February Goals

So, since I continue to feel pretty good and notice I feel icky when I don't stick with my good habits, my February goals will be as follows.

• Add an additional day to my days of exercise. Making that over 4 weeks 16-21 days of exercise.
• Add 10 minutes to my total time, so the workout time is 40 minutes. I'm very close to this already, but I definitely need to do more cardio. I also want to start tracking how I'm splitting my time cardio vs. strength training. Once I know where I'm at with that, I can set a goal for that in March.
• Continue eating healthy. Which means continuing to make healthy choices while eating out, and following the general healthy eating plan at home and during lunch (lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein, and whole grains when I eat carbs) and staying away from sugar in general (I definitely get the sugar sleepies anymore and it's almost too sweet for me as well).

I've actually gotten to the point where I may not enjoy all of this all the time, but I definitely feel better for making healthy choices. I just need to remind myself this when the devil plops itself on my shoulder and says "eat it, you know you want to" or "you don't *need* to exercise today." I did well with a Light Turkey sub today with a work lunch, it was the right amount and was still tasty and the pasta salad and cookie definitely made me sleepy.

End (almost) of January summary

My husband has been on me for not updating. Unfortunately I've been buried in a federal grant which left me not wanting to write much. All I've wanted at the end of the day is to come home and watch tv or read. The grant is done and in the mail now so, I am much in need of updating. I have some very excellent things to report for January.

• Most importantly, I exercised 17 times in January, which is the top end of my range, which is very good, especially considering how busy I've been this month. Also, I said that would be 30 minutes at a session, and my average was 61 minutes.

• I stuck with the 30 day plan completely.

• I only had fast food once the entire month, one chinese meal. I had chinese once, and I spent all day eating the meal and felt awful. I'm not likely to eat it again, at least the fast food kind.

• I've definitely gained strength. I did some ab exercises with the medicine ball that I used to do. I used to only be able to do 2 sets of 15, I was able to do 3 sets of 20 today and could definitely have kept going. Pilates has definitely helped with my core strength and I feel like I could hold a downward dog for ages now.

• I've definitely gained cardio endurance. I've gone from doing my run at an average of 3.33 mph to 3.97 mph. Today during my run I beat my previous time for 2 miles by 3 minutes (sadly this is now 27 minutes, but going down). I also never spiked a heartbeat over 165 during the regular run and never spiked a heartbeat over 180 (like I used to) after my sprint at the end of the run. Today was the first time I actually feel like a 5K is a doable thing for me in less than an hour. I still have a long way to go, but I have a whole month and a half to pick up speed and endurance.
  

• My pants fit again and I've lost 9 lbs, and am darn near having lost 10. This is of course not the focus, and a nice side effect. I really just happy with the transformation my body has made, much stronger and I feel like more flexible.

All in all I'm very proud of my performance and feel pretty great. Pretty good way to go into February.

quick update

I'm doing pretty well. I've really felt pretty great and other than an intense salt craving I've been eating pretty well. I just checked in on my fitness log and I'm at 10 times for the month already, it looks as if I should easily hit my goal of 12-17 times, but I'm aiming for the upper limit of that. I have also noticed that the smaller quantities of food seem natural. Someone at work mentioned that they were having a salad, some spaghetti, strawberries, orange and a banana and I about fell over saying "That's a lot of food."

Weekend report

It's the last day of my long weekend and as always it still feels like I could use another. It was a pretty eventful weekend though.

Friday and Saturday we went up to see our parents. Dustin's mom was having surgery and so we spent all day (12 noon to 9 pm) at the hospital from pre-op to post op with her. She's fine and the surgery went well, but with many hours on end with nothing to do, I came to a couple of interesting thoughts happened. 1). I was bored and anxious and boy did I want to chow down on some junk food. But with the help of my fabulous husband, I stuck it out and only had the snacks we packed and then a moderate dinner in the hospital cafeteria (a wrap and some macaroni salad, then I splurged on some baked doritos and vanilla pudding). I don't think I wanted to eat out of boredom, but more out of the anxiousness. 2). The doctor repeatedly told my mother-in-law, who is in fantastic shape for a nearly 60 year old (she weighs less than I do), how great it was to work on a thin, healthy patient and that her insides were much younger than her age. This served as a great motivator for me to get my butt in gear and be healthier.

Saturday morning I went with my mom to yoga class and totally got my butt kicked. It was a reminder of how far I have yet to go on being stronger and more flexible. I felt pretty great afterward and it also prodded me that soon I should start going to yoga again, because I really do love how much energy I have afterward and how great it feels to have flexible hips. We went out to dinner Saturday night when we got home, and though I splurged for the chicken parm I was very good and had a salad before hand and made sure to only eat half.

Sunday was a bit of a struggle, I've been fighting back the munchie urges including one for humus which I gave into since it's not bad for me. I stuck with my healthy eating all day and turned down the blueberry bake (if only all baked goods came with blueberries, I'd probably never eat them again, I'm not that much of a fan). We had friends over last night so I could make large amounts of food and feed it to someone besides me and Dustin. I baked my own egg rolls, which I thought tasted pretty good, and made a thai-type soup with beef. It was great, healthy and it kept me from eating unhealthy stuff to satisfy my urge for Chinese food. The only bad part was the lime bars one of our guests brought. They were absolutely fabulous. I had 4 :) But, I feel like that was an ok splurge. The point of this is not to give up sugar for good, but to be healthier. 4 teeny lime squares (they were probably each only 1 inch square) is way better than a whole dessert at a restaurant. Plus....

Today I finally got back on the running horse. I really do want to do that 5K on St. Patty's day so I had to see how long it would take me to do 3 miles. Sadly, about 1 hr. I know that's slow, but I made it through the whole hour and I looked like a beet. (It's a constant embarrassment to me that I get bright red and sweat a lot when I do cardio). I can do it. I know I can finish the race now which adds a little bit of confidence, now I just have to keep working up on the amount of time I can run. My recovery times were pretty good until the last 20 minutes or so. I was able to keep my walk pace up higher than it had been. But, the draw back was, I was at 3.8 mph for approximately the last 20 minutes and couldn't get my heart rate below 150.

The frustrating part is I have to remember this is a process. I do generally feel pretty great, my clothes look much better and fit again. This is what I want. I want to feel good in my skin and be healthy. I'm getting there. But I might have to make my own pita chips this week. :)

oooh stretchy

I just came back from pilates class and I have to say that I continue to enjoy pilates. I feel great after class and I don't have to sweat. I also enjoy the concentration it takes to do each move and making sure that my body is in alignment. I think this is why I loved my ballet class in college and why I like my ballroom dance class now. I like it when there's a "right" way to do things and I have time to focus on form. I may not be as good at rhythm as my husband, but I usually know when something feels wrong.

Eating continues to go well too. I feel accomplished that last night while watching tv Dustin was oohing and ahhing over all the fast food commercials and I was so not interested. Right now all I have a craving for is Chinese food and I'm going to attempt to make my own healthy version on Sunday. I've had some sweet cravings, but keeping mandarin oranges around seems to be keeping those at bay.

Boring update, but things are going well and I've lost another lb. I'm officially down 6 now to 177. Go me. But once again, I'm sticking with this because I feel great, have more energy and I'm not waking up tired in the morning.

Excuses, excuses

This is just a quick update before I leave for work. It's been a busy couple of days and I've spent lots of time on the computer at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is spend more time on the computer. I'm back on track eating wise after my migraine (I'm finally not starving all the time) and the eating well is starting to come naturally to me. Next week I start eating lunches again instead of meal replacement bars and I think that will start to get tricky.

I didn't go to the gym last night like I should have. I left work late and I was tired and I knew Dustin would be hungry and blah blah blah. So I didn't make it. But I still worked out at home, I took out one of my balance ball videos and did that. So far, I'm pretty on track. I need to get on track to do that 5K on St. Patty's day, maybe I should be more worried but I'm not.

ugh

Well, I capped off a week of being really healthy with my first migraine in something like 6 years. Man, I'd forgotten how hella bad and awful they are. And scary. Nothing like your left hand and left side of your face going numb in church. I'm pretty sure this one was kicked off by the incense at church but I'm concerned because I had some precursors last week. At least they make medicine that actually works for this stuff now, even though I don't currently have any. Anyway, hopefully I'll be feeling lots better tomorrow.

already?

There's nothing like a shopping trip to make my enthusiasm flag. After a frustrating trip to exchange some Christmas booty where nothing seemed to fit me quite right and there was the ever present pudge, I'm left feeling like what's the point? I never seem to get anywhere. Also, I really wanted to eat all of my grilled chicken wrap at BWW. But I stuck it out and only ate half and a small amount of the chips (that I definitely wanted to eat all of).

This might be a new record for me, 5 days in and the motivation is going. I'm going to stick with it though, because at the end of the month if I make my goal is some new clothing and looking way better in my current clothing. Oh, and I continue to get compliments on my skin looking good.

Reminder

My brother forwarded me an email today. This was the last paragraph:

"Just remember weight loss is not linear. You may lose five pounds on the scale the first week, but that may be water weight as your body adjusts fluid levels. You may have some weeks where you don’t register any weight loss--that’s just the way the body works. Keep your long-term goal in mind, focus on your lifestyle, and before you know it, you’ll achieve the weight you’ve always wanted."

It was the reminder I needed. I'm very pleased that my pants are comfortable again. But this is about being healthy.

Today's status: healthy eating: check; exercise: check

The fight continues...

I've done pretty well the past couple of days and really haven't had any urge to cheat. I've been down with the fruits and veggies and I lost 5 lbs in the first 2 days. That is a huge motivator. Also, the mini-cleanse seems to have cleared up my awful breakout. Those two things combined are enough to make me continue. Dinner tonight was yummy. My salad tasted great (the asparagus were not so great, but I think that's because it wasn't a good batch).

So I'm rocking on with my bad self. I'm also going to make my tired self exercise at 7. I haven't been sleeping well for some reason which has caused a bit of fatigue, but I figured the exercise will help the sleep issue.

Excuse me, where's the ladies room?

So, it's January 2nd and I'm doing pretty well. I started the 30-day plan yesterday, which the first 2 days is called a mini-cleanse. The mini-cleanse consists of drinking meal replacement shakes every 2 hours for 2 days and a glass of water on the opposite hours. It's a heck of a lot of liquid and the first day is hard, but I generally wake up the second day feeling great. This held true for me. I felt great today. I had more energy and I generally felt like that icky holiday food was out of my system. Plus, as a bonus, I'd lost 3lbs.

Now, I know that I said weight loss was not the general goal of this whole thing, but boy is it nice to have already dropped 3lbs. But I also feel great! And for once in my life I'm craving healthy things. All I want right now is an avocado and some sauerkraut. Both of which aren't that bad for me. Oh and are veggies which is impressive for the green food skeptic that I am.

So, while I was detoxing yesterday I was watching PBS. There was this great show on by Barbara Watson call the H.O.P.E. plan for digestive health (see, we're back to the healthy goal now). She's a Naturopath (or however you spell it, a doctor that specializes in natural cures) and the show is all about how eating is directly related to most health problems including asthma. I have been looking for nutritional suggestions for dealing with asthma, so I watched. The basic idea is a 4 point plan 1) High fiber, 35 grams of fiber a day; 2) Omega-3s; 3) Probiotics; 4) Digestive Enzymes.

The program explains why these things work, but the good news is I was already on my way to a couple of those. I take acidophilous and digestive enzymes as part of the 30 day plan and I've already been sneaking flax seed meal in whatever I feel like I won't notice it in (scrambled eggs, yogurt, applesauce, anything saucy really). I guess that means I'm on the right track, and hopefully with increased good eating this will bear out her plan.

I've been doing lots of research about healthy ways to eat and what it means to be healthy. It seems like a lot of these plans say different things, but the bottom line is this: 1.) eat lots of fruits and veggies; 2.) eat lean protein, especially fish (ew, I still struggle with this one) and stay away from lots of red meat; 3.) Stay away from processed foods especially grains and sugars. Seems like if I do these things I'll be well on my way.

Tomorrow: Back to solid food and exercise. I'm really looking forward to the marinated flank steak on greens with avocados (yum!).