A Milestone

Tonight a definite milestone was reached. I began my 5k training and decided that I would run outside instead of going to the gym. I found this great website that lets you map out a run and tells you the distance of the route. I attached the link below. So before I left my house I created a one mile run. All day I thought "how hard could 3 miles be?", well tonight I realized it was a lot harder then I expected. Before running I said to myself "I just have to do this loop 3 times", but about a quarter of the way through my first loop I realized how hard this was going to be. With my ipod playing I just kept thinking about all of the readers and how proud I would feel if I ran the one mile loop. Breathing hard, feeling every muscle in my body I just kept pushing through and to my surprise I ran the entire mile except to cross the street at one point. When I reached my door I was so excited, I went inside drank 4 glasses of water and calculated my one mile time. My first one mile outside run was completed in approximately 16 minutes, definitely a lot better then I expected. I'm looking forward to another run tomorrow morning, it can only get easier from here.
Eating also went well today. Cereal for breakfast, salad, yogurt and berries for lunch and a small amount of homemade macaroni and cheese made with skim milk for dinner. My water intake has also gotten much better lately. I have made it a habit to drink one bottle of water before I leave for work in the morning, today I drank 2 bottles of water. Then throughout the day I drink approximately 6,8oz. glasses and 2 glasses for dinner. Hopefully all of these small changes help reach my goal of 1 pound a week.

5k Fun Run

I'm going to embrace running as a new hobby. All my life I have tried running. The physical fitness test in school and playing basketball were always frustrating because I could never keep up with everyone else. Now later in life I have dreamed of becoming a "runner", someone that does it because they enjoy it. About 2 years ago I began running a few times a week on the treadmill at the gym and felt great. By giving my self short time goals I felt that each minute I was able to run was another accomplishment. Except I only did this for a few months and then just stopped for some reason, probably because I decided my life was to busy and I boycotted exercise. I tend to go through phases of anti - exercise. While working in Massachusetts one of my co-workers ran the Boston Marathon and I thought WOW that is truly amazing. Since then I have always wanted to enter into a race except I'm chicken. I'm a chicken to run on the road and I feel like I have so many unanswered questions. Where do you run? Do you map out your course before you start? Where do people put their house keys, or do they just not lock their door? Do you run with the cars or against the cars? If I wear my earbuds for my ipod will I hear the traffic? As you can see I'm a little nervous. I would like to start running outside as soon as possible, most likely through August. Then in September I found a couple of 5K Fun Runs in surrounding towns and I would like to register for them. My thought is that I will run as long as I can and if I need to walk for a minute or two to catch my breath that's OK, then I will continue my running journey. The links to the 5K runs that I found are linked at the bottom of my blog page. I would love company if anyone is up for the challenge.

Exercise Success!

Late night writing at it's best. Finally sitting down today...against my boxer's wish, he's whining while I write. I have a chance to reflect on my day. Almost 11pm and looking back I had a great day of exercise. I walked for 25 minutes on my lunch, breaking a sweat and going back feeling revived for a long afternoon of inside activities due to the air quality warning. Then after cleaning up for dinner I walked over to the gym in the clubhouse and used the elliptical for 60 minutes. Watching an hour sitcom really helps, especially when the show is suspenseful and you need to know the ending. According to the machine after my 60 minute workout I burned 607 calories and went 4.70 miles. Now I'm not exactly sure how accurate the calculations are but those are great numbers even if they aren't perfect. Off to bed, suddenly I'm exhausted! :)

Healthy Tip of the Day

Today was just an average Tuesday. Work was extremely busy but I stayed on track with my eating plan and didn't let my emotions get the best of me. Packing my own lunch and not having cash accessible keeps staying on track easy (so far). Today I brought Rold Gold cheddar flavored small twist pretzels to work as a snack, 20 pretzels are 2 weight watcher points. Very yummy! I also have to admit the news about Special K Original cereal having high fructose corn syrup in its ingredients is very frustrating! I actually have enjoyed eating it every morning for the last couple of weeks. All the other healthy cereals like Kashi Go Lean Crunch and Cherrios are good too but I needed a change and found LOVE in my box of Special K. I need to do more research about this ingredient, I want to know the details and why people believe high fructose corn syrup is so unhealthy. I'm a little behind on the healthy food trends. I have also decided that I'm going to take the night off from the gym and all the machines. Instead I followed the health tip on my blog and I have been doing squats throughout the night while putting away dishes, doing laundry and then adding a few extra here and there. I also plan on using my exercise band to work my triceps and back muscles before bed. Looking forward to a great Wednesday. :)

Trying Something New

So today went great! I had Special K for breakfast with skim milk and a bottle of water, then a salad, yogurt, and berries for lunch. But my new snack that I tried yesterday and today was Spinach and Artichoke Hummus with Wheat Thin crackers...delicious! I tried hummus once before and wasn't to sure about it but the flavored hummus is really good and 2 tablespoons is 2 weight watcher points, which isn't too bad if your following their plan. I also bought an avocado to try with my salads this week. I love avocado but never bought one myself. I did some research and the skin of the fruit is poisonous to pets if they eat it and when the inside is exposed to air it turns black. I planned on just using it a little bit each day this week but i don't know if it will be possible. Looking for avocado tips if you know of any. :) OK now I'm off to the gym. I have been using the elliptical machine and the bicycle. Does anyone know the difference between the stationary bike and then the long bike. I have been using the long bike when your legs stretch out in front of you but I'm not sure that is the best choice. Suggestions? Have a great night everyone.

Week One Results

Happy Monday Everyone! It's definitely a happy Monday for me :) I have never been so excited to wake up on a Monday morning and stand on a scale, I went down 3.5 pounds this week! Special K and skim milk for breakfast with a whole bottle of water, usually a salad with 1 hard boiled egg, greek yogurt, and berries for lunch and then a dinner of my choice. This week I'm going to change up the menu a little but I'll let you know about my additions later this evening when I reflect on my day. Have a great Monday!

Week One Review

The last day of my first offical week and looking back I think it went great! During the week I did well at work, keeping to my healthy eating plan and at night being able to enjoy a dinner of choice. But when the weekend came, I became a little worried about my eating habits. I am definitely a person who likes routine and during the week I am able to pack a similar lunch from day to day and know when I will eat it. On the weekends I am not that structured and meals end up being at all different times, which I think slows down my metabolism. For the most part I am not a snacker. I don't keep snacks like chips, ice cream and cookies in the house because I know I would eat them. So during the weekend my metabolism probably doesn't work as hard because I will go hours with out eating something healthy. My goal during this challenge is to be more conscience of my weekend eating.
I have also decided that during this challenge I will try to blog each night and reflect on my eating habits and exercise habits for that day. I need to be held accountable not only for the food I eat but the exercise regimine that will help with my weight loss. This week I started off exercising Saturday, Sunday and Monday but Tuesday through Friday I didn't go to the gym. I also decided that working out in the evening during the week and in the mornings on the weekend is better for my schedule. Overall, I think I will be happy with the outcome on the scale tomorrow morning and look forward to another great week. Now I'm off to the grocery store to stock up on salad and yogurt. No need to buy fruit this week, I went orchard hopping yesterday. :) I bought locally grown cucumbers,peppers and picked my own peaches and blueberries. YUM!

Day One :)

So the day didn't start off exactly how I had expected, 5:45am is just too early for me on a Monday. But when I did wake up at 6:45am and started my day everything went great. For breakfast I had Special K Vanilla Almond cereal with a cup of skim milk, I think it has become one of my favorite cereals. Then I packed a lunch for work that consisted of Greek yogurt, 1c of blueberries and 1c of strawberries and a salad. It was delicious and I didn't even feel hungry or look for more when I was done. :) Then when the kids had afternoon snack I enjoyed a few carrots and a little bit of ranch dip. After work I went to the grocery store, blueberries and strawberries were on sale and I ran out of cereal. Dinner was quick comfort food two hot dogs each on a slice of bread and about 1/2c of baked beans. Once that was all cleaned up I broke my habit of watching T.V or put zing around the house and I changed in to my gym clothes and walked over to the community gym. What a mess! The gym is in the club house of my community. It has two treadmills, two ellipticals, and two stationary bikes along with some weight machines and every machine was being used. I have never seen the gym that busy, of course I was not a faithful member, but still that is crazy! So I did one weight machine and decided to go home to use my Wii. I psyched myself up for that work out turned on the T.V., turned on the game and tried to use the controller and neither of the batteries were charged. For a brief second I thought "maybe I'm not suppose to exercise tonight" but then realized I was just trying to make up excuses. So at about 9:30pm after I made my lunch for tomorrow I decided (with my boyfriends encouragement) to go back to the gym and try again. SUCCESS! I burned just over 200 calories and went 2.04 miles in 20 minutes. I was hoping to workout a bit longer today,my goal is 45 minutes a day but at 9:30 at night I decided that was good enough. So the lesson learned today, stick to this and it will work and don't give up on exercise because it feels great in the end.

The Challenge

I have been pondering over this idea to create a blog for several weeks, ever since I watched Julie & Julia, so hear I go.
Weight loss has always been my challenge and I have grown more frustrated with each passing year. For the last nine years especially I have been trying to figure out this weight loss science, trying different eating programs and gyms but in the long run just adding more weight to my short 5"4 frame then before I started this long journey. Right after college in 2003 I was a size 14 and loving it, my stomach was flat and my body seemed proportioned. Then life got in the way, as a Pre - K teacher I was exhausted at the end of the day and a gym wasn't accessible like it was in school so the pounds crept on quickly. It also might of had something to do with the birthday parties, holiday parties and parents food donations at work all the time. I realized that a child's day revolves around food; breakfast, AM snack, lunch, PM snack, dinner, repeat. Oh and not to mention that moving home after college also put me closer to my boyfriend and dinner out turned in to almost a daily occurrence. I know, I know you are saying well no wonder why you are fat ( I hate that word) or "squishy" as someone once said to me(yes someone,not a family member,called me squishy), because you eat out all the time. So I decided that I don't want to get married and have children as an obese person (i hate that word too) instead of being a size 18/20 I would prefer to be a 12/14 and healthy.
So I have challenged myself to lose 52 pounds in 52 weeks and I am determined to be a healthier person next year. I feel my food choices are OK, but portion control and breaking old habits is a constant fight. So in the weeks to come I will be interested in new food options and recipes that work for you. I will also wake up earlier to go to the gym instead of waiting until after work because once I get home, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up etc. I feel like its time for bed so I can start the cycle all over again the next day. Overall this challenge will help me use everyday to its fullest and become healthy at the same time.
I look forward to sharing my journey with you and hope I am held accountable for my accomplishments and my slip ups.
Thanks for listening :)
Sarah