Since our house burned down we (me, my fiance, and his mom) have been living in a guest house so things have been pretty cramped, not to mention the town is literally in the middle of nowhere. The only thing in the town was a gas station and an arab restaurant (and an amazing view). So for me, a city girl, times were pretty tough. It is probably why I worked out so much, what else was there to do? Every morning I would walk to the bus stop and take the bus a half an hour to get to my Hebrew class and then the same on the way home, this routine was getting tiresome. So this woman who knew my situation phoned me and told me about a couple that wanted to rent their house, which is in the same town as my school, out for 4 months. We then got in touch with the couple and they agreed we could rent the house. 

So we moved in Thursday and after a little bit of a bumpy start we have explored the surrounding area and it is truly a wonderful place to live. There are parks in every neighborhood and a shopping center within walking distance. The best thing is, is that there is a hiking trail that goes around the whole city that starts behind the house. I ran on there this morning for the first time and it was VERY hard!!! The first half was all up hill, which made the second half a breeze!!

The picture on here is the view of the mountains from the back yard, it truly is breathtaking and made the uphill trek not so terrible.

I found a very interesting article about low-fat vs. artificial fat, check it out!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110620151005.htm

Earlier I watched the documentary Food, INC after a friend of mine recommended it. Let me tell you it was the most disturbing movie I have watched in a long time. The movie showed the truth on how our food is being created. It went to chicken, cow, and pig farms and showed what exactly goes on. I don't eat red-meat or pork anyway but it will seriously make me question about the chicken I purchase once I am back in the US. Ideally I would love to eat all organic food but who could afford that lifestyle, produce is already a fortune without being organic. It's so sad that you can have a meal at McDonalds for $1 but can't even get a head of broccoli for that price. This is the reason our country is so overweight, and this documentary made me so upset!! I definitely recommend renting this movie because it taught me a lot and the good thing is you won't want to munch on anything while you watch it.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Its been very relaxing here and the weather has been wonderful. Next week we are moving to our own place and I am so excited!!

At the same time I started back following the plan (6 weeks ago) I also started the couch to 5k running program on my iPod. The first day the exercise was alternating 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for 20 mins. This sounds really easy but let me tell you that minute of jogging felt like an eternity! Then after that week by week it got a little bit longer on the jogging and a little less on the walking. By week 5 it was up to 8 mins jogging and I felt like I was going to die and I was counting the seconds until it was over. Then on the last day of week 5 it went to 20 mins straight which to me seemed like an outrageous jump. I actually dreaded it all week then sure enough Thursday came and I started on my run. It was a little rough at first but when I hit the half way mark I felt a rush of empowerment and I ran by my fiance while he was at work and he came outside to cheer me on as a went by. I felt great the rest of the day knowing that I did something that I could have never accomplished 5 weeks before. This morning, the last day of week 6, I jogged for 25 mins straight and I felt wonderful the whole time and not even out of breath in the end, I feel like for the first time in my life I can actually say that I am a runner!

On a unrelated note, I am also trying to decide which nutrition certification I should get; I am in the process of creating my own business for health, fitness, and wellness counseling. For those that don't know I have been a leader for WW for the last 5 years and I found I have a passion for helping people achieve their goals and this new endeavor has been part of my motivation (other then looking and feeling great for myself) for getting back to goal and increasing my fitness level. There are 3 Associations I have found that seem to be legit and one that sounds great but a little fishy. I need to do a lot more research!!

Anyway, that's all for today.....I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!!

Today I was thinking a lot about motivation, because of course you need a lot of motivation to stay on track and make it to your goal. Right now for me my motivation is at a high but I know once I get into weeks 8, 9, 10... and maybe the scale isn't dropping as much as I would like it to my motivation will start to decrease and with that comes my activity level decreasing, lack of measuring things out and more guessing. I know this sounds like a self-defeating prophecy but I have done this enough times that I know what happens. If you are new to WW or haven't seen it there are these things called "tools for living" it helps you sort through some of the emotional issues we go through on our weight loss journey. They are worksheets that you fill out to help you really think about ways you can fix your emotional eating patterns. Anyway, my favorite ones are the positive-self talking and anchoring. 

I suffer from negative thoughts all of the time, I say things to myself that I wouldn't say to my worse enemy. For example: when I have a bad WI the first thing I say to myself is: "you will never get back to goal" So I am trying slowly to change this behavior and this last week when I had a bad WI I said to myself I feel more fit then I have felt in a year! This really made me feel good about myself and not grab a sleeve of cookies and feel guilty later.

Also, having an anchor is a huge motivator for me. During the year when I originally lost my 70 lbs. and got to lifetime my anchor was a horrible picture of myself at my heaviest where I was behind the expresso bar at Starbucks (where I worked for 7 years.) I would look at it every time I felt like giving up and then I would remember why I joined in the first place. It was a polaroid picture and I kept it in my purse for years so it was pretty beat up. It later became my "before" picture that I would show to my members at the getting started part of the meeting. I was truly proud of that picture and loved to show people all of the hard work I went through. I wish I could post this picture to show but it was also destroyed in the fire that demolished our house. So because it only know exists in my mind I need to find a new anchor to keep my motivation up. This time I went to the other direction and found a picture from 2 years ago where I was at goal and felt great. This picture was taken in Tel Aviv right next to the Mediterranean Sea, and this dress I haven't been able to fit in for over a year. 

From now on every time I feel like I can't do it or that its not worth it I will look at this picture and see that I have made it there before and can do it again except this time I will actually stay there!!

Today my fiance, Dor was off of work which is pretty rare for a Saturday so we decided to take advantage and go to the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus walked on water) because even though we can see it from his house I've never been. It wasn't worth all of the hype it was dirty, there were kids everywhere and there was no where comfortable to lay and soak up the sun. After 30 mins we decided to go to the Jordan River instead because it was more quiet and more comfortable to lay out on the grass. I did a little swimming which was nice because it was the first time this season and I got some activity points, which is always good. 

We then decided to go out for breakfast which always scares me because my biggest weakness is restaurants. I always have good intentions but for some reason I look at the menu and forget about WW completely! Today I decided that was not going to happen and I would use my willpower and overcome the menu. So, a little backstory: Israel has amazing breakfasts that include eggs, cheese, homemade bread, butter, salad (weird but awesome), and other sides. So on the first page of the menu they had a Healthy Breakfast that included: 3 egg whites, salad with a variety of seeds, 3 low fat cheese's, tuna in water, avocado, and whole wheat bread.
Sounds good right? I thought so too but then I got the breakfast...yes, everything was as it said but with a ton of olive oil on EVERYTHING! I had to add in about 7 extra points in olive oil alone, thank god this was my breakfast and lunch because it used up more then half of my points today. This is definitely a culture where they believe olive oil is super healthy and should basically be drank, yes olive oil is healthy but in MODERATION!! In our house we actually go through a big bottle every week, and I only use about 2-3 tsp. a day. It's scary how much oil is on everything.

So moral of the story is that I will just continue to cook my own meals because any way its cheaper and I will know everything that is in it and won't overdo the oil!!

Wednesdays are my weigh in day and I actually look forward to them all week. You might think that is a crazy thing to say but I look at it as a measure of my success. Disclaimer: I only look forward to it when I know I am doing everything right. Well this particular week I was completely on point! I exercised every day sometimes ran in the AM and did a DVD in the PM and I ate very well, not even going into my 49 extra points. So the scale was very evil this morning and showed a .6 gain, I even went to the bathroom (you all know you do it too) and then tried again, still the same! Unfortunately my thoughts went back to my usual negative thinking that this weight will never come off no matter what I do and I might as well just grab a piece of cheesecake from the fridge. Thankfully, my fiance snapped me out of and gave a very rational pep talk. He mentioned that my thighs looked half the size that they were before and my jeans were tight before and now they look loose. So I feel slightly better but I would be happier if the scale would just cooperate. We put such an emphasis on that number and now I understand why you should measure yourself. I wish I would have from the beginning but I'm going to start now. Tomorrow morning I am getting out the measuring tape so I have another way of tracking my progress. 


From now on I am going to try and keep the negative thoughts at bay because that is how I always put the weight back on. I am going to try and stay positive and just keep on doing the same I've been doing and know that it will pay off in the end.


But...I still hate the scale!

Albert Einstein said this quote, and I believe it to be true. In the past people have come and gone and 2 months ago I watched all my things be burned to the ground, so recently I got thinking about my goals for my life.

I have never been one of those people who knew what they wanted to do when they grew up, I am now approaching 29 so I think its time I know what my next step should be.

A little backstory on me: I went to College right out of High School and wanted to be a video editor for TV, so I got my bachelor's in Electronic Media and Film and set off to start my career. I went on countless job interviews and was told the same thing "you have no experience." Can someone tell me how I can get experience without being given a chance?? So I gave up and decided to just move up the ladder in my current job as a barista at Starbucks, I liked working there so I thought why not? In 2 years I had become a manager and did very well at my job, I loved everything about it but mostly the everyday interaction with people. By the time I began my 6th year at Starbucks the love affair ended, the recession hit hard and Starbucks was trying everything to keep up and in my opinion made life hell on earth for us managers. At the same time I met my fiance in Israel and began a crazy long distance relationship. So because I wanted to be closer to my fiance and because I was sick of my dead-end job I found a program where I could get my Master's in Management in Israel in connection with NYU. I finished the 10 month program and came back to the US, unfortunately without my fiance (he couldn't get a Visa), and I tried finding a job in HR but in my opinion hell would be sitting at a desk for 8 hours, and I was unsuccessful. I worked part-time at WW as a leader and I had a passion for this job, I felt like I was truly helping people which was great! The only problem was that the pay sucks! I felt almost like a volunteer, there is a reason most people who work there have full-time jobs. So I came back to Israel because I missed Dor (my fiance).

So here I am almost 30 with a Master's degree and no direction as to where to go. I need to sit down and write everything that I am passionate about and go from there.  You only live once you might as well do something that you love since most of your time is spent at work.  So my short-term goal is to come up with a next step so that I have some kind of direction or path to look forward and work towards.  I also need to stop caring so much what other people think and just do what is best for me!

Today was my weigh in day and I am happy to report that I lost another 2.2 lbs!! Also, my jeans that used to created quite a muffin top are now very nice fitting :-) So it got me thinking about all of the changes that I have made over the last 3 weeks and yes the eating is the main change but I believe the exercise is the element that has not only helped me lose these 6.4 lbs but has made me feel healthier, stronger, and given me much more energy. My workout routine is pretty strenuous but currently I only go to school in the morning and do not have a job so I have the time.

Workout Routine:
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday at 6:00am: Couch to 5k running program on my iPod
6 days a week: Jillian Michaels 30-day shred DVD or JM Yoga Meltdown DVD

I unfortunately do not have a gym to go to so I find the DVD's the next best thing because Jillian Michaels kicks my butt!! Her workouts target every muscle and include cardio in a 20 minute workout, It's very hard but I love it!

The C25k program is also super helpful because I am trying to eventually run a marathon and I have never been a runner so I am working my way to become a runner and hopefully one day I will actually enjoy it.

Trust me I am not one of those people that look forward to exercise, I dread it more then anything but when I see results it makes it that much easier to just do it!