Week 28: Sticking with the plan

 ** All foods tracked are one serving, unless otherwise noted.** 

July 6 - 

Peanut butter toast 

Seoul Taco Gogi bowl with rice and chicken

2 Hot Box Cookies

Cottage cheese

Tortilla chips

Graham Crackers

 Today I met a good friend in Columbia. We’ve started having monthly lunch dates to reconnect after we’ve both been swept away by life events. It’s wonderful reconnecting and I really enjoy our time together! I was really looking forward to the Gogi bowl and it did NOT disappoint. I’ve been craving one for a few months and it was so dang good. 

 I went for a blood pumping walk that morning with a different friend. We walked around a park in town that has rolling hills. She’s a good amount taller than I am so I had to hustle to keep up. We agreed to meet again for another round, but this time we’ll walk 3 laps, not two. 

 Thanks to the walk in the morning and watching what I eat, I was within appropriate amounts on all my areas of nutrition today. Yippee!!!

July 7 - 

Cottage cheese

Peanut Butter toast 

Steak fajita quesadilla

Mexican Rice

Chips (about 2 handfuls of the small, broken chips)

Hot fudge sundae

 I am so dang proud of myself! My oldest and I went out to a local Mexican restaurant tonight as I was not in the mood to cook. I only ate half of the food on my plate! I took a box of food home so I could have lunch tomorrow without having to worry about what I was going to eat.

 I also did a grocery pick up for the week, so we’re stocked up for the new recipes I’m going to try this week, but also some classics. It’s all about balance, right?

 Again, thanks to working out and being aware of what I’m eating, I managed to remain within appropriate amounts in the nutrition area.

July 8 - 

Bisquick biscuits

Sausage Gravy

French bread pizza (pepperoni, onion, green peppers, cheese, and black olives) - I ended up using 2 servings of the bread, but everything else was about one serving. I just couldn’t get it all on ⅛ of the French bread. I tried!

Cottage cheese

 I met a friend at the gym today for our workout. Her husband and son saw me working out on Sunday and he asked if I frequented the gym. I said that I do, so he gave me his wife’s number (who I met through her time as a local librarian) and I sent her a text asking if she’d like to join me on Monday. We shared conversation and exercise. It was very nice. We have plans to try and meet up as often as we can to workout and visit.

 I was over on sodium today, but everything else was within range. The sausage and pepperoni did me in. LOL!

July 9 - 

Lemon chicken gnocchi

Ice cream with chocolate syrup

Cottage cheese

Tortilla chips

 Today was an active rest day, so I ended up doing some yoga before bed, which means I really had to watch what I was eating throughout the day. I’ve noticed that I tend to eat fairly unbalanced meals. Forsaking much for breakfast so I have room to “play” at dinner. Once I logged my dinner with snacks (cottage cheese and chips), I realized that my calorie count was very low. So, I decided that instead of having a second serving (saving the last serving of the meal for my dinner on Wednesday) I would allow myself some ice cream. Because of the ice cream and chocolate syrup, I had zero wiggle room in the fat area, but I was within limits on everything else.

July 10 - 

Salad (lettuce mix with carrots and cabbage, green peppers, black olives, parmesan cheese, bacon pieces, croutons, Italian salad dressing, grape tomatoes)

Cottage cheese

Lemon chicken gnocchi

Tortilla chips

 Today, I managed to spread out my calories a little better than yesterday. No ice cream for me tonight! I am thinking of opening up a can of pears we have and throwing them in the fridge so I can have something sweet to eat. But also, strawberries are going on sale at a local grocery store so I may just go get some strawberries…

July 11 -

Banana 

Nectarine

Cottage cheese

Mixed nuts

Carne asada burrito, rice and refried beans

 Made it to the gym and actually managed to increase the weight on the tricep extension machine. Woo hoo! I have been doing one set of 10 reps using 30 lbs, and the remaining sets of 10 were using 20 lbs. Today, I did the first two sets at 30 lbs and the last one at 20 lbs! I am so excited, because when I started using the machine, I didn’t think for one minute I’d ever get past 20 lbs. I tried 30 lbs one time and I about died. LOL! I’m also working on picking up speed on the treadmill without causing more issues with my right knee. This week I’m working on strengthening my legs, so I’m hoping that using some of the machines will help with the knee issue without blowing my progress. I’ve gotten to a point where I begin to feel kind of guilty if I don’t go to the gym, which I remember from the last time I actually dedicated time to exercising. I’m extremely hopeful that this process is going slowly enough that I can manage to maintain it through the school year and beyond. The 75 day challenge that I’m working on ends in early September, so I’m hoping that it will set me up to do well for the remainder of the year. I might even try to ride my bike to the teacher work days in August (depending on care for the little one). It takes about an hour on the bike to ride there and like 45 minutes to get back (thanks, hills). But this requires me to get on my bike and start riding to build up the endurance needed to complete this task. So, I guess I’ll have to start riding. 

July 12 - 

Banana

Leftover Carne Asada Burrito, rice, and beans from July 11

Hamburger with bun, ketchup, and pickles

Hot dog with bun, ketchup and pickles

Shells and cheese

½ serving sunflowers (shelled and salted)

Mixed nuts

 Today was a weight and progress photo kinda of day. So, it was kind of disappointing. I didn’t see the scale move, nor do I see a difference in the photos. However, I am lifting more weights on various machines of my strength training routine and I tried on some clothes that were SUPER uncomfortable in May. My jeans were very tight around my stomach and thighs, making me very uncomfortable when I wore them to work. The same can be said for some of my work pants. However, after sticking with eating better, and exercising I am noticing a difference in how things are fitting, so I’ll take it as a win. It may be a win that only I can see, but it’s a win nonetheless. I woke up this morning, prepared to go to Yoga at the Y, but I didn’t feel my greatest and if I’ve learned one thing after my hospitalization with COVID and pneumonia in 2021, it’s that I need to listen to my body. If I push my body too hard, it pushes back and things go very wrong. So, I listened and decided to change my active rest activity for the day. It worked out well in my favor, as I felt better later in the day and did some weed-eating and tree trimming in a portion of my yard that is often neglected. I also went on a walk with my little one and his bestie while they practiced riding bikes. For dinner, we grilled, and I wanted both a burger and hot dog, so I decided to treat myself with one of each and a minimal amount of shells and cheese. When I initially logged in MyFitnessPal, I was WAY over on calories and other areas (fat and sodium). But since I didn’t go to the gym, I realized that I didn’t log any activity for the day today, but I did have my watch on so I decided to sync my watch to my Garmin app (which then connects to MyFitnessPal). Somehow, I managed to burn over 2,000 calories today, which helped increase the amount of calories, fat, and sodium I could ingest. Because math, right? LOL! Anyway, by doing the sync, I got all of my areas in range except sodium (which I was NOT surprised about. Dang hot dog!). Overall, while I had some disappointments in my day, I also managed to have some good moments that will help keep me going on this path.

Here are the progress photos from week 1, 2, and 3. The angle changes slightly so maybe that’s why I’m not seeing much difference. (On a side note, I may be in a different pair of swimsuit bottoms for the remaining photos as this pair are very loose on my stomach now.)