thursday.

Thursday:

FOOD:

Breakfast:  Kashi Pumpkin Spice Bar

Snack:  Vanilla greek yogurt + raspberries

Lunch:  6 pieces spicy tuna sushi + 5 cubes honeydew melon

Snack:  1 chocolate chip cookie + 1 bite of pumpkin bread

Pre-workout snack:  2 clementines + 1 lite string cheese

Dinner:  Strawberry smoothie + 2 bites of Craig's steak

*I had a terrible sweet tooth today hence all the sweet choices, but I did way better than I would've before.  Before I probably would've eaten like six cookies and definitely more than one bite of pumpkin bread.  It's all about improvement, right?

WORKOUT:

*Zumba - 1 hour

*I was SUPER sore from running yesterday.  I hadn't run in 2 months...maybe 3.  Ooops.  Also...those push-ups I did (all 10 of them...ha!) made my armpits SO sore!  I'm such a wuss.  In case you didn't figure it out, I haven't been doing a strength training routine.  I should probably get on that.

OH....and would you totally judge me

 if I bought this Zumba gear?

I think it's kind of cute

and it might motivate me :).
Maybe I'll add it to my birthday list
since it's coming up!

xo

{Lauren}

Wednesday:

FOOD:

Breakfast:

*TJ's instant oats & flax + a banana (ate about 2/3 of the bowl)

Snack:

*1/3 cup chicken pesto pasta & 3 apple slices 

Lunch:

*Bagel thin w/ laughing cow lite swiss spread + 2 scrambled eggs

Snack:

*2 Nutter Butter cookies

Dinner:

*2 chicken tacos  on small corn tortillas w/ black beans, mango salsa & fat-free sour cream

Snack:  

*All-fruit acai popcicle

WORKOUT:

*20 minute run/walk on the waterfront

*10 minutes - stairs

*5 minutes - push-ups, tricep dips, planks on a park bench

And NO....I didn't take any photos...again.  But this time I had a good excuse.  I bought these new running shorts at Old Navy because they were on sale, but I felt completely exposed in them.  They were pretty much booty shorts.  I'll probably get used to them....they really weren't that short, but I'm totally not a shorts girl, so that's probably the problem.

What do you wear when you're working out?

xo

{Lauren}

back on track.

These last two days have been going well.  

Here's what I ate Monday and Tuesday:

MONDAY:

Breakfast:  TJ's Instant Oats & Flax w/ 1/2 a banana & cinnamon

Snack:  Kombucha (trying to like it...unsuccessfully) and a string cheese

Lunch:  Big Town Hero mini turkey sandwich

Snack:  greek yogurt w/ blueberries.  1 wheat Ritz cracker, 1 small slice salami & 1 teeny slice of cheese.  2 cherries.

Dinner:  turkey sandwich on wheat with lettuce and hummus.  handful baby carrots.

Snack:  1 fruit skewer (cantaloupe, pineapple, etc.) and an apple.

TUESDAY:

Breakfast:  Lara Bar (Apple Pie flavor)

Snack:  2 pieces of toast and a frozen strawberry lemonade (only 150 calories!) from Panera

Lunch:  1/2 a turkey, veggie bacon & cheddar sandwich on wheat.  Handful of multi-grain tortilla chips.

Snack:  small TCBY frozen yogurt (white chocolate mousse)

Snack:  banana

Dinner:  Asian lettuce wraps

Snack:  whole fruit acai popcicle

WORKOUTS:

Monday:  walking on my lunch break with a friend (1/2 hr.)

Tuesday:  Zumba (1 hr.)

I'll try to take pictures of my workouts more often.  I always feel like a tool taking photos of myself, but since it's for accountability purposes I probably should.

Any suggestions for fun workouts to change things up?

Hope you're having a good week so far!

xo

{Lauren}

mulligan.

Apparently posting my food every day isn't going so well.  It's too overwhelming.  I have been taking photos every day, but it takes too long to post them.

SO....I'm considering this last week as a mulligan.  I'm starting over tomorrow.  I'm not calculating calories or anything like that....too time consuming.  I'm just going to write my food out and post photos after my workouts and post updates on my progress.

Sound good?  

Hope so.

So far I'm still at 3 & 1/2 lbs. lost, but I also only worked out twice last week.  Hopefully this week will be better even though I'm going to be super busy.  

xo

{Lauren}

slacker.

I've been a slacker with posting my food.  Oooops.  This posting everyday thing is pretty time consuming.  I'll make it up this weekend....promise!  I've just had a really busy couple of days.

I have however been taking photos of all my food and I've done pretty well (aside from the Pad Thai I had tonight) although my busy-ness has cut into work out time.  I need to work on getting motivated for early a.m. workouts, but I already get up at such an ungodly hour that I can't even begin to fathom this going well (AKA I'd be a complete and raging queen-B).  We'll see if I get brave enough to try this next week.  Currently I'm definitely an after work kind of girl, but that may change.

Good news though.....

I've already lost 3 & 1/2 lbs.  Yay!

Ok.

That's it.

Time for bed.  

I'm seriously exhausted!

xo

{Lauren}

week 1: day 2.

Today's Workout:

Zumba (1 hour)

Working out is always more fun with friends :).

My mom went too...she's my most faithful workout buddy!

Today's Meals:

BREAKFAST:

-Chocolate Raspberry LUNA bar (170 cal.)

SNACK:

-12 oz. iced mocha w/ whole milk (165 cal.)

(*this isn't my drink...I forgot to take a photo

so I took one of Ashley's hot mocha)

-1/2 of a Noah's Spinach Swiss Bagel (205 cal.)

-1 Tbsp. Sun-dried Tomato Basil Schmear (30 cal.)

LUNCH:

Panera for lunch w/ my mom & aunt:

-Tomato, Mozerella & Basil half salad (210 cal.)

(*I didn't eat the croutons and 

saved over 100 calories!!!)

-Garden Vegetable soup (110 cal.)

-Side wheat baguette (180 cal.)

SNACK:

-Lite String Cheese (60 cal.)

DINNER:

"Taco Salad"

-Salad, tomato, onion, cilantro (not counting these!)

-Peach Salsa (30 cal.)

-1 Tbsp. fat-free sour cream (10 cal.)

-1/4 c. Black Beans (70 cal.)

-Chicken (160 cal.)

My favorite wine....

-Willamette Valley Vineyards Riesling(~120 cal.)

*This wasn't part of my plan for eating today

but Craig surprised me with a bottle :).

DAY'S TOTAL:

1520 calories

I went over my 1200 calorie goal, but 1520 is still nothing to sneeze at and definitely still low enough to lose weight.  

Oh...and while I'm mentioning it, I just wanted to say that I received an e-mail from a concerned reader about the number of calories that I am consuming - she felt that 1200 calories was not enough and suggested that it might not be a great example to send to my readers.  I appreciate this concern and wanted to address it.

I've dieted off and on throughout the years and I know my body and what works for myself.  I have a pretty slow metabolism - I can honestly look at food and gain weight.  I've played around with my calorie intake and 1200 calories is the optimal weight loss area for me.  If I up my intake to 1400 I pretty much just maintain my weight.  I've done Weight Watchers before and my daily allotment of "points" was 20 which is approximately equal to 1,000 calories.  I think that is a little low, but if Weight Watchers is recommending it, then it's probably a fairly healthy amount.  I also poked around on the internet and found multiple websites that stated that 1200 calories is a healthy amount for weight loss.  Here's one quote:

"A diet based on 1200 calories daily is the recommended minimum for safe and healthy weight loss. This is because 1200 calories will generally provide an adequate nutritional intake for most individuals, yet still allows the reduction of calories to the level that most dieters require in order to lose weight.  

Many diet plans for weight loss that are developed by nutritionists and health professionals are based on 1200 calories daily."

Also...most days I will probably eat more than 1200 calories - this is just a goal.  Because I am doing a lot of "ball parking" when estimating calories, many times the things I eat will be more calories than I think.  Additionally I will always eat when I am genuinely hungry.  If I have already eaten my "quota" for the day, but I'm still hungry then that means my body needs something and I want to be sensitive to that.

I just wanted to say that I hope that this blog is a motivation to others who are working toward their fitness goals as well, but I am in no way endorsing that you do the exact same thing that I do.  Your body is your own and your caloric needs may be different than mine.

Whew!  That was a lot of wordiness, but I just wanted to clear that up.

Hope you all had a healthy day!

xo

{Lauren}

week 1: day 1.

Today was day 1 of my "get fit" plan.  

I was super detailed.

I don't plan on being this detailed every day.

Here's what I did:

WORKOUT:

-Zumba (1 hour)

Currently my arms can wave both hello and goodbye....

simultaneously, 

but that shall change soon :).

MEALS:

BREAKFAST: 

-1 egg scrambled w/ crushed red peppers (~ 100 cal.)

-Thomas "everything" bagel thin (110 calories)

-Laughing Cow Light Blue cheese in lieu of cream cheese (35 cal.)

*This is a super filling breakfast and the bagel thins are sheer genius.  PLUS....crushed red peppers (or any peppers for that matter) speed up metabolism!

TOTAL:  245 calories

LUNCH:

-Sun dried tomato basil Garden Burger (100 cal.)

-Baby carrots (~30 cal.)

-less than 1/4 cup macaroni and cheese (~100 cal.)

-Diet Snapple peach iced tea (0 cal.)

*There's hummus in the picture, but I didn't eat it because it tasted weird :(.  Also the mac & cheese wasn't the greatest choice, but could I help it if our school cook made it on my first day of healthy eating?  At least I only had a small portion.

TOTAL:  230 calories

DINNER:

-Carnation Instant Breakfast + skim milk (~250 cal.)


*The perfect post workout meal.

TOTAL:  250 calories


SNACKS:


-Apple (~65 cal.)
-20 Almonds (~140 cal.)
-Light String Cheese (60 cal.)
-Vanilla Greek Yogurt (160 cal.) - forgot to take a pic
-Blueberries (~40 cal.)
-2 orange slices (~20 cal.)

TOTAL: 485 calories

Day's TOTAL:  1210

Day 1 down...a lot more to go!

xo

{Lauren}

my goals.

Hello.


This is my new blog.  


It's dedicated to me becoming the healthiest me I can be and maybe getting even getting a hot bod along the way :).


Here are my fitness goals.....

WORKOUT PLAN:

*Do cardio for at least an hour 4x a week

*Do strength training 2x a week

*Walk on my lunch breaks on the Waterfront for 1/2 hour at least 2x a week

*Do one fun active thing every weekend (i.e. go out dancing, play frisbee golf, long board, hike, etc...)

*Stretch for 5 minutes before bed each night (hey it's better than nothing!)

*Take photos post workout!

EATING PLAN:

*Eat three well-balanced meals a day, plus snacks (around 1200 calories/day)

*Include vegetables at two meals each day

*Drink 8 glasses of water each day

*Drink only water, coffee or tea - no soda or sugary juice!

*Dessert only once a week - sweets are my absolute downfall!

*Take photos of everything I eat!

Feel free to follow along with my fitness journey both on this blog and through my Twitter @LaurensLoDown!

I'll be posting my meals and workouts later this evening.  

See you soon!

xo

{Lauren}