Day 2...Not Labor Intensive...just Labor Day

This day has been nothing less than awesome from the time my feet hit the floor.
I sparked it up and headed out to the pavement to remind myself that heat and sweat are no barrier to a good workout. I really believe the humidity was upwards of 110% by the time we finally made it out there at around 7:30am. You know that feeling you get when you open the front door and the heat wave smacks you in the face. Yep...it was that kind of morning.
Before we headed out for the "real" run, I ran with the neighbor's dog, Chrysler, for about 1/3 mile. That dog is one of the most precious creatures that ever took a breath (besides my sweet canine and feline, of course).

When I made it back in about 9am, I sucked down a little Rehydrate along with my Meal Replacement Shake.

While I cooled off, I had the opportunity to share my AdvoCare journey with a couple of dear friends on the phone. Times like those are what makes this journey so worth it...sharing and helping others find their fit with top-notch products to nourish the body.
Then...off to the shower I went.

My sweetheart took me to eat a nice lunch at Kabutos Japanese Restaurant. WOW! I had some yummy Mahi Mahi and veggies prepared on the Hibachi grill.

We made a pit stop and visited with my grandmother in the late afternoon. She turned 89 years old last week so we had to celebrate at the local Shake 'n Shake per her request. She pigged out on a bowl of chili while I enjoyed a bowl of vegetable soup. After all, there is not much on the SnS menu that is Cleanse friendly but I wasn't going to just not eat while we sat there chatting. My sweetheart tackled a chocolate shake, 2 Chocolate Chip cookies, and a plate a fries like a Champion. :) Amazed how those men can eat like that and hold their own on the scales the next morning. He paid the price with a yucky belly the rest of the afternoon though :(.

Managed to get back home after a very full day and plug in my UPband. My smile just got bigger...I completed at least one big task today. I had set out to get at least 10,000 steps in today considering yesterday was a rather slow day with about 1/2 of that. Plus...I have committed to this challenge with the #START group in celebration of STEPtember. SUCCESS!

With those final thoughts...I am heading to bed for a little pillow time since 4am comes early. Yikes! That only leaves me about 5 hours to get 8 hours of rest. I have downed my Herbal Tablets as part of the Day 2 regimen on the cleanse. Later gators.

Up for the Challenge...Day 1.

Today marks Day 1 of 24 for this 24 Day Challenge. These first 10 days are for cleansing the gut of toxins and junk that has accumulated over the last 90 days. Honestly, I am really looking forward to these 10 because I know that my body needs a good scrubbing in order to jump start my way through these last 25 or so pounds that are still remaining on this fat-brained chick.

The alarm sounded at the 5am hour...time to start the work day. First, I enjoyed a  Spark and my Catalyst. I am definitely doing my best to follow the 24 Day Challenge Booklet that comes with the products. One might think that this would be easy considering I have completed 2 other Herbal Cleanses prior to starting my 3rd today. However, I really want to give this 24 Day Challenge the best of me...which means following it to the letter. As human nature would have it, we get lazy with the best laid plans and guidelines.

Today was a private duty nursing work day so I got to take care of my little fella for 12 hours. Over the course of the day, I made very good food choices. In fact, I kept it very simple by starting today off with a Chocolate Mocha Meal Replacement Shake. I blended it and drank it on the road.

My snacks included a serving of nuts and fruit a couple of times today. Lunch was a 4 ounce can of Tuna in water with some guacamole mixed in for creaminess. My veggies were already cut and ready to bag up. So...I ate a few cucumber slices and red pepper slices, a couple of carrots, and a handful of cherry tomatoes.

Dinner...AMAZING! My sweetheart cooked it up on the grill for us.

I finished up this evening with my OmegaPlex (2 gel caps) at dinner and the Herbal Tablets at bedtime.

It's great when you realize that you have an amazing amount of energy still left in reserve after eating dinner. In fact, I went ahead and snagged a little plank time so that I could pick up where I left off in August for the 30 day Plank Challenge. I managed to hold the plank for 2 minutes so that is where I will start off...Day 16.

My impression of this day...EXCELLENT. I was really concerned that I would feel starved since I have loaded up the belly over the last couple of days with Friday night pizza and a cookout last night in celebration of the College Football Kick-off. The scales showed that indulgence but my body didn't feel starved. I am about 3 pounds up from my weight about a week ago. Honestly, my body was probably thanking me for today as I allowed it to recover after some crazy over-indulgence.

Unfortunately, I didn't make my STEPtember daily goal of 10,000 steps for the #START Weight loss and Healthy Living group. I managed to knock out 4,640 steps today which is actually more than a typical working Sunday for me. Planning to rise and shine early tomorrow (Labor Day) and knock out 3 miles :)

So...here's to sweet dreams and cheers for Day 1 success.

Making Neon Memories

Saturday, July 13th...A wonderful day off with my sweetheart!
We slept in an extra hour or so and then hit the road in the Jeep. Pit stop at the PH Support Group to visit with my patients and enjoy a nice presentation by one of the Vanderbilt Dayani Center's finest, Zack Klint, as he presented the crowd with the importance of exercise. I must share the link to the video that he started the meeting with today...23 1/2 hours
I have heard the importance of exercise presented many different ways but never quite as cool as this one. Brief and to the point but impacted the crowd all the same.

In fact, Zack was quite amazing all on his own. A few of the notable quotes from today...

-"Somebody has to do something, and it's incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."-- Jerry Garcia
-"If exercise is the prescription, then what is the dose?"

Next, we made our way over the Costco since we have been forced to retire our old Bullet after about 5 years. We might have used it a dozen times before this February 2013. Since February, it has been used no less than 3-4 times a day. Blended smoothies and meal replacement shakes for our family is the job that it has been called to do more than ever before. Proud to say that Costco has a heck of a deal. 26 pc set for $44. I think we were gifted the first Magic Bullet years ago for about $60 for a set almost half this size.

We made our way back home in time to snack a little and then don our race clothes and garb for the GloRun. This was our first ever night time run...so we made it nothing less than fun.

Our run goodies

We didn't join the team that my friends at Vandy but had a great time hooking up with them from the beginning.

The Neon Fruit Loops and me and my guy. Pulmonary Clinic folks ROCK!

The GloRun was definitely a fun run that wasn't timed and was intended opportunity for making memories. That is exactly what we did! Just as we were walking toward the start line, David spotted an unsuspecting fella that caught his eye. I had to stop and grab a quick photo with me and him. Loved his shirt and he was such a great sport for allowing me to capture a pic of it for this post. FLUFFY!

 It started out in Downtown Nashville at LP Field at about 8:45pm. As the sun was tucking in behind the clouds, I wanted to snap a quick pic of the Batman tower in the distance.

We finished up at almost 10pm considering we started towards the middle of the pack and then stopped to take pictures along the way. In fact, my sweetheart and I didn't even run much of it. His knee was really paining him so we took it slow most all the way after we ran the first quarter mile.

The Starting Line

 As we neared the end of the course, we stopped one last time to grab a neon picture.

 We live in such a beautiful city...so I had to capture a small piece of the scenery.

OK...back to the work force in about 5 hours as the alarm will sound loud and clear. Sweet dreams...

Bringing Sexy Back...I have aged another year.

Yes, it has truly been forever since I have posted. Honestly, life has been a bit crazy busy recently. However, I have stayed strong on the healthy living wagon, thank goodness. For those that follow me closely, you know that I am no superstar with quick weight loss. Slow and steady...that best describes my journey.

I have been really focused on getting my eats logged on My Fitness Pal (dragonfly248, if you wanna hook up) over the last several days..since last weekend I guess.  After my asking persistently, my P90X kid agreed to hold me accountable and so I don't have much choice when I receive text messages that say, "You better start logging!" :) She is helping me focus on not just eating and then logging it only to figure out that I went over for the day. Plan it, log it, then eat only what you planned and logged. That's the key! So far, so good. I am holding it at about 1400-1500 calories per day for the most part. My UPband is great in that it shows me that my resting burn is about 1350-1400 calories per day. So...with my daily exercise...I am well on my weigh to losing more fluff. It's all really a math formula at the end of the day. Calories In - Calories Burn...you gotta end up in the RED.

Weigh Day Wednesday has come and gone but I do want to share where I am...or was as of Wednesday. My "last chance workout" pic is posted just above. Just know that the humidity here is about 65% at 5am so it was about to kill me with just walking most of it and jogging very little.

So...it's official...I am 75 pounds lighter than I was October 25, 2010...25 pounds lighter since just February 15, 2013. When you do the math and use your calendar, you will see that it took me 2 years to lose 50 pounds and only 4 1/2 months to lose 25. Don't forget, I took Oct 2012 to February 2013 off ...crazy me. Some have asked me, "What is your goal weight?" Well, if I had to choose a number, it would be about 145-150. However, I really don't have any clue. I haven't been this size, this fit, and this healthy since back in high school. I had both of my kids in my mid-20s and weighed 200 pounds when I became pregnant with each of them. So...the answer is...I am gonna keep going until I just feel right in my clothes. I would love to wear a cute size 6 or 8 but I know that I don't want to look emaciated and sickly. So...I have asked several of my accountability partners to keep me aware of my appearance as I near that goal.

I just realized as I was typing that I have never really thought much about talking "goal" because I didn't see that as all that reachable. Thank goodness for top of the line supplements and hard work...I can finally talk about reaching my long-term goals. What does that mean? Well, that just means that I will make more to replace those.

This morning was an indoor quick workout prior to jumping into the workday.

This morning ended up being about 5 miles on the elliptical in 45 minutes. I pushed hard at times but mostly just pushed steady and earned a nice sweat. The calorie burn on the elliptical seems a little off since I think it was more like 400 calories at best instead of the 656 that it tallied.

Since I haven't shared any in a couple of weeks, I did want to mention that I completed a 5K on July 4th that was a true marker for my improvement. I was able to shave off a full minute on the same course that we raced in 2011 and 2012. It rained the entire time we were there but I am happy to say that we did it.

However, it did rain the whole time so there was potential..hehehe

Our next race will be tomorrow evening. We have never raced at night but decided to sign up for a fun run...The GloRun. I will be sure to share some crazy pics :) It's just gonna be me and my smokin' hot, bald man doing that one since a couple of the kids are out of town and the other decided that hangin' with old folks wasn't her cup of tea.

One more item on my honorable mention list today. My Vanderbilt Pulmonary Clinic Team is rockin' the socks off of some fluff as they are into the 9th week of the total of 12 and have lost 61+ pounds among the 9 that are weighing in routinely. I, myself, have lost about 7 1/2 of that and still pushing hard.  I have been awarding little gifts along the way to the highest % lost. It is pretty awesome to see teamwork and competitiveness spring from all of them when you mention CASH prize at the end. Only 4 more weigh-ins to go...Who will claim the Biggest Loser Challenge pot? Only the scale knows...

So, I will wind up this crazy mess of a random post with a few snack ideas for you. We love some almonds around our house. In fact, we are NUTS over them...hehehe. So, I have to share a few of our favorites. We find them at Walmart, Target, Publix...pretty much any store that you buy groceries. Hope you will love them like we do.

The other awesomeness that we have uncovered is these Oikos Dips. Celery sticks, carrot sticks, hummus chips....pretty much anything tastes yummy with this slathered on top. Trust me...you will love them.

Before I forget to mention...
I tend to be a better quick-post kind of gal so if you are on FaceBook...look me up under "Fluffy and Figuring Out Fit". On Instragram...same name. I don't use Twitter all that frequently but I am Fluffy and Fit on that social media station. If you have interest in hearing more about how I have lost these last 25 pounds so smoothly and feeling healthier than ever, then don't hesitate to email me at fluffyandfiguringoutfit@gmail.com or personal message me on the FB page so we can connect.

Have a great evening....later gators.

Gettin' the skinny on the lab rat

First things first...must share this recipe:

Muscle Truffles/Bites

I used equal parts of raisins and cranberries (3/4 cup each), 2 cups of old fashioned oats, 1/4 cup shaved almonds, 1/4 cup granola. Of course, you add a cup of honey, a cup of PB, and a cup of Muscle Gain Chocolate Protein Powder.

Awoke this morning before the rooster crowed so that I could make it to Vandy for a research study that I volunteered for a few weeks ago. In fact, this is the same one that my girls had completed a couple of weeks ago with my buddy, DeWayne. I slid into the research center by 7am just in time to get busy with the testing. The only preparation for the procedure was to have nothing to eat or drink after midnight. To most folks and even to myself, this is not that big of a deal. However, today seemed like forever from 5a-7a as I was getting ready since that meant NO SPARK and NO MEAL REPLACEMENT DRINK. Ugh! Good habits are hard to break :)

Upon arrival, DeWayne took my vital signs and asked me a few questions before getting started on the EndoPAT testing. What is EndoPAT testing you ask?...Here goes: The EndoPAT is an diagnostic tool that gives doctors and patients a bit of insight into the functioning of the endothelim (thin layer of smooth cells that line the walls of the blood vessels all throughout the body) and overall heart health. I learned that even the patient of normal weight doesn't necessarily correlate with good heart health based on the EndoPAT test results. DeWayne and the sonographer couldn't give me actual results given that it is a study but they did tell me that I looked pretty good with the numbers that were gathered.

During the EndoPAT testing, I had to lay very still for about 15-20 minutes while a BP cuff was squeezing the snot out of my left arm. Even with my fingers going numb and my arm feeling heavy from my elbow to my wrist, I still fell asleep during the 15 minutes that I relaxed in the hospital bed with the lights dimmed and outside noises minimized. Sleep deprivation is a beautiful thing when you get to take a power nap as soon as you show up to work and still get paid $50 for being a participant.

After the EndoPAT testing, DeWayne stuck me for a few tubes of blood and then sent me on my way with a bagged continental breakfast. I do have to add that he is an amazing phlebotomist! 1 stick and he was a success story in the making :).

Once I made it to the clinic, I jumped on the scales for Week 4 of the Biggest Loser Challenge. I lost a bit over 2 pounds this week by that scale. :) I like to report the home scale results as the official number since I weigh with an empty bladder and minimally dressed (or naked) each Wednesday. This week is really only 0.8 less than the last post of 179.8 on May 30. June 6 was 180.0 so I had crept up a little bit but working my way down now.

After the workday, I decided to take the long way home and happened into the nail salon. Pedi for me, thank you. I do have to say that it feels good to see all 10 nails intact this year. I am not crazy enough to think that I have pretty toes but at least they are not chipped and are well manicured today. Ready to run! I think it's true that you run better when your feet are pampered :) Even Instagram can't make these toes look pretty..hehehe

Well, guessing I better hit the hay before the sun rises to start Thursday. I would like to get out of bed to run in the morning so sweet dreams.

Your little taste of goodness for tonight...
My girl chased down a rabbit in the yard tonight. We have a full size bunny that we call Peter. Wondering if this may be one of Peter's babies. Picture perfect moment:

Convergint Day

This post has absolutely nothing to do with weight loss, exercise,  or eating right. But if your looking for your mind to be fed and your heart to be stuffed full of love,  then I encourage you to continue reading.

My family (minus our boy) spent last Friday serving others through volunteer work in our community. 

My sweetheart works for a company named Convergint Technologies. This North American company specializes in "security integration" which is a fancy term to define a group of folks that work with security cameras, card access systems, fire alarms, etc. Dating back to the inception of the company over a decade ago, one of the dynamic opportunities that is offered is that the owners of the company encourage each employee including management to spend at least 1 day of the year giving back to the community. They chose this past Friday, June 7th as the day to shut down operations of the entire company so that any and all could participate. 

We started our morning at the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Center. Watching the group pack boxes of canned goods (vienna sausages to be exact) and buckets of cleaning supplies was delightful. We all worked as a strong team and managed to pack over 2,700 cans (900 boxes) of viennas and 72 cleaning buckets.



The Cleaning Team



The Bucket



The Sausage Crew

After the morning work was finished, we made our way back to the office to enjoy pizza before heading out to the next opportunity. Katie (my baby girl) agreed to pose with her silly mom so here ya' go...

Following our lunch break, we made our way to East Nashville to serve at Loaves and Fishes.

After spending a couple of hours there loving on people and handing out loads of food products, one could not help but feel thankful for opportunities to serve like this one. I helped at the bread and pastry station. No pressure there...hahaha! Those amazing looking cakes and donuts didn't tempt me but the fresh garlic bread was smelling up the place nice with the baking sun. Oh goodness, there is nothing harder to pass up for me!  In talking with one of the organizers from the Catholic Charities Refugees Services (Becky), she mentioned a book that I might really appreciate after Friday's experience. Same Kind of Different As Me will be on my TO READ list :) Another really neat thing that Becky shared with me during our conversation was that she sees need in a whole new light after serving in the community. She said, "Alcoholism and drug addiction is the branch, not the root." How very true that is! That makes total sense when you think that you have "cured" the problem like addiction but you really need to get to the root of why the addiction started.



Our girls



More little helpers


All walks of life came through the lines to gather bags upon bags and boxes of groceries that were provided by Second Harvest Food Bank. Come to find out, these folks start standing in lineas early as 8am on the 1st Friday of every month in hopes of getting first pick of the goods as the gates open at 1pm.

  



One of our shoppers...balanced it all on her head as she left the gate headed back home




Breaktime...just wanted a banana



Thankful Mom

 So this gnarly crew stopped to pose after the day spent serving others in our community. From standing on concrete floors in the wharehouse to standing in the sun and pop-up rain in East Nashville, the day was filled with opportunities to get frustrated and tired. The best part is that no one complained about the circumstances as we were able to watch the smiling faces pass through the line and out the back gate headed to their homes...or back to the streets.

I can't express in words how grateful I am to have had the day off from my regular job only to enjoy time with others. The circumstances are heart breaking but seeing the impact of giving a few hours of our time definitely brought the sun from behind the clouds by the end of the day for many of us.