Getting on Track Tuesday 4/15

Today is Day Nine of the journey to a healthier lifestyle.  Woo! It seems like every time I start a new diet or workout plan I can hardly get past Day Two, let alone an entire week. Pretty impressed with myself thus far.
It all started when Jesse's company adopted the Virgin Pulse program put on by Virgin Mobile to encourage employees to be more healthy and active.  Using a pedometer, he has been tracking his day-to-day steps along with tracking "active minutes" when he is running.  There are also challenges he can accept or challenge other coworkers to do. For example, he's been doing a push-up challenge to do a minimum of ten push-ups everyday.  Nothing back breaking, just little things to encourage physical activity and overall health.  In doing so, he is earning points according to the amount of activity/steps and challenges completed. In addition to all this, he started using "My Fitness Pal", a FREE app and website that tracks your caloric intake and burn off from exercise.

After a few days of Jesse doing this on his own, I decided I would try it out just using "My Fitness Pal".  Never in my life have I counted calories, even when I was "dieting". It's so easy to use.  When you set it up, you select if you are looking to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain your weight. I selected lose weight and then it asked about my activity level, height, weight, my goal weight, etc.  It then sets you up with a goal daily caloric intake.  Using the diary, you input what you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.  The app even has a barcode scanner so you can make sure the calories perfectly coincide with what you ate, or you can search their database if you are eating a food without a label. You can even save your own recipes or meals if it's something you eat frequently to save time. You also input the cardiovascular or strength workouts to "add back calories".

It is the perfect amount of accountability that I needed to get started on the right foot.  It made me realize areas of a "healthy meal" that really aren't as low calorie as you would think. It has encouraged me to be a Nutrition Facts label checker in the grocery store and find low calorie alternatives of the same foods.  So far, I have lost 6 pounds. That's 6 pounds in 9 days! Just eating better, less, and exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. Also, I feel full. I'm not starving myself or working myself to the bone. It feels good.

Last week, we bought a smoothie maker and have been having fun experimenting with different ingredients like various fruit, berries, and juices, almond milk, veggies, flax seeds, nuts, etc. Smoothies are breakfast and can be anywhere from 150-400 calories depending on the ingredients. Instead of yogurt, we have been using Light Vanilla Silk Almond milk because we prefer a thinner smoothie and it is much lower in calories. (And still so good!)

Today, I got a little adventurous and tried some spinach.  My smoothie was:
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup baby spinach

We have the Cuisinart CPB-300 SmartPower 15-Piece Compact Portable Blending/Chopping System and I highly recommend it! (Got it off Amazon.) It completely liquefied the spinach much better than the Magic Bullet. Best part, I couldn't even taste the spinach.  It's just the beginning of a wonderful, healthy relationship.

Before & after!