Easter Weekend

Easter Weekend = Family + Fun + Food + JUNK Food

Saturday was my nephew JD’s birthday.

It was an eventful Saturday afternoon at the Figueroa’s.

Happy Birthday JD!

FAMILY + FUN

brother-in-law and his wife

Hub's best friend n his wife on the Left; Father in Law on the Right

My little Pear Bear

Pear Bear with Uncle Lloyd

My Little Ladybugs

such a sweetheart

the most UNORGANIZED game of volleyball ever - in the backyard

and grown men playing bball on a kid-size court

JUNK FOOD

I only ate some chocolate. I just thought I'd try to be a cool little photographer and take some cool pics.

COLORED EGGS GALORE…

Easter Sunday was spent at our house.

A small BBQ and a little egg hunt for the kiddies.

Another relaxing day with the fam bam.

🙂

the guys playing Madden...on the Wii

...the hubs watchin'

and the girls lookin' CUTE!!!

Oh and, of course…

ME!!!!

 …I just couldn’t resist.

Anyway, I hope ya’ll had an awesome Easter Weekend…

I sure did.

🙂

Happy Easter!!!

I. Am. Beat.

Didn’t realize it was going to take me this long to get used to work mode again. The early wake up calls, being on my feet 4-8 hours a day, then making sure I work out and eating balanced meals 5-6x a day. And not to mention chores!!! It’s taking some time for me to adjust, but I think next week will be easier. I’ll get used to my old routine.

Anyway, I need to get to bed early again, so here’s a break down of my meals today:

Meal 1: toasted English muffin with natural peanut butter (this is at about 5:30am)

Meal 2: banana + water (around 9am)

Meal 3: 2 egg omelet with spinach, a little bit of cheese, topped with avocado (about noon)

M4: Chocolate Chip Clif Bar (post workout around 3 pm)

…and a green smoothie…

 

Meal 5: grilled chicken, quinoa w/mixed veggies and black beans, salad greens w/balsamic vinegar (around 6pm)

On to my workouts:

1. Went to the gym and did an HIIT run on the treadmill:

3 min brisk walk
3 min jog/run
1 minute sprint
1 minute jog/run
1 minute sprint

**Repeated 3x (27 minutes) and then cooled down with a brisk walk for 10 minutes

2. Came home and did this workout:

**This is a Tone It Up  workout**

Finished this workout in 8 minutes and 4 seconds

3. On to Abs! Did THIS workout 

…totally LOVED the way my abs felt afterwards. Oh and I did this circuit 4x.

4. Lean Legs Pyramid

20 squats w/leg abduction
30 lunges
40 toe touches
50 second wall sit
100 jumping jacks (or you can do 100 seconds worth of jumping jacks)
50 second wall sit
40 toe touches
30 curtsy lunges
20 squats w/leg abduction

5. And then ended the night with a plank. 

So how am I feeling tonight? Worn out. But feels so good to know that I worked out THAT hard. 🙂

Tomorrow night right on through the weekend, it’s weight lifting with the hubs. I’ll try to take as many pics as I can at the gym… I hope I remember.

Anyway, I am exhausted and I need to get up early tomorrow. So…. GOOD NIGHT! 😛

what’s in my lunchbox

Today was my first day back at work after a 3 week vacation. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a vacation… I guess you could say it was more of a hiatus. Yes, we’ll call it a hiatus. It’s really a long story and pretty boring, so I won’t get into much. Just know that it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve been to work. Which means now I have to change up and get used to a new routine.

 

I had to be at work at 5am today. And yes believe it or not, I made sure I had enough time to make myself some breakfast. It was nothing fancy. Just a little something to put in my stomach because in my line of work, you need energy to keep going. So while I stumbled around the kitchen getting things packed for my lunch, I managed to pop a whole wheat English muffin into the toaster, slap some natural peanut butter on it, AND eat it all before I had to be out the door at 4:20am.

 

I didn’t have time to take a pic of it, but it kinda looked like this:

 

I kinda have an obsession with peanut butter these days… and it’s SOOOOO yummy. If you’re not a big fan of peanut butter, unsweetened jam or jelly is fine, too. It’s okay to switch things up from time to time.

My first break came at 7:30a. Give or take. Perfect time for a snack. Had a banana and some raw almonds.

 

Again, I didn’t have time to take a pic of it
(actually, ALL the pics in this post are old pics that were taken before
so I apologize if you’ve already seen them from my tweets and/or FB updates).
But here you go:

 

 

Then came lunch break at around 10am. My co-workers wanted to eat at El Pollo Loc0 and I tagged along. And yes, I brought my lunch with me. So I was a good girl.

My lunch looked like this:
*minus the orange and raw almonds*

*close-up of the sandwich*:

Turkey sandwich on whole wheat w/flaxseeds sandwich thins,
with alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, and a slice of mozzarella cheese.
With a little bit of mustard, no mayonnaise.
Carrot sticks instead of chips.
And then for dessert I had some yogurt. Pina Colada baby.
If you know anything about me, you know that I’m not a big fan of yogurt.
But yogurt is good for you. So I’m trying my best to like it.

Didn’t take a last break because we had projects that needed to be done before we left for the day. But I was pretty stuffed from lunch that I didn’t need another snack break.

 

On the way home from work, I munched on a few more raw almonds. Not a lot, just enough so that my tummy wouldn’t start rumbling. And even though I was DEAD tired (running off 3 hours of sleep), I still took my butt to the gym. Decided that my workout tonight would be a 5k run. And I did just that on the treadmill. Finished in 30 min and some seconds. Totally wanted to take a pic of it to share with you guys because, let me tell you, that’s a big a accomplishment for me. Especially since I’m not a seasoned runner. Anyway, I accidentally hit the STOP button one too many times and it cleared my stats. So no pic. Next time. I promise.

Post Workout snack – 12g of protein:

 
And the last meal of the day… lean, clean, and green: 4-6oz grilled chicken breast, quinoa w/mixed veggies and black beans, and some salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

 

Tada!

Sometimes it can be exhausting…making sure I eat 5-6 meals a day. And trying to balance it with a job takes a lot of planning and preparation. But it’s a must! No excuses, right?

—————-

Now it’s time to relax and get ready for bed. Gotta be at work early tomorrow morning! Have a good night! 🙂

…better late than never…

“It’s about time.” That’s what I keep hearing in my head. I know you’re probably thinking “what in the world is this chick talking about?” Well, I’m talking about the fact that I finally started my blog. I am probably the only writer on this planet that doesn’t have one…well, not until now.

So why did I wait so long? I wanna say that I’ve been a little intimidated about jumping on the blog wagon and that I’m a little self-conscious about my writing and what people will think when they read what I write. I also wanna say that I don’t exactly have the time to sit and write up interesting entries for people to want to read. I even wanna say that blogging is just a trend and that it’ll eventually go away and become a thing of the past. Hmm. That last excuse seems very unlikely to happen any time soon. The truth is, I am a procrastinator. I hate to admit it at times, but it is true. I have been meaning to start this blog for years. I even opened up an account on blogspot.com back in May of 2009 but haven’t touched it since. So yes, I would have to say that I am just  full of excuses.

Ok, so… remember MySpace? That HUGE popular social network from back in the day? Yeah you know which one I’m talkin’ about. Well I used to blog on there all the time. Not for the purpose of hoping that someone would read it, but just an outlet for me to express myself by bringing my thoughts and feelings out on to “paper.” Sorta like a diary… but on the web. Go figure. But I’ve never actually thought about starting my own  blog.

That brings us to the question ‘why now?’ Well, for the past 6 months or so, I have been on this mission to get my body back into shape. My story is no different from many others – was “skinny” (skinny but not necessarily healthy) all through high school, went off to college and gained the Freshmen Fifteen (and then some), became a gym rat and got back into shape… and then BAM! life happened, and slowly over the course of about 4 years, the weight came back. But with a vengeance this time. Last summer, I was at my heaviest. I was overweight (even though everyone I know will tell you I was not). But I did gain a lot of weight. So I decided to do something about it. I made a lifestyle change – to eat clean and workout every day. So why didn’t I start this blog back then? Well, I probably should have. In fact, I know I should have. But quite honestly, I didn’t feel the need to document anything because I thought I wasn’t going to last and thought blogging would have been just a waste of time. And now I’m kicking myself in the butt because, as it turns out… I didn’t quit. I’m still eating clean and working my butt off. And I’ve lost approximately 30lbs since then. And now I’m wishing I documented my journey thus far.

Okay…so I digressed just a teensy bit. Back to the original question regarding this blog – “why now?” Because even though I haven’t blogged about my journey, I have been posting updates and photos about my progress on Facebook (you know, the social network that kicked MySpace’s butt off the social map) and have attracted the attention of friends and family who have been nothing but supportive. I’ve also been told, on numerous occasions, how much I inspire and motivate them to work out and to eat healthier. There. That is the main purpose for starting this blog.

With the urging of my biggest supporter (my hubby) I decided to share my life with those looking for inspiration and motivation. Making a lifestyle change can be a challenge  for some people and knowing that an average girl (like me!) can do it, it makes it a little more believable that losing weight the healthy way is possible. I am, by no means, an expert on nutrition or fitness…but I’ve done my research and so far, it’s worked for me. The purpose of this blog is not to force a lifestyle on to my readers…but to document and share my life. My struggles. My achievements. My likes and dislikes. This blog is about me. I hope my readers will find my experiences to be something they can relate to.

So, with that being said… let’s get this party started, shall we?