What A Haul!!!

We have officially hit up some healthy, organic-type food stores! We rolled to Virginia Beach today, stopping at Trader Joe's and The Fresh Market along the way, as well as our good ol' standard issue grocery store for the rest of our essentials. Check it out...



Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the dude... the dude who has everything? (Okay, enough of that...)

I mean, we've got unsweetened canned pumpkin, almond milk, veggie & flaxseed chips, arugula, smoked salmon, fibrous Uncle Sam cereal, melba toast, Wasa crackers, turkey pepperoni, low fat cottage cheese, hummus, guacamole, wraps with 12 grams of fiber, low carb pita pockets & bread, fat-free Greek yogurt, tzatziki, sunflower seeds, 72% dark chocolate, and that little baby bottle to the left is our potential new friend, pure Stevia extract powder. Wow.

We've made some definite plans for some of this stuff, and a few things will be tried out as Mega-Football-Game-With-Trademarked-Name snacks this Sunday. The rest... well, I'll let you know. This stuff should be a big help in lowering the sugar levels around the house, while still staying in balance. Man, this numbers game is evil... :)

--Jay :)

Recovery & New Ideas...

Good news! Dee has returned to nearly 100% of her former pain-free glory, but she's still laying off the exercise for now. We may get in some this weekend, but perhaps a scaled-down version with lots of precautionary stretching and warming up first. :)

I bought some raw honey a week or so ago, and we've been giving that a go in our morning oatmeal. That's been working out really well, except for the fact that I forgot I'm not supposed to have TWO fruit servings AND honey with my breakfast... oops! A slight caloric and sugar overload there...

Speaking of sugar, Dee had a lot of research time during her recovery, and she's come across a program called The Belly Fat Cure by Jorge Cruise. It's all about controlling your sugar intake, and there's some stuff in there that I like. There's also some stuff in there that I don't like, so I think we'll try out a modified version. We've already started a bit... We're looking into Stevia, which seems to be the most natural faux-sweetener... Dee has scrapped her morning yogurt, and we're looking into buying Greek yogurt and using berries and things to liven it up... We've also eliminated the raisins from our mid-morning snack, opting for more almonds... Dee has scrapped her afternoon fruit serving, replacing with almonds or perhaps string cheese... little changes.

The Belly Fat Cure program tries to get you to approximately 120 grams of carbs and no more than about 15 grams of sugar each day. A quick glance at the healthy eating plan we've been on had us hanging somewhere around 250 grams of carbs and 100 grams of sugar! Through some modification, Dee is down to about the right level of carbs, and I think we have her down to about 25 grams of sugar. We plan to hit up some specialty food shopping this weekend to see what other ideas we can come up with.

The only part of the Belly Fat Cure that's a little strange is the whole Adkins-esque "eat cheese, eat bacon, eat sausage" approach, but that seems to be there just for the sake of those folks who can't live without that sort of thing. I'm planning to combine our previous ideas, while cutting down as much as possible on sugar, and especially our "sugar-free" friends who rely on aspartame and the like. Dee intends to go a little more strict, just to see what happens. The testimonials have folks losing massive inches, and the guy's been all over Oprah and Ellen and junk. Could be interesting.

We'll see how this whole thing shakes out...
--Jay :)

"You Smell Like A Giant Life Saver!"

She does. Wint-O-Green, in fact.

Thanks to some Walgreens Ultra Strength Muscle Rub, and its delightful blend of camphor and menthol. Ahhh...

See? There she is, the poster child for Wint-O-Green Life Savers. Nice.

That set of Gazelle-ing this morning didn't do her a bit of good in the back pain aspect. I think she's finally learned that she's not Super-Exercise-Woman. Now, if she'll rest up a while, then perhaps take it a little easier, I think she'll be in good shape... :)

Laid up and resting for the remainder of today...

--Jay :)

Man Down!!!

Actually, woman down! Dee had to submit to the pain of being injured, and skip the Shred today. She gave it a go for about 2 minutes, then switched to the Gazelle, where she did 1.5 miles in 20 minutes. I think we'll give her a little more rest time before we send her back in the cage with Jillian! She is NOT defeated by any means... she will have a glorious comeback! I'm actually more proud of her for admitting that she needed a break, than trying to struggle through and injure herself more. :)

I made an interesting, simple new lunch yesterday, based on a Trader Joe's marinara sauce. I'm in the process of formulating my own sauce recipe, so I can post a genuine "recipe" up here. :)

--Jay :)

Weigh-In: Week 4

Well, we're both still headed in the right direction, though I still didn't end up quite where I thought I would. Perhaps the lack of exercise did a little something, ha... :) Let's do this thing:

Weigh In Week Four [1/24/2011-1/30-2011]
Jay: 339.5 (-2.5 pounds for the week; -22.5 pounds for 2011)
Dee: 219.5 (-1.5 pounds for the week; -8.5 pounds for 2011)

Keepin' on!
--Jay :)

Exercise Recap: Week 4

It's the end of Week 4, and my exercise this week is extremely easy to count... I'll give you a hint... it's a nice, round number... :) Dee kept it up quite nicely, though:

Sunday 1/23/2011 [day off]
10:00 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 5 (27 min)

Monday 1/24/2011 [work day]
8:55 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 6 (27 min)

Tuesday 1/25/2011 [work day]
7:20 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 7 (27 min)

Wednesday 1/26/2011 [work day]
7:30 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 8 (27 min)

Thursday 1/27/2011 [work day]
8:15 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 9 (27 min)

Friday 1/28/2011 [day off]
9:15 am - Dee - Shred Level 1, Day 10! (27 min)

Saturday 1/29/2011 [day off]
8:25 am - Dee - Shred Level 2, Day 1 (27 min)
6:50 pm - Dee - Gazelle Level 1 (30 min, 2.0 miles)

Dee hurt her back muscles pretty badly after that first Level 2 Shred, and wasn't very mobile all day Sunday. I had to leave for a music practice at the church, and while I was gone, she decided to get up and Gazelle for half an hour! Apparently, it felt good to exercise, but when she was done again... not so much. Poor, broken Dee!

She did get in over 3 1/2 hours of exercise this week. Oy...

--Jay :)

Shredded

Dee has officially completed the tenth and last day of Shred Level 1! She had a happy, emotional moment, because it was such an amazing feeling to have stuck with this thing and accomplished a huge goal. She kicked this thing for 10 solid mornings in a row, no breaks, no wimping out! Tomorrow is her first day of Level 2, and we're sitting here watching it right now, just to see what she's in for. :)

I've been extraordinarily slack on the exercise front this week, mostly due to the fact that we slept in late on Monday after being at the party the night before, then I was cooking a pot of chicken barley soup for our lunch on Tuesday morning this week, and the other mornings I was most likely just being lazy. Ah, laziness. :-D

Dee's scale results have started swinging back in a good direction, so we think her body is getting adjusted to the new exercise routine. Hopefully, kicking it into Level 2 tomorrow doesn't scare the crap out of her muscles again! I'm down about 3.5 pounds for the week thus far, and should fall squarely on my goal of 4 pounds per week. Awesomeness.

Rock it!
--Jay :)