The First 43: My Life Now

It's time to work off all those holiday treats! After looking at a few monthly calendar type exercises online, and a little help from a fitness guru friend of mine, we came up with this calendar to get ourselves moving every single day in January. I am going to do this with some friends in the month of January. I thought I'd share the exercise calendar here. Each week, add in an additional set so it gets harder over the course of the month. Below the calendar you will find links to all the different exercises in case you need a refresher! If you want to make it a little tougher, add some weight to your sumo squats and lunges. Hope you all enjoyed your holidays and happy new year!   Here is how to do all the exercises: Sumo Squats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY-EQp1oAxs Crunches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyd_fa5zoEU Push – Ups (knee and regular) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7cPaJZoOng Bicycles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqoD0Bdggto

  Make this! So good!  Even Jeff who doesn't usually like this type of meal, really loved it. We will definitely make it again. I made a few adaptations to the recipe based on what I had available to me at home but I have linked the original recipe below if you want to see what I left out and add some of those back in.  I am not a huge quinoa fan so I made it with Thai jasmine rice instead which was a great substitution. Ingredients: 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces (I bought the little chicken fingers (fresh) and cut them up because it's a lot easier.)  Dash of salt and ground pepper 1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil 3 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce 2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar 2 Tbsp. honey 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tsp. cornstarch 4 stems of sliced green onions 2 tsp. sesame oil 1 tsp. sesame seeds Directions: Heat up a frying pan and put your cut up chicken breast in it to cook. About 6-8 minutes on medium/high depending on you

I love the holiday season.  So much joy and love and happiness. I am a sucker for Christmas music too.  Last year, the holidays almost gave me a full on nervous breakdown since I was deep into my weight loss journey and so close to my goal. This year, I've been trying to enjoy it more but you really don't quite grasp how many sweets there are for the taking, how much wine and other yummy alcoholic beverages are to be had and how many party appetizers end up in your stomach, until you are watching everything you eat.  Even though I've relaxed just a tiny bit, I still have to force myself to stop sometimes.  I've been trying to stick to logging in My Fitness Pal everyday (though, it's becoming more challenging now that I'm just maintaining) but I'm getting better and when I log days I skipped, I'm still within my limits which means I can manage my calories without the app now, it's really rewired my brain and taught me so much about how m