Six Months In!

Time does fly when you're having fun. Last week marked six months into my fitness journey; let's see how much progress has been made. First and foremost I lost a total of about 20.5 pounds! The majority of that amount was lost in the first thirty days and for the last thirty (most of the summer) I pretty much stayed consistent and then surprisingly lost a few more pounds in the last 1-2 weeks. I was happy to see the scale moving again after the post-vacation bloating!

Over the past six months, I learned a lot about how to eat properly and was mostly able to focus my workout ADHD and create somewhat balanced workout plans. I also developed new interests as it related to eating and exercising like clean eating and Bikram Yoga (haven't done it yet but its in the works). I spent time in injury recovery from running and discovered the benefits of cross-training; I did pool running, biking, Yoga, Pilates and also spent some time falling in love with the elliptical again. After recovering, I went back to run/walking and found some beautiful trails in Oakbrook, IL (photos in the last post). I learned how to take my new-found healthy lifestyle on the road (I spent the better part of the summer elsewhere other than my home) and trick and strategies to do so. I have mostly retrained my taste buds so now processed and restaurant foods taste "too sweet" or "too salty". "Too salty" is a frequent complaint these days. My blood pressure has improved drastically, I don't recall the exact numbers but it was low enough to catch my attention. All of these changes have been wonderful however the most important one is that I feel STRONGER. I was grateful for the hours I spent in Body Pump this summer when I had to carry five dozen bagels, two dozen pastries and my book bag from my car into a lecture hall a few weeks ago. 

I have an fall/winter workout schedule planned and possibly a 5k coming up....Finally! More on that in later posts. I am resuming my Couch-to-5k training this week in preparation for that and adding in two strength training classes and one Yoga or Pilates class per week. Well, that's all for now folks.

Success: Congratulations (and a huge THANK YOU) to my workout partner on achieving his weight loss goal; he lost 30 lbs over fourteen months! I appreciate having a workout partner even though it is long distance because we keep each other accountable and there is someone to listen to my crazy workout ideas and recipes.

Share: Do you utilize a workout partner to keep you accountable?

I'm Back!

The unintended hiatus has ended! I decided to take a little break from blogging to finish up the school year but a little break turned into a long one when I had to pack up and hit the road for work only three short days after my final exam. I've been burning it at both ends with work and other obligations but I finally have some semblance of normalcy so I am back! I have lots to share and will be doing so over a few posts in the next couple of days. I am living out of a hotel room currently so I will post about the challenges of maintaining your eating and exercise habits away from home, I will still do the 90 day update even though it is long past, and also let you all know what I have been doing in terms of working out and eating these days (I was in injury recovery for a while). A hair and makeup post or two make sneak in there somewhere. In the meantime, enjoy these photos that I took on some of my walks/runs in this beautiful, and very exercise friendly area.

Couch to 5K works!

It's been a while since I have posted on the bloggie. April was a whirlwind of a month and though I had a lot of fun (and worked my butt off), I can't say I am too sad to see it go. I have been mostly consistent with my workouts- I think I got in about 4 days per week. I took a few rest days each week though to nurse my shins and prevent major injury. I have also been keeping up with the Couch to 5K program and it has been great! I finished week 5 today and made it through a full 20 minutes of jogging without stopping. I have NEVER done this in my life. I remember when I started this program I couldn't even run 1 minute without feeling out of breath. What I have learnt so far is that you can definitely keep running long after you think you can't. It's all about mental toughness. I have four more weeks to go and I will be celebrating the end of the program by running my first 5K in June!

In other news, May 15 will make 90 days since I started this journey. I will be back next week with a post on what I have accomplished in the last 90 days. Happy exercising!

Working Out and Hair - Part 1

Hey y'all! I know it has been a while but things got a little busy around here. Well, I did complete most of my workouts from the last post, (with the exception of WL Yoga) and I did not get a chance to workout during my trip (but I did dance my butt off one night :-)) Anyhoo, when I returned home I was mucho bloated from all the extra salt and extra food consumed during the weekend's festivities. I quickly grabbed that water bottle (I drank lots and lots and lots) and got back to working out. I am very happy to say that I was back to my pre-trip weight before the end of the week. Since then Couch-to-5K has been in full effect and I am currently finishing up the Week Two regimen. I am also adding on cardio and weight sessions on alternating days after running/walking. I am however taking a day off after each of those workout days to try to nurse my terrible shin splints ( I will do a post about that).

So, on to the subject of this post.... MY HAIR.

One of my challenges this week was having to take two consecutive days off from working out so that I could relax my hair. While this doesn't seem so bad in retrospect, it was a huge bother since I was getting into the groove of working out every other day, and I have a really itchy scalp that I had to keep in check. What I did was, I worked out on Wednesday (my hair was soaked when I was done), let it dry overnight, then detangled and oiled my scalp Thursday morning and then left it alone until today- relaxer day. Detangling was a very painful process, I lost lottttss of hair but the oiling did curb my itchyness and help me to make it to today without digging in. This morning I went through the relaxer process (a very, very long one) and guess what? NO BURNS!!! This is a miracle for me. I almost always burn during my relaxers. I will post the results once I'm done deep conditioning and drying.

My other option was to co-wash (conditioner wash) my hair on Wednesday after working out and detangling and then just leaving it alone until today but I wasn't up to it, especially given my bad experience detangling after last Sunday's wash. I would still have to oil my scalp on Thursday anyway -I guess you can call it pre-basing, but it works for me.

What are your experiences with working out regularly and maintaining your hair?

This Week's Workout

I have recently been accused of having workout ADHD and I think I agree with the diagnosis. I love to change up my workouts ever so often. I have been on a Biggest Loser DVD kick (these workouts are awesome!) these last two weeks so last week the plan was to walk for thirty minutes 4 days of the week and alternate Biggest Loser Cardio Max with Biggest Loser Power Sculpt (Level 1 on both) on those days. I was also supposed to get in one day of BL Yoga. Well, I managed three out of the five days and by the end of the week a final exam and lack of sleep threw me off the wagon. Next week is another week....

So, the plan for next week is to start running using the Couch to 5K plan ( I may do that two days) along with BL Cardio Max one of the days and BL Powersculp (Level 1 and 2) the other day. I will also try to squeeze in two days of BL Yoga on the other two days. I am trying to get all of this done by Wednesday because toward the end of the week I will be traveling so I may not get to workout those days (even though I planned them into the trip). What are your plans for working out this week?

Ahhh, Food Heaven

Today was a good day in my food world. I finally found Larabars at a local health food store and tried the Coconut Cream Pie. I am in looovvee. One of the things I have been trying to do is cook tasty, healthy meals. It also doesn't hurt if they also are time efficient since time is usually limited for me these days. So, on my trip to Borders today my eyes caught the Cook Yourself Thin Faster cookbook and I snagged it. Let me say that upon browsing it there were so many thing I wanted to try. I settled on Shrimp with Grits (I mixed and matched the recipe from this cookbook with one from Chef John at Foodwishes.blogspot.com) and Cheesy Fries (using butternut squash)...

Taste test

Honestly, I really though I died and went to food heaven. Both were really, really yummy. The shrimp and grits made excellent comfort food and was done in about 30 minutes. The butternut squash took longer because of the peeling and cutting up but it was well worth the effort. I have posted the recipes under the recipes tab. Until you try them... Feast your eyes :-)

Laugh of the Day

Well not today, but the other day I came across two of Mo'nique's interviews for the movie Precious (for which she won an Oscar). The first link is to her interview with Craig Ferguson that definitely had me ROTFL and the second is an interview with HipHollywood where she talks about making it in Hollywood, Oprah, her talk show, the movie and a few other things. I admire that even though she considers herself the "finest sex kitten" out there she was still inspired (by her husband) to lose weight (40 lbs at the time) so that she can be around for the long term. She looks great in these interviews! Did I mention that I love how she talks about her husband... ladies, take note. Congratulations to her on breaking barriers in Hollywood and winning that Oscar!