FLABULOUS

Step into spring with these cute and oh so comfy Ciao Bella Roxy Sandals. I got these last summer in brown and I so regretted not getting the black too. I found these at IslandSurf. They’re such a good price that I’m getting the black this season. I wore them all last summer through my pregnancy because they were so easy on my feet. Check these and other cute sandals out at islandsurf.com!

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So one of the hardest days I have while trying to get and stay healthy are the weekends. Lets face it, weekends are hard.

On the weekends your sleeping patterns change, if you don’t work or have school your day’s probably consist of errands, working around the house and then there’s the good stuff; parties, movies, concerts, hanging out with the friends. And what goes along with all of that? Food! Dinners, snacks, dessert, drinks.

It can be hard to say no and it can be even harder to remember what you are supposed to be eating. For me it’s hard to get my 8+ glasses of water in, sliding back into my old 1-2 glasses a day habit and as for fruits and veggies? Forgetabouit!

Solution? Be accountable. It doesn’t solve your problem all the time, but trust me, it helps. KJ and I have shared our weight loss/get healthy goals with our friends and family and they have been really supportive so far. When we go for Saturday Night Movie night at our parents house (sounds lame but is a blast) they always make sure they get food we can eat. They’ll always throw in vegetables and a big fresh fruit bowl.

The more people who know about your goals, the more support you can muster up, the bigger the chances that you’ll succeed.

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When I was little Kraft Macaroni & Cheese was a staple in our house. I mean, we ate this stuff all the time. The problem was (besides the fact that it’s all processed that is) that it required what I remember to be 6 tablespoons of butter. 6 tablespoons! That is a LOT of butter for 1 box of Mac & Cheese. As I got older and started to make it on my own I slowly started to lower the amount of butter I put in and I found a good amount was 3 tablespoons, or HALF the amount the box said to add. Granted it’s still 3 tablespoons of butter, but it’s less.

Well, I’m happy to say that Mac & Cheese finally got a clue. I think it’s probably been changed for a few years, I’m not totally sure because I hadn’t eaten it for so long, but my husband was craving it the other day and when looking at how much of which ingredients to put in I notice the number 6 was suspiciously, and happily missing from the box. Instead of requiring 6 tablespoons of butter it called for 3 tablespoons of butter.

Now I’m not saying this is the most healthy thing to eat, or that you should even eat Mac & Cheese at all, but I was extremely happy with the progress and effort some companies are making to at least make their products a bit healthier. I’m really glad they got a clue!

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Here comes the sun, FINALLY!  These Black Rhinestone Temple Aviator Sunglasses from Torrid are so hot!  Get glammed up with the silver and rhinestone accents on the sides.  They’re 100% UV protected.

There are plenty more where these came from! All of their glasses on sale now for under $12! Check out the rest of the sunglasses at Torrid.com

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It’s hard to measure success of any health journey. Sure there’s the scales, but sometimes scales lie. They don’t take into account the actual weight of the food or water you have in your system at the time, they don’t take into account sodium bloating (not to mention *ahem* cycle bloating and they sure don’t account for muscle gain and as we all know muscle weighs more than fat.

So how do you gauge success? Well one way I’ve found it through fitness milestones. If you’ve noticed a difference in your fitness level, how far you can walk, you are starting to jog, you can do twice as many crunches or push ups, you walk up the stairs or tie your shoe with ease, if you’ve noticed a difference in any of these things you’ve probably hit a fitness milestone. It’s just another way to be proud of yourself without being tied to the scale.

Yesterday, my friends, KJ and I made what is, in my opinion, a definite fitness mile stone. For the past 2 months we’ve been getting together every single Saturday morning without fail, walking, training for a 5k event that’s coming up. On our very first time out we’d planned to go 1 mile. Neither of us had really worked out in a while, but when the 1 mile mark came around we were feeling good enough that we actually went 2.5 miles which was a surprise in itself. Since then we’ve been slowly upping the mileage to prepare for that 3.2 mile milestone.

Last week we walked almost 4 miles and couldn’t believe it. It’s only been 2 months, and we’re only meeting once a week (though doing our own workouts during the week) so it was a surprise that our abilities had increased so much. But today, OH today! Yesterday KJ and I walked 5 miles, half of which was with her little one uphill, and it felt GREAT. We couldn’t believe how far we’ve come and we have definitely hit a fitness milestone. In fact, we felt so great we’ve decided to go for a half marathon at the same event next year, something we’d never even want to dream about doing in the past! Talk about success.

My hat is off to KJ for pushing me, what would I do without her?

Oh, and the best part is that we celebrated afterwards by going shoe shopping . . . man are my calves starting to look good.

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I don’t know about the rest of the world but it’s extremely hard for me to figure out what to eat for lunch everyday. Salads, chicken breast, Subway sandwiches, Lean Cuisine; it just gets really old after a while. Plus I’m always eating alone so I don’t have a pal to make suggestions or go to a restaurant with.

This kind of lonely uncertainty makes eating healthy kinda hard, in my opinion. So for the past little while I’ve been trying to run errands during lunch or do a light workout and then have a quick sandwich at my desk. But today, I’m tired. My calves hurt, I don’t have any errands to run and I’m extremely tired of Subways Tuna Special Friday (no offense Subway!).

So what happens on these days is I either munch or lunch. I could sit here for another hour tormenting myself about what substantial healthy meal to eat, or I could munch on things around the office, I have some veggies, cereal, granola bars, there are some Girl Scout Cookies and a candy bowl. And you know, this is kind of stupid because food shouldn’t really be this important that it’s plaguing my mind! Yet it is somehow.

What do I do? Munch or lunch? Sometimes trying to be good feels kind of annoyingly bad!

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Do you ever have those days where everything just goes wrong? Well, so far, I’m having one of those weeks.

What’s bad about that, besides the endless frustration, is the emotional eating! I don’t know about you, but I’m an emotional eater. Sure I eat to celebrate stuff, but mostly, I overeat and/or eat bad things when I’m sad/frustrated. Basically, when I get down in the dumps I can’t be trusted around food.

Lately I’ve done better. I’ve been frustrated since Sunday and it took until Monday night for me to start piling in the junk. Sure I stayed within my calorie range for the day, but I ate terrible stuff so I was low on protein and high in fat and carbs . . . oh and probably sugar.

Emotional eating is one of those monsters that can be extremely difficult to tame because most of us have been using eating like a band-aid for so long that it’s become second nature, we just do it. So, I guess that’s the next goal on my hit list. Learn to STOP eating just because I’m sad about something. I’m sure I won’t be able to do it cold turkey, but I WILL kick this emotional eating habit . . . eventually!

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Hello! My name is KJ and I’m a foodaholic. I haven’t binged for going on about 4 weeks now. I started a weight loss program at the end of February and so far it’s going great! I’ve lost about 7 lbs. But I’ll get more into that later.

The biggest thing I’m trying to concentrate on right now is something I heard on one of Biggest Losers Jillian Michaels’ podcasts. “Live your life in the body you have now. Accept yourself the way you are now. Accepting yourself doesn’t mean you can’t try to improve, but beating yourself up or putting off your life until you get thinner isn’t going to help. All we have is the present.”

This single bit of advice has changed me more than all the yo-yo diets and diet pills in the world. I heard this and started thinking of all the things I’ve put off. Family pictures, vacations, my wedding, going out with friends from high school, meeting my husbands friends, parties, family functions, I’ve even been putting off going to the gym to get skinny until I’m skinny! The gym? YES! It’s sad but true!

I’m sick and tired of hiding. I guess what I’m trying to say is today, I’m choosing to BE! If I can do it so can you. So I’m challenging you, and you know who you are, make the choice. Just BE!

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Flabulous Deal of the Week 3-17-08

For a limited time save up to 64% and Get Free Shipping on Orders of $100 or More at Road Runner Sports.

Road Runner Sports specializes mainly in running gear. Running shoes, clothing and gear like bags, heart monitors, strollers and insoles. Road Runner Sports even has nutrition products made just for runners. It has everything a veterine OR beginning runner would ever need!

But hurry, this Road Runner Sports deal ends on March 31, 2008.

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No matter who you are, we’re all human (right?), so we all have our own hardest thing about getting healthy.

For me I think it’s just sicking with it. I start out really strong eating healthy and working out and eventually it just starts slipping and slipping until I just stop. THAT was my big problem when I tried dieting.

Now that I’m switching from diet to healthy lifestyle I know that even if my progress slows down, even if I slip up there’s always the next hour or the next meal to make up for it and start up again. Living a healthy lifestyle means there’s always another day, failure is not an option.

Just fill out the poll on the right to let us know, “What is the hardest thing for you when getting healthy?”

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