Finding Johanna

I posted on Facebook after my 5k that I survived but I want to give a little more details on the experience.  The plan was to go with a friend from high school who I sort of reunited with over our weight loss blogs and journey to be healthier. We were both super nervous about it but the plan was just to get done not to push ourselves to the point where we needed one of the many paramedics on hand haha.  I wore my "Let it SNOW!" jogging shirt ....  I told her we should at least jog to the first turn or at least the first two minutes so off we went. She started walking a little before that time but I wanted to push myself to jog until the 2 minutes then I would start walking to let her catch up. When I started walking I couldn't find her ANYWHERE. I didn't want to stop so I kept walking and jogging the whole thing all alone. WELL sort of all alone if you have ever done a 5k you know you make random friends with the people who are struggling next to

TOMORROW IS MY 5k GASP  I am really nervous but also really excited. On Saturday I made an all time record and jogged for 10 minutes straight. I don't plan on doing that pace tomorrow night I am thinking maybe jog 5 and walk 5 until the 3 miles is GONE. No matter how long it takes I am very proud I am making the effort and as they say...  SMOOTHIE TIME  Peaches and Cream Oatmeal Smoothie  1 small container of chobani mango greek yogurt About 2 frozen peaches 3 Tbs dry quick oats  Almond Coconut milk until everything is smooth  YUMMMMM its so good  Tonight for dinner we are having a chicken salad I made up.  CRANBERRY ORANGE CHICKEN SALAD I shred cooked chicken and add craisins, and walnuts or pecans, then a little honey, salt and pepper AND 1 small container of chobani blood orange greek yogurt (this is the secret that makes is super creamy and REALLY flavorful with the orange), then I add in extra orange zest. This stuff i

So lately I have been dealing with an extreme amount of stress and stress related symptoms.  I have NO idea why or what it is. I mean its because of work but I don't really know why or how to fix it. Sometimes its ok and other times I just want to run away.  I honestly can't 100% diagnose what at work is stressing me out- I think its multiple things but DANG it's really affecting me and my health.  I have gotten sick almost NON stop this year! I also suffer from several more of the things on this list... UGH Thankfully working out is a good stress combatant and so I  really kicked my own butt today at the gym.  I am rewarding myself with a delicious post workout smoothie.  GREEN SMOOTHIE  1 banana 2-3 TBS dry peanut butter (PB2)  1 TBS flaxseed powder  giant handful of spinach (use A LOT)  5 ice cubes  enough almond coconut milk to make it all SMOOTH  Hopefully being in control of my life outside of work will help me

I am so thankful for this blog and the help it has given me through tough times and how much it and the people who follow it give me motivation to keep on going.  Yesterday evening when we arrived in Houston at my in-laws my father in law said "have you lost more weight? You look like you have" which 1. was weird because my father in law has NEVER said anything to me about how I look EVER and 2. was AWESOME because my father in law has never said anything to me about how I look EVER hahah I floated on a cloud for a minute. THEN he said "Well... I am going to change that this weekend" hahah He is a huge food lover and cook like me. We share recipes and food love when we are together.  He boasted on my pumpkin cookies and hopefully later will boast on my pumpkin pie.  For those interested in my healthy Thanksgiving desserts here are the recipes.  PUMPKIN DARK CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKES  1 box of spice cake  1 can of pumpkin  1 bag of dark chocolate chips  pump

SIXTY FIVE  s-i-x-t-y f-i-v-e  you heard that?  65  That is how much weight I have lost since I decided to start this journey on January 1st 2012.  I have a little over a month until the one year mark! EEEK my goal is to see 80 gone so that I will be under 200 pounds. WOOT WOOT  I was really scared to weigh this morning but I decided NO just get on there and deal with the number and maybe it will be motivation to get your butt in gear over this holiday and not go crazy with gorging my face.  Turns out I had lost weight not gained weight. HAPPY SURPRISE  I immediately said to myself DO NOT LET THIS MAKE YOU THINK ITS OK TO EAT A BUNCH OF CRAP AND DRINK A TON OF BEER TOMORROW let this be the motivation to realize this shit is possible and I am SO close to my under 200 goal I can TASTE it and it tastes way better than greasy crap and a ton of beer!!!!!  I don't love this quote because it can be taken to a negative place BUT I am not I eat ... a lot ...a wh

Well I am actually really shocked at the number of views my blog has gotten this month since I have only posted once!  I can't believe that I have neglected my blog so bad this month. The reason is because I have also neglected my healthy lifestyle.  I am not going to sit here and make excuses about why I suddenly stopped exercising or trying to be super healthy with my food choices but I am going to own up to my lack of drive and hopefully this week I can get back into it.  Nobody said this was going to be easy or that I wouldn't fall down a few times along the way.  I have definitely not changed my bad habits completely and these past 3 weeks or so I have not gained anything from my lack of effort ...other than regrets.  I am not saying that I gained 50 pounds or even 10 but I feel like I have gained 80 and the FEELING is worse than the reality. I am starting to judge myself negatively and that's making it harder for me to want to get back in my routine. 

I have been sick a lot the past month and it has put me in a bad rut of not working out. It doesn't help that my husband and gym buddy seriously injured his back and has been off work on disability AND unable to work out as well. I was in a real groove of making sure I worked out at least 4-5 times a week. This past week I didn't go ONCE because I was sick for three straight days then my body was all sore and achey and while working out probably would have made that feeling go away and made me stretch out and feel better I decided that not working out was the right choice.  I have this battle constantly. I have allowed myself a few food cheats once in a while but for the most part I am really good at sticking with my food goals.  For my benefit alone I want to remind myself of those goals and how I can work harder to meet them 1. Stay away from refined sugar as much as possible (I do eat chocolate from time to time in fact as I write this I am eating a handful of M&a

I decided to sleep on my thoughts and do some research for both sides so I could figure out if I am really strongly compelled to be a vegan or if I can find a way to be an ethical meat eater.  According to the Global Animal Partnership their animals are held to a high standard to ensure proper treatment and a good life.  I read through the treatment regulations of every animal HERE  and the main promise is  Step 1: No cages, no crowding  Step 2: Enriched environment  Step 3: Enhanced outdoor access Step  4: Pasture centered Step 5: Animal centered: Bred for outdoors  Step 5+: Animal Centered: Entire life on same farm I would say that I think that is at least a humane way of life for the animal. Is the animal still killed for consumption... yes. Is my problem with eating meat? I can't say that it is because I just had meat yesterday. My problem is with the sever mistreatment of an animal for its meat production. I feel like I would eat a humanely raised

I bought this book “Skinny Bitch” and I really liked it up until the chapter “Dead rotting flesh” which basically talked about the inhumanity of eating animals. It quoted much of the book Slaughterhouse and was the most disturbing scaring thing I have read. What made it worse was I already saw this the day before and thought “Maybe I should be vegetarian!” This book really made me want to be totally Vegan. I don’t know if this feeling will last and it will be really difficult since my husband has no desire to be vegan. I went to the grocery store and felt guilty even looking at the meat case because all I could see were the images from this book. I don’t even want to buy or cook meat for my husband. Deciding not to eat it isn’t the only thing purchasing and cooking it is not good for me either considering the problem with it isn’t just about consumption but more about not buying into the inhumane slaughtering and use of animals. It was really disturbing to eve