End of March

I cannot believe that today is the last day of March.  These 3 months have gone by so fast.  I have to say that these 3 months have been exciting and a bit of an adventure.  It all started on Jan 1st when I told myself that I would try and be healthy again.  Menu planning and meal prep have been a huge part in the last 3 months.  Finding foods that keep my diet fun and interesting has been a bit of a challenge but I was up for that challenge.  I was hoping to have 30 lbs off by the end of the 3 months and I met that goal which makes me extremely happy.  I have gotten back on the exercise wagon too and when I went for a 4 K run this morning I felt like I am getting back into the swing of things when it comes to running.  I was actually able to run the entire 4K which is something I have not been able to do for months.  I have a half marathon schedule for september so it is motivation to keep up with the running.

I am going to start making monthly goals for myself and reward myself each time I succeed with reaching the goal.

April goals:

organize my house

find new recipes to try

be more responsible with my spending

work on spring cleaning

strength train 3x/week

run 4-5x/week

yoga 3x/week

These goals are pretty realistic since I am already doing a lot of them but when I look back I want to make sure that I have done them all.  Now I just need to think of a reward.  Weight loss won't be a goal as I know that it will come eventually and don't want to set the numbers.  If I eat as clean as possible and exercise that is all I can do and I am sure the scale will continue to go down.

I really do want my house to be much more organized.  Such a struggle for me.  I need to set small tasks because when I set big ones I just start feeling overwhelmed and don't want to do anything at all.

well I should get going.  I am so tired.  the last 2 days I have had education days and then worked 4 hrs of OT yesterday.  I will be so happy when this set (start thursday) is over.

Race weekend

I can't believe that around the bay is on sunday.  My goal for next year is to be trained for the 30K.  I so want to do that again, but for now I am excited for the 5 Km race.  I feel somewhat trained for it but I know that I will not get a PR on sunday.  I will just be happy to run 5K with my husband and it doesn't matter what my time is.  I had really gotten out of running and am just happy to be getting back into it.  I have a half marathon booked for sept so I will be motivated to keep up with the running.

Work has been busy for 2/3 days and I work again tonight.  I must say though that after being off with my injury I am happy to be back at work.  Even though things can make it suck at times overall I love my job.

I have been doing well with keeping up with my strength training too.  On wednesday before work I actually went to the gym and did ST rather then just running.  I did 3 different things before each day shift.  I did intervals one day, ST the 2nd day and yesterday I ran 4K outside (have not done a run before a day shift in a long time and it felt so great).  I went to yoga on monday night and can't wait to go again on sunday.  This week did not really give me the chance to go.  Once hockey is done for my husband I may be able to go to some later classes on my way home from work if they are offered on the days it would work for me.

I have a 2 day course next week which really cuts in to the 5 days off thing I usually have going on.  So no OT shifts for me which is ok since I have the best easter schedule for getting the OT.  friday and sunday night.  I did a switch which means I am losing out on 4 hrs of OT but that is ok.  Normally I like working nights but this thing I have going on with working 3 days 1 night feels great when the 3 days are over and knowing I only have 1 night ;)  not sure how often this will happen but it will be nice to do it every once in a while.

Still doing awesome with the meal prep and menu planning.  I was all set for the week which feels so awesome.  I even had a menu  made for the boys too which is helpful.  what did suck though was how much we spent on groceries when we went earlier in the week.  I haven't spent that much ever for a week I don't think.  I am going to try and get most of the groceries where they do price matching.  I have an awesome new app on my phone that you can just find the items on sale at different stores and show it to the cashier and they will match it.  I don't think my local grocery store does it so I will have to find somewhere else to do the majority of my shopping.  the produce is always awesome at my grocery store so I need to find somewhere similar.

Well I had another loss on the scale this week.  I was down 1.6 lbs!!!  I have lost 31.2 lbs since Jan 1st. I really hope I reach my mini goal on April 8th (the day we leave for nashville).  This seriously is the first time I am going away where I am not freaking out about my weight before we are leaving.  I am happy with how well I am doing and doing my best to make it a lifestyle change.  I am amazed that my 40 yr old body is doing what it is doing.  I want to be healthy from now on and can't allow myself to slip back into old habits.  I really need to help my little man too be more healthy.  He has been packing on the pounds so I need to help him with this.  What a struggle though with a fussy boy who is on meds that can cause weight gain.  We really need to help him stay active which may help get some of the extra weight off that he has.  I will talk to the paediatrician in June when we have the appt.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Mine will be working one night, menu planning, some meal prep?, housework and the race!!!

Spring in in the air...

So tomorrow is the first day of spring.  We are having ok weather but it is nice to know that the end of winter is in site and even if we get some more snow I know that it won't last.  I need to make a spring cleaning list and make sure that I do each of the tasks on it before we go on our trip.  I want a nice and clean house when I come back from our trip.  Some of the items will be daily tasks but I need to have a 2nd list of bigger things that need done like washing the cupboards in the kitchen (lots of dust etc), cleaning the fridge etc.  Then I will have a weekly/daily list of things that need to get done.  I am determined that by the end of the year I will have my house in much better order then I ever have which will be such an accomplishment for me.  it will be so great to be able to know that my house would always be clean incase people just stop by.

I am almost done my set of work and it actually has been going ok.  yesterday I had a bit of a set back with the other side of my neck/back but it is so much better today.  I am having a bit of an issue with my left knee too.  Nothing major but it keeps wanting to almost give out which is a weird feeling.

Exercise:

I have been doing my running, yoga and going to Jills.  This week has been a bit harder as I have been working this week.  I am going to do my best to make it out there in the morning after work but I am nervous to even say that since the last time I was thinking about doing that I was in the accident.  I went for a 4K run when I got up today and it was great.  The best one I had on that route which makes me feel great.  I am doing good about getting my workout in before my day shift too which makes me feel good.


Food:

Still doing good with the clean eating but I am allowing myself to not feel guilty about going out to eat as long as I make the best choice with the menu provided and then being back to clean eating.

Mood:

It is amazing how being healthy can make your mood so much better.  I feel more relaxed, and just a happier person.

Weight:

I did my weekly WI today and was down 2.2 lbs for a total of 29.6 lbs.  I can't believe that I am almost at 30 lbs loss.  I remember when I first started I kept thinking how can i get as much weight off as I had wanted too.  I was so discouraged.  Thankfully I took each day at a time and look where I am now in the 3rd week of March.  I want to keep this up and come the summer I wont' have to keep think how I need to lose weight.  I have said this before but I need to say it again.  if I reach my healthy weight I want to stay there.  I know the older you get the harder it is to get the weight off but right now it is still going good so i will just keep doing what I am doing and know that eventually I will be at a healthy weight for me.

Awesome week

Well this week has flown by and it was a pretty good week for everything.  My back still has its moments but overall it is doing much better.  I have a bunch of tyl 3's stocked up incase the 12 hr shifts (which I start again on monday) do a number to my back.

exercise:
well this week I have gone to Jills 3x and will be going again on sunday.  I am doing the warm ups and the intervals that she throws in during the classes but I am still picking and choosing the type of exercises I do.  I try and do every muscle group and Jill helps me out with deciding what to do.  I won't go back the the Rx workout until I make it through my first week back to work ok.  I have also amped it up in the running department as of today I ran 4x outside this week.  2 3km's 2 4Km's and today I ran 5 km's and I must say I am so happy with how I have done.  I think I will go into the race on the 29th feeling somewhat prepared which will be better then last year.  I am going to have 4 yoga sessions in by tomorrow too.  I love that they have the studio so much warmer now (it is a the temp that it is supposed to be).

food:
even though I have eaten out a few times in the last week I have made smart choices and haven't fallen off the wagon which usually happens to me when I deviate from what I have planned.  I think because of that I have had such a long term issue with yoyo dieting.  I just get right back to clean eating with my next snack/meal.  I have done some meal prep but tomorrow I will be doing even more.

I am feeling so amazing and that I am back in the grove of making the healthiest choices that I can for the majority of the time.  I am trying really hard to just tell myself that this is how I want to eat from now on and every once in a while have a meal out with friends/family and not feel really guilty about it.  What I need to avoid are all the packaged snacks that are like a drug for me and cause me to just keep eating more and more of those things (chips, chocolate bars, cookies etc).  I even had an amazing scone yesterday when I went out for high tea with a friend but that was the only thing of the dessert menu that I had and just had the 1 scone.  I normally would have had 2 of them and tried the other little squares that were brought out.  I knew the scone would be a 10+ so that is why I went with that option.

I still am not doing very well with keeping the house clean.  Not sure why it is such a struggle.  Before we go to Nashville in april I need to get everything cleaned up and organized!!!!

Well I have to leave for yoga in 10 min.  Have a great weekend everyone.

update

Usually I try to blog every week but last week just got away from me.  I have still been having some issues with my upper back and neck but am slowly getting back into regular workouts.  I weighed myself on the 6th and wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I had my 1st gain of just 0.2 lbs the week prior so when I saw the number on the scale on friday I was so shocked, a very happy shocked.  I had lost the 0.2 lbs plus another 3.6 lbs.  3.8 lbs in one week.  I also had reached a mini goal that I had set for myself for when we went to the garth brooks concert.  My next mini goal is for when we go to nashville which is just 4 weeks and 1 day away.  I can't believe how quick that is coming up.  Now that I have it written down I will get my butt in gear.  

My plan is to go back to work on the 16th.  Even though my neck is still causing me problems I can't stay home forever.  I will not know how work will make it feel until I actually go to work.  I have a dr's appt on friday and I am going to make sure I get some tyl 3's as I still need to take them on occasion.  

I am keeping it really clean in the kitchen but because we have been away a couple of days I haven't really done a menu yet for this week which is something i need to work on.  Menu planning has been so key in my success.  On the exercise front I have been going back to Jill's for the strength training but just modifying it a bit.  Feels great to be doing that gain.  I also had started running on the treadmill last week and today I did my first outside run in a month and I thought I did pretty good.  Because the race is just a couple of weeks away I need to get out running more.  Tomorrow before K leaves for work I want to try and do 3K and then once little man goes to school I will go to Jill's.  Hopefully it isn't too much all at once.  I guess I will know tomorrow.  

Well I should get menu planning.  Tomorrow will be a busy day with buying a shower gift, going downtown to get something and the exercise too.  Oh and I am reading a text book for a course I do at the end of the month.  Time is just going to fly buy and before I know it I will be on a bus to Nashville!!!!!

Reflections on February

So things had been going great for the first couple of weeks of february and then on the 20th I was rear ended on my way home from work.  This has led to a very stiff and sore neck and upper back.  I have been trying to stay active but but I think for the first few days I did too much and now it gets more intense with very little activity.  I tried to go back to work on thursday but only lasted for a couple of hours and had to come home.  On friday I spent a few hours at urgent care and ended up getting some pain meds.  Have a physio appt and family dr appt on tuesday.  I was going to do some hot yoga today but went for a walk which made things stiffen right up so I cancelled my yoga for today and tomorrow until i get looked at again.

Needless to say this has really put a halt on my working out which is not fun.  I am still doing ok with my eating though which is good since normally I would have given up by now and had some crappy food.  I weighed myself yesterday and was up 0.2 lbs.  My first gain in 8 weeks.  I am actually not upset by this because I though it was going to be more of a gain.  I just need to keep it clean in the kitchen and do some walking and then hopefully I will get some answers on tuesday as to what type of activities I can do.  How am I supposed to work a 12 hr shift if I can't even do a workout for an hour.

Well I need to do some menu planning for the upcoming week and make a grocery list.
It is not fun being injured but I know it could be worse and I will take a few weeks over a more serious issue.