0 An unusual occurrence

I am a self-professed sugar-addict. I would rather grab something packaged and easy when it comes to snacking. I generally don't eat a lot of veggies besides the occasional spinach in my smoothie, and sauteed veggies in my scrambles. I can go all day without giving protein a second thought, because carbs are easier.

The above statements are all completely true, yet somehow, I have been changing my ways. It started Saturday April 19, close to midnight, as I drove home from a babysitting job and thought about what I had to eat at home. The family I babysat for has a hot mom who bakes spaghetti squash, eats healthy, and you can tell she works out because of her defined arms. I want to be her. Besides the mom part.

I stopped at the grocery store and loaded up on veggies before continuing home. Cue to a few days later when I have put together a few delicious recipes using spaghetti squash, I'm eating grapefruit for breakfast, snacking on fruit, finding it hard to hit my 1,450 calories a day because all of the produce fills me up without adding too many cals, and I have managed to lose 3 lbs. Oh, and I haven't craved sugar. WHAT?! Is this really my life?

I was nervous it was a short-lived health kick and I would suddenly need ALL THE COOKIES to make up for my week without them. Even heading back to San Jose for a long weekend, I managed to stay pretty decent, even though traveling is a total trigger for me to eat everything in sight. Coming back to Texas, I have once again turned to a healthy diet, and am enjoying my new workouts since joining the Tone It Up 2014 Bikini Series. Since I was back in CA until Tuesday night, I started two days late on Wednesday.

Confession time: I've been following the Tone It Up girls for years, but never got involved. Last year, I signed up for the Bikini series, got all of the e-mails, and didn't do a single workout or change my eating habits. Horrible, right? This time around, I knew I wanted to do the 8 week series, so I enlisted the help of friends on Facebook, created a group specifically for us doing the challenge (you want in? let me know!) to stay accountable and motivated, and to bounce ideas and questions off each other. I am obviously the most frequent poster, since I sort of feel like a group leader even though this is my first time around doing a Tone It Up plan of any kind. I really like that the workouts are pretty short, but killer, it encourages me to get in cardio miles every day, and I have something else to work for besides my own desires. This Malibooty workout from Wednesday definitely left me feeling the burn!

Today I went grocery shopping and put together two big batches of healthy veggie based meals to split up and use over the weekend. I have all sorts of fruit and veggies available to snack on, and healthy staples like Greek yogurt, string cheese, and ready to make quinoa and fish dishes in the freezer.

So here's my call to my blog friends, want to keep me accountable and help motivate to me to continue with this series? Join the Bikini Series and do it with me! Here's a link to the FB group. I have made it open so you can join if you want.

Oh! I made a TIU specific instagram account so I can post photos of my workouts and food without annoying the pants off anyone not interested ;) follow me @tiu_adrian