Day 157: Man, Is It Cold!

Today was harder than yesterday. I was up most of the night coughing--every time I would start to fall asleep, I would have another coughing fit. This always happens to me at the tail end of a cold, and it's pretty awful. I was so exhausted this morning that there was no way I could go to my barbell class. I LOVE that class, and I haven't been to it in two weeks. It's chafing--my body is standing in its own way. I am beginning to understand why the hippie always gets so mad when he's sick: it really starts to feel like a self-betrayal after a while! This kids had a rougher time today, too. Everyone was tired and grumpy all afternoon. Early bedtimes all around today. I am determined to get some better rest tonight somehow.

I did manage to get outside and walk at lunchtime today, though it was FREEZING! It was beautiful and sunny, but so windy and cold that I didn't make it quite as far as usual. When my fingers started burning, I decided it was time to head back inside. Once again, I finished my steps in the house last night while logging my food for the day--that's starting to feel like a pretty efficient use of my time. :-)

The funeral for my aunt has been scheduled for Thursday, so I skipped knitting tonight to get some things ready to go for that. I should be able to make Zumba tomorrow night, but I'll be driving Thursday morning during my barbell class, and I'll miss Friday's Zumba class for sure. Maybe I'll take some workout gear with me to my mom's house and try to make time to get something in there, even if it's abbreviated. We'll see what the schedule allows.

 

Log: 

Exercise:

• Lunchtime walk: 1.6 miles in the freezing ass cold

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: steel cut oats with chopped walnuts and 1/2 a banana, tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch:1/2 a chicken breast with roasted red peppers, BBQ sauce and cilantro, roasted cauliflower with lots of garlic and rosemary, 2 clementines
• Dinner: grilled salmon, 1/2 a baked sweet potato, grilled asparagus
• Snacks: ridiculously good French cheese and a few cracked pepper table water crackers

Stats:

• Steps: 10,848
• Calories: 1410 consumed, 238 burned
• Weight: 190.5 lb--numbers heading South, as desired!

Pretty Thing From My Walk

Day 156: Re-Entry to Real Life

Today was the first day of the new normal routine. Finn's in a new school, Kieran's back to his school, and the hippie and I went back to work on something resembling a normal schedule. I got some bad news today--my Aunt Gail passed away. She's been sick a long time, but it's still so very sad. That means that the new normal routine is likely to be thrown for a loop if I need to leave town this week for a funeral, which is almost certainly in the cards. That's just life, right? Adaptability is key.

We've been going to the gym as a family on Monday nights for a while now--the kids get some playtime in the kids center, Jason does his weight routine, and I go to yoga. Jason decided to skip that for a couple of weeks, given the madness that new years resolutions always brings to the gym, so the boys and I went without him. This means we're late eating dinner and getting them to bed, so we often stop for takeout for them on the way home so they can eat the minute we walk in the door. It was all good for me eating healthy today until Kieran didn't finish his dinner--and then I finished it. Granted, I was starving, but that quarter of a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, and the handful of fries I ate was probably not my best choice ever. What a calorie bomb! I think there's crack in whatever batter they put on that fried chicken... The yoga class, I will add, was AMAZING. All that stretching felt really good after a break, and man, is that ever the right way to ease back into working out!

I got lucky today at work--my friend Sonya was in the office and went walking with me! Given her presence and the cold, we went pretty fast around the trail, too. I wish she was around more often for that, especially because she's a happy, upbeat person--it's nice to get a) company, and b) a dose of positivity like that in the middle of the day. To finish steps, I took a page from my mother's book, and walked back and forth in the house while entering my food into MyFitnessPal, and then while talking to my brother on the phone. Before I knew it, I had walked over 12 thousand steps, which is awesome for me. I hope I can keep up with these trends.

 

Log: 

Exercise:

• Lunchtime walk: 1.84 miles
• Hatha yoga at the Apex gym with Beth

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: steel cut oats with chopped walnuts and 1/2 a banana, tea with milk and raw sugar
• Lunch:1/2 a chicken breast with roasted red peppers, BBQ sauce and cilantro, sauteed zucchini and shallots, 2 clementines
• Dinner: turkey and avocado wrap with smoked gouda, cucumbers and honey mustard dressing
• Snacks:1/4 of a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich and a handful of fries

Stats:

• Steps:12,204
• Calories: 1494 consumed, 480 burned
• Weight: 191 lb--back where I left off in November!

Pretty Thing From My (Weekend) Walks

Day 155: Pushing Past a Crappy Cold

I woke up this morning feeling like boiled death (again), so I took it slow for a couple of hours. But in the end, it was clear that our whole family REALLY needed to get into the woods, so I powered through and went with the boys to Hemlock Bluffs for a good walk in the woods. So very glad I did--I felt a lot better afterwards. I am definitely not 100%, but I think the past couple of days of good eating and getting outside again is helping. Dear universe, please let it be helping! I'm definitely ready for bed.

Log: 

Exercise:

• Family hike at Hemlock Bluffs: 2.72 miles

Nutrition:

• Breakfast: baked eggs with kale, chicken sage sausage, herbs, and parmesan, 2 cups of tea with 1/2 tsp raw sugar each and 2% milk
• Lunch: turkey, smoked gouda, and avocado wrap on whole grain and flax seed tortilla, cut up veggies with ranch, 1.5 clementines
• Dinner: roasted pork loin, sauteed swiss chard with brown oyster mushrooms and garlic, 1/2 a large baked sweet potato
• Snacks: TJs pumpkin rooibos tea with honey

Stats:

• Steps: 9,566
• Calories: 1247 consumed, 396 burned
• Weight: 192 lbs

Pretty Things From My Walks

Since I've been blogging, I have taken some lovely walks, and I am still taking pictures of pretty things that I see along the way. Here's the collection of what I have posted since November 11th:

Day 154: Happy New Year!

Hey, y'all. I am not dead, I swear, though I did take a break from all the tracking over the holidays. I knew I was going to keep moving but eat indulgently, and my goal was to stay active, to mostly maintain my weight, and to feel no guilt about it. So this morning, with a bit of dread at how much I might have slipped backwards and how much farther I may have to go to work off those indulgences, I stepped on the scale for the first time in weeks. I am happy to report that I am now at 192, just a pound more than the weight I previously recorded here. At one point in early December, I hit 189, but then you know--Christmas.

So now it's the new year, and my only goal is to keep going with the start toward a healthier self! Sadly, I am starting this year off with a nasty cold, but as soon as I can shake it off, I plan to get moving again! I forced myself to get up and get to the grocery store and the farmers market, so I am stocked up and prepared for some healthy cooking. I find that my best success comes when I plan and prepare meals before the week gets started. I cook or prep it all ahead of time, so there's only assembly to do to get a meal into a lunchbox or onto the table. Here's what's on the menu for this week:

• Asian stir-fry with skirt steak, Napa cabbage, shitake mushrooms, bean sprouts, ginger, and scallions
• Leftover pork loin (I made roasted pork with rosemary and garlic for New Years) with baked sweet potatoes and sauteed Swiss chard with brown oyster mushrooms, garlic, and lemon olive oil
• Radish top pasta from The French Market Cookbook
• BBQ chicken with roasted red peppers and cilantro
• Grilled salmon with roasted cauliflower and steamed asparagus
• Spinach and mushroom frittata
• Steel cut oats with pecans and dried blueberries

I can't wait to get back to healthier eating, and I think part of that is because I did let myself indulge over the holidays. I didn't go TOO far, but I ate things with butter and sugar and carbs galore, and I drank the sparkly wines and the cocktails here and there. And don't get me wrong--I enjoyed the heck out of all that--but I am definitely ready to get back on track. I want to eat vegetables, and I am dying to get moving! I want this cold to go away ASAP so I can get all my working out in this week coming week! As of tomorrow, I am back to tracking everything again, and hopefully I will see my goal weight in 2016.