Getting Back on Track

Holy cow guys, I'm really impressed with everyone's progress...I mean those who posted anyway. Phil, Pat, what's up with you guys? My progress, on the other hand, has been derailed by my unexpected trip to the Philippines where I pretty much ate to my heart's content since I LOVE LOVE LOVE Filipino food. As a result, I gained a few pounds. I got back mid-March though, and I quickly re-focused. Here's what I've been doing for the past two weeks:



- Exercising: I've been working out Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. I really like varying my exercise, so on Sundays I spend an hour on the elliptical, Mon and Wed each I spend an hour Zumba dancing -so much fun! I feel like Baby in Dirty Dancing :)- I do kickboxing Mondays and Thursdays, and Thursdays I do simple aerobics. I find that I have a lot of fun with this schedule and just with two weeks doing this I feel really fit.



- Cooking and calorie-counting: I've been preparing a lot of my meals for the past few weeks and keeping track of my calorie consumption. For those of you who don't know me very well, that means kissing my daily hamburger and pizza lunches goodbye, and having to find a healthier substitute for my vices. I've been pretty surprised with what I've discovered- I CAN go without a week without consuming steak, french fries, buffalo wings and other artery-clogging food! Instead, I've been eating tuna, salmon, chicken cutlets, lots of vegetables and fruits, soup, and deli sandwhiches. And I've made two additions to my culinary repertoire the other week: bruschetta and tortang talong (without the pork).

- Nutrition education: I've needed to be careful about doing this competition because I think my instinct is to do something drastic like not eating for the month to lose weight or exercising for three hours everyday. Thankfully, the fact that it's a 6-month endeavor takes me out of that mindset and more into focusing on what long-term changes I'd like to make and actually sustain. With that in mind, I've read up on what kinds of food are healthier, alternatives that seem pretty small but make a lot of difference, why the foods that I love to eat shouldn't be eaten everyday but understanding that I can still have them once in a while, what metabolism means and what I can do to increase it, different types of exercises, and putting it all together. It feels really good to take control of this part of my life, and actually enjoy the process and not feel like I'm depriving myself.

To date I weigh one or two pounds more than my initial weigh in. I'm confident that number will be lower soon and I'll be sure to keep you guys posted!