Saturday, October 29, 2011

Pudgy, Indeed...

Ummm...wow.  What just happened?  Maybe it was the hills that I'm not used to.  Maybe it was the cold air that maybe I'm not used to.   Or maybe it was the...gasp...excerise that I'm not used to.

I went to the trail for a jalk (jog/walk) yesterday.  It was only four miles (compared to the 7 or 8 I have been known to walk there--during the heat of summer!) My whole body hurts, and I'm worn out.  Where did my endurance go?  As of this summer, I had a lot more endurance than apparently I do now.  Granted, I sort of fell off the wagon, but geeze... I was huffing and puffing--and definitely could not blow any houses down.

Note to self: sitting on my now pudgier rearend for a few months makes running hard.

On the upside, it cleared my head.  I felt less angry and stressed and grouchy. And last night's sleep was amazing.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

A Freezer Full

     One of the biggest obstacles DH and I have faced towards losing weight and getting in shape is eating out. We're both really busy, and many nights out of the week, by time the end of the day rolls our way, we're just too tired to cook.  So we settle for something that neither especially tastes good nor is especially good for the soul.  We do what most Americans do: we eat out.  And because we're not especially well-off either, most of our meals are fast food--which has to be even worse than sit-down-restaurant food. We have e-mealz, (If you don't know about it, you should! There's a button on the side of this page for more info and to subscribe) which I love!, but even though most of those meals are quickly prepared, that's still too much on the agenda for any given night.
   So here's the experiment I'm trying this week: I spent the morning cooking things that will freeze well that are also fairly healthy. I've made orange maple chicken, wine chicken (a family fav when I was a kid), mashed sweet potatoes, and I'm getting ready to put a pork roast in the oven.  The plan is to do this every week, so that I can just thaw something out before I go to work in the morning--and then cook some simple sides.  When I was at the store this morning, I stocked up on some frozen Steam-in-the-bag vegetables which will help too!
    We've just gotten our freezer, so this is a new plan for us.  But it makes good sense.  I can buy things when they are on sale, and then cook on my day off.  I do actually love to cook, so this way it seems like less of a chore than it does when I'm in a hurry.  There's something about chopping vegetables and making something fabulous out of seemingly random ingredients that soothes my soul.  If you have any good (healthyish) recipes that you know freeze well, I'd sure like to know about them.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Go, already...

"The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step."
Here I go. I'm ready.  I'm done being tired and fat and unhealthy-- I guess I'm just over it. I'm ready to make new beginnings.  I still consider myself athletic and regularly remind myself that I'm almost the exact same weight I was when I did a sprint tri five years ago, and as I was when I got married four years ago.  I tell myself that at least it hasn't gotten worse.  But then I remind myself that it hasn't gotten better either.  I'm really ready for the better.