Knowledge is power so go get it!

My favorite graduate school professor told me “knowledge is power but people don’t want to pay for that power.” Paying for information doesn’t necessarily mean a monetary exchange, sometimes is a time exchange too. Hearing that statement changed my world and continues to influence how I look at things now.

I want to preface this post by saying I don’t want to come across preachy or bossy or whatever adjective you will insert here. People have sent many e-mails asking me what exactly we ate and when. I’m not an expert. I can’t develop a plan for you. And even if I could develop a plan for you based off of what we did, it may not work for you.

People really want to know everything we did to get from this:

olemiss

to this.

Untitled

I’m sorry I didn’t have a magic answer for you. It was a trial and error process. Things weren’t always easy and we didn’t know a lot about stuff.

You know how we found out lots of our information? By asking questions and if we didn’t know who to ask the questions to, we searched the internet. Our weight loss journey was a lot of research. The greatest resource we had during our journey was the internet.

It’s amazing because you can find out pretty much whatever you need to know just by searching. If I had a question about how much protein I should be having in a day, I could search for it. Yes there is a lot of junk of out there but there are some credibly sources on most matters.

I’m no expert now. I’m not a certified personal training but I’ve been working on it. I’m not a dietitian or nutrition specialist either. It’s all about taking the simple knowledge out there and growing upon that knowledge. I ALWAYS suggest that you talk to your physician before starting a new diet and exercise program and that is always a source of finding out the information that you need.

But we have always lived by a simple rule:

Eat better foods and get moving!

How did we lose the weight? We stopped eating all those bad foods and started moving more. There are just some things that are bad for us and we just don’t eat them anymore. We stopped with fast fried food and started eating whole foods and a balanced diet. Plus eating on schedule and drinking more water. We started getting out and moving for 45 mins a day.

It’s just that simple! No magic diet. No magic workout plan. But it was a learning process. We learned the things we could eat and what we couldn’t. We learned about work outs and staying fit but we mostly did that through the internet, reading books and magazines, and most importantly asking REAL questions.

I was totally against paying for Weight Watchers for others but in hindsight, I don’t think it’s a bad thing because some people need that. We did not need that. Paying for these programs allows a person to gain support, tools and the knowledge to succeed. There is nothing wrong with that because knowledge is power and sometimes you have to pay for those things!

Losing weight takes time and patience.  But the time doesn’t start ticking away until you start the journey.  Every day you put it off is one more day that you’ll be behind on your goal of reaching the finish!

I am here for you to ask questions so please feel free to ask questions on the blog or send an e-mail.  If I get multiples of the same question, I will answer the question on the blog instead of individually.

Do you have a question about weight loss, healthy eating or getting active?

My week of recovery has been hard

My week of recovery has been hard

I’m excited for a couple of things coming up, but for me to really enjoy those things I have to be healthy and strong.  I’ve got Marine Corps Marathon in October and I never thought I would have the chance to run that race so I want to make sure I make it through all 26.2 miles of that race with a smile on my face. Plus, I running the St. Jude Marathon in December with Willie.  These are some big moments for me. This week I’ve been pretty beat up.  My knee was really stiff due to a tight…

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Stay hydrated. Drink water!

Stay hydrated. Drink water!

At the beginning of the summer Willie started this water drinking thing because he felt like he wasn’t getting enough.  He started doing it so of course I jumped on it too.  I just didn’t use that annoying app that has reminders to drink all the time.  (Truth: Every time that sucker went off I was more inclined to use the bathroom instead of drinking water.) But it really got my thinking, do I drink enough water?  We’ve been told since we were little that we needed 8 glasses of water per day.  But then I read this on PBS:…

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Happy August! It’s time for new goals!

Happy August! It’s time for new goals!

Happy August everyone!  It’s the start of a new month which means anything is possible.  Start thinking about the things you hope to accomplish this month. Yesterday was my momma’s birthday!  It was kind of a chill day for her.  My  momma likes to celebrate occasions with food which is hard for Willie and I because we’re trying to keep things in check. We finally decided on Pei Wei.  If you’re an old blog reader you know Willie and I use to swear by this place, but they changed the menu.  For me, the nutritional information is a little bit…

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Recovery from the weekend with Pro Compression

Recovery from the weekend with Pro Compression

It was a big weekend because I did my 20 miler on Saturday.  Yesterday was a rest day.  Rest days are important to give your body a recharge.  It may sound funny coming from me because most people don’t think I take a rest, but I know when my body needs a rest.  Always remember to listen to your body. Recovery has been a big deal to me lately and I’ve taken the time to really educate myself on it.  I was doing it wrong for so long.  It’s hard to think about putting the calories back in your body…

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Accomplished the 20 miler

Accomplished the 20 miler

This morning started off very early for me.  It’s the day in every marathon training plan people look at and think…”20 miles is a long way to go without someone cheering you on.”  Well today was my day.  Honestly, I was skeptical about completing all 20 miles in the Texas heat and humidity but I was going to give it a try. I have a couple of marathons coming up and the first one is Revel Rockies Denver.  I’m trying to run myself back into shape. I planned on being out of the door at 4am, but that didn’t happen.…

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Happy Friday and thank you! How are you …

Happy Friday and thank you!  How are you getting active this weekend?

Good mid-morning my readers.  I hope everyone is having a great day because it’s FRIDAY.  The weekend has arrived!  I was supposed to be in San Jose for Blogher but I had a little incident last weekend.  I thought it would be better on my pocket book if I stayed home this weekend.  It’s a bummer but I’ll be there next year. This morning I totally decided to sleep in because I felt tired so I missed my 5am workout, but I just finished a HIIT Tone It Up workout.  I’m going to take it easy on my workout today…

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Race Recap: El Scorcho 25k/50K – Why I …

Race Recap: El Scorcho 25k/50K – Why I won’t be an ultra-marathoner.

I’m late posting this morning because I was sidetracked. I hate it when that happens. On Saturday night, I ran El Scorcho. It’s a race that typically starts at midnight but if you were doing the 50K option, you had the choice to early start. You have until the sun comes up to finish the race. Why is the race at night? Because we live in Texas and it’s hot! The race seems to be pretty well organized. Packet pick up was a breeze and the ride to the park wasn’t bad either. They even had volunteers to drive you…

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Marathon training might just have to take a …

Marathon training might just have to take a backseat

I don’t have much to report from the weekend. I’ve enjoying the weekends of not doing much because I was on the constant move earlier in the year. I also know I’m going to be on the constant move towards in the fall too. I’m taking the time to enjoy summer. Only bad thing, I missed the 5K on Friday night because I got busy and lost track of time. No bueno. But on Friday, i went to my first tabata bootcamp class. Talk about intense! They are offering the classes at my gym so I thought I would try…

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Failing at recovery

Failing at recovery

This shouldn’t be an issue. I’m on Team Chocolate Milk. I should be mastering recovery, but I’m failing. I noticed after I ran the half marathon on Sunday that I was a bit more beaten up than usually. I just figured it may have been due to the fact I ran the back half of the race a little harder than what I’ve been running lately. I waited too long for my lowfat chocolate milk. I mentioned that it started pouring very shortly after I crossed the finish line so I didn’t have enough time to grab anything for recovery.…

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Five Things On Friday

Five Things On Friday

This week has been a little bit more laid back than last week. I feel like last week was a lot of prepping and this week has been a little bit less of that. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been busy though. When the blog posts don’t come frequently, you can pretty much assume I’m busy at work. So guess what? I’ve been really busy. 1. I pretty much feel like all I’ve done is work…including my working out (which is part of my job too). After the Monday run debacle, I haven’t been right at all this week. My…

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