Fat: 10grams... 7 grams (burger), 3grams (chips)

I also look around for good veggie burgers and salmon burgers to use to change it up.

My husband is out of the house during lunch time, so he either takes his lunch to work or eats at Subway.

If he takes his lunch, he takes a wrap. That is a whole wheat wrap with a sliced turkey and FAT FREE cheese, with a side of baked chips.

At Subway you have tons of options. He usually picks a turkey sub, 6 inch, flatbread or whole wheat bread. Load on the veggies, NO CHEESE!!! ABSOLUTELY NO MAYO!!!

My personal Subway order is...Veggie sub on flat bread. I load it up with all the veggies that I like and add sweet onion sauce! It's so yummy, I can't believe I didn't eat it years ago! Subway always has BAKED chips too! Yay for Subway, they are great!

SNACK:

Around 3:00pm I eat a snack. Usually I will have half of a zone bar.

Total Fat: 3grams

If you are exercising before this, you may to have the entire bar!

My husband has yogurt. Probiotic yogurt, NOT sugar flavored! PLAIN YOGURT! Check the fat, make sure it's low. He adds blueberries or any fruit on it. This is totally up to you, however DO NOT SKIP THIS!! It will help keep you full until dinner and it will keep you from stuffing your face at 6pm!!!

DINNER:

We do a lot of fresh veggies on the stove, very little oil! We will put it on whole wheat tortillas. Another typical dinner for us is the black bean burgers cooked and smashed up, add fat free cheese (melt it on your burger in a bowl) put on a whole wheat tortilla and add salsa. If you eat meat, stick to lean meat! Chicken can me baked or grilled, just cut off all the fat before you cook it! Eat lots of veggies and even fruit if you like it! The more good stuff you eat the less bad stuff you will crave!

NIGHT SNACK:

I run at night because that's the only time I can with my kids! After I run I have a zone bar for energy and carbs! It's also a great idea to have half of a banana before you exercise because it gives you energy for your workout.

DO NOT MUNCH ON SNACKS LATE AT NIGHT!!!

stick to a healthy low fat night snack, but that's it! I have mine around 8, because thats when I'm done running. I would recomend eating a snack around 7 or 7:30!

Remember I'm not a nutritionist, so please don't think that I am!!! I'm simply a mom who was tired of being FAT!!! I hope this helps! If you feel like you need more, don't starve your body, it knows what it needs!!! Please feel free to ask any questions!

Alright, so I bought a new pair of running shoes... woohoo!!! I did run in the ones I had, but once I started running 3 miles a day, I thought it was worthy of buying new ones! I picked a pair of Nike Vomero 4's. I read so many reviews online that I thought I was going to go crazy. I narrowed it down between the Nike Vomero 4s and the Nike LunarGlides. Both were awesome, but these happened to be the ones I found in my size in the better color. You really can't go wrong with either!

Transformation... Part 2!

So here is a current picture, I am sorry it's not that great! I will add a better one soon! I am out of town and I didn't want to make you wait until I got home for an update!

I am wearing a size 2/4 jeans and weighing in at 122 pounds!

I am thrilled to say the least! I love my newly found body and I'm still working to tone the areas that need it. I have had 3 c-sections so I have a way to go to rebuild the muscle in my tummy.

This picture was taken a few days ago. I put on my size 10 shorts that I was wearing on our beach trip this summer (pics on Part 1 post).

I am still eating the same amount of fat in my diet. I maintain less than 15grams per meal. There is NO REASON to eat more than that!

Recently I have added running to my daily routine. I never thought I would enjoy running, but it is very relaxing and peaceful to me. I would like to eventually run a marathon (hence the blog site name). For now, I'm focusing on a 5K run at the end of January. I just started running a few weeks ago, so I will continue to update you on the progress of that.

I will say, the first run I did was NOT GOOD! After about 2 minutes of running I thought I was going to DIE! Seriously, I had to tell myself that it will get better... and it has. The first time I ran one mile I was so excited I could almost cry. I never thought I would be able to do that. I am currently running 3.1 miles about 5-6 times a week. I do see changes in my body from running. I see my belly shrinking above my scar. This is exciting for me!!! I hope you are inspired my story and start your own. It is the BEST thing you can do for yourself and your family! Please leave comments and let me know if you are also in your own journey. Together we can help others and encourage ourselves to continue when the tough times come!

Thanks everyone, hope you all had a great Christmas!!!

Transformation of myself... Part 1

This is me in April 2008. My youngest was 5 months old at the time, so I justified my weight as "baby weight". I was wearing a size 14 jeans in this picture, I was about 165 pounds here.

This was at my daughters preschool graduation in May 2009. At this point, I think I had just given up and tried to make the best of the situation. I am wearing a size 12 pants and I'm around 160 pounds.

This is my youngest and I on our summer vacation to Charleston, SC July 2009. I was feeling a little better since I had lost a little weight. I'm wearing a size 10 pants and weighing in at 155 pounds.

This picture was taken on the same summer vacation as the above picture. We were at Myrtle Beach, July 2009.

After this trip, we came home and I decided I was tired of living like this!!! I was so tired of picking through pictures from our trips and only showing the ones without me on Facebook. I was tired of having adorable kids and feeling like a fat blob! I was so happy in part of my life... I have a great husband and great kids. Yet I was so miserable in a different party of my life... I was not the way I felt I should be. The biggest question is... how and where to start? Well I'm not great at cooking at home, so we eat out a LOT! That had to stop! When we did cook at home, it was usually the cheapest thing I could buy at the grocery store... that was also the worst for you! High in fat and just gross! Well we decided to start with something simple so we would quit!

We started by only eating 15g of fat per meal! Sounds too simple, but take a look at what you eat and how much fat is in it... scary!!! If we were going to go out, we would get online first and check the nutritional facts. We didn't really pay much attention to calories and stuff at first, that would have been too difficult and we wouldn't have stayed on track!

We started on July 20, 2009. I weighed in at 155 pounds that morning. I was wearing a size 12 or a size 10, but they were tight on my belly!

We didn't tell our families how much we had lost, they saw us for the first time at Halloween for my youngest sons 2nd birthday. To say the least, they were SHOCKED! Everyone started asking us how we did and they all wanted to know what we were eating etc...

At Halloween I was 132 pounds and wearing a size 6 jean.

Check out Part 2 of my post where I reveal my current weight and jean size and show you more about how I did it and what I'm doing now. Not only have I lost a lot of weight, I have completely changed my lifestyle... come see for yourself!