It took us over 4-hours to do the Challenge as we scavenger-hunted throughout the streets of Philly. Today my feet hurt and my legs are sore, but the Gorilla Challenge was so much freaking fun!

“Gorilla Challenge is an ‘Amazing Race’ style event, combined with ‘Fear Factor’ and the  ‘American Idol’ where you and your team race to solve clues around the city, taking pictures in silly to crazy poses, completing fun/difficult/gross activities, hoping you either get the grand prize or at least mini prizes along the way, and having loads of fun!”

We gathered at my good friend Kristi’s (left in pink). This is where I met the other awesome gal pals. My scavenger hunt crew!

Once we got to Philly and checked-in, Kristi suggested we kill some time before the event kicked off. In a bar. At 9:30am. LOL! (eh, the bar was right next door)

And this is my first reaction to someone’s suggestion that I do my very first shot ever in life.  As you can see, I was kinda on the fence about it.

…and I obviously needed some help.

Our first clue led us to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument. The rules said we had to snap a picture, saluting.

But not all the clues were easy! It took us awhile to find the park where Kristi had to have an ocean of vinegar sprayed into her mouth before we could earn our next 6 clues.

Philadelphia Theatre Company (where we had to strike a Charlie’s Angels pose), was NOWHERE near the vinegar-spraying park. Geeeze! It was miles of walking ’round that city.

And then we walked for many more blocks (sometimes in the wrong direction) to get to the place where we had to form a human pyramid.

Most of the clues were VERY hard. The hunt was so difficult that not even the Philly locals could show us the way. Don’t they look confused?

But we did briefly meet up with Fred, Wilma and Baby Pebbles to compare scavenging notes. We helped each other solve a few more clues.

After over 4-hours of flexing our muscles around the city, we couldn’t figure out the rest of the clues (we got 8 out of 12) and ran out of time.

So we collected our beaded necklaces and cheered on our fellow Gorilla-ers who won the cash prizes. Oh, and then we had a greedy fro down, of course. My azz was hungry! I gnawed on nachos, a turkey burger and sweet potato fries.

The Gorilla Challenge also has a charity component. They’ve partnered with Accerlated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis AND collected our canned good donations on the day of the event to benefit the local food bank.

You gotta check out the website to see if the Gorilla is coming to a city near you!

…because I’m asking for your vote, but ONLY if you’re not too busy and you feel like I deserve it. I won’t force you with the combination head-lock-titty-twister-submission move.

So what’s this all about?

I’ve been nominated by Mamavation as a Top 50 Most Inspirational Healthy Tweep. If you’re on Twitter (and even if you’re not), if I’ve inspired you to live a healthier life, won’t you vote for me? It’s one-click voting, so don’t worry about being forced to sign up or log into anything.

Just go to this page, scroll down, and cast your vote for @YumYucky and any anyone else on the list (up to 10 people) who have inspired you. #thankyouverymuch

And now in other news… what the hell is this? What da fluck kind of bugs are cooking in this pot?  Gah!

((insert belly-barfing here))

My Shakeology 3-Day Cleanse starts today! No hard workouts again until Thursday – only walking.

Each day I’ll be eating Shakeology two times a day (for breakfast and dinner), LOTS of fruits, salad for lunch with light dressing and one white protein (fish or chicken), plus mint green tea & lots of water.

I won’t eat any bread, processed/packaged foods or milk/dairy products.

Daily calorie intake will be around 1,300.

Why am I doing this?

Because I was excessive greedy at Fitbloggin (here are my pics from the event!). And yes, I will accept your congratulations on the greedy. It was a special occasion so I have no shame, but now it’s time to get back down to business.

My foodie escapades have left me sluggish and tired. My thinking is also cloudy and I desire to couch-azz too much. Isn’t it amazing how a change in my diet for only a few shorts days can have a negative impact so quickly?

My last cleanse was an experiment to see how much weight I might lose compared to others who have done the cleanse. I lost 7-pounds (mostly water weight), then gained back 2-pounds for a net 5-pound weight loss. Here are the results from that last cleanse.

This time around, for me, the cleanse is about getting re-energized and ridding my system of the evil toxins from all the crap I ate while on the road and at restaurants. It’s about re-hydrating and giving my body the nutrients that I need before I head back into my hard workouts.

If you want to now more about Shakeology, just go to the left and right sidebars of the blog for more info. You can also contact me with your questions.

Alrightie then. It’s time to start my cleanse. Let’s GO!

I’m interrupting your Bikini Monday for a special reason. But if you are extra faithful to fitting into your bikini this summer despite this post NOT being about the two-piece, please commence to doing some Couch Pilates, toe lifts or elbow aerobics – anything to burn a few calories while you gaze into the pictures, right?

When I first arrived a Fitbloggin it was time for a quick pow-wow with MizFit, NoMoreBacon, ShePosts and Prior Fat Girl (in the background) to discuss for our Hobbyist to Professional panel (read the full transcript here).

My buddy, Jen In Real Life, is a vibrant, energetic ball of fire. I love her.

And here we have the infamous Bacon (featuring pink headband), alongside my crush, Benjamin Teal.

…and here is Ben’s butt.

Then I met Cathe. Holy cow, I was geeked! You will officially be inducted into The Bad Ass Club with her workouts.

I also hung out with Run Wifey Run, Renee J. Ross and Determined To Be Fit (not pictured). Sa-weet!

I luurves me some Alan. And there’s my Fitbloggin roomie, Andrea, in the background!

I spent a lot of time in the Pop Chips lounge. Who can refuse bean bag chairs and a free, endless flow of Pop Chips? Duh! Pictured from left to right are Brandi from Diets in Review, Fit Bottomed Girl, Dubya Wife (she gave me more Ostrich Jerky), Miz Fit and Diet Girl.

There were SO MANY other awesome peeps that I didn’t get to take pics with. Boo. But I’m home now so let’s get back to business. I ate a lot and enjoyed myself, so now I’m back on the grind, workin’ on my fitness. ka-BOOM!

What fitness means to me?

“Strength, confidence, and pie-eating without the guilt.”

I am imperfect and still on my journey, yet so proud of my fitness accomplishments thus far. To hell with all that self-judgmental hogwash! This pic demonstrates how I truly feel about myself.

So now it’s your turn. I want to celebrate and feature YOU! (look at the top, left sidebar)

Whether you are short, tall, chubby, skinny, or somewhere in between; Black, White, Asian, Latino, bilingual or multi-functional. Whatevah! Regardless if you made goal yet or not, if you are on your fitness journey and damn proud of it, AND you’re a reader of this blog, you qualify, baby!

I want your face on my blog!

This is an open call to The People of Yum Yucky for my new weekly feature, but it won’t work without your participation.

Each week on my upper left sidebar, I will feature the stunning image of a Yum Yucky reader like you doing some fabulously fitness-related: squatting, jumping, running, enjoying an all you can eat buffet, weight training, sweating, Yoga-ing, etc., with a short 1-2 sentence quote of what fitness means to you. I will also link back to your blog, Twittah page, or whatever you choose. But I will NOT link to this, so don’t even try it. Grrrrr.

I want peeps ALL shapes and sizes, please!!!

How to be featured? Please follow these exact directions: Email your picture to josie @ yumyucky.com (with no spaces, of course). Include your name, 1-2 sentence quote and desired link back to your page. Please write “open call” in the subject line of your email. First come first serve! The sooner you submit, the sooner you will be featured.

Let’s get it goin’ now!

Husband says I need some extra rest. He’s forcing me to take a short pause (like a day or two?)  from blogging and Beachbody-ing and social media-ing over here and over there.

So I will spare you another absurd eloquent post (for the moment) while I engage in a heavy dose of snoring as mandated by the husband.

But instead? Enjoy this photographic evidence that Health-hater and the 4 child-spawns are truly greedy as all hell.

These 4 loaves of bread were purchased yesterday. They might MAYBE last a full week. In fact, I’m about to open the first loaf right now to feed their food traps. Greedy Kid #3′s favorite is “Cheese and Buttery Sammiches”.

Huh?

God forbid if I bought REAL whole grain bread with the seeds in it. They’d have a fit and act like I handed them a concussion of health or something. So I buy the Split-Top Wheat instead.

Talk to ya soon, my friends! My eyeball’s lids are dropping to dangerously low levels of almost all the way shut.

Jethro ain’t no blogger, but he’s a man who made ‘dat bacon statue.

I’m taking this week to go incognito with the task of speeding up the home stretch of e-book writing. Yum Yucky’s Guide to Taming the Sugar Beast must get finished, dammit!

So in honor of all things incognito (which will also include less Twittering and Facebooking this week), I invited some man-bloggers to steal the stage so I can be freed up to finalize the ebook. One will talk food – the other will talk fitness, so watch out for guest posts from two manly-man-bloggers. Their posts will inspire you to conquer the Bikini Body Challenge.

But wait!

I do have new-fangled cereal to Taste Test, so you will see that from me this week. The winner of the Greedy Grocery Giveaway will also be revealed. I wish you an awesome week of no slacking, zero whining and minimal greediness. Just do what you know you need to do. m’kay?

Important note: That bacon statue is claimed to be constructed from 30 pounds of bacon. I hope he got it on sale, or a least with a coupon or something.

[photo]

Greenberry Shakeology fashion photo shoot.

I started the 90-day experiment with the basic idea that I would just lose some weight and report back to you on how I did it. I had no idea that I would end up feeling differently, thinking differently, and loving myself more than ever. This is what happened….(err, besides the fashion photo, of course).

Weight Loss and Body Composition

I lost 7.4 pounds during the experiment. That may not seem like impressive poundage until you consider that I barely did any cardio. My workouts consisted of about 25% pure cardio. For the remaining 75% of my workouts, I stuck to what I love most: Yoga, Pilates and weight training (including body weight exercises).

Although I didn’t purposely avoid cardio for the sake of the experiment, a 7.4 pound weight loss in the virtual absence of cardio is beyond not too shabby. I started at 172.8 pounds and have been holding steady at 165.4 for the past two weeks. This non-movement in the scale does NOT bother me, because in these past two weeks my body composition continues to take shape. The lean-slimming of my body has not stalled at all. Sure, there are those notable areas in my arms and stomach, but what really sticks out is my thighs and knees.

First off, I didn’t even know my knee-area put on weight until I noticed the fatty parts disappearing in these last 90-days. I freaking LOVE my knees! As for my thighs, the slimming and definition is almost scary. I feel like my body is morphing into what it was before I had children – but only better, because now there is a true focus on fitness like there was NOT in my early twenties.

The final seal of sexy-body approval came from Health-hater husband. He gave me a “you’re looking good, honey!” body compliment while I was getting dressed in the morning (chicka-bow-wow!).

Eating Habits: I love, love, love not being hungry all the damn time. My days no longer center around how to manage hunger with mastermind plots of 5-6 small meal a day or lack of concentration because I’m hungry like the wolf. Sure, I still get hungry (that’s my cue that it’s time to eat), but it’s a controlled, non-ravenous kind of hunger. I recently chatted with a reader about what a typical eating day looks like for me. This is what I shared with her based on what I was eating that particular weekday:

• 8:45am Breakfast: Greenberry Shakeology (made with almond milk and frozen strawberries)
• Optional mid-morning snacktime: Clementine. I’m not necessarily hungry mid-morning, but fruit is still important.
• 1:30 pm Lunch: Grilled Veggie sammich with pesto, plus side of sweet potato fries.
• 4:00 pm Snack: Green tea or half of a P90X protein bar (But not everyday. Some days I’m still full from lunch, so I pass on the snack. I only eat midday snack if I’m truly hungry.)
• 6:30pm Dinner: Whatever hubby makes – tonight it’s roasted chicken with broccoli.
• 10:00pm Night snack: Chobani Greek Yogurt or bowl of healthy cereal.

On most weekdays I do skip the morning snack, so I go from 8:45am to 1:30pm without the dire need to chew. This obviously limits my calorie intake for the day. I typically use Shakeology 5 days per week, not 7 days, so my monthly supply actually lasts longer than 30-days.

Gung-ho, Postive Attitude: My Shakeology Experiment page details key info on two Shakeology ingredients for boosting mood and combating depression: Camu Camu and Sacha Inchi. Although information on these natural Peruvian ingredients is interesting, I didn’t feel it pertained to me too much, because I’m already a happy person. But then something happened. I felt compelled to start lifting up others. It was like a motivational fire lit inside that I had to share with the world – and it’s still burning right now. This is evidenced by the non-typical Yum Yucky stuff I started posting about, like It’s Time to Crawl Out of Your Cocoon Now and Do You Have the Balls to Take Action.

Feedback From Peeps About Shakeology

Throughout these 90 days I shared my enthusiasm for Shakeology with a ton of fantastic people via Email, Facebook and Twitter. I also gave out samples. It’s been a fabulous time that will no doubt continue. There are a handful of people (about 15%) who sampled Shakeology and did not like it. But that is totally okay! Is there any food in this world that 100% of all people enjoy? Nope – not one, so I do not that that personally. Some gave feedback of a colon cleansing affect. Many loved the taste, but most prefer Chocolate over Greenberry flavor. Some are now Beachbody coaches on Team Yum Yucky, enjoying their own monthly supplies.

Product pricing is a thorny area with some folks. A 30-day supply is $119.95 for non-coaches and $89.96 for coaches. When I became a Beachbody Coach the pricing felt thorny, indeed. It took me five long weeks to embrace the cost and actually make my first purchase. Yet now, considering the price breakdown, it’s really not all that expensive. Non-coach pricing breaks down to $4/shake. Coach pricing breaks down to $3/shake. It’s so easy to spend that kind of money (or even more) on a crappy meal or Starbucks slurping-fest.

The overall feedback suggests that Shakeology is NOT for everyone, and I do agree. It’s all about deciding what’s right for you, what your needs are and the actions you’re willing to take. Based on the results of my experiment, if you primarily need to lose weight or take control of your eating habits, you need to be doing your own Shakeology experiment. Other areas Shakeology will help with is mood, menopause, sexual dysfunction and cholesterol, to name a few. What’s wonderful about Beachbody is that you can use Shakeology for a full 30 days (use up the ENTIRE bag!) and then request a refund if you aren’t happy with the results. How’s THAT for a money back guarantee?

But as for me? Shakeology is no longer an experiment. It is a lifestyle.

Links to Explore:

• Check out the Shakeology website.
• What Doctors Are Saying About Shakeology. (video)
• Contact me for more info on Shakeology or becoming a Beachbody Coach.

Zardoz is back! He crawled out of his man cave to give me happy birthday wishes and allow me the privilege of gazing at his loin-clothed physique. Zardoz was also extra generous by helping me out with some very specific beautification tips that every aging birthday girl should be doing.

I gotta…

1) Pluck my chin hairs

2) Wax my mustaches

3) Count my gray silver hairs

4) Hike up my breasts into the push up bra

Guh… I’m 38 today. But despite this 4-step beautification routine to keep myself looking young(er), I’m happier than ever, better than ever, I’m more clear about want I want out of life, and I’m NOT slowing down.

No matter your age, the best years of your life can still be ahead of you. It’s all up to you, baby!

Now excuse me, but it’s finally time to chew on extra-large slices of birthday cakes. Frack the dainty moderation and small portions sizes today. I’m gonna be real greedy about it. There’s no shame in my birthday-eating game.

Greedy Baby Mug Shot

This is what happens when child-spawns are allowed to romp in makeup. But is that what really happened? I would be an irresponsible mother if I confessed to you that Greedy Baby ended up with this mug shot while at the local precinct after a long night of partying.

Ooops?

But in other news…

I’m not a Thanksgiving recap kinda woman, but check out what happened and please feel sorry for me:

FAIL #1: On the way to Pennslyvania, health-hater and I got into an argument a high level spat over driving directions. But how does this happen when our OnStar GPS was pointing the way with turn-by-turn navigation? That is very stupid (uh, the arguing part) .

FAIL #2: Greedy Baby threw up in the car. She got car sick from husband’s driving. I just know it.

FAIL #3: The car broke down on the way home. But while we were waiting for the tow truck, it decided it was gonna start working again. It turns out driving through huge puddles does not make a car’s fancy computer system very happy. So don’t do that.

You can actually consider this a quadruple threat since our camera is (temporarily?) lost and I can’t retrieve our Thanksgiving pics to share with you. The camera phone mug shot of Greedy Baby is all I can deliver.

Depending on your level of “feel sorry” for me due to the events that unfolded, I am willing accept foot rubs, scalp massages, step-on-my-back cracks, or cash deposits to my bank account so you can help me feel all better. Pick one or pick them all. Because you wants me to be happy again, don’t you?