Fitgirl Chronicles

Walking is good....

A beautiful night for a walk. I'm getting back into a routine and building up to some running. Still reaching for that as a goal. Sometimes I feel tired after work and don't want to go work out.  I am a morning workout person by nature.  But I am  telling myself that I just need to GET THE EXERCISE IN - ANYTIME in the day. It's all about priorities..

My walk after supper.

 

The two most important things I NEED to accomplish in the day are 1. Exercise & 2. Eat healthy, after that everything else is a bonus.  I was going to say "after that everything else is "gravy" but thought the irony would be too much, ha, ha....

I stopped to smell the flowers. I'm not sure what this is but it is a beauty.

Once I was outside I was so happy to be out in nature.

I did a really good walk with Tessa about 1 hour. It felt great.

The path to wellness....

The last days of summer; it is such a special time of the year.  The light is so great.

A hugh shout out to PJ, Diane and Jess, you guys are my biggest cheerleaders! I love you guys! You all Motivate Me so much with all your great strides in being fit and healthy!  Thank-you all.

Have a great night everyone!

Breathe, believe and be....

That's me getting all philosophical again.  But good points in life to be sure.  My great friend Lara gave me this cool BELIEVE magnet.  Just a small thing but I LOVE it for what it represents.  Thanks Lara.

One of my goals is to believe in me and to believe I can do what I set out to achieve.

Today was Saturday and as weekends can get kind of crazy I decided to get up and go for a walk straight away which was smart because there were so many projects calling my name.

My husband and son and faithful Tessa came with me.

This hill looked like a good idea at the time.....

Not such a great idea in hindsight... 

Thankfully, it was not a serious injury and we continued onward to get 60 minutes in.

A little run along the trail.

Wild Rose ....

We were tempted by a garage sale on our travels... no finds..

Love the sky I could look at it all day; we had a beautiful day today.

I spent the rest of my day in the garden my favorite place to just BE.

I got these new shasta daisies today they are a new variety...I have forgotten the exact name, but I thought they were so pretty.

I love perennials because so many of mine are given to me from friends and family and every time I look at them it reminds me of them.

The peonies are so great right now, almost finished so I wanted a shot.

After I planted some new flowers and weeded my garden we got an amazing thunderstorm which cooled everything off.

And the BREATHE part of my day is just trying to be thankful for the goals I have met and what I am doing in moving forward.  I am taking advice from fellow blogger Teresa of Mama Wants a Sixpack, who said in summary regarding exercise, "just do it".  Great advice Teresa and Nike.  I need to stop fretting and just do it - whenever I can fit it in a day.  Thanks for that Teresa.

With that I will say goodnight.  Have a great night everybody.

Longboards, rollerblades & a saucy puppy....

That was my workout today.  I went for a 1 hour walk with my kids and our dog.  My son on his new longboard and my daughter with her new rollerblades and our dog with her saucy attitude.  It was a good workout and I am still aiming toward running.  Glad to get back to the workout routine.

I love looking at the world from my dog's perspective.

I  ate healthy today lots of salad and veggies. Tried to make up for too much food on the weekend.

I added fresh basil to the red leaf lettuce and a few kalamata olives, green onions, celery, tomatoes and cucumber....

Dressing is 6 tablespoons of olive oil to 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.  I only used a small amount.

Tonight I am going to do some crunches and the exercise called "the bridge".  I have been going to physio for the last little while for my knee/hip/pelvis out of whack and I need to strengthen the glutes and the muscle on the inside of the knee to balance out the pull on the knee so "the bridge it is". And then some stretches. I am trying to look at exercise as each little bit helps instead of an all or nothing attitude which I tend to do sometimes.  Hopefully this will help me get to my goal.

Have a good night everyone.

I hate it when that happens.....

When you are going along and all is well and then wham-O you see a photo of yourself and it is not good.  Which is what happen to me this week.  I know it shouldn't matter but I have an idea of what I look like in my head and sometimes it really doesn't match what I see in pictures..... I used to be thin pre-kids so I have that thinner me in my mind.  Not that I don't actually know that I have gained weight since then.  Intellectually I get that but I still don't see myself as that big until I see myself and I am  -big.  This is just strengthening my resolve that I am on the right journey.  And I can't let where I am at now stress me out.  I am thankful for my body now and that I am healthy and able to lose this weight.  Also in order to move forward one needs to admit what the truth to be able to change it. It is challenging to remain positive and focused sometimes instead of being mortified at how much weight I really do have to lose.  But if I remain "mortified" what good is that going to do in really propelling me forward and making progress to get to my goal.   So onward I go with a grateful outlook .....

I had another great walk with Jess & Tess on Wednesday which was awesome.  

 

A gorgeous day!

Summer - yeah!

Tess with her new doggy backpack. It did calm her down a bit but she still gets crazy when other dogs are passing us on the the trail which is very frustrating.  Something I am working on. I wish Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer) could come to my house!

Food has been pretty good.  Some of my choices:

Salad on the bottom, with 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 of an avocado, and 2 tbsp of lemon dill hummus.  It does not look appetizing but it was very filling and good.

Some watermelon cubes.  I am trying to have fruit as a snack.

A sandwich for lunch of black forest ham, with some bits of leftover roast beef, a couple of slices of feta cheese, dijon mustard and a pickle on whole wheat bread.  Not my best lunch ever but not bad.

With some cottage cheese.  Food has been a bit thrown together lately because I have been preoccupied with getting the planting of the garden done and the yard work so I haven't been doing much fabulous cooking the last two days.

I did find this cookbook at a thrift store today and I was thrilled. It was only $ 2.50, you can't beat that.  I saw it on line for $28.03.  I have another Moosewood Cookbook that I really like so I was very excited to see this low fat version and all of the nutritional info is listed which is great.

Lately I have been looking for more grain type recipes and there are a lot it appears in this cookbook.

I will try some recipes and give my reviews.

My workout today consisted of gardening - not exactly a killer workout but something.  The lilacs are so beautiful right now.  These were on the trail.

Goals for tomorrow- more structured healthy food with proper portions....and move move move.....

Organized and energized....

A constant theme in my life: "Getting Organized".  I do so much better when I am organized so I spent the last few days making a "Central Binder" to organize my life.  I do better with paper I don't use an electronic organizer.  So this is what I came up with 

I have divided the sections with collaged pages (my art obsession) and made the pertinent sections for my life right now.  

So the idea is this is where I keep track of running the household, meal planning, exercise schedule, general schedule, master list, any list....etc... All in one place as opposed to scattered about the house!

My tabs are those post-it note durable filing tabs so you can change them if you need to.

I have been working outside lately doing tons of landscaping and planting in the front and back yard so I haven't been doing any elaborate cooking but hope to soon.

My goals for eating this week are:  Eat sensible portions, whole, healthy food with protein at each meal and snack.  Keep track of calories (going to try that for one week). PORTION Control is key for me.  I have posted my new weigh-ins for the last two weeks here. I am doing OK but I know I can do so much better. I will keep moving forward and doing the work.

Tuesday Workout (today):

60 minute walk with Tessa 

I picked a path with some hills to make it more intense.  I still want to build up to running.

A gorgeous day today!

I am still in love with the blossoms out there.

Have a great day everyone!

Need to step it up a bit.....

My workout that is.  I have been doing OK but I think I need to work harder during each session.  I need to really sweat it out and get my heart rate up.  Also I would like to do something everyday ideally but on 2 days per week either have a lighter workout or one day when I can take a break...I am just throwing that out there into the universe to get myself started in the right direction.

Today I went for an hour long walk with the kids (on bikes) and Tessa. It was very nice to get outside and walk but next time I need to go faster I think.  Still, I am glad I took time out to get out there.  In the past sometimes it was difficult to even drag myself out of the house I am afraid to say.  Not anymore!

My faithful Tessa!  

Starting today I am committing to doing 100 each of one of the following each day - ab exercises of some sort, push ups and squats.  I may not be able to do them all in a row but I will get them done.  I got this idea from Lighter Portions on the right side/column of her blog.  I think it is a fabulous idea so I am going to adopt it.  I like the idea of having some goal to do at home and something to check off.  Love the blog by Kristie over at Lighter Portions if you haven't checked it out yet I highly recommend it.  Warning though if you are hungry be prepared because her food photos are amazing.

Me taking a rest while the kids swing.

I got these amazing flowers from some work friends.  The girl who made this arrangement is sooo creative.  Lucky me.

So I am off to make some of those recipes I have been looking at in my Jamie's Food Revolution Cookbook.  

Hope everyone is having a fun weekend.