Day 57 - Slow & Steady

Mood: Hopeful

Today is Wednesday, July 27, 2011. The past two weeks have been full of activity, but not the workout kind. Between family parties, concert date nights, musical theater-going, & neighborhood gatherings, I just didn't make time to follow the exercise routine outlined in my last blog post. 

What exactly have I done? The day of my last blog post (7/13) I went on a 20-minute hike with some friends (very hilly, good for butt-sculpting!) and the following Sunday (7/17) I walked approximately 10K for SF AIDS Walk (and raised $1,300! Go me!). Other than that, I've been full of excuses & lazy habits.

Even though I'm disappointed by my lack of ambition & get-to-it-iveness regarding exercising, I'm slightly more forgiving because I know I've been making healthier food choices.

It might not sound healthy to "cheat" on a diet, but believe it or not it has taken some of the compulsiveness out of my eating habits (some, not all). I've designated Monday evenings as my cheat time because almost every Monday I spend a few hours visiting a friend downtown. 

When we get together, we usually watch an hour or two of TV. Ever since I can remember, watching TV & snacking have gone hand in hand, and while it contributed to a lot of my weight gain over the years, I may have found a way to complete this comforting habit without it adding more pounds or sabotaging my diet. Although I watch TV other times during the week, I do so in the presence of my boyfriendguy (he's got cable, I don't), and I usually do not snack while watching. Being with company is a vital part of the cheat because if I was watching TV alone at home, I honestly wouldn't know when to stop eating OR I'd eat until I was too full to do anything but sleep (I say this from experience as a "bored snacker / accidental food napper"). So, on Mondays, I'm going to allow myself to have a favorite snack (usually a *small* bag of chips and a Coke zero) while I'm visiting my friend.

Another thing I've been better at is reducing portion size. I've learned that 9 times out of 10, I'm able to simply stop eating when I'm full. Sometimes this means food is wasted, but most of the time it just results in having leftovers as a meal on the following day/night. The upside is usually less calories and that light feeling versus "OMG. I'm stuffed & can't move for an hour."

Speaking of leftovers, I should point out that my neighbors & I love to have backyard BBQs. Our most recent one was on Sunday. Small victory: Instead of my usual homemade pasta salad, I made veggie kabobs & a fruit salad... two things I never would have thought of making as the "old" me! I have to admit, my veggie kabobs left much to be desired taste-wise, but the fruit salad was standard, and I felt good knowing I personally contributed to getting a few servings of good stuff in my diet that day!

So... little by little I'm making smarter, healthier choices. I said in my last post that I needed to work on getting more sleep & drinking more water, but those things are still problem areas. Drinking water at work isn't as difficult as it is at home. Perhaps I will start posting little reminders all over my apartment. And getting to bed on time is usually easier when I've worked out that day, but logical remedies aren't always the easiest to carry out. Still, I've got to get back into the habit of waking up early to get it over with, or devoting myself to nothing until I get at least a 30 minute walk in after work.

Tonight I'm going to try Zumba. I said that last Friday and then gave up because I couldn't find parking. I won't let that excuse stop me today. No sir!

Hopefully the next post will include a weight update, but for now I find victory in the fact that my clothes are fitting well (and in some cases, are *slightly* too big). I'm pretty sure I've lost another couple of pounds, but I can't know for sure since my scale isn't consistently accurate.

My energy level has been kinda low, but I've also been under some minor stress at work. Luckily that seems to have settled down for the time being, which means I'll be able to focus more on this stuff.

Until next time... thanks for reading! <3