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Take advantage of this deal and let it help you reap the rewards of your hard work. (Yes, dieting is sometimes hard work but it feels good to be losing my gut!)

I’ve been taking flax seed oil, cod liver oil, and a Multi-vitamin, but with Swanson vitamins, I’ll be able to actually afford getting some different suppliments that are really expensive in my area.

4 strawberries (cut the tops off)
2 tbsp vanilla yogurt
1 tbsp Flax seed powder
1 scoop chocolate Whey powder
1 cup milk
10 ice cubes

Stick um all in the blender and blend it until it smooth or to the consistency you like. Makes almost three 8oz servings! Good stuff!

Meal 1: Homemade breakfast burrito
- 1 egg scrambled
- 1 tbsp salsa
- 2 tbsp shredded mexican style cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded white meat chicken
- 1 whole wheat tortilla wrap

Meal 2: 1 bowl of oatmeal, 1 cup of yogurt

Meal 3: Chicken sandwich
- 1/2 cup of shredded chicken
- 2 tbsp shredded cheese
- dijon mustard
- 2 slices of whole wheat bread

Meal 4: String cheese, 2 tsp peanut butter

Meal 5: Abs Diet Burger and 1 cup Chili

Meal 6: Abs Diet smoothie!

And of course, lots of water during the entire day! Very filling!

In fact, the workouts I’ve just started on for the last 2 weeks are pretty killer by themselves. It does help that I run one day and rest and work on something else the next. I used to run daily and I found I lost lots of weight by doing that but it is really a work out to do daily. I might just start doing that again once I feel up to it.

1 cup skim milk
2 tsp peanut butter
1/2 cup oatmeal (soak in water if you think this is too dry)
2 tbsp vanilla yogurt
1/2 of the chocolate whey (use the half of the supplied cup)
7-8 ice cubes
1 tspn flax seed/powder

Stick it in the blender, blend for 20 - 30 seconds and there ya go! One great smoothie for snack or breakfast. This version is just as filling if you soak the oatmeal a bit but has more flavor because I added more whey and less oatmeal. Tell me if you like it too!

Anyways, back to grocery shopping. Loading up on vegetables, fruits, some frozen fruit, yogurt and stuff for the blender to make smoothies, cold cuts, and other stuff for dinner recipes. My total bill came out to about $150 in groceries! I sure hope we eat it all! We need to look at different ads and start shopping smarter.

I also went out and bought a tub of GNC 100% chocolate whey powder for my smoothies. Last night I made my first smoothie, and man was it filling! Well, thats the idea right? The smoothie was very mild and I felt maybe it had too much oatmeal in it and maybe not enough flavor for me to really enjoy. Here’s the recipe I followed:

Abs Diet Smoothie Recipe
1 cup skim milk
2 tsp Peanut butter
2 tsp chocolate whey
2 tblsp non fat vanilla yogurt
3/4 cup oatmeal
6 ice cubes

I think I shouldn’t have cooked the oatmeal and instead just put it into the mixture and blended it. The smoothie was good and filling and perfect to take up one of your meals in your 6 to 8 meals a day plan. Next time I’ll try more whey and less oatmeal.

Over the few days that I was out of commission, I read about my 6-8 meals a day routine and found that some refer to it as the Abs Diet. I read up on the Abs Diet and was amazed at how much information there is out there about it!

Turns out the Abs Diet tells you to eat 6-8 meals a day, just as I’m doing currently, in order to increase your metabolism. Then you slowly add work outs into your diet. I also learned of some very healthy ideas for some meals too.  One of the things that I read was to start making smoothies as snacks for my inbetween meals. After reading that I decided to go pick up a blender. I picked up an Oster 16 speed blender but I haven’t tried it out yet. I’ll need to go to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients.  I can’t wait to make my first smoothie.

Tonight I ate a great soup: Chicken soup with beans and spinach! Good stuff!

I’ve been eating my 8 meals a day and slowly adding exercise and weights to my routine. I cannot stress how important sleep is! In the last week, I haven’t been getting to bed as early as I’d like to and that has really been detrimental to my health.

Tonight my body is telling me to get some sleep. So after I write this out I’m going to hit the hay. Sleep allows your body to release growth hormone and let your muscles heal. It’s also good for you in more than those ways but I’m no doctor. Get at least 8 hours of sleep and things will be better for your health!

I find that I need to set alarms in order to eat on time or as a reminder to eat on time. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for your own meals. Getting my metabolism up to speed again is going fine.

7am - Frosted Mini Wheats, Cheerios in a bowl with skim milk

9am - 1st ham wrap

11am - Subway 6 inch turkey sub, lettuce, onions, olives, 3 jalepenos, dijon mustard, vinegar. Lay’s Baked Chips, diet soda

1pm - pork and beans

3pm - 2nd ham wrap

5pm - Hamburger in a wrap

7pm - Yogurt and granola

I did 3 sets of 10 curls, squats and shoulder shrugs. I then did some exercises to work out my abs and get my heart rate up a bit. Did this for 20 minutes today and then hit the showers. It was a good work out. I can already feel the burn in my legs, arms and shoulders. Tomorrow I hope to do my 20 minute walk/run. We’ll see how I do.