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Merry Christmas!

Good morning everyone! I hope Santa was good to you but more importantly, I hope you get to spend the holidays with your loved ones. Maybe it's because I grew up without expensive gifts but I feel that Christmas should be about getting to be with and enjoying spending time with you friends and family. I'm very blessed that I have an amazing family and I love being with them. We also play lots of fun games: tomorrow I'm crossing my fingers for Payday and Cards Against Humanity. I doubt we'll play the latter due to it being fairly offensive haha. It's so funny though! (You can actually download the PDF online and print them off). As much as I love the holidays, I can't wait to be back on track with eating clean. I've gained so much jiggly back on my stomach and thighs, I'm so disappointed in myself. It's no one's fault but my own because I should have the will power to say "NO!". I guess this will be a New Year's resolution for me s

Slacking and disappointment

Well, I realized today how long it had been since I posted on here. I haven't had much to write about and to be honest I've terrible with my diet lately. I've still been working out regularly but my will power seems to have disappeared. I used to be able to say no to desserts and sweets easily and be happy with my decision. But lately I just can't say no :( I've also been going through some life changes and dealing with a lot of stress, which I will write about in the New Year. Hang tight friends and happy Holidays to all of you. Wherever you are, I hope you get to spend this time of year surrounded by people that love you. Remember, family doesn't mean blood related. Family is anyone that you love and respect and are big parts of your life. Here's a link I found for some variations of oatmeal since I eat EVERY morning. Yes, even on weekends ;) pumped up Oatmeal: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/nutrition/delicious-oatmeal-recipes

Roasted Red Pepper Chicken Breast

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Hello everyone! I haven't uploaded anything in a while because I didn't have much to say =/ I've been fairly busy and haven't done anything exciting. Tonight (which is now the other night since I keep procrastinating finishing this post) I made a really yummy dinner and it hit the spot. I thawed out some chicken breasts last night and threw them in a container and poured some Kraft Red Pepper dressing on them and let them marinate over night. I cooked them at 400F for 25+ minutes and served them with some baby spinach and Kraft Asian Sesame dressing and sweet pickled beets. I was going to have some of my PC frozen yogurt but I've had so much sugar already today that I decided against it. Some evil person at work brought in a tin of Quality Street chocolates and I haven't been able to control myself. Other than that my diet has been really good lately. I used to eat 5-6 small meals a day around 300 calories each but when I was in Jamaica we were eating onl

Grocery Shopping!!

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  Holy! My fridge was empty today. I did some grocery shopping a few days before I left and a lot of it went bad. I wasn't really thinking of how few days I was going to be leaving in when I went previously. I still can't get over how much more expensive it is to shop in the winter but luckily I'm able to afford this lifestyle. I prefer eating healthy because it makes me feel great and doesn't hurt my stomach. So here is the list of food I bought today. Most of it will last the week and some for a bit longer. Don't mind the mess on top of and under the table. I haven't had time to clean since I got home from Jamaica, lol. From left to right: 2 dozen eggs $1.99 ea  - they were on sale for $1.99 each and I love eggs. They're my go-to when I need food NOW and they're great to throw in salads. 5 large bananas $1.70  - I use half for my oatmeal in the morning and the rest for either a snack at night or with cereal. I buy the large ones so I

Jamaica!!

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Hello everyone! What a great trip. It was so much fun to see all my family and celebrate such a beautiful event. I'm so happy I was invited and was able to make it. I did bring my workout gear and interval timer with the intention of working out every day but we had visiting to do! I did manage to create a Bodyrock workout to do in my hotel room: pushups, ab tuck, tricep dips, 2 jacks & 2 switch lunges. I did this on Sunday because we got there late on  Saturday night. I also got in a Turbo Fire HIIT 15 minute workout that I managed to find on youtube (most of the video) on Monday after the ceremony and before the dinner. I also danced the whole friggin' night on Monday, haha. I drank more than my fair share of calories that night though and ended up losing my phone and camera (along with the 300+ pictures I had already taken). We also went on a catamaran excursion on Wednesday that took us snorkeling and to Dunn's river falls. The hike up the falls was an hour bu

Educate yourself!!! Eat properly!

Someone on the Bodyrock app posted this link yesterday. I found it really cool and it is important for a lot of people to read. A lot of people seem to think you need to starve yourself and workout hours a day. Read Staci's story, it is incredible: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/ Cheers for now!! -- Kelsey

Balsamic Chicken Breast

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The past few nights I have been eating supper very late - like after 9:00PM. Now I know it's probably not good to eat so close to bed time, but I have to eat something right?! So last night I had thawed some chicken breast and I didn't feel like making a stir fry. I took a look in my cupboard and I saw the balsamic vinegar I got from my dad that I hadn't really used yet. I put about 1-2 tablespoons in a small bowl and mixed it up with an equal amount of olive oil. I put the 3 chicken breasts in a small casserole dish and seasoned them with salt and pepper, garlic powder, and my Oh So Onion seasoning. I then poured the oil and vinegar over them and moved the chicken around to get the oil underneath them so they didn't stick. I remembered I had minced garlic in the fridge so I sprinkled a little bit on top of each one. I also sprinkled rosemary on top too. Preheat your oven to 350F and cover the dish with aluminum foil. I cooked them for 20 minutes and checked on the

4 more sleeps!

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Hello everyone! Only 4 more sleeps until I can plant my butt on the beach with my toes in the sand and a beer in my hand. (I really didn't mean for that to rhyme lol). I'm going to have this song on repeat on my iPod =D: I have been very good with my diet and I only had 2 goodies yesterday: one Bounty coconut chocolate bar piece and 1/4 cup of my President's Choice caramel pecan crunch frozen yogurt <-- this is as awesome as it sounds. Here is my food journal from yesterday: I log my pre workout snack with my afternoon snack, even though they are usually 2-3 hours apart. Last night I didn't end up eating dinner until 9:30 because I went grocery shopping with my mom and fit in a 15 minute HIIT workout from Turbo Fire. I wasn't going to do one because it was so late but I figured I could manage a 15 minute workout. 15 minutes is better than nothing :) Tonight my mama wants to do a workout together and then

Food Journal - back on track

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Good morning everyone! I just realized how much I love the clocks going back. I got a good amount of sleep, slept in, and it's still early!! =D I have time for so many activites! (Step Brothers reference lol) I started using MyFitnessPal again because I feel like I was losing track of what I was eating and that I was getting careless. I started again on Friday so here is my food journal from Friday, Nov 2. (Yes, that is a McDonald's McBistro sandwich on there. I went shopping with my mom and we were famished. I voted for Subway but she is a member of Curves and the swiss mushroom sandwich is on their list of 'allowed' foods for eating out. I did ask for no sauce but they basically threw the ingredients into a box. I had to assemble my sandwich myself. Even the meat was folded in half. I was very disappointed. My mom's was perfect though :/) I remembered one of the reasons I stopped using it is because it made me feel guilty for going over my ca

Work out with my Mama

Hello! Last night was so fun. I had asked my mom if she could drive me to the store to put money on my laundry card (I have no car for now because mine got written off in July) and she was going to drop me off and be on her way but she had some time to kill and was hungry so I told her I had some chicken breast thawed out to make a stir fry but I wanted to do my workout first. She came in with the intention of making the stir fry while I worked out because she has been feeling fatigued since she also got her needles for travel, but she had 4!!! I don't know how she did it lol. She ended up doing Turbo Fire HIIT 25 minutes with me and it was so fun. I thought I liked working out by myself but it is rather fun with a workout buddy. It's funny too because I have limited space but we work so well together we knew how to coordinate when we were supposed to turn. We'll have to do this more often :) We then made the stir fry together, well, she started the chicken while we

10 more sleeps!

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Holy cow! Only 10 more sleeps until I leave for Jamaica. Time just flew by. I finally got a workout done last night since the last time I worked out was Saturday. These hives are just driving me crazy and I just wish I knew what was causing them :( Here some pictures and these are only 4 of them - they've been popping up all over, mostly on my arms and hands lately but they started with a few on my right ankle and calf. It felt so great to workout last night! I did the  FU Fat Ass  workout from Bodyrock.tv - one of my faves from them but I switched the frog jumps for switch kicks (from Dripping with Sweat) and I did Turbo Fire 30 minute workout. I also went to the doc last night to get one of my Twinrix shots for my trip and a tetanus shot, and almost fainted lol. I've never had a reaction like that before. I got very light headed and hot/sweaty. We're having a food day here at work today and I had a bit of all the goodies. I've been eating really good

19 weeks of working out!

I realized today that I usually take progress pictures in the middle of the month and somehow it's the end of October?!?!?! How did this happen? Time just seems to fly by. So I took my progress pictures before my workout today and I realized as I was putting them together that I took them in the mirror today when I turned the camera towards myself in the previous ones. I am far too lazy to re-do them today, so perhaps tomorrow haha. Click  here  to see my updated progress pictures. I removed some of the in between ones because they were becoming quite wide on the screen. I want to add them back in further down the page but my browsers (yes, plural) aren't showing the pictures in the editor which are making me quite angry. I have a quiche in the oven and I may post pictures but I haven't decided how "clean" it is lol. It has butter, milk, and Bisquick but I added quite a few veggies. I also once again find myself doing nothing on a night where almost every

Dining out, be smart

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Good morning! Yesterday I went shopping with my mummy for her birthday so it was an 'active' rest day if you count power walking through the mall for 4 hours as active haha. I bought some cute stuff but I'm realizing I don't want to buy jeans since I could be losing another size soon. I bought a medium swim suit bottom in the boy shorts style, and they're actually loose at the bottom of my cheeks. I guess I should start trying stuff on since I have no idea where I am on the size charts now. As much as I enjoyed shopping (for once), I want to write about the decisions I made last night while eating at a restaurant. I really wanted my favorite dish - fettucini alfredo, but I pushed my will power and said, "NO!" Instead I ordered the cobb salad (at Montana's) and got the cheese on the side and ordered balsamic dressing on the side instead of the ranch dressing it states on the menu. It was amazing! (I should have taken a picture before I started m

A new challenge

Good evening! Phew! What a day. Vacuumed and mopped, emptied the dishwasher, loaded it up again, washed all other dishes, changed my guinea pig's cage, cleaned litter box, took out recycling and all garbage, and did my workout! I should sleep good tonight, but I'm not hopeful since I rarely have a good sleep. (I've actually started taking my iron pills again because my doc kind of scolded me again.) Today I made baked apples with minimal butter and sugar, but with rolled oats and raisins :) They were pretty awesome. I was being self critical today and I'm still really not happy with my tummy. I feel like I eat pretty clean and I don't understand why I can't lose more of the fat layer on top of my abs. When ever I think this, I hear my cousin's voice saying, "You need to eat more vegetables!" Like I said in my previous post, I have cut back on sugar instead of just cutting myself off so a challenge that I think I can handle is I'm going to eat

My welcome back workout =D

Hello!! Today my hives seem to be under control and aren't bothering me as much. I'm very excited to do my workout right away. I wanted a good arm workout to do with my Turbo Fire so I watched the new Bodyrock videos and I liked different moves from each video so I chose some of them and made my own workout. Push up & ski abs 7, 5, 5 2 hops on left leg, 2 hops on right leg, 4 scissor jacks (jump rope) 11, 12, 13 2 ab tucks, L&R oblique lift, V abs (EQ) 4, 3, 4 squat & press, clean & press (sandbag) 8, 7, 8 and I'm going to do my Turbo Fire 30 minute class. If I feel I can handle it, I'm going to also do the Turbo HIIT 15 minute class because it looks super fun. I did Turbo Fire HIIT 20 minute class. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Chalene Johnson is a friggin' genious. Her workouts are so fun, have great music, and make you want to move and work as hard as you can. I also like how Turbo Fire has a 10 minute and a 40 minute stretch class - great for peop

Another rest day

Siiiiiiiiggggggghhhhh.... I'm taking another rest day. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body when it's telling you it's had enough and needs a break. These skin irritations are making me an unpleasant person - they're the kind of burning pain that just make you want to make angry sounds. I finally went to the doctor and got 2 different kinds of cream but obviously they aren't going to work in one day. Depending how these things feel tomorrow I may just take the one extra day. I'm going to smash out the first two new workouts though on Saturday for sure. I need a good butt kicking after all this rest. I am still sticking to a clean diet though and I actually feel like I've lost some fat on my tummy which is *awesome* because that's where I want to see the most burn. Do you take a rest day when you need it? Or do you push through and do a lighter workout? Take care, -- Kelsey (October 19, 2012: I'd like every one to know that it i

Hives... =(

I'm missing another workout tonight. I'm not very happy about this but I think my body needs rest. I missed Monday's workout to spend time with a friend and her daughter who I haven't seen in a few months. Last week I started breaking out in hives. At first I thought they were spider bites or some other bite, but they look more like hives. They're sporadic on my body (legs, ankles, 1 on my lower back, 1 on my neck, 1 on my face, two on each arm) and are almost perfectly circular with a little water blister in the middle. I've been using hydrocortisone cream for the past week and taking allergy pills but they don't seem to help with the itch =( They're driving me crazy!!! This morning I woke up and the one on my inner bicep is huge! It's probably 2 inches in diameter. Hopefully I can get in to see my doctor tomorrow because I don't know how much more of the itch I can take. Please do a work out for me and cross your fingers that this clears

3 weeks - no sugar challenge!?!

I am going to Jamaica on November 10 and it really just hit me how close it is! (*squeal*) I've never been any where before, never mind somewhere hot. The furthest south I've been is Grand Forks, ND, haha. I started working out June just to be healthier and because I really wasn't happy with the shape I was in. I was "skinny fat". It bothered me (and still does) when people would ask, "Why do you workout? You're so skinny." Why can't people who don't exercise regularly understand that just because you're not obese, doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of yourself? Or just accept that even though I'm smaller than you,  I'm not happy with where I am. It's not like I was doing anything wrong or unhealthy - I was exercising and eating lots of healthy yummy food. Any ways, I started working out just because I wanted to feel better about myself and stop my weight gain before it was out of control. Then I realized I

It's a Soupy kind of day =)

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Chicken Noodle Soup It's that time of year again where a hot bowl of chili or soup is such a comforting thing. Today I was craving a hearty soup. I don't really care about meat in my soup so I just used bouillon. I had some celery that I had cut up a few months ago when I couldn't use all the celery I had in my fridge; so I chopped the stalks up and threw them in the freezer for a day like today. Ingredients: 1/3 c. chopped celery 1/3 c. chopped up baby carrots 1/3 c. chopped onion small russet potato 3 tsp Better than bouillon - chicken flavor (from Costco) 1/4 c. Uncle Ben's brown rice 1/4 c. Yolkess egg noodles (broken in half because they're fairly big) herbs & spices: rosemary basil oregano parsley small bay leaf (I threw in a few others but I forget, sorry!!) In a small pot I had on low-medium heat, I put some extra virgin olive oil and added the chopped onion. I seasoned with salt and pepper. After a few minutes I added the chopped celery and c

I fit my pants!!

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Happy Saturday everyone! I usually save my cleaning for the weekend so I was tidying up before I do my workout and I found a pair of jeans I haven't been able to fit into since the day I bought them! They are the same size as the other pair I bought at the same time, but for whatever reason these were a smaller fit. I couldn't get them passed my thighs. They are still a bit tight but I can fit into them! They are a size 5. Yay!! I love seeing the results and knowing that I'm making my body healthier is a good feeling too. There are so many health problems that can be solved by eating clean and exercise. Even if you're not working out to be toned, you should at least exercise to treat your body the way it should be and take care of yourself. You only live once: do it right so you can live your life to the fullest potential and be the best you possible. How far have you come? What changes have you made or are you making to better yourself? Please share! -

My typical daily food plan

Okay, so here is what I typically eat in a day. It's definitely NOT the cleanest but it is better than what I was previously eating. This is what is helping me tone up but I'm not seeing the results I want yet so I have to cut out some more fruits, dairy, and breads/cereals. I usually eat a lot of the same things because it's easy to go grocery shopping and easy to prepare stuff. Once I get sick of these I will come up with other things to mix in my daily menu =) Breakfast (before I leave for work) 1/3 (dry) quick oats 3/4 c. unsweetened almond milk half a banana sliced on top (I keep the other half for my cereal at night) I mix it with the following (not all at once lol): raisins unsweetened coconut frozen blueberries and/or frozen raspberries/strawberries walnuts honey or maple syrup (sometimes I don't even add either of these in) 1/4 of an apple chopped into small pieces cinnamon cocoa powder so many options!!! Snack PC Blue Menu finesse yogurt

Thanksgiving

Hello! Well, it's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and I can NOT wait for all the yummy food. Of course I can't wait to see my family too, they're pretty cool :) I keep track of my workouts on Google calendar and I realized that most of September I only worked out 4 days a week. I feel a bit disappointed in myself because I did so good in July with working out 5 days a week. I have to start working out in the morning because life just is just too busy after work, and that is when I prefer to workout. I have worked out 2 or 3 times before work recently and I really didn't enjoy it. I am definitely NOT a morning person, but I also didn't like being pressed for time. I like being able to warm up and cool down as needed. Also, the sweat just doesn't seem to stop!! I have a shower and I'm still sweating. I work a late shift this week though so I'm going to (try to) use the extra hour and a half to do my workout before I leave. I hope everyon

Progress update

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After my workout today, I felt really strong and really good. I decided to take some back pictures to see if it looked different. I don't think I actually have any back pictures from before but I felt pretty good about this one :) I added 5 pounds to my sandbag a month ago, so I'm up to 20lbs now. And I started being able to do real pushups a few weeks ago. I didn't do a fit test today but I did a workout I haven't done in two months. Here are the results! Powerful RTS Bodyrock video: Here's a picture of my back muscles!!! So exciting what your body is capable of when you push yourself :)  Check out my food page  for a new meal idea for veggies!! Thanks for reading :) -- Kelsey

A new feeling!

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Hello all! Yesterday was kind of exciting for me. I've always been a tom boy and despised skirts, dresses, pantyhose, etc. When I was little I would actually cry when my mom made me put on a dress and leggings. The few times that I did wear a dress, I felt completely uncomfortable and it shows in the pictures I look at. This is a picture of me dressed up for my birthday last year (December 2011) wearing a dress that my friend bought for me. I can tell that I'm a bit awkward and really not digging it. However, yesterday I was actually excited to wear a dress now that I'm noticing the awesome changes my body is making from all this hard work. I actually have a shapely butt. My thighs actually have muscle definition on the front. And I don't feel as self conscious about my tummy. (I'm still working on this, but this is the part of my body that I'm the least happy with). Here are the pictures of me from yesterday! I feel like I don't look awkwar

Arms and Abbies workout

Last night I just couldn't find a workout that I wanted to do. I want to start focusing on my arms more since I see everyone on the BR app has these amazing toned arms. (Check out Sarah's at www.lovesimply.ca , they're pretty awesome). So I made a workout so I could also use my equalizers since I feel like I haven't been using them like I should be. 3 rounds, 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest burpee with pushup and upright row (sandbag) leg swing, back lunge, and ab tuck (equalizer) (swing your leg over the equalizer or chair) clean & press, squat and press (sandbag) hanging knee raises (equalizer) It was a great workout and I put on some good music (see my workout playlist tab) to jam to as a warm up and as some extra cardio at the end for a total workout of 25 minutes. Lots of sweat but I seem to be a really sweaty person lol. Good luck and let me know what you think of the workout if you do it! :) -- Kelsey

Insanity - Update

So... I did the Insanity fit test on Sunday and did the first workout on Monday. I thought Bodyrock made me sweat... I was proved once again the amounts of perspiration my body could emit. Now having said that, for the past year I've only been washing my hair every second day because it's long and it fries the ends. I have decided that I'm only going to do Insanity every second day (the evening before I wash my hair) because I felt so gross on Tuesday. I started writing this post on Thursday (and it's now 1:31AM on Sunday morning) and I did Insanity again today. I've only done it 3 times since Sunday but I swear that my stomach feels firmer. My diet could certainly be a bit cleaner so I haven't gotten the six pack results but I feel like these workouts are going to help A LOT! People often think they can just do crunches and that will tone up their midsection. From lots of research and experience, cardio and diet are what is going to help you achieve a flat

Workout Nutrition - The Ultimate Guide

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I found this on Pinterest today. I've been doing this all wrong! I'm also happy to see that chocolate milk is "allowed" lol. I've confirmed this is good with my cousin who is in university taking classes for a dietician. http://greatist.com/health/the-complete-guide-to-workout-nutrition/

Insanity!

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Good morning all! Yesterday I completed my fit test for Insanity, and it kicked my butt. I'm so excited to try these workouts because they are longer than Bodyrock and I prefer to follow a video that has a warm up and cool down already made up for me. I'm excited too because it will be 8 weeks long and I leave for Jamaica in 9 weeks! Let's get the body beach ready haha. I took progress pictures on Saturday so I'm also anxious to see what changes will take place. Cheers! -- Kelsey Fit test:

13 weeks since I started Bodyrocking!

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I realized today that it has been a while since I took progress pictures. It really helps when you take pictures and measure yourself rather than going by weight. I do still weigh myself, but more out of curiosity than to gauge my progress. Here are the pictures!! (I should have tried getting a better picture of my legs)

Those damn carbs!!

I feel pretty lucky that there are quite a few people I work with that are into health and fitness too. I was discussing diet and food with one of my colleagues and she said that she can't give up carbs because she always feels hungry without them. I almost laughed because I WAS THE SAME WAY!! I was always convinced that I would not be able to feel full without my glorious breads, pastas, etc. I think I was partially saying this because I couldn't stand the thought of giving up my favorite food - perogies. However, now that I'm on my way to cleaning up my diet (still a work in progress definitely) I am happy to report that it is possible! I had my serious doubts that veggies, fruits, and anything that didn't have grains would actually fill me up. I'm by no means saying that it was easy, it was torture for me actually, but after the first week it definitely got easier. I used to have my McDonald's egg McMuffin (with no meat) and a hashbrown EVERY week day. In

Camping and hiking!

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I'm disappointed because I was really looking forward to working out outside but it's been fairly cold out (and raining) BUT we went on a nice long hike. Lots of hills and rocks to climb. Our home away from home :) Can you tell I liked the purple flowers? lol. I'm addicted to purple if you haven't noticed yet. :) I hope you all have a great weekend!! -- Kelsey