Another Missed Goal

I havn't been to the gym in five days. Out of town guests, and then Memorial Day weekend kept me busy and away from the gym. This week is going to be another tough fitness week. We're heading up to visit my parents on Thursday for my Birthday, and coming back Sunday. I'm going to do my best to get at least one workout in while we're up there, but it's always tough. In the lead up to going away, I'm going to try to get three solid workout days in (we leave at 7pm on Thursday, which gives me the day to get a workout in)

The really frustrating part is that Friday is my birthday, which means that I've missed yet another goal. I wanted to be under 145 by my birthday. It should have been a completely achievable goal. It's increadibly frustrating to continually fall short of what should be reachable goals.

How do you stay motivated after a missed goal?

First off I am increadably sore today. I'm not sure exactly what is causing both the muscles on the backs and fronts of my thighs to complain so much, but if it's leading towards thinner thighs, I'll take the pain.

Last night I cooked up a meal that didn't take too much prep, and got rave reviews. Orange balsamic Salmon, bacon wrapped scallops and steamed asparagus. Other than the bacon wrapped scallops, it was a really healthy meal too. I'm definately going to make the meal again (sans bacon...maybe scallops in a salad?)

Anyone got any good scallop recipies?

Money vs. Health

Last week I started trying to increase my workouts per week. I decided to go to the gym every day except Monday (because of a scheduling issue.) In reality, I had to take Thursday off due to overwhelming soreness. I'm going to try this again this week, although my S.O.'s parents are coming into town Thursday, so I'm not sure how the workout schedule is going to work on Friday. In order to head this problem off at the pass, I plan on squeezing in a workout today, just in case things go awry at the end of the week.

Money is tight around here, like almost everywhere else. This is leading to some interesting dilemmas. Gym memberships are expensive, but IMHO necessary expenses. Oddly, healthy food is more expensive than prepackaged crap. This is distressing to me. It should not be cheaper for me to get a Super Sized Fat Burger Meal than it is for me to make myself a Salad. Especially around these parts, veggies are not cheap. I'm lucky in that I can rely on someone else's income to provide the foodstuffs in the house, but if it was just me, I'd be almost reduced to Ramen at this point.

The sad thing to me is that I know I'm not alone, that there are thousands of people out there right now in the same or in a worse situation as me. And right now, at least one of them is looking at the change in their pocket, or the numbers in their bank account and making the decision to eat crap because it's what they can afford.

What are your favorite, go to, cheap healthy recipes?

Keeping up the balancing act.

So far this week I've managed to keep my balance. Much artwork has been done, and importantly, much fitness has been accomplished as well. I am now committed to making this week an amazing one, one where I manage to keep all of my goals in mind and accomplish amazing things.

I am hoping by the end of this week to move one thing off my plate, thereby giving myself a tiny bit more breathing room.

Yesterday, I really felt all the slacking when I was at the gym. I had to call it after 15 minutes of running. I stretched and did my ab work, and then hit the elliptical machines. I did a 25 minute H.I.I.T. session, and omg did I feel those intervals. By the end of each hard interval I was barely able to keep going. During the recovery intervals, I must have looked hilarious, sweating buckets and all red faced, and looking like I was barely working!

Unfortunately, after the gym we met up with some friends and ended up getting Chinese take out for dinner. I tried to keep my portion size down, but I still think I ate far too many calories.

Seeking balance

This weekend was a rough one for me. Various factors resulted in a total failure to achieve gym time. After seeing a friend of mine who is similarly facing a rough time, I realized that I have simply not been making fitness a priority in my life.

It is hard when you're facing a rough situation, with many priorities pulling at your time, to give time for working out. With deadlines looming it is hard to step away from the panic and realize that an hour or two a day is something I need to dedicate to fitness.

It seems like a small thing to ask of myself, and yet it is so very difficult for me to make sure I have gym time. A project will need to be finished, or a social commitment will need to be met.

I keep thinking that once I get past this deadline, once I get this project done or those visitors leave, then my routine will get back on track. And then another project's deadline gets in the way, or lets face it it's summer and everyone wants to do things this summer.

The result has been a spotty workout record, and a weight holding steady at around 157. Things have to change. I need to make fitness a priority again.

How do you balance fitness with the rest of your life?

When the rest of my life gets full, Fitness falls off the radar

This week was a total fitness FAIL. After getting off to such a good start, I got an Illustration commission with an extremely short deadline which consumed my life for the rest of the week. I ended up having to bail on my scheduled gym trip yesterday to work on it. It's done and off to the client, but now it's the weekend!

This weekend I run the gauntlet of two birthday parties (one tonight, one on Saturday), both at bar/restaurants! In addition, we were asked today to help set up for the one tonight right after work, so another canceled gym date. Sadness. I'm going to have to do a workout video just to make up for all my slaking!

I'm hoping to make myself go to the gym this weekend. One of my big goals as far as fixing my workout schedule is to start going to the gym on the weekends. My main hangup with that is that the class I really want to go to, Boxing, is on Sundays, and completely kicks my butt. Like to the point where I need a couple days off from the gym to recover. I keep thinking that if I wait till I'm a little stronger I'll be ok, but then we go back and it's harder than I think it should be again. I'm going to try to talk myself into it again this weekend...

Do you workout on the weekends? Or do you consider those your days off?

My own worst enemy

My biggest hurdle lately, as far as health and fitness goes, has been my social life. Recently I've had a rather full social calendar, including many nights spent at bars and clubs. Between the tasty foods, the beers and the late late nights, I havn't really been living the healthy life lately.

I've been doing good, mostly, during the week, with the exception of last night/this morning. I went to an awesome concert last night. Danced like I was getting paid, and most likely made up for at least most of the calories in the beer I drank.

However, late late nights plus lots of beer equals a stop at one of the all night eateries before heading to bed. And what do we eat at all night eateries? A bacon egg and cheese bagel sandwich.

Also, the soreness and general feeling of ick after a night of dancing and drinking leave me unable to really get a good workout in, completing the unhealthy two-fer.

So while I'm rehydrating myself and trying to work through the persistant ringing in my ears, I pose you this question: What is your favorite "morning after" remedy?

Monday Refresh!

I got the most recent issue of Women's Health in the mail this weekend, and while fliping through it and being inspired I realized that even though I have all these variations of exercises at my fingertips, I tend to stick to the same kinds of exercises. Especially when it comes to strength training.

"Why," I wondered, "With all these myriad of choices, do I choose the same boring (and most likely less effective) variations every time?"

"Because," I replied, "A lot of those moves are hard, and look silly when you do them. Imagine how silly you'll look doing that move with that stability ball. You'll fall over and everyone will laugh at you silently."

"This is silly," I argued back, "You can't look any sillier than that guy over there who is jammin out to his ipod on the elliptical! No one is going to care."

And so, having successfully argued my point to myself, I have decided to start adding in new variations to my exercises. In the interest of keeping this going, I'm starting with some exercises that I won't be mortified to be doing. I went out on the internets to find new exercises and found this:

The Flatten your Belly Routine at Women's Health Magazine. A whole routine of new ab moves!

So, are there any moves you'd suggest I try? Any moves you wouldn't be caught dead doing in a gym?

Friday Randomness

It's been a relatively sucessfull week, fitness wise. Other than being incredably sore on my days off, I really don't have much to report.

So instead: A few links on this Friday to help you waste some time.

A whole Chicken in a can - Yes. Have some.

Let WebMD help you with your diet - A "success" checker that makes you go through a rather rigorous questionnaire.

Cranky Fitness is having a sweet giveaway, check it out!

Txts from Last Night - As if you needed another reason to not drink and txt, this site imortalizes some of the best (or worst.)

And because I can, coffee and a cupcake to get you started this weeked: