I am often asked, “Sean I want to start, but how do I do it? What’s the best way to train? How long should I workout? What should I eat?” I am going to answer all of those questions now.

Most of those who know me, know the only training system I ascribe to is MOVEMENT. That’s right, movement, no new fad just old fashioned get off your butt and move! Now I don’t agree with everything but it is not about me, it is about you. So here are some things to think about when you start an exercise/weight loss plan/journey.

1. DO SOMETHING YOU ENJOY: If you start training but hate what you are doing, you will not last long. Find one thing you enjoy and do it. I just heard a lot of you reading this say, “I don’t know what I like?” Let me give you an example. I train a mother who hates working out. She has 6 and 8 year old boys. I asked if when she was young did she play hide and go seek? Of course she did . So I told her for the next 90 days, for a half hour to an hour, to play hide and go seek with her boys. She agreed, and guess what? she lost weight! Why? Because she enjoyed it, it wasn’t a chore to play with her kids. She actually looked forward to it. At first, she couldn’t get along as quickly as her boys but as time went on she could really move, and has a better relationship with her children.
2. COMMIT: Now that you are moving, here’s the catch. Most plans fail because the commitment is simply not there. So I want you to right here and now to commit yourself to 90 days. Yes, three months. I don’t care what it is your doing, be it Zumba, walking, jumping rope, or hide and seek. Take that and own it. Make it your time do that one thing for 90 days, and I promise you will change .This is the most difficult aspect so, if need be, get an accountability partner. Someone to call you on it when you slack or say great job when you’re getting it.
3. SLOW DOWN: That’s right slowdown. I have seen most people quit because they started working out and were so “gungho” that they beat themselves into the ground for a week, only to find themselves so sore that they couldn’t function. Never wanting to go through that again, they quit. This is why I use the term “journey” so often, because a journey takes time, so take your time.
4. DRINK WATER: This is the most important direction I give a new client. When you start moving the toxins that are trapped in your muscles are released and can make you sick. When you begin any exercise program you need to start flushing your system. You also need water for every process in the body. So strive to consume one gallon a day.
5. PORTION CONTROL: Food, we all love food but there is also a science behind consuming it. Now I won’t go into calorie counts and fancy food scales here, let’s just keep it simple. Don’t eat as much! Using portion control is easier than you think. First, make a fist; this is your protein  Next make what I call a monkey hand (take your fist and lift your fingers until you can see your middle knuckles) and that represents your carbohydrate portion. Finally, flatten your hand completely so you can see your nails; there’s your veggies.

So there you have it. The first tools you need to embark on your journey. It may not always be easy, nothing worth striving towards ever is. I believe you can do it. In fact, I know you can! This is your journey, your life, only you can choose to live differently today. Go feel the sun. Go play in the rain. Just go. Just move.

Green Tea

Boxes of 40 bags of green tea average $4-$5 each at big box stores like Target and Walmart and organic green tea is around $6-$7 per box. So, when I found these prices I was way excited! Here are a few that I think are great:

Organic Green Tea:

Green Tea

Newman’s Own Organic Green Tea, 100 bag, pack of 5 — $28.21 with Subscribe & Save. (Subscribe & save is a feature that saves up to 20% and gets you free shipping! If you don’t want them to send it to you monthly, just cancel your subscription after the order ships.) The final price on these comes to $5.64 per 100 count box or just $.06 per tea bag! $5.64 is a typical price for the 40 count boxes at regular stores.

Non-Organic Green Tea

Bigelow Green Tea, 40 bags, pack of 6 — $17.76 with subscribe & save and free shipping!  That comes to $2.96 per box or $.07 per bag! Again, less than you’d pay at regular stores and with free shipping!

Green Tea

So, he asked if I would go with him to the local gym Monday through Friday. We talked about our schedules and tried to figure out what worked for both of us. It turned out that the only time we could both go would be before he had to be at school in the morning.

And, so, I’ve been waking up at 5:30, picking him up and hitting the gym by 6:15. Yikes. I am not much of a morning person. And it has been really surprising to me just how little energy I have after working out. It is a constant conversation with myself to talk myself out of going back to bed.

Natural Energy

So, I began looking for ways to natural energy boosts to help me make it until my body catches up with my new schedule. Here are some things that I’ve tried and what I think about them:

Natural Energy

1. Green Tea: HANDS DOWN my favorite! Green tea for energy is a great way to start the morning! Not to mention that it is a powerhouse antioxidant and boosts your metabolism.

2. Eating Breakfast: This is a big one! If you are trying to lose you NEED TO BE EATING BREAKFAST! If you don’t eat breakfast your body say, “Okay…I’m not getting fed today. I’ll just hold on to this fat so I can use it and not starve.” Basically. When I get home from working out I am so drowsy – and then eating a high protein, low carb breakfast gives me a great boost!

3. Stretching: When you stretch your body you are forcing oxygen into your muscles and spinal cord and body and oxygen = energy!!

4. On that note…Breathing: When I’m sitting at my computer in the morning dozing off, I’ll get up, and take a few deep breaths. The extra oxygen is really rejuvenating.

5. Sleep: This is a bit of a no brainer, but sometimes the most difficult. I cannot function on less than 7 hours a night and 8 is ideal. If I stay up too late and skimp on those hours, my mornings are torture. Get lots of sleep! (I know there are probably some moms laughing hysterically right now…I get it. If you can’t get your full 7 or 8 at night, take little power naps during the day.)

Those are the things that I have found over the last few weeks of a crazy early schedule that help me to stay energized during the day (somewhat). I’d LOVE to hear suggestions on what works for you!

Natural Energy

Confession – I LOVE cheesy mushy feel good stuff. I often scour Pinterest looking for motivational quotes or music lyrics to keep me going or perk ,me up! It’s an addiction, really.

But in my defense, words of affirmation and motivational quotes are excellent ways to attract good things into your life. I like leaving post-it notes on my mirror or changing my phone background to say something encouraging.

Combine that with my love for fonts and color and what better way to combine those two loves AND show our readers some love than to create printable art with motivational quotes.

For now, it will be a daily feature. You can add our site to your morning routine – brush your teeth, get dressed, check the weather, check your horoscope, get some motivation over on LILV.

Motivational Quotes

September was a horrible month in general between being sick, computer issues and travel. With all of this happening it was hard for me to stay focused on my health.

This is why most people fail — they don’t have a plan B for when something happens and I know I sure didn’t! Here were my 3 biggest stumbling blocks that keep me of my path:

1. Too many parties: In September we were at a birthday every weekend and sometimes 3 -4 a weekend. {Man, those Christmas and New Year’s babies really like to eat!}
2. Travel: I had a few conferences and they love to feed you there.
3. Being sick: Migraines and severe allergies killed my appetite, which is not good — I find I actually gain weight when I don’t eat a lot.

Looking back here is how I could have avoided some of my problems:

1. Too many parties — I should have carried some of the bars with me or prepared a meal before I left for the parties. One problem for me was I didn’t have any of the bars. They are so yummy that I ate them at the beginning of my journey — I will be stocking up on them because they are a perfect solution for my #2 too!
2. Travel — I coudn’t cook on the road and there were so many opportunities to eat and eat and eat. {See #1 too – too many parties}. I needed to take something with me that didn’t need to be prepared and unfortunately, I didn’t have anything in my diet stockpile that was an open and eat item.
3. Illness — This one is harder and I am not sure how to plan for this one. Do you have any recommendations?

Nutrisystem

Interested in a healthier lifestyle or have a desire to lose weight? Try Nutrisystem by (888) 853-4689 or by visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog.

Disclosure: Nutrisytem is providing me with 4 months of the food and the program free of charge for my participation in the Nutrisystem Nation Blogger Program in exchange for my honest opinions about my personal weight loss with Nutrisystem.

Nutrisystem

Oh.em.gee! I wish I could put smells in this post! I decided to cook something yummy for lunch (as opposed to my usual sandwich routine). I was scouring my fridge and had a few veggies that were on the verge.

One of my favorite ways to use up left over vegetables is in a quiche or frittata! They make for excellent Weight Watcher’s recipes. And cooked eggs freeze great, so they are also great for freezer meals! The lower calorie option is the frittata which is essentially a quiche without the crust. These are a great way to use up the left over tomato or onion slices from burger night, that half an onion you didn’t need for last night’s salad or whatever other bits and pieces of produce you have laying around.

Weight Watcher’s Recipe

I started by chopping all of my veggies that I decided to use and putting them in a bowl. Let’s take a moment to ooh and ahh over this bowl of beautiful nutritious color.

Mother Nature knows her stuff, am I right?! Then I sauteed the vegetables, saving the kale until last to wilt right before I moved it to the pie dish to put in the oven. I topped the sauteed veggies with the egg and cheese mixture and baked it until the eggs were done.

Delicious does not even begin to describe this dish! And at less than 160 calories for a FOURTH of the pie dish…I think fritattas may become a lunch time regular around here.

As with all of my recipes, substitute substitute substitute! This isn’t an exact science. You could do spinach instead of kale, zucchini instead of potatoes, parsley in addition to thyme. Whatever floats your boat. I personally LOVE thyme with egg dishes, but my sister doesn’t care for thyme at all. So, change it to meet your personal tastes. And here’s a bit of nutritional info for you:

Calories = 158 ** Fat = 6.9 ** Sodium= 152.2 (not including any added salt) ** Carbs = 15.8 ** Fiber = 3.1 ** Protein = 11.3 ** Weight Watcher’s Points = 4.4 ** Weight Watcher’s Points Plus = 4.1

Like I said, what a great Weight Watcher’s recipe!

Freezer Meal Directions: Cover the pie dish with aluminum foil before adding the ingredients. Spray the foil with cooking spray. Prepare the frittata as directed – cooking and all. After it has cooled, take out using the aluminum foil and wrap in more foil. Place in a gallon freezer bag and freeze. When ready to use, thaw overnight and reheat in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Weight Watcher’s Recipe

My mom brought over a few boxes full of canned goods recently and I really needed to make some space in our pantry. I also needed to stick to my low calorie goal for the month, so what’s a girl to do?

I simply combined several different vegetable varieties into my slow cooker and voila! It was truly delicious, really easy and when I calculated the calories — holy guilt free!!

100 Calorie Slow Cooker Vegetable Stew

For dinner on Sunday I had two servings of this stew with a 100 calorie wheat bagel thin and a wedge of Laughing Cow Cheese for a total of 325 calories! And felt full and satisfied afterward!

For those Weight Watcher’s people out there, this only has 2.7 points per serving! And for the people looking for fiber — a whopping 5.7 grams per serving! In other words, it’s really nutritious AND delicious!

100 Calorie Slow Cooker Vegetable Stew

I am avoiding my weekly weigh-in today. I really sucked it up last week! You may have noticed my lack of posts throughout the week. Monday started off fairly well with a weigh-in and good health choices. I maintained my calorie goals and got ready to go to the gym.

Then my friend called and asked if I’d like to make a bit of money helping her clean her aunt’s rental home. I jumped on the opportunity, and thought doing some deep cleaning would be a good gym replacement.

The next day I decided to start organizing and deep cleaning my house. I worked on our home all day and would go help my friend at her aunt’s at night. That was how most of my week went. And somewhere in between all of that my diet and exercise was lost.

I have found that I have a really hard time finding balance. Not just when it comes to weight loss, but in most areas of my life. If I’m hitting the gym daily and eating great, chances are my house is a cluttered mess. If I’m spending lots of quality time with my family, chances are I’m not making conscious food choices. If one part of my life is really organized and together, the other parts are most likely getting ignored.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who struggles with this! So, how do I find balance? How do I keep all the plates spinning when I’m putting greater focus on one specific plate.

Finding Balance

I envy the Biggest Loser weight loss approach. To me their biggest asset isn’t necessarily Bob Harper or an on-site nutritionist, although having those resources would be heaven.  They are able to set aside all of their other responsibilities and just focus on losing weight. That would be amazing! (That photo is of  me and Bob at the Vegas airport. He was sitting at our terminal a year ago and we met him and talked with him and got a photo! How fun!)

But I’m not at The Biggest Loser ranch. I don’t have Bob Harper at my side (I wish – what a cutie!!). And I do have a two year old who needs lots of my attention, a house that I’d prefer to not look like a pig sty, a husband who deserves a bit of my TLC, lots of siblings who I enjoy being around, a blog to write, another blog to write, bills to pay, meals to cook and on and on and on. And somewhere in the middle of all of that I have to do things for me! I have to make time for the gym and to not eat on the go so that I’m making conscious and accountable food choices.

It is all so exhausting! I don’t have any answers at this point in my journey of how to do it. This is where I turn to y’all — my readers, family and friends. I am open to suggestions and advice. How do you find balance? How do you make time for yourself when there are a million other things/people screaming for your attention? How do you focus on one part of your life and not lose sight of the others?

Finding Balance

As a larger woman, things are already difficult enough when you know the world is sneering at you and making broad, sweeping generalizations about you based on weight alone. Yes, we know we’re fat. No need to remind us.

Where it becomes an even bigger problem though; is in clothing stores or department stores such as Kohl’s, Walmart, Target, or K-Mart.

First, let’s start with location. Stop and take a look at where the plus size clothing section is. Here’s a hint: It’s not close to the front of the store. More often than not it’s hidden towards the back. Worse, it’s a small corner with the frumpiest of items.

Some stores do have more stylish options (Kohl’s being one of them) for the larger gal but there are still few options to select from as opposed to the considerable amount offered for women under a size 16.

Designers and stores would likely argue there is not much of a demand for larger clothing or perhaps that it’s too expensive to make. Fine. Fair enough…sort of.

When I go to Walmart (because honestly, my wallet doesn’t rival Trump) I want to find one or two affordable options that don’t make me age 20 years or worse, revert me to childhood by offering t-shirts with Mickey Mouse on them or some other cartoon character. I am a 31 year old woman. I want clothes that are at least somewhat stylish.

Lane Bryant is an excellent option for stylish clothing for the larger gal but unfortunately if you’re on a modest budget or downright broke you’ll be lucky to buy one shirt, maybe two when they seem to average $30 each.

Could stores do a better job at providing options to larger women? Absolutely. Will they? Probably not. Then again, with our increasing obesity rates they might have to.

Thankfully though those of us here with their incredible journeys are fighting against obesity and will hopefully be an instrumental aspect in curbing this dangerous epidemic.

What are your thoughts? Do you think stores should provide more options for larger women at affordable prices?