Wednesday, April 9, 2014

April Photo Challenge - Days 1 - 7

What an awesome little challenge (which also fulfills my Pinterest Challenge submission for the month of April!)

Amy and Ashley are joining in and we are all having a fabulous time so far (I think? LOL)

If you missed it, here is a link to Amy's post about the challenge, including the guidelines and daily picture themes!

So... let's do this!

Day 1 - Dinner
Delicious grilled chicken Cesar salad with broccoli and garlic bread! 


Day 2 - Workout Clothes
The basics: pants, top, shoes, and of course, earbuds!


Day 3 - Water
I cheated a little bit on this... I used a stock photo, because
I left mine at home, but this is my water Tervis and I love it!
I fill it usually 6-8 times per day!


Day 4 - Breakfast 
Tangerine slices (eaten whole!)
and water! That is the top of my water bottle!


Day 5 - Smile
We were bad over the weekend and made a pitstop to Krispy Kreme....
But we all smiled for it! LOL


Day 6 - Movement
A quick video of my feet after mowing the lawn over the weekend!
(No pale person jokes!! :-P )


Day 7 - Fruit
This one I forgot to take.... I will include it in next week's pictures!

Tuesday Weigh In

A day late and a dollar short. That is my week again this week. It seems like I stop and go and stop and go and never really get TRULY ahead of everything in my life.

Last Week's Weight:

224

This Week's Weight:

224.


NO GAIN.

And you know what? I'll take it. Again I don't feel like I did much to get the scale down. I am watching what I eat, but not hitting the gym like I should. Now.... I feel that there has been a message sent to me in the most unlikely-ist of places. A good female friend of mine, whom I may or may not be related to, has begun the Couch to 5k Program. This, along with some major diet changes, and she is off to a running start (no pun intended). Now, of course, I can already hear Amy clicking away on the keyboard ("I TOLD you to start that program up again!!! WE already talked about this before!!") but there is something about this other person that has me wanting to keep going. She comes from a background not like ours. No real consistent fitness, no real structured eating plan, things like that. And she decided to make the change FOR HER. And she is KICKING ASS at it! I will continue to root for her, and she has already said she will lean on me for support. I am now what Amy and the other people I follow are to me. My support system. My place to go when things suck. My haven. And I feel so proud to be that person!

So, maybe I will get my ass in gear and ACTUALLY start up the program again. I'd like to. I need a goal. An end point where I can focus in and truly make it happen.

Now, let's get down to brass taxes. Last week's goals were.....

*Eat at least 1 serving (1+ cup) of REAL FRUIT PER DAY. None of that packaged BS.
*Don't forget the photo challenge!
*Training 1 day at the park!
*Run at least 1 day
*Weights at least 1 day
*Get gameplan for office organization together!

Ouchies. Well, I brought it on myself. I did ROCK the fruits goal, I am becoming accustomed to bringing an apple to me and eating it in the car, when I am most vulnerable to snacking.
I also have my photos done for the first 7 days of the challenge, which is another blog's worth!

But, I sucked everywhere else. The park? Out of my mind. I left it behind on this webpage and even though I wrote it down, time was not on my side with that. And what sucks, is that this park is LITERALLY 1.3 miles from my house. A 20-minute walk according to Google Maps.

I also neglected to go to the gym at all, and since I was away this past weekend I didn't even get to go zumba-ing! :-(

The office? HAH. Not even. I am side-lining this for the month because finals are coming up at the end of this month so it is crunch time on my studies.

Well, what about this week's goals?

*Do 2 spin classes
*Have lunch with my mother
*Get in 3 servings of veggies and 3 servings of fruits (over the week)
*Go 2 days without caffeine!
*Get to the park at least once!

Reasonable. I will be okay with these, with the park trip being last on my totem pole. :-)






Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Tuesday Weigh In

This is coming VERY early because I worked an overnight shift last night (from 11:30p Mon -> 7a Tues) AND..... I get to go back in this afternoon at 3p!!! Which means I need to get my ass to bed and get some sleep or I will become a ZOMBIE!!!!!

So, while I have a few minutes here to unwind before going to lay down, I thought I would get my blogs out of the way, so to speak, so I can sleep and not feel guilty about getting these up on time!


Last week's weight:

226

This week's weight:

224

That's a LOSS of

-2.00 lbs!


Woot woot!! I am very happy to see that the little extra in my umph was rewarded! I parked farther away from my stores when I went and did errands this week. I had weights on the couch with me and did some small exercises while catching up on my shows. I also kept my snacking in check, despite it being "that time of the month" and me wanting ice cream until my insides burst (this! is PRECISELY the reason we do NOT keep ice cream in the house!!)

So, let's go over my goals then?

*Do Pilates DVD 2 days
*Go to 1 Spin Class
*Eat 1 apple a day (to keep the bad snacking away!)
*Get John to join me in some form of activity (baseball, a walk, etc)
*Drink 3 glass of fruit-infused water (which is my kryptonite!)


Well, not bad.4 out of 5 is pretty darn good! The Pilates DVD was easy to remember because of my little notebook, and the post-its I put up around the house. I did a spin class Sunday after zumba and it felt good. I only did about 4 miles because my knee was bothering me (normally I crank out between 14-18 miles in a 1-hr class), but I will still count it because I stayed the WHOLE time! I did eat 1 apple a day as well... And I drank those 3 glasses of infused water (actually I believe my count was 6 glasses of infused water!) almost in the span of one day. I think in the 30 hours after my blog last week I drank 6 of them. Yay me!

I had fun keeping track of my apples.... see the evidence below!
Top right corner, applesauce with a sprinkle of cinnamon! (lower R: cottage cheese alongside 2 eggs)
..Breakfast of champions!

@ Work, going for artsy.

This little guy was NOT a fan of me eating him!

Look mom! I ate all my apples! :-P

Applesauce. It's good. Especially when it's NATURAL!


The only thing I fell short on is John. And, I have a valid reason. He and I have been on opposite schedules and it has been VERY hard to even sit down for dinner together. Usually he's gone by the time I get home from work, or already in bed asleep. And it sucks. But, I'm working on getting my schedule to become a little more NORMAL.

So, I will have some goals for next week, but I am dozing off, so I think it's time I lay down for my between-shift nap. I will update later tonight, or tomorrow early AM to set those goals!

EDIT:::

I'm, back! Now for my goals.....

*Eat at least 1 serving (1+ cup) of REAL FRUIT PER DAY. None of that packaged BS.
*Don't forget the photo challenge!
*Training 1 day at the park!
*Run at least 1 day
*Weights at least 1 day
*Get gameplan for office organization together!

Varied goals again this week. But, this new notebook has proven useful, and I plan to use it! Hah!

So... until next week!

Road Trip Review : March 2014

March flew by so fast. I hardly had time to register it even happened! John and I normally try and go to a few BoSox Spring Training games, but we had NO time to go see our team play, and regular season has now begun!! At least we have the Bruins to look forward to, they have clinched their division and sitting pretty in the 1st seed spot. Yay!
So, now that I've got my comments on the month out of the way, let the disappointment begin! .... -.-


Review -

-The distance from home to Crowley's Ridge National Park is 849 miles.
-The distance from there to Devil's Den State Park is 215 miles.
-My total goal distance is 1,064 miles.
-Challenge runs from January 1st through October 31st, which is 30 days.
-That means... I need to walk 3.5 miles per day to achieve my goal distance.
-Of that 3.5 miles, only half (1.75 miles) can come from normal every day walking!


The road so far....

January
Goal: 108.5 miles
Distance: 79.79 miles
Deficit: -28.71 miles

February
Goal: 98 miles
Distance: 88.16 miles
Deficit: -9.84 miles


Now....

March Goal: 108.5 miles
March Distance: 111.34 miles

Deficit: +2.84 miles!!!!!



Total 3 Month Goal: 315 miles
Actual 3 Month Distance: 279.29

Total 3 Month Deficit: -35.71 miles



Holy crap!!! Hey, even though I'm almost a week behind schedule, I will take that "W" for March! I actually thought I was going to be behind... AGAIN.... but I came out ahead by almost 3 miles! A small victory, but a victory for sure!!

I have a fresh start for April, and more opportunities to make April be a month that I kick ass! It also happens to be my birthday month (the 30th) and Amy's birthday month (the 26th).... AND Amy has dragged me into doing a Pinterest/Fitness Photo Challenge, where I take a picture of a certain subject/thing each day! And the picture has to be fitness/health related in some way!

So, if you haven't already, go see Miss Amy and tell her to keep kicking ass, and I will follow her footsteps and make this month my bitch! Also, if you haven't, go check out all the awesome submissions for Amy's Pinterest Challenge and root on those fantastic ladies!!

I will update my map as soon as I recover from this stupid swing shift at work, so look for my edit soon! :-)


Happy April Everybody!!