Success leads to happiness!

This has been a very successful week when it comes to diet and exercise. So far I have 4 workouts in and its only Saturday morning, so I still have 2 to go! I have by now lost 5 lbs this week and again the week is not over. What a difference it makes when you are actually seeing the results right away and best of all, the numbers on that scale going down.

I do have to say that I have been very strict when it comes to what I put in my mouth and I have been counting my calories. I have been keeping a food log on My Daily Plate as well as logging my workouts. Another thing that has really helped was switching gyms, my previous gym was 1/2 hour away from our place in the city and after almost 2 hours of commute it wasn't very appealing to me to drive another 1/2 hour to go workout after a stressful day at the office.

My new gym is a super cute neighborhood gym that is only 5 minutes away from home and yesterday I was able to get my little one and meet D at home with his little one by 6:15. We were at the gym in less than 10 minutes and we were able to get our cardio in come back home and feed the kiddos all before 8:15 pm, this would have never been possible before.

I am looking forward to jumping in the scale every morning and that is a first! I can't wait to next week's workouts and even better... next week's results =)

That's it for now!

XOXO
CM

And the Boot Camp started

I have always been curious about boot camps and how effective they are, well I started a Wedding Boot Camp today with Unicuss Fitness and let me tell you, they kicked my butt today. I can barely feel my arms right now which is pretty amazing as I couldn't do much when it came to push ups, I guess whatever I did which in this case was as much as I was able to do was enough to make my arms really really sore.

It was 45 minutes of exercises that switched every 45 seconds, the longest 45 seconds of my life! I feel so out of shape right now and can't believe how weak my upper body and abs are. I guess it is a good thing I didn't pass out on my first class although I did feel like I was going to barf several times, lol!

To kick it up a notch I am doing a GREEN CLEANSE this week, which means that my diet will consist of only vegetables and fruits. This should help me detox from my not so good eating habits and making it a habit to add a good portion of vegetables to my regular diet. 

After this cleanse I will add grains like lentils and beans to my diet as well as white meat and fish trying to stay away from red meat and some of my favorite carbs like pasta, rice, bread, etc. 

I will probably post before and after pics at the one month, two month and three month marks and keep you updated on weight loss, inches, etc. I can't wait to see the results and the changes that my body will go through, looking forward to a tighter and smaller body!

That's it for now!

CM

In the dumps

So I have been in the dumps lately, it's been a month since the last time I ran. I figured I signed up for the marathon to have fun and I was miserable every run, so I guess I just gave up. Being 20 lbs over my ideal weight has really affected my running, not only I was back on square one but I was really feeling it in my joints and mood.

I decided to quit, at least until I got rid of some of the weight but the weight is not coming off. I feel I am going to have to eat lettuce for the rest of my life to be able to get and remain on my happy weight and I am not sure if I am willing to pay the price. I am a food lover and having to stay away from the food I love is definitely a NO NO!

Also in September my wedding dress designer is coming from Venezuela to measure me and I am no where near to my wedding weight, they can always take in but 20 lb is a lot. I've seen the change in my body, stomach and hips are out of control so I have to start doing something NOW!

For my b-day, Dave gave me 3 months of the "wedding boot camp" that I wanted so I am actually looking forward to that, I am going to take before and after pictures (which I won't post until the after) and we are competing to see who loses more weight on the month of September. Dave is supposed to lose 2 lbs for every 1 lbs that I lose ;)

This week will be tough, boot camp starts at 6 am so there will be many early mornings which I will have to get used to. One cool thing? My friend "M" joined to so I guess we'll be pulling each other out of bed to make sure that we complete every single workout!

I am also starting a green cleanse this week so I will keep you posted on how that goes, my diet has been awful lately so I am looking forward to healthy eating on top of my new exercise routine.

That's it for now!

=)

Karma to thief!

Yesterday was a pretty upsetting day, my road bike was stolen! I've had this bike for almost 3 years and I have used it about 3 times. It had less than 60 miles on it and this was just cruel and ironic. 

I am freaked out by the bikers on the lake front as I am not very coordinated yet when on a road bike. The moment I hear "ON YOUR LEFT" my handles start shaking and I just feel I lose control over my bike. But since this week I decided to start training with Coach Jeff and in the training schedule he included a 1:15 hr ride I decided to go pick up my bike from my friend Shannon's where I had been keeping it for over a year now. After talking to her that morning, we agreed we would go on a ride last night so I could try my bike again after a long period of abandonment and get used to riding on the lakefront. I packed my gym bag with what I needed and planned on going to her place right after work.

Well, right around around mid-morning I got a call from Shannon, and it wasn't good news. Someone had stolen my bike from her building's bike room! Now let me bring to your attention that this is a full amenity high rise building in downtown with a doorman, pool, gym, etc. Someone "with access to the bike room" (which you need a FOB to enter) had cut the lock and taken my Specialized Allez Sport bike. To make matters worse, the building IS NOT RESPONSIBLE for property stolen from the bike room even though they do not allow you to keep bikes in your apartment. 

To make this story even more interesting and this building more pathetic, when we asked to look at the security camera tape so we could find out when and at what time this had happened and and maybe see if it was someone they recognized, or someone who lived in the building... their answer? Oh, the security camera was not connected! 

How can these property management companies get away with this non-sense. They can care less about the services they should be providing to their tenant's, let alone about being accountable for their actions and their consequences.

I wish there was something that could be done to AT LEAST hold the property management company and their incompetence responsible of what happened, but the reality is that the system is pretty screwed up and that in situations like this "the big guys" are the ones protected.

During this process I discovered a good resource that might be of help if this happens to you. The Chicago Stolen Bike Registry, if you click on the link you will be able to see my bike's pic with my contact info in case you see my bike out there. How does it work? You can file a theft report through their website and your bike's pic and info will be posted on their home page for the bike community to check, they also have a Twitter feed that has no tweets but who knows, maybe people will start using it.

Anyway, here is a picture of my bike, maybe I get lucky and someone will see it out there!

Choices for a healthy body and healthy planet

Over and over again I find myself asking the same question... how can I make more ethical food choices? Even though I do not wish to become a vegetarian nor I would like to stop eating red meats, I do think that reducing the amount of meat we intake can help the planet in many ways. This is why a couple of times a week I will be posting savory vegetarian recipes that we will all love and will embrace meatless meals that will help reduce our carbon foot print.

Today I tried this hearty vegetarian meal an it quickly became a favorite. With simple ingredients and in just a few minutes this warm meal was in my table and ready to be devoured. I hope you like this delicious recipe taken from 100 great recipes - Meals in Minutes.

Tomato Rice With Red Kidney Beans

Ingredients for 2

1 tbsp olive oil
1 Small onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small green pepper chopped
2 tbsp paprika (replaced with red thai curry)
1 cup of brown rice
7 oz can of diced tomato
7 oz can of red kidney bean
1 tsp of turmeric
1/2 Jalapeno finely chopped
1 tbsp of fresh cilantro chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large, deep heavy-based pan (i used a wok and it worked great) for about 30 seconds. Add onion, garlic, green bell peppers and jalapeno and cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat. Add the paprika/thai curry stirring frequently for a few minutes with a wooden spoon. Then add rice and cook for a minute or 2 to coat the grains of rice.

Once everything looks evenly mixed pour the tomatoes into a measuring cup and add watter leveling up to 3 cups. Add to the rice in the pan and season with a little salt and pepper. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil and keep in heat for about 35 min.

Drain and rinse the beans and add to pan, cover and cook for another 5 minutes or until the rice is tender and all liquid has been absorbed. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve!

Enjoy =)

Healthy lifestyle is not just running

Being on week 4 of marathon training feels as a major accomplishment as being consistent is one of my biggest challenges. I grew up in a house with no routines and where the TV was my daily entertainment, no exercise routine was followed so to keep this training going I have to change many of my bad habits. I think that so far I have the running down even though it still takes a lot of effort to get off the couch and into my running clothes to get out of the house and do it.

But running is not the one and only step to a healthy lifestyle, there is another major piece to this crazy puzzle and that is healthy eating which I consider another extreme challenge. Eating is a big part of my life, growing up in South America and with a Spanish background (Spain), eating is how we celebrate life, food fests and a recipe for every occasion, going out and eating with friends and living life though our palate.

This has come to hunt me, specially when trying to keep healthy eating habits in the household where two little ones are learning by example. In the past year and a half I broke my routine and as running, healthy eating/cooking is a hard one to get going again. So in my quest for a healthy lifestyle, weight loss and being a good role model for my 5 y.o. I am starting something new this week.

Every Sunday night a menu will be set for the following week and I am going to do my best to stick to it! My goal is the have 3 meals every day, breakfast at home, lunch to take to work and finally my favorite, a light family dinner where we can all sit down in the table and share the craziness of our day.

The challenges you may ask? Fitting this in the daily routine of a full time mom, part time step-mom, marathon runner wannabe, career woman, wedding planner and lover. It will be easy to start as my little one is on her yearly "daddy vacation" and won't be back home until mid August, hopefully I can get used to it and keep it going after she gets back.

This week starts a little off the wagon as we were off on Monday for 4th of July holiday but here we go. I am trying to create a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables, fun combinations that are easy and fast to create and can look attractive to picky 5 y.o. junk food lovers. How to make this happen? With the help of books and  Internet everything is possible.

Today's featured recipe - Cannellini-Bean & Artichoke Salad

Ingredients for 2

14 oz can cannellini beans drained

3 green onions, finely sliced

5 oz jar charbroiled artichokes in oil

2 tbsp fresh basil

5 oz baby vine tomatoes

Olive Oil (to taste)

1/2 tbsp white-wine vinegar

Salt & Pepper

A few leaves of spinach

1 3/4 tbsp of pine nuts

Place the beans with the onions in a bowl. Lift the artichokes from the jar reserving the oil and cut into quarters. Chop the basil into fine shreds and half the tomatoes.  Add to the bowl. Mix the oil from the jar with olive oil enough to make about 3 tbsp, add vinegar and season with salt and pepper to make a light dressing.

Toss the salad ingredients together with the dressing. Line 2 serving plates with the spinach leaves and spoon the salad on top. Sprinkle with pine nuts to serve and add your choice of cheese if you like, my personal favorite for this recipe is Feta.

I hope you enjoy my new blog addition and try this savory and healthy recipes with me!

Cheers to healthy living!

Got new shoes! Now how do I track the millage on them?

Yesterday afternoon I went to Fleet Feet to get the foam roller and knee stabilizer that Athletico had recommended for my ITBS, when talking to the staff about my symptoms they immediately asked "How old are your running shoes?" being the unorganized person that I am my response was "not sure, last fall maybe?". I was quickly interrupted by my fiance reminding me that I have not bought running shoes since we started dating which means that my current shoes are over 18 months old! I know, I know... how can I possibly lose track of time like that? Well, I do.

I got fitted again by the staff and I went with a mid stability Saucouny shoe, a newer version of the ones I currently use. Now the question was how do I track the millage on these puppies? Running on worn-out shoes is one of the most common causes of running injuries as they lose shock absorption and stability over time. I am positive now that one of the main reasons of my calf strain and ITBS is the fact that my running shoes had not been replaced when needed.

So how do I know that is time for my running shoes to hit the bucket? Definitely not by trying to IN MY HEAD remember when I bought them as we know where that led me, nor by judging on the looks as that didn't work either. A very general rule of thumb is to replace your running shoes every 300 to 400 miles, of course that depending on body weight, millage, and surface you run on. So how would I know when I hit the millage that puts my running shoes to rest?

Well since now I'm into this social media madness I assumed that there would be a fun way to track my runs... I could mark on a calendar the day I bought my running shoes and figure the millage like that. Boy was I right! I discovered the Daily Mile, a training log for runners, cycling and triathlons were you can share your workouts with social media friends, save routes and track millage.

I was thrilled when I joined and automatically was notified of all my twitter and facebook friends who were using this site. Not only did I start clicking away to add friends but with the click of a button this training log posts my workouts onto the social media site of my choice! It even has a cute little widget to add to my blog.

I proceeded to map yesterday's run, saved it and logged my workout, to my surprise the Daily Mile has an option to track NEW GEAR! It is amazing all the commodities that technology offers, now my only job  is to be consistent and log all my runs while networking and having fun doing it.

I hope this was useful information to some of you out there who like me are somehow new to running.

Until the next time and happy running!

Learning to run in a healthy way

This week started on a very positive note and its all about health. It's amazing how much there is behind living an active healthy lifestyle, specially if this involves running. Somehow I always thought that running was just that, getting off the couch and hitting the pavement and just... run. Well I am learning "the hard way" that there is a lot more science to this than just going for it.

Last week I had pain while running and even though I rested a couple of day I still went for my long run and felt it. I was a lot more aware and careful of what was bothering me and took it easy, which translated into tons of walking. Running in Central Park was fun but definitely didn't account for how hilly the run would be. My lower calf pain kept bothering me but walking when this happened made it feel better almost immediately which took an Achilles injury out of the picture (awesome news) but due to this pain I probably started running funny and developed a different injury "ITBS".

ITBS or Iliotibial Band Syndrome is a pretty common injury for runners, the good news is that I do not really have to stop running but I do have to take it easy. Incorporating exercises that strengthen my leg muscles will help these injuries heal. The Calf strain is due to my butt being week, lol! so I have to work on moves that help my gluts get stronger and my hip abductor to help my ITBS... who would have thought! Thanks to Athletico Andersonville for all the help.

Stretching is also one of the things I need to improve for a healthy running experience. I was sure that STRETCHING or maybe I should say NOT STRETCHING would be part of the problem. I am totally guilty of not taking enough time to stretch before and after my runs and that is something that has to change, so I am committed to work on it.

This made me realize how little I know about running, there is so much more I need to do if I want to keep my body healthy and active for years to come. I am excited about incorporating these changes into my routine, I have great support at home specially now that my fiance is training with me. This will be an improvement to our routine and can't wait to see the results on both of us.

Cheer to healthy training habits, stay safe!

A challenging week

I think one of the hardest things for me at this point when we talk about health & fitness is consistency, I have to say I am not the most consistent person on earth and it's really hard for me to stick to something. Following a training schedule with 2 little ones, a full time job, being in a relationship and planing a wedding is certainly not an easy task. Add to this the fact that this full time job involves travel and junk food lovers and now we have a real challenge.

This week I started on the right foot, but while at it I freaked out a bit when my Achilles started hurting real bad after a 4 mile run. I have heard about so many people getting injured this way lately and how long this takes to heal that I got really worried. This led to me skipping my Tuesday run thinking, well, I can run Wednesday morning. Guess what, that didn't happen either... We have been having really bad storms and Wednesday morning was pouring. On top of that, I was leaving town that same day at noon to attend a client meeting in Detroit with my boss and two others and we decided to drive.

After a 4 1/2 hour drive I was exhausted I took a nap and woke up and got ready to go to the gym at the hotel, it was almost midnight but I was determined to get my run in. To my surprise as I am preparing to leave my room sirens start going off, people are running to the stairs and I hear a message that says that we are on tornado warning and we need to all get to the Grand Ballroom until the warning is lifted... Yeah! there goes my Wednesday run!

Thursday was a lot of fun, first we had a client meeting but once we were done being responsible adults my boss and one of our consultants had scheduled a fishing trip on 70 miles into Lake Erie. We had a blast, definitely a team building experience! After 16 fishes and all the afternoon in the sun it was time to drive back to Chicago, another 4 1/2 hour drive which obviously left no time for running.

I feel like these are all excuses, that is why when its marathon training season people wake up super early and get the runs out of the way before they even start their days. This week was definitely reality check, if I am determined to train for this event I need to rearrange my schedule and make running my priority.

After a week of atomic wings, fries, sweets and pop I am actually looking at next week as a step up in my training routine. For now I look forward to this Saturday's long run, 7 miles in Central Park next to my fiance who had just decided to train with me all the way to the end! Thanks for your support lover, it means the world to me ;)

That's all for now... Stay safe and happy training!

The Marathon training begins!

This week was a good one... Last year I decided to run my first Marathon, I had been running 4 to 5 times per week the prior summer, kept it going through fall and winter of '08 so I decided to register to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct 2009. Somewhere along the way I fell off the wagon, started running less and less and at one point I wasn't running at all.

It was weeks before the marathon and I was ready to bail out when someone told me to try doing the remaining long runs. Now... let me bring up the fact that I had not been running AT ALL! Not on the treadmill, not outside, not 5 miles, or 3 or even 1; I had completely dropped running off my list of to do's. Somehow I thought that trying to do the long runs was a good idea, I had nothing to lose and I could at least prove myself that I was quitting for a good reason, running a marathon without training wasn't a smart idea.

So here came the weekend of the 18 miler and I asked my friend S to come along and do as much as she was able to, we were used to running together and she had been running a ton so why not? I decided to do a run/walk combo of 5min/1min and to my surprise it worked! I can't remember how long it took me but we kept it going through 15 miles until we decided to walk the last 3 to be able to cover the distance. Same thing for the 20 miler, 5min/1min run/walk, S ran 10 miles with me and did the remainder on her bike! 

After these unbelievable results I ran my first marathon, horrible time, but I finished it so this year I decided to sign up again... This time I promised myself I would train.

With that said, I had been trying for weeks to remember to go into the Chicago Marathon website and download the training schedule. I haven't been running much but I was determined to start running once the marathon training season began. 

So last Monday, while at work I finally got to it... but to my surprise, last Monday was actually DAY 1 of marathon training. I was so not mentally prepared for that and I whined all day about it, but last Monday I ran 4 miles! I actually did it! Then came Tuesday and I ran 5 miles, this time with my "Fiance" Dave (yes, we are engaged) who has now started running and it was his 1st time running 5 miles. It was awesome because he kept me going as I whined the whole way about how out of shape I am. 

Then Thursday I didn't run, but I did it on Friday on the treadmill... 4 miles! Never done that before, as I absolutely hate running on the treadmill more than 2 or 3 miles. Then it was the weekend and time for my long run, 6 miles! It's so weird for me to consider that a long run, that was my usual distance when I was running 4 to 5 times per week... anything under that was not really considered a run. I guess I gotta work back up to that.

So we went to Lake Geneva to our friend's house for the weekend and it was time to run, I thought of every possible excuse to not do it, I even slept in, but some how I am sticking to it this time and I ran my 6 miles along the Lake Geneva path, through hill and an uneven trail and with no water. It felt good to finish my "long run" and being able to say that WEEK 1 of marathon training is done. 

Its hard to run now, I feel I am back to square one and I get even more frustrated than when I first started running because this time I chose to be back here, I did this to myself when I got lazy and broke my routine of running. I used to enjoy every second out there and I had a decent pace and was getting faster every day. Now I am back to the love/hate relationship, at having to drag myself out of the house and talk myself out of walking or turning around before I have met my goal distance but I am doing it. I am doing it because I miss loving to run, I miss my long runs on the weekend and all I think while I power through my very hard runs now is that I can't wait to get to that point again!

For all of you out there that feel the same way I feel now, just remember its totally worth it. Soon enough you will look back and smile when you realized how far you've come and how much you once hated what you now love and enjoy so much!

Good luck for those out there training for the Chicago Marathon and let the fun begin!