Under the weather...

I have been hit with a virus or something and am under the weather. I am laying low for a couple of days and then will return with the rest of my meal and exercise plan!

Find day one HERE and day two HERE.

Day 2 Meal and Fitness plan with a peach and raspberry smoothie

As I mentioned yesterday, you should be aiming for a RAINBOW in your diet.Today we have a lot of red and green with hints of orange and purple, oh, and some hidden yellow! Did you get through all five rounds of the upper body workout yesterday? My arms are a little sore today, but not too noticeable. I bet tomorrow I'll be feeling those arm muscles a lot more! Today is a legs workout day.

Your grocery list for today - you should have already made your lunch yesterday. You should already have some of the items on today's list:

• 1 medium banana
• frozen, unsweetened raspberries
• frozen peach slices
• ground flax meal 
• eggs (you need two today)
• celery stalks
• sunflower seed butter, peanut butter, or your favorite nut butter
• whole wheat lavosh bread
• classic romaine salad mix or romaine hearts
• low-sodium chicken breast deli meat
• mayonnaise
• sriracha sauce
• sweet chili sauce

If you missed yesterday's post, you can find it HERE with a smoothie recipe and the recipes for the Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions that will be lunch every day this week.

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Your Day Two Meal Plan

According to the recipe calculator and nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com, this meal plan is about 1800 calories. Like yesterday, it was super filling and satisfying!

Breakfast - Start your day with a smoothie. Today is a peach and raspberry smoothie. 

Ingredients:

• 1 medium banana
• 2/3 C frozen raspberries
• 4 slices frozen peaches
• 1 C water
• 2 Tbsp ground flax meal

Method:
Blend everything together in your blender. If it doesn't seem like enough, add a few ice cubes to the blender to bulk it up. Or, go crazy and add more peaches and raspberries!






Mid-morning snack - 2 hard boiled eggs

Lunch: Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions
If you made the recipes posted yesterday (recipes HERE), you should have your lunch already portioned out and ready to go. If not, make the recipes today and portion them out for the next four days.


Mid-afternoon snack - celery slices and sunflower seed butter
Wash and cut several stalks of celery into snack sized sticks. Dunk them in sunflower seed butter, peanut butter, or your favorite peanut butter alternative. Just be sure your peanut butter or alternative is all natural - no funky or weird ingredients - and limit your consumption to one serving. I usually do fine with just two tablespoons and munch on plain celery in between sunbutter dipped sticks.

Dinner - Chicken and romaine wrap in lavosh with bang bang sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 whole wheat lavosh bread wrapper
• 2 big handfuls of Classic Romaine salad mix (usually a blend of romaine, purple cabbage, and carrot shreds) or romaine hearts
• 3 slices low-sodium chicken breast deli meat (look for a variety with no additives or weird ingredients)
• 1 Tbsp mayonnaise (vegan or regular)
• 1 tsp sriracha sauce
• 1/2 tsp sweet chili pepper sauce

Method:

Mix the mayo, sriracha, and sweet chili pepper sauce thoroughly - someone told me this is called "bang bang sauce" but I'd never heard of it until a few days ago. Mayo can be high in calories and fat and non-vegan mayo also has cholesterol so use it sparingly! Spread along one half of the lavosh and lay your chicken breast slices over it. Evenly spread your salad mix or romaine hearts over the chicken. Now, roll up nice and tight. Personally, I like to cut my wrap in half so that it is easier to handle. Plus, seeing two pieces on my plate gives the illusion of more food (mind tricks!).

Evening snack - Frozen raspberries; Natural popcorn with nutritional yeast
See yesterday's post (HERE) for more about nutritional yeast. You can eat just about as many frozen raspberries as you want, but limit your popcorn to 1/2 of a microwave bag and the nutritional yeast to 1 Tbsp sprinkled over the top.

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Your Day Two Lazy Exercise Plan

You can see my lazy person fitness philosophy and details in yesterday's post HERE. As with yesterday, break up the rounds of exercise into several sessions over the course of the day to make it manageable. While some of these are super easy for me (calf raises, for example), others make my muscles BURN! As a result, I suggest 10 repetitions of each exercise per round.

Stationery ice skaters

Source: fitnessmagazine.com

Stand holding the back of a chair or the edge of your counter. Slightly bend your left knee and extend your R leg out to the side. Then, swing the leg behind you and to the left side. Repeat 10 times and then switch legs.

Straight leg lifts

Source: http://www.rockwoodcomic.com

Perform 10 lifts on one leg, then switch to the other leg.

Knee extensions

Source: WebMD.com

Perform 10 knee extensions on one leg, then switch to the other leg.

Calf raises

Source: Popsugar.com

Knee up and outs

Source: prokinesis.co.uk

Bend one knee to about 90 degrees and rotate it out to the side. Lower your foot and come back to center. Repeat 10 times and then switch legs.

Standing glute kickback

Stand facing the wall with your arms extended, but avoid locking your elbows. Keep your stationery leg slightly bent. With the other leg, pull your knee up to your chest, or as high as you are able, in front of you. Kick your leg straight back behind you. Do 10 reps and then switch legs.

Seated toe taps

Source: onsugar.com

Plie squats three ways - No. 1

Source: mindfulbody.com

Plie squats three ways - No. 2

Source: movenourishbelieve.com

Only go down as far as you can while remaining stable.

Plie squats three ways - No. 3

Source: cemcatbas.wordpress.com

With one foot in front of the other as pictured, squat down as far as you comfortably can while still remaining stable. Do 10 squats and switch legs.

Tune in again tomorrow for another day of meal planning and lazy fitness!

Citrus Ginger Zinger Smoothie and Day 1 Meal Plan

 

I meant to have a meal and fitness plan for this week start on Sunday. Oops! I didn't exactly get my act together to do that! And, everyone has their own schedules to deal with and maybe Sunday isn't the ideal day for you to start. Maybe Monday or Tuesday would be better. Whatever day you start is just fine, so long as you actually do it - START! 

Each day this week, I will post a meal plan for the day as well as a lazy person's exercise routine. Make adjustments as you need to, but be sure to make a commitment to improving your health and well being and stick to it! Be sure that whatever you eat, whether it's on my plan or not, has vibrant colors from the entire spectrum of the RAINBOW! Throughout the day, be sure to drink plenty of water (plain, seltzer, or fruit infused) and limit caffeine or sugary drinks.

You don't have to be lazy to do the exercise routine, but I've found that if I break up the routine into very small chunks throughout the day rather than one exercise session I am much more likely to complete the entire routine. At the moment, I don't have the strength or endurance to get an entire routine done in one session. Instead, I find myself overly fatigued before I'm very far into the routine. I start to ache very early in the routine because my muscles and joints aren't used to exercising anymore. By breaking it up into tiny chunks, I get a lot more done!

Just a little warning, this post is super duper long! The rest of the week, posts should be shorter as every day will be based on this starting post. Your meal plan is in the upper portion of the post while the exercise routine is in the bottom portion.

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Your Day One Meal Plan

According to the recipe calculator and nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com, this meal plan is almost exactly 1800 calories. I have to be honest with you - by the end of the day, this felt like a TON of food, but it was all super filling, super tasty, and everything I needed!

Your grocer list for today's meal plan (some ingredients will be used in future days):

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium banana
• 1 navel orange
• 1 lemon or lemon juice
• fresh ginger or Dorot frozen ginger cubes
• ground flaxmeal
• rice milk (or your favorite milk or milk alternative)
• raw, unsalted almonds (I like Trader Joe's Handful of Almonds for portion control)
• 1 lb cucumbers (I prefer Persian)
• 1 lb tomatoes (I prefer Roma or grape)
• 1 red onion
• 2 yellow or white onions
• 3 to 4 carrots
• 1 garlic clove or minced, jarred garlic
• 1 package whole wheat pearl couscous
• 1 16oz can of vegetable broth (or buy a larger carton for use later in the week too)
• 1 dozen large eggs
• 2 bunch celery
• fresh basil leaves or Dorot frozen basil cubes
• Bay leaf
• 28oz can of tomatoes or 2 smaller cans of tomatoes with garlic and/or onion, celery, and bell pepper
• salt and pepper
• garlic powder
• butter or your favorite butter-like alternative
• your favorite bread
• unsweetened, frozen raspberries
• natural microwave popcorn
• nutritional yeast with B-12

Breakfast - Start your day with a smoothie. Today we have Citrus Ginger Zinger

Ingredients:

• 1 medium banana, peeled
• 1/2 medium lemon, peeled and quartered or the equivalent amount of lemon juice (You can dig out the seeds, but it really isn't necessary if you have a decent blender. Remove as much peel and pith - the white layer under the skin and between the segments - as possible.)
• 1 navel orange, peeled and quartered (Again, no need to remove any seeds. Just remove all the peel and as much pith as possible.)
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated or minced as finely as possible or 1 cube of Dorot frozen ginger
• 2 Tbsp ground flaxmeal
• 1 C rice milk (or your preferred milk or milk substitute)
• 3 to 4 ice cubes

 
Method:
Place everything in your blender and blend until smooth.

I can't stress enough the importance of removing the pith from your lemon and orange. Too much pith will result in a bitter flavor and weird chunks or fibers in the smoothie (ick!). Also, get your ginger as finely grated or minced as possible or use Dorot frozen cubes. The frozen cubes are fantastic but my local stores don't carry them. Powered ginger from your spice cupboard won't cut it.

Mid-morning snack - 1 bag of Trader Joe's Handful of Almonds or an actual moderate handful of raw, unsalted almonds
If you don't buy pre-portioned almonds, be careful that your handful isn't too big! Although almonds are incredibly nutrient dense and a great source of protein, they also are fairly high in calories. Make sure your almonds are unsalted and raw too so you don't end up eating a ton of salt or other junk for your snack!

Lunch - Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions
Make a big batch of both Israeli Salad and Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onions and portion it out into four servings. This will be your lunch for the next four days. On the fourth day, make another big batch to get you through the rest of the week. You could just make a double batch, but I find by the fifth day, the texture of the salad starts to break down a little bit and the couscous goes a little mushy. I'd rather just make a second batch!

Israeli Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb cucumber, chopped (I prefer Persian cucumbers, but any kind will work.)
1 lb tomatoes, chopped (I prefer Roma or grape tomatoes, but any kind will work.)
1/3 C chopped red onion
3 to 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 to 4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 to 2 dashes of salt

Method:
Chop your cucumber, tomatoes, and onion into evenly sized pieces. Mix them together in a large bowl. Add 3 Tbsp olive oil and lemon juice and a couple of dashes of salt. Stir and taste. Add more olive oil, lemon, or salt if necessary.



Pearl Couscous with Carrots and Onion

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 C yellow or white onion, chopped
3/4 C carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 C whole wheat pearl couscous
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 C vegetable broth (or chicken broth or plain water)

Method:
In a medium pot, heat the olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add the carrots and onions and stir and cook until the onion becomes translucent. Add the garlic and stir for another minute or two - be careful not to let the garlic brown or burn. Add the couscous and salt and stir to coat with olive oil. Add your broth and bring to a boil. Stir then cover tightly and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Any extra liquid should be absorbed while cooling. Portion out into four equal servings and refrigerate for your next few lunches.


Afternoon snack - 1 hard boiled egg
A single hard boiled egg is just as nutrient dense as my little handful of almonds. Having a small package of protein mid-morning and again mid-afternoon is a fantastic way to keep your energy up throughout the day without feeling deprived.

Dinner - Tomato soup with garlic toast
While your lunches will be the same every day, your dinner will vary. Tonight, we are having a basic tomato basil soup with garlic toast. I like to find easier ways to do things and thus buy Dorot frozen basil cubes and canned tomatoes with different flavors. The canned tomatoes are a little high in sodium, but if you have been careful about your sodium intake the rest of the day, it shouldn't be an issue. 

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, washed and chopped
2 Dorot frozen basil cubes or 2 to 3 large leaves of fresh basil
1 Bay leaf
1 x 28 oz can of tomatoes or 2 smaller cans - I prefer to use 1 smaller can of tomatoes with fire roasted garlic and 1 smaller can of tomatoes with onion, celery, and green bell pepper.
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices of your favorite, crusty, whole grain bread
butter or butter-type spread of your choice
Garlic powder (make sure it is pure garlic with no additives)

Method:
Heat your olive oil in a soup pan over medium to medium-high heat. Saute your onion and celery until translucent. Be careful not to let them brown. Add your basil, bay, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove your soup from the heat and allow to cool. When cool, pour into a blender or use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. Return your soup to the pot and heat again, adding salt and pepper to taste.

For the garlic toast, butter your bread and sprinkle with garlic powder. Put under the broiler of your oven until lightly browned, or just heat in a 325F oven for a few minutes.

Evening snack - 1 large bowl of frozen, unsweetened raspberries and 1/2 bag of natural popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast
Eat your raspberries frozen and unsweetened. They are so delicious and refreshing that way! They are also available year round. When fresh raspberries are out of season, frozen ones are a great, affordable alternative. I buy at least six or seven bags per week! I eat them plain as a snack or use them in smoothies. On occasion, for a snack I will make a coconut yogurt and frozen raspberry parfait.

Make sure your popcorn is natural with only light salt. Too much salt, flavorings, and other additives only reduce the nutritional value of your popcorn. Natural popcorn is high in fiber and a great snack. Nutritional yeast is a fantastic substitute for Parmesan cheese, but make sure you buy a variety that is high in Vitamin B-12 for the ultimate nutritional value.

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Your Day One Lazy Exercise Plan

Today we will kick off your lazy exercise plan with upper body strength training exercises. Instead of doing everything in one go, you'll be breaking this up into five chunks throughout the day. Each exercise will be done 20 times with simply your body and a wall for equipment. If you are strong enough, add more repetitions to each round or use some weights. Since I'm totally out of shape compared to how I was just a few short years ago, I'm starting with 20 reps and no weights, but I am committed to improving over time!

Personally, I like to get my exercise done without prying eyes! These exercises can easily be done in your bathroom, and you already go to the bathroom several times per day, right? If you are work, you might be able to do these in a bathroom stall, although your coworkers may wonder why you are in there for so long! Heeheehee...

Make sure to keep breathing and hold your abdominal muscles tight. Also, work on practicing good posture throughout the moves - a straight, tall, long back with your shoulders back and down and chin up!

Five times per day do the following:

Standing wall pushups

Source: Womenshealthmag.com

Standing Russian twists (just skip the weights if you can't handle them! It's 20 twists per side!)

Source: Popsugar.com.au

Overhead reach (that's 20 reaches per side!)

Source: Lifefitness.com

Overhead tricep extensions (skip the weight unless you are ready for that challenge)

Source: Fantasiefitness.com

 Bicep curls (your biceps should be naturally stronger than your triceps 

so up this one to 30 reps each time, if you can!)

Source: marisaskitchentalk.com

 Flys

Source: ivillage.com

Overhead military press

 

Source: Popcorncoffee.com

Tune in again tomorrow for another day of meal planning and lazy fitness!

Working on a meal plan

 

I don't have a complete meal plan down for this coming week as I'm not sure if we will have company during the first half of the week, but I do have these parts nailed down:

• Daily breakfast smoothie
• "Isreali" salad (also called Arab salad, Turkish salad, or simply vegetable salad)
• Pearl couscous with vegetables
• Daily protein
• Goal of 25+ grams of fiber daily
• Limited sodium and cholesterol

(Like the rainbow effect? Work on eating fresh foods from all colors of the rainbow 

to make sure you get the maximum range of nutrients in your diet!)

Why do I only have two actual dishes listed? As mentioned, I don't know if we will have company or not, and last time our company was here, my meal plan kind of fell apart (my own fault, but also not planning well enough to have the right amount of food for everyone). I also have a growing 16 year old son who tends to eat everything in sight, often unintentionally throwing my plan off. I plan to make a HUGE batch of both the salad and couscous. They will be the base of my lunch every day this coming week. Both are packed with veggies, super yummy, and filling! The Israeli salad is also raw, if that is something that interests or concerns you.

I consider myself a flexitarian, and my diet is naturally very low in cholesterol, never contains dairy, and over the last few years has included less and less gluten (but without being gluten free). Although I really enjoy vegan meals, I still eat eggs, fish, and occasionally poultry or meat.

One of my daily snacks will include either almonds or hard boiled eggs. In the evenings I almost always have either frozen raspberries (plain - they are sweet enough to not need anything added!) or natural popcorn with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast (an awesome substitute for Parmesan cheese!).

Every smoothie will include ground flax meal - I have never been so regular in my life since I started using flax in my smoothies! Most of my smoothies are 100% fruit and water with no added sugar or sweeteners. On occasion, I may use some rice milk, coconut yogurt, or sunflower seed butter.

Check back every day this week to see what I really ate and get the recipes for my smoothies, the Israeli salad, and the pearl couscous with veggies. The smoothies will be a preview of my upcoming 100 Simple Smoothies e-book.

On Sunday I will post my starting measurements and on Saturday my follow-up measurements. And, in addition to posting my meals and smoothies for the week, I'll also let you know what I'm doing for exercise. My goal is to create simple, easy to follow nutrition and exercise plans for those of us that are maybe a bit less motivated or for some reason less able to really work out hard but still care about our health.

New journal, apartment gym, and lunch

As mentioned previously, I scrapped my old fitness journals and created my own 7-day journal and on day 4 of my first week using it, I LOVE IT! I will share more about the journal soon, but for now, just know that I absolutely love it! It works for me. I love that it is small so I don't feel conspicuous if I pull it out at work to record my lunch or something I forgot to record earlier in the day. I love that I also included a section to track my financial fitness, although I might revise that part.

After making my little fitness journal, I decided to try out the gym at my apartment complex. I knew it was tiny, but I was hoping it would better than it looks. Nope. It was kind of awful. There was no way to change the channel on the television as it was too high to reach and I couldn't find a remote. One treadmill was broken and the other one was too flimsy to run on. There were three pieces of weights machines but they were limited to one exercise each rather than being a system where you can adjust arms or levers or bars or whatever to do multiple exercises on one machine. There was a dirty looking yoga mat and two dirty looking fitness balls and a small rack of dumbbells. Oh, and two elliptical machines, but that is my least favorite piece of equipment second only to the stair master.

I tried one of the treadmills but my plan was to walk 4 minutes, run 1, and repeat until I had gone the distance of a 5k. Ugh! I couldn't run on the thing because it wasn't sturdy enough. Even walking at a fast pace was difficult because of how awful this treadmill was! I struggled to get in a good workout and finally quit. It was so frustrating!

My goal was a 5k (about 3.2 miles) in 35 minutes, not 1.5 mils in 27 minutes!

Even worse, there was a constant breezy draft despite my making sure the door was shut completely and it was coming from behind me. I was alone in there, but the entire time it felt like someone was standing right behind me and watching me! It was totally creepy so I didn't feel too bad cutting my workout short! I don't believe in ghosts but the little gym felt totally huanted!

Today, instead of the gym, I got through part of Yoga for Surfers III - Unleashed which I LOVE. It has been a while since I've done this yoga workout (or any yoga workout) though so it was tough! I am not a surfer, but I hope to be some day. Even if you aren't a surfer this is a vigorous workout combining traditional yoga moves with core building exercises and some moves that get your heart rate up. You will definitely sweat with this one!!! It is narrated and led by Peggy Hall with surfers Garret McNamara, Tom Carroll, and Brian Conley.

I am also working harder at taking nutritious lunches to work and tracking these lunches, along with everything else I eat, in my new journal. Today's lunch (and my legs, hahaha!):

• six pieces of veggie rolls (vegetable sushi)
• grape tomatoes
• granny Smith apple slices
• almonds
• sliced roast beef

Not pictured are black coffee, sparkling water instead of soda (soda is my biggest dietary problem! I love Coca Cola!), and a high fiber, high protein smoothie.

If you are interested in Yoga for Surfers III or the other two workouts mentioned in the clip, you can find them with these links:

• You can get Yoga for Surfers III Unleashed HERE. 
• Yoga for Surfers I is available HERE.
• Yoga for Board Sports is available HERE.

Please note, the links for Yoga for Surfers DVDs are Amazon Affiliate links.

Progress - my favorite shirts

I have three t-shirts, three pairs of pants that I really hope to fit into again someday without the dreaded muffin top and a pair of shorts. Well, I am happy to report that I can pull on one pair of the pants and the shorts AND get them zipped and buttoned. They aren't exactly comfortable though, but I am making progress!!!!! I still can't really get any of the t-shirts on or the other two pairs of pants though, but I'm getting closer!

I hung up the three t-shirts I hope to wear again. All three are WAY too small right now! And, yes, those are stuffed animals in the corner of my closet! :)

I will admit, I have been totally lazy in the working out department! However, I have been doing pretty well in eating and nutrition! I made it a goal to eat a minimum of two servings of fruit per day as fruit is something I often don't enjoy. By focusing on eating fruit daily, I've managed to eat far more fresh fruits AND vegetables daily and far LESS junk! WooHoo! I have a bit more energy (not a lot, to be honest, but a bit...), am sleeping slightly better, and I'm more comfortable in my clothes. I also have far fewer digestive issues recently.

I recently decided to make another big change in my routines and THROW AWAY my old fitness journals! I found it really discouraging to use journals that span many months. If I miss more than a few days of exercise, chances are I'm going to spread that out to a few weeks. It can be depressing to look back through the journal and see so many blank days. :(

Over the course of the week I've realized that if I had a shorter journal, say a journal that spans only one week at a time, I would be more likely to commit for that duration. So, I have created a one-week fitness journal and will be using it starting today! I can commit to a week, right???? YES, I CAN! The journal will be up in my Etsy shop later tonight.

A month or so ago I couldn't even button these shorts! They certainly aren't comfortable, but the fact that I can get them all the way up, zipped, and buttoned is HUGE progress and all from eating right!

Side view of the shorts.

Some of what I've been eating - not the soup though. The soup is for my son.

Check back soon for the fitness journal and please consider following my blog to keep up with my journey towards fitness, health, and well-being! The fitness journal will be available in my Etsy shop and includes sections for exercise, nutrition, and financial tracking. I included financial tracking as it seems as if physical fitness and finances are tied together for many of us. Weird but true!

Confession - I've been depressed lately

There isn't really any specific reason why, but I have been pretty depressed lately. Not just feeling a little sad or whatever for a few days, but truly depressed and for several months. I'm not entirely sure why, although I'm not terribly surprised either as I have a tendency towards both depression and anxiety that has been there since early childhood.

This past week I've had such a difficult time sleeping - I always struggle with sleep, but it has been so much worse lately. Last night I didn't fall fully and deeply asleep until just before 5am, despite going to bed before midnight and being tired. I slept through my alarm and through a class that I had this morning. This class is so important to me and passing it is the key to my plans for the next few years and my career so missing it was a HUGE issue for me. I've been on the verge of tears all day as a result. I think I can still salvage the class, but missing today hurt on so many levels and made me really freak out!

That really was 3:14 AM.

I've been really struggling to exercise and eat right as well, despite making a pact with myself to workout at home Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and at the gym on Fridays. I've also been struggling with eating well, but doing so much better than I usually do, thanks to a few tweaks.

I don't feel much better than I did this morning, or over the past several months, but realizing how much missing that class meant to me, and how much my sleep issues and depression have been impacting my every day life, I know I have to do something. I work on Monday so will call my primary care doctor on Tuesday to set up a complete physical and ask for a referral to a therapist and possibly antidepressants - I was on an antidepressant for two or three years a long time ago, and it might help get me over the hump. At this point, I am in this vicious cycle of not enough sleep and being depressed and they are feeding into each other and just getting worse. A thorough physical and blood work will at least rule out a lot of potential causes (or uncover them so I can work towards correcting them).

In the meantime, I work a half shift Saturday and full shifts on Sunday and Monday. I *LOVE* my job, so those will be great ways to keep occupied. I also plan to make a focused effort to take my dogs out for a long walk each evening, and will insist that my son comes with us. I plan to do yoga at home today, tomorrow, and Sunday as well.

Also, I have been working on eating at least two servings of fruit per day and a lot less soda. Today, I bought a bunch of frozen berries, bananas, and apples, as well as seltzer water. I have to tell you that I really didn't like seltzer water at first, but it is growing on me. I like the unflavored version from Trader Joe's the best and bought two 4-packs today. I will take fruit and seltzer to work with me tomorrow, Sunday, and Monday too.

I'm not worried right now about fitting into my jeans or looking a certain way. I just want to feel better mentally and emotionally.

I did manage to get to the gym last Friday, and I did a half mile on the treadmill and 2,000 meters on the rowing machine. The treadmill was so much harder than I expected! I've never struggled on a treadmill like that! The rowing machine was a lot better than I expected though! Not at all my best row, but better than anticipated!

Krav Maga trial class was AWESOME!

I posted a few days ago about being excited and nervous for my first ever Krav Maga class, and O...M...G! It was fan-freaking-tastic! Amazing! I loved it so much! The class was super intense and hard but fun and exciting with really supportive, helpful trainers. They offered great explanations for how to do each move, little tips for improving form, and also explained the physics of why the moves work so well. It was great! And, during the class I was paired with others who were smaller, the same size, and much bigger than me. One of the really exciting things was that even basic moves can work really well on someone much larger and much stronger. I can't wait to go back for another class!

Image source: HouseExercises.com

I am going on vacation soon though and my work schedule is bonkers so I won't be going back for about three weeks. However, this is the first time in a long time that I've felt motivated to exercise on my own between sessions. I'm sore from head to toe and in places I don't think I've ever been sore before but it feels GREAT!

Image source: Wall 2 Wall Martial Arts

If you haven't tried Krav Maga and are looking for a class that combines practical self-defense skills with extreme fitness, this might be just the thing for you!

Failed plans and then Krav Maga

I think we all start with the best of intentions, but many of us fail at our fitness and diet plans. We aren't as motivated as we thought. We don't have a support system. We have a goal but no actual plan. Or, our plan isn't specific enough....or it's too specific. Or, life just gets in the way.

I'll be honest, my plans were derailed out of a combination of laziness, lack of support, and not enough detail to my plan.

Although life gets in the way of many goals and plans really taking off, I have new motivation to get fit - motivation I'm not really going to get into detail about though - and tonight I am taking a first step. I'm going to a free trial class of Krav Maga!

Krav Maga is a type of hand-to-hand combat developed originally for the Israeli Defense Forces and makes use of the body's natural weight, center of gravity, and movement to provide defense against a threat. The school I will attend offers all kinds of related training and fitness development, and I'm so excited to try it out! Actually, I'm a good mix of super excited, really nervous, and a little bit terrified!

I weigh more than I've ever weighed in my life, and can't fit into ANY of my jeans no matter how hard I suck in my gut. (Original pictures HERE showing how poorly my clothes fit...so much worse now!)

I'm hoping that Krav Maga and the associated benefits and training offered by this school, including 90 day personalized goal setting and training programs, will help get me back in shape and teach me  how to efficiently defend myself against any threat. I'm so excited!!!

If you are not familiar with Krav Maga but have seen the television show "Alias" from 2001-2006, you have seen Krav Maga in action. Krav Maga is the fighting style used by the main character, Sydney Bristow (played by Jennifer Garner). Although I would love to be even a fraction as fit as she is (or was during the show), I'm mostly focused on the self-defense aspect and building up stamina as I get winded just going up a flight of stairs right now! Everything else - looking great and feeling great and being strong - are just fantastic side benefits.

"Alias" starring Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow

Hopefully the class will be great!

Jennifer Garner, super fit and strong

Jumping back on the fitness bandwagon

A lot has changed over the past few months, and unfortunately, I've gained a few pounds. I was already about 15 pounds over my ideal weight, but over the past few months, I've gained another 15 pounds. I'm 5' 8" tall and as of early January, weighed in at 175 pounds. That is my all time high. Even during pregnancy, 15 years ago, I didn't weigh that much.

Several years ago, I was running and exercising regularly. I had been training for a marathon when I injured my foot and had to stop running. For a while, I quit exercising at all, but during the recovery process I slowly began to get back to the gym and learned to alter my routine to accommodate my injury and recovery. It's now several years later and I've just been a bit overwhelmed so exercise and diet went to the wayside for a while.

I joined a gym this past fall, walked a 5k last spring with a friend, and intermittently ate better.

Healthy lunch example #1.

Healthy lunch and snacks example #2.

Then, I just stopped. I don't really know why.

Since the start of January, I've been eating a lot better and have lost a few pounds as a result, but I still don't feel well inside or out, and I don't look as well as I would like. My favorite clothes don't fit. My favorite sleeping position isn't comfortable right now. The seat belt in my car doesn't go across my body in a very comfortable position.

This week, I tried on some of my favorite clothes as well as a few things I wear regularly. I was brave and took a few photos as my "before" starting point. I know I'm not as overweight as a lot of people, but I am a lot heavier than I am comfortable with.

My favorite jeans. I haven't been able to wear them in about 8 months.

My everyday jeans. A bit tight.

The scrub pants I used to wear. Really tight.

The scrub pants I wear instead. Too big, but comfortable. The next size down was too small.

My plan is to drop a few pounds, be more comfortable in my clothes, have more energy, and to sleep better.