Good morning, my little snow bunnies! It’s snowing like it means it outside, but thankfully I come prepared with an all-wheel-drive vehicle and sorel snow boots My breakfast this morning was so so so delicious – probably my favorite combination of all time.

Peanut butter, strawberry jelly and sliced banana on a honey wheat sandwich thin:

Yum, yum, yum! I actually love this exact combo with honey instead of jelly, too! This is a perfect post-workout meal, however I haven’t been getting up to workout this week, but tomorrow is a new day and maybe I’ll find the energy! I really do love getting in at least 30 minutes before work because it keeps my energy stable throughout the day and I go to bed at a reasonable time. Where this week, I find myself getting the afternoon slump so I grab green tea or coffee and have trouble falling asleep earlier.

On Tuesday night I took an intense turbo kick class which really kicked my ass! It was like cardio kickboxing on crack! Last night, I did this short thigh and leg workout that I absolutely have to share with you all.  After 30 minutes on the stair thing I decided to try this workout (from toneitup) that I found on another blog www.elleandblair.com. 

Here is the workout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iYMw1K_vEd4

I did 15 reps of each move for a total of 3 circuits. When I tell you that my legs almost gave out on me as I started to walk down the stairs – I’m really not over exaggerating!! I had that feeling of burning pain and my quads felt like 1000 lbs.  Awe-some!!!  This entire routine took me 15 minutes and I did add weights to some of the moves. For example, the first move is a squat with a leg abduction – I added 3 lb weights and did shoulder raises with the move.  One move targeting 3 different muscle groups = increased heart rate and crazy sweat! I was actually sweating more after this 15 minute routine than when I was on the stair machine! Bottom line: try this workout, you won’t regret it! Tonight I plan to will do 30 min cardio and Pilates. Woop Woop!

Oh, I forgot to mention that since Monday, I went back on my sugar detox that I did back in November. This is day four and I feel fantastic already.  The reason my post is called ‘one day at a time’ is because that’s literally how you  have to treat your goals – whatever they may be.  Focus on how you do today instead of where you want to be in six months and take it a-day-at-a-time.  When six months rolls around, you will be exactly where you had hoped

Words of wisdom for the day: (I know I’ve posted this before)

Pretty much:

Last week workout recap:

• Wednesday: morning 30 min HIIT on the shred and 1 hour cardio after work
• Thursday: morning 3o min HIIT on the shred and 30 min HIIT plus 1 hr pilates after work
• Friday: morning 30 min HIIT
• Saturday: morning 30 min HIIT
• Sunday: Off

My motivation this week has returned full force. It’s officially the end of all possible holidays in the Greek culture – three weekends in a row – so there are no more excuses!

I’m going to leave you all – myself included – with a nice little reality check…

I’m not going to lie, I completely fell let myself fall off the healthy wagon.  After five days of binge eating on foods that really have no nutritional value (chocolate, popcorn, pita chips and the like), I stepped on my new brutally honest and unforgiving scale this morning and told myself NO MORE. Enough is enough –  I am stopping myself in my own tracks before I go down that downward never-ending spiral. I went down that road last year and come May I was miraculously 8 pounds heavier.  I wonder why? Don’t they say Americans gain an average of 7 lbs over the holidays? Yeah, well I beat that average by a pound! How did I do that? Simple – one bad food choice after the next or my personal favorite – “I will start tomorrow,” but the “tomorrow” never came or “It’s the holidays I’m supposed to eat everything in sight – literally.”  The worst part of it all is knowing you are going to regret your decision while you’re making that decision, but don’t stop yourself anyway.  I think that is what annoys me the most – knowing I have all the control, but I choose to ignore it for one reason or another. All of this adds up in the end.  All-of-it. 

So, rather than waiting for January 2nd or waiting for Monday, I’m taking back my control starting today. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t like the way I feel when I overeat. I truly feel like a lethargic beluga whale.  Who likes to feel like that? I’m sure the beluga whale doesn’t even like feeling that way!! I may have kept up with my exercise (minus Monday and Tuesday) but it really made no difference! Perfect example of how diet is more important than exercise and I don’t mean that you should never exercise, but your focus should be on what you’re eating!

Also, after indulging in Greek cookies and chocolate my skin is already showing signs of dermatitis – something I had exactly this time last year (with eating habits exactly how I displayed these past few days.) I went on antibiotics for it and it cleared up, but somehow it has returned again and I was seriously thinking, how can this be? I refuse to take drugs again! And then the light-bulb went off. I have been eating processed junk and sugar! Duh! How did I not even think of that before? You are what you eat and what you eat directly affects your body! It makes perfect sense and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t figure this out before. More of a reason to NOT EAT CRAP. PERIOD.

Now that my crazy rant is over, I encourage you all to check yourselves before you wreck yourselves! If you feel that you are going down that same path again- just stop. Cut it cold turkey. It’s going to be hard because the temptation is there, but work around it.

This morning I woke my ass up at 7 am and jumped on the treadmill for a 30 minute HIIT workout. For breakfast I had a protein pancake (protein powder, flax meal, egg whites, 1/2 banana and 1/4 cup blueberries) and it’s now 2pm and I haven’t eaten lunch yet (my lunch break is usually 12:30,) but I’m not even hungry.  It’s so incredibly easy to fall into a routine or eating pattern where you eat when it’s “lunch time,” so you eat out of habit not out of hunger.  That is going to be one of my new year’s resolutions.  Eat when hungry- not when bored, angry, sad or happy. Getting in-tune with our bodies is extremely important.  When we don’t know our bodies, only listen to our brains, and just eat for reasons besides hunger, we find ourselves ‘living to eat rather than eating to live.’  And that, ladies and gents, causes the downward spiral!

I’m a snacker. Period. The end. I prefer to graze like a cow than to sit down and eat a decent meal. While some argue that eating 5 small meals a day is the best way to eat, I completely disagree. For me, the more often I eat the hungrier I get. I go from 5 “snacks” to 5 “meals” a day which immediately turns into 5 extra pounds where it should’t be – must be the 5 theme, I don’t know!

A lot of people, including personal trainers, will tell you to eat 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day – as this is supposed to speed up your metabolism. The problem with this theory is that it’s targeted toward people who are extremely active (and by extremely, I don’t mean 1 hour on the elliptical.) So, this way of eating -if you’re not extremely active- will essentially make you gain weight.  Now, if you’re eating celery or veggies as your snacks you clearly will not be gaining weight, but most people turn to processed foods like the “100 calorie packs” because they are portioned and incredibly easy. The problem with these snack foods (regardless of the organic title) is that, firstly, they are extremely processed and secondly, they have absolutely no nutritional value. Which also leads me to the whole calorie counting – as a form of dieting – thing. You can eat 1200 calories worth of “100 calorie pack” snack foods and probably still lose weight, but I can guarantee you that you’ll be starving in the process and you will be starving your body of nutrients. The key is to incorporate nutrient dense foods in your diet!

If you look at the way Europeans eat you’ll notice that they rarely – if ever- snack. They eat three meals a day – the second is the largest- and they are also walking everywhere. So, if you have a 9-5 office job and you’re munching all day long – I’m sorry to break it to you, but if losing weight is your goal you probably wont succeed unless you really amp up your workout routine. Basic Ayurvedic principles for weight-loss state that the first -and most important- goal is to get yourself to eat three meals a day. This means you need to eat enough for breakfast to get you through lunch and enough for lunch to get you to dinner without snacking. I’m borderline hypoglycemic so I always believed that I needed to eat smaller meals more frequently to stabilize my blood sugar, but I decided to put this Ayurvedic theory (also states that this way of eating helps reverse hypoglycemia) to the test to see how it would affect me. Well, ladies and gents, I must say that it’s a winner and I think I’m gonna keep it!

I will never forget my good friend, snacking. She will always be there, but I’m gonna try and keep her for social gatherings only! In fact, this past Wednesday my cousin threw a “Bridesmaids” viewing party which consisted of a lot of delicious snack foods – some healthy, some not – and you better believe I had plenty of both! That was my third time watching that movie and I laughed just as hard as the first time. Seriously- one of my favorites, ever!!

Here are some pics from the party: (we actually paused half-way through the movie to go for seconds – or thirds in my case)

The healthy set of snacks:

The not so healthy set of snacks:

I really believe the best times in life are ones spent with your family and good friends. It really doesn’t get any better than that

We are now in the lovely month of October – Breast Cancer Awareness month. I’m sure many of you know someone – friend or family-  who has been affected. If there are any 5k’s in your area supporting this cause – or any cause-  I encourage you to sign up and rock it!

PS: Shout out to my mama and Ms. Fabulous Rita for being rock-star survivors

*I only got two stars this week because this weekend was super busy, but I did have a full day of moving so that probably counts for something. Also, there was a lot of food involved this weekend… pics will be up soon!