Day 2 of 1200 calorie diet

Before I head to boxing class wanted to post day 2 of the 1200 calorie diet. Feel free to play with mixing up things and changing snacks for a healthy, same calorie alternative.

Breakfast

1/3 cup of hot oatmeal with cinnamon

1 cup of skim milk

1-2 tsp of Raisons

Lunch

1 serving of chicken salad

1 whole wheat pita

1/2 cup of fresh veggies

Snack

1 piece of fruit

1/2 cup of non fat yogurt

Dinner

3 oz of Beef Medallions with sautéed mushrooms

1 cup of steamed veggies of your choice

2-3 cups of natural popcorn

Drink lots of water and lemonade is also great while dieting without sugar basically lemon water lol. I have been sticking to it and love my pitas. Some days I just have a half a pita with salad in it, other days have Tuna or Chicken salad, or add sliced turkey or chicken breast. The pitas I use are Joseph's Flax Oat Bran & Whole Wheat pitas they are soft and yummy.

Enjoy your week off to gym

Melissa

Monday diet meal plan 1200 calories

Breakfast

1 Slice of whole grain toast

1/2 cup non fat yogurt

1/2 cup of fresh fruit or berries

Lunch:

1 whole wheat pita ( found a great brand I love will post brand later only has 50 calories).

1/2 cup mixed greens

2 thin slices of turkey breast

Snack

1 fruit (apple, banana etc)

Dinner

1 boneless skinless chicken breast

1 Cup steamed vegetables

1/2 cup non fat yogurt or sorbet

Enjoy:) sorry I posted late will have tomorrow day 2 posted tonight after gym promise. Also will have some tips, brands I buy and some recipes:).

Make sure you drink a lot of water and lemonade is good but fresh lemonade with out added sugars. If you need sugar use stevia just a little for flavor. Make sure not to use salad dressing loaded with calories walden farms makes a great dressing very low fat just a little though

Looking for beauty, home decor, fashion, shoes and other items to review

I am looking for new items to review. I get lots of samples for beauty items but I bake, do party planning, home decor and am into home remodeling. I also love fashion. I am looking for items to review for my blog. I also am into fitness and nutrition. If you know anyone who has a new item or company they are starting please contact me at dlitefulcreations@ymail.com. I also would love gift cards to giveaway in contests or samples:).

I am trying to grow my blog and my audience. I don't want to review just beauty items or just home decor unlike to review all items that mom's, wives, and women of all types would enjoy. My blog is not targeted towards one thing I love all things beauty, home, fitness and so on. Thank you for reading and I love to hear feed back. Have a great week:).

Melissa

Dieting and Fitness over 30

I decided to blog again about dieting and fitness.  I posted a few blogs since October when I decided to join a boxing gym to get into better shape.  I have tried all different gyms, workouts, crossfit, diets, and trends.  I never battled with weight in my teens and twenties.  Even after I had my first daughter at 22 I dropped the weight quickly without dieting and little exercise.  I was always a size 0-3 until after the birth of my second daughter, I had her at 30.  I started exercising and dieting when she was 3 months old and it took me almost two years to get down to a size 0-1 again.  I cheated though after months of busting my butt I found these chinese diet pills.  I lost 23 lbs the first month, then started selling them and eventually lost over 50 lbs in a little under 3 months.  No exercise at all.  They were amazing but eventually after losing a ton of weight and making a lot of extra side money selling them, the FDA banned them in the US.  They became hard to find and also there were a lot of fakes out there that who knows what was in them lol.  I kept the weight off for over two years but last year I went thru a lot of life changes and battled with depression for a little while.  The medication along with quitting smoking caused me to put back on a lot of the weight.

I started to see all the changes people had told me about as we get older, and after we have kids.  Losing weight was not as easy, I realized there is no quick fix and if there is it is temporary, also possibly not vert healthy.  I also started to realize that I had a weird way of seeing myself, even when I was the smallest I ever was I would at that time think I was still over weight.  I could be a size 0 and think wow I need to work out I want to be tone, I still have a muffin top lol.  I laugh now cause I look at photos of myself from a year and a half ago and also look at my 13 year old who is wearing my jeans or clothes from then and think wow I was way too thin.  I am 5'7 and weighed around 116 that is not healthy at all.  I was a twig.  I wanted to gain a little weight back then cause I was starting to see that I was getting to small but when I got to the size I wanted to be things didn't stop.  

I started researching my height and what weight is considered healthy then realized that most of my life I have been under weight, more then I have been over weight.  That in fact I have never really been over weight, maybe a little but not seriously.  I also started to see that now that I have had two kids, and have hit 35 that things are changing big time.  My metabolism isn't what it use to be and my energy isn't either.  I love working out cause I sleep better, wake up easier and have way more energy.  Also I have realized that eating better makes my skin, hair, nails and everything look better.  I have been working out a lot.  I walk 2-3 miles a day, five times a week, take 3-4 boxing/kick boxing classes a week and also cut out or cut back on soda, carbs and don't eat any junk, except a splurge here and there on a weekend night.

I have recently decided to really start counting my calories.  I did the HCG diet last year in April when I wanted to lose a 15 pounds and that was total torture.  Needles, hormones and the lowest calorie intake I have ever had in my life.  I had zero energy, hormones were all over and it made me feel more depressed.  I quit that after a month and decided to start walking, later I did crossfit but decided I needed to lose weight first cause with that I was building muscle but not losing much weight.  I joined the boxing gym and that has changed how I feel about working out and dieting.  I did a 1300 calorie a day Monday-Saturday diet and allowed myself one cheat day for the passed two months, I have lost over 20 pounds, but want to lose 15 more.  The last 10-15 is the hardest.  I have increased my working out and walking, plus starting Monday I am going to go to 1100-1200 calories a day every day for 2 weeks to kick start and shock the body, while adding more walking, classes at the gym and I am looking into getting a personal trainer 3 days a week for 2 weeks to help me get down a good work out plan for the gym after my classes or on days I don't take a class.

I plan to share my diet plan with everyone.  I have a friend who is going to school to be a nutritionist and my other girlfriend I joined the gym with just started working out with one of the amazing trainers, she is also going to do the 1200 calorie meal plan that he has specialized for her.  I have cut down soda and am going to try to cut it out completely the next few weeks sticking to water, juice or lemonade.  I will be posting the meal plan Sunday night that you can also follow along with.  I already have been dieting and eating healthier, I shopped the passed four weeks buying a lot of chicken, salad stuff, vegetables, fruit, fish, whole wheat pitas, oatmeal and other healthy foods.  Along with adding a protein bar or shake before the gym to give me that added energy boost.  I downloaded a calorie counter for my Iphone and a pedometer for my walks or runs.  I will share the applications with anyone who has an IPhone they are great, the calorie counter has cool features that will add up calories, you can scan bar codes off items you purchase then enter servings and adds it for you, super cool apps.  Got to love the technology lol.

I would love to hear from anyone who is also dieting, working out or has any input on this topic.  I promise the diet plan I post will be easy to follow, I will be posting daily my meal diary and fitness diary, plus I will weigh in on Mondays along with taking measurements, cause sometimes the scale is not the best weigh to see how much it is working.  Inches tend to show more then pounds.  I will also take photos.  I have photos from my previous weight loss with my diet pills and those were the best motivation.  I hope to hear from others and help motivate others.  I want to be fit, healthy and feel great since I am getting older.  Trust me ladies you are not alone out there, we all battle with weight, dieting, body image and more.  No one is perfect, they just work really hard for it trust me.  Especially once we hit 30 and have had kids.

Till Sunday I will be sticking to my routine and eating 1300 calories a day till the weekend.  I will post the week meal plan Sunday night and then Monday morning weigh in then measure so I can post all those details.  Excited to share this last 15 pounds to my healthy weight and feeling great again=).

Melissa

Fall boot finds from Marshall's!

Here are the boots I mentioned in yesterday's post about some awesome tall brown fall boots:). I went to Marshall's today and if on payday these babies are still there I may get both but alteast the heeled ones.

They were $79.99-$99.00 and they are amazing. Love them, even tried on some lower boots that I fell in love with and trying to stay away from black or ugg looking boots cause I have so many options already.

I also found this great white with black skull scarf on eBay for $5.00! I was hoping I would get one in my julep mystery box but that is another topic lol what a mess. I think they said they were sending me out a new box to replace the mess I received, I hope so or I will be canceling and done with Julep for awhile.

Enjoy my photos and love to hear comments on the boots and the scarf. Hope everyone is having a great start to their week:). I know I am and boxing tonight was exhilarating love it so much more the crossfit this is total body work out but fun and always different. I feel more sore all over then any workout and like I said they do boxing, kickboxing, cardio, abs, and all the squats, lunges and burpies etc like crossfit just feel like I am getting better cardio and fitness then it's fun always different not the same old wod routine. One of the trainers worked with Mariah Carey and J Lo he is amazing and knows his stuff but in my second week I am still so sore that everything aches but a good ache :)