The First 43: My Life Now

I ran my very first 5k!! It was the Color Me Rad run which originally started in the US and they've started to bring it to different Canadian cities now too.  Proceeds went to Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I ran the whole thing, some parts slower than others, but I got through it! They colour bomb you every kilometer so you end up looking like a rainbow by the end.  It was a lot of fun, here are some photos from the run! It's just coloured corn starch so, after a good long shower, I am happy to report that I am now colour free!

  Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Smoothie! Peanut butter was this weeks Iron Chef ingredient. It tastes like a Banana and Peanut Butter sandwich to be honest, just without the bread! I looked at a few recipes and here is how I made it: Ingredients: 1 banana 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt 1/2 cup 1% milk 1 tbsp of peanut butter 1 tsp honey 4 ice cubes Directions: Throw it all into the blender, set it to smoothie and voila, liquid breakfast. Calories: 327 per glass/serving I will say that this smoothie actually kept me full until lunch time, not all smoothies I make have quite that effect. I'll definitely make this again.  *Note: A couple recipes I looked at also included protein powder. If you're looking for a little extra you could definitely add that in.

I love me some Buffalo Chicken Dip, but even the skinny versions calories add up. The price of chicken these days also hurts.  I saw a few recipes online for Buffalo Cauliflower Dip and I thought I'd give it a shot.  I combined a few recipes to make my own so, here it is. It is really good, Jeff said he prefers the chicken version because it has chicken in it but he's been happily snacking on it. This is definitely a good, lighter, alternative. Ingredients: 1 head of cauliflower (grated by hand or in the food processor) 1 cup of Franks Red Hot (or whichever hot sauce you prefer) 1 cup of light sour cream 1/3 cup of light ranch dressing  125 grams of fat free cream cheese 1 tsp of white wine vinegar Directions: Heat up the grated cauliflower and hot sauce on stove top.  Once heated through, add cream cheese.  Once melted add sour cream, white wine vinegar and ranch dressing.  Heat until lightly simmering and let simmer for a few minutes.  Serve! Calories: 42 calor

When I first started taking this whole health and fitness thing seriously my brother would constantly remind me that I couldn't just keep doing cardio all the time, I needed to get some lifting in too. It didn't need to be heavy lifting but, enough to challenge me. Often times I find that women shy away from weight lifting and stick to lots and lots of cardio. In April, I was reminded just how important it is when I was working on toning my arms. Those results don't come from running or biking but from weight lifting. It also came from using my own body weight for resistance. It didn't make me bulk up, just toned. I know a lot of women are fearful of weight lifting because they think it will make them bigger. I can't say this has been the case for me at all.  Trust me, I was so concerned I was going to end up with bigger thighs! The other great thing is your body burns calories for longer after you work out when lifting weights (thanks for that tidbit Josh!) so

Brought to you by skinnytaste ! So Delicious! I decided to give it a try this weekend. Things I did differently because I used what I had were as follows: Butternut Squash soup instead of puree (no food processor at the cottage), dry sage instead of fresh, and I skipped the shallots and arugula. Even with all those changes, it tasted fantastic. Everyone loved it (everyone being my husband and parents) and I will definitely make more of it very soon. You can find the recipe at:  http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/10/butternut-squash-risotto.html The way I prepared it came to 120 calories per 1/3 of a cup.

After holding steady for weeks with my weight loss, I seem to be back on track.  Another pound lost this week!  This means only 2 more pounds until my current goal of 58lbs lost.  I'm also counting down to the Color Me Rad run on June 22 - let's hope it doesn't rain! It also means I need to get another 5k in this week, maybe tonight. The ticker at the top of the page is broken if you look at that for updates. MyFitnessPal is having technical difficulties. I really want it to read my total weight loss! Here are some photos of me before and me now.  The first photo is December 2011 and April 2013 and the second photo is December 2011 and June 2013.

I saw this today as I was on Pinterest. I though it was great. The definition of self respect form the perspective of health, fitness and mental well being. I think a lot of the time we don't really focus on what self respect really means to us or what is involved in respecting yourself. A big part of why I decided to make the changes in my life that I did was because I felt that I no longer cared about myself and that I needed to change that, I needed to respect who I was as much as I respected those around me. So, when I saw this today, it jumped out of my computer screen at me. This really captures and defines what I consider self respect to be.  I think the most important item though is the very last letter "T"... "Tell yourself you can do this." Setting your mind to it is 90% of the battle.

I think it's important to treat ourselves every once in awhile, life is no fun without a little sugar treat!  This weekend, I decided to make a "decorate your own cupcake" bar when a few friends came over this weekend. It was a big hit and super delicious.  I think I will probably do this again (thanks to Pinterest for the idea!) I warmed up the vanilla icing in thee Little Dipper (mini crockpot), left the cupcakes plain and put out Smarties, gummy bears, chocolate sprinkles and rainbow sprinkles. They were almost completely gone by the end of the night. As a side note, I also lost a pound this week. Not that it is any major accomplishment but it's been about 8 weeks since I've lost any weight. I've been maintaining and hovering around the same weight but, I finally broke it!  This means I've lost a total of 55lbs!  I'm eating about 1550 calories per day when I don't exercise (which means I should lose half a pound a week but, I'm not.) I