Finally saw the 6!! - Part II

So the last time I "saw the 6" was back in January.. and ever since then it has been straight 7's man... bummer.

So today I got on the scale, because even though I know not to weigh myself all. the. time, I just wanted to. And you know what? It was a mood booster! 269.6! That makes me happy. It is a sign of progress and a little reward for making better choices all week.

Speaking of, here are a few things that I am proud of from the past week:

• Went to yoga thrice this week!
• Did not allow my personal pity party over being in a leg splint (for my left ankle) keep me from going for a 2mi walk on Thursday (and made good food/drink choices instead of emotional-eating the sad/stress away).
• Shared a Philly cheesesteak last night with my husband and had no fries. It was SO good and worth it.
  
• Chose lemonade over soda
• had a frozen fruit bar at the movie (THOR - so good, btw) instead of a Häagen-Dazs bar. It was sweet, cold, delicious and was a good decision after the cheesesteak.
• Drank at least 10 8-oz glasses of water each day this week! I have to thank Sarah E-B of Sarah Fitness for her often posted DRINK! reminders!
• Posted & commented on the Aviano Saints Italian Boot Camp (20 minutes of exercise a day for 28 days - until the reunion in June). It has been so great to have a community of support and encouragement from people so dear to me. Big props to Monica for getting it going!
  
• Consistently entered my food & exercises into myfitnesspal & cheered & encouraged my friends on there, too.

And so far today, even though I overslept & missed the 7:45am yoga class, I am OK with it. I obviously needed the rest. My body is still healing and my ankle is aggravated, so it needs some TLC, too. I have been kind to myself and have made good choices today, lots of water, a salad & a grilled chicken sandwich at lunch when everyone else was having chicken fried steak or a burger. Tonight we are going to a favorite local place, Eno's, and I have scoped out their menu online so I can make a good choice. I am looking forward to that glass of Tempranillo in my future! And probably a cheese plate & salad!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the extra time with your family & friends and remember that this weekend is not about mattress sales.

Love,

One pound forward.... two pounds back

So, as you may have noticed my My Fitness Pal "X pounds lost" ticker has reset to zero.... that is OK. I just regained the 1lb I had shed. Could be water weight, could be PMS-y stuff, could be the decadent spread we treated ourselves to for our 1st Anniversary... or maybe it is muscle mass!!! Ok, it is probably not the latter, but it is fun to throw in there as a possibility - and that made me smile.

So, on to better things since I refuse to be upset by a 1lb gain.

1. NO MORE PT!! I was released from Physical therapy this morning after my session.Now I will have to REALLY challenge myself to go to the gym 3x/week to keep up my exercises.

2. The Summer schedule for the MAC (Maverick Activities Center - AKA the campus gym) is up and I do believe I will be doing the following:

Water Fitness T/TH 5-5:50pm for sure. It is really fun.


I am considering Group Strength** on Thurs from 3-3:50pm


Pilates on W from 12-12:45pm - maybe


Then just some time (whenever) on the machines...

I plan on working this stuff into my week to replace the physical therapy I have been doing. The real challenge is going to be TO GO! Campus is about 20mins from my house and gas is $$$ and.. and.. and.. NO MORE ANDs! I just have to go. I will work out a schedule so that I either run errands before or after class/workouts and probably go up and work in my campus office instead of here at home. That sounds like a plan... and a doable one at that. I will still be going to yoga MWF & Sat. I do {heart} the yoga so!

I want to get up to burning about 1000 calories a day. I was advised by a HS friend who is a personal trainer that this is the sure way to lose weight! Gotta get & keep my Body Movin'

I also want to eat a wider variety of plant-based & whole-grain foods (Elisa I know you are smiling your evil Vegan grin.. mwa ha ha). I want to fill up & yet use my 1400 calories to their maximum extent... i.e. getting the most for my buck (calorie) by eating well and feeling satisfied.

Yes?

YES!

**Group Strength- A full body integrated resistance training class designed to improve functional strength, coordination and balance using free weights, barbells, CorePoles, BOSU trainers, and stability balls.

Happy anniversary to me (and to Lupe, of course)

Today is our 1st wedding anniversary. I cannot believe a year has WHOOOSHED by so fast! Where did the time go and what the heck have we been doing?!?!

We spent a lovely 24hrs at The Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, TX. It was spectacular! We had cocktails. We had massages in their spa. We had an absolutely fabulous steak dinner with a marvelous Argentinean Malbec, and ended the meal with dark chocolate souffle (for me) and carrot cake cheesecake (for him) and coffee. After that we wandered back over to the Texan Station Sports Bar to catch the end of the Mavericks- Thunder game. It was crazy on a 53' TV screen!

We went back to our room where they had done a rose petal turn-down on our bed & opened our bottle of well-chilled champagne. This morning after a nice sleep in and more champagne - we ambled down to the Riverwalk Cantina for a superb brunch buffet! IT HAD A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!!! :D

We were sad to leave the resort, but you know, you have to face reality eventually!

When we got home Lupe went to see his family & I took care of my online students. When Lupe come back he had dinner, 18 red roses, and stuff for ice cream & brownies. It has been a great weekend and I ate, drank, and was pampered.

Back to my regularly schedule life tomorrow.... PT at 7:30am and yoga tomorrow evening. YAY!

Why a good yoga instructor makes all the difference

So ok, yea, I have been going to yoga for almost a month now and am up to 4x/week. I love it. I adore it. I cannot imagine my week without it! And it is because of my instructor Jessica.

Jessica is kind and compassionate. She is nurturing and caring. She adjusts the class to fit what is happening around us - weather, bad balance, the mood of the class - and I appreciate it all SO much.

I feel like I have become part of a community at the Arlington Yoga Center and I am really glad about it.

Tonight the weather was bad, Texas Spring storms, and there were only four of us in class. It was great because it was almost like a private session. As we were doing all of our different asanas (or poses) she was observing and as we neared the end before the awesome Shavasana she turned to me and said "You need a supported back bend." To another lady she said "You need a forward fold." To the other two she told them what they needed. And she went to each of us and set us up for whatever she thought we needed. Now I was thinking, "Why do I need a back bend and how does she know I need one?"

And as I sunk back onto that purple bolster propped against the wall and laid my head back on my rolled up towel, my arms draped down my sides an my eyes closed and it was EXACTLY what I needed. Ahhhhhhhhh... it was SO relaxing and my chest expanded and my back relaxed... it was fantastic to just lie there and be and breathe and rest in the pose.

And that was all BEFORE the lovely Shavasana that I do so enjoy at the end of each class.

What can I say, I am a yoga nut! I am so happy about being in the class and so very grateful to have found it and that it is something I enjoy.

I also can tell that I am stronger, which is a combination of four weeks of yoga and four weeks of PT. In any case, I was strong enough tonight to do cat-cow on all fours for the FIRST TIME! :D

Previously I had to do it in a chair because my shoulders & arms were not strong enough.

BUT TONIGHT
YES!

I am so ready for yoga at 7:45 tomorrow morning! WOOOOO!

Why sodas are no bueno

Lupe got home at 1am Thursday from the Kylie Minogue concert & woke me up... I couldn't go back to sleep until after 3am... I missed PT yesterday because I was so damn tired... that is OK, I had to go clean out my old/new office and get it fire code compliant so I'll still got some workout.

So I had not been drinking sodas for a while other than the occasional Vanilla Coke from Sonic because they are a yummy treat.

Yesterday during the mass clean-up/out & rearrange of my old/new office - University Hall 317 - I was thirsty. There was no bottled water, but a plethora of generic (store brand) cans of soda in the fridge. So over the course of several hours of hard work I consumed 2 and a half sodas. A creme, an orange, and half of a cola. While generic soads are not all that tasty (esp. the cola one) then were refreshing and wet my whistle, as well as gave me a sugar burst/energy that I needed while doing all that heavy lifting/furniture pushing.

So I ended up over my daily calorie goal by 520 clalories yesterday - FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY WERE THE SODAS!!!!

420 calories

Four hundred and twenty!!!!

That is a whole lot of "empty calories" - now, I know I burned a lot yesterday doing all that physical labor, but still! It blew my mind when I was filling in my food diary on My Fitness Pal and those sodas added up to 420! That is just under a third of my daily calories!!

This is a process and I am not beating myself up about it - I am pretty sure I worked most of the soda off pushing two huge metal desks, a fridge, some metal bookcases, and 15 HUGE (and heavy) boxes of books around the office yesterday. I am sore today, but in the good way. Yoga will probably really feel awesome tonight - I hope we do LOTS of stretching!

So, lesson learned, use one of the 500 plastic party cups in the office to walk down to the water fountain & fill up next time instead of reaching for a Refreshe Creme Soda! 420! Eeesh!

PS - This is a new treat I tried and really like it! They are so yummy and so little & cute!