Updates and Explanations
I went back and edited yesterday’s post. That’s not something I typically do. Unless of course I spot a typo 😉
I am glad I did it though. Because of yesterday’s post I learned some new things and there was no way I wasn’t going update what I wrote to make the information more complete/accurate. The last thing I want to do is give you bad information.
With that being said I just want to address the obvious… I’m not a doctor, a nutritionist, a dietician or any other type of expert. Yesterday’s post was more about passing along weird factoids I have picked up over the past five months and nothing else.
I am not trying to convince you to become a vegan. I don’t think it’s for everyone. But it is for me.
I am not some super healthy person, either. There is just as much vegan junk food out there as there is non-vegan junk food.
Last night I ate a giant vegan chocolate chip cookie (5 WWPP) from Whole Foods. I probably shouldn’t allow myself as many indulgences as I do because a cookie is still a cookie. It’s still junk food, vegan or not.
I am just a person who is struggling everyday to make the best choices for my body and for my health.
Why? Because I am scared.
A year ago I was knocking on the door of the 300 pound mark. Although I hadn’t been diagnosed with obesity related ailments I was still physically sick. I had no energy. I struggled moving around or standing for long periods of time. It was only a matter of time before the diagnoses would have come.
In the past year I have come to realize that the only way I was going to extend my life and reduce my risk of heart attack/stroke/diabetes/high blood pressure etc was to get active and change my eating habits.
I do not want to rely on medicine to sustain my life. This is my opinion, my personal belief. It is not the future I want for myself.
I look at my father who at the age of 55 had a heart attack and subsequent quadruple bypass. The surgeon told him afterwards that he basically had a brand new heart (which he meant the arteries but you know what he meant) and would live another 40 years. Then three years later he was back in the hospital – another heart attack.
My dad was not overweight and he was pretty active. His diet may have been the contributing factor to his heart disease. Who knows; I’m no expert.
What I do know is that I don’t want a life where I have to carry around a list of medications in my wallet in case I am hospitalized and they need to make sure there won’t be any fatal drug interactions like my Dad does.
Will being a vegan keep me from having a heart attack? Maybe, maybe not. But what I do know is this- it has helped me so far. So does exercise. So does limiting processed foods. So do numerous other things.
And I do recognize that every person is different and that making any positive changes in your lifestyle can have a positive impact on health, not just choosing veganism.
For me, which is what this is all about right- my journey, it has helped rid me of some nasty digestive issues I struggled with all my life and for that I am very thankful.
Will it cure everything? Will I live to be 110? Only time will tell what will happen.
For now I will continue making the decisions I feel are best for me and my health. I will continue to learn and grow and change and I expect that from all of us. No matter what those decisions are 🙂
Thanks for reading!
What I’ve Learned; the Vegan Edition
Updated 03/01/2012
As you know, I adopted a vegan diet because it was what worked best for my body. Last fall, after practicing mindful eating for months, I found myself still struggling with digestive problems and regularity issues so I started to eliminate foods from my diet to try and figure out what was causing the problems. On a whim I decided to cut out all animal products and within days I felt like a completely new person. Thinking it might be coincidence I ate some dairy about a week later and immediately reverted back to my old problems. It was then I decided to eliminate animal products completely on a more permanent basis. That was almost five month ago.
Once I adopted a vegan diet I felt amazing; I had/have tons of energy from the moment I wake up and throughout the day, I am regular, I sleep soundly every night, my body recovers from workouts quickly- I have no more lingering joint pain or aches, I just feel fabulous. No love of cheese or steak could ever make me want to give up how my body feels now.
In addition to feeling great I love the food I am eating. I have tried tons of new recipes as well as a plethora of new food items. My meals are always satisfying, satiating, and they never leave me feeling like crap afterwards. I put good fuel into my body and in return I get high energy and great health. It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made.
But I wanted to know why. Why did my body react this way to the changes? Yes, I was 100% satisfied with the decision I made but I wanted to know more, to learn more about veganism and make sure I was making the best decision for my health in the long term. So I read articles, blogs, watched documentaries, heard speakers and of course consulted my doctor about the change I had made. Along this road I have learned some very interesting things and I thought today I would share some of them with you. None of these I knew before adopting a vegan diet and I am not quite sure how much of this would be considered common knowledge (although it should be, in my opinion) so I thought I would share.
– We are the only animal that drinks another animal’s breast milk. Isn’t that weird? I never really thought about it until I heard it on ‘Forks over Knives’
– Cholesterol is found only in foods containing animal fat. Our body produces cholesterol on its own; just the same way cholesterol is produced in other animals. I found this odd because when I was told that my cholesterol was high (4 years ago) my doctor didn’t tell me to stop eating animal products. That seems like a really great way to lower your cholesterol. *Update* It was kindly brought to my attention yesterday that the amount of dietary cholesterol we eat makes very little difference on our actually cholesterol levels. The thing that does affect these levels is the amount of fat we eat in our diet. So the next point too, although valid, may not matter.
– All meat contains almostthe same amount of cholesterol. In a 3.5 oz serving there is; 90mg C in pork, 85mg C in beef, 85mg C in chicken, 82mg C in turkey, 82mg C in lamb, and 73mg C in trout. So eating chicken instead of beef (although it may have less fat) will not reduce your cholesterol intake. *Plant foods have 0mg of cholesterol 🙂
– Most common question I get asked is on this subject; how do vegans get their protein? Protein is found in plants, grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, etc in addition to meat and dairy. Basically if you are eating any whole food it will contain protein.
– Do you know what the medical term for protein deficiency is? I didn’t. I never even knew there was such a thing. It’s called kwashiorkor (I had to Google it just for this post because I couldn’t remember the name) and is mainly found in developing countries. It is a very rare disease in the U.S. I don’t think anyone should be worried about vegans being diagnosed with it any time soon. I think I heard that there were zero recorded cases of it in adults in the U.S. last year. The rule of thumb goes- if you are eating enough calories, you are getting enough protein.
– Too much protein, however, is a bad thing. Unlike fat and carbohydrates, which our body can store excess of long term, excess protein converted to amino acids is then converted to ammonia to urea. Overconsumption of protein can lead to an increased risk of kidney stones and osteoporosis. The excess consumption of protein is why osteoporosis, which is chronic loss of bone mass, most often occurs in nations with the highest consumption of dairy.
Do you know how much protein you should be consuming daily? For me, it’s 64g a day. You can calculate it yourself using this formula (current weight/2.2)*0.8 or you can go to Interactive DRI which will calculate all of your recommended daily nutrient intakes for you. Yesterday, I ended up consuming 69g of protein which is slightly higher than recommended but goes to show how easy it is for me to get my daily protein requirement on a vegan diet.
– Where does calcium come from? Did you say dairy? Yeah, if you asked me five months ago I would have said dairy/milk too. You aren’t wrong if you said dairy but dairy is not the only way to get calcium. Calcium is a mineral. It comes from soil. Which means that plants, grains, legumes have calcium, too. You can still get the calcium your bones need while following a vegan diet.
This post isn’t meant to try to convince you to adopt a plant-strong diet or preach to you. I am merely using this blog as a way to pass on some of the things I have learned that I found interesting. I hope you take it as such.
Any neat or weird food /nutrition facts you’ve learned recently that you would like to share?
Thanks for reading!
Move Over Greek Yogurt, There’s a New Sheriff in Town
A few months ago, back at the beginning of my blogging career, I had asked for some healthy snack ideas. I received numerous responses and from them was able to find some great, healthy snacks that I incorporated into my diet. Multiple people suggested that I try Greek yogurt and I immediately was hooked. Greek yogurt became a staple in my diet. It is high in protein (also lower in carbs and sodium vs. regular yogurt) so it is filling as well as a great post workout snack. Not being a milk drinker, yogurt has always been my go-to dairy product and it’s great to still be able to have the yogurt I love but with so many more health benefits.
Yes, everything was going along quite smoothly in my Greek yogurt romance until I started finding yogurts that were moldy, well in advance of the expiration date. I contacted the company directly and they apologized and sent us some coupons for free yogurts to replace the expired ones. Unfortunately, upon buying the replacements I still found moldy yogurts. Now, I am not 100% sure that this is the fault of the manufacturer and am thinking it is more likely the fault of the grocery store for not storing them properly. Not only were all the moldy yogurts made on different machines, at different times (I found out how to read the manufacturers code when I had to send them the information for their records) but that same grocery store sold me, around the same time, mini babybels that were moldy before the expiration date as well. Because of this Paul and I decided to not by dairy products from that store anymore.
While grocery shopping elsewhere I went back to the dairy department to pick up some Greek yogurt. Although this store offered half a dozen different brand Greek yogurts they did not offer the brand I had grown accustomed to eating. This left me checking the labels on every brand trying to find one that was comparable to the brand I bought. I didn’t find any. What I found instead wasn’t even Greek yogurt at all, it was Icelandic Skyr (pronounced skeer) something I had never even seen or heard of before. Intrigued by the flavors offered and the nutritional information I decided to give it a try. Skyr is similar to yogurt except for the fact that it is strained, which I think technically makes it more like soft cheese than yogurt, but I digress. It is thick and creamy like Greek yogurt but it is even better. This brand, Siggi’s, offers up a product that is high in protein (14g), fat free (on the ones I tried), 100 calories, low in carbs and sugar (sweetened with fruit and agave nectar, no sugar) the milk used does not contain bovine recombinant growth hormone and they use vegetable-based rennet, not the rennet made from mammal stomachs, so it is vegetarian friendly as well.
I have been eating Siggi’s Skyr mixed with ¾ cup of Kashi Go Lean cereal every morning for breakfast and I love it. For those of you doing WW, the fat free Siggi’s are only 2 points and ¾ c of Kashi (which is ¾ of a serving) is 3 points. So for 5 points I am getting a total of 0.8 g fat, 33.5g carbs, 7.5g of fiber, and a whopping 23.8g of protein. Add a piece of fruit and some unsweetened green tea and you have the perfect breakfast.
If you are interested in trying some Siggi’s Icelandic Skyr hop over to their website- Siggi’s Yogurt– and you can search for locations by zip code to find locations near you that carry it. I believe all Whole Foods as well as Wegmans carry it. If you are in San Antonio you can find it at Central Market as well as Whole Foods. Siggi’s is also on FB and Twitter (@siggisyogurt) if you want to talk to them to find out more about their products. I should note that they also make a probiotic drink which I have yet to try but hopefully will do so soon.
I have tried every flavor carried at CM and I love them all. However, I do have two favorites the orange & ginger and the pomegranate & passion fruit. Yum! I highly recommend Siggi’s for anyone who likes Greek yogurt, looking for a healthy snack/meal option, wants to eat good tasting food that is good for them, vegetarians, meat eaters, I mean really, this product is excellent and I think everyone should try it.
Have you tried skyr before? I would love to know what you think of it or any other healthy foods you have been eating lately. Thanks for reading!
** photos taken from Siggi’s Yogurt website
***These are my honest opinions. I was not solicited by or received payment or products from Siggi’s to endorse their product.
Weight Watchers and Weekly Updates
Hello party people….it’s been awhile. Sorry for abandoning you. Please know I have missed all of you, and your blogs, over the past two weeks and I am so happy to be able to take some time and catch up with you. So much has happened these last two weeks I don’t really know where to start. Hmmmm… I probably should start with my Weight Watchers update from last Saturday.
First off let me just tell you that last week I busted my ass. I worked out eleven times totaling over ten hours and earning a whooping 73 activity points. For those of you not on WW, you should know that this is a very high number. Here is what that week looked like in terms of workouts:
Saturday 6/11: early morning gym workout (recumbent bike 35 minutes, elliptical 15 minutes), mid-morning walk- 4 miles
Sunday 6/12: early morning hike- 2 miles, evening Zumba class
Monday 6/13: 75 minutes of yoga
Tuesday 6/14: 55 minute boxing class followed by 60 minutes of walking- 3 mile
Wednesday 6/15: 55 minute hoopdance (hula hoop) class
Thursday 6/16: 75 minute Qigong class
Friday 6/17: 55 minute boxing class followed by 55 minutes of walking – 3 mile
I ate right, exercised, and made sure to stay hydrated and what happened…. I gained 0.4 pounds! That’s right, I gained. I was somewhat pissed about gaining because I was only 0.2 pounds away from hitting my 25 pound milestone and 3.2 away from hitting my 10% weight loss goal. I had thought reaching my 10% would have been a stretch but I thought for sure I would have lost 0.2 pounds and hit that 25 lb. milestone. I was kind of bummed out not reaching either L
I took this setback as a chance to evaluate where I might have went wrong and tried to make some changes this week to hopefully get back on track. However, this is easier said than done. This week has been crazy, maybe even crazier than last week and I haven’t done much this week. Yes, I am still tracking what I eat and following the WW plan but some days I struggled making my healthy checks (8 glasses of water, 8 servings fruit/veg, 3 dairies, etc) and I know that this will impact my weigh in results for this week. Not to mention I only went to one boxing class and one NIA class this week so my exercise level is way down. I did however get in my week 3 training for the half marathon which is a good thing. I guess my point of all this is sometimes you can do everything right and not lose weight – that’s just life. Some people lose weight easily and some have to fight for every pound but regardless of how you get to your goal weight it is important to focus on all of the positive changes happening, not just that number on the scale. For me, I have to keep reminding myself that although that weigh in sucked I am in a much better place, I am a million times happier than I have been in who knows how long, and this life I am living now is what I have always wanted. These are the things that really matter.
280/255.6/150
In other news, she says nonchalantly like it’s no big deal, I GOT A NEW JOB!!!! I am so excited to finally tell you guys this news. I was notified on 6/15 I would be getting an offer pending my drug screening and background check. I went in that day for my drug test and submitted all of the necessary paperwork for the background check and then waited anxiously to hear back. I didn’t want to announce anything until the offer was finalized and I had my start date. I got a call on Wednesday that I passed everything and I was all set to go, we agreed on my start date (7/11) and then yesterday I came into work and submitted my letter of resignation. I am so freaking excited to start this new job; July 11th cannot come fast enough. I know the next two weeks are going to be pretty hectic at work trying to get as much done as possible before I leave but that is life and once it is over I move on to bigger and better things. I hope I hit my 10% weight loss goal soon because I am in desperate need of some new work clothes. So here’s to hoping I can reach that goal prior to July 11th. Please send skinny thoughts my way 😉
This morning I weighed in at 253 on my home scale which is a loss of 33 pounds since I started this blog back on 2/22. Four months already? Crazy. Anywho, in celebration of my favorite number/my age/the title of this blog I would like to leave you a list representing what thirty-three pounds look like. Enjoy!
6 bags of flour and 3 boxes of butter
A cinder block
11 average male guinea pigs or 11 average male brains
3 average sized house cats or 1 ‘Monster’ Cat found in China weighing in at a whopping 33 pounds- yikes!
176 glazed Krispy Kreme donuts
11 pairs of sneakers
5,987 pennies
7,484 pens
301 medium eggs
3 gallons of milk and an average newborn baby combined
So, if you are trying to lose weight and you feel like you aren’t making progress or like me, you don’t see the results, just think of it this way and it will totally change your mind!
Have a great weekend! Thanks for reading!
{Semi} Wordless Wednesday: Food Edition
Yesterday I talked about having one of my goals this week is to eat whatever I want. By this I meant to eat whatever types of food I wanted at any point in the day; to break out of the box a little and really start to have fun with the food I am eating. Today I would like to share with you some pictures that better capture what I mean.
My favorite combination: Sweet & Savory
Watermelon Gazpacho and Vietnamese-style Braised Pork Lettuce Wraps from Tapa Tapa
Breakfast: sautéed yellow squash, veggie bacon, and a bowl full of watermelon
Breakfast: multi-grain sandwich thin, carrots and hummus, watermelon and a banana for my post-workout snack
Dinner: barramundi (high in Omega-3), garlicky broccolini, Easter Egg radishes
I replaced one of my vegetable sides with a serving of fruit instead
Dinner: turkey burger on multi-grain sandwich thin, homemade vinegar based cole slaw, rainier cherries
My new favorite sweet snack: Biscoff spread on Magic Pop
Trust me; it tastes a million times better than it looks. For only two WW points you get a wonderfully delicious treat the size of a medium paper plate. Yum!
What are you doing to keep mealtimes interesting? Any new foods you have tried out recently?
Thanks for reading!
Weight Watchers Update- Week 10
Another quick post to check in with my update from this morning’s meeting. I have fantastic news to share with you. After last weeks small gain I made sure I stayed on plan this week and worked towards meeting my weekly goals, which I did. I am happy to report that today I posted my biggest weekly loss to date- an astonishing loss of 4.4 pounds. Yes, that’s right 4.4 freaking pounds! This brings my total loss since joining WW to 19.2 pounds and my total so far up to 25.2! I am beyond thrilled. This brings me so close to leaving the 260’s and hopefully next week I will be in a new weight bracket. It’s definitely something to work towards at least. I will definitely be checking in later to post my goals and other updates so for now I bid you adieu. Have a great weekend! Thanks for reading!
286/260.8/150
Five Reason Why Today is Awesome!
#1 I am wearing a shirt today that I haven’t worn in 19 months. I loved this shirt when I first bought it and was wearing it on Halloween of 2009, the night I got shat on by thirty birds. Well, maybe it wasn’t thirty but it was so many birds that I got poop on my shirt, arms, and head. We quickly returned home so I could shower and wash my shirt, in hot water. After that night the shirt was too tight across my chest and stomach that it made me uncomfortable to wear. This morning while searching my closet for something to wear I stumbled across it and voila- it fits beautifully, not tight in either area. Yay for progress!
Sorry, I am still trying to master taking photos of myself. I know I could have flipped the camera on my iPhone but the picture would have been so close you wouldn't have seen the shirt. My apologies for the crap picture.
#2 One of my co-workers, the only one I talk to about WW, brought me in a bag of tomatoes and squash from his garden. Fresh, organic veggies for free! Double yay!
Bag o' veggies- YUM!
#3 One of my favorite bloggers wrote in her post today that I was an inspiration to her. I cried. It was so amazing hearing (RE: reading) someone say that about me. Not to cast shadow on the real message of her post though which was meeting her weekly goals and her big decrease in BMI. Congrats Simply Sidney! You are amazing!
#4 This happened last night but it put me in a good mood when it happened which in turn carried over into today so I am going to count it. Last night I received my Silver Stars (WNBA) season tickets. I am so excited for opening night next Saturday, June 4th. Go Stars!
Girls Rule!
#5 Tonight I will be attending the special boxing class where I get to punch people in the face AND they can’t hit me back. This class is so much fun even though we only spar for a portion of it, which is good because sparring is hard and drains me of every ounce of energy. You would think that it wouldn’t be much different from hitting the bag but it is like a million times harder trying to hit a moving target. It is difficult but I love it.
I hope you all have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend and please take some time to honor those men and women who have served or are serving in the military- this holiday is for them. We owe them so much.
Thanks for reading!
Let Them Eat Cake!
My office is trying to sabotage my diet. I know it’s not intentional but really, five cakes in five days- that’s just too much! Monday was cheesecake, well cheesecakes actually because we had two; one giant plain one and one giant variety cheesecake. I am not sure what varieties they had because I didn’t want to get too close. It’s like playing with fire; I love cheesecake. Tuesday was German Chocolate which was easy to resist as I have an aversion to sweets with nuts in them. Yesterday was blackberry grunt which I had no idea what that was, I had never heard of a grunt other than the sound I make playing tennis/racquetball. I did a quick Google search and found a bunch of recipes, first and foremost one from Alton Brown, so I knew it was not a made-up dessert name. Today, sitting mere feet away from my desk is some type of chocolate layer cake. It is El Jefe’s birthday but he may not come in to work so I was asked to take a picture of the cake so he can see how awesome it was prior to it being devoured by my co-workers. I think I contracted diabetes just by smelling it. Holy Willy Wonka that cake smells heavenly. I hear tomorrow we are having homemade carrot cake, thankfully that will fall into the desserts with nuts and I will easily be able to turn it down.
You may be wondering right now why I am depriving myself of cake when I preach about ‘everything in moderation’ and ‘not restricting our diets’. It seems like I am being hypocritical but I don’t mean to be. You know that I plan out every meal and snack and each day I have already accounted for how I will use all 40 of my points. This includes some type of sweet treat for dessert. I could have a piece of cake if I wanted though. I could swap it with tonight’s dessert or I could dip into what is left of my weekly points, and I could even use some of my activity points. Really I could have some cake IF I actually wanted to.
See, I am trying to practice restraint. I don’t mind a splurge, which a piece of cake would be (this is a splurge, where what I have as my nightly dessert is normally pretty healthy or at least low-calorie) but I don’t want to splurge all the time. I had a big splurge on Saturday after the Gorilla Challenge. Paul and I hit up our favorite Mexican joint after the race and devoured some nachos and fajitas. Then Sunday, while grocery shopping I picked up a little single serving dessert as a treat for me. That was all I really needed. I work really hard during the week and yes I do think I deserve a splurge or special treat every now and again but not every day, that’s how I ended up here in the first place.
I know I make it sound so easy. I say ‘just don’t eat the cake’ and I don’t eat the cake but really it takes all of my strength and willpower to not go over and grab a piece on the sly. FYI- the view from my desk is of the cubicle we use as our coffee station which is where we put out the cake. So it’s not as easy as walking away or shutting my door (I don’t have one) in order to put it out of my mind. I have to sit here and see/smell these damn cakes all day long. To add insult to injury, the cake table (which is also breakfast taco table on Friday’s) is my office’s water cooler. People love to congregate around the cake and BS. It’s another perk that comes with where I sit but I digress. With all of the temptation it takes much more than mental strength especially when I am hungry and trying to tell myself that cake is an acceptable lunch. This is why I always plan for snacks at work. I come prepared with an arsenal of healthy and satisfying treats that keep me feeling full all day which is how I can stay strong and just say no. Damn cake pushers!
This is the view from my desk. The {evil} cake is sitting under the Happy Birthday sign.
But that’s just me. I don’t want to eat thiscake. But if I did have some, I wouldn’t beat myself up over it and you shouldn’t either. Trust me, when I was eating my Crema Catalana on Sunday I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt. I didn’t feel guilty either when I realized it was 9 points for one serving. Instead I savored every creamy bite, I almost licked the ramekin it came in, and then put it in my Weight Watchers tracker and called it a night. See, we can have our cake (or creamy custardy dessert) and eat it too. For me, I just don’t have it every day.
How do you survive cakes or other foods hanging out in your office. Do they sabotage your diet or are you able to restrain yourself? Any tips for how to stay strong?
Thanks for reading!
A Day in the Life….
Today I wanted to share with you a typical day for me on the Weight Watchers program. I talk a lot about the new activities I am trying and my workouts but I don’t really talk much on what I eat. I posted last week about some problems I was having with eating at night, both pre and post workout, and how it was causing me to be unable to use all my daily points; which are the basis of the Weight Watchers program. In order to combat this problem I decided that I would increase my daytime meals/snacks point intake and eat a lighter, less filling dinner. Although WW does recommend consuming more points for dinner than breakfast and lunch I have to adapt this program to best fit my lifestyle. So here is a snapshot of what a typical work day looks like for me.
Breakfast
2 cups of Green Tea, unsweetened- 0 pts
Veggie Sausage Breakfast Taco- 7pts
Fresh Pineapple, ½ cup- 0 pt
Snack
Chobani Fruit Yogurt 6 oz. – 3 pts
Banana- 0 pt
Lunch
Salad: spinach, romaine, bell peppers, tomato, English cucumber, mushrooms – 0 pt
Grilled Chicken 6 oz- 6 pts
Ginger Dressing 2 Tablespoons- 2 pts
Pretzel crisps (11) – 3 pts
Grapes- 0 pt
Snack
Carrots (2) & Bell Pepper (1/2) – 0 pt
Hummus 2 tablespoons- 2 pts
Green Apple- 0 pt
2% Mozzarella string cheese- 2 pts
Dinner
Chicken Salad Sandwich- 9 pts
4 oz chicken- 3 pts
2 slice whole wheat bread- 4 pts
Mayo with olive oil ¾ tbsp- 2 pts
Fresh fruit- 0 pt
At this point I have used up 34 of my 40 daily point allowance. I have six leftover to try to use for my last snack of the evening. If I can stomach it, I will usually have a WW smoothie prepared with milk (4 points) and small WW snack bar (2 points) to finish out the day. If not, I will have a WW ice cream bar or maybe some popcorn which still leaves a couple of points left over when all is said and done. Paul thinks I am not eating enough in relation to the amount of calories I am burning working out. He thinks I need to eat more but as you can clearly see, I am eating pretty much non-stop. The hardest parts about sticking to the program for me is trying to figure out the best balance of point distribution and how to continue eating the food that I like and want to eat.
As far as exercising goes, some weeks are more intense than others. I have found that on days where I don’t have anything planned I will end up exercising in order to keep me from just sitting around and doing nothing. Since I didn’t have much going on last week I ended up exercising every day; I even worked out twice on Saturday. This week, however, is a little busier. I am taking today and Friday off from the gym so it won’t be quite as crazy of a week for me as last week was. I have my two boxing classes, Tuesday and Thursday evening, and I will probably spend Wednesday night at the gym on the recumbent bike. Yesterday, I did a quick three-mile walk with my dog Maggie and then later in the day Paul and I played 5 games of racquetball which took us about 70 minutes to play. I have been trying to walk and play racquetball at least once a week each to add some variety to my routine. I find that any activity that involves other people never seems to bore me because each time it’s a completely different experience.
I read numerous weight loss blogs, I talk with friends about their weight loss journey, I sit in meetings and talk about people’s struggles, and the one theme that continues to surface is needing to be flexible in order to be successful. I hear it all the time and I have probably mentioned it here before. I firmly believe you have to be able to roll with the punches and be willing to change things up to better suit your needs. Not only to better suit your needs but also to better suit your abilities and lifestyle. You need to be adaptable to situations that arise in your life; you cannot stay at home locked away- you have to try to adapt your new life into your old and find a way to make them coincide peacefully.
I know in the past whenever I have dieted I was very strict with what foods I could and could not eat and I would avoid social situations which presented opportunities for me to go off diet. I could stick with the diet for a little while but not very long because I couldn’t handle such a restrictive lifestyle. Now, I don’t avoid these situations I just try to make them work for me. I focus on trying to make smart decisions where I can but if I don’t, if I splurge, I forgive myself and then tomorrow just move on because that is life. I won’t be perfect every day and I am ok with that. I’ll settle for perfect 90% of the time 😉
Thanks for reading!
thirtyfourandfabulous 
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