30 Day Shred - Week2/Day6

So far so good, Dear Readers!

I have completed 5 days of 30DS and I'm feeling so great about this workout! It's easy for me to motivate to do it because I know it's only going to take me 20-25 minutes to get through the whole thing. That's awesome. I was even able to fit in a workout on my lunch break the other day so I could go meet up with some girlfriends for happy hour after work. It was definitely cutting it close since the workout makes me so damn sweaty that I had to be sure to get a shower in too, but it is definitely nice to know that if I need to I can make it work. There is something to be said for something that makes me feel like I HAVE time for it, versus something I must MAKE time for.

The only disappointment I have: my scale tells me I gained weight.

Official weight @ 1/11/2013: 191.8 lbs

That’s 2.2 lbs. That seems a little ridiculous, but I know I am probably retaining water hardcore from jumping into an everyday workout routine that includes strength training. We’ll see what the scale reveals next Friday after I adapt into things a little better. I’m feeling like I shouldn’t let the stupid scale get me down, but I won’t lie: there is part of me that is a little discouraged. Fortunately, there’s a larger part of me that is like “WHATEVER SCALE! You don’t know ANYTHING! I’m going to do this, and look AWESOME!” – so yay for that inner-monologue haha! I will also be taking “end of level 1” measurements next Friday (or possibly Saturday morning). 

And now to just randomly jump into food related things! A couple weeks ago I cut my daily calorie intake back to 1800 since I was doing little-to-no exercise and had hit a plateau at 191 for a month. It worked! I lost a few pounds. But now I’m working out again – 5 days a week, and I’m regularly only netting about 1200-1400 calories after my workout burn and then my “Fitbit adjustment”. I’m starting to worry I may not be eating enough. See, my FitBit has been telling me that just being me and doing what I normally do (without on-purpose exercise, just walking around, going up and down stairs, etc.), I average a daily burn at about 2600 calories/day. Mon-Fri are generally a bit lower since I have a desk job, but I am now exercising Mon-Fri. I’m thinking about upping my calorie intake, but I’m trying to do a little more research on net calories first.

This is very quickly making me wish I just didn’t track calories at all, but I know I’m nowhere near active enough to just blow off tracking for any amount of time at all other than maybe a day or two. I also feel like I’m wanting to splurge a lot more lately. I’m hungrier. That probably has something to do with adding regular exercise into my life… metabolism boost and all of that. I’m trying to sate that hunger with healthy foods instead of high-cal restaurant options… but sometimes Mexican food just calls my name. And by calls, I mean screams its demands that I eat it until I just can’t take it anymore and finish a whole bowl of salsa and basket of chips along with those enchiladas covered in sour cream sauce.

Ohmygoodness, I just made myself super hungry typing that out. *dies*

I’ve been working on going to bed at decent times for the last week, which I’m getting much better at with the exception of this weekend when both Friday and Saturday I decided staying up until nearly 3am was an excellent idea.

I’ll give you some advice: it’s not. EVER.

It is NEVER a good idea to stay up that late, but especially not a good idea when you have young children that get up between 6 and 7am every day. Without fail. So aside from Saturday and Sunday morning, I have been waking up feeling refreshed and well-rested even when it is 6:30am. Now I just need to take this newfound bright-eyed feeling and apply it to doing, y’know, some kind of yoga or even busting out the Shred in the morning instead of spending it lounging on my couch while I take in some Arthur and Curious George on PBS.

…those shows are so good, though. Especially Arthur. Love me some Arthur.

Another thing I’ve been doing every day that has made me feel especially good: making my bed and putting away any clothes in the floor – whether those go to the hamper or get folded and put back in the dresser/closet. It’s amazing! My room feels so uncluttered (even though it’s not really), and I think it’s part of what helps me sleep better and wake up refreshed in the mornings. 

I'm really impressed with myself and the positive changes I'm making. My only criticism of myself this last week is that I've fallen out of habit of cooking dinner. That will be one of my main focuses this week, get back on track with the cooking!

Before I close out this post, I want to say how super proud I am of my girl Andrea for doing the 30 Day Shred with me! We both struggled hard once winter hit to stay motivated to workout and we both stalled in our weight loss - so go you, Andrea! Thanks for doing this with me and staying motivated!! :)