Monday, May 2, 2016
Day 8: Single Parenting
Jason's out of town for the week, so I am on my own with the kids and the dog. It's more than a little bit exhausting, and I can tell you right now that if I were a single parent, I would not have a dog. I swear, she's as much work as the kids are!
Anyway, what this means is that my #1 priorities this week are 1) survive, 2) try to make sure everything that's absolutely necessary gets done (meals, homework, dog walks, etc.), 3) exercise at home as much as I can manage with everything else, and 4) try not to let the eating descend into total madness.
Log:
Anyway, what this means is that my #1 priorities this week are 1) survive, 2) try to make sure everything that's absolutely necessary gets done (meals, homework, dog walks, etc.), 3) exercise at home as much as I can manage with everything else, and 4) try not to let the eating descend into total madness.
Log:
Exercise:
- Day 6 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: 35 sit-ups, 15 leg raises, 15 crunches, 25-second plank
- 12 minutes of yoga stretching
- Walking the dog
- Breakfast: steel cut oats with walnuts, dried cranberries, and milk, hot tea with milk and sugar
- Lunch: grilled BBQ chicken thighs, baked beans with bacon, corn salad, a couple of pretzels with hummus
- Dinner: breakfast for dinner--1.5 buttermilk pancakes, 3 pieces of bacon, 1/2 a cup of fresh strawberries, and 2 eggs
- Snacks: Starbucks grande iced chai tea latte
- Steps: no idea--I forgot my fitbit!
- Calories: consumed, 0 burned
- Weight: 193.5 lbs
Day 5, 6, and 7: Whirlwind Weekend
My logging over this past weekend was non-existent, and my exercising was sporadic. Here's the rundown of the craziness:
Friday was Kieran's birthday, and his class went on a field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. How cool to get a cool field trip to one of your favorite places on your birthday? I went along as a chaperone, which was just great! Breakfast was steel cut oats with fruit and nuts and milk. However, I failed to pack my lunch so I ended up eating out after the field trip with my friend Rebecca, who was also chaperoning. Girl lunches like that are rare for me, so that was just awesome. We went to The Daily Planet, where I had a chicken salad melt (brie and chicken salad on whole wheat toast) and a cup of fruit salad. After school, we went out to the grandparents house for some family time, and Denise had made a big ham, sweet potatoes, and some of our favorite pea salad, so that's what was for dinner. Dessert was classic strawberry shortcake--so good. So--eating not perfect, but not terrible. No formal exercise time, but I walked a lot and I did my ab work.
Saturday was the party for K, so we cooked out and I made cupcakes after running all my normal Saturday morning errands (farmers market, etc). I forgot to eat breakfast, and then ended up eating half a ham and cheese sandwich while working in the kitchen--it was an insanely busy day. Dinner was a homemade burger with cheddar, lettuce, and tomato, baked beans, and my summer corn salad. Dessert was one blue velvet cupcake, and I am pretty proud of the fact that I have only eaten one of these. Kieran asked that I make both blue velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with chocolate frosting, so I did. Again, there was no formal exercise time, but I spent literally the whole day on my feet.
Sunday, we got up from K's sleepover--his two best school friends, Marco and Julian (they're twins) stayed over--and I made brunch for both our families: buttermilk pancakes with duck eggs, bacon, chicken and sage sausage, cheesy scrambled eggs, and fresh strawberries. I actually felt kind of off for most of the day, so I didn't eat as much as I normally would have. I skipped lunch in favor of a nap, and then had some leftovers for dinner: grilled BBQ chicken thighs, corn salad, and baked beans. There was no way there was going to be any real exercise, and it was too rainy for a hike. Sunday was a true chill day--the first we've had in a long time.
Of note: we're hatching some baby chickens! We put the eggs in the incubator yesterday! In 3 weeks, we should have some babies!
Friday was Kieran's birthday, and his class went on a field trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. How cool to get a cool field trip to one of your favorite places on your birthday? I went along as a chaperone, which was just great! Breakfast was steel cut oats with fruit and nuts and milk. However, I failed to pack my lunch so I ended up eating out after the field trip with my friend Rebecca, who was also chaperoning. Girl lunches like that are rare for me, so that was just awesome. We went to The Daily Planet, where I had a chicken salad melt (brie and chicken salad on whole wheat toast) and a cup of fruit salad. After school, we went out to the grandparents house for some family time, and Denise had made a big ham, sweet potatoes, and some of our favorite pea salad, so that's what was for dinner. Dessert was classic strawberry shortcake--so good. So--eating not perfect, but not terrible. No formal exercise time, but I walked a lot and I did my ab work.
Saturday was the party for K, so we cooked out and I made cupcakes after running all my normal Saturday morning errands (farmers market, etc). I forgot to eat breakfast, and then ended up eating half a ham and cheese sandwich while working in the kitchen--it was an insanely busy day. Dinner was a homemade burger with cheddar, lettuce, and tomato, baked beans, and my summer corn salad. Dessert was one blue velvet cupcake, and I am pretty proud of the fact that I have only eaten one of these. Kieran asked that I make both blue velvet with cream cheese frosting and chocolate with chocolate frosting, so I did. Again, there was no formal exercise time, but I spent literally the whole day on my feet.
Sunday, we got up from K's sleepover--his two best school friends, Marco and Julian (they're twins) stayed over--and I made brunch for both our families: buttermilk pancakes with duck eggs, bacon, chicken and sage sausage, cheesy scrambled eggs, and fresh strawberries. I actually felt kind of off for most of the day, so I didn't eat as much as I normally would have. I skipped lunch in favor of a nap, and then had some leftovers for dinner: grilled BBQ chicken thighs, corn salad, and baked beans. There was no way there was going to be any real exercise, and it was too rainy for a hike. Sunday was a true chill day--the first we've had in a long time.
Of note: we're hatching some baby chickens! We put the eggs in the incubator yesterday! In 3 weeks, we should have some babies!
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Day 4: Rest Day
I woke up this morning tired, sore, and starving. This is the right thing, but I can honestly tell you that my body needed to rest. So--I let it. I am determined not to get sick again, and I am determined not to push too hard. I took things easy today, and I will do that whenever I need to.
Log:
Log:
Exercise:
- Day 4 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: Rest Day
- Breakfast: steel cut oats with pecans and bananas and milk, 4 oz fresh OJ, and (a lot of) hot tea with milk and sugar
- Lunch:baked chicken breast, roasted cauliflower with garlic and rosemary, grilled asparagus
- Dinner: spaghetti and turkey meatballs with tomato sauce
- Snacks: 1 blueberry Kind bar, a little butter cookie with chocolate frosting on it
- Steps:7023
- Calories: 1449 consumed, 0 burned
- Weight: 194 lbs
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Day 3: Half Way Through Week One
Today was Administrative Professional's Day. So silly, these made up holidays. It's nice to be thanked for the work that I do all the time, but not really necessary for me. I never know when it is until someone gives me something, and I am all--what's this?
I am pretty tired here at mid-week of the first week back to working out full force, so I don't have a ton to say today. I got in all my steps, my class, and my ab work. I went out to lunch without eating badly, and I resisted eating ALL of Kieran's un-eaten hot dog instead of just stealing two bites of it. A good fitness day.
Log:
PS: In Zumba tonight, Tiffany played a cover of Chaka Khan's song, "Ain't Nobody," which will now be stuck in my head for all time. That's now on the soundtrack of my fitness journey for sure.
I am pretty tired here at mid-week of the first week back to working out full force, so I don't have a ton to say today. I got in all my steps, my class, and my ab work. I went out to lunch without eating badly, and I resisted eating ALL of Kieran's un-eaten hot dog instead of just stealing two bites of it. A good fitness day.
Log:
Exercise:
- Day 3 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: 25 sit-ups, 10 leg raises, 10 crunches, 15 second plank
- Zumba with Tiffany at the Cary gym
- Quick evening walk to finish steps: .78 miles
- Breakfast: 2 eggs over easy, 2 links of chicken sage sausage from Applegate Farms, 1 slice of whole wheat toast with a bit of butter, 4 oz fresh OJ, and hot tea with milk and sugar
- Lunch: lunch with my friend, Lisa - chicken and spinach quesadilla from Chelsea Cafe
- Dinner:1 slice of whole wheat bread with Big Spoon Roasters peanut-pecan butter and a sliced banana
- Snacks:2 bites of Kieran's too-good-not-to-try hot dog (grass fed organic hot dog from Fickle Creek Farm on a whole wheat bun from Whole Foods), 1 Gouda Babybel, and 1 oz of roasted cashews
- Steps: 11,341
- Calories: 1389 consumed, 881 burned
- Weight: 195 lbs and holding for now
PS: In Zumba tonight, Tiffany played a cover of Chaka Khan's song, "Ain't Nobody," which will now be stuck in my head for all time. That's now on the soundtrack of my fitness journey for sure.
New Gear: Upgrading the fitbit
I work for a company with excellent health benefits and a wellness program that is actually quite motivational. By completing a yearly health survey, you can earn a discount on your yearly benefits contribution--100% worth it. And by doing other health-related activities, you can earn points toward other rewards as well. I love this program for a number of reasons, including the rewards themselves as well as the fact that it covers nutrition, exercise, mental well-being, financial planning, and preventive care. This year, by doing the things I need to be doing anyway, I earned a $50 Amazon gift card, and a new fitbit.
Now, as y'all know, I LOVE my fitbit, and I have been using my One for a few years. I am not a huge fan of wearing things on my wrists because I have to type all day and because it always seems to get in the way when I cooking things, which is pretty often. However, that said, I really wanted to try out the heart rate monitor, to get an idea of both what zones I am in when I am exercising and to find out what my standard resting heart rate is. After researching and talking to people who have them, I picked up a Charge HR.
So far I like it pretty well. In the past few months, I learned that, when I walk, I am solidly in fat-burning mode, and that when I am doing Zumba, I go between endurance and anaerobic training. I also learned, to my great surprise, that my resting heart rate is between 59 and 61 BPM, which is WAY better than I expected and very much an indicator that I am on the right path here. My only regret is that I kind of wish I had gotten the purple one instead of basic black. I wish I could justify having two of them, because, look how cute:
It would be nice if you could change the band color on the Charge HR the way you can on the flex, but that's not an option. Oh well--you can't have it all, right? I'm still glad I got one!
Now, as y'all know, I LOVE my fitbit, and I have been using my One for a few years. I am not a huge fan of wearing things on my wrists because I have to type all day and because it always seems to get in the way when I cooking things, which is pretty often. However, that said, I really wanted to try out the heart rate monitor, to get an idea of both what zones I am in when I am exercising and to find out what my standard resting heart rate is. After researching and talking to people who have them, I picked up a Charge HR.
So far I like it pretty well. In the past few months, I learned that, when I walk, I am solidly in fat-burning mode, and that when I am doing Zumba, I go between endurance and anaerobic training. I also learned, to my great surprise, that my resting heart rate is between 59 and 61 BPM, which is WAY better than I expected and very much an indicator that I am on the right path here. My only regret is that I kind of wish I had gotten the purple one instead of basic black. I wish I could justify having two of them, because, look how cute:
It would be nice if you could change the band color on the Charge HR the way you can on the flex, but that's not an option. Oh well--you can't have it all, right? I'm still glad I got one!
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
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