Of course I live in San Antonio where every day is Margarita Day, but you people who don’t have the luxury of living here should celebrate too.

You may recall I made a rotisserie chicken and some pumpkin protein pie yesterday.  I ate some of it too!

Today, I’m using the rest of that tender, yummy chicken to make a buffalo ranch salad.

Here’s how it works:

Dice 2 chicken breasts

Dice 1/2 Onion

Dice 4 large stalks of celery

Apply copious amounts of Louisiana Hot Sauce

Add Ranch dressing to taste and mix thoroughly.

Serve on shredded lettuce or in pita pockets.

Eat it soon because the longer it sits, the spicier it gits.

Still 167 today.  I got carried away with kids and work yesterday and didn’t make time for a workout until it was too late.  I only got about 20 minutes of easy biking in.

I’m all moved in with the kids and only got five hours of sleep last night (probably why I was a pound heavier).  I’ll get to sleep earlier tonight and make sure I get my eight hours in.  I had a bagel for breakfast so I’ll be spending some extra time on the bike tonight.

I’m making a chicken in the rotisserie now and just pulled a crustless protein pumpkin pie out of the oven.

I know, I know.  You’re probably wondering what the heck that is.  I made it with canned pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla protein powder, eggs, Splenda and nonfat dry milk.  I’m not going to lie.  It tastes pretty fantastic.  Each serving has 7g net carbs and 17g protein. 

My 7-year-old was home sick from school today.  Time to scoop some no-sugar-added ice cream for the little guy.

This is life in the Mommy lane.  It moves pretty fast.

Mother nature has come and gone again and luckily my chocolate cravings hit just as I received a bag of Godiva Chocolate Truffle Coffee from one friend and a massive box of Godiva biscuits from another for Valentine’s Day.  It’s a good thing we women burn an extra 15% of calories during that special week because I was a chocolate eating fool!  If you add to that the fact that I have not been exercising then you have some pretty damning information on me.

It’s OK, I’ll admit it – I have not been giving this the attention it deserves.

On the up side, I’ve been out to eat a few times and always ordered foods that were good for me.  I had Thai food for the first time on Tuesday.  I ordered Rama Chicken which was chicken breast meat on a bed of deep green steamed broccoli topped with a peanut sauce.  (Everything is better with peanut butter on it!)  It was delicious!  Rice was served on the side but I didn’t touch one grain of it.  I ate half the chicken and broccoli and had the other half for lunch on Wednesday.  Yesterday, I had lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse and ordered the Parmesan Chicken.  It came with a side salad and instead of the potato, I had their garden vegetable mix.  I ate the salad (left the croutons) and then ate half the chicken and vegetables.  I took the rest of it home for a delicious dinner (which I forgot to eat at a normal time – it was about 8pm when I finally ate).  Bad Lisa.

Beginning Monday, my ex husband will be out of town for a couple months so I’ll be settling into a routine with the kids at their house.  I’m bringing my bike/desk, kettlebell and P90X DVDs and I’m going to use ALL of them!

Here’s what my measurements are looking like these days:

Weight: 166 (lost 5lbs since December even though my workouts have been rare)

Waist: 31.5 (A loss of 1.5 inches since December.)

Hips: 40 (One less inch since December.)

Bust: 39 (I don’t mind not losing there!)

I’ve also lost a half inch from each thigh and dropped 2% bodyfat since December.

I accept the fact that there will always be ups and downs with plateaus in between.  This is a long term lifestyle I’m working on and the changes won’t happen overnight.  With that in mind, the ticker on my computer is reminding me that I only have 265 days left until the Lackland Classic.

Wow!  It’s been 100 days.  Let’s take a look at my first 100 days:

I’ve lost 10 pounds, 8.5 inches and 3% bodyfat.

Another 200 days with progress like that and I’ll be doing alright – not “step-on-stage” alright, but pretty darned good.

I need to kick this up a notch and cut a lot more fat.  Is anyone still out there?  I could use a kick in the butt once in a while so feel free to leave a comment or email me at Lisa@saxtreme.com if you don’t see any blogs from me.

Please don’t let me slack off?!

I’ve been sitting at my 15 pounds of weight loss now for several weeks and can not seem to break the 220 barrier.

The good thing is that I am easily maintaining where I am and I feel great!

Now I am looking at some ideas to crest the hump and start losing weight again so I can get down to 200 lbs — Still have about 22 to go.  If you have some ideas you would like to share with me and the readers, please do.

Look like we can expect more rain throughout the week as well folks, so getting outside to walk, run, and bike, might be a little difficult.

The good news is SAXtreme Magazine is really starting to get active.  We are getting involved with an upcoming Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fundraiser — you will see more on this in early March.  Also, we are partnering with the American Diabetes Association and will be involved in their upcoming Expo in April.  Additionally, we brought on several new writers, and have a couple of volunteer photographers that have stepped up.  SAXtreme Magazine is growing into its own!

If you would like to be part of the journey, let us know; we are looking for the following volunteers:

• Magazine and Blog Writers
• Magazine Ad Sales
• A Web and WordPress Designer
• Photographers
• People interested in blogging their own Xtreme Transformation
• Related Nonprofits that want Free Advertisement
• Additional Story Ideas

Watch for the next Magazine release in late March — our Fiesta Issue!

Live life to the Xtreme, San Antonio!

I picked up 6 new clients this week to add to the 4 I had.  That’ll be a lot of sitting-on-my-butt time at the computer.  I’ll need to incorporate the bike desk into some of that so I can try to burn off some fat.

I’ll need to get used to getting up super early before the kids every morning so I’ll be trying to make the early boot camps this week.  Wish me luck!  It means waking up at 5am.

My off-day workouts need to power up to more than just a couple hours at the bike desk.  I need muscle building and calorie burning so some time at Gold’s Gym will be in order.  If I had a bathing suit that fit me I’d go swimming in the evening, but they all got donated when I shrunk out of them.

I have some books coming out this week too.  This weekend, I made my first novel, The Path to Freedom, available free at Amazon.com.  So far the response has been overwhelming and over 8,000 people have downloaded it.  That response, for which I am unbelievably grateful, made me rethink the planned release dates of the second, third and fourth books in the series.  I’ve moved up the release for book #2 to Tuesday so there are a few preparations I need to make before then.  I’ll need to get book #3 ready as well.

I’m very excited about trying some new foods this week!   (I love trying new foods but prefer to do it with friends.  If I’m going to eat alone, I’ll do it at home.)

Tuesday evening I have plans with Netta, who will be blogging here at Xtreme Transformations soon.  We’re going out for some Mongolian Barbeque and then we’ll paint the town red.

Thursday, Ana, who blogs with us at www.SAXtreme.com about her vegetarian lifestyle has offered to introduce me to Thai food.  John will be there too so we should both have interesting food stories for you on Friday.  As I understand it, John likes his Thai food as hot as it can possibly get.

Believe it or not, pumpkin is rather difficult to find in grocery stores during the non-holiday season.  I finally managed to find some canned pumpkin at WalMart and stocked up.  I’m looking forward to lots of pumpkin pie smoothies for breakfasts & lunches this week!  Mm-mm good!

That’s what’s going on here this weekend.  How are you doing?  Any breakthroughs or frustrations?  Are you still out there?

That’s 47.85lbs of fat.  Eeew.

Today I weighed in at 166 with 28% bodyfat.  I know.  It doesn’t seem that impressive, does it?  That’s still 46.48lbs of fat.  But it is 1 pound of fat that I’m not dragging around anymore.

On the bright side, it isn’t like I need to lose all my bodyfat.  After all, we have some very important internal organs that need a fat buffer and, well, the girly bits require a dash of fat as well.

My goal for the Lackland Classic in November is 15% bodyfat so if I were to come in at 166 with 15% bodyfat that would be 25lbs of fat.  (Which would be out of this world, Cory Everson Ms. Olympia coolness) So, on the bright side, I only need to lose 21.48lbs.  Of course, if I just lose that much weight in fat, I’ll come in at 145 and 15% – which is still pretty awesome.  If I build muscle along the way, woo-hoo!

Long story short:  I’ve been pretty lax this past month and need to get my butt in gear.  Staying in the 166 range has been good considering I haven’t been here in a very, very long time.  I still have 21lbs to lose before I can start thinking about tanning, swimsuit shopping and posing practice.

Time to get this thing off the ground!

Desk Bike: I spend too much time at a desk not to be pedaling.  I find I miss it if I go for more than a day without it.

The Incredible, Edible Egg: So easy, so versatile, individually wrapped and it’s super-clean protein, duh!

Frozen Vegetables: Otherwise I may not bother to eat vegetables at all.  I love salads, but food preparation when I have my kids around is nearly impossible.

Water Enhancers: TruLemon and Mio help me get in the second, third and fourth liters of the day.  I like the Orange Tangerine flavor (includes B3, B6 & B12) and I picked up some Mio Energy today (caffeine, gaurana and lots of B vitamins).  I’m not keen on anything cherry flavored unless there’s some chocolate along for the ride, so I went with Green Thunder.  I was hoping for a lemon-lime but it’s got some apple flavor too.  Strange but tasty.  What I like about Mio is it is sweetened with Splenda (Sucralose) and that doesn’t make me retain water like aspartame (found in most diet drinks) does.  Bonus: it’s small and travels well in a purse!

I’ve also found that every evening I end with a glass of wine or a margarita is followed by weight loss the next morning.  There is no physiological reason for this that I’m aware of, but it’s a theory I’d like to put into practice 5 nights a week (my trainer’s rule is 5 drinks a week and I can live with that).

I have the kids this week so I’ll be working out at Gold’s Gym between the times when Pre-K and the big kids are released.  The wee one should enjoy the playroom time at the gym.

*For you moms using childcare issues as an excuse to not work out, both Gold’s Gym and Bally Total Fitness offer childcare at their gyms.  My gym membership at Gold’s is $32/month and includes childcare when I work out.  Check your local gyms to see who offers childcare and then check the internet for membership specials.  Your health should be important to you but it’s also especially important to your children.  If that’s not motivation enough to exercise, I don’t know what is. 

I’m looking forward to a hard workout.   I need to get back to working out again after a week off.

How did that happen?!

No worries.  I put in many hours at my bike desk last week.

Taziki (Gyro Dressing)
1 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 Seedless Cucumber
3/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Crushed Garlic
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Chop cucumber finely and place in bowl. Add yogurt and remaining ingredients. Mix well, cover and refrigerate while preparing meat.

Doner Kebab (Gyro)
1 pound ground meat (they use mutton in the Middle East because it is so common.  I’ve found ground turkey works perfectly.)
1/2 cup onion
2 teaspoons fresh crushed garlic
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Place onion, garlic, salt, marjoram, rosemary and pepper into blender (or chopper) and puree until there are no chunks of onion. Mix this well with the meat.
Press firmly into a greased baking pan and cook at 325 for 1 hour. Once cooked, drain fat and let the meat cool slightly before slicing. Slice into thin strips.

Preparing the Kebab (Gyro)
Pita Pockets or Flatbread
Shredded Lettuce
Sliced onion
Sliced Tomato

Place your choice of vegetables into pita pocket (or on flatbread) along with sliced meat. Spoon Taziki (Dressing) over vegetables & meat and enjoy!

This recipe makes a complete meal (protein, dairy, carbohydrates). It makes a great low-carbohydrate meal that is compliant with Atkins, Zone and South Beach Diets if prepared with a low-carb wrap or flatberad instead of a pita.

Another option is to make a salad with the vegetables, top it with sliced meat and then dress with taziki.

Personally, I love this stuff and find it beats the heck out of hamburgers or unseasoned turkey burgers (GAKK!) so I like to mix up the seasoning in bulk.  I reuse those big spice containers you get at Sam’s Club but any airtight container will do.

Bulk Recipe for meat seasoning:

½ C Onion powder

½ C Garlic powder

¾ C Sea salt

2 Tbsp Marjoram

½ C Rosemary

¼ C black pepper

Use 3 teaspoons per pound of ground meat

This week I made up one pound of turkey and two pounds of beef.  Tonight, I’m having a salad with the seasoned, baked ground turkey on it and it is excellent!

Unfortunately, I’m not the only person who has to deal with this sort of issue and wonder how they’ll get their workouts in to stay healthy.  There are thousands of military spouses and ex-spouses all over the world who have to work their lives around the life of the military member and often come up short when it comes to time to take care of themselves.  I did it for years as a military wife.  Now, as an ex with very young children, I still have to do it.

During this time, I will not be able to attend boot camps.  I just know my sons would lose their everloving minds in boot camp and be awake all night yammering about how they want to be just like Jonathan.  (Dude, he’s that cool.)  So I have to work out an alternate plan, Plan B.

Here’s what I’ve got:

1. Recumbent bike (my bike desk)
2. 20lb Kettlebell
3. DVDs (Made by a certain company that WordPress flags and shuts bloggers down for mentioning)
4. Gold’s Gym Membership (they provide child care in a separate room)

One way or another, I’m going to get my workouts.

The bike is easy and mindless.  I can do it the entire time I’m working.  The other night I was working and noticed my butt hurt.  No wonder!  I’d been biking for 80 minutes.  Your butt would hurt too!

The kettlebell is a cool way to mix things up.  Speaking of my butt – it needs a lot more squats.  I think Mr Kettlebell is going to help me with those.

My kids love Tony H. (the DVD trainer) and doing the DVD workouts.  The only problem with that is they have no clue about living room gym etiquette and they do their pushups wherever they like, even if it means on my back.  It makes for awkward exercising.

Gold’s is most likely my best bet.  They can keep the curtain climbers busy in a playroom while I’m getting my sweat on.  At $1 per day, it’s worth it!

So when your workout plans don’t work out, how do you handle Plan B?  Do you have a Plan B?