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:

Exercise:

• Day 4 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: Rest Day

Nutrition:

• 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

Stats:

• Steps:7023
• Calories: 1449 consumed, 0 burned
• Weight: 194 lbs

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:

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

Nutrition:

• 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

Stats:

• 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!

Pretty Things From Today's Walks

Day 2: Stepping Up

Today was surreal. Running on about 5.5 hours of sleep, I dragged myself to barbell class this morning. Then I ended up with Finn hanging out in my office for part of the day, so he went with me on my lunchtime walk, which wasn't quite at the same pace I've gotten used to. But hey--we were still moving, so it counts. The dog had surgery and needed to be picked up. The boys had swimming lessons. There was nothing but running around all over the place.

And also today, my good friend's husband, who is 42 years old, slim and fit, and an all around healthy-seeming guy, had a heart attack and had a stent put in. Sobering and frightening. Yet another reminder that the time to do things is right-exactly-fucking-now.
Whew.

Log:

Exercise:

• Barbell Strength Class with Tracy at the Apex gym
• Lunchtime walk: 1.71 very, very slow miles with Finn
• Evening walk to knitting:1.98 miles
• Day 2 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: 20 sit-ups, 8 leg raises, 8 crunches, 12 second plank

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: 2 fresh farm (thanks, Sharon, my farmer friend!) eggs over easy, 2 links of chicken sage sausage from Applegate Farms, chopped fresh tomato, 1 slice of whole wheat toast with a bit of butter, 4 oz fresh OJ, and hot tea with milk and sugar
• Lunch: wasabi tuna wrap from Chelsea Cafe with LOTS of veggies inside--so good,very nutrient-rich, and not too many empty calories: win!
• Dinner: knitting at Panera: 1/2 soba noodle and chicken salad and a small Fuji apple
• Snacks: This was cleaning up after Kieran because 1) I can't resist whatever crack the Chick-Fil-A people put in their chicken, 2) I hate wasting food, and 3) I was STARVING before I took them to swimming class: 1/3 of a chicken sandwich and 3 or 4 fries

Stats:

• Steps:15,009 (BOOM!)
• Calories: 1401 consumed (stupid Chick-Fil-A),961 burned
• Weight: 195 lbs--bleh, but I'll fix it

Pretty Thing From My (Evening) Walk

Day 1: Let's Just Start Over, Shall We?

I am really re-setting over here. I am going back to Day 1, because it really feels like I have gotten so far off track that I just need a new track. Something about that feels refreshing and motivational to me, so I am just going with it. How far can I get toward my personal goals in the next 90 days? I can't wait to see!

Log:

Exercise:

• Lunchtime walk: 1.71 miles
• Day 1 of the 30-day Abs Challenge: 15 sit-ups, 5 leg raises, 5 crunches, 10 second plank
• Yoga class with Vicki at the Apex gym
• Evening walk to finish steps: 1.45 miles

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: Kashi Oatmeal Flakes with Blueberry Clusters with 2% milk, tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch: roasted chicken breast, about 1.5 oz. of good hard aged gouda cheese, a pear, a few Trader Joes raisin rosemary crackers, and half a homemade cupcake*
• Dinner: smoked Gouda and tomato sandwich on La Farm's Asiago Parmesan bread. Holy crap, it was good!
• Snacks: yeah--I finished Finn's half-eaten cupcake.

Stats:

• Steps:11,347
• Calories: 1659 consumed, 631 burned
• Weight: I didn't even think about weighing this morning--we'll see how bad the damage is tomorrow.

* This was truly to see if they were good or not--I made a new recipe for Jason's co-workers and brought a couple of extras in for work friends. I made my friend Lisa eat half so I didn't eat the whole thing. They were really good, by the way--homemade cupcakes are The Best.)

Catching Up Again: Pretty Things From My Walks

Mental and Physical Re-Set

I am again re-setting my fitness goals. I am not apologizing for the gaps--this is just life, right? This whole journey is about making long-term lifestyle changes; not JUST working to lose some weight, but working to be a healthier person overall. I've changed the header of the blog to reflect this. What started out as a 90-day challenge has definitely morphed into something greater than that, which was the whole idea from the beginning. And life will cause periods of inactivity or over-eating or sickness, or any one of a thousand things that can get you off track. I will be glad to re-set as many times as I need to to keep heading toward the goals.

It's been a tough year for getting in shape. I've been sick a LOT, which has been quite frustrating. And then March--well--that was a wash in the name of high end eating and eating. It wasn't intentional to cluster so much high end dining all together, but that's just how it worked out. I can't say I regret that part--food and food experiences can be amazing, and Jason and I have been to Poole's Diner, Chef and the Farmer, The Boiler Room, Beasley's Chicken and Waffles, Mother Earth Brewing Company, and The Oakleaf, all during the month of March, in addition to a few trips to our local pub and out for good local sushi. Whew! April has been about getting back to cookingand eating at home, but we've been really off-schedule, which affects everything. Here's some of what's happening right now:

• You'll see that I've posted all of the pretty things from walks that I've taken since my last post. I like having those recorded here for posterity, and they make the blog way prettier than all my words do.
• I am back to the farmers market every weekend for fresh veggies. Yay for Spring! It makes such a difference in how I think about food, and how I cook and eat to have this wealth of local produce and meat available to me!
• We took the kids for a hike yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks--we ALL needed it, and it was glorious to be in the woods! Hiking on the weekend really motivates me to keep moving during the week!
• The boys have started swimming lessons. I am giving that a little bit of time to see how it goes, but it sure would be cool if I could swim laps while they have their lessons. Something I am considering.
• This week is Make-It-To-Your-Classes week. I am seriously going to try to get them all in. I have been slack about that the past month because of some relentless stuffiness that MUST be allergies, even though I've never had them before. I can't let whatever it is stop me, though--I am starting to feel gross and sluggish again, and I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT!

Here's what I have realized: I have to track. And the emphasis there should be on the word, "I." Some people don't need to do it. Some people HATE doing it. Some find it DE-motivational instead of stimulating. But for me, tracking brings discipline. For me, if i don't track my workouts and my eating choices, then I somehow don't feel like I am getting credit for them. This may go back to my childhood and my need to get points for all my right answers. I don't know. What I do know is that, when I am actively tracking everything, the self-inflicted accountability keeps me motivated, and it makes me not want to mess it up. So prepare to be re-inundated with everything. I will never meet my goals if I don't record my actions.

With all the craziness of the past few months, I've re-gained some weight. My goal is to get that back off, get headed back in the right direction toward the weight I want to be, and most importantly, to get to a place where I feel strong and healthy!

Catching Up: Pretty Things From My Walks