Holiday Weight Gain – How are you preparing?

Happy Monday! There are a lot of reasons I hate the onset of colder weather, but lately I’ve been appreciating the lack of mosquitoes eating me alive every time I go outside to play Frisbee with my pups. As winter approaches, it’s easy to slack off on your fitness and healthy living goals. Putting on those comfortable sweaters instead of squeezing into your swim suit makes those extra pounds seem nonexistent. Trust me, they are still there!

Even though I’m not in weight loss mode now since I’m pregnant, I’m still trying to get my head focused on staying as healthy as possible during and after this pregnancy. And if you are like me, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years (and all the other holidays celebrated) all mean yummy food, tasty drinks and time NOT spent at the gym. So even though I’ve accepted that I will indeed be gaining weight over the next 6 months, I want to be gaining weight for the right reasons. Note to self: Giant Gingerbread Cookies & Triple Fudge Squares are not the right reasons.

My LAB (Life After Bread)

A few short weeks ago, if someone would have told me that I would not be eating bread or most of my typical snack choices (Goldfish Crackers, Triscuits, Granola Bars…etc), I probably would have thought it impossible. Truly, when my chiropractor first gave me an article on some of the positive impacts of removing wheat from your diet I read it – but it seemed so far out and crazy that I didn’t even consider it.

As many of you know, I decided to take the plunge and do a 30 Day Food Challenge that mostly centered around a Primal/Wheat Free foods. All of a sudden, 30 days have flown by and I’ve officially entered a new stage of my life: Life After Bread.

My husband asked me over the weekend, “So what’s next?” as he knows I’m constantly looking for fun and challenging ways to be more active, eat healthier, etc. I replied, “Nothing – this is it. This is good.” And it made me happy to finally have found something that doesn’t feel like deprivation. It doesn’t feel like a diet. It’s not boring, I’m not starving and I’m also not kicking my butt in the gym every single day until I’m reduced to a puddle of sweat on the floor.

It does mean that I put a lot more thought into what meals I’m preparing, the ingredients I use and my “usual snacks.” But I was already thinking a lot about those things to begin with – so it’s just been a bit of a learning curve to think a DIFFERENT way about food. Understanding that there IS life after bread is certainly step 1. I didn’t think I would ever say that – but when I’m not eating it all the time, I don’t crave it. It’s really that simple. In fact, a LOT of my cravings have vanished. It’s not perfect – of course I’m still tempted when I see sugary, carb loaded desserts – but it’s really not as all-consuming as it was before to me. It felt like before – I just didn’t have the will power to say no to cake, cookies, bread baskets…etc. And now it’s just a bit easier to take a pass.

I have noticed that certain  foods impact me in ways I never knew they did. I think I was so accustomed to eating wheat and grains and processed foods that I didn’t even notice that they were making me feel low energy, congested, or upset my stomach. Now it’s pretty crystal clear to me when I eat something that probably should be on my “extreme moderation list.” And it’s easier to avoid those foods when you can physically FEEL the negative impact of eating them. I would associate it with people who avoid foods they are allergic to – the food is usually not worth the reaction.

Shrimp Vindaloo served with Cauliflower Rice

I still am figuring out how to make it work and still participate in real life. For the most part, I’ve found it fairly easy to find things when we go out to eat. It helps that I don’t have Celiac Disease or something that would make me SUPER sick if I make a mistake, but when you are trying to avoid wheat/grain in restaurants there are still good options at most places. I tend to order meat & veggies for the most part. Still super delicious and actually pretty different from what I’d order in the past so it is giving me some variety that I didn’t have before. Another bonus!

There are times when it’s hard – and I make an exception. That is one thing that I’ve enjoyed about the Primal Blueprint book by Mark Sisson – he promotes adopting an 80/20 rule because it’s hard to be perfect and strict all the time. Sometimes you just want to eat cake, or you are in a situation where people are basically insulted if you don’t try their food. But I think i can live with following this plan 80% of the time. And most likely, it will be more like 90% of the time because I do feel like I can control most situations since I’m already in the habit of bringing my lunch to work, not eating out super often, etc.

I’m getting to the part in Mark’s book that discusses primal lifestyle in the weight loss mode and I think that will be helpful for me to focus in on things I can do (or avoid) so I can really reap the benefits of Primal eating. Then once I’m where I want to be – maintaining won’t be as strict as long as I’m still on the 80/20 bandwagon and staying active.

Some goals I have for the next few weeks:

• For the best weight loss results, I need to be keeping my carb intake between 50-100. I’m going to track my meals for a few days to see where I am already just to be sure I’m not accidentally eating something that is blowing me out of the water with carbs. I’ve never paid that much attention, and I SHOULD be in this zone already by eliminating wheat but  I just want to be sure. I am currently signed up on paleotrack.com but am also going to look into fitday.com.  We’ll see which one i like better!
• I’m going to focus on adding more moderate cardio to my week. It’s still been a struggle to figure out exactly what I should be doing. The strength training is going well! I’m doing that 2x a week already. Last week I went to the trampoline airobics class and it was a fun workout – I could see myself doing that once a week again!
• I want to have a focus this month on backing off the corn and potato – corn is definitely troublesome for me so I need to make sure I’m not overdoing it. I think I may set a rule of one corn and one potato serving every week (if at all) while I’m really pursuing weight loss!

Waking Up The Dead

I never could relate very much to those people who seemed so “in tune” with their bodies and their senses. People who taste something and can say things like, “Is their aspartame in that?” or “wow, is that a bit of brown sugar?”

I would look at them in confusion and have to look at the actual ingredients in order to confirm or deny. I’d think: Really,? How do you taste things like that?

It’s like my senses have been dead all this time. Totally and completely rendered useless by eating fake ingredients and “filler” items filled with wheat and grains.

Tastebuds: A little reminder for you…

Doing this whole wheat free thing is changing me – it’s like I’m waking up all my previously dead senses. It’s weirdly exciting to be able to identify more flavors naturally. To appreciate real food. It’s also scary to think that for a long time, I wasn’t really aware of how salty something was, or how overly sweet things were. They just were categorized in my mind as “snacky” or “dessert!” I had a hard time discerning when something was sweet vs. sour, or rich in flavor. I’ve also just become more aware of how I feel after I eat something that is either “good for me” or “off track.”

A Few Instances

I’ve noticed a considerable decrease in my need for salt over the past few weeks. I come from a family of “salters” – and my hubby used to hassle me about it all the time. I made a major effort to decrease my need to salt things over the last few years – but it was more because I knew I shouldn’t eat so much salt, not because I didn’t want it. But this month – I just don’t need as much. I don’t want things to be so salty. And for really what may be the first time in my life I’ve said this: Sometimes, things are TOO salty!

For instance, the other night I went out with my good friend to catch up – we had some wine and ordered a few appetizers to share. It was pretty limited because I’m on a no wheat thing and she’s doing no dairy. Fortunately, they had some olives and smoked almonds – so that’s what we ordered. I’m not a huge fan of almonds, but compared to some of the other choices, it seemed like the safest bet. They were actually pretty good – but way too salty. I found myself wanting to roll them around on a napkin first (which I didn’t really do because it was a nice place and I didn’t want people to look at me weird).

This weekend – we had sort of a crazy few days of eating “out of the ordinary” because we visited my family (Unless you consider eating ice cream cake “ordinary” of course).

At the beginning of our challenge – hubby and I agreed we would have 2 cheat days where you could eat whatever you wanted with no judgement from the other.  I hadn’t cheated until this weekend and I just took both my cheat days in a row and now it’s over with. The weird part? I’m glad that I won’t be cheating any this week – because I actually feel sort of crappy today.

Sort of like a fog is in my brain, and despite having more sleep than usual (like 8.5 hours) – I woke up groggy and tired. And I’m still tired now even after a cup of coffee. *sigh*

I felt sort of like that yesterday when I woke up as well. My husband and I kept saying – why are we tired? We both slept a decent amount! It wasn’t until this morning  we realized we were feeling the impact of eating “off plan.” After all, I had bread last night! We went out for our city’s restaurant week where a bunch of nice places offer a 3 course meal for $30/person. So it’s a good chance to try a new place, or a place that you wouldn’t normally be able to afford. It was DELICIOUS, but I did order for my first course this Crab Pimento Cheese dip and it came with pita chips. Of course, they also brought bread to our table and since I was cheating – I had a slice. It was weird – it tasted super sweet to me.

So – that was my cheat yesterday. The day before we had 2 slices of oreo cookie ice cream cake (it was my nephew’s birthday and NO the 2 slices were not in a row!). And I guess I’m paying the price today. Weird how just a few weeks can really change your body, your senses, and create a lot of awareness about how your body is impacted by certain ingredients. It’s like I’m having this new awareness ABOUT my new level of awareness and it’s sort of cool. Things are starting to come together – the pieces of the puzzle (if you will) are starting to form a picture.

I’m learning to listen to my body. And while that may not always be enough to get me to actually make the BEST decision – it’s way better than I was before! And I know that there is something to this when my husband actually says this morning: “Have you noticed me snoring at night lately? I know I snored last night because my throat hurts.” And I realized – he hasn’t been snoring as much since we started this whole thing – almost like he could breathe better while avoiding the wheat products. And last night – he had wheat and work up with a sore throat from snoring. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

I guess sometimes we don’t even realize we are harming our bodies, or are suffering unnecessarily until you actually change something and realize you feel better without it. Despite feeling a little foggy today – this new understanding about my body and how different food impacts it has never been clearer. Best thing of all: I’m totally looking forward to all my wheat free meals this week because I know they will help me feel more focused at work, more energetic during the day/during my workouts and help me to avoid senseless snacking on bad for me foods.

It’s almost like magic – except it’s real. Real Food, who would have thought?

You’ve Got Questions? I have some answers…

Making a commitment to a new way of eating is a lot to get your mind around.  Today marks Day 1 of my 30 day Food Challenge. And yes, I’m still in the midst of my Summer Push Series as well (completing 3 months of TurboFire workouts) – so this is going to be quite the month!

I’ve gotten a few questions (okay, a lot of questions) both on my blog, facebook and just in “real life” as people learn about what I’m taking on. It’s funny, because you never realize how personal making decisions about what you eat (or don’t eat) can be. I never paid much attention to it before because I wasn’t really in a situation where I tried to avoid specific foods (other than a general attempt to eat healthier foods!). But as I’ve been reading articles, books, blogs, and talking to others who are following a wheat free or Paleo style diet – the variations and levels of dedication are all over the place.  Some people do it for major health reasons (like being allergic or sensitive to ingredients) and others do it to try and just be healthier (like me).

I didn’t expect my harshest critic of this new challenge to be my husband. But he is about 99% questions and 1% enthusiastic about these next 30 days. I can appreciate the questions (some of them), but in the end he just wants me to make him a list of things we’re not eating this month. So if he’s confused, perhaps you guys are, too, so I’ll attempt to make sense of this challenge on my blog, answer your questions and provide resources so you can check out the research and opinions for yourself, too.

I’m still learning as I go here – so I’d like to put it out there that what I’m doing the next 30 days isn’t officially Paleo and it’s probably not a perfect match up with Wheat Free, either. It’s sort of a combo of the two..but it’s important to note that Paleo eaters are ALSO wheat/grain free. But being Wheat Free doesn’t really mean you are Paleo. Does that make sense? A few things before I lay out my foundation for the next 30 days: Just because this is what I’m doing doesn’t mean it’s right for you. And just because you DO eat wheat/grains doesn’t mean I’m judging you for eating it. I’m just trying this out for a while to see how I feel without it. Maybe it will change my life, maybe not. My biggest goal is to lose some weight and feel like I have more energy so some of my choices reflect that end goal for me in the following list.

So – here’s the drill down for my 30 Day Food Challenge

1) Avoid wheat as much as possible (I am not going to NOT buy something that says “processed at a facility that may include soy, wheat, etc.) But this means that we aren’t cooking any recipes that include wheat. If you have questions about why – click on the link above for some good information.

2) Avoidance of most grains actually – so trying to avoid corn based products (because corn is actually a grain – not a vegetable!) and things like rice, too. We are putting these items on the “extreme modification” list. As in, it would be better to have eaten a corn tortilla than a flour one, or, it would be  better to have an ear of corn at a BBQ instead of potato chips but we should do our best to avoid either situation. If you are interested in learning more about rice and how it fits into (or doesn’t) a Paleo lifestyle, this is a good article to check out.

3) Potatoes also go on the extreme modification list. But sweet potatoes can be used because of our level of working out. Paleo athletes often use sweet potatoes as a good recovery snack/meal. Since the hubs & I are very active, I think it’s good to keep this as an option.  Here’s a good article on why I’m choosing to limit our potato consumption.

4) Eat clean food. This means avoiding products that have ingredients that aren’t natural. So – if you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t buy it.  Ways to make sure you are doing this? Buy fresh veggies and meat – avoid frozen foods or pre-packaged items as much as possible. I will say that there is a decent amount of pre-packaged items out there that don’t have a bunch of trash ingredients in them. But make sure you flip over the box/wrapper or whatever and check out the ingredients list. A good rule of thumb is that if the ingredients list has more than 5 ingredients – it’s probably not all that natural (unless all the ingredients are “whole” types of food).

5) Avoid foods that are marketed as “low fat” “fat free” “low calorie,” etc. Typically these foods have been stripped of any nutritional value and trash ingredients have been added to fill in the blanks.  A lot of times in place of fat/calories – you’ll find lots of sugar instead which can be just as bad. The idea here is to eat products that are as natural/unprocessed as possible.

Seriously – don’t eat this.

6) Re-evaluate all Dairy Products:  It’s in my nature to opt for the low fat cheeses or fat free sour cream versus the “real stuff.” But again, if we are going for more natural/unprocessed things – you need to buy dairy products in a more natural state. Some good tips for identifying “the good stuff” when it comes to dairy (cheese, yogurts, etc) is here. I even bought some coconut milk creamer for my coffee. Looks at me, I’m all fancy!

I’m sure I’ll be figuring out MORE about all this as I go…but this is the basic list and reasons why for those who have asked (or are secretly wondering WTH I’m doing). Perhaps my husband will read this, too and I’ll kill 2 birds with one stone.

I’d still love to hear more about your ideas for your 30 Day Food Challenge – be creative, this is your time to explore something totally new!

What’s Your 30 Day Food Challenge?

I am hoping that everyone has been thinking about something they want to change (food-wise) in a positive way over a period of 30 days. As many of my constant readers know, I’ve selected a Food Challenge to follow a more Paleo diet – which includes the exclusion of wheat products and all those junky processed foods.  Many Paleo followers also exclude dairy from their diet – but I’m not going to do that.  I don’t eat a huge amount of dairy anyway – so I’ll just make sure the dairy I do eat is healthy and not processed!

Currently reading….

I have started to read another book called The Paleo Solution, by Robb Wolf (click on the pic to check out his site). I’m only a few chapters in, but I like the writing style of the author so far – he’s sort of funny, and relate-able. I’m glad that I read a book on the whole no-wheat thing, because it definitely helps me have a better understanding of some of the principles behind eating more Paleo style – it all overlaps and comes together. I still feel like a bit of a novice because there is so much information out there – but I hope as I go through this next month or so, I’ll be learning it as I’m living it and able to share my ups & downs – and hopefully my success with you!

As a brief reminder – Paleo isn’t really a “diet.” It’s more of a way of life – returning to our roots and eating more like our ancestors did – natural, unprocessed food. It doesn’t involve counting calories, which is a big plus for me because I’m really tired of doing that. It encourages you to eat when you are hungry but isn’t forcing food down your throat 6-7 times a day. And while there are some things you aren’t supposed to eat – the reasons behind it make sense to me.

For example, I shouldn’t eat this giant piece of cake from the store because it’s all processed and junk. I can ask myself, WWCD? (What would CaveMan Do) – and if he wouldn’t have had that around to snack on, I should probably think twice about indulging.

I do believe there is a place for dessert and sweets, so I’ll be exploring ways to still indulge occasionally but I’m placing my bets that it will take a bit more preparation on my end. But like anything else, results are usually so much better when you put the effort into getting there, right?

As I’m wrapping up my first week of really spending time THINKING about the foods I normally eat and making some changes to see if I would die or not – I’m glad to say that not eating wheat hasn’t been THAT big of a deal this week. The biggest change is about what I snack on – and trying to be more aware of the ingredients in products that I buy like are they filled with unpronounceable ingredients? That is a red flag!

Starting next week, I’ll be moving more towards total integration of the Paleo diet – and this will mean a pantry renovation to get rid of products that don’t meet the primal eating standards! And really pushing myself to prepare more healthy snacks for during the day so I don’t ever feel like I’m starving myself – because that is NOT the point of this diet change. And i’ll say – I haven’t felt starved this week – the only times I’ve  been super hungry is when I didn’t plan my day out right and didn’t have time to eat a snack I’d prepared and that’s really my own fault.

Some of you have said you want to do a 30 day Food Challenge but you aren’t sure what you should pick. Here are some ideas for you:

1) Eat more local veggies & fruits (like buying this stuff from a farmer’s market vs canned items or at the grocery store)
2) Eat better meat – this means grass fed vs. grain fed – and try to buy from humanely raised organizations.
3) Maybe you just need to cut out the processed foods in general – too many 100 calories snack packs and breakfast from a box? This might be good for you.
4) Don’t eat out any fast food this month.
5) Cut caffeine out of your diet.
6) Reduce processed sugar in your daily nutrition (this will happen naturally if you do #3)
7) Drink only water!

So maybe these give you some ideas of things you can change up over the next 30 days – and maybe it will change your life. Maybe it will push you outside your comfort zone and you’ll learn something new about yourself. Maybe it will re-set your palate and you’ll discover you enjoy new foods (I’m hoping this will help expand my palate regarding fruit!).

Maybe it will just remind you that you have the power to make positive changes in your life – all you have to do is commit. I’d love to hear your 30 day challenges and how you are doing with them. You don’t have to start next week, or maybe you have already started….either way, I’ll be here for you along the way – whatever you decide. And by default, you’ll be here for me. Gee, thanks!

Weekend Review: The Wheat Wean

Well – somehow it’s Monday again. Today I’m checking in from a brand new location – my office is under construction so we got moved to a newer (and much sleeker) building on campus.  So while I don’t miss the mildew smell of my old office, it’s weird being totally by myself in this new office. Welcome to my July,  I guess! After a bit of a rocky start this morning, I’m feeling more “tuned in.”

Weekend Review

So this weekend was a success, I believe. I finished the book Wheat Belly in record time. Some of it was a little dry (no pun intended), but I found Part 3 of the book to be more hands on and helpful in terms of a game plan for moving more towards a wheat free lifestyle. And I was wondering if I had just read part 3 of the book, would I have been as inclined to jump toward this radical change? Reading the first two parts of the book where you get a really in depth look at the scientific changes modern day wheat has gone through, and studies of how it impacts your body and brain – it really made me want to just start making some changes immediately.

The Wheat Wean

Shocking, but it seems very true!

This week starts a wean away from wheat week. I am not sure how I’ll react as some people say they go through major withdrawal symptoms. But this weekend, I ate basically wheat free and I was super surprised at how little food I needed to feel full.  For breakfast both days I did an egg based scramble – with veggies, fresh herbs and some meat (shrimp once, turkey sausage the next). And I seriously was full well past my normal span of time from when I eat my wheat based breakfast option.

On both days – I didnt’ really eat a real lunch. I snacked on things like nuts, string cheese and olives. Carrots & hummus. And I was good to go. I even worked out twice on Sunday (my TurboFire work and then I went to the Y with my neighbors as one of them teaches Pilates there – so we went to check it out).  I’m completely weirded out by it already – how can this sort of stuff fill me up?

I will say that I completely overheated on Saturday – I went to see a movie (Magic Mike – stop judging me!) and it was like the theatre didn’t have the AC on – and I was SOOOOOOO freaking hot. And while I wasn’t hungry going into the movie – I was really hungry by the time I got home. But the hubby was over at a neighbors house, and then it was decided that we would bring our dinner over to their house and grill out together…and as soon as I ate I felt absolutely terrible. I had to get home quick because I thought I was going to be sick. I never was – but I had the worst stomach pains ever. YUCK!

It passed once I fell asleep, and I’m still not sure what happened or what I ate that set me off.  Probably just a combo of being hungry & overheated.

Wheat Free Recipes

I got really excited about finding yummy wheat-free recipes this weekend as well. Fortunately, Wheat Belly had some great recipes – so I picked out a few of those to try this week. I took my time at the grocery store – inspecting the ingredients list of all the items – and I’m proud to say the only “processed” thing I bought this week was some chex mix for the hubby.

Normally, the hubs does our cooking, but he went on this 30 mile mountain bike ride yesterday out of town and ended up taking way longer than expected. So I had to cook all our meals. I’m not going to brag until I taste lunch today and tomorrow – but I was pretty freaking impressed with myself. (UPDATE: Just heated up my Pecan Encrusted Chicken with Bacon Brussell Sprouts and I’m officially bragging – recipe to come!).

New Things I did this Weekend:

• I ground pecans in our food processor (okay, so I may have had to watch 2 youtube videos on how to work a food processor).
• I learned how to prep & cook brussell sprouts
• I went to the Y & did a Pilates class for the first time in like 5 years
• I made a healthy and non processed Cinnamon Cashew Popcorn snack & it turned out great!
• I actually made a “breaded” chicken breast starting with raw chicken – cut it and trimmed it, pounded it out flat and used my ground pecan mix to bread it.

Wow – I’m like a beast in the kitchen these days. My hubby was UBER impressed with me. Now – I’m just waiting on him to tell me how he liked the Pecan Chicken today & then I’ll know for sure that I’m an awesome chef.

I’ll post some recipes later this week so if you want to give it a go – you can. Even if you aren’t opposed to eating wheat – these recipes were still delicious!

Next week will be the beginning of my 30 day Food Challenge. If anyone wants to go along with me – feel free to write me on FB, leave a comment – etc and tell me about your plans! More on this as the week continues! You can make your 30 days be about whatever you want – it just has to be a 30 day commitment to change your diet up in some way!

Food for Thought & what was I Thinking?!

I mentioned a few posts back about my brainstorming for the next BIG THING I want to do. A lot of my plans usually revolve around new work outs, races, or funny physical obstacle challenges like the Urban Assault & Warrior Dash. But if you haven’t gotten this memo, it’s a good thing you are here today:  the biggest predictor to whether your journey to become more fit and healthy is successful? What you are eating.

Diet (and I don’t mean cutting calories or counting calories or whatever when i say this word – I literally mean the food you are putting in your mouth) plays a HUGE role in meeting your health goals. Of course, you can’t build muscles if you aren’t working out – but if your goal is to get some extra pounds off, you really should spend more time thinking about your diet in general. What types of food are you eating? How big are your portions? What variety of food are you eating?

I’ve known this fact for awhile now. It’s not new information for most of us, but if you are like me – sometimes I would rather work out than to change how I eat. Growing up on a “fast food diet” – it’s been a real challenge for me to improve my eating behaviors. At one point in my life – it was perfectly normal to eat out for dinner 3 or 4 times a week. My husband has been a huge help as I’ve tried to put on the STOP SUCKING AT EATING HEALTHY saddle over the last few years and we do a LOT of making our own meals and eating at home now.

A New Day

I’m feeling better today. Thanks for those of you who reached out.

Emotional Eating 101

 

Today is a New Day. It’s a Thursday, which also means that tomorrow is weigh in day. After my weekend of “family style eating” I’m hoping that keeping up with my workouts and being (mostly) on track this week will mean good things for tomorrow. I did let my emotions get the better of me yesterday. I had a glass of wine, some olives and a mini organic dark chocolate bar after work (see my amazing photo skills).

On the up side, instead of getting a giant chocolate bar, I got the little one which was only 190 calories (although I’ll admit I couldn’t bring myself to check the calories until I finished). I only had ONE glass of wine which I slowly sipped. And I don’t know – olives just seemed like a good idea. I love olives and can’t  believe I haven’t been eating them my entire life. What was wrong with me? So many years without olives, I’m ashamed. Of course, I didn’t eat the chocolate and olives together – don’t be crazy. I spread out my emotional eating over the course of the evening.

We had a light dinner though – grilled ham & swiss on some light bread and our squash casserole we made over the weekend. Yesterday was my one day off from working out, and I hate that I ended up spending it feeling so down in the dumps instead of just enjoying my down time. I did spend most of the evening curled up reading a book which is something I don’t get to do very often.

On happier notes, my deck furniture arrived yesterday and looks like we’ll be slowly putting together the chairs, umbrella and table over the next few evenings. My husband has already read reviews of putting together this furniture and is preparing me for it to be long and frustrating. YAY! There is nothing I enjoy more than to watch my husband become frustrated while putting together furniture. (riiiiighhhht). There will probably be on going picture updates of me drinking more wine or pouring him beer to soothe his our nerves as this project plays outs.

In terms of “lessons learned” and a last minute attempt to contribute to my “Thankful Thursday” idea (I’m a slacker on this, I know):

I am thankful that I didn’t end up being ridiculous about my emotional eating yesterday. I could have stopped for a giant milkshake (totally done that before), or gone out to eat for lunch and then picked up something equally fatty and fried for dinner. I’d like to think that my attempt to still be in control in some way, shape or form is a sign of personal progress. I feel good about the fact that what I did indulge in didn’t make me feel sick or totally derail me from my goals.

I’d love to think that one day I won’t want to turn to food to make me feel better. I guess sometimes I do consider going to work out when I’m feeling stressed out, but now that I’m working out 6 days a week – I just couldn’t bring myself to workout on my ONE day off from it. So i guess there is still room for growth here, isn’t there always?

I hope to bring you good news tomorrow on my progress, after all tomorrow is another new day. All my fingers and toes are crossed. Yours should be, too.

Oh Friday, How I Love Thee

It’s finally Friday. Sometimes I don’t feel like this day will ever come. This week has been stressy with trying to get grades in…which you know, doesn’t magically happen. You actually have to read papers and then grade them before you can come up with a final grade. Funny how that works

So today will be work out #4 on my TurboFIRE plan. It will be Workout #5 in terms of my week. I did take Wednesday off (the program wants you to take one day off) – so that was  nice break. But last night I was right back in my workout room – doing some cardio and getting my sweat on. I was able to choose the option “pump the music” since I’d done this workout once before and it made it more fun.

No need to explain the spiderman thing, right?

I ordered new shoes because I feel like my current shoes aren’t the right type for all the lateral movements, pivoting and really – the intense amount of jumping. So I got some New Balance Cross Trainers. I will henceforth refer to them as my Spiderman shoes. They should be arriving in the next few days – so I’ll let you know how they do. I was looking for keywords in the reviews like “cushioney” – although, that is not a real word. But you get what I mean, right?

I also ordered a Jump Mat for my home gym because again – my feet are like little cry baby feet and they hate jumping. Or rather, the landing part. But i know I’ll get more results if I push myself to do the jumps and stuff – so I’m doing whatever I can do to make it easier on my joints.

 

 

I lost .4 pounds this week – so nothing major. But a loss is a loss. PLUS, I did my measurements and I’m down! So that is awesome. I’m looking forward to next weeks weigh in because that will hopefully show the impact of really pumping up my workouts and having weekend workouts, too. I downloaded a new APP on my phone called BodyStats. It’s really simple and gives you a spot to put in your measurements and your weight. Nothing over the top – but I like it. I figure looking at my beginning measurements (I did these on Monday – my first day of TURBOfire) checking them again my progress at every 4 weeks will be pretty cool by the end of the 12 weeks. I’m also going to be doing some before and after photos. Don’t hold your breath on me posting them here. Maybe the “afters” if you are lucky.

This weekend is like the motherload of holidays for me because of how I feel about chips and salsa. So I’m not making any promises that I won’t indulge in some Cinco de Mayo celebrations – but at least this weekend I’ll be doing some intense workouts to help make up for it. I figure that’s the real key to this whole “changing your life” thing – is finding ways to still live a normal life.

So if I want to be a crazy person and drink a margarita, eat chips and salsa and probably guacamole (let’s be for real) all on the same day – I just need to accept that I probably need to work out first on that day. I think I can handle that.

On the docket for the weekend:

1) Turbofire (55 minutes cardio + 10 minute stretch) – happening tonight

2) Group bike ride tomorrow – haven’t decided which group i’m going to ride with, but will probably ride about 20 miles. Plus a 30 minute cardio & 10 minute stretch for TURBOfire.

3) Sunday is a new Turbo workout – i think it’s a Core and Stretching.

Somewhere in all of this – I also need to learn the new round of choreography for my TurboKick class on Tuesday. Man. I’m going to deserve those chips and salsa for once!

Okay – have an ACTIVE and happy weekend. See you on the flip side!

Weekend Review

As I consider things that make me think twice about making bad decisions, I find that realizing I’m going to have to fess up to it in a public way helps me stay accountable. As I was driving to work this morning I had the idea of doing a weekend review post on Mondays so I can start being more accountable over the weekend if I have to share it with my readers.

The hubs and I made a promise to try and avoid acting like we were in our early 20′s every weekend after a few weekends of doing that and realizing that we are not 20 anymore. So this weekend, we came home on Friday and just hung out. He broke his cell phone screen, so this guy came over who can fix the broken screen for way cheaper than it would be for us to pay for insurance or (God forbid) a new phone. He came over pretty late, so we didn’t end up eating dinner until almost 9. I let them have “boy talk time” upstairs as I went downstairs to  catch up on some of the DVR’d shows. Yes, I watched American Idol on Friday night. A long way from cool, I realize – but whatevs. I’m a grown up and i can do boring things and enjoy them if i want, too. :p