Valentine's Day and my Friday

I have seen a lot of people stressing over today. All the tempting chocolates and goodies to be devoured. Luckily, Valentine's Day has never been a big deal to me. My husband won't be bringing home any box of chocolates to tempt me with. I'm not Anti-Valentine's Day or anything. I love the colors (red and pink) everywhere I look and all of the cute things people do for each other. I love that there are flowers everywhere you go. I also have fun with the crafts ideas that the kids and I can do together. I just don't really take part in the celebration. Tonight, the husband and I are skipping the ball they have for his company and will enjoy our evening eating a healthy dinner (strawberry spinach salad with grilled chicken and blue cheese) and watching one of our favorite movies together after the kids go to bed. I'll squeeze a run in there somewhere.  We still have fun with today. We joke about each hug and kiss being a "Valentine's Kiss" and a "Valentine's Hug." It's just a relaxing and peaceful time for us. Now next month when St. Patty's Day comes around.. that's when you'll hear me whining about all the things I must have. Irish Cream Cupcakes being on the top of the must have list. I may just be trying out this Recipe for them.

For those of you who are battling with something today, just hang in there. It's okay to have a treat and enjoy yourself, as long as you do so with control. Because I have learned that over depriving yourself of the things you love, can only lead to big mess ups later on. I'm sure you all know the quote by Julia Child, "Everything in moderation... including moderation."  And eat a heart shaped Reese's cup for me. Tomorrow is my weigh in at the gym and I'm keeping things clean today. I want to blow her mind when I go in weighing less than last week even after Valentine's Day. :)


Today is my Friday! The whole family gets a four day weekend. That's 4 days of sleeping in past 5:00am and staying up later than 10! That's a weekend with some hockey games to watch and time to spend together. I will also be buying my bike this weekend. I'm so excited to get that baby and start riding around town with it. I've managed to get my run to an acceptable speed for the running part of the triathlon. I will now be focusing more on the biking (which will be a 20k ride). Then I will begin to focus on the swimming, because this will take me the most time. And then, I'll start adding them all together. Have I mentioned how excited I am about this thing? More excited about who I'm doing it with, my SIL. She's freakin' awesome and it will be so fun to have this awesome thing to do together. I do believe I have reached max on my allowed use of the word "awesome" for one blog post.

Also, I got a little impatient and took some measurements this week (even though I said I would wait until I finished phase 1 of NROL4W)... and I've lost some inches. Not a huge amount (.5 inch here, .25 there).. but I'm very happy about it. Glad I decided to give this workout a try. Hoping to have really good results to share with you all in 4 more weeks.

One more thing before I end this blog. I'm waiting on my big box of Vitatops to arrive. I finally ordered myself a box, with 4 different flavors. I'm excited to try them all out. I've had the double chocolate one and really enjoyed it. It'll be my daily treat that keeps the sugar monster at bay.

Happy Valentine's Day. :)

Don't do it alone...

I think one of the biggest factors that has led to me reaching many of the goals I set and pushing towards my next set of goals, is that I didn't start this weight loss saga and healthy lifestyle change alone. I started with my mom. We sat down and planned out our goals, shared our weights and measurements with each other, and joined MFP together. Each day, she is someone I can confide in. If I'm having a day where all I want to do is eat and eat, I can talk to her about it. 10 times out of 10, it's not because I'm hungry, there is something else bothering me. I've been able to share in my victories and failures. It's nice not to hide anything and just have someone to be open up about. It has also created accountability. When working on the same goal with someone, you want to have success to share more than failure. You want to be a good influence on the other person. We have found healthy ways to eat the foods we love and talk about what we are eating each day. There have been times when one of us would have to say, "Now come on, you can eat better than that" and just as many times where we have said, "Great job, today!"
Days where getting to the gym and working out seems like the biggest obstacle in your life, that extra push from your weight loss buddy is what makes all of the difference.
I still have my mom in my corner and we are still working hard together. But I have recently joined a program offered at my gym (I've mentioned it in a few previous posts). One thing the programs requires is that I do a weekly check in. I go do a weigh in and have it put and saved into my file there. We talk about the good and the bad for the week and the things I'd like to see happen the following week. This weekly 15 minute meeting I have with this lady on Fridays holds great power over me. I don't want to disappoint her. I want to go in with good things to talk about and see good things happening to my body. She is an amazing cheerleader. Each week, when we see a change (however small) she will jump up and dance with me. At first, it was just her dancing, but now.. I enjoy to get jiggy with it with her. Because each victory (however small) does deserve a dance! For those weeks where the cravings are hitting me hard, I just think about Friday. Do I want to give in to those cravings and have it show up on Friday and have to tell her about it? No way. Nothing out there can taste as good as having my 5 minute dance with my buddy on Friday feels. This week, I'm sick. First time I've been sick in a long time and I'm probably being a bigger baby about it because of that. The kids finally decided to share those lovely germs that they've collected from the kids in school and daycare. I find that those times where I am sick, I tend to crave sugar more than usual. But I keep holding onto Friday and it keeps those sweets at bay. A few months from now, when we do a new fitness evaluation and measurements, I want to have GREAT changes to document. I want to be on her wall of fame!
I'm also working at training for a Triathlon. I have still done my workouts and training this week (besides being sick) because I don't want to let down my Triathlon buddy.

So, whatever your goal, find that buddy that is going to help you... and then go reach those goals!

Hello, February!

February is looking to be a great month!  Why? 

1. I have a computer again. For the majority of January, I did not. The computer crashed and I was getting by using my phone or jumping on my mom's computer when we went over to visit. But now, here I am, sitting in my own house and typing on the computer. I can blog again!

2. We have a new puppy! He gets along great with our older dog, adores the children, and just melts our heart. His name is Rufus and he's AWESOME! ^ That's his happy face. ;)  He's only been around for just a short time but I'm completely in love with him!

3. I've been doing really well in the gym. I started the NROL4W (New Rules of Lifting for Women) and I really like it! In fact, I'm a little sore today from yesterday's workout. It's been a while since I've had such a fulfilling workout. 

4. I'm getting a bike this month. I've been saving up, shopping around, trying out bikes, and working hard to narrow it down to the one I want. I've gotten it down to two. I'm going to do a test drive this weekend and finally pick my bike up. That's one step closer to the triathlon that I'll be doing later this year (yes, that's still happening). 

I finally got things rolling with that program at my gym. I can even start working with a personal trainer for free, if I decide. But she does group workouts and I'm really enjoying myself with the NROL4W, so I may hold off on that. I go in every Friday for a weekly weigh in. Then in a few months, I go in for another evaluation to check progress. 

I had several tests and had a fitness evaluation to get an idea of how fit I am and where I need to work on. These are the results (sorry it's sideways, can't figure out how to make it rotate): 

I'm a little surprised in how low the Aerobic Fitness scored, I expected better there. I also did poorly in the flexibility. These are two things I've been working on a lot lately. But check out the Biceps Strength score! Very pleased with that. Also, my Body fat is really reducing, so while it's not great right now, it's way better than it was several months ago.  So this is my starting point for the year. I want to improve in each of these areas. It works with my goals for the year. Which I have finally sat down and thought about. 

I've been creating a Vision Board. When I'm finished, I'll share it with you guys.  

I'm starting to train for the Triathlon. I've been doing the running but now I'll be throwing in some swimming and biking. I will also be doing a Mud Run this summer! It's a 5K obstacle run and I'm very excited about it! My biggest goal this year is to get outdoors more. I'm going to be more active during the day (not just my gym time) and go out some more.  I've been doing my runs outside. I bundle up and go for the run. I come back feeling really refreshed and awake (winter will do that). 

Right now this is what my week looks like: 

Mon- Gym (NROL4W)

Tue- Running

Wed- Gym (NROL4W)

Thur- Running

Fri- Gym (NROL4W)

Sat- Running

Sun- Yoga and rest

I'll have to change up my schedule a bit to fit in biking and swimming here soon. 

Hope you are all doing well! I'm happy to be back. :)