Day 6 - Day 11 Day Overwhelming

According to Wikipedia, Procrastination is the following;
Procrastination refers to the counterproductive deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.^[1] Schraw, Wadkins, and Olafson have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.<sup>[2]

I always thought that procrastination was just avoiding something you know needs to be done. I think feeling guilt over not getting everything done in a single day could be unwarranted.  It's about knowing your priorities and setting (key word coming), REALISTIC goals. So how do we do that....or learn to do that easily?
Here are some tips I found on the internet and some of my own;
1.) Most websites will say start small and work your way up. In other words if you want to be a Gold Medalist and have never been in any sports your whole life, this is considered an unrealistic goal and you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. You can start small by getting involved in some sort of sport and finding what appeals to you. Go from there.
2.) Create a time -line and dates for small achievable goals to be completed to build confidence.
3.) Make sure your goals are for you and your priorities based off of what you want for your life. These goals have to be for you! They cannot come from pressure from others to be something other than what you truly are. Obviously goals to help your family are great, but they have to be because that is what you want to do.
4.) Solveyourproblem.com says to make sure to "motivate" yourself. Find ways to motivate yourself when going for a goal. The goal itself should be motivating. 
5.) Get specific with your goals. 
6.) Have a few goals at a time, rather than too many which can cause overload. It's important to know your priorities. 
What do you do to achieve your goals?
Any good stories you want to share on my blog?</sup>

Day 5 Oct. 7 - Hope

It's time to re-invent and re-vamp the old self and come in with the revitalized self you love! You're still you even if your bogged down by stress, possibly extra weight, guilt, anger...whatever angst...it's time to learn how to handle life again! If you're like me it seems like there isn't enough time, but the truth is there really is time for you. There is time for you to be happy and successful. In a way as I write this I am empowering myself and repeating this self-help advice to myself in my head. Sometimes you have to empower yourself to make the necessary changes to be happy.
 They say that working out can be addictive, keep you happy, increase your confidence, keep you healthy, and is a must as a human being. The key is to find something fun that allows you to stay in shape and keep at it. I am seeking to find my happy, fulfilling workout. How about you what do you like to do to keep in shape? Your suggestions are helpful to others!

Absolutely yum quick snack

What You'll Need;
2 Trader Joe's Lightly Salted Rice Cakes (or any thick low cal rice cakes)
1 Can of Tuna in water
Fresh Ground Pepper
Lemon Pepper

How to Make It;
1.) Prepare tuna salad in bowl, add any ingredients you want but I just used a shake or two of lemon pepper and ground up pepper into the mix. Season to taste you know? Then mix ingredients together
2.) Spread on one rice cake, and cover with the other like a sandwich.

Then I had a bottle of water with it. :)

Day 4 Recovery

Portion control...we hear that and we think possibly, "I can't eat very much."
But I notice it's not only what, but when we eat.
One of the biggest pitfalls of dieting is binging, typically brought on by deprivation. However you may be dealing with these too...
1. Eating Late night (A former professional trainer advised me to not eat anything 5 hours before you go to bed if you can help it)
2. Emotional Eating
3. Eating when your bored
4. Not understanding portion sizes
5. Starvation rather than moderation
6. Your body may be full of junk if your going Vegan and you may need a cleanse.
(I will get into cleanses on another post...there's so much hype..you have to know what and why your trying to cleanse)

Regarding emotional eating, you may be addicted to sugar because it creates a dopamine release in the brain. Yes! Sugar can be chemically addictive similarly to the effects of heroine. Amazing. Caffeine, salt and other chemically engineered types of foods/additives like high fructose corn syrup have all had scientific studies showing a link with addiction.
I noticed that when I'm on the go I may not have a lot of time and I naturally loose weight. However, being home and "kickin it", being idle, may cause you to eat out of boredom. Let's not forget that America is one of the few countries (besides France) that has passionate love affairs with rich foods.
A workout fiend hottie at my work gave me a great tip for all you late night workers like me btw. He said he lives on Tuna. Now I'm vegan yes, but I'm actually what a true Vegan would call Pescatarian, which means I still eat fish. If your strict, he suggested having celery, BUT with mustard and maybe a little Topatio.
2 reasons, the heat from the hot sauce will cause you to burn calories and the celery and mustard is pretty much 0 calories. For me, I did a can of tuna last night with vegan mayonnaise, lemon, and pepper. It was delish! I only ate until I was satisfied and drank a TON OF WATER with it.

Day 3 Denial

I was denied for a job I was excited about recently, and hired for one unexpectedly. Life seems jumbled.

With so much stress regarding our economy, jobs, and security as we know it, working out seems like the last thing on our minds.

I read in 24 Hour Fitness Magazine that if you go to the gym "5 times a week, you will see results." So why do we not go?
Maybe many reasons, but mostly those reasons ring similarly in my ears like excuses.
Lack of knowledge...my bad..fixable with effort and time
Lack of time...it's not hard to schedule 20 minutes somewhere in the course of the day.
It's not fun....the trainer at the gym told me that until I find a way to make it fun, or find a fun way to work out it will delay my results.

If you really want something you take the good with the bad. If you really want something you find a way. It's true.

Day 2 of Vegan Challenge

Starting weight 175

Saw the movie Social Network. It got me thinking...We all have a gift. We might be good at several things, but there is one thing by which we are truly gifted. Mark Zucherburg's was programming. Mine is singing. How we choose to integrate that gift into our daily lives defines our existence while we are here, on earth. What a great honor we can do ourselves, the universe, God, whatever you believe in, if we choose to homage that gift and give our lives to its realization.

Vegan Ceasar and Vegan Pizza

Easy, not too hard to make, delicious meal.
You don't have to be vegan to enjoy this either. It's just an extremely, healthy way to enjoy these two favorite dishes!

Vegan Pizza
Ingredients;
1 bag of Trader Joes whole wheat pizza dough - follow instructions
( I imagine you can easily make your own dough if you want but this is very quick)
2-3 handfuls of flour (To form the shape of the pizza)
1 Jar of Trader Joe's Tomato sauce (unbelievable delish and quick! plus its 100% safe for vegans)
1/3 Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Alternative
1/2 Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack Cheese Alternative

ANY Toppings you want!
I used
1 half a red onion
1 whole yellow onion
Fresh mushrooms
Fresh organic Broccoli florets
3 cloves (small part of the garlic) of fresh Garlic
3 small Japanese Eggplants (if your using traditional eggplant I would say maybe less than half would be equal to what I used)
1 small yellow squash
They look like this....



Directions;
1) Follow directions for dough on package; let dough stand for 20 minutes. While slicing your fresh veggies.
2) Blanch Vegetables. Use Soup Pot or just large pot to boil water on high for ten minutes. Reduce heat to med and blanch veggies. Wait until vegetables are about a little more then half done. Strain and prepare to use as a topping later.
3) To form pizza use large surface that you've lightly floured..although I had to use two to three handfuls minimum. Use rolling pin to stretch and form by hand into round shape.
4) Lightly sauce pizza, not too much! Enough to cover the pizza until the middle portion is pretty much sauced and red.
5) Place toppings and grate cheese.
6) Hopefully you were clever and pre-heated your oven like the dough package said to 450 Degrees on Bake.
7) My pizza took about 20 minutes.

This is a great dish to make Sunday night and eat it for Monday and Tuesday. You can easily heat it up! You get to have pizza whenever you want!

Easy Vegan Caesar Salad w/ BEETS....mmmmmm
Omega Vegan Caesar Dressing
Romaine Lettuce
Sauteed Beets
Fresh Ground Pepper
Fresh Grated Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella Cheese Alternative

1) prepare beets. I peeled mine and then sliced. BTW these suckers are messy! DO NOT WEAR WHITE ha ha. Cut into cubes.
2) Saute for about ten minutes covered! Very important to cover or you will be there all day! Your essentially steaming so you can add a tiny bit of water if you want.
3) Let cool after straining. Maybe throw them in the fridge while you prepare your lettuce.
4) Slice fresh Romaine lettuce
5) Lightly pepper lettuce in large bowl
6) Add beets, light dressing, and grate mozzarella over top and ..TOSS.

To me, the dressing is like a Caesar with honey mustard. It's an interesting take on it. The beets give it something extra, like color. lol.

5 Solutions to Thrive Under Stress - Prevention.com

I think it's interesting how every article I read lately about happiness, stress or weight all mentions the big E...duh you have to exercise...I think us, Americans, think "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, tell us something we don't know", but do we do it? Do we exercise? Are you like me? You have a gym membership but lucky if you go there more than 2 times a month? Weight-loss...being the weight you want is about a lifestyle change...and this is an interesting article that may fuel your inspiration to seek gym type activity :)
see below link....

5 Solutions to Thrive Under Stress - Prevention.com

Oct. 3rd Day One- Realistic Goals = Success

I recently went back to eating mostly vegan. Meaning, I don't eat hardly any dairy or dairy product. So being Italian..all the soft, creamy texture I know is being re-vamped and re-understood in different ways.
For the next 1 month I will challenge myself to be 100% vegan (with the exception of fish)
30 days and the countdown begins right ...now.

My inspiration?
Read this book and you"ll never want to touch another animal product..and it's not just because dairy makes you fat!

Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. They're whole series is dedicated to educating and helping people like us who have battled their weight.