Diet and Fitness Update: 12/30/10

What an amazing year this has been! I'm down 6.5 lbs since Thanksgiving, and today I felt like I could actually keep up in boot camp class. Granted it was still hard, but I can do all the running portions now, even if I might skip out on a set of stairs now and then. This is huge progress for me, and I can really feel and see a difference. Ended the day with 1270 calories/20g fat/102g protein. And today I gave up caffiene (again), this time for sure! That cuts 120 calories and 6g of fat from my day, since that's the amount of creamer I put in my coffee. Who needs that stuff?? Not me. ;)

I love running!

Did 15 minutes of jog/run intervals on the treadmill, with incline on the run part of the intervals. I'm happy that I can do a solid 15 minutes without stopping to walk at all. This is such huge progress. Also did a good abs workout today at lunch. Taking tomorrow off because of an appointment, but will be back at it again on Wednesday. I've pretty much ditched cycling completely for cardio, and am doing 2 days of jog/run intervals and one day of just pure running, plus one day of eliptical, which I really like now that I've got the hang of it. Overall feeling great about my workout routine. Totally forgot to weigh myself today (can't believe it) and won't be in the gym tomorrow, so will have to check on Wednesday for any progress in that department. My size 10 pants are now too big and need a belt, so that's a good sign! :)

I am a runner!

Ok, so I tell myself this all the time. Positive thinking, right? But I've never really felt like a runner before today. Every Saturday I always start out with a 10-15 minute run as a warm up. Sometimes I do intervals, sometimes my knees can't take it and I quit early. But never before has it been easy. Today it was just easy. No pain, good pace, and I just kept going. I would get to these milestones and think, I should take a break now. But I felt good, so I just kept going. And then it became, how far can I go and just keep feeling good? Almost a full mile! About .8 of a mile to be exact. Then I took a quick walking break and ran the rest of the 15 minutes. Not only was it progress, but I can't get over how great it felt. Running has not come easy to me. It does not feel good, I never enjoy it. Until today! I officially declare myself a runner who enjoys running! :D And the pace I set was perfect for a 12 minute mile, which is all I need to pass the test. My personal trainer is out of town next week, so Monday I will run at lunch time, assuming it doesn't rain. There is a 2.5 mile loop near my office and I think it's the perfect training ground. Todd runs it twice in about 45 minutes (show off :p). I will be happy when I can run it once in 30 minutes. So thrilled with my progress today!! The rest of my workout was awesome as well, but this was by far the highlight of my day. Now I'm taking the weekend off due to everything being closed for the holiday, but after today, I really feel like I earned this break. :)

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

A couple years back I remember reading an article about whatever woman had won the Biggest Loser challenge at the time. I don't remember who, because I don't watch TV, and I couldn't pick any of them out of a crowd if my life depended on it. But the thing that stuck with me is that she said the last month was like daily beatings. Everything on her body hurt and she just kept asking for more. But that's what it took for her to win.

The daily beatings have begun, and strangely enough, I'm excited about it and feel great, albeit with a lot of muscle soreness. I think I've finally beaten my schedule into perfect shape for it to beat me into shape, and I'm really thrilled about that. The progress is so exciting and motivating that every day is a chance for something new, some new development, some new achievement. I do 4 hard days, Monday through Thursday of twice a day workouts, then a day off with maybe light yoga just for stretching purposes, then one more hard day, then a solid day of rest. Then I start over again. And I love it! I must be sick and twisted. :p

I hate being sick!

Took 2 days off while I was sick, but they were 2 of my best workout days, so that was frustrating and disappointing. Started back again on Friday with yoga, felt good after that, so did a lighter lower-body workout on Saturday, and even though my energy level is not quite there yet, it felt great. Taking the day off today and will get back into gear with my personal trainer tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the extra abs class in the evening, so I'll do that as well. I've lost 5 lbs since Thanksgiving! That and the progress I can see in my muscle tone is really helping me stay motivated. I've got about 4-5 months left before my big goal, and so far I feel like I'm right on track. I'm still tweeking a few things in my workout schedule; I'm taking Friday yoga as an active rest day, and joining a Straight Up Strength training class on Tuesdays. It messes up my cardio schedule a little bit so I might have to make some more changes, but I'll try this for a few weeks and see how it works out.

Workout Revamp

I am stubborn. Sometimes, this is what keeps me going. Other times, it's what knocks me down. My personal trainer told me to take 2 solid days off from working out. Though she did say 1 of those days could be a light yoga day. I only have 5 months to my big goal so I feel like days off are wasted time. Oh sure, Sunday is THE day off during the week. But otherwise, I should be working my bootie, not sitting on it. But I learned my lesson after an especially hard day with her, and then trying to force myself to run the next day. Listen to the personal trainer. So now I take 2 days off, Sunday and Tuesday. I moved my Tuesday run to Monday evening, and my Tuesday weight training to Wednesday evening. I also changed my Weds cardio from the bike to the eliptical, which I am not especially good at, but I do love that it's no-impact on my knee. It just works different muscles that protest loudly, which I suppose is a good thing in the long run. Tomorrow is abs class and eliptical. I really need to get to bed early tonight so I have the energy for both!

Diet and Fitness Update 12/13/10

I had a computer virus that took a few days to get rid of, and an office Christmas party on Friday that kept me out too late. I've been reminded how important sleep is to my health and fitness routine. My body needs 8-9 hours of sleep to function with optimum energy. Otherwise I just can't keep pushing myself the way I want to. Say it with me, sleep is essential.

Today I worked out with my personal trainer and it was hard. I know, it's supposed to be hard. So I guess that's good. We are working hardest on the bench press. Today we warmed up on the eliptical, 8 minutes of intervals. I'm not especially good at this machine, it's a strange motion if you ask me, but I'm getting better at it, and I like that it never hurts my knee. Then we moved to bench press and I did 5 reps at 70 lbs, 6 reps at 65 lbs, 12 reps at 60 lbs, 14 reps at 55 lbs, and 20 reps at 45 lbs. It was seriously hard. Followed by 3 sets of 20: rows @ 45 lbs, and squats with an overhead shoulder press with 10 lb dumbbells. And 30 crunches to finish off. Oh, and I lost another .5 lb last week even with the Christmas party food! This makes me happy.

I was right on track with my diet also, ending the day with 1205 calories/23g fat/101g protein. I made up my new Chicken Pasta Primavera recipe on the fly and it was yummy! It needs more veggies though, I'll try adding a better variety next time. Also put together all my lunches for the week since I was busy yesterday buying Christmas gifts. Note to self: Sunday is for prepping for the work week. Tomorrow is my day of rest! I learned the hard way that when your personal trainer tells you to take a day of rest, you should just do it, instead of being stubborn and throwing in a day of cardio instead. Rest is good. So is sleep. The two combined are heavenly. :)

Chicken Pasta Primavera

This time I just used yellow squash, so it wasn't a very colorful primavera. But it was still yummy! Feel free to add vegetables of your choice.

Chicken Pasta Primavera
4 oz chicken, diced or cubed
1 medium yellow squash, sliced
1/4 c whole wheat mini pasta of your choice
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp capers
1 tsp dry Italian dressing mix
1-3 tsp extra virgin olive oil (40c/5f/0p per tsp)

Put the squash on to steam and the pasta on to boil. These take about the same amount of time to cook. Brown the garlic and capers on fat free cook spray over medium heat and add the chicken. Sprinkle dry Italian dressing mix over the chicken as it's cooking. Once it's fully cooked, turn it down to low to keep warm until the squash and pasta are ready. When those are done, drain the pasta and put it in a bowl. Add the squash on top and the cooked chicken mixture on top of that. Drizzle 1 tsp of olive oil at a time over the mixture and combine. I find that 1 tsp is plenty; just enough to combined all the flavors and moisten the dish. Feel free to use more, but be sure to add the calories to the total. Makes 1 serving and totals (with 1 tsp of olive oil): 400 calories/11g fat/48.5g protein.

Diet and Fitness Update 12/6/10

Today was a hard core day! I didn't plan it that way, it just sort of came together like that. First I worked out with my personal trainer at lunch time. We did heavy lower body, a little heavy upper body, and some crunches and plank for fun. (I hate plank.) Today is also the day I get weighed and I lost another pound! It's so much fun when you can actually see progress.

Leg press: 60 lbs - 4 sets of 20 reps. Bench press: 2 sets of 7 at 45 lbs, 2 sets of 7 at 50 lbs, and 1 set of 7 at 60 lbs! Lunge squats with 15 lb dumbbells: 3 sets of 20 each leg (this one hurt my quads a lot). Reclining dual weight chest press (I don't really know what to call this one) with 10 lb dumbbells: 3 sets of 7. Alternating those with a bent over fly with 5 lb dumbbells: 3 sets of 10. Rows while squatting instead of sitting (hard!): 45 lbs - 3 sets of 20. And then 60 crunches and some plank.

After work did 30 minutes of cycling on level 2-3 intervals at 110 rpm. And a 30 minute holiday abs class that was lots of plank (I hate plank!!) and other fun torturous things. But it was given by 3 good looking guys so how bad could it be? I swear I didn't know who was teaching it when I signed up. :p

My meals for the day totaled up to 1,171 calories/19.5g fat/114g protein. I am not always that successful at hitting those goals so I'm very happy with those numbers. All in all it was a great Monday! Bring on the rest of the week! :D

Chicken Soft Taco

I just made possibly my best creation so far. It was incredibly yummy. It's a little higher in calories than I wanted (I try to keep dinner under 400) but if I made sure to eat this on the same day as tuna salad for lunch (which is extra low in calories), then I should be able to stay in my range for the day. It's also super high in protein. I thought I would need 2 to fill me up, but 1 was perfect. This comes together really fast so have all your ingredients measured out and ready to go before you start cooking the chicken.

Chicken Soft Taco
1 medium whole wheat tortilla (soft-taco size, not large size)
4 oz chicken (cubed or diced)
1/8 c black beans
1/8 c dark red beans
1/4 c fat free cheddar cheese
2 tbls fat free sour cream
1 tsp diced garlic
tabasco as needed (I use the mild green. Taco Bell packets also work great.)

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown the garlic on fat free cooking spray. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. When it looks almost done, add all the beans and stir this all together, almost like you're doing stir-fry, until the beans are hot. Dish this mixture into a small bowl and drop your tortilla in the hot pan to brown. Add the cheese over the chicken and bean mix so it will get all nice and melty. I add a few dashes of tabasco into this mix. Finish browning the tortilla on both sides and transfer it to a plate. Line the chicken, bean and cheese mix along the center of your tortilla and add the sour cream on top. Add more tabasco or salt/pepper to taste. Makes 1 serving of: 480 calories/7g fat/66g protein.

Rest is good. So is counting calories.

I love my day of rest. I mostly just like to spend it with my dogs. I invited a friend out for lunch and after we watched the new Bruce Willis flick, Red. Great movie, by the way. So the movie finishes and I've got things to do. Sunday is the day I make all my lunches for the rest of the week. I also fiddle with recipes and try new things and research calories. I'm working on a Greek Chicken Salad right now with a fat free Tzatziki dressing. It's pretty good, but I think it could be better, so I won't share the recipe until I've got it just right. Anywho, I start messing around in the kitchen and invite my friend to sit at the counter to chat with me, since he doesn't appear to be leaving. Not that I'm kicking him out, I just have things to do. We ate, we chatted, we watched a movie. Buh bye. (Is it any wonder I'm single?? :p) I'm working on the greek salad and fine tuning some calories in it, and he says, "Oh, you're a calorie counter." In a derisive sort of way. Like it's a bad thing. Which I'm here to tell you, it's not.

My body naturally wants to be round-ish. I don't consider round an acceptable shape on a human, so I fight this tooth and nail. If I need to count calories to do that, why not? It makes me a healthier person and it's a fun little personal challenge to come up with really great meals that are low-cal, low-fat, high protein and just plain good for me. And I won't apologize for it. ;)

Bean Chicken Salad

I use the big 12.5 oz can of chicken breast from Costco to make my chicken salads, so they make 3 salads. I make them in a big bowl and dish them directly into plastic sandwich containers that fit in my lunch box. I use generic canned beans but read the labels and get the one with the lowest calories.

Bean Chicken Salad
1 can (12.5 oz) chicken breast in water
1/2 c whole wheat mini-noodles of your choice
2/3 c petite green peas (frozen)
1/2 c dark red kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
1/2 c black beans (rinsed and drained)
6 tbls fat free ranch dressing

Drain the water/broth from the chicken can into a small cooking pot. Add 1/2 c water and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and let this cook (per directions on the noodle box) while you work on the rest. Flake the chicken into a big bowl. Add 2 tbls ranch dressing and mix it in. (It's easier to mix the dressing in stages.) Add all the beans and another 2 tbls ranch dressing and mix all this together. When the noodles are finished, turn off the stove and add the peas to the pot. They only need 1 maybe 2 minutes to heat up (or they turn mushy). When they are finished cooking, drain and rinse the noodles/peas with cold water. Let all the water drain away and add these to the chicken mix. Add the last 2 tbls of ranch dressing on top and mix it all together. Makes 3 servings each: 230 calories/1.5g fat/25g protein.

Tuna Salad and Fat Free Ranch Dressing

I love this tuna salad, but due to mercury levels, I limit myself to one a week.

Tuna Salad
1 can (5 oz) chunk light tuna (in water)
2 dill pickle spears
1-2 tbls capers
10-12 cherry tomatoes
2 tbls fat free ranch dressing (recipe below)

Drain tuna and flake it into a bowl. Dice the pickle spears and add to tuna. Add 1 or 2 tbls capers to tuna as you desire. Cut cherry tomatoes in half and add to tuna. Add 2 tbls ranch dressing and mix all together. Makes 1 serving. Approx 170 calories/1g fat/27g protein.


Fat Free Ranch Dressing
1 - 16oz fat free sour cream
1 - ranch dressing dry mix packet

Use beaters or a fork to combine well. 20 calories/0g fat/1g protein per 2 tbls. (If you don't like the flavor of the fat free sour cream, try the low fat sour cream instead. It doubles the calories but that's still an acceptable number.)

Overall Diet and Healthy Eating Routine

By the time I'd gotten to this stage, I had built a lot of really healthy eating habits. Daily I take a multi-vitamin, Vit C and calcium (because I don't drink milk). Coffee and protein shakes are the only liquids with calories that I drink, otherwise it's water with everything. I'm very conscious of calories and fat grams. I don't partake of the sweet treats that appear with regularity in the office. I choose healthy snacks and eat them at regular intervals throughout the day. But I still struggled with the little day to day details.

If you are just starting out, and you know your eating habits are NOT healthy, I highly recommend joining a program like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig. The first step is changing your entire outlook on food, and you need the support and tools those programs offer to be successful. I knew I was already on the right track with my diet, and I was pretty sure with some research and minor input from local resources, I could figure it out on my own. Diets and lifestyle changes are as different and individual as each person. This is just what works for me. I'm not recommending my exact diet to anyone, but I am happy to share the low-cal recipes I've created along the way.

I focus on calories/fat/protein. If you see numbers in this format throughout my blog, that's what they refer to. My general rule of thumb per day is less than 1200 calories, less than 25g of fat, and more than 100g of protein. No, I don't always hit these markers every day. I just try to get as close as possible to them. I also take one "free" meal a week, though I try to keep it in moderation, and sometimes I just skip it and eat my normal food. Often it's sushi from my favorite place down the street. I limit myself to 5 plates of sushi and I don't count the calories or worry about what's in the sauce. But I also don't eat until I'm bursting at the seams.

I am never hungry. The only time I get hungry is if I get busy at work and forget to grab one of my snacks out of the fridge. My body is very reliable about saying, Hey, you forgot to feed me a snack at 10am. I think the amount of protein I eat must keep me full at all the right times. I make sure to eat a protein snack either an hour before, or within the hour after, a workout. I never skip breakfast. I snack on an egg white on the way to work, have a bowl of cream of wheat when I get there, and then a protein yogurt snack before I work out. These make up my breakfast.

My breakfast and snacks are pretty consistent day to day. I add a little more variety to my lunches with 2 types of chicken salad and a tuna salad once a week. And dinner is always 4 ounces of a lean meat and a huge serving of veggies. I mostly focus on salmon (my favorite), turkey polska kielbasa, and chicken for the meat portions. There are other lower fat fishes but I'm not really a fan. The chicken is lowest in fat and highest in protein, so I'll have that 3 or 4 times a week, cooked a variety of ways. I try to be very creative in the variety of fresh veggies I eat weekly. These are definitely more expensive and I do buy frozen veggies when possible (peas and broccoli mostly), but there's no substitute for fresh squash or baked sweet potatoes.

I prefer not to eat anything I can't measure and count the calories. I measure and/or weigh everything. I rely heavily on TheCalorieCounter.com and Livestrong.com for finding the calories in most things. I know nothing is perfect, but I'm happy to have a basic idea of what I'm consuming. I keep a fitness journal, which is often a mirror of what I share here, and track my calories in it at the same time. I spend Sunday putting my meals together for the rest of the week. I make all my lunches and snacks and have them ready to go. Especially on the weekends, it's much easier to make good snack choices if a baggy of apple slices or soybeans are waiting for me to grab. I also just don't keep high calories or high fat snacks in the house. The only "sweets" I have are a low-fat fruit snack pack, Special K breakfast bars, and low-fat pudding cups. The satisfy any sweet tooth craving I might have without making a serious dent in my calorie goals for the day.

As is probably obvious, I'm very passionate about my healthy diet and lifestyle. I really enjoy tracking things and coming up with new low-cal or low-fat food items and recipes. It's not always easy, and plenty of times I've grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and later regretted it. The key is not to let that ruin your day. I was weak for a moment! But I'm back on track now and dinner is looking good. :)

Overall Fitness Routine

I work out a lot, it's true. I'm very passionate about my healthy eating habits, but the fitness is almost an addiction. As my mom says, what a good thing to be addicted to! I love the way it makes me feel, even when it hurts. I can say, I did that! I made it! But not without help. No man is an island! During the week I go to a gym near my office, and on the weekends I go to my dad's gym closer to home. It's bigger and fancier, but I still prefer my own gym. If dad can't make it or is out of town, then I just drive to my gym.

I start off Monday's with my personal trainer at lunch time, and a 30 minute cycle after work. She is amazing, and sometimes mean. She weighs me and then pushes me to do hard things. It always hurts, but I keep coming back for more! We do a solid hour of weights, mostly heavy lower body, some arms and back work also, and finish up with some abs.

Tuesday I run a 2.5 mile loop at lunch time, and do a 40 minute interval weight routine after work. I can't run the whole thing yet, but I can already see progress. I can jog/run the first mile without stopping to walk, then I have to take a walking break. From there I alternate walk/jog/run with as much jogging as possible. My goal right now is to make it all jog/run and no walking. If it's raining or below 40, I do the weights at lunch and a 30 minute run on the treadmill after work. For the weights, I do some combination of lower body, abs, back and arms. I might do 20 lunges with the bicep curls, 20 lunges with the shoulder press, 20 reps on the back machine, and 20 reps on the ab machine, and do 4 sets of this entire routine in a quick circuit. I have a lot of fun trying to come up with new circuits like this that encompass the 4 different groups of muscles.

Wednesday at lunch time I do an ab class, and a 30 minute cycle after work. This instructor is also my boot camp class instructor. She is awesome; always super motivating and encouraging, and also shares hints and tips through email. Her classes are all hard core.

Thursday at lunch is boot camp class. I have yet to figure out how she can make something so painful seem like so much fun, because we all keep coming back for more. It's a combination of constant cardio with lots of strength building exercises thrown in the mix. It's my hardest day of the week. If I can make it through Thursday, I can make it through anything! :) Several of my co-workers do this class with me and I've made a few friends, and everyone is incredibly encouraging. It's the hardest and funnest thing I do all week.

Friday at lunch is yoga, and a 30 minute cycle after work. I was never big into yoga, but I knew I needed help with balance, coordination and strength building. I had always had minor problems with my right shoulder, until she happened to show us a combination of really simple shoulder stretches. I started doing them before each upper body workout and bingo. No more shoulder pain, ever. I'm sold on yoga. This is my most relaxing class of the week, so it's nice that I do it on Friday.

Saturday I have more time to do a variety of things. I always start with a run to warm up, then do 2 or 3 circuits of weight machines or strength training, and finish with a cycle. I like to do at least 1.5 to 2 hours on Saturdays, but I'm thinking of doing a run at the high school track in the afternoons on Saturday. It's right down the street from my house and as long as it's not raining, or below 40 degrees, I think it would be a good addition to the routine.

Sunday is my day of rest and I am often very thankful when it arrives. Though I've been working out for about 2 years, I'm only 5 weeks into this new fitness routine and still tweeking it to fit my needs. The abs class is new, because I love working with the instructor and I didn't have a solid abs routine. I'm hoping to switch to Thursday night yoga to free up Friday for weights, but only if the same person teaches the class. Right now my focus is consistency. I have a good plan, now I just need to stick with it. I don't always push myself to the extreme, or give 100% every time, but I always show up, and give as much as my body can in that moment. And that's progress all by itself.

Diet and Fitness Update: 12/4/10

I love my Saturday workouts. I have plenty of time to do all the things I want. Normally. Today was a little rushed, because Dad was in a hurry. But I started with 10 minutes of interval jogging/running on the treadmill as a warm up. 4 sets of 20 reps each: rows (45 lbs) and calves (110 lbs). 2 sets of 20 reps each: bench press (50 lbs (which is huge progress for me!!)), box squats (2-25 lb dumbbells), triceps (80 lbs), lunges (w/ 12 lb dumbbells: 1 set 20 overhead press and 1 set 20 bicep curls). And a 15 min cycle at 90 rpm to finish. Kelechi likes me to do over 100 rpm but I was pooped by then and didn't have a lot left to give. This is the only benefit to my normal work week, when I do 40 minutes of weights at lunch time and then my 30 minute cycle after work. At least I am refreshed in between.

The bench press was the most exciting progress I've had so far. 3 weeks ago when I first tried, I couldn't even lift the empty bar (45 lbs). This was really disappointing and frustrating and left me feeling super weak and wimpy. I had to start with a 20 lb bar, and then the following weekend, I used the 30 lb bar. I increased 10 lbs a week and here I am! I also hadn't lost any weight over the first 4 weeks and then suddenly dropped 1.5 lbs over Thanksgiving week. That gave me the motivation to really focus on cleaning up my diet and creating more fun, healthy meals for myself.

So today I went to Costco and stocked up on chicken breasts and salmon. An 8lb pack of fresh chicken breasts was $24. (I'm also a HUGE bargain shopper.) I cut and froze them in individual 4 oz servings, so I can easily pull one out in the morning and it will be ready to go when I get home. It made 24 servings, so $1 a serving! Pretty happy with that. I kept one out and made a honey mustard sauce with 1 tbl honey (60/0/0), 1 tbl mustard (0/0/0) and a splash of vinegar. Mix it all up and drizzle it over the chicken while it's pan searing on some no calorie cooking spray. Also cooked a huge bunch of fresh spinach and my meal totaled to 371 calories/6g of fat/53.5g protein.

I'm not who I was

At the encouragment of several people, I'm blogging. Go me! I've spent the past 3 years changing my lifestyle and becoming someone new, and change is hard! As we all know. I've googled more than my fair share of help through the process, and I thought maybe, my journey might help someone else.

In August of 2007, as my marriage ended, I hit 200 lbs. My family took a trip to Israel and later, the photos really startled me. I had no idea I'd gotten that big. Almost immediately, I started a modified version of the Slim Fast diet and lost 50 lbs within a year. That first year was cake in comparison. My lifestyle and eating habits had been so unhealthy, that even small changes brought big results. I moved and life changed again, and I gained 10 lbs back. The next 2 years were spent struggling with that same 10 lbs; losing it and gaining it back repeatedly. I joined a gym. I ate healthy. I did all the "right" things. But I was still stuck half way to my goal and pretty frustrated with the on-again off-again progress, or lack there of. The hardest part was sticking with it when my motivation waned. It was easy to do a good job when I was highly motivated, but I was missing my gumption. I would skip entire months of going to the gym, and drifted in and out of healthy eating.

Finally, in November of 2010, I found the most awesome personal trainer in the world. She steered me through some rough spots, and got me on the right track, and helped me find the gumption to keep going even when I had no motivation. I read a lot of articles, gleaning new tidbits here and there, and am constantly on the lookout for tips and tricks. I also have a couple of really amazing fitness class instructors, as well as a group of fun, encouraging people in those classes who never fail to keep me going. I didn't understand the importance of finding that core group of supportive people until they suddenly appeared, and now I couldn't do it without them!

The best quote I've read so far (and I wish I could link to her blog, but I've already forgotten where it was) was something about giving 100% energy if you expect 100% results. This helps motivate me a lot. At the end of the day, when it's dark and cold outside and I'm ready to go home, but I still need to put in 30 minutes on the bike, this keeps me going. Do I want 100% results? Yes, yes I do. Then I guess I need to put in 100% energy.