3/6 Update: I joined a gym!

So when I made this blog, I thought I'd be writing in it a lot more frequently, but I realized it would make me seem a little crazy.

I don't like to be one of those people super obsessed with their health. I don't want it to consume my life.

So I decided every once in awhile I will just give an update.

I hope I'm inspiring some of you being that I was never one to monitor my food or dedicate myself into "getting fit" and perhaps you'll feel as if you can do it too.

On February 8th I joined Lucille Roberts. This is an all woman gym so that you have nothing to be embarrassed about. My favorite part is that I don't have to wear a thong with my yoga pants and worry about anyone judging how my butt looks. (Even though there are probably some women who hardcore judge everyone in the gym for their own insecurities! But who cares!) I also like that I can go whenever regardless of how I look. Early morning, no make up, beat from work, etc!

Although I didn't purposely join this woman's gym for those reasons, I did it because this gym holds classes every day, different times. I'm more likely to push myself to make it to the gym for a class then just go on my own to do my own work out. PLUS...it's only $16 a month! (this sale might have ended, but if you're interested, call!) For that price, I get to use any of the locations and attend as many classes as I want. So far I've taken a Butt and Gut class, Dance It Off, 2 Zumba classes and an FIT class. And tonight I'll be attending Zumba with a friend.
Did I mention I recruited 2 of my friends who had no plan on joining a gym? weeeeee. Although for the most part, I've been going alone. (Even just to use the equipment)

Here's a sample of the class schedule. It changes monthly and each location is different.

Lucille Roberts also requires you to go to an orientation where a trainer brings you around and shows you all the equipment and gives you pointers. She also said that she could weigh and measure anyone who wanted to be. All the girls in my group shook their head frightened, like they didn't want to know, but I asked her if she would do it for me.
She weighed me, and measured my :arm, thigh, bust, waist and hips.
And you know those professional scales always make you seem heavier than you're at home digital scale. So the number she got was a few pounds more than what I thought. The trainer told me that in 6 weeks, I could weigh and measure myself again to see changes. If I see anything significant, I promise to post my numbers.
I also took some "before" photos before I started the gym...but those will not be seen until "after" photos are taken. No sense of embarrassing myself if there's no positive outcome!

Before I head to the gym in the morning, I usually make myself a protein shake for these reasons:

1 Easy on the stomach to work out. Nothing too heavy that makes you cramp up.
2 I never drink enough water, so the blended ice is a secret way for me to get my H20.
3 It's fast to make and you can easily drink it in the car.
4 It's made with important ingredients for a good work out.

The protein shake I make consists of: 
Ice, Milk (or sub. Almond Milk), chocolate protein powder, peanut butter, greek coconut yogurt, coconut oil and 1 Banana ( Which apparently is a very good thing to eat before working out because if gives you more energy and allows you to push harder).   PS- This tastes amazing!

When I go to the gym right from work and don't have time to make the shake, I'll make it at home afterwards and substitute it for dinner.

By the way, speaking of coconut oil...I just tried an "oil pull" this morning. I read an article where you take organic coconut oil (or sesame seed oil) and swoosh it in your mouth for 20 minutes. It apparently has a million benefits, some including...teeth whitening, healthier gums, prevents cavities, pain, gets rid of bacteria, clears acne/glowing skin, and more! 1-Don't swallow it! Or else you're swallowing all the bacteria it's pulling 2- Don't spit it down the drain, as it may harden and clog up your pipes. Spit it into a garbage. Look into it if you're interested.
I did my first round this morning. I took a before photo of my teeth because I heard that people see results in a week.

And finally...I finish my blog with some of the meals I've been eating.

Sometimes I just whip up stuff I find in the house. If you actually wait until your body is hungry, anything seems appetizing. If you're curious...I boiled chicken (fastest way to cook it thoroughly), Sauteed Zucchini and Squash in a pan...cut up the chicken, added that, and then used a microwavable brown rice medley and made some sort of stir fry. Not bad! 

My infamous salad. The ingredients to this are in my previous post. 

This wrap wasn't my favorite. Looking at it makes me not want to eat it. It was a little TOO healthy for me. I think what killed it for me was that leafy bushy green thing you see in the first picture. It had a very specific taste and I didn't like it. Plus, I ate this pretty late at night when I was super hungry and it didn't satisfy me much, although it was a healthier choice.

My infamous PB&J. Organic Whole Grain bread with PB, Jelly, Coconut Chia Granola and Banana.

Scrambled Eggs, Turkey Bacon, Whole Grain Toast and OJ.

Mmm. Garden Burger on a Whole Grain wrap with Hummus, Cheddar Cheese, Provolone Cheese and Spinach, and then grilled like a Panini.

Whole Grain Pasta and Garlic Tomato Sauce with a side of Sauteed Zucchini and Squash.

This isn't very healthy and I only made it because my brother requested grilled Cheese.

Organic Whole Grain Bread with Organic Butter with Cheddar Cheese, Yellow American Cheese, Turkey Bacon and Spinach. The pan was lined with Coconut Oil Cooking Spray.

One late morning while making breakfast, I decided to prepare my lunch and dinner for work that day.

It took all of 20 minutes, saved me money and was healthier choice than grabbing food on my lunch break.

Not the healthiest snack, but super tasty! I put it on 12 grain crackers. This snack fills you up pretty quickly, so you won't over indulge. You still need some sweets in life!

Or at least I do. :)

Please leave any feedback you have, advice, questions, whatever! xo

I'm getting better at eating!...and cheating.

So I haven't been able to completely stay on track so far, but what did I think was going to happen?
I can't go cold turkey for my first diet.

Even when I do "cheat", it's still in moderation.

I packed a salad for work the other day and then a coworker convinced me to buy chocolate from him for his daughter's fundraiser. Obviously I could have gave it away or something, but my will power lessens when the food is in front of me. Then my job put out bagels and I had less than half of one.
The struggle is real.

Anyway. I've done pretty decent so far otherwise and now the missing ingredient is exercise. I just signed up for Lucille Roberts yesterday which I think is the best thing for me. I never liked working out but I love dancing. This place has scheduled classes all week long including Zumba, "dance it off", chick boxing, pilates etc. If the class is a certain time, I'm more likely to go to it then push myself to go on my own. I'm excited and I'll let you know how it goes.

Here are some of the foods I've been eating.
(I haven't been drinking as much coffee in the morning because the "Natural Bliss Vanilla Creamer" really doesn't taste that great. Especially compared to the artificial vanilla creamer I was using previously. So now the idea of coffee hasn't been pulling me out of bed in the morning. I've been drinking Kombucha instead which has live yeast in it and is apparently going to remove the toxins from my body.)

 

So this first picture is somewhat of a cheat. My dad stocked up on chocolate chip waffles for me and would be angry if I wasted the food. I use to eat three of these, so instead I ate two, used a lowfat spread and light syrup and added some fruit.

This salad was delicious! From top to bottom: Apple, American Cheese, Provolone Cheese, Turkey Bacon, Sunflower Seeds, Hardboiled Egg, Cucumber, Spinach/Kale/Chard Mix and Lettuce.

I topped it with some Light Ranch Dressing.

There's the Kombucha! Also one scrambled egg, whole grain toast with lowfat spread.

Lately, I've found myself still hungry and weak feeling an hour after breakfast, so I also made myself...

Chocolate Yogurt with Bananas and Coconut Chia Granola. (Mmm!)

For dinner one night I grilled some chicken with a Mrs. Dash (No salt) seasoned mix and added some lemon and black pepper seasoning. I oven roasted some sweet potatoes with olive oil, dill, parsley, garlic salt and lemon/pepper and then cooked some of my spinach/chard/kale mix.

For dessert (because I love ice cream) I had two mochi's.(Green Tea and Strawberry)

 I figured this was a decent substitute for a typical big bowl of Reese's cup ice cream!

The other morning I made myself a protein shake with coconut greek yogurt, peanut butter, banana, chocolate whey protein powder and a little organic milk. (Tasty!)

And lunch yesterday consisted of a whole wheat wrap with peanut butter, almond butter, grape jelly, banana and coconut chia granola.

I'm sure some of you health nazi's are thinking "you could do without that grape jelly" or "turkey bacon", but my goal is to better my old eating habits. I use to eat 3 pieces of french toast or bagels every morning. This is definitely a huge step for me. My friends are even realizing the changes I'm making. 

Diet Days 1-4

As you may or may not know, this is my very first attempt at a change in my lifestyle. I have always maintained a similar body weight my entire life...with the exception of growing into a woman. I stayed active throughout my life as a dancer from the age of three, with additional exercise from other things.
Since womanhood, I always remembered myself weighing between 130 and 140 lbs. When I took an aerobics class in college, I weighed the most I've ever weighed at 140. It was somewhat discouraging, but later found out that I was gaining muscle. When I took a fitness walking class in college, I learned that my weight was in the right range for my height of 5'5, so I was never concerned to change.

I never wanted to be that person who had to watch what they ate and make life inconvenient.
I liked to be spontaneous with my friends and easy when someone shouted "I want Wendys!"
Some people are super into their health and fitness, which I never felt I could relate to.

However, I've never minded my body, but I always wished it was more toned. I've also never felt completely comfortable at the beach in a bikini. Not only do I want to see a difference in how my body looks, but I want to see if I feel better.
I'm someone who deals with feeling tired or groggy a lot and someone who gets anxiety/depression.
I'm sure eating processed foods high in fat and sugar isn't helping.

This is an experiment for me.
A challenge.
I want to look in the mirror and see a difference, knowing that I was capable of doing that.

Everybody has a different idea of a diet. Some people cut out gluten altogether, or sweets, or dairy.
I just want to find healthier substitutes for foods I already like.
For example-
Bread/Pasta---> Whole grain bread/Pasta
Peanut Butter---> Almond Butter
Coffee Creamer/Sugar/Half&Half---> Low Fat all natural creamer
Candy--> dark chocolate covered pomegranates

But most importantly, everything in moderation.

My "diet" started February 1st. (It may have been a bad idea to start so close to the Super Bowl), but here is what I have eaten so far.

Day 1- Health-ier pancakes. I couldn't resist. I cooked them in coconut oil, added chocolate whey protein powder to the mix, added chia seeds and bananas, and very minimal crushed chocolate-topped with strawberries, I cant believe it's not butter, and minimal syrup.

For lunch, I had a leftover greek salad, which was just lettuce, onions, feta cheese and dressing.

Then I had half a protein bar and for dinner, I made wraps for Marleny and I.

Wheat wraps, with garlic hummus, lettuce, cucumber, spinach, kale, grilled peppers...

mine on right had provolone cheese and onions

and hers on left had avocado and pepper jack cheese. 

For dessert, I had a half a cup of ice cream.

Day 2:

I had a blueberry fiber nugget muffin from the Beach Bakery (200 Calories)

I came home and had a yogurt.

And then.....

I went to a Super Bowl party and had veggies and dip, chips and dip, bread and dip, meatballs, wings, half a cupcake, chocolate covered bacon, a donut and a half. 

I'm ashamed lol.

Day 3:

Scrambled egg and turkey bacon, orange juice.

Yogurt.

I packed this wrap for lunch. Similar to the above wrap, but with roasted red pepper hummus and white american cheese added. 

That drink, didn't taste so great to me, so I haven't drank it all. It's back in my fridge.

I also had chocolate chip cookies (150 calories)

2 pieces of candy.

Strawberries.

(At this point I realized I didn't pack dinner and was super hungry)

Went to the vending machine and got  Pirate's Booty White Cheddar puffs. Gluten free and Transfat free.

Then I found a nutella and bread stick pack in my bag and ate that.

When I got home, I had a bowl of Oatmeal Square cereal and some chocolate covered pomegranates. 

Day 4

Today.

(Ps, I've been having about a half cup of coffee every morning)

Whole grain toast, almond butter and that granola mix pictured with a clementine.

The taste was good, however, the toast was very dry. I ended up eating the fruit with each bite. You could also find a drink that goes well with this and drink as you eat, or put the granola in the yogurt and keep the almond butter toast and eat it together. 

I just had a couple chocolate covered pomegranates. 

(The reason I keep eating these is because I crave sweets. These also have acai and blueberry juices in them. I am able to eat a few and feel satisfied.)

I think I will make a salad now.

I'm also looking into joining Lucille Roberts.

Intro

Before I start this, I just want to note how difficult it was to choose a URL for this.

I looked up synonyms for the word "health" and "life" and the word that stood out to me was:

Which is what I decided to title this blog. Not only is it a word connected to nature, but more importantly, it's a word that means change. Which is what I plan to do. 

Although this blog is titled Bloom, the URL is http://bloomlove.blogspot.com

(I even tried "bloomsday" and it was taken!)

 Bloomlove works for me.

I have never committed myself to a "diet" which might make this quite difficult for me, but I plan to update you all on my progress with the hopes of inspiring you also along the way. I will post nothing but the truth...even when I cheat, because I don't want to post anything fake about why I look or feel a certain way.

Side Note: It's the third day of my diet and I just ate some nutella because I forgot to bring dinner to work. 

I'm off to a good start.

This won't be easy, but hopefully I''ll have your support.