21 Day Fix... day 18

It's official.  I am a blogging slacker.  I think about it every day, but I just never seem to make it to my computer.

Well it's Day 18.  I have no idea what I weigh, but I can tell you... my clothes are fitting much differently than they were 18 days ago.  I have dropped a solid size in this 18 days.  From a 12 to a 10, and I feel much more comfortable in my clothes than I have in a long time. 

I have received several comments from people, ranging from "You're looking thinner" to "Dang, girl..."  ha ha.  My husband remarked the other day that I will need some new clothes if I continue on this path.  He is definitely right about that.  I only have a handful of items in size 7, and that's my goal.  The waistline in my 10's is loosening up a lot too.  By the end of next round, I'm hoping to have dropped another size.  I decided that when I get down to a 7/8, I'll go pick out a dress for my son's wedding in December.  I really didn't want to buy a 12. 

I have had a couple of challenges this last week: 

On Friday, I was so busy that I hardly sat down from morning until night, only to discover that the water heater went out.  I never got a workout in, and it's a good thing, because there would have been NO SHOWER after.  Yuck.  Since I missed the workout on Friday, I did Friday's Cardio on Saturday, and Dirty 30 on Sunday, and then started the week with no rest day.  I'm not sure if it was good for my body, but I figured I got my rest day on Friday.

On Saturday, I took a whole carful of kids to Knotts Berry Farm.  It was a fun, exhausting day.  Of course, when they got hungry, those teenagers went straight for that fry place that I LOVE!  I ate one plain fry, and one chili cheese fry and then refrained from all other fries.  I just keep thinking about my end goal...  and that makes it a little easier. 

On Sunday, we traveled to Alpine Village with some friends to celebrate a birthday.  We ate at a German Deli, and oh... let me tell you, it was so good.  I was really at a loss as to what to order.  The menu was in German, and when I asked her about stuff on the menu, my German friend just said, "That's good; that's really good; that's SO good."  She was so excited about authentic German food that I wasn't going to get a better answer than that.  In the end, I picked a stuffed cabbage roll, with fried potatoes and marinated cucumbers.  I wish I had taken a picture - it was SO MUCH FOOD!  So I took a to-go box right off the bat and divided it up into two portions, and then I happily ate half my food and saved the other half for later. (Which I ate for dinner)  Everett, Mariah and I took enough food home in that to-go container that we had a very complete dinner.  I traded him the fried potatoes for the green beans for dinner.  Amazingly, I didn't go over on carbs.

Also, with challenges, come successes!!!

I held a plank for 60 seconds today.  That is a huge success for me.  On day 1 I could barely hold 15 seconds.  Plank is not for sissies.  That is a hard exercise. 

Pants:  I have been wearing skirts every day because my pants were so uncomfortable.  I'm happily wearing the black chinos, the regular jeans and the tan wranglers again.  Makes me very happy.

I didn't take a single food photo this week...  I really must commit to this blogging thing, huh?  Sorry...

I leave you with this:

 

Be grateful for your many blessings!

Dawn

21 day fix, day 7-10

Hello friends:

Wow, it's a good thing nobody reads this blog because I am a SLACKER! 

Today is Day 10.  I haven't let up.  I haven't cheated.  I haven't given up.  I am feeling stronger every day. 

I don't see a lot of difference in the pictures yet - but hey, it's only been a week.  I feel like maybe the side view is a bit improved.  We'll see after week 3. 
Week 2 is a totally different experience from week 1.  I feel much more prepared for each workout.  Maybe it's because I know what to expect, and I KNOW I can do it.  I'm not as intimidated, for sure.  Also, I'm not sore this week like I was last week.  There's still some muscle soreness, but last week it was crippling...  this week it's just a little annoying. 

The other coolest new development: 

WEIGHTS!  I went looking for weights on Monday, and they are SO EXPENSIVE!  Well, out of my budget anyway.  I was telling my co-worker on Tuesday how I was disappointed not to have them, and today, she showed up with THESE!!!!!  She said they were just gathering dust in her garage.  Life is good!  Today's leg workout was so much different with weights!!! 

So here's the menu from Sunday- Wednesday.

Sunday - Day 7
Bfast: Egg and veggie scramble (1 red, 1 green)
Snack: grapes & almonds- easy to eat at church in between classes.  (1 purple, 1 blue)
Lunch: Tilapia tacos (1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow)
Snack: skip - I got busy
Dinner:  Juan Pollo Rotisserie Chicken, white rice, broccoli (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)

Monday:
Bfast: Overnight oats (1 red, 1 yellow)
Snack: grapes & almonds (1 purple, 1 blue)
Lunch: ground turkey, spaghetti squash, spaghetti sauce
Snack:salsa boat deviled eggs (1 red) - use hot sauce instead of salsa
Dinner: (Beef Stroganoff with rice & salad  (1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow)  YUM
Recipe from Erin Nichols Fitness http://erinnicholsfitness.blogspot.com/2015/05/healthy-beef-stroganoff-with-greek.html?m=1
I made it with a beef roast and shredded the beef, but followed the recipe other than that.  SO GOOD!!!! (1 1/2 green, 1 red, 1 yellow, 2 tsp)

Tuesday:
Bfast:  Breakfast sandwich (Fried egg, 1 sausage patty, 1/2 English muffin), tomatoes (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)  I bought these tiny little sausage patties that are 2x per serving, and I only used one and rolled it out so it's bigger and thinner. 

Snack: apple and almonds (1 purple, 1 blue)
Lunch: Buffalo chicken lettuce wraps (1 red, 1 green)
Snack:  Veggies and turkey (1 green, 1 red)
Dinner: Parmesan Chicken with spaghetti.  I left the cheese off of mine.  (1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow)

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich & tomatoes (I could eat these every day)  (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)
Snack: grapes and almonds
Lunch: ground turkey with spaghetti sauce and spaghetti squash (1 red, 1 green)
Snack: Apple (1 purple)  Have I mentioned how happy I am that Honeycrisp apples are on sale?
Dinner:  Leftover night!!!  Leftover stroganoff with rice and butternut squash soup.  (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)


Food Prep:

 

Saturday night I did some food prep for the first few days of the week.  I think food prep is crucial for my success in this program.  I can not wing it.  It's all about planning and prepping.  I have to know what I'm eating and when I'm eating it.  If I come home from work starving, and there isn't something to eat, I'm going to eat something I shouldn't. 

So here you'll see:  Spaghetti Squash, overnight oats, buffalo chicken salad, rice, veggies, and ground seasoned turkey.  This stuff saved me the first few days of this week.  Now it's time to do it again. 

I find that I can't really prep and plan for more than about four days.  I don't like to accumulate too many leftovers.  I usually try to have a leftover night, like tonight, so that I can use it all up. Tonight Mariah had chicken parmesan, Everett had Mexican creamy chicken, and I had stroganoff.  It really helps to use up everything, plus it frees up space in the fridge and wastes less food.  I absolutely hate food waste.  You might as well take 15% of your grocery budget and throw it in the trash.  For me, that's about $60 a month.  Ridiculous!  There's a lot I could do with $60!  (Think Disney passes....)

Anyway, that's where we are for day 10. 
I have a couple of challenges coming up this week.  Saturday we are going to Knotts Berry Farm, and those loaded fries will be calling me...  but I will resist.  I WILL RESIST.  Doesn't mean it's easy, though.  Sunday we are taking a field trip to Alpine Village to get some German food, for a friend's birthday.  I don't know what I'm going to eat there, but I'm going to save my carbs for lunch, that's for sure!

Wish me luck.
Be grateful for your many blessings, and behave in a way that they're grateful for you, too.

Dawn

21 Day Fix - Day 5-6

Hello friends,

I have no idea what happened to yesterday.  Somewhere in between work, the grocery store, babysitting a couple of kids, feeding the missionaries, and of course, my workout, I completely forgot to journal my day. 

Friday was Cardio Fix.  I was really nervous that I'd be super sore again, but thankfully, I wasn't.  I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm no longer too proud to follow Kat, the lady who does the modifications.  I'm 43 years old, and I'm pretty significant on the out-of-shape scale.  The first day I worked to keep up with Autumn, but please....  that was never going to happen.  I paid for that pride ALL WEEK LONG!   

I'm feeling a lot better. The soreness is much less, just a little here and there, and my thighs.  They hurt a lot.  My only complaint at this point is my stomach.  It hasn't been the same since I took those advil on an empty stomach two days ago. 

Here's a look at the menu for Friday:

Breakfast:  Overnight oats with strawberries (1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow)
Snack: Apple with 1 tsp almond butter for spreading (1 purple, 1 tsp)
Lunch:  Buffalo chicken salad lettuce wraps (1 green, 1 red) YUM!

Snack: lunchmeat, veggies and cheese (1 blue, 1 red, 1 green)  this is a small plate...







Dinner: Slow cooker Mexican Chicken.  (1 green, 1 red, 1/2 purple, 1 yellow)
I found this one on Pinterest: Christine Pechulis' blog  http://christinepechulis.blogspot.com/2015/03/easy-slow-cooked-creamy-mexican-chicken.html?m=1
It was seriously good.  I ended up eating it without another yellow added (no rice, or tortillas though - because I'd had those overnight oats for breakfast - poor planning)

Saturday:
We woke up this morning and decided that while Everett had a little work to do, Mariah and I would head over to Knott's Berry Farm for a few rides before it got too hot or too crowded.  We were half right.  She got to ride about 6 rides in two hours, but it was 96 by the time we left.  We were drenched in sweat.  Yuck! 

The hardest thing about Knott's is the food.  It's SO good.  My favorite is the loaded fries.  They have fries with Nachos; fries done like the In-n-Out Animal Style; jalapeno cheese fries; chili fries; and my fave: the carne asada fries.  Imagine a carne asada burrito with all of the toppings just dumped out on top of French fries.  Oh yum.  I suffered a little.  I think when the fix is over I'll take a one day break and go to Knotts and eat fries til I'm sick, and then jump on another 21 days.  Or not.  Oh!  and there's this place called the Ghost Town Grill that serves the most amazing and ginormous hamburgers, and they have a buffalo chicken salad that is to DIE FOR! 

Anyway - - I can dream, right? 

I'm just about done with week one, and I couldn't resist a little look on the scale.  Down three pounds.  I'm happy with that.  Hopefully I can keep up that speed. 

Today's menu was YUM.  This is what is broke down like:

Breakfast:  Overnight oats - no fruit this time:  (1 red, 1 yellow)
Snack: Apple with almonds (1 purple, 1 blue)
Lunch: Spaghetti squash spaghetti - YUM-O! (1 1/2 green, 1 orange, 1 tsp)

Snack: Turkey and green salad with balsamic drizzle (1 red, 1 green)
Dinner: Baked Tilapia, Cilantro lime rice and butter nut squash French fries (they are a green, not a yellow!)  (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green)

That was a good dinner!  I made a pot of rice yesterday for my family to eat with the Mexican chicken, and saved the leftovers.  That makes rice super easy, anytime.  Yes, I know, it's white rice.  I'm not about to throw away what I have in the house.  I'll make the transition to wheat pasta/ brown rice as we run out of stuff.  I'm too frugal to throw away perfectly good food.  The butternut squash fries were baked and then dusted with curry powder and may I say: WOW!  They totally took care of that fry craving I had earlier. 

This is what I did while I was eating that yummy dinner - - here's a different perpective: 

MEAL PLANNING!!!!  It's so important.  You just can't wing it.  You have to plan, plan, plan.  If I get some time tomorrow, I'm going to prep some food for my week.  If not, I'll do it on Monday. 

The hard part of this first week is done, tomorrow is Yoga, and also the Sabbath, so I'm going to go to church and be grateful for my many blessings.  I hope you are too. 

See you on Monday!
Dawn

21 Day Fix - Day 4

Hello Friends!
Remember a couple of nights ago when I said I was SO sore?  And that I couldn't sleep because of the pain?  It was awful.  Well, that night, half asleep, I went into the bathroom and took some Ibuprofin, and then went back to sleep.  Seriously huge mistake.  Within about 15 minutes I woke up again, with terrible stomach cramps, so I stumbled out to the kitchen to drink a few ounces of milk.  I thought I felt better.  Two days later, my stomach still doesn't feel right.  Whenever it gets empty, it hurts.  I'm not hungry, but it hurts.  It really hurts.  Add that to my muscle soreness and I have been really miserable yesterday and today.
 
I'm working through it.  I'm not giving up.  I haven't given up on the workouts, and I won't give up on the diet.  I know that this is all just an adjustment period, and that it will take a while to get acclimated. 

Today was a good day.  It was Pilates day.  It was my first time EVER doing Pilates.  I liked it a lot.  I'm pretty sure that my abs will be screaming tomorrow, but hey, it's just a merry go round of pain this week.  I can handle it.  I'll just keep pushing through.

So, on to today's menu: 

Day 4: Thursday
Breakfast:  Egg Salad with Tomatoes (1 Red, 1 Green)

Snack: Cantaloupe (1 Purple) I was going to eat this at breakfast, but I got full, so I just took it to work for snack.
Lunch: A treat!  Had Pho with Melissa and our girls.  (More on that in a minute: 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Green)
Snack: Apple with almond butter (1 Purple, 1 tsp)
Dinner:  Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta - (1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1/2 green, 1 tsp) Oh my goodness this is SO good.  Here's the link to Pinterest, where I found it.  http://www.thesimplyanchoredblog.com/2015/06/lemon-garlic-chicken-pasta.html

A couple of comments about today: 
The egg salad I make is super easy.  Just take two hardboiled eggs, a celery stalk - diced, a dollop of greek yogurt and Dijon mustard and stir.  I added in celery seed and dill, and a little salt and pepper, but you can leave those out if you're a purist. 

Pho wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I took along my containers, and asked for an extra bowl.  I pulled the meat out, then the noodles, then the veggies and put them in their containers, and then into the smaller bowl.  It was filled!  Then I gave the rest of the noodles to my daughter, who happily gobbled them up.  End of temptations!!!  I really should have been better about taking a picture of my food!!!  It was so wonderful that we're going to do it again next week!

The Lemon Garlic Chicken Pasta: I made a couple of changes to this recipe, that I wanted to share.  First of all, it called for 1 cup of fresh parsley.  I'm not a huge fan of parsley, so I substituted it for cilantro.  Different taste, I know, but I am a huge cilantro fan.  I added about a tablespoon of dried parsley to the sauce, just so it would be there.  The last change was that I served it over rice, not pasta.  This was only because we'd been eating spaghetti for a couple of days, and I had some leftover rice in the fridge that I wanted to use.  My husband tends to be (a little) picky about new dishes but he loved this one.  It was so flavorful, with the tomatoes and the cilantro and the lemon, and the whole thing was just so fresh and yummy.  This is a dish I will definitely make again.  Thank you to The Simply Anchored Blog for this yummy inspiration!!!! 

Well, another day that I call a success!!!  I'm a little less sore today - yay, but who knows what tomorrow will bring!  I'll let you know!

Be grateful for your many blessings!!!
Dawn

21 Day Fix - Day 3

Hello Friends!

Remember how I said that I was sore after the first couple of days?  Remember I said, "No problem, I can handle it?"  Yeah, well, now we have a problem. 

THE PROBLEM IS THAT AUTUMN CALABRESE IS KICKING THIS GIRL'S BOOTIE!  And isn't that the point?  I know, I know, it is. 

Last night, I took Advil before bed.  By 3:30 a.m., I woke up because I was hurting so bad.  Everything hurts.  There's nothing on my body, except maybe my hands and feet, and my calves, that doesn't hurt!  (Autumn took care of the calves today with the Lower Body Fix Workout!)  I'm sure that by tomorrow the calves will hurt too - I mean, why not join in the party! 

All day I kept thinking about the lower body workout.  I can hardly sit on a chair or a toilet without holding on to something for support! How on earth am I going to do a lower body workout?

I voiced my concerns to my best friend, Melissa, who has been through the fix several rounds now.  She has lost all the weight she wanted to, and she looks lean and strong and just fantastic.  She's been sort of my unofficial coach.  We check in daily, share what we're eating, and she supports me so awesomely.  I hope she feels the same way about me.  Here's what she had to say:

After reading this, I thought, "What have I gotten myself in to?"  I have never been this sore.  Never. 

 I just did it.  I didn't squat as low as I might have before this soreness set in, but I did it.  I finished the workout and just patted myself on the back and moved on.  Today's hard work is done, and tomorrow is another day. 

Here's my meal plan for today:

Wednesday - Day 3
Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs, mashed with avocado and served with 8 Triscuit crackers.  (1 red, one blue, 1 yellow)  This was so yummy!
Snack: Yogurt
Lunch: Chicken Salad: Diced grilled chicken, minced onions, celery, a spoonful of plain greek yogurt and a spoonful of Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and a little celery seed mixed well and served lettuce wrap style in romaine leaves. (1 green, 1 red)
Snack: 2 tangerines (1 purple)
Dinner:  Leftover spaghetti with meat sauce (1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow)

Here's a look at tonight's dinner.  Excuse the divided plate - I needed to do dishes!

I also found a little treasure at the Dollar Tree today: 

Lime flavored fizzy water!  I poured it into a glass with ice and added a slice of lemon and a slice of orange and it's so YUM!  They were $1/4 at Dollar Tree.  I am totally going back for more before they are gone!  I might just buy all of them, so you'll just have to find your own Dollar Tree!

So after day 3, I have to say:  I feel awful.  I'm so sore that I almost can't think about anything else.  Unless I'm sitting and then it's just my abs that are sore, and I'm okay...  UNTIL I TRY TO STAND UP!  Ha ha...  I swear I moan and groan more than my 91 year old Grandmother, and she's got lots of good reasons to moan and groan!!!  I know that I just have to push through this initial soreness, and then I'll be better, and stronger, and that's what this is all about.  I have to take it one day at a time, but I have to look at the bigger picture, too.  It's going to be worth it. 

Be grateful for your many blessings!!!
Dawn

21 day fix - Day 1-2

Hello friends,
It's only day two and I already have to play catch up!  I SO wanted to blog every day, but seriously, the fact that I'm still even alive is amazing.  This is hard; it's exhausting; it's a challenge; what else can I say?  Oh yeah, it's AWESOME!

This is my starting lineup:  It's not too pretty.  Like I said before, I'm about 20 lbs overweight for my height.  I also said before that I'm a Mormon, so that means I won't be posing in any sportsbras or the like.  I'm sure you're all grateful that I'm choosing to be modest.  I know I certainly am. 

Let's talk about Day 1:
It was my first day on the fix, officially.  Luckily, I had some time to prepare.  I meal planned, did my shopping, and did some food prep over the weekend, before officially starting on Monday.  I asked the hubs to grill some extra chicken that I could use this week, which he did.  That went into a container and into the fridge.  I chopped veggies for stir fry and placed them in pre-measured servings, and into the fridge, I made some crab ceviche for lunches and some hard boiled eggs.  I felt prepared and ready to go.  

Here's what was on the meal plan:
Breakfast:  Greek Eggs  (found these on Variety by Vashti and they are YUM! Here's the recipe) with sliced tomatoes (1 green, 1 red, 1 orange)
Snack: Apple (1 purple)
Lunch: Ceviche and homemade corn tortilla chips (8) (1 green, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow)
Snack: Yogurt (1 red)
Dinner: Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce (1 green, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 yellow)

Here's a pic of the greek eggs.  Do not be alarmed.  This is a small plate.  I learned long ago that if you want to eat less, eat off of a small plate.  It's not quite a cake plate, but it's definitely not a dinner plate.  Somewhere in between.  About 2/3 size, perhaps.  I am not a food photographer (obviously).  Be glad I took a picture at all.  It was so yummy and I could not wait to eat it. I had to force myself to cut each egg into four pieces to pace myself!

About an hour after the workout - Total Body Cardio - the stiffness and soreness began.  Oh, how it began...  but I could handle it.  No problem. 

I had a visit with my doctor Monday afternoon, so I took the opportunity to talk to her about the program I was on.  She was happy to hear that I was working toward shedding those extra pounds, and just reminded me to get in a multi-vitamin and those very important omegas.  Since I don't really eat fish at present, I knew I'd have to supplement it, so I picked up both at the market.  I chose flaxseed oil pills for the omegas, but the next time I'm at Sams Club, I'm planning to pick up some white fish, and make it for lunches a few times a week.  We'll see how that goes. 

By Monday night, I was stiff and sore as could be.  I figured I'd be better on Tuesday. 

ENTER TUESDAY.  Day 2:

WRONG!!!

Tuesday was worse.  I should have known.  After all I said that I am not a stranger to exercise.  This was no normal soreness.  I felt like I got hit by a train.  Off to work I went, walking like an old woman. 

Here's the meal plan for Tuesday:
Breakfast:  Shake - oh my goodness YUCK.  I can't really afford Shakeology, so I went with a lesser brand.  For the greater good, I choked it down.  It. was. horrible.  You know what else?  I was absolutely STARVING by my 10:20 break.  (1 Red)
Snack: 2 Cuties - wolfed them down.  I'm surprised I even stopped to peel them.  (1 purple)
Lunch: Ceviche (again) and homemade chips. (1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Blue, 1 Yellow)
Snack: Apple with 1 tsp almond butter to dip in.  (1 Purple, 1 tsp)
Dinner:  Chicken Stir Fry (chicken, rice, veggies, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, sesame oil) (1 Red, 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 tsp)

So far so good on the food plan.  My husband comments about the amount of food that's on my plate at dinner.  It's a lot.  It's balanced.  It looks awesome.  I wish I had taken a picture of the stir fry before I wolfed it down and ran off to a church meeting, but I didn't.  No time.  Next time!!!

The soreness is the hardest part.  I pushed through the upper body workout and even the abs without too much difficulty.  It's hard, don't get me wrong.  It's super hard.  These workouts may only be 30 minutes, but they are no joke. 

I took some advil at about 9pm, in hopes of waking up feeling a little better.  I have never been so sore in my entire life. 

I'll update tomorrow!
Be grateful for your many blessings!
Dawn

Hello, blogging universe!

Hey Blogger Universe, it's me!  I'm back with another blog that probably no one will read.  That's okay.  Just like my gardening blog, I intend it for a journal and not much more.  If anyone reads it, well, fabulous. 

I guess I should start by introducing myself.  My name is Dawn, and I'm a 43 year old California Native, a wife and mom of three great kids: 21, 13 and 6, and two beautiful and talented stepdaughters: 23 and 27.  Yeah, I know.  No one spaces their kids like that on purpose, and I didn't either.  God gives us blessings and who are we to argue the timeframe in which he gives them to us? I have an amazing husband who is truly my most favorite person in the whole world, and he's handsome, too!  I'm a paraeducator for our local school district.  It's a new job for me, but I am in love with it.  I love the work, I love the kids, and I think the teacher I work with is just fantastic.  I am in a really great place in my life.  I'm also a Mormon; a follower of Jesus Christ. 


Everett and me, Christmas 2014 

These are my kids, together for the first time since Christmas, just a few weeks ago.  The girls and I traveled to Tennessee to see my son and meet his fiancée (!!!).  It was great to grab a few photo opps of them together.  Shown here are: Mariah, 6; Sean, 21; and Grace, 13 going on 21.

I would love to post a real family picture here.  However,  my stepdaughters live in Massachusetts and Connecticut, my son is in the Army in Tennessee, my daughter goes to school in Pennsylvania, and my husband, youngest daughter and I live in California.  We're home base for everyone, but they don't get here at the same time very often, so let me tell you, a family picture is pretty hard to come by!  (I'm hoping to fix that problem this December, when we have everyone in the same place for Christmas.  If I get a picture, I'll post it here for sure.  That will be a momentous occasion!!!)

I intend to use this blog to share all sorts of stuff: recipes; crazy craft ideas; a little bit about my life; and most recently - The 21 Day Fix.  The Fix was sort of a late addition to this blog - more about that later.  When I first started this blog, I wanted to document the process of teaching my youngest child to cook.  I haven't abandoned that idea, but she hasn't been as enthusiastic about it as I'd hoped, so for now, she gets small tasks that hopefully will grow into larger tasks. 

On Monday, Sept 21st, I started the BeachBody 21 day fix. My best friend, Melissa, recommended it to me, after I witnessed an amazing transformation in her, and I couldn't argue with her results. I'm no stranger to BeachBody programs.  I've been a fan of Turbo Jam and Turbo Fire for years.  I also love exercise, when I make the time for it.  I LOVE Zumba!  During the last school year, I went to Zumba every day after dropping the Pipsqueak off at Kindergarten.  Unfortunately, I haven't seen the weight loss that I really need to see. I started working, and Zumba was harder and harder to get to, and finally I stopped going.  I joined Planet Fitness, because for $10 a month, who could argue with that?!  I found quickly that I need more guidance than I get there. The 21 day fix is a great fit for me, because I'm able to eat food that I prepare, and I can work the short (but super intense, oh my goodness) workouts into my life. 

My son is getting married in December, and I really want to look fantastic for his pictures.  I don't want to look at his wedding pictures and cringe, because all I see is that 20 pounds that I have hanging around for no good reason.

So that's where we're going to start.  Wish me luck.  Follow along if you want to - I'll be here!

Be kind to one another, and be thankful every day.
Dawn