motivatedmommyof7

[motivatedmommyof7]

Today I am interviewing a friend of mine who is a fitness trainer and co-owner of Evolution Training Athletics in Prince Frederick, MD.(http://evolutiontraining.wix.com/191441). 

Her name is Valerie (Val) Walker, and she has been my go to for food advice and exercise tips for this contest.

     Rebekiah: So Val, how did you decide to become a personal trainer?

     Val: My family is all overweight and have multiple health issues so I wanted to learn how to help those in my community as well as get myself in shape to stay healthy and live an active lifestyle. 

     Rebekiah: Have you always been interested in fitness?

     Val: Yes, since I was a kid I have always been active in sports,  dance and other physical activities.

     Rebekiah: What kind of advice would you give to someone who has made the decision to start to get in shape after a sedentary lifestyle?

     Val: Take one day at a time. Do something new each day like walk, ride a bike or take a low impact class. Find a support system and never give up. You are not alone in this journey.

     Rebekiah: What would be the first thing you tell someone beginning their weight loss journey?

     Val: Again,  take it one day at a time and start a food and workout journal.  Also write in it how you feel.

     Rebekiah: What is your favorite go to healthy meal?

     Val: Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli with lemon squeezed on it and half of a sweet potatoe with cinnamon.

     Rebekiah: What is your favorite exercise?

     Val: Sleep (lol). I like slow bend and thrust with a push up they work your legs, core, upper body and get your heart rate up.

     Rebekiah: What does your personal exercise routine look like?

     Val: 30-45 mins of cardio followed by 20-30 mins of strength and/or resistance training.

     Rebekiah: And lastly, what kind of advice would you give me participating in this contest?

     Val: Always tell yourself you can accomplish anything that you set you mind to. You are not alone. There are many people going through what you are and you can reach out to them or me for help. Stay strong and believe in yourself.

     Rebekiah: Thank you Val for taking your time to complete this interview with me. I really appreciate you and all the help and advice you have given me.

[motivatedmommyof7]

My favorite veggies and why I love them!

Broccoli is one of my all time favorite vegetables and I include it in almost every bowl I make at Genghis. I love broccoli because it is low in calories but it contains lots of vitamins and minerals and a good dose of fiber too. I get my vitamin C, and A and both calcium and potassium as well.

My second go to vegetable is mushrooms. I love how these taste when they are grilled! I could add mushrooms to any of my meals easily. Not only do they taste good but again they are low in calories and a good source of vitamins and nutrients. They also have no fat! Mushrooms are rich in B vitamins such as riboflavin, folate, thiamine, pantothenic acid, and niacin. They are also the only vegan source of vitamin D! Mushrooms also contain two types of dietary fibers in their cell walls: beta-glucans and chitin which increase the feeling of fullness and reduce appetite, so they make you feel fuller longer and thereby help in lowering your overall calorie intake.

My last must have in my bowls is bell peppers both red and green. I could eat these all day long without even cooking them. A 1-cup serving of green bell peppers contains 2.5 grams of fiber toward the daily recommendation of 21 to 25 grams for women. They also contain a good amount of vitamin C and E. You need between 75 and 90 milligrams of vitamin C per day, and one cup of chopped green bell peppers provides 119.8 milligrams! Vitamin C is important because when you get enough of it, you're less likely to develop infections, and your skin, teeth, gums and blood vessels are healthier and work more efficiently. 

I love knowing that I can get all of the vitamins and nutrients I need every day by incorporating different vegetables into my bowls at Genghis Grill. Not only am I eating healthier but it tastes so good! There are lots of ways to incorporate vegetables into your day that make eating them easy!

[motivatedmommyof7]

Week 2 of Health Kwest

So, I have lost 5 pounds already. I am pretty proud of that. I have been really careful about the foods that I have been eating and have been trying to be conscious about how active I am and what I am physically doing. I will continue to eat the way that I have- being conscious to eat more fruits and veggies. I may add some whole wheat pasta into my routine this week. I am really missing my pasta.

This week I am going to be a little more specific about what I am putting into my bowls. Last week, I was just putting whatever veggies I wanted along with my chicken. I plan on trying to use scallops in one of my bowls this week and I plan on making sure I incorporate the bean mixture in my bowl (black beans, chickpeas and one other type bean) more often to get more fiber and protein. I still would love to hear any bowl ideas from you guys to get me out of my routine. 

I started a new workout routine yesterday. My husband is really helping to push me through it and motivate me to do well. My legs are BURNING today! Guess I worked a lot of muscles yesterday. Today I worked my arms a lot. Now I am ready to go to bed. Good night!

[motivatedmommyof7]

My motivation today

[motivatedmommyof7]

Today's task was to share this BEFORE picture and share my goals for my Health Kwest. I may share this several times just to motivate myself to be different. When I look at this picture I see someone that I don't want to be. I see someone who would rather sit around watching TV and snacking on whatever is around than getting up and exercising or being outside. I see someone who eats whatever she wants without caring about how unhealthy it is nor caring about how much she is eating. I hope that I will never be this person again.

I have several goals that I am looking to achieve through participating in this contest. My first goal is to get up and exercise and be consistent about it. Even when I am tired, I want to learn to push through it and make exercise a habit. God says my body is a temple and I need to start taking care of my temple. I am going to make sure that I am getting up and doing SOMETHING everyday even if it isn't working in a gym. I will have my time in the gym- but I believe that my life needs to still be active outside of that so my goal is to get used to being up and moving or outside having fun being active. 

My second goal is to get away from my salt addiction and pop addiction (for those of you not from the midwest- pop = soda = mtn dew etc). I tend to put salt on EVERYTHING. Even before I taste it, I grab the salt shaker. I know this is a bad habit and I know it isn't good for me but I just LOVE the taste of salt! I want to change this though because I KNOW it isn't good for me or my body and I want to be a better example to my children. I also love pop; Mountain Dew mostly, but I will drink most kinds. I find myself craving this sugary sweet liquid a lot right now. I have cut it out completely at this point since it has been such a staple in my everyday life. I got my husband into drinking pop and now you can find it in our house most of the time. This is another thing that I want to change in order to set a better example for my kids. Though they don't get to drink it unless it is a special occasion, they see me and their dad drinking it all the time. Kind of like those "do what I say, not what I do" type of things. So, that is my second goal. 

My third goal is to just plain start eating better. I want to be conscious about the things that I am cooking and what goes into it and what goes into my body. I used to eat a LOT of frozen dinners- I recently started looking at those labels and WOW, were those eye opening. Veggies ARE expensive, but I am trying to figure out the best times to buy those and am trying different types of veggies in my bowls to figure out what I like or don't like. Since spring is right around the corner, I am starting to think about the different types of veggies that I might be able to plant this year so we don't have to worry about buying them from the store. We have grown tomatoes and different peppers in the past and am hoping to do those again, but would like to add a little bit of variety to my garden- like possibly planting a leafy green vegetable like lettuce, spinach or cabbage. That way, I can keep eating healthy without having to worry about the money that we are spending on it. And not to mention that gardening is good exercise as well! Double bonus!

So, those are my goals. They are in writing and now hopefully my friends and family will be able to help to hold me accountable to them. 

[motivatedmommyof7]

Day 5 of my Health Kwest journey Friday, Feb 13

So, I started my morning with my usual scrambled egg concoction. This time I added my homemade salsa (tomatoes, onions, green peppers) and I also added a couple of sweet peppers and a little bit of a purple onion. I am really enjoying eating these eggs everyday even though I haven't been adding my normal dousing of salt. Hopefully this contest will help me to break my salt addiction. 

Lunch consisted of my homemade taco salad again- but I forgot I had used all my lettuce so I ate my ground turkey which had onions and some shreds of carrots mixed in and added my salsa mix. I had wanted to throw in a little bit of cheese but I forgot it at home- so I ate my meat and salsa together. 

Snacks were a clementine in the morning and a yogurt in the afternoon and a South Beach snack bar for my evening snack.

I went to Genghis for my dinner tonight and was a little bit more adventurous tonight. I still went with my chicken but I tried their Dragon Salt seasoning with it. I piled on the veggies- the usual: mushrooms, peppers, onions, sprouts but this time I added their 3g beans (3 different types of beans) and bamboo shoots. All of this with brown rice. I really liked adding the beans to the mix, I think I will continue to do that with future bowls. I don't think I will keep adding the bamboo shoots. 

Today's excercise was jogging for a 2 miles and a half hour of dancing to swing music again. Oh and a little bit of work with my resistance bands. I really like using those and you would be surprised at what a workout you can get with them!

[motivatedmommyof7]

My day 2 bowl. Chicken, brown rice and lots of veggies!

[motivatedmommyof7]

Day 2 of the Health Kwest

Yesterday I started the day with scrambled eggs again. I added onions and green peppers and then cooked some squash and zucchini to eat as well. Again I found that I wasn't hungry or snacking before lunch. For lunch I made my own taco salad with turkey meat lettuce a little bit of cheese and my own homemade salsa (tomatoes, onions, green peppers). It was okay- I was tempted to put salt in my meat and salsa but I did not give in. Instead I found some packets I had leftover from taco bell and put this in my meat. I wasn't very adventuresome for dinner for my bowl. I had the brown rice again with chicken and again lots of vegetables. I used cajun seasoning and a little garlic. I think I'm going to add more garlic to my bowl if I get chicken again today. I had a snack in between lunch and dinner since I was eating dinner late last night. I had half an apple and a clementine. I also had 4 slices of Turkey rolled up with lettuce. I danced outside again for my exercise and walked about 3 miles. Just trying to find time to exercise is my problem since I am driving 100 miles one way to get to my Genghis location. I am meeting with someone at Workout Anytime down there in Chattanooga to see if that will be the place I workout when I'm down there. I like that it is open 24 hours a day so i can still get my exercise in when I go down there late and stay the night. I will let you know how that goes. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Talk to you later. Rebekiah

[motivatedmommyof7]

Beginning of Genghis Grill Health Kwest 2015

So yesterday was the first day of the contest. I am already surprised by what a difference eating the right foods during the day makes and how it can fill you up without snacking. I work in a call center so it is easy to just grab something to snack on in between calls. It's a bad habit and I eat when I'm not even hungry. I didn't grab a snack yesterday until almost the end of my shift and I grabbed a Chobani Greek 100 and i was fine the rest of the night. I didn't even snack when I got home which is another bad habit of mine. I'm usually starving by the time I get home even though I eat dinner at work. So I was proud of myself yesterday. For breakfast I had 2 scrambled eggs with onions and green peppers and a glass of water. For lunch I ate at Genghis Grill and had chicken with cajun seasoning and piled on the veggies... onions, spinach, green and red peppers, mushrooms and bean sprouts. I ate all this with brown rice and a BIG glass of water. I actually found myself not being able to eat it all and i was full! I ended up eating the rest of my bowl from lunch for dinner and added a couple of carrots and a bottle of water. I finished the day with drinking another bottle of water until I had my yogurt around 7. I walked a little over 3 miles yesterday and danced for 20 minutes of my lunch. And oh yeah, I had my weigh in yesterday morning. I'm not proud of it but I weighed in at 177 pounds. I swear this is the last time I will ever see a number that high! With God all things are possible. I'll keep you updated on what today will bring.

[motivatedmommyof7]

Completing Orders on the Genghis Grill Community on #fancorps rules! #Ad http://fcrps.me/rebekiahjohnson

[motivatedmommyof7]

This is my BEFORE picture... Can't wait to see what a difference this contest will make even if I don't end up winning.