So this past week, one of my very best friends, Tara, came to visit Chicago for the first time. We spent 4 fabulous days walking all over Chicago - exploring the Mag Mile, shopping, walking Rumble all over my neighborhood, cruising Millennium Park, freaking ourselves out at the top of Sears tower and dancing the night away at Kingston Mines. We also ate our fair share of everything Chi-town had to offer, including hot Italian beef, deep dish pizza, BBQ ribs and pub grub.
Add to that a few pounds of water weight and the scale told me today that I am up a horrific 4 pounds. And while I'm sad that I have a little more work to do to get to where I was two weeks ago, it was worth every bite. I really believe that a healthy lifestyle should be flexible - the important thing is getting back on track.
And that I did this week. I went over my calories yesterday but it was all home cooked, healthy meals. Today I was back in the gym - cardio and weights. I may go a little over my calories again today but not by much. So, when you fall off the wagon, it's all about dusting yourself off and getting back on.
I know that the holidays are just around the corner. My work has a challenge to everyone to NOT gain the average 5 pounds that most Americans put on every holiday season. I would like to think that, instead of maintaining my current weight, I can not only lose the weight I put back on, but a little more by year end. I would love to head home 10 pounds lighter - keep your fingers crossed and those words of encouragement coming!
And as always, thanks for your support!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Week 8 - no clue
So I haven't had a chance to weigh myself yet but I'm having such a good week I wanted to get it all down.
This morning, I went down to the gym to do my workout and before I knew it, I had run for 13 minutes straight! Now, this may not seem like a lot, but for me, this is huge progress. The most I've ever run is 20 minutes and that took me forever to recover from! I've been running on average 5 minute stretches but today it just felt good so I kept going. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow but it gives me a benchmark to work from.
The weight lifting is also going really well. I lift two times a week and focus mainly on upper body and core. I want to add a third day when I focus purely on lower body but I'm not there yet.
As for food, that is still going well. This week I'm trying something new from cookinglight.com. They give you one shopping list which you can use to make 5 different dinners. I'm focusing on vegetarian this week - no particular reason except the recipes looked really good. I've made three of the recipes so far this week and each has been great! And they are a great mix of healthy carbs, protein and veggies. It has been difficult to get my daily fiber now that all the great summer produce is gone but several of the sparkpeople.com members gave me some great tips which I've started to incorporate.
So focus for this week. I have another big workout on Thursday and I want to try and add another big cardio session this weekend. I've been sticking to about 1600 calories a day, my fiber is good, so I guess my food focus this week will be to get my 8 glasses of water a day and to keep my sodium low.
As always, thanks to everyone for your support and wish me luck!
PS: I did reward myself last week with a super cute haircut. Yay me!
This morning, I went down to the gym to do my workout and before I knew it, I had run for 13 minutes straight! Now, this may not seem like a lot, but for me, this is huge progress. The most I've ever run is 20 minutes and that took me forever to recover from! I've been running on average 5 minute stretches but today it just felt good so I kept going. I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow but it gives me a benchmark to work from.
The weight lifting is also going really well. I lift two times a week and focus mainly on upper body and core. I want to add a third day when I focus purely on lower body but I'm not there yet.
As for food, that is still going well. This week I'm trying something new from cookinglight.com. They give you one shopping list which you can use to make 5 different dinners. I'm focusing on vegetarian this week - no particular reason except the recipes looked really good. I've made three of the recipes so far this week and each has been great! And they are a great mix of healthy carbs, protein and veggies. It has been difficult to get my daily fiber now that all the great summer produce is gone but several of the sparkpeople.com members gave me some great tips which I've started to incorporate.
So focus for this week. I have another big workout on Thursday and I want to try and add another big cardio session this weekend. I've been sticking to about 1600 calories a day, my fiber is good, so I guess my food focus this week will be to get my 8 glasses of water a day and to keep my sodium low.
As always, thanks to everyone for your support and wish me luck!
PS: I did reward myself last week with a super cute haircut. Yay me!
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