peace + love + cupcakes

I was sort of lame in week 1 so let’s kick some booty this week. 

I didn’t keep up with my push-ups, I worked out 3 out of the 5 days I should’ve & I gained 1.3 pounds. Blah!  But I still walked 14 miles which I think is the most I’ve ever walked in a week. That’s good, right?  

My goals for this week will be to:

• Continue working towards losing 8 pounds (or rather 9.3 pounds) this month.  If I want to reach that goal that means I have to eat right & exercise 5 times this week.  
• Not eating after 8 was hit & miss.  A lot of the times I forgot about it. Soooo I set up my WW app to remind me to track all my food by 8pm.  That’s a clear reminder to STOP EATING.
• I’m still researching strength training programs. I need to start toning up.  
• My water intake has been horrible.  I bought some diet green tea from Costco and refilled our 5 gallon of water.  My goal for this week will be to finish it all this week. Insane right?  

Per the challenge, I have to go out of my way this week & perhaps do something I’ve never done before.  Funds are tight right now so I’ll have to get creative.  

Four things I did well today:

1. Made a healthy choice while eating Mexican food today.  I chose a salad with chicken & tortilla strips with low calorie dressing instead of a carb fest. 
2. No soft drinks.  Water all the way baby!
3. I listened to my body and rested.  I wanted to work out today & take tomorrow as a rest day since it’s my mom’s birthday but my body was aching. 
4. Tracked all my food.  It’s such a pain but so worth it. 

Mentally, I feel good.  Physically, I feel exhausted.  I am still can’t get over the fact that I walked 7 miles today.  My goal for the day was just to finish it.  But then this morning when I was setting up my Runkeeper to start I decided that I wanted to finish in two hours. I barely made it. I love my Runkeeper app.  I set it up so every 1/2 mile it would tell me my distance and pace.  That kept me motivated and on track.   

Setting realistic goals is important.  I know that I could say that this year I want to run a marathon.  That would just be setting myself up to fail.  I’ve learned that I’ve got to set short term goals which in the long run will help me achieve my long term goals.  The 4 main things I want to accomplish this year are get a job, continue to work on losing weight, run & take more risks.  I could wait until December to search for a job, lose a couple of pounds that month, run from one side of my house to the other and cross the street without looking at both sides.  But that wouldn’t be living.  How am I going to make reach those goals?

As far as weight loss goes, I am making it my monthly goal to work out at least 1,000 minutes & to walk at least 50 miles per month.  Last month I reached 749 minutes and I’m pleased with that because there was one week where I didn’t work out because I was sick.  I also walked a total of 42.7 miles in December.  I know I posted that my monthly goal is to lose 8 pounds.  I think that’s doable and I am motivated by the fact that last month I was able to lose 11.7 pounds during what is a difficult month due to all the food temptation.

One of the reasons why I decided to join the Do Life challenge was to keep motivated.  I think that has been one of the most difficult areas for me during the past year. I’m still trying to think about how to improve my job search & also figure out how to be more fearless.  Perhaps the Happiness Online project will help me determine that.  I’m hoping to post about that program in the next day or so.  Still trying to get my head around it.  


4 things that I did well today:

1. Woke up before 9am.  Now that may not seem like a big deal but for me it is.  When I worked I used to get up around 6:30.  However the past 9 months I’ve typically gotten up around 11ish unless I had something going on.  In order to get into a routine, I need to wake up at the same time every day. 
2. I walked 5K on the treadmill even though I didn’t want to finish it.  After about 20 minutes I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.  Instead of stopping, I just slowed down and told myself that my time didn’t matter.  Just finish the workout. 
3. Making a new healthy snack.  I heard about baked garbanzo beans so I am attempting to make them.  
4. I had a hearty breakfast and although I was extremely sleepy this morning, I only had one cup of coffee.  No need to be excessive in my caffeine intake.   My mom got me some amazing coffee from Mexico.  

I decided to participate in the Do Life Challenge.  If you haven’t heard about it & want more details, you can check it out here. I definitely recommend you sign up. It’s going to be a 12 week challenge which promises to be a lot of fun.  There will aslo be prizes awarded.  Now who doesn’t like that?

My goals for this month are:

1. Lose 8 pounds by the end of January. 
2. Workout 21 days out of the 31 in the month. I track my workouts on MyFitnessPal, using Runkeeper & my Fitbit. 
3. Find a strength training program and work on it three times a week. Any recommendations for a newbie?
4. Improve my 5K time on the treadmill. Fastest time is 49:19. 
5. Stop eating after 8. If I am hungry, I can only drink water/tea or eat 0 point value food i.e. fruits & veggies.