Embracing Balance

I forgot that I grabbed a couple of new energy bars while I was wandering through the organic section to pick up my yogurt… so I just tried one as my “lunch”….and I thought I should just warn you all to save your money.

Beechville
Find more Dog Walks in Beechville, Nova Scotia

After last night’s late and intense workout, I wasn’t about to hit the gym first thing this morning but I still got up early and drove DBF to work. It’s sooo nice outside that I just couldn’t see staying in bed and wasting the time. So after I dropped him off I came home and made a pot of coffee (did you know that our Starbucks isn’t open at 7:15?!) and then grabbed the dog and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Such a nice morning! After he finished pulling my arm off, I actually came back and dropped him off and walked another 5 minutes up to our mailbox and back. Which was great, because my new Self magazine was in there so I had something fun to read while I enjoyed my second cup of coffee out on the deck. Now I am ready to start my day…15 minutes early and totally awake and refreshed. 🙂

Once I get some work done I’m going to take some time to go back through my blogs for March and look at my menus and routines. I had over 20 OP days in March (& lost 4 lbs in two weeks), so I was definitely doing something right and I need to go back and see what it was. Time to get serious. I’m curious to see what it was, if anything, that kept me on track so diligently.

Until then, today’s plan is…

– coffeeeeeeeeeeeeee
– homemade protein bar
– Liberte Muesli yogurt cup mixed with crushed pineapple
– PC BM bagel with light Laughing Cow & sliced tomato, served with cucumber salad
– grapes
– Coke Zero with fresh lemon wedges (I had forgotten how much I love this!)
– my famous turkey burgers (OK fine, they are Rachel Ray’s burgers, but I’ve adopted them!) served with tossed salad
– homemade protein bar
– peppermint tea

approx 24 points out of 22 + 2APs

My final session with my trainer was tonight. (Having said that I’ll probably sign up for another set with her in September…but I’m gonna do the Summer on my own now that I have two full strength training routines to work with.)

I actually hate evening workouts, but our schedules never jive in the mornings. Tonight’s ended up being really great though, so that’s awesome!! I needed the good sweat, and she got me to do a couple of things I wouldn’t normally do, plus it kept me busy during my prime-time snacking hour!

We always start with some hard-core cardio. Cardio before strength training is a must. No matter how hard you work out, you need to get your heart pumping and your muscles loosened up before you start with the strength stuff. Rule #1 – very important!!! So, usually it’s sprints on the cross-trainer or sometimes the elliptical. She likes to mix it up, which is great because I get bored easily. haha. So tonight she says “how about the recumbant bike?”. Love it!!! I always use the recumbant bike as my cooldown cardio, but I’ve never used it for HIIT.

She had me pick a level that I find challenging…so I chose 10 (I usually ride at level 7 or 8…. 6 if I’m being lazy). She was impressed and thought that 10 might actually be too high. So I did the five minute warm-up ride, trying to keep my RPMs at a consistent moderately fast rate. Then we did 1 minute resistance intervals by raising the level to 15! One minute at 15, one minute at 10, until I’d completed 15 minutes. My legs were like jello!! But the good, hardcore, shaky jello. My five minute cooldown ride was pretty funny…I had to keep reminding my legs to keep pedaling. 5 miles by the time I was done.

I don’t know if I could push myself to do that on my own, but I’m sure going to try to throw that in there at least once a week. It was crazy hard and I really needed her motivation….it will be a personal challenge to do it without her for sure.

Then we went through my new strength training routine to make sure I’m doing everything correctly and to adjust some of my weights, etc. She upped my weight on two of my exercises, so that’s good. Tone, tone, tone! For my fast step-ups on the bozu ball (which I love for some reason) she kept saying how fast I was. I don’t know if that’s just her way to motivate me, or if she really thought I was fast…but I’ll take it. I love to get compliments on this stuff!! Plus, yesterday she had corrected my stance for my planks so today’s were a breeze to get through…yaaiieeee.

At the end, she showed me a new piece of equipment that the gym just got. I had seen it show up last week, and it looks relatively easy to use, but I hadn’t tried it yet. It’s the one where you grasp on with your hands and brace with your forearms, while your legs hang…then you pull your knees up (or pull your legs up straight out if you’re superwoman). Well, it is easy to use, but it seems to be built for shorter people so I found it a bit awkward. It’s a total core/ab/oblique workout so my problematic lower back didn’t really like it….but I’ll give it a go a few times and see what happens. My trainer said to maybe start with three sets of five (instead of fifteen) and work up from there. Sounds good to me.

And to top it all off, after she left to meet her next client, I decided that I had nowhere to be, so went for a 10 minute cooldown random incline walk on the treadmill….and then had the longest stretch session ever. It felt great!

(hehe, and by the time I got home, watered the planters and garden, had my shower and now typed this…it’s too late to go to the kitchen and snack. I had my planned cottage cheese and yogurt and I’m all good! and OP! yaieeeee!)

Ya, yesterday went pretty good, but not as perfect as planned. I’m not beating myself up though because it certainly an improvement and a step in the right direction.

It was all pretty much OP until I decided to make protein bars last night. And then had to taste test them….three of them. 🙂 Very good, but too much like a cookie so I don’t think I’ll be making them too often…especially since they have raisins in them so DBF won’t help eat them.

So in the end, I wound up about 10 points over for the day. Meh.

Today will be easier because I have a trainer session tonight at 7:00, so I won’t want to eat a bunch of junk when I get home. I’m planning a larger lunch, so I’m not in need of dinner before I go… and I can eat my usual breakfast/lunch items when I get home.

Here’s the idea….

– homemade protein bar
– coffee
– OJ
– grapes & cheese string
– tuna noodle casserole, tossed salad with real old white cheddar
– apple & light Laughing Cow
– another protein bar before gym
– 1% cottage cheese mixed with crushed pineapple on Fibre Eggo
– Liberte Muesli yogurt

approx 27 out of 22 + APs

Yesterday was a total bust. Like, a bomb. Big time. Rollover from the weekend I guess, but I really have no excuse. I didn’t go to the gym. I didn’t walk the dog. I definitely didn’t stick to the menu plan. In fact, I ate ALL of the treats at the movies (I bought two boxes of candy for me and DBF…but he didn’t want his so I ate it) plus we shared a huge-ass root beer. And then….to top that….I ate like half a bag of chips when we got home. For no apparent reason, other than they were there and I was somewhat bored.

I HATE THAT.

So, today is a new day, right??

At least I chose to get up early and drive DBF to work. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that much lately so I was all over it this time. At the gym by 7:20…woooooooooooooo!! Got in a good sweaty set of sprint intervals on the treadmill and an extra sweaty strength training session (and even got a couple of pointers from my trainer who just happened to be there). So now, I just need to hold on to this motivation and stay on my menu plan for today. DBF is working tonight so I’ll have to find something to keep me busy and keep my mind off snacking and watching too much TV tonight. Hopefully the weather clears up, cuz it’s wet and dismal right now.

The menu plan that I will stick to today:

– pre-gym: 1/2 Fibre Source granola bar
– post-gym: other 1/2
– coffee (NSV…stopped at Starbucks and ordered just a regular coffee…no latte!)
– 1% cottage cheese mixed with crushed pineapple
– leftover tossed salad with Newman’s Italian dressing
– PC BM bagel with light Laughing Cow wedge & sliced tomato
– nectarine
– cheese string & baked Ritz crisps
– Coke Zero if I start to crave sweets
– 1 Greek chicken kabob, steamed baby carrots, cucumber salad (sliced mini cukes & red onions with light mayo, s&p)
– grapes
– either SmartPop or 100 cal pack organic cookies
– peppermint tea

approx 22 points out of 22 (not eating APs today to try to help make up for last night…)

Since I haven’t made it to the treadmill today, I thought we should at least support these kitties in their efforts! Enjoy! 🙂

What a good night! and a lovely day yesterday! But booooo to the water retention this morning! I saw 155.8 on the scale, which is up 1.2 lbs from last week….not exactly the direction I want to go….but not exactly a surprise either. A whole lotta meaty, cheesy goodness….and not enough veggies and water. Obviously today is the beginning of a week of picking up the pieces. 🙂

Our Eight Week Summer Challenge has now ended. What are we doing now?? I didn’t make my gym goal…I got in 13 of the 20 days I needed in the last 28 days. For Summer I can’t confine myself to indoor activity….although I think that 3 days per week is what still needs to happen. I did however bust through my 50km goal so I’m pretty happy about that! I think some sort of LuluLemon giftie to myself might still be in order for that. haha. 🙂 I still want to get in another 20km before the end of June as my personal challenge, but that shouldn’t be a problem at all.

I’ll be heading off to the gym later this morning, and stopping at the store for a few items to help with today’s recovery plans. We are in need of yogurt and veggies big time.

Todays’ big plan….

– water, water, water
– vitamins
– coffeeeeeeee
– All Bran bar
– cherries & nectarine
– skim milk
– GYM
– yogurt, cottage cheese, pineapple
– PC BM bagel with light Laughing Cow & sliced tomatoes
– baby carrots & celery
– dinner: grilled asparagus, salad, chicken breasts with havarti & salami
– WALK THE DOG
– grapes
– 100 cal pack organic cookies
– peppermint tea

approx 24 points out of 22+AP

The White Russian was yummy, but we opted to skip the pizza because $46 for two pizzas just pisses me off. LOL. Instead we decided to just head over to one of the local chain restaurants….so we chose East Side Marios. Cheaper and I got leftovers. 🙂

Today I got up early, packed my gym bag, grabbed my grocery list and headed out. I got in a good workout of sprint intervals on the treadmill, plus my extended strength training routine….excellent and sweaty!

I then stopped at Starbucks for my new favorite drink…grande DoubleShot on ice with vanilla…soooooo yum!! And I’m such a good girl, I passed up all the treats and just waited til I got home to eat. Which was a challenge because I had to stop at the grocery store for all of the eats for tonight’s get together. I rocked it!! Came home for a tasty Liberte yogurt with muesli and some fresh cherries!

The rest of today will be spent tidying, cleaning, organizing and prepping food for tonight. Thankfully we are having a late start of 8:00 or so….so lots of time to get ready!! I plan to take it easy on the eating all day so I can really enjoy tonight’s food. I am making sangria for the first time in ages, plus lots of cheeses, meats, snacks and yummy goodness.

It should be a good time!
Happy Summer everyone!!

Extremely tired, and seriously bruised from a fall at sea, but he’s here!!

So there will be no menu plan per se today. Pizza is on the agenda as neither of us wants to waste time cooking, and since the sun is out and he has a duty-free bottle of Kaluha I feel a White Russian coming on. 🙂

I’m sure he will end up crashing later this afternoon, so if that happens I will walk the happy puppy…but if he doesn’t, then the dog will be content that Daddy is home.