Alrighty, 8.6 pounds and 6.5" are gone from my body now. Woo-hoooo! And, I can really start seeing some difference in how my clothes are fitting. They're getting loser. Plus, one roll of fat I had in my rib area is virtually gone. I still have some back boob action going on, but I think we're down to an A-cup now...lol...I was really excited that since this was 4th of July week filled with many social eating days for me, I still managed to drop pounds and inches.
The key was two things: 1. Staying committed to my regular exercise routine 2. Allowing myself to have choices. Nothing is forbidden. It's a matter of choices. If I choose to eat that cheeseburger, than I have to either workout extra hard at the gym, or make up the calorie difference in another meal or over the day. Choices produce results. Simple. (more after the jump)
Since I had 4 days in a row where I knew Matt and I would be eating out
with family and friends, I planned ahead in terms of calories and
cuisine. Our group is pretty predictable in restaurant choices, so I
had a good idea of where we'd be eating. One of my readers awhile back,
suggested looking up the menus online to get an idea of calories for
dishes. It is very helpful to do that because just because something is
a "salad" doesn't mean it isn't loaded with fat, sugar, and bu-koo
calories.
One night I had this absolutely delicious 1/2 baked potato filled with ground turkey, spinach, onions, and tomatoes. I told them to nix the butter and sour cream. The potato came with a side Ceasar salad which I ate only 1/4. Boy was that an awesome meal.
I've been more conscious about portion sizes. Before, I really didn't pay attention, and now I am more aware. It's made me realize just how much restaurants in the U.S. "over feed" us. Most times there is enough food on your plate to feed 2-3 people. I've been taking lots of left overs home.
One of the key elements to me maintaining some pound and inch loss this
holiday week was keeping to my 5 days of exercise a week. I was really
tempted to skip one day, but negotiated with myself to do at least 20
minutes. I ended up doing my usual time of 56 minutes. Why 56 minutes?
Don't really know. For some reason, it just stuck with me.
For exercise, I've been mostly doing cardio, treadmill work and elliptical. I'm not doing any strength training or weights. Yet. I know. I know. Honestly, I hate weight training. Talk about resistance. For cardio, I do 4 minutes warm-up and 6 minutes cool down, so there's 46 minutes of heart pumping workout. I love cardio because I love the feeling of all that oxygen in my lungs, and I like the movement. I'm still doing the Fit Sugar Mountain Climbing treadmill workout in different variations. In one version, I walk at the 15% incline for 10 minutes at 2.5 speed. Then at the 10-12% incline for 15 minutes total. Gurl! I can really see some muscle coming in my legs. I'm also feeling muscle in my butt again. It's thrilling!
Last week, I kind of went off about my tiredness of listening to Moms
who can't stop talking about baby stuff. Getting that off my chest on
the blog actually helped me not stress eat. It started to dawn on me
that the topic of motherhood and marriage was really gnawing at me and
making me stress snack. Actually, it's not really getting married and
having kids that is eating away at me, it's that my blog business (my
baby) is not seen as important as having a human baby which I have
gauged by the fact that I don't get the same amount of time or interest
as the moms who talk forever about their kids. Again, I love the kids,
but I need to feel that my baby is important too. I wasn't feeling
that, so I compensated in over eating.
This week, it was nice to just relax and enjoy the summer. I love 4th of July because it's sunny, people are happy and social, and everyone is relaxed. It's a time to just be and have fun. Matt had a bunch of family come in from all over the country, and we had a blast with them. I'm real lucky in that my boyfriend's family is really terrific and fun to hang around with. I also got to talk about my baby in great length with one of Matt's Aunt and Uncle (who are married to each other). They are really cool people, and they are really interested in my blog topic and the business itself. It was exciting for my baby to get some recognition ;-)
