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What are those? Diet pills, OH!

If you, like me, have watched the film Empire Records at least 100 times growing up then you will recognize the title of this post as part of a bitter monologue spoken by one Renee Zellwegger. BUT I digress. I l have always liked to think that I would NEVER be one of those girls who touted colon cleansing or weird diets as the secret of success, but guys I really really like the "Renew Life" line of detox and cleanse programs. Now, I know part of it is "mind over matter." If I know I'm doing this cleanse to get healthier I WILL be successful, but honestly their products are dope. I did a TON of research before I started their 7-day total body Rapid Cleanse last year. It was wonderful - no pain, I felt really energized, and I lost 5 pounds which feels pretty nice when you're trying to kick-start a major weight loss.

Now I'm on to their 14 day "Diet Start Cleanse" and I'm feeling so good! I'm also going to (really, this time I mean it) stick to the 9 week couch to 5k workout and see where I'm at. As for diet I have doctored up a large salad that I eat as part of my lunch and dinner daily, and made a vegan cold sesame soba noodle dish that will serve as my ready-made meal throughout the week.

Full disclosure, last week I sort of hit "rock bottom" when I played Lego Harry Potter (1-4) for about 7 hours and also managed to eat 6 hot dogs in the same span of time, which was pretty much the WORST feeling in the world. That's averaging about a hot dog an hour! Let's just call it my "last hurrah." Also, I was training to beat that one guy.

Anyway, I don't know how y'all feel about cleanses and detox, but I'm definitely a convert now. Not for long periods, but definitely to get your body and mind re-set to a healthy lifestyle.

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

Lessons from The Little Engine That Could

"People who have perceived self-efficacy (that is, the belief that they can accomplish what they set out to do) perform better than those who don't." - according to research by Albert Bandura, a professor of psychology at Stanford University.

This helps explain why some complete morons can achieve great success. It's as if they don't know any better. They don't put any brain power towards doubting themselves. I need to learn from those morons...and also all the smart people who don't let doubt get in their way. They channel their energy into positive motivation, rather than over-rationalizing everything, which leads to doubt.

This concept is also summed up well by this oft-cited quote from Henry Ford: "Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

To change the way I think is going to be difficult, but I must.

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

-Ceci

#changing how you think #confidence #eliminating doubt #maintaining motivation #self-efficacy #the little engine that could #successful morons #successful people

Courtesy of greatist.com...almost all of the snacks listed in the savory category sound good to me. Cheesy breaded tomatoes? Yes, please. Only problem is I'd have a hard time stopping at the point of 100 calories or less.

Inspiration.

#powerful #strong #motivating #moving

Choosing growth is super hard.

"One can choose to go back toward safety or FORWARD towards growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again." - Abraham Maslow

First of all, who doesn't love Maslow? The Russian Jew who created the Hierarchy of Needs? He was a smart guy.

Me; sometimes I'm not so smart. Recently I've been having crazy nightmares and trouble sleeping. I think I've finally related it to a source of anxiety in my life:the goal of this blog and "BECOMING FIT".

The idea of "BECOMING FIT" is scary to me. It implies that everything you've been doing is wrong and you cannot go on the way you have been. Your brain screams "EVERYTHING MUST GO" like a furniture liquidation sale. I don't have a stellar track record with choosing growth. I have literally ran away from people and situations that were new and different because I was afraid to change. Notice I said RUN.

See, I've never really had a problem with being able to exercise or even any trouble enjoying it. I played basketball as a kid, ran cross country, and have had spurts of "look at me running 4 miles every day," but coupled with CHANGE it suddenly becomes a large dry pill I'm forcing myself to swallow. I have a sometimes crippling tendency towards the "all or nothing" approach to self-actualization. (Sorry, Maslow.)

Doing it right involves throwing away my all-or-nothing attitude; feeling perfect and happy and ready to work out doesn't happen. You have to do it because you want to do it. You have to choose to do it every day. I definitely choose food as comfort and safety instead of fitness as a way toward growth. I am 30, y'all. It's time to grow up.

My goals this week of January 9-15 are as follows:

GOAL 1: Go to the gym every day and do SOMETHING ACTIVE for at least 30 minutes.

GOAL 2: No frozen meals for lunch or dinner. Fresh foods and produce.

I'll report back on Sunday:)

Setting Goals

It has been a long, long time since I've directed any sort of discipline towards setting a goal and achieving it. In fact, I've never been much of a goal setter. I'm type A enough to make lists and be pretty organized, but just lazy enough to not really freak out when I don't check everything off my list in a timely manner. My dad always says I've never been much for delayed rewards, so basically if I don't see the fruits of my labor instantly I'm easily persuaded to direct my attention to other things.

Since college, I've admittedly been just floating along. I suppose with the lack of structure and someone telling me to do homework or finish this or that by this or that date, I've just kind of let myself be affected rather than effective. Sure, I have a job that I'm slowly but surely moving forward in and I've bought a house, etc...but neither of those things were really goals that I consciously set and achieved. They were more like things where I knew I had to have an income and a grown-up place to live, so I did what I had to do to get them.

So, needless to say, the idea of doing a half marathon in 276 days is quite daunting. I'm out of shape and have a significant amount of weight to lose. So it's not like I'm a normal sized person who decided to take up running. It's going to take some work to get me to just that starting point. Thus, I'm conscious of the goals I'm setting myself. Trying not do too much too fast, which leads to inevitable failure. So here are three goals I have set for the next month, until December 16, and I think they are achievable.

Exercise for 30 minutes at least three times a week.

Reduce my sodium intake by reducing the amount of processed food I eat.

Eat at the dinner table rather than the couch. The benefits of this goal are two-fold: It will curb my boredom eating and grazing in the evenings in front of the TV, as well as make my portion sizes more reasonable.

I'd like to hear more from people who have set big goals and achieved them, related to health and weight loss or not. Do you have any tips or tricks? How did you stay motivated? And more importantly, how did you keep the self sabotage and negative thoughts at bay? (Or the sabotage from others for that matter!)

Lastly, I thought this was a helpful little article.

#goals #discipline #achievement

MOTIVATION NEEDED!

Dear friends and followers. Help motivate us by listing your favorite workout/running songs in the comments.

We <3 you!

C & K

Admit it, you thought I was never coming back and that this blog was beyond dead. Oh, no, no, no, mon amis. It's on. It's on like Donkey Kong, biatches!

Cec

I'm getting old!

So I hurt my back while babysitting. Something about lifting kids up & down I guess!? I can't walk upright well, let alone run. Trying to just rest up & eat well. I'll resume running when I'm all mended:) -Katie

I've not forgotten...

...about this blog. Or the quest for the half marathon. It's just I've been throwing myself a pity party for the last few days.

I got some bad news on Monday in regards to some medical tests I had done. Apparently my liver is not in tip-top shape. And, no, I'm not an alcoholic. I have fatty liver related to my PCOS (and I'm sure my overall crappy eating over the last 6 years, as well). If you don't know PCOS, Google it for more details. It's a mystifying and completely annoying amalgam of symptoms which constitutes a syndrome, not a disease, and sufferers (women only) may have all symptoms or only a few--making it incredibly frustrating and difficult to diagnose with any absolute certainty.

A silver lining is that the results help explain my fatigue and why I tend to feel pretty shitty practically all the time.

Anyway, the best treatment for PCOS and the liver issues and insulin resistance and, and, and...is to lose weight and eat healthy...so onward and upward with the walk/jog/running! I do feel better when I exercise. Something about those happy endorphins. Plus, it lessens my insulin resistance. Double plus.

XOXO,

Ceci

Blah.

My workouts have stalled because I haven't felt well since Saturday. (And no, I wasn't hungover from Friday night. The parties I go to now are officially for us old folks...people bring their kids and we're all back home and in bed by 10:30. Ha!) I perked up a bit on Sunday, but still low energy. I'm going to get back to it when I feel better, though! I have not given up!!!!

Skippin'

So yesterday, Sunday, I skipped my first day of the 30/30 challenge. I was feeling exhausted and my muscles were tight. I listened to my body and it said, slow down & relax. It felt wonderful. I did walk around Wal-mart for about 30 minutes if that counts for anything. I'm still going to do my 30 runs, but I think listening to your body and resting when necessary are important for your health. This workout is more of a challenge for me than I thought. The hot weather and hilly route I've chosen have definitely added a bit more to my workout and I have to remember: I am just beginning. Anything I do is good enough. Everyday I work out is a great day! Naturally I'm picking up today where I left off.

Happy Monday!

-Katie

Day 3.66666666 complete

I completed 20 out of 30 minutes of the 30/30 training today. My friend had a Halloween costume party tonight and I was a busy bee between work and the fiesta. I left work, went to the grocery store, returned home and let the dogs out, fed them, made a bean dip to bring to the party, and finally squeezed in as much of the workout as I could before I had to shower and change into my costume. In any case, I'm still glad I completed twenty minutes. The jogging and walking intervals got my sweat on and my heart rate up, so I know it did me some good. Tomorrow I'll do the remaining .33333333 of today's workout and complete workout number 5 of the training schedule. :) Hey, some is better than none. I ain't looking for perfection, I'm just making sure I stay off my duff!

#some is better than none #Halloween #overbooked #sweat #fractions

Really needed this reminder today:)

The peanut gallery, please?

So I think (think) I enabled comments so please write lots & lots! We <3 YOU!!

-Katie

Lunch-ness

This whole exercising thing has me on a kick to eat healthier, too. The way I see it, they go hand in hand.

I admit that I don't cook often. I'm more of an "assembler" of food. I'm more inclined to slice and dice things to supplement a frozen meal rather than cook everything from scratch. The crockpot and soup pot are my friends, too, because making meals in those is easy peasy. Think of me as more of a "Sandra Lee semi-homemade" type. ('Cept I don't look like her.)

I know it's healthier to make your food from scratch, grow a garden, source local, yadda yadda, but when it comes down to it I don't have the desire nor funds to do all my shopping at Whole Foods and to spend an hour or more cooking every day. Good on ya' to those who do. Don't get me wrong, I still care to have real food and healthy options, I just put convenience and ease at the top of my list. Thus, there's a lot of al fresco type dining at my house. I can assemble a mean sandwich and veggie spread.

Also, it's not that I don't like to cook, it's that cooking for a single gal is a pain. You can only reduce a recipe to so few portions before it gets tedious and ridiculous, and cooking in bulk and freezing meals so I can eat the same thing for two weeks is not how I roll. I get bored.

Anyway, after that unnecessarily long intro, today's topic is lunch. I work a regular 9-5, so the typical conundrum is go out or bringing a lunch. Bringing a lunch requires preparation, and I tend to get lazy and don't regularly go to the grocery store so sometimes it's slim pickins'. Thus, I fairly regularly go out for lunch at Subway and get a foot long sub for $5 and eat half one day and the other the next. Or I bring frozen meals to work or a can of soup or frozen Amy's burrito.

Today I was pleasantly surprised by my most recent frozen meal acquisition: Delitefuls Salmon Florentine Alfredo. Delitefuls are sold at Walmart and come in a series of different flavors. Salmon Florentine Alfredo, Mediterranean Medley Cod, Rajun Cajun Crawfish, Swai Caribbean BBQ, Shrimp Bowtie Scampi, and Tilapia Tango Mango. (I've only tried the salmon florentine, so I can't opine about the others). For about $5.50 you get two servings in individual bags, so one meal = $2.75--not bad. Microwave for 5.5 minutes and voila. Bon appetit!

I like it because it has a good amount of protein, nice flavor (of course I added hot sauce because I'd add that to ice cream, let's be honest), and is portioned for lunch at 210 calories. Of course I suggest supplementing the meal with yogurt, a side salad, a piece of fruit, etc because 210 calories does not a lunch make.

Anyway, I hope this helps for those of you on the same quest for healthy, convenient, easy foods!

Ciao,

Ceci

P.S. Final note, I wasn't paid or prompted for this review in any way. I just wanted to share my thoughts.

This video clip is posted in honor of the underdogs (K-dizzle and myself) taking on a seemingly impossible athletic goal. If these dorks can do it, so can we! :)

I think The Benchwarmers movie from 2006 is underrated. While it is not Academy Award worthy, it has some nice comedic zingers. I still love this scene...I tend to quote the athlete-as-a-three-syllable-word part in my everyday life. Hope this makes you laugh, too.

Sorry the video has that text in the center. This was the best I could find on YouTube.

#amazazing #athalete #funny #the benchwarmers

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Half-assed; running our fat a-weigh!