Mindful Month Ahead!

Another new month, another fresh start!  With Christmas and year end fast approaching, I’ve started noticing a lot of goal setting, project planning, and organizing going on around the blogosphere.  I am soooo harnessing some of that positive energy and putting it to use for myself!

In this post I hinted at something I referred to as Project Energize.  At the time I had just made that up, but after thinking about it I’m going to stick with it.  Energize covers a wide array of things…it can mean whatever you want it to mean.  I’m going to use it to cover general well-being and overall personal health…

• fitness: set and meet realistic workout goals
• diet: mindful meal planning and eating
• work: regain focus and commitment
• home: create comfort
• relationship: live, love, learn
• finances: stress-free budgeting
• health: treat body with the respect it deserves

Obviously these little notes might seem slightly vague out of context, but like I said this can mean whatever YOU want it to mean.  These are the goals that will hopefully work for ME.  Throughout the next couple of weeks I will work on more detailed descriptions to help keep me on the right path.

What are your November goals?  Are you looking to focus on something specific?  Or tackling your overall lifestyle?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday got the month off to a great start, so I decided to make sure to keep on going by writing my to-do list and meal plan last night.  Planning is key to my success.

Fresh half-caf brewed and waiting for me upon wake-up (which was ON TIME this morning!)…

Wheat toast with natural PB & sliced banana…

(FYI:  that trick about keeping your natural PB upsidedown in the fridge totally works!)

A healthy shot of antioxidant superpower…POM original…with club soda…

Post-run hit of natural goodness…Amazing Grass Green Superfood mixed with vanilla Almond Breeze… yummy!!

**ENERGIZE!!**

Weekend

Yesterday morning we got up at a reasonable hour....DBF made coffee...which was lovely as I haven't had him around to do that for over a month! We relaxed with our coffees and laid around for a bit while he caught up on a load of laundry and repacked his bag for his trip to visit his son.

We decided to go out for brunch since it was our only other meal together and since neither of us had any desire to cook. We hit up our favorite little diner close to home, where I had a breakfast clubhouse with pan fries and some more coffee. Bigger breaky than I would normally go for, but it was for breaky and lunch so it totally hit the spot.

After I dropped him at the airport for about 2:45 I headed back into town and hit up the gym. I did my Friday routine of hill intervals on the treadmill, followed by my strength training (since I didn't get to the gym on Friday...had to make up for it). Not quite as sweaty as usual, but still a good workout. My arm is still really bugging me...and will require a few more chiro trips...but it doesn't seem to affect my workout too much.

Then I stopped at the grocery store to stock up for the week. Lots of veggies, fruit, juice, some new edamame hummus, and a pack of sushi for dinner. Oh, and I found those new After Eight 90 cal Singels bars. Chocolate Mint can be my kryptonite....well, any of those snacky chocolate things can be...which is why I don't usually buy them...but I've been really in control lately so I thought I'd give them a go.

I had an Arthurs Berry Smoothie for my after-gym snack, then the sushi for dinner, and a bowl of Special K later in the evening. I felt snacky but stuck with grapes while watching a movie. :) (Notice I didn't eat any of the After Eight bars!) Came up short on my water for the day, but that seems to be the way it goes lately...I need to work on that.

Today, I got up late. I took a run over to Starbucks for a latte and came home to enjoy that while reading my book. I had an All Bran bar with it, but now I'm thinking I need an actual meal so I think I'll use up some veggies and make a small Greek salad. Dinner is going to be a new Rachel Ray recipe for a chicken & spinach casserole which I'll be able to portion out for the rest of the week.

Right now I'm waiting for a girl to come see one of our Kijiji items...but she's 45 minutes late so I think if she's not here by the time I eat my salad, I'll be adding some protein and hitting the gym. Tomorrow is a holiday and the gym is closed so I think I'll do extra cardio and a lighter, modified strength routine. The weather is still shitty so it's a good day to do indoor stuff.

Happy long weekend everyone!

I don't even like Jell-o!

Why did we buy a house that is ALL stairs?

Yes, I topped off last night's fab workout with another one today. I know I shouldn't do two days in a row, but I was determined to get back on schedule right away. No excuses for falling off the new schedule! My legs are like stiff jello now....wobble wobble. Hopefully I don' t just wobble right over and down the stairs!

So I got up a bit early and got an hour of work in, then with nothing pressing to be done immediately I got into my gym gear and headed out. (Yes, I ate a bowl of cereal first!) I did 22 mins of HIIT on the elliptical (5 min warm up, 15 mins of 30:30 sprints, 2 min cooldown). Followed it up with my new strength training routine - minus one thing because I ran out of time. I think my new routine might be a bit too long for everyday workouts...so I'll just remove one different thing each time....just to mix it up a bit.

My plan is to do HIIT on M-W-F, each day using a different machine. On those same days I will do a variation of the strength training plan I've created for myself. On Tues & Thurs I will do 60 minutes of cardio...split between 2 or 3 machines...plus either extra crunches, squats or lunges. Sat and Sun I'm either going to try out the gym's yoga classes or if the weather is good go for a long walk and/or bike ride. Plus any other walks or bike rides I can get in during weeknight evenings.

I felt it today. Like, really felt it. Those lunges are awesome! I have to say that my butt never ever felt like it had been worked out with any of the exercises my trainer gave me, so after searching online I decided that lunges looked like a great all round exercise for the glutes and everything around them. Sure enough, they are. Sometimes I actually wonder if my trainer knew what she was doing. She worked me hard but I really never felt like I was targeting any of the areas I had asked for. Maybe I just didn't like the exercises she opted to give, and therefore wasn't seeing the results because I wasn't pushing myself? Oh, who knows. But for now I'm loving the lunges....even if I do feel like I might fall right over after I'm done.

Today's menu is produce heavy to make up for skipping my veggies last night....

- Special K vanilla almond/cinnamon pecan mixed together with vanilla Almond Breeze (pre-gym)
- Starbucks Double Shot on Ice w/ vanilla (2 points!)
- PC BM bagel with tomato slices and light cheddar grilled under the broiler
- raw cauliflower & baby carrots with hummus
- grapes
- pineapple
- bigass Greek salad w/ light feta, grilled Greek marinated shrimp, fresh focaccia bread (can't wait!)
- fresh berries with Liberte vanilla yogurt (I stocked up on fresh raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)

Plus I still have a few APs if I feel like a granola bar or Lifestyle cookies or something.

If my legs will let me, I'll go for a neighborhood walk later today too since the sun is out but it's not crazy hot.

Whew!

153.6

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Today the scale is my friend! Down 2.8lbs since Wednesday. Nice. Goes to show that even with a planned cheat day, the system can work. Yaaieee for Weight Watchers and Yaaieee for me for sticking to my plans. Can you say "holy sigh of relief Batgirl!"?

Oh, and you guys won't believe this, but last night while eating dinner DBF asked me if I'd like to go for a walk around the neighborhood. Oh. My. God. I couldn't believe it! So off we went for a stroll around the area (1.2km for my goal!)....first time he's gone with me since we moved in...SEVEN months ago! Yaaaieeee some more!!

Saturday's trip to Victoria Park in Truro was really beautiful. We didn't get as much exercise as Lynn and her hubby did (funny that we were there at the same time....never saw them though) because we had Mojo the crazy dog with us, and he's not so good with walking around in the scorching sun. We still got a good trail stroll in though. (see my other blog for the photos and such).

Today is back to normal...got up early to drive DBF to work, and hit the gym. 20+ minutes on the elliptical today...ramp interval program, with sprints on the low ramp sections. Then my full strength training routine with some added oblique exercises. Good and sweaty!

I treated myself to another Doubleshot on Ice from Starbucks....cuz it's starting to get hot already....gonna be 29 degrees today (which means about 40 in my office!!). Water and fruit are high on the agenda to keep me hydrated (after my caffeine fix of course).

Monday's Menu:

- SB Doubleshot on Ice
- vanilla Shreddies with vanilla Almond Breeze
- fresh pineapple & blackberries
- deli turkey on multigrain with veggies & honey mustard, served with Asian Slaw (I'm addicted!)
- cucumber sticks, baby carrots
- cherries (and maybe a granola bar if I need it)
- dinner is leftover steak on leftover garlic toast with sauteed onions & mushrooms, probably with more Asian slaw or maybe a corn on the cob
- Liberte vanilla yogurt with fresh blueberries & strawberries

Saturday Quickie

A bit of a planned cheat day...and so far, just as I thought! :)

Breaky out: scrambled eggs, bacon, ww toast no butter, few home fries, coffeeeeeeee (I asked for water twice, but it never arrived)

During car ride: water only! (even when tempted at the gas station convenience store...)

At the park: Cherry Slushie - so totally refreshing and fun!

Afternoon snackie: I really wanted some cookies...so opted to skip having an alcoholic bevvie on the deck so I could eat the cookies. :)

Dinner out: heading to Boston Pizza with some friends...home of a great spinach salad!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Personal Trainer Recap #5

My final session with my trainer was tonight. (Having said that I'll probably sign up for another set with her in September...but I'm gonna do the Summer on my own now that I have two full strength training routines to work with.)

I actually hate evening workouts, but our schedules never jive in the mornings. Tonight's ended up being really great though, so that's awesome!! I needed the good sweat, and she got me to do a couple of things I wouldn't normally do, plus it kept me busy during my prime-time snacking hour!

We always start with some hard-core cardio. Cardio before strength training is a must. No matter how hard you work out, you need to get your heart pumping and your muscles loosened up before you start with the strength stuff. Rule #1 - very important!!! So, usually it's sprints on the cross-trainer or sometimes the elliptical. She likes to mix it up, which is great because I get bored easily. haha. So tonight she says "how about the recumbant bike?". Love it!!! I always use the recumbant bike as my cooldown cardio, but I've never used it for HIIT.

She had me pick a level that I find challenging...so I chose 10 (I usually ride at level 7 or 8.... 6 if I'm being lazy). She was impressed and thought that 10 might actually be too high. So I did the five minute warm-up ride, trying to keep my RPMs at a consistent moderately fast rate. Then we did 1 minute resistance intervals by raising the level to 15! One minute at 15, one minute at 10, until I'd completed 15 minutes. My legs were like jello!! But the good, hardcore, shaky jello. My five minute cooldown ride was pretty funny...I had to keep reminding my legs to keep pedaling. 5 miles by the time I was done.

I don't know if I could push myself to do that on my own, but I'm sure going to try to throw that in there at least once a week. It was crazy hard and I really needed her motivation....it will be a personal challenge to do it without her for sure.

Then we went through my new strength training routine to make sure I'm doing everything correctly and to adjust some of my weights, etc. She upped my weight on two of my exercises, so that's good. Tone, tone, tone! For my fast step-ups on the bozu ball (which I love for some reason) she kept saying how fast I was. I don't know if that's just her way to motivate me, or if she really thought I was fast...but I'll take it. I love to get compliments on this stuff!! Plus, yesterday she had corrected my stance for my planks so today's were a breeze to get through...yaaiieeee.

At the end, she showed me a new piece of equipment that the gym just got. I had seen it show up last week, and it looks relatively easy to use, but I hadn't tried it yet. It's the one where you grasp on with your hands and brace with your forearms, while your legs hang...then you pull your knees up (or pull your legs up straight out if you're superwoman). Well, it is easy to use, but it seems to be built for shorter people so I found it a bit awkward. It's a total core/ab/oblique workout so my problematic lower back didn't really like it....but I'll give it a go a few times and see what happens. My trainer said to maybe start with three sets of five (instead of fifteen) and work up from there. Sounds good to me.

And to top it all off, after she left to meet her next client, I decided that I had nowhere to be, so went for a 10 minute cooldown random incline walk on the treadmill....and then had the longest stretch session ever. It felt great!

(hehe, and by the time I got home, watered the planters and garden, had my shower and now typed this...it's too late to go to the kitchen and snack. I had my planned cottage cheese and yogurt and I'm all good! and OP! yaieeeee!)

Keeping it together...

...so far, so good. In fact, I haven't even eaten my veggie snack yet so that is good. I can always use it if I get the munchies tonight. Work is keeping me busy so I haven't been out with the dog yet, but the weather has cleared up today so an evening jaunt may be in order. If he's lucky, and I finish finally organizing that camping gear, I'll take him to the local trail for a while. :)