Couch to 5K finally started!

So, I thought I would be all bad ass and start on week three, thinking "I can run for three minutes at a time." No. I cant. So I quickly switched to week two. 1.5 minutes of running and two minutes of walking for 20 minutes. OMIGOD ITS HARD. Yeah, seriously people, I cannot even hardly run 1.5 minutes straight without nearly dying. But, its progress! I am excited to run again tonight. I know when I get there, I will get that scared feeling in the pit of my stomach, but as of right now I am excited to continue.

On another note, I am SORE. Really, sore from 30 minutes of run/walking. I expected my calf's and shins to be sore, but I didn't expect my butt and my inner thighs to hurt. Really? Inner thighs? What the heck could I have done during this run to work that part of my body? Oh well, I'll take it. God knows I have some extra stuff to get rid of there anyway. But if I am doing something really wrong, please let me know. I am new to running and am not very good at it, so I welcome any tips.

So that's all for today, I am headed back to the gym tonight to do some more running and take a "fitness test" with a trainer. Lets hope he doesn't laugh at me and tell me I have no hope.

My Halloween goal?

Fail. Again. I feel like I have been saying this a lot lately! I am sort of stuck at 162 right now. I just have to try something new. SOOOOOO, I finally got a gym membership! Well, I am getting it in the morning, since I was waiting for my sister-in-law to give me her discount. Awesome! So both Matt and I will be gym members for $50 a month. I am so cheap I sort of cringe at this cost, but I figure that my cheapness will help, since I wont want it to go to waste. I am really excited to jump on the treadmill and start doing my Couch to 5K program.

I feel really optimistic for some reason today about my 5K. The couch to 5K program seems completely do-able and even if I do not make it to the 5K by Thanksgiving, at least I will have tried and be closer to it next time. My excuse for not running is always I do not have a treadmill and do not want to go outside, so someone please kick me if I make another excuse to not use the treadmill.

That's all for now, I have to get back to running around the kitchen island  to work off the dang Halloween candy I snuck today. Turns out running in circles makes you dizzy, but its fun. The cat thinks its funny. Really, this is his entertained face. Lazy sucker.

Day one of Shan vs. Diet Coke

I want to try and stop, or at least cut back. Right now, I drink about 2 cans with my lunch and at least 2 cans when I get home. That's a lot. So, in my first attempt, I didn't pack any soda in my lunch today. It is 8am and I am already dreading my 12pm lunch time with no soda. I don't know how I will survive, but I will try.

Anyway, I watched a semi-interesting documentary last night. Fat, Sick, and nearly dead. A few of my friends have come on board with this "juicing" trend and I wanted to educate myself before I formed too harsh of an opinion on it. First, I definitely think it is unhealthy to only juice for a couple months. And second, I am still not sure I believe that consuming the juice would be the same as consuming all of the vegetables. I guess it was an interesting theory, and maybe worth looking into more as maybe one meal replacement, but as for the entire diet, that just seems like a recipe for disaster. But honestly, I would much rather eat a huge platter of veggies than one glass of really nasty green juice. 

Its really weird to me that I am the one telling them that they have to change their lifestyles and actually believe it. I tried to explain to them that juicing is not the solution, they need to seriously change their habits. Thinking "its only for ten days" is not a healthy way to think, and if after that ten days you go back to how you were, it was all for nothing. I feel like since this has been a hard journey for me, I have knowledge that I didn't have before. I HAVE changed my life, I HAVE changed my thinking on "diets," and when I talk about this journey for me it is something I 100% believe. This is not about going on a diet and exercising, it is about willpower, sacrifice, and breaking habits.

Well, that's my rant for today. I cant wait for the weekend!

Dinners in the Shan household

I like having pictures on my blog so I figured I would share some pictures of our meals. Pictures are fun.

Day one- home made calzones. I just used a jiffy box of instant pizza crust, some sauce, cheese and any toppings we wanted. Not necessarily low in calories, but not too high, much much better than pizzeria calzones, and also you can put whatever you want in it and make it really filling. I only ate about half of mine. And not to mention it only took about 5 minutes to throw together, so that is always a plus.

Day two- Lasagna soup. Its almost like spaghettios with lasagna noodles and cheese. And healthier. Basically just tomato sauce, chicken broth, lasagna noodles, and seasonings. I got the recipe from pinterest. Oh how I love pinterest. We didn't use any meat in ours, and you could probably lower the calories even more by using a lighter pasta, the lasagna noodles we used were pretty high in calories compared to other noodles.
http://thedeenbros.com/index.php/recipes/recipe_detail/bobbys_lighter_tastes_like_lasagna_soup/

One of our favorites- PF Changs copy cat lettuce wraps. So so good. And filling. And flavorful. And easy. http://www.azcentral.com/style/hfe/food/recipes/articles/2011/08/08/20110808lettuce-wraps-crispy-rice-stick-noodles.html
 We used chicken breasts and cut them up really fine, since ground chicken creeps me out. Its really good, healthy, and fun to assemble. :)

And my masterpiece of the week, quinoa burgers with my zucchini casserole. I am new to quinoa, and whoa... how have I lived without it for all the time!? Amazing. All you need is quinoa, egg (I only used the egg white), grated carrots & onion, and seasonings. Mush it up into a patty and cook it in a pan with a teeny butter to get a nice crisp on it. Crazy low calorie and one of the best things I have ever eaten. Here is the real recipe for you recipe followers.
http://eatingwelllivingthin.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/love-my-quinoa-burger/

Don't you guys love how funny my pictures look compared to the professional pictures on the websites? Total fail on all of them. Oh well, I don't really care how it looks as long as its good. And, since I have lost 17lbs it looks like something is working, even though its not pretty. I still need to lose three pounds before Halloween to make my first goal. I CAN DO IT!!


I will leave you guys with a picture from our weekend. We drank a little (sorry diet) and got on a supreme scream type ride. About ten times. It was so much fun. And scary. We went on so many times, but somehow Matt was scared to go on again. So I went alone. 180 feet in the air. All by myself. I must have lost my mind. Matt made me put on my glasses so I would get the full effect of how high we were, excuse my looking like a nerd.  

Hey guys!

Guess what? I got my first "You've lost weight!" from someone who has no reason to tell me this unless they really did notice. A couple people have told me, but I always feel like if they know I am dieting, they will be looking for results. But yeah, it was really freaking awesome to hear it from someone that didn't even know I was dieting. Squeeeee!

Goals, I haz 'em

I just realized I never set any goals for myself. Or deadlines. Yeah, go ahead, tell me I am slow and stupid, but I really never thought about it. I just figured, hey, I wanna get skinny, so here it goes.

Goal one- be in the 150s by Halloween. This one might be hard, since there is only about two weeks left, I got about three pounds to go, and this week I should be starting my period so I know that will be filled with bloat and lots of not wanting to exercise or eat well.

Goal two- Run/walk the 5k on Thanksgiving and not die in the process. That would suck if I died.
Goal Three- Be in the 140s by Christmas. I wonder if it is possible with all of the wonderful holiday treats, but I am going to aim for it.

Also, I want to work out more consistently and more variety. We have not done P90X in two weeks or so (I know, I know) but I guess we got bored and need something new to pump us up. Suggestions are welcome.

So there we go, I will chronicle how these goals hold up, and I can only do my best and hope for success.

Weekend FAIL

Fail fail fail. I hate weekends and so does my waistline. This is pretty much how I look about now.

I guess next week I will just have to try this.

Willpower, can I buy it on Amazon?