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We Moved to MelaMyselfandI.com.  Please book mark our new address!

We’ve Moved!!

 

Sorry for any confusion but I have decided to move Mela, Myself and I. 

Please find me at:

 

MelaMyselfandI.com

Sports Bras

 

I have been doing great at my exercise goals!  I am really proud of myself.  There have only been about 3 or 4 days since my start date of April 11, 2011 that I have not done any exercise.  Most days I do either a cardio workout like Zumba or elliptical workouts or I do yoga or Pilates or a strength training day from P90X upper body.  Through this I have gone from a size 22 to a 14 or 16.  Well needless to say the sports bras I was wearing at size 22 no longer fit my changing body.  Sunday morning I was doing Zumba Cardio Dance Party in my basement and my bra was useless!  The elastic at the bottom really did nothing to hold the girls in place and I literally fell out of the bottom.  It was time to buy some new Sports Bras! 

As part of our date day yesterday Dr. D and I headed to Nordstrom’s Rack for a little shopping. I love a bargain plus it was tax free weekend.   I headed straight for the active clothes and he went for the shoes.  I found a pair of knee length yoga pants that I also really needed in a smaller size and several bras of different styles and sizes.  I found 2 that I really loved the fit and look of.  The first was this one by Marika:

I loved it because it fit really well and kept everything in place plus it has these little clasps on the side to cinch in as I shrink further!!  This one I bought in an XL because it had less give.  The price was right too!  It is $45.00 on the website but I picked it up for $12.97.  A great buy for something that I look at as an “in between item”.

The second bra I found was this one by adidas:

I loved this one because it was simple, held everything in place and it is reversible.  I got it in purple and white. This bra was a steal at $9.97.  Plus I bought it in a size large.  I was doing a happy dance in the fitting room!  I cannot even remember the last time I even seriously looked at buying clothes in a size large!

 

I wore the Marika this morning for my Zumba Sculpt and Tone and loved it.  It is great not to have to pull at and adjust your bra during your workout.  It  kept the girls in place and under control!  And to prove it I burned and extra 37 Kcals today on top of what I normally burn!

 

Can you tell I am addicted to exclamation points?!!!?

Meditation Challenge

What a week!  It has flown by so fast!  First a quick update then I’ll tell you about my next journey.

Let me just start out by saying it was super hot here this week.  Most days over 100 degrees and both boys were outside for the majority of this!  We made it through both 2 A Days and Band Camp.  It was great to see my boys so immersed in  something they really enjoy doing.

 

On Monday I made 100 peanut butter sandwiches for the football players and I did not eat any of them!  I really wanted to but I did not!  We also cut up about 50 lbs. of bananas and made enough Gatorade to fill a hot tub! Then I headed over to Band Camp where I volunteered as a Uniform Mom measuring each and every student for a uniform and getting them all fit for the season.  We still have a ton of work to do but those moms are amazing and I am proud to be one of them.  They really are the behind the scenes heroes of the band.   So much work to get each hem and button perfect and keep them that way all season.  And did I mention that these kids wear WHITE pants???  That will be a continuing volunteer project for me.  It is a lot to learn.  Last night the band did a little mini concert of their music (the marching portion of the show was not shown because of a thunderstorm) but I was really impressed by my son and all the kids.  I can’t wait to see it all together with the uniforms and color guard!

Meditation

I have been wanting to learn to meditate for about a year.  I really have no idea how to do it or even if my racing mind will allow me to but I have always felt I wanted to try it.  When I started JC I thought it would be a good time to try to add this into my life.  Well this week I saw an article on Twitter for a free 21-day guided Meditation Challenge  put on by the Chopra Center.  If you have watched Oprah or Dr. Oz you may be familiar with Deepak Chopra, M.D. who is one of the founders of the center.

Chopra recently appeared on the Dr. Oz show to discuss meditation as a tool for weight loss, explaining: “Meditation is one of the most effective ways to release the stress, conditioned behavior, and negative thought-loops that keep many people in a cycle of overeating. We also know that regular meditation decreases the body’s production of cortisol and other ‘stress hormones’ that cause us to hold onto excess weight and accelerate aging,” he said.

After reading this, I know that this is for me!  I have signed up for it and am going to be committed to it for 21 days!  It starts August 15th and I encourage you to try it with me.  Let me know if you are going to participate and we can share how it’s going here in the comments section! To participate either click on the link above or go to www.chopracentermeditation.com. 

Planning out my week…

I have quite a busy week coming up so I spent a few hours this morning planning.  I am a list maker.  It helps me to see everything written out.   Most of my activities are with my kids.  My oldest son has 2-A-Day football practices this week and my younger son has band camp this week.  I am volunteering for both!  Both boys have high school registration, at different times of course, not to mention carpool and watering my mother-in-law’s garden while she is on vacation.  Those are just the normal things…

 

What really has me really stressed is planning my order for next month’s Jenny Craig food.  Up until now, I have done the planned menus with a few minor changes and so far it has gone great!  I am 40.5 lbs. down in 15 weeks.  But now that I am half way I have decided to change to planning my own menu and doing some meals on my own (MOMO).  My weigh in day is Thursday so I need to have my menu for the month and my food order ready when my JCC calls.  I spent about an hour looking through the choices and at the price lists making my choices. 

Breakfasts:

I am going to start doing most of my breakfast on my own, that I knew already.  The JC breakfasts are good but expensive.  I am not worried about these.  I plan on making a few egg white omelets, measure out my own cereal and buy a few frozen Lean Cuisine and Weight Watcher breakfasts.

I will order 10 out of the 28 breakfasts for the month.

 

Lunch:

I have gone back and forth on how many lunches to order.  Lunch is the meal I feel most comfortable eating on my own but it is also the one meal I eat on the run most of all.  I am concerned that if I have a day of a lunch OMO and I am short on time that I will not stay on plan.  I don’t mean that I will eat a Whopper, I am committed to eating clean and working this program, what I do mean is that I will have a quick bite of half my normal JC lunch and leave the salad for later,  if ever.  My JC e-mail Buddy told me that under eating is just as bad as over eating!  I also have a few left over JC lunches and dinners from the past few orders to help fill in.

I will order 20 of the 28 lunches for the month.

 

Dinner: 

This is the easiest of them all.  I picked out my favorites and it just happened to workout to 20!  I have been planning my first DOMO since week 3.  It will be Marinated Chicken breast grilled on the BBQ, grilled asparagus and a baked sweet potato!  I am drooling all over my keyboard, sorry!

I will order 20 of the 28 dinners for the month.

 

Snacks:

This one was easy too.  I am going to do most of these OMO subbing the dessert things for Skinny Cow items or Weight Watcher desserts, and I always have 100 calorie snack packs around for the boys lunches.  I also have a free JC Snack Bar coming so I will get it now.

I will order 8 of the 28 snacks plus the free snack bar for the month.

 

 

I also wanted to start posting my meals and my workouts for each day, just to help keep myself on track.  but that might have to wait until the boys are back in school!  That is coming up on August 17th so today we are going to do some school shopping…

Oh yeah, add that to the list!

Pink Grapefruit Rocks!

I have been a lover of Pink Grapefruit since I was a child.  I grew up in Western NY State and every winter my parents would buy a huge box of grapefruit from the church fundraiser.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you there were about 50 grapefruit in this box and nothing tastes more like summer in the deep NY State winter than a sunny grapefruit.  As I grew up and went away to college, anytime I would feel homesick I would do one of two things, either go to the mall and smell the perm solution hanging in the air near the hair salon (you see my mother was a hair dresser with a salon in our home) or I would splurge on a big juicy pink grapefruit from the grocery store.

Okay, before you stop reading because you think grapefruit is too bitter for you to eat, let me tell you that I have a trick that takes the bitter bite out of these power packed beauties!  Most of the bitterness in a grapefruit is in the membranes and the pith, the white portion located between the yellow part of the skin and the fruity center.  If you peel the grapefruit and divide it into sections, you can easily remove the membrane from the inner pink fruit and you will find it sweet and juicy. 
Here’s how:

Start by peeling your grapefruit like this:

This is the pith.  You can remove it or leave it attached to the bottom of each section. 

Next peel away the membrane surrounding each section, like this:

Then peel the section off the bottom where it is attached to the pith or just bite it off the top. 

This is a juicy procedure so be sure to have plenty of towels and napkins nearby!

I have taught my boys and my husband, who swore he did not like grapefruit, to love them like I do.  Now pink grapefruit is a staple in our house.  I try to eat one everyday because they are delicious and grapefruit packs a triple power punch of nutrients and healthy benefits that are hard to beat!

Antioxidants
Studies have shown eating a grapefruit a day supplies your body with the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene.  These antioxidants are known for their ability to protect your body’s cells from free radical damage which have been shown to contribute to disease and premature aging.

Cholesterol
A Hebrew University Study in 2006 showed Pink Grapefruit consumption to lower blood triglycerides, a type of cholesterol know to contribute to cardiovascular disease.  Women with PCOS (like me) are the largest group of women at risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

Weight Loss
A 2004 study by the Metabolic Research Center at Scripps Clinic and a 2006 study in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that eating half of a grapefruit before each meal caused weigh loss in participants.  The researchers found that pink grapefruit contained active compounds that helped maintain reduced insulin levels in their blood following a meal. Having less insulin in the blood following a meal means you are more likely to use the food for energy  and less likely to store it as fat. Not only that but each 230g serving  are low in calories (about 90 Kcals) and packed with dietary fiber (4g) Vitamin A (53%) and Vitamin C (120%)

If you have not tried a pink grapefruit in a while, what are you waiting for?  Go on out and get one!! 

Best Kitchen Tool

I love to cook.  I have been cooking since I was a kid.  My sisters and I would get up early on Saturday mornings and each of us would cook a breakfast and then we would sample each other's creations and judge the best.  In my memory I was always the best!  I guess we were the original Top Chefs.

 Since starting Jenny Craig I have not been cooking that much.  At first it was because I was not strong enough to be in the kitchen preparing my favorite meals but not being able to eat them.  I was very proud of my boys during that time.  They were very patient with me and actually would cook for themselves, asking me how to prepare some of their favorite dishes like Penne Vodka or Chicken Broccoli Alfredo.  My oldest son is becoming quite a cook!  My youngest still likes to be cooked for but he can make several dishes for himself.

One thing I have not been able to stop making though is my doggie's food.  I have been cooking her food for a few years.  She became quite ill a few years ago on Thanksgiving morning and we had to take her to the Pet ER.  After that she would not eat her regular food.  She would push her bowl around the kitchen but would not eat it unless I added something to it.  I went through so many things but have finally found something she will eat every day without complaint.  It is a comination of brown rice, sweet potatoes and ground chicken breast.  Sometimes I put in fresh parsley and sometimes I don't.  I make up a big batch of it once a month and freeze it in small containers. I mix one cup of this mix with her dry dog food.

Today was dog food cooking day.  As I was chopping up the sweet potates I thought how much easier this was with my Favorite Kitchen Tool:  my knife sharpener.  Now you might say "What?  A knife sharpener?"  But just hang with me here.  When your knife is sharp EVERYTHING is easier.  A dull knife is a dangerous knife.  If you are using a knife that is not sharp it can slip off the food you are cutting and easily cut your fingers instead.  I use a steel and a table top sharpener like this one:

When my knives are sharp they quickly bite into the foods I am cutting and I can slice or chop without much force, making the whole process much safer.  The hard sweet potatoes I cut up this morning would have been a workout to cut without a sharp knife, but with it my knife just went right through.  Be sure to read about safe knife skills, and remember to keep your fingers curled under!