Week 1

I managed to get in three 1 hr sessions at the gym last week. My trial with them is over so I need to figure out my next steps. I really enjoyed going and using all of the machines. I don’t ever see myself joining one of their classes and I have hand weights at home that I can use. But I don’t have the space or the money to set up an exercise bike, and elliptical machine and a treadmill. What I did realize this week is that I still have a few day passes for the Dartmouth Sportsplex that I haven’t used. They have all the same machines available, and since I’ve already paid for it, I’m going to use them up before I commit to a gym membership.

I had a great week of good food choices. One of the things that I like about choosing a healthy lifestyle versus being on a diet, is that I don’t limit myself from having good tasting, bad for me things as long as it’s in moderation (no more sitting down to eat a whole bag of chips). So I did enjoy 2 small Cinnabons this week and didn’t feel at all guilty about it. I tracked it in MFP, accepted that my calories were high that day and moved on.

So between the exercise and the good eating I thought I would show a loss on the scale when I weighed in Sunday morning. I was pleasantly surprised with a 2.5 lb loss! That puts me at 7 lbs lost so far this year.

My plan this week is to get to the gym at least 3 times, walk with my friend Nicole (who just signed up to run her first 5k this summer at the Ocean Breeze!) and to keep eating well. Hilary has some great sounding meals planned, which is helping us to not eat out nearly as much as we had been last year. I’m sure cutting down on fast food is playing a big role in my weight loss too.

I’ve also decided to set myself a running goal. I looked back at the results of all the 5ks I’ve run in the past 3 years. My fastest run was in April 2014 with a chip time of 41:59. The last 5k I ran was 47:08. So my goal for this year is to run a 5k in under 40 minutes. It’s a big stretch to try to improve my time by over 7 minutes from last year, but I’m feeling good about it.

And with any luck, the snow will eventually melt, the sidewalks will be clear and I can get outside again.

C is for....

Cookies and Cake and Chocolate and Candy and ice Cream and Chips and  CRAP.

These are all things that I have been eating way too much of and as such, I'm back to gaining weight instead of losing it.

That stops today.

Today I am starting another 6-week accountability group.  My goal for this group is to stop eating all of these C-words.  Overall we eat a very healthy, fresh food diet.  Hilary is an amazing cook who is always on the hunt for new, exciting recipes that are tasty and healthy.  I have a healthy breakfast, a well packed lunch and a great dinner.   I need to stop snacking after work and in the evenings before bed.

My other detractor of late has been having a car.  Due to various commitments, we've been keeping our weekend rental car during the week which adds 2 problems to my weight loss/health plan.  1) I'm not walking 20 minutes every morning from the bus to work.  2) It's far to convenient to skip breakfast and pick up something at the drive through.  My food choices for the last 2 weeks have not been great.

While this feels a bit like starting over, it really is just getting back on tract.  I've had 2 weeks of sloth and gluttony, so no it's time to settle back into my healthy routine.

Rules for Living

An article was published by the Canadian Press today about the 9 rules for living that author Bruce Grierson  has penned. Grierson recently published a book, What Makes Olga Run?, about 93 year-old Canadian track star Olga Kotelko. I’m looking forward to reading the book because WOW! what an inspiration. Olga didn't take up track and field events until she was in her 70s and sounds like the kind of old lady I would love to grow up to be.

Back to Grierson’s 9 rules for living. Some of his rules seem like no brainers: “Begin Now” - “Don't Do It If You Don't Love It” - “Keep Moving”, while some made me pause and think about them a bit more: “Be Opportunistic” – “Believe in Something” and "Be a Mensch"  . It made me think. What rules for living do I have? At the young age of 43, I’m no expert on longevity, but I realized I do have a few “rules” that I try to follow. Hopefully they help lead to a long and healthy life. And who knows? Maybe I’ll be setting records when I’m in my 90s!

Andy’s Rules for Living

1. Laugh every day 
2. Tell the people you love that you love them every day 
3. Drink plenty of water 
4. Eat fresh vegetables 
5. Get out and walk 
6. Get enough sleep 
7. Be kind to yourself 
8. Own pets 
9. Believe in yourself 

What are your rules for living?

What's in your cart?

Being prepared and having the right foods on hand is key to eating well.  If you don't have everything you need to get through the week, it's too easy to fall back on eating out, grabbing quick snacks and suddenly you have undone all your hard work from the week before.

On Saturday Hilary plans out our meals for the upcoming week, we discuss what I want to take for lunches and have for breakfast each day, we make a list and head to the grocery store.   We buy very few "convenience" foods, preferring fresh items that we prepare ourselves.  Except waffles - one of the few foods Liam will eat (and nope, he won't eat Hilary's amazing homemade waffles.  Oh well, more for me)

If you aren't used to planning, shopping, preparing and cooking I can understand how it can seem overwhelming to eat healthy, homemade foods.  I'm doubly blessed that Hilary is not only an amazing cook, she is also a domestic goddess that has all of this planning, shopping and preparing stuff down to a fine art.  Mostly I'm just along for the ride (I usually don't even get to push the cart; sometimes she lets me cross things off the list, but I think that is just to keep me busy and cut down on my opportunities for impulse purchases)

I read somewhere recently that you should only shop for items around the outer aisles of the grocery store.  That keeps you away from the canned and packaged goods and steers you to the fresh produce, cheese, meat and seafood counters.  The majority of our shopping seems to be done in the fruit and vegetable section, so I think we have this "rule" down pat.

What is in your shopping cart each week?

Time

Finding time for yourself is important.  If you don’t recharge and relax you can never be the best person for those around you.  But finding that time can be hard.  Work, commuting, dinner, house cleaning, homework, sleep, grocery shopping, bedtime routines, family time, date nights and every other little detail of life still need to happen.  It can seem overwhelming to try to add in exercise on top of it all.  Yet if we don’t make the time, it will never happen.

Some people wake up early, before the requirements of the day begin and run or work out then.  I’ve managed to do that a grand total of once.  I value my sleep just as much as being active.  Actually, I might value sleep a wee bit more. 

One of the ways that I’ve added in the time to exercise without feeling guiltyier about taking away family time was to join Tae Kwon Do with Liam.  That way I’m still getting 3 hours of exercise a week, but I’m still spending that time with him. 

Finding time over and above TKD to fit in running is currently a struggle.  I don't get home from work till after 5:00, and even if I'm out the door by 5:30, it's after 6:30 before I'm home, changed and ready to engage in family life. It is doable, and I have an amazing family that is supportive of this, but I find it hard sometimes to just go, Go, GO! 

How do you balance all the requirements of life with finding time to exercise?

My plans

Plans always seem to do better when you write them down and shout them out to the world to help hold you accountable.   So here are my long and short term plans.

Short Term

• Start tracking my food again at MyFitnessPal
• Drink more water
• Wear my Fitbit Zip every day and strive for 10,000 steps a day
• Go to Tae Kwon Do 3 times a week for the next 6 weeks
• Run at least once a week

Long Term

• Run my first 10k in June
• Advance two levels in TKD and be a Blue belt
• Lose 50 pounds

What are your plans for the year?