7 Days

To go and we will be here yet again. I think this Florida has found a new heaven on earth.


I took this picture in Breckenridge last year going up the chair lift.

The Shred Review

*** If you will be offended by pictures of me in a sports bra don't scroll to the bottom. I'm about to show off my hard work.


The Plan
The 30 Day Shred is a DVD by personal trainer, Jillian Michaels. The only things required for this workout is a pair of dumbbells and tennis shoes. I would also recommend doing these exercises on carpet.

The Content
The DVD starts off with a 5 minute warm up. There are 3 circuits of 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. There are no breaks. There is a lot of jumping. And sweating. And faceplanting into the floor on my very last traveling pushup. There are 2 different levels; Anita is the beginner level and Natalie is the more advanced. I followed Anita for most of my exercises but really tried to push myself to Natalie's version. Ideally, this DVD will be used every day for 30 days. 10 days for each of the 3 levels. I did it in 31 days. I took Valentine's day off for worthy cause.

My Experience
I loved being able to get a good workout in 20 minutes in my own home. I've never gotten sweaty every day for a 30 day stretch before in my life. Level one was a great start. At first I couldn't imagine a harder workout, but by day 4 or 5 I was getting the hang of it and able to walk normal again. By day 10 I was ready to move up and start something new. I hated level 2. For some reason me and the exercises just didn't get along. They felt unnatural and I felt like I was doing them just to get them done. I started level 3 a day early and was so glad. I loved level 3. I still can't do every exercise to completion. I struggle with the "explosive" moves. But I did move up to 5 lb weights and tried doing half Natalie half Anita style.

My Diet
I didn't do any crazy diet plan unfortunately. I focused on eating fruits, veggies, and lean meats. This worked well while at home. But then there were cookies at work. Dunkin Donut drive through on Sunday mornings. Super Bowl Sunday. Valentine's day. Ya... the diet could have been better. But I did majorly curb my night time snacking. Being a night shifter I get used to eating at night while at work. On the nights off I tend to snack my way through The Duggars, Intervention, Hoarders, and next thing I know I've eaten a whole meal right before going to bed. I tried planning one healthy snack around 10pm, which works out great since I don't go to bed until after midnight. I just have to be conscious of "bored eating".

I Wish
I wish I had been able to do a hard core diet. No carb high protein would have been ideal, but it just wasn't meant to be. I wish I had taken before pictures BEFORE I started the workout! I wish I had taken measurements of every body area and relied less on the scale. I wish I had bought one of those Body Fat Analyzer machines and thrown my scale away.

The Sums
I ended up losing 0, zero, nada, nothing pounds. If anything I gained a little. I DID lose over an inch in my waist, and 2 inches in my hips. Those are the only measurements I took, but I have a feeling I lost a little boobage and bat wing mass. I have a slight hint of a quad/hamstring line down the side of my leg. HAWT.
I loved this workout. I'm so glad I did it and I feel completely ready for Ski Trip 2010.

I took these pictures about 9 days into the program. That's also when I did my measurements. So these pictures are only 20 days apart instead of 30.

Before





After
There is a new line down the side of my abs and my bowchikabowow is a little less bowwow and a little more just wow.






Before




After
My chub rubs seem to be doing a little less rubbing.











Before





After
My sandle bags are filling out the pants a little less.
And PLEASE note that defined deltoid taking the picture (click to enlarge)

Valentine's Day

We aren't big into going out to dinner for Valentine's day. We always stay home and cook together. This year it was porterhouse steaks and a potato recipe from Pioneer Woman

White Wine Salmon

This is the best salmon recipe I've ever made. Jordan and I are huge salmon fans so I've tried a lot of different recipes. I originally got this recipe from Publix Apron's but tweaked it a little. This one could top Season's 52. Yep, I'm that confident.

White Wine Salmon



1-2 lbs fresh salmon, skin removed
Salt and pepper
3-4 Green onions, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 fresh diced tomato
1/2 white wine (don't skimp, get the real stuff. I used Pinot Grigio)
1 tablespoons capers
1 tablespoon cilantro herb paste
1/2 spinach, shredded

1. Coat skillet with olive oil and preheat on medium. Salt and pepper salmon to taste. Once skillet is heated, place salmon in the skillet and cook 3-4 minutes.
2. Mix all other ingredients in medium sized bowl.
3. Turn salmon and pour mixture around sides of salmon. Cook another 4 minutes of until salmon flakes easily.

My First

First kiss? First love? Fist anniversary? First job? So many happy firsts I could write about, but unfortunately I'm talking about my first code. Code blue. Code blue 90. Whatever you want to call it, my patient was breathing, and then he wasn't.

It all started last night when getting report from the dayshift nurse that our patient would be transferred to a higher level of care. 15 minutes into our shift, my dear friend, Maribel, and my boss were cleaning him up getting him ready for the move, we turned him to his side for the necessary scrub down, rolled him back and he stopped breathing. We checked for a pulse and next thing I know The Boss is yelling "Press the code button". I think someone said "we need help in here", I'm not sure, it's all a blur.

But wait, let me back up. This is a patient I had 2 nights before when he was still talking and joking around. I never liked the way he looked. My 4 years of experience as a nurse told me something just wasn't right. It wasn't if he was going to go bad (sorry, hospital lingo) but when. When I saw him that night, it was the same thing. Lets get him to the higher level of care ASAP cause that feeling was still in my gut. Before we started cleaning him up he opened his eyes, looked at me and smiled. That was the last thing he ever did. Minutes later we were cracking his rib cage with chest compressions.

When I say this was my first code, I mean this was completely and utterly my very first one. I'd never even seen CPR done on anything other than those ridiculous Red Cross dummies. How I avoided it this long, I have no idea. Maybe God was preparing something inside me. Maybe He was protecting me until He knew I was ready.

Back to the code blue button being pressed. Every nurse on the floor runs into the room. The code cart magically appears. Bells and whistles are blaring. We're deflating the bed, putting him on the backboard, and the chest compressions begin. The respiratory therapist arrives and bags the patient at the head of the bed. There is no pulse for the AED defibrillator to find. Doctors arrive. ICU nurses arrive. The chaplain arrives. Before I know it, about 20 people are jammed in the room. We're hanging liters of fluid and we start pushing all the cardiac drugs. Stuff I've never heard of (thank God for ICU nurses). One doctor stands at the foot of the bed and calls all the shots (Thank God for doctors). I actually didn't know that's how it worked; he kept track of the minutes going by for the chest compressions, he told what drugs to give, he told when to pause and check for a pulse. This went on for 55 minutes. At 20:47 my patient was pronounced dead.

I always wondered how I would handle my first code. Would I freak out and fall to pieces? Would I forget everything I was taught? Would I jump into action and go through the movements that had been practiced over and over? Thanks to my coworkers, we all jumped into action and everything that needed to be done was. I remember Maribel frantically shaving his chest so the AED pads would stick. I remember desperately searching for the code blue button which ended up being on the other side of the bed. All of us together had never rolled a patient so swiftly and smoothly before. Is was controlled chaos. When the doctors asked what happened, I actually muddled through a somewhat comprehensible background on the patient. It all worked the way it should, except the patient never came back to us.

The surreal part is I watched someone die last night, and I go on today like it never happened. I still run my errands, eat my Arby's, and play on Facebook. Someone died yet we still go on. It will never be easy watching someone take their last breath. And if it ever comes to that, I am no longer human.

Dessert Parfait

I'm going to start something new on my blog and begin posting recipes. I love trying new recipes and I'm always on the hunt. Some recipes will be healthy, some, not so much. But all will be simple and winners in this house!

Here's the first recipe, and I'll be starting this off right with a dessert! I found this in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine and modified it a bit. It's supposed to be a morning parfait, but I've been eating it as a dessert at night after dinner. It's a heart healthy dessert, but soothes that sweet tooth just as good as a bowl full of gut expanding ice cream.

Dessert Parfait
Start to finish: 20 minutes

1/4 cup raisins
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 an 8 oz package of reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup low-fat granola
Honey
Any variety of fresh fruit. I used blueberries, bananas, strawberries, and oranges

1. In a small bowl combine raisins and orange juice. Cover and microwave for 30-45 seconds. Let this stand one minute to plump raisins. Stir in vanilla.
2. In a medium bowl combine softened cream cheese and sugar; beat with mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in raisin mixture.
3. In four bowls or dessert glasses, layer half cream cheese, half fruit, and half granola.
4. Drizzle with honey

This is such a simple way to curb the cravings for something sweet, creamy, and crunchy.

If you have a recipe you'd like to share, please email it to me at freckledpeanut82@yahoo.com

We Did It!

The month of January is complete and so is our no-spending challenge! When we took on this challenge I think we both thought it was going to be hard. At first, it was. We had to turn down friends who wanted to go out to eat, or take crazy 50 MPH go-kart races. We were so adamant about not spend any money I think some friends are convinced we're in financial peril, but really we just wanted to detox from our spending habits. Besides buying plane tickets to Colorado, it's shocking how much money we saved. Actually, not shocking, embarrassing!


Since our challenge went so well, about half way through the month we revamped our entire budget. It's a tight budget but we have a specific goal in mind; wood floors! And not that laminate crap. Real wood floors. Of course, if we do the floors in the living room/entry/dining, we need to do the kitchen tile. And if we do the kitchen tile we need to have matching tile in the laundry room. And if we get rid of all this lovely pink and green tile through the rest of the house, we clearly need replace it on the fireplace. And naturally we can't just go with "normal" wood floors, we want a tile inlay in the entry (Darn you HGTV!). And I'm sure the baseboards will come up in pieces so we'll have to replace all of those too. And TA-DA! That's a years worth of a semi-tight, super savers budget. It's going to be gloriously beautiful!

With this new goal in mind, I've decided to give up Target. That's right, that's how much I want wood floors. But not only new floors, that's how much I don't want to be a wasteful, ungrateful, "I need stuff to make me happy" American.