Day 32: Small Victories

Hello one and all! Let me start by saying I'll edit this post later to include a picture of my breakfast. Because it was delicious. But I'm blogging from my iPad right now, so no can do! Last night, I decided to find some motivational quotes, and write them on Post-Its to have next to my mirror. Sounds lame, right? Wrong! It was great to wake up this morning and see them. It made me feel quite positive about today's run. Which brings me to the small victories thing...

Today, I ran 3/4 of a mile (about 1.2 km, I think) without stopping. And I did it twice.

Unreal, right? I'll have another victory post on Saturday. Stay tuned!

On another note, I feel amazing today. My weights yesterday went great! I'm actually a bit sore in my glutes, thighs, shoulders, and abs. Great feeling! It lets me know I'm working hard.

Happy Thursday, everybody!

Day Ten: Lack of Sleep and Weights

Hello one and all! So today I had to get up for work at four AM. Which is normally totally okay for me, except I just couldn't sleep last night. I was just really restless, and I couldn't turn my brain off. I hate nights like that, especially because I seem to only have them when I need to get up early. So I came home from work, had a snack, drained my iPad battery, drained my phone battery, finished a book, and found a couple new exercises to try. I mean routines, like circuits and supersets. I'm really loving supersets though. I like the time crunch! I feel like I don't have to schedule time to work out this way. Anyway, after I did all that, I finally managed to doze off (earplugs in and sleep mask on).

I did add two extra exercises (one superset) to my work out today. Calf raises, one leg at a time, holding a dumbbell behind my back, and little leg lifts lying on my side with a weighted bar. I feel great now! Wide awake. And I had a great protein shake. I really had a hankering for something sweet, so instead of ruining my food day, I made my shake with half chocolate milk and half low fat soy milk. It definitely hit the spot! Took my sugar craving right away. And I reheated one of the clean pancakes for breakfast, topped with Greek yogurt and berries. So good! So they do reheat well. Here's the link:


http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=573914

So give them a shot if that's something you would be interested in trying! Have a great night, folks!

Day Nine: Music and Motivation

Hello one and all! Today was another running day. Also known as another day to make me feel discouraged. But today, I managed to turn that around. I made the decision to continue mixing up my speeds in intervals with my running. And today, that was really hard. I was feeling really down because I was just disappointed with my overall fitness level. I mean, I'm doing walk/jog intervals, and finding them pretty hard. That isn't something that I should be worrying about at my age. So I was running my intervals and getting really hard on myself in my mind. I won't lie, I dropped the fat bomb on myself a few times. And then, I had this crazy epiphany. This insane moment of total clarity. And it occurred to me:

Our bodies are capable of so many things. I can't keep thinking about this progress I'm making as something that isn't good enough. Instead, I need to constantly seek improvement, and never give up on pushing my limits.

There's my inspirational thought for the day. On a food note, I finally made my clean pancakes, and I had one for breakfast! I topped it with Greek yogurt and thawed berries, and it was actually pretty good. It'll be a nice change of pace! That's all for me today, folks.

Edit: I forgot to talk about the music and motivation part! So, the thing is, I love music. I'm always singing something! And the song of my weight loss journey so far has been the Benny Benassi remix of Shake It Out by Florence + the Machine. Seriously, if you haven't heard it, give it a real good listen. I love the original too, but the remix is good treadmill motivation music. And yes, I know that the song is about heartbreak and a failed relationship (I think), but to me, it's about what I'm doing right now. I mean, a failed relationship and heartbreak isn't relevant to me right now. I'm in a long term relationship with one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He's my better half, my best friend, and all that gross squishy stuff. Seriously. And while I have been heartbroken, that part of my life is so far from me now that that aspect of the song doesn't matter to me at all. What matters to me is that I'm choosing to interpret it in a way that is relevant to me. So I choose to look at it as a song about my issues with food. My issues and insecurities with my body. But at the end of the song, I always feel hope. My body will change, and so will my life and the way I feel about myself.

Have an excellent Tuesday!

Day Eight: Super Sets and Food Prep

Hello again, one and all! Back to working out today. I did total body super sets today, and what a workout that was! Hard stuff, but I feel great now. Last night's cheat meal was delicious. I had a burger loaded up with great stuff: mustard, barbeque sauce, pickles, extra old cheddar, lettuce, a hot dog, and some mushrooms and onions. Plus my french fries! They were delicious. I also had a hankering for ice cream, so Dan and I went to Dairy Queen and got a Blizzard for me (cookie dough and Smarties) and a chocolate shake for him. Plus a mint Oreo Blizzard for my dad. I couldn't even finish my Blizzard. It was great the first few bites, then it was just a really sweet, sticky mess. I think for my next cheat meal I'll avoid ice cream and have something else instead.

Blogging early again today, it isn't even noon yet. But I have things to do today! I forgot to mention that I actually did make the frozen "yogurt" on Saturday. I haven't tried it yet, but it smells good! Today, I'm making steel cut oats for me and momba to have for breakfast, and I'm finally going to try clean pancake making. Good stuff! Then Dan and I are hanging out after he gets off work. Probably going to play more Mario Party 9, because Dan is amazing and he bought it yesterday. It's actually really fun, and finally something different from all the other 8. For anyone who doesn't know, Mario Party is one of my favorite games ever. We had MP 2 and 3 for the N64, and I think we have MP 6 for the Game Cube, and now MP 8 and 9 for the Wii. I can't believe I've never been able to find MP 1, though I've played it before. Maybe I'll look for it....

That's it for me, happy Monday everyone!