Voskos Greek Yogurt

Umm....hello?!?! Why doesn't everyone eat this stuff....look at the nutrition facts -- HOLY COW!!! I mean 24 g of protein!??!

0 g of fat and its so creaming and thick (don't you dare say "that's what she said"!)

This has got to be some of the most beneficial stuff on the planet. Even Fage doesn't compare in protein content, its insane.

And like I said before...this stuff can literally make anything. On their website www.voskos.com they have tons of recipes. Add a little mayo, its mayo....add a little cream cheese, its cream cheese. Its the best stuff on earth -- in your face Snapple!! :)

Photographer

So finding a photographer has been very stressful. I am 6 months out (actually a little less) from the wedding day and I still have not booked a photographer. This is absolutely horrible.

My sister's photographer is my absolute favorite, her work is just above and beyond my expectations. I love photojournalist techniques and she tops the list. Unfortunately for me she also is way out of my price range/budget. I have reserved $3000 for photography, well more that's what my parents are willing to pay. And for full coverage of the wedding day her price is well over double that amount. What I can get for that price is basically photography for 4 hours. Oh man, I just cannot let her not shoot my wedding, I mean photography is like key when it comes to weddings, its the way you remember that special day! I'm meeting with her again on Thursday (tomorrow). We are going to discuss the budget again, options that we might have - how much or what I can bring to the table outside of the set budget from the parents. We will see where this goes.

You should totally check out her site though www.christinejohnsonphotography.com its insane! The images she catches of my niece are just phenomenal. I wish I could be a talented photographyer -- maybe she'll teach me ;) that would be cool.

PS....at least point I really don't have an alternative option when it comes to photographer. There are only a couple of other photographers that I'm even interested in, they book up very quickly and they are also almost as expensive and I'm sure they would not be as likely to help me out. We'll see how it works out and I will update on the status of the photographer soon :)

Getting Back on Track

So I was writing that last post and never finished up, but I decided to post it anyway - so I know it ends abruptly, but whatever...too tired to think about what I was trying to say next on that one haha.

But I wanted to post something new on here today. I have been working pretty hard recently with the workouts. Eating has been lackadaisical sadly, and I'm really trying to get back on track with that too. Last night I had pizza boo hiss...not good I know so horrible whether you are on a plan or not.

This morning however I feel very good about myself. I woke up at 6 am and I have been recently because of my new puppy Molly. She has to go to the bathroom like first thing in the morning so I always set my alarm for 6 am so I can let her out before she has an accident.

Anyway, Patty my trainer told me that if I want to burn fat that the best times to do cardio are either pre-breakfast or post workout. So I got up this morning right after letting Molly out I changed put on my running shoes and did a 4 mile run this morning in about 35-40 minutes :) Then I took Molly for a walk. Yippee for me!!! Then I ate a healthy breakfast...normally I would eat some egg whites and toast, but I ran out of eggs eek so to get some protein into my body after the workout this morning I decided to eat some Greek Yogurt w/ a little honey for sweetness and some granola (very little bit, normally I'm not supposed to eat granola) and a piece of flax seed toast with benacol and sugar free strawberry jam. So all in all it has been a really good morning for me other than the fact that I'm sitting in the office and I'm absolutely freezing!!!

I spoke with Patty during my last workout and we decided to pick it up a notch so I'll be working with her 3 days a week Tues, Thurs & Sat to get my a$$ in gear. I weighed myself the other day post workout and I was 158 which I'm pleased with :) for someone who is 5'10 that's not bad..although I'd prefer to be under 150 -- it'll happen, maybe ;)

I do want to post some pics of Molly up here as soon as I upload to my computer...she's the cutest and really well behaved when she is not acting like a puppy -- but I can't get mad at her after all she is only 8 weeks old! :-P

Update 2

Things are going slowly for me at the moment. Traveling weekends has been really hard. Being out of town and around my sister who is pregnant I'm tempted with candies and baked goods and fried foods practically every weekend. And I'm very submissive in that sense, yikes! Although I'm happy to announce I haven't gained any weight. So that's a good sign. I've been trying to work out as consistently as possible, even being out of town.

I almost always start my workout with 30-40 minutes on the treadmill. 5 minutes walking up hill level 7.0 to 9.0 at about 3.8-4.0 MPH. It gets your heart rate up and moving. Then I lower the incline back to 0 and increase the speed to about 6.2-6.4 MPH. I'm kind of sporadic about what I do during the 30 minutes but normally I'll keep the pace of 6.2-6.4 MPH and increase the incline every 10 minutes to an incline of 7-9 for about 2 minutes. I do this as an interval as many times as I can before I'm puttered out. Over time you should be able to push it farther and farther. Based on what people say about working out, this is good for your body and heart rate because you are not just doing a steady workout that your body can easily become accustomed to, you are actually pushing the limits and when your body is already at a 160-170 heart rate you then push it up to 180-200 and then back down again which will increase the calories burned during that workout. I end the work out walking up hill at an incline of about 5.0-7.0 for 5 minutes and then slow it down w/ no incline just to bring the heart rate down for another 5 minutes. What I think is great about these intervals is that you aren't constantly thinking man I have another 30 minutes, 20 minutes 15 minutes...its more like you are saying another 5 minutes til i increase and then you count down the 2 minutes and so on and so forth. Seems to make things go by a bit faster.

Normally after the treadmill I'll start working with my personal trainer. We'll do all legs one day and all arms another day. We always do moderately low weight with high reps. For instance on leg day we will do leg press starting with 45 lbs in addition to the machine 3 reps of 20 lifting the toes at the end. Sometimes if I'm having a difficult time with the weight she'll reduce it for the last set.