Tag Archives: fitness

Small Tweaks for a Big Difference

I lost a good portion of my weight by making dead-easy (but also boring) meals like chicken patties with plain brown rice and plain broccoli. Healthy but incredibly boring. I used to look at recipes and think there were too many unhealthy ingredients–too much milk, sugar, cheese, whatever it was.

The more I read health blogs, the more I realize that there are plenty of ways to make healthy food that’s not boring (and that even an “unhealthy” meal I make myself is still probably healthier than its restaurant/takeout equivalent), and I’ve been trying to cook and entertain more lately. Slowly, I’m turning grabbing takeout for at least half of my meals into trying to cook as much as possible so I can save money. I mean, what good is losing all this weight if I can’t buy fun clothes????

I’m also REALLY trying to become a morning exerciser/more organized person. (Um, maybe these are actually BIG TWEAKS.) While I usually don’t make it to the gym in the morning, even I can roll out of bed and into my living room to do a workout DVD and a few minutes of yoga. And if I have a few more minutes, instead of reading blogs (which, although I love, is honestly a HUGE time suck for me), I can do something productive like cook. Which I did for the second day in a row BEFORE WORK. I sauteed some spinach, onions and chicken sausage to add into my risotto.

But to be honest? The one habit I’ll never give up? Hopping on my scale every morning. After losing 50 pounds, I need to know that I’m keeping it off. And if I didn’t hop on every day, I wouldn’t have realized that I freaked out on Monday and was just retaining a little water–just from pumping my body with lots of water, the scale already says 4 pounds less than it did on Monday.

DSCF7001.JPG

Oops, that’s not a change 🙂

Also, I’m really honored that Tina named me one of her “health heroes” in her latest Health.com post. Tina is definitely one of my favorite bloggers, and I’m lucky now to also call her a real-life friend, so it really means a lot to me! Also, I’m in good company over there.

A Quiet Week

If this were a normal week, I would have already completed a boot camp, had a Junior League meeting and gone to a blog event. But since I’m sick, I’ve come home every night after work and spent it on the couch with Mr. Bailey. I guess I needed it.

I’m still going strong on eating in this week. I almost ordered takeout when I got home, but remembered I had a few more meatballs left in my fridge.

I also haven’t run or exercised since Sunday. While I just have a bad cold, and I probably could work out, I’ve chosen not to, so that I can conserve energy and hopefully feel better faster. (And, um, I don’t mind taking a few days off!)

The one thing I realized this week: I am going to do everything in my power to become  a morning exerciser. I watch Ashley and Sara tweet about their morning workouts, and I wonder why I don’t do that. This week has been really nice having extra time after work since I haven’t been working out. I’m going to try the morning/lunch workouts again next week.

And yes, I’ll take some cheese with this whine.