One more step closer to the goal.

I was lucky yesterday, in that the unexpected guest also unexpectedly left. So me and my S.O. headed to the gym yesterday, where I proceeded to attempt to make up for the missed workout. I don't know if I completely made up for it, but I definitely worked hard. I'm all sorts of the good kind of sore today.

Today is a workout video day, and while that usually means the 30 day shred video, I'm contemplating a nice Yoga workout today. I don't know, I've gotten to the point where I feel like doing an hour of Yoga isn't enough exercise, since I don't get all hot and sweaty and feel like I can't breathe. Unfortunately this has resulted in me choosing the shred over yoga consistently, and I do believe I'm loosing flexibility.

What would you choose? Flexibility or Strength?

Inturuptions in the schedule

This week is off to a rocky start, what with me not being able to do my workout today. I have an unplanned guest staying in my living room, preventing both the use of the living room for workout videos, and the action of traveling to the gym to workout. I'm not quite sure how to handle this one. The unplanned guest has told us he'll most likely be leaving by Wednesday (although he was originally only supposed to be here on Saturday.) Missing one day of working out isn't that bad, but I don't know what to do about tomorrow.

Argh, social stress sucks!
What would you do?

Oh, so very sore.

I hit the gym yesterday with my S.O., who's been complaining that he hasn't been going to the gym because I'm doing my workouts at home. I got there early, and hopped on the elliptical machine and mindlessly set it to my normal H.I.I.T. workout, thinking I'd just take it easy on the intervals and go for a bit as a warm up before my S.O. showed up. Then I flipped on the T.V. and found this really interesting show on the History channel about Medieval Knights. Next thing I know my S.O.'s tapping me on the shoulder and I've been on the elliptical for around half an hour.

I hopped off and we headed downstairs to see if we could find two free treadmills. No go, but the ellipticals down there were totally empty, so we jumped on those. I felt I wimped out on my first session upstairs, so I pushed the intervals up a few resistance levels, and we went for another full half hour.

I was totally beat by the end of that, so after a token ab workout I took myself down to the steam room while the S.O. did his strength training.

I'm telling you, I think I'm a steam room addict. So very relaxing. So very calming.

Today I'm feeling every inch of me. I'm sore in places I didn't know I worked. I'm hoping that by the end of my workout today I'll have worked out some of the kinks, since we've got a guest coming into town for the weekend (which always means lots of walking.) Maybe I'll try some yoga today...

What is your go to fix for soreness?

Tamago for dinner!

I'm not ready to call it yet, but I do believe I'm getting back into the swing of my fitness routine. I'm back to the every-other-day sweat sessions. If I make it through the week at this pace, I'll up it next week to be every day.

So far my plan to eat healthy instead of eat less is going alright. Healthy foods are more filling than non healthy foods, so I'm actually staying right around 1500 calories a day.

Yesterday, in a fit of culinary creativity, I made myself some Tamago Sushi. Eggs, a bit of sugar and organic soy, and some sushi rice. Other than the Sugar, a healthy snack-y meal. I think I should cook one new thing a week, just to keep my skillz sharp.

What new culinary delights have you cooked up this week? Any recipes I should try?
Meg

Small changes

I'm still working on the write up of the MS walk from yesterday, however I can say it was shorter than I expected, nicer out than I expected, and generally I had a good time. There were tons of people there, and we got a lot of good pictures. I totally forgot sunblock (bad meg) and got myself a slight sunburn.

This week I've decided that I'm going to implement small changes to my diet and exercise plan continuously. My thought is that, if I bring in small changes every day, I will be less likely to resist the changes, or to fail to keep the changes as part of my fitness/wellness plan.My small change for today was switching from Splenda to Truvia, a Stevia based non-cal sweetener.

I'll admit right off that I havn't planed these changes out very well, So if you have any ideas of small changes I can incorporate, I'd be happy to hear them!
-Meg

MS Walk

7:20 am - It's early early early. I haven't been awake this early in a long time. We attempted to procure breakfast, and failed. None of the breakfast places are open this early on a Sunday. Luckily they say in the packet that there willbe breakfast there.

The weather report said it's going to be good weather for walking, 60 and partly sunny, but it was warning of rain last night, so we'll see.

Unfortunately the rest of Team Disco!(tm) had a Familly emergency, so it's just me and James walking today. I'm still a bit excited, and happy to be doing something possitive with my day. I've got my orange MS bracelet on and I'll be picking up my official walk tshirt when we get there, so I'll be all decked out. The walking part starts at 9:30, so we should have time to grab some coffee before the walk starts, I could really use it right now.

I'm going to tweet about the walk along the way, and post about it when I get home. I'm expecting a good time.

Adjusting my thinking on Food

This weekend involved a lot of good company and good food. It was the last little bit of my two weeks away from calorie restriction. The idea was to help kick start my weight loss again.

I've been having trouble loosing weight, even though I continually cut back the amount of calories I was taking in, and increased the amount of exercise I was getting. It seemed no matter what I did, I would bounce between 150 and 155, never dropping below 150 for more than a day. Worse yet, my Body Fat % was staying almost constant.

I had a "light bulb" moment when I considered dropping my caloric intake further, and realized that I was down right around 1200 calories a day. I believe I kicked my body over into starvation mode, and it was holding on to every calorie I ate for dear life.

So far, after two weeks of not counting calories, I havn't gained a significant amount of weight. I'm sitting at 154, about .2 lbs above where I was two weeks ago. My Body Fat is .1% higher than two weeks ago. It may not be proof that I was right, but at least it's proof that I can maintain easily! I mean, I even ate McDonald's this weekend! (Road trip necessity at 2am on the thruway, it's the only thing open.)

Today I'm going back to counting my calories, although I'm giving myself a more forgiving number for my caloric budget. I'm going to focus more on eating healthy foods than eating low calorie ones.

What adjustments have you had to make to your plan lately, and if you havn't had to make any, any advice on other adjustments I might want to make?
-Meg

In need of some supplement advice

One of the many hurdles I've had to overcome to continue my fitness journey is my weak immune system. Recently at least it seems that I get sick easy, and once I'm sick I'm usually sick for three or four days minimum, most times around a week. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's keeping me from doing what I want to do, and from achieving my goals.

So, I'm going to add in supplements to my regimen. I take a daily multivitamin, and a vitamin D supplement already. I need advice. What supplements, or foods, would you suggest I add to my diet?

Meg

Just a little bit of Steam

I've been sick again. I thought it was just allergies, but the allergy medication isn't stopping it, so I'm thinking I might actually be sick. No matter, I went to the gym last night, and did a H.I.I.T. session on the elliptical machine.

Afterward I was feeling particularly miserable, and so in desperation I ventured somewhere I had never been before: the steam room. I have heard all sorts of nasty things about the kind of bugs and fungi that can lurk in steam rooms so I've avoided them. I was, however, in desperate need of somewhere that I could breathe, and knowing how much steam helps, and armed with extra towels to create a protective barrier between me and any lurking fungi, I ventured in.

Steam rooms are amazing. I have never felt my muscles relax that fast after a work out short of climbing in a jacuzzi. My sinuses opened up, and I felt 90% better. It most likely helped that I had the whole place to myself, but I felt totally relaxed. I'm also less sore today than I was anticipating.

Today I'm taking it easy, drinking lots of fluids, and hoping to recover enough to actually go to belly dancing for once.

What's one part of your gym you've never ventured into?
Meg

Guests mean eating out!

This weekend we have guests, My S.O.'s Brother and Sister-in-law. Both are wonderful, energetic people, and we spent the weekend stomping around the city visiting many interesting places. We also ate a lot, and not particularly well. Surprisingly, I only gained a single pound from the entire weekend.

I also ran out of allergy medication, and am currently suffering from an allergy induced sore throat and general achies. I'm going to try not to let this slow me down, but it's always a million times harder to exercise when I'm not feeling well.

Next weekend we're going up to visit the families for Easter (luckily both our families live in the same town) and my S.O.'s Sister-in-law invited me to join her for a kickboxing class while we're up. I'm really exited about that ^_^

Any new fitness opportunities come your way this weekend?
Meg

Tired and sore from the gym

I totally overdid it at the gym tonight. I felt bad for skipping the gym yesterday, so I put in an extra 10 minutes on the treadmil and amped up the speed to boot.

I also feel bad because I haven't been to belly dancing in a month. The classes are just at such an awkward time, 8:30pm on a Wednesday night. But I actually miss the class.

On Monday I walked by a Dojo that's near where my drawing group meets. I started thinking about how much I miss karate. There really isn't anything else in the world quite like it. So I looked the place up on the web and got prices and times. Now when I find a job and have money I'll be able to go back to studying martial arts. It's a different style than I've taken before, but it's one I've always wanted to try.

Now to get enough money for classes...