Workout: 7/1/10

Wii Fit: 18 min (I'm hoping to pick-up a few more min. this evening)

Yoga: Palm Tree, Downward Facing Dog, Sun Salutation, Half Moon

Strength Training: Torso Twists, Jack Knife

Balance Games: Rhythm Parade, Obstacle Course

Workout: 6/30/10

Wii Fit: 25 min

Yoga: Tree, Palm Tree, Downward Facing Dog, Sun Salutation

Strength Training: Torso Twists, Jack Knife

Balance Games: Rhythm Parade, Lotus, Bubble

Workout: 6/29/10

Wii Fit: 20 min

Yoga: Deep Breathing, Palm Tree, Downward Facing Dog, Sun Salutation

Strength Training: Torso Twists

Balance Games: Big-Top Juggling, Bird's-Eye Bulls-eye, Rhythm Parade

Workout: 6/28/10

Wii Fit: 24 min

Yoga: Tree, Palm Tree, Downward Facing Dog, Half Moon

Strength Training: Torso Twists

Balance Games: Big-Top Juggling, Obstacle Course, Bird's-Eye Bulls-eye, Balance Bubble, Tilt City

Day 17 - The Challenge

Sunday:
Food-
Breakfast: Granola Bar and Yogurt.
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich with Cream Cheese and Spinach plus some Zesty French Fries.
Dinner: Buttercup Squash Risotto (Not great, the recipie didn't have me add the rice untill 1/2 through the process so the rice wasn't creamy, but chewy. Next time I'll do it differently.) Sauted chicken with Shallot Pepper seasoning.
Snacks: Dr. Pepper and Granola

Exercise - Walk to the Park with Michael and Tallulah. Calf excercises on the steps.

Meditation - Quite time in the kitchen.

Sleep - Only okay. It took me a while to go to sleep and it was hard to get up this morning.

Day 15 - The Challenge

It's been 15 days - halfway through - and time has come to evaluate the Challenge. Yep...uh-huh...okay...Sigh.

I've been a Challenge slacker. Aside from stepping up my yogurt and cheerios consumption I haven't really been eating much better. I've eaten out for lunch WAY more than I should and dinner is pretty hit or miss too.
Then there is the exercise and meditation. The exercises are weak at best. Note how not once has "Walked 3 miles" or even "Walked to the Library" made the list. Nor has "did 1 one of the many workout tapes". Meditation is even worse. granted grating veggies is pure relaxation on my part, but it is still moving - doing something. That is not being still.
I have been sleeping better but that has more to do with the shift in weather then anything I am doing.
At the halfway point I give my self a C- (because the thought of anything lower just makes me sick) with a strict warning to do better from here on out. Days 16 - 30 better show some improvement!

Friday:
Food-
Breakfast: Raisin Bran Crunch.
Lunch: Ordered General's Chicken and Crab Rangoon
Dinner: 2 soft tacos from Chipotle. (Chicken, Rice, Fajitas veggies, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese and lettuce)
Snacks: More Dr. Pepper than I've consumed all week combined.

Exercise - Does lots of painting count? My arm is sore from holding the spray paint nozzle down.

Meditation - What do you think?

Sleep - Badly. The Dr. P kept me up and then a thunderstorm rolled in waking me up, which was actually a relief as I was having bad dreams.

Day 14 - The Challenge

Thursday:
Food-
Breakfast: Multi Grain Cheerios and a Dannon Natural Cherry Yogurt.
Lunch: 1/4 turkey sub and a bag of Baked Lays
Dinner: Apple Bourbon Pork Tenderloin and broccoli
Snacks: More Mulit Grain Cheerios and some Espresso Gelato

Exercise - Nope

Meditation - Nope

Sleep - Quite nice. The cold weather helps.

Uh - Where was I?

Tuesday was a bit of a blur...

Wednesday:
Food-
Breakfast: Multi Grain Cheerios and a Dannon Natural Cherry Yogurt.
Lunch: Wendy's chicken nuggets (no time for eating)
Dinner: Mahi-Mahi and Maple Carrots at Houston's with Jill and Bri.
Snacks: Lemon Tart from Andre's YUM!

Exercise - Walking around the Plaza.

Meditation - Yeah, this isn't happening.

Sleep - Really well. We even stayed up late, but I was in a good mood for the first time in weeks so I went to be really happy and woke up the same way!

Day 12 - The Challenge

Monday:
Food-
Breakfast: Multi Grain Cheerios
Lunch: Out with my co-workers to celebrate K's new job. So 1 cheese and onion enchilada and lots of chips and salsa.
Dinner: We had a work meeting so instead of the veggie soup I had planned we had pizza.
Snacks: Dannon Natural Cherry Yogurt*. (This gets starred as a "Product I Love".)

Exercise - Leg excerises while watching Dr. Oz on Oprah. Michael joined because it looked easy but confessed that is was harder then is looked.

Meditation - Nope, this is by far the hardest thing to work into my day.

Sleep - Not great because at first I was too hot then by 3:00am I was freezing and at 4:00 I finally got the extra blanket down. Once that extra blanket was on the sleeping was great.

Day 11 - The Challenge

Sunday:
Food-
Breakfast: Bacon and Scrambled Eggs
Lunch: Burritos with Couscous, Ground Turkey, Slices of Carrot and Cheese.
Dinner: Turkey Burgers with Shredded Zucchini and Carrots, A whole wheat pita and "Natural" potato chips.
Snacks: Deceptive Chocolate Cake, Grapes and a Cherry Yogurt. (Which as some one who really doesn't like yogurt that is a major achievement. This is really good yogurt.)

Exercise - Some lunges in an attempt to pop my hip back into place.

Meditation- Grating and peeling veggies. It is so soothing to me.

Sleep - Michael was asleep way too early so I was bored before falling asleep, but we were both out before 10:15 so waking up this morning, eventhough it is pitch black outside wasn't too bad.

Day 10 - The Challenge (Let's just forget about the few days I missed)

Saturday:
Food-
Breakfast: Cinnamon Rolls made by Scott (so yummy)
Lunch: 1 beef taco and 1 chicken flauta from Margaritas in Belton. Also, more chips and salsa then I would like to admit.
Dinner: Pot Stickers, Coucous and 1/2 a Honey Crisp Apple.
Snacks: More of Scotty's homemade Cinnamon Rolls.

Exercise - Hours of walking around in a pumpkin field finding just the right gourds and pumpkins.

Meditation- Nope.

Sleep - It was okay. I went to bed too late and got up too early, but the sleep itself was fine.

Day 9 - The Challenge

Monday:
Food-
Breakfast: Leftover Chicken Curry
Lunch: McDonalds - I know, bad Morgan. But I was out running errands and then suddenly it was 1:30pm and I was starving.
Dinner: Burritos with ground turkey, rice, lettuce, carrots, onions and red peppers.
Snacks: Swiss Rolls. (I just need then out of the house or I'll eat them)

Exercise - Sweeping, vacuuming, serious cabinet purging

Meditation- Mid morning in the sun porch, listening to the wind in the trees.

Sleep - Deep and I dreamed about visiting Alexa - only she was still in college...a college in a mall!

Note: I took the day off today. It was fantastic. I loved being able to run errands, actually sweep my floors and finally frame some photos from our honeymoon.

Day 8 - The Challenge

Sunday:
Food-
Breakfast: Honestly I don't remember
Lunch: First Watch with friends where Kelly and I split the biscuits and gravy and the Floridian French toast. So yummy and considering I use very little gravy it wasn't THAT bad.
Dinner: Chicken Curry and couscous. My curry is loaded with veggies and includes an extra dash of cinnamon - surprisingly enough Michael likes it too.
Snacks: Swiss Rolls.

Exercise - The day was spent recovering from Saturday.

Meditation- Just some quiet time.

Sleep - Fine. I slept in and enjoyed the morning.

Day 7 - The Challenge

Saturday:
Food-
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs, bacon and toast with honey
Lunch: Grilled Cheese with Turkey and basil
Dinner: Papa Keno's Pizza - but this time with Michael. This time it was Broccoli and Pineapple. Not the best combination, but if you eat all the pineapple first and the eat just the broccoli pizza it is yummy!
Snacks: Too full of pizza to snack.
Note how I often eat the same meal 2 or more days in a row? Sometimes I get obsessed about things.

Exercise - Tallulah and I took walk this morning and then M and I spent most of the day working in the yard. Gaging from how sore I am today I think it counts as a great work out.

Meditation- Again I skipped out on this and watched more How I Met Your Mother. It is just so funny.

Sleep - We stayed up way too late and considering how tired we were from all the yard work I'm not sure how. I was asleep by the first sketch of SNL, and woke up only because we forgot to close the blinds and the bright light of morning woke me.

Good News - My friend Jeremy from college and his lovely wife had a baby girl yesterday. Welcome to the world Elliott.

Day 6 - The Challenge

Friday:
Food-
Breakfast: Raisin Bran Crunch (I so love this stuff)
Lunch: Grilled Cheese with Turkey and basil
Dinner: Papa Keno's Pizza with Katie. But my pizza toppings were broccoli and sun dried tomoatoes, so really it was good for me pizza (and REALLY yummy).
Snacks: One late night swiss roll.

Exercise - Katie and I planned to walk tonight, instead we walked around the Plaza where I picked up a really great shirt at the Gap.

Meditation- Not to night. Instead I opted for much laughing while watching How I Met Your Mother.

Sleep - Apparently I'm good at staying up too late (past midnight this time) but it was a Friday night, so its okay.

Day 5 - The Challenge

Thursday:
Food-
Breakfast: Raisin Bran Crunch
Lunch: Bad Me - I went to Taco Bell - but I only had 2 fresco style tacos.
Dinner: A sandwich with apple slices, bacon, turkey, cheese and lettuce.
Snacks: Pita Chips. (YUMMY!!)

Exercise - Yoga poses till it hurt.

Meditation- Super deep breathing.

Sleep - Yet again we stayed up too late, but the sleep I got was still good.

Day 4 - the Challenge

Wednesday:
Food-
Breakfast: Simple Harvest Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Lunch: Mashed Cauliflower with italian cheese and spices.
Dinner: 7 grain pasta with red sauce, grilled chicken and veggies.
Snacks: Twizzler's Nibbs and some dried apricots. 1 swiss roll.

Exercise - Nodda.

Meditation- Unraveling some baby alpaca yarn. It was so soft and not so tangled as to be frustrating.

Sleep - We stayed up too late, but the sleep I got was deep.

Day 3 - The Challenge

Tuesday:
Food-
Breakfast: Smoothie made with V8 Fusion, all the raspberries left in the container, flax seed, oatmeal and vanilla yogurt.
Lunch: Out with my co-workers for Mexican. Chips and salsa and chicken and spinach enchiladas.
Dinner: Roast Chicken with carrots and onions (and prunes), Mashed Cauliflower.
Snacks: Twizzler's Nibbs and some dried apricots. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.

Exercise - Leg lifts and crunches plus some arms with a 2lb weight.

Meditation- Some quiet time with a good book.

Sleep - I slept well. The needing an extra blanket cold made for good sleeping. I actually woke up before the alarm and felt rested.

The Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 - Monday:
Food-
Breakfast: Smoothie made with V8 Fusion, a handful of blueberries, raspberries, flax seed and vanilla yogurt.
Lunch: Turkey Pot-Stickers and White Cheddar Cheez-its and a Cherry Coke.
Dinner: Lasagnachiladas (lasagna roll-ups) and a salad.
Snacks: 2 handfuls of Twizzler's Nibs, 3 dried apricots

Exercise-
Nothing really formal tonight. Instead I did a series of leg lifts and crunches while watching CSI: Miami.

Meditation-
Laying in the yard with Tallulah for 10 min, just watching the clouds and the leaves in the trees and petting my sweet puppy. Probably the most relaxing thing I have done in a long time.

Sleep -
Only so-so. We stayed up past 11pm and then woke up several times during the thunderstorm.

A 30 day challenge

Last night I took a deep breath and slept through the night.
Wow - what a difference that makes.

So I'm starting a 30 day challenge for myself.
Everyday for 30 days I will do the following:

• Exercise for a minimum of 15 min. : Could be walking Tallulah to the park, riding my bike, doing a workout tape, etc. The point is to MOVE for 15-20 min.
• Meditate for 5 min. : I have trouble being still and learning to be still and focused will help out with the stress levels I'm sure.
• Eat healthier meals: I'm trying to meal plan again so we will be less likely to opt for frozen pizza.
• Sleep: I want to wake up without being super tired.
  

I will not give up if I skip a day, I will not think badly about myself if after 2 min I can no longer be still. This is a work in progress - a challenge.

Day 1 - Sunday:
Food-
Breakfast: Bowl of Multi-Grain Cherrios with 1/2 banana and 1% milk
Lunch: Frozen Pizza (slow changes)
Dinner: Turkey Pot-Stickers and Fried Rice with Veggies

Exercise-
Walked with Michael and Tallulah to the Park and back. 20 min.

Meditation-
Nope

Sleep -
Fairly well. Out by 11:00pm, up by 7:00am without being groggy.