Our Next Big Splurge

In my last post, y'all saw that I finally bought an elliptical machine. It's been great! Roy and I use it all the time and it's been amazing to have it in the comfort of our living room. I know that I'd have to pay for a gym membership for at least two years before I break even on the elliptical, but I have come up with a mini list of reasons for why it's a totally reasonable purchase:

1. I never have to wait on someone else who might be using the machine (well, except for Roy if he happens to want to work out at the exact same time as me, but so far, that's not been an issue)

2. I never have to worry about someone's sweaty drippage remnants on the machine

3. I can plop my heiny in the shower as soon as my workout is over, thereby decreasing the chances of getting some sort of fungal plague or tapeworm of any kind

4. I can watch whatever TV show I want, when I want, however loudly I want, and not be subjected to watching Fox news, or the Jodi Arias trial or whatever the hell other show or network program which happens to be playing at the gym.

5. I can never again make another excuse about "not having time" to work out. Even if I have a spare five or ten minutes, I hop on the elliptical. It's five or ten minutes more than I would have done otherwise.

6. I could have purchased a Coach purse or new car, some sexy makeup at Sephora, or the iPad 4 (because it's got the new plug which is reversible and tiny and so freaking cool!!!) but I purchased gym equipment which is good for my health and well-being instead.

'Nuff said.

The thing is though, at best, exercising is about 30% of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and healthy weight. The other 70% is your food consumption. If you're eating hot dogs and cheese fries everyday, and hitting the gym everyday, you're not doing yourself any favors. So the food I eat is super important to maintaining all the hard work I've put into getting this glorious body I've pined for.

Soooo.... Roy and I are now buying a dehydrator. We already eat tons of veggies in our shakes, but currently, that's the only way Roy eats vegetables. He hates veggies. And I get tired of just eating salads and shakes all the time. The dehydrator brings a whole new level of healthy eating to the plate. (Haha, get it?)

We both love veggie chips though, and when Roy went vegan a few years ago (yes, shocking, I know), he ate lots of dehydrated fruits and veggies. I haven't though. So Roy took me to Whole Foods the other day and we grabbed three bags of different flavored dehydrated kale chips which I found were super delicious and super healthy. And with ingredients like chia seeds, organic apple cider vinegar and lemon juice in them, I don't have to feel guilty about gobbling down an entire bag. But I do feel guilty about the price. At $5.99 a bag, this was the most expensive snack I have ever purchased. So, after much thought, we've decided to splurge (again) and buy a dehydrator.

***Side note: Did I mention we also bought a new freezer? I did manage to snag 10% off at Home Depot on a 5 cubic foot deep chest freezer so I can finally buy fruits and vegetables in bulk when they're in season and/or on sale and freeze them for our kale shakes. $189 with $18 off. Not too shabby...

Moving back to the dehydrator, I've read tons of reviews online, did some research on various brands and different types of dehydrators, checked Consumer Reports (which was useless, because they don't have any dehydrators at all on there), asked friends, and read numerous health blogs. We're not going to even bother to save money on this one, so we're going straight for the leading brand: the Excalibur. It's the 9 Tray Excalibur #3926TB with a timer, currently only sale for $299 (unless I can snag a better offer.)

After making the mistake of trying to save money with the Magic Bullet, Ninja, and then the Health Master blenders, we could have purchased two Vitamix blenders. Instead, we wasted a ton of money on products that broke down, wore out, or just simply didn't deliver on our expectations before we finally got the Vitamix (which, by the way, is the most amazing, glorious, blissfully beautiful blender in the universe.) We've learned our lesson. I may be cheap and frugal, but I consider all this money spent on healthy items an investment on our future medical bills (or lack thereof).

I will however call Excalibur tomorrow to see if there are any rad deals we might be eligible for. Hey, ya never know until you ask. Amirite? With the elliptical, freezer and dehydrator, I'm thinking we're going to be having date-night-ins for the next few months...

Does anyone else have an Excalibur dehydrator? Please feel free to share your recipes, or your complaints/satisfactions.

Til next time!

-Kale Queen

My SUPER EARLY Birthday Present

I know it's only March but I decided on getting myself a super early birthday present. I bought an elliptical! Yes, it may have hindered my down-payment-for-a-house savings for a month or two, but this is a savings plan on a whole different level: my health!

Two years ago, when I first started my weight loss journey, I hated the thought of exercise. I loved junk food, carbs, and my couch with such passion, you'd think I were married to them. (I still get butterflies thinking about Mac n Cheese....)

This bad boy weighed a TON! We needed two fine upstanding gentlemen to bring the box indoors.

So I took baby steps. I started walking after dinner. At the time, I lived in an apartment complex which was laid out in an oval shape that was about half a mile all the way around. I started by walking once around the complex after dinner. Then I walked around twice. Two laps turned into four, and then six, and finally eight. I was walking for two hours, but I didn't feel exhausted afterward, and I didn't feel that terrifyingly painful stabbing in my chest, and my lungs didn't feel like they were at the point of exploding. These are all the things I absolutely detested about running and jogging. I hate the feeling of being out of breath. I hate that my knees start buckling after twenty seconds. I hate how my shoulder blades start burning and my back seizes up. I was 24 years old and you'd think I were 500.

But walking four miles after dinner also meant that I shot all evening plans. There was no "relax and unwind" time after work anymore. I had to quickly cook and eat dinner, and had a half an hour post-dinner break before I laced up my sneakers. So while the scale was making me happy every morning, my lack of a social life was making me very UNhappy.

My manly man putting together the elliptical. Isn't he so manly?

I finally trudged my ass to the fitness center at my apartment complex. I glanced at all the equipment, sighed, and hopped on the elliptical. I can't say I loved it, or that I stayed there for long. I remember the first day, I was only there for fifteen minutes. But over time, I built up stamina and stayed longer and longer. I set little goals like "today, I'm going to be on the elliptical five minutes longer than yesterday" and "I want to hit 1/2 a mile extra today than I did last time."

Sometimes, I made a game of it. I'd set a goal to hit 300 calories, and once I'd reach that goal, I'd notice I had covered 1.3 miles, so I told myself I'd be done when I reached 1 1/2 miles. When I reached 1 1/2 miles, I realized I had been running for 28 minutes, so I told myself I'd stop at 30 minutes. By that time I was up to 330 calories, so then I'd work toward hitting 350. I kept going, little tiny steps at a time. And it worked! I didn't just lose weight; the gym also became slightly more enjoyable. It's a psychological thing. People like to do things in which they excel. Things they know they can accomplish. Sure, there are some people who love a challenge, and love doing things they're not skilled at, and who use failure as a means of motivation. I am sooo not one of those people. In school, I sucked at math and had no intention of "mastering" it. I liked art, but I was lousy at drawing real life objects, so I focused on abstract doodles. But I wasn't trying to become an astrophysicist, or paint portraits for a living, so it was ok for me to not be an overachiever and master any of those things. Losing weight and becoming healthier however, was definitely on my to do list. I had to make sure I wouldn't give up, and I did what I could to make sure I "won" everyday. I had to be the master of the gym, and my weight loss, or else I would give up.



Hit 400 calories at 44 minutes. Just one more minute. Oh! And then just until I hit two miles!!!

Eventually though, I moved in with my boyfriend, and we didn't have a free community gym. We had a gym nearby, but we lived in a sketchy neighborhood, and I wasn't keen on going. I did maintain my weight loss by continuing my healthy eating habits, but my muscles were gone, as were the sexy lines in my stomach and legs I worked so hard to get. We just moved to a huge house though, three weeks ago, and we now have the space for gym equipment. Now that my hatred for the elliptical has dissipated, I decided to buy one so that there will never be another reason or excuse for not working out.


It says to me "you can't watch Breaking Bad until you climb on first!!!"

Roy and I spent a whole weekend test driving a bunch of different ellipticals, and I did research online for reviews and ratings of the models we liked. I finally settled on a Pro-Form elliptical that fit in my $1000 price range. And, I even got a 15% coupon on it, so I spent $901 with taxes included. Three hours after bringing it home, a slightly tired Roy finished putting it together. We both have been using it, and we love it. I feel lucky to have the means to buy myself something so extravagant. And I'm so proud of myself for buying something that will benefit my health, instead of a new electronic gadget or fancy wardrobe. I've come a long way since I was Flabby Gabby (yes, that used to be a charming nickname bestowed upon me). And most of all, I'm so proud of my new self confidence, positive attitude, respect and love for myself. I used to be so down on myself, hate myself, disgust myself. I had such bad body image issues, self worth issues, and self esteem issues I didn't know how to change. But I will say, it wasn't just losing weight that "fixed" my problems. I think it was the fact that I set a goal and actually stuck to it. I lost five dress sizes over a year instead of a month because I wasn't on a quickie diet but a lifelong commitment. I got over my fears of a gym and made sure I went, even if it was only fifteen minutes a day. I overcame my hatred of vegetables. I changed ME, not just my waist size. I think that's what helped the rest of my issues.

I won't say I'm perfectly happy and healthy in my view of myself. I'm pretty sure my best friend chewed me out yesterday for complaining about my thunder thighs. So there's still more work to be done. But two years ago, I didn't even have any friends, because I was too ashamed of myself. So, progress, ya know?



Rocking it out! Woot woot!

Now, I make sure to "hit the gym" every day or at least every other day. Roy and I got Netflix so we can watch shows while we are working out. I made a deal with myself that if I want to watch a show, I have to be on the elliptical to watch it. It's a keen motivator. And the shows are just long enough (45 minutes) to run through the whole episode.

Anyone want to recommend some good shows to watch?

Til next time!

-Kale Queen

Say NAY to Travel Weight



Roy and I had to travel for work again, and the last few times we traveled have definitely been horrendous for our bellies. It's so difficult to maintain healthy lifestyles when you don't have kale shakes for breakfast, and there's a surplus of cheap, free, delicious yet non-nutritious food at your disposal. It's silly how I used to say that if I had more time and money, it would be easier to lose weight. Silly, because when we travel for work and our corporate cards are being charged, and the conference rooms are stuffed with a wide variety of goodies, we tend to eat the crappy sugary snacks, and order fattening entrees and dessert. I will admit that it's difficult to order a salad and skip dessert when you're at a corporate dinner while watching your coworkers eating pasta and double chocolate fudge cake.



Play "Eye of the Tiger" while you look at this photo. Yeah!!!

This time however, I promised myself to work out in the hotel fitness center every day we were there, and to eat as healthy as I possibly could. I packed my cute gym outfits and sneakers, opting to make room for those items in my suitcase and skip packing my oh-so-cute boots that I only get to wear about five times a year (darn you Florida for infringing on my boot rights!)



"Sweat, baby, sweat, baby".... ok I'll stop...

I'm proud to say that while I could have possibly done better at the eating portion, I did work out each day I was there. There was an evening we went to Fogo de Chau, and I just couldn't bring myself to eat more salad when the price of the dinner was $46.50 a person. I did indulge a bit in some of the delicious Brazilian cheese puffs (Pao de Queijo) and ate far too much cheese (umm hello!! Grilled mozzarella? I think so!) But I'm not going to beat myself up about it because negative reinforcement and discouragement will not make me healthier and happier, ever. It's just as hard to not be down on myself as it is to say no to chocolate drizzled sin cake, but they're both equally as important to work on.



Yes, it's not some fancy shmancy $10 bag of tea from the health store, but it works. And it sure beats soda! AND it was complimentary!!!

So instead of poo-pooing my carb intake, I patted myself on the back for opting for an apple with peanut butter and green tea instead of the bags of chips and free chocolate muffins available to me when I wanted to nosh. And I politely asked my boss if we could skip on dessert when we had already consumed enough calories in the wine and beer we were sipping. Ok, maybe I wasn't so polite as I was demanding, but he's cool like that and he acquiesced (albeit, slightly begrudgingly.) 

Pretty decent snack! An apple, peanut butter and some yummy pomegranate green tea!

It's a work in progress to not obsess about food so much and instead, to find ways to make myself proud of my decisions and ultimately reach my goal. I want to get back to my super fit and super happy self, so these baby steps help me. And as I've said before, I try to encourage myself and set little goals that I know I can obtain. I may even surprise myself. This time, not only did I actually use the fitness room like I promised myself I would, I was on the elliptical far longer than I've ever been able to do before. 45 minutes! (I snapped this photo while cooling down).

The longest I've ever gone! Go me!

What are your tips for healthy lifestyle habits when you're traveling?

Til next time!

-Kale Queen

Happy March!

I try to do those photo-a-day challenges on Instagram because they're fun and I'm thinking one day, I might print all those random trippy photos I've taken to decorate our house. And I've been doing these photo challenges someone else made up for a few months now, but I've finally made my own. I was slightly irritated that the one I did for February was very obviously recycled from last year (it had 29 days instead of 28, and judging by the fact that last year was leap year, I think it's safe to say someone was LAYYY-ZAYYY. So I thought to myself, "why not make my own damn photo-a-day?" So I quickly jotted down numbers 1-31, and the first topic that popped into my head was the theme for the day. Except for a few intentional choices. March 8th is International Woman's Day so the theme is "A Woman." March 20th is the first day of spring, so it's "something springy" for that one. March 17th, which is St. Patrick's Day has "Something Green" assigned. So you get my point. They're all spontaneous ideas except for the intentionally planned ones. Haha! Maybe next month I'll make it more Kale-y. But for now, if you wish to join me, you can do the March Photo-A-Day I created, and use hashtag myowndamnphotoaday. Yeah! Til next time!

-Kale Queen