And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

I gave my pool workout a festive shake-up today!  My weekday swim has been 1200 yards for awhile now, the way I challenge myself is by shaving off time and doing more lengths of each stroke before switching strokes.  I started by doing 4 lengths front crawl and 4 lengths back stroke and repeating that set six times.  recently I had upped that to 8 lengths front and 8 back and repeating that set only 3 times for 48 lengths.

On my walk to the gym today I decided I was going to try to increase my lengths again and try 12 front and 12 back twice.  I also decided to use the 12 Days of Christmas to help me, as I am a total nerd.

For the 1st 12 front crawl I just tried to sort all the 12 Days out in my head, turns out I had my birds mixed up in the beginning and had no idea who did what after 8 Maids a Milking.

The second 12 on my back I sang the song in my head as the members of the Muppets, as anyone of my generation would.

The 3rd 12 length set had me remembering various illustrations of the 12 days, which really helped sort out the problem in set #1.

And finally on my 4th 12 length set I replaced all the original values with alcohol, can't wait for 12 Shots of Patron on January 7th!

In the end I did my 48 lengths in 3 minutes less than my previous best time, proved I had endurance for 300 yards of each stroke at a time and had a really enjoyable swim!

Sometimes the Plan is No Plan

No, I haven't forgotten the advantages of planning all of a sudden.  Nor have I gotten soft around the holidays, but I discovered Sunday at the gym that my plan was holding me back a little.

Lately my treadmill work out has been 30 or 45 minutes, either 2 or 3 reps of this:

1. 5 Minutes Slow
2. 5 Minutes Less Slow
3. 5 Minutes Jog (and that is a very generous term for walking faster but actually lifting both feet off the treadmill at once)


I was convinced that 5 minutes was all I could "jog" at this point and I was set in this pattern.  On Sunday I did the same 45 minutes, but I shook up the order and did 2 "jog" blocks back-to-back.  For those of you with math skills like mine, that means I "jogged" for 10 minutes straight.

By challenging my plan I learned I could do a 10 minute "jog" with relative ease.  The other day in the pool I was set on doing 1000 yards, but once in the pool I felt good enough to do 1200.

Planning is crucial for me, but I can't let my plan convince me of limitations I don't have any more.

On the Road Again

So I survived Thanksgiving!  More than survived actually, I had a great week.  I didn't feel I deprived myself of anything and balanced the delicious food with time in the gym and managed to lose a couple pounds over the past 2 weeks.

My next challenge hits on Monday when I head on a short business trip.  I used to travel a ton for work and that frequency has greatly diminished.  I hope my bad travel habits diminished as well.

If you travel for work you know what I am talking about.  Routine goes out the window, food and booze are abundant and ducking out of a gathering to work out is rude or even a bad career move.  Meals are much larger than normal too, who eats dessert with lunch? Hotel gyms are usually small and not motivating.

Add to that the fact that this trip has been touted as "jam-packed with events" and I am nervous. There is no pre-published agenda.  I don't know what I am walking in to.  The best I can do is walk in prepared.

I have already packed my gym clothes and sneakers.  I plan to stock my carry on with protein bars, fruit and almonds. I am going to stick to 1 glass of red wine at the evening events and try to set my alarm early enough to get a work out in at least 2 days.

Anyone else have any travel tips for the health conscious?  Please leave a comment below, thanks!

Dressing Room Victory Dance

Twice a year my mom takes me shopping for clothes, once for my birthday in the summer and once around now for Christmas. We wander the department and each pick up a few things for me to try on and then I trudge to the dreaded dressing room to see what I can squeeze in to.

On Black Friday I happily skipped around the department selecting items in a smaller size and when I met up with my mother I found she had items TWO sizes smaller than what we bought in July.  I was dubious.  And scared.  I didn't want to try something on that didn't fit yet.

She assured me she thought the things she picked would fit.

They did.

Seriously, I almost cried in the dressing room.  Then I danced.

Planning the Perfect Plate

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and as in all eating endeavors lately I have made a plan.  I have divided my dinner into 3 categories, I am calling them The Good, The Bad and The Expendable.

The Good

1. Turkey -- I only like white meat turkey and have no interest in the skin, so the star of the show is definitely in the good column for me.

2.  Salad -- We are starting with a lovely fall salad of greens, heirloom tomatoes, pears and pomegranate with a homemade pear balsamic dressing.

3.  Veggies -- All our veggies come to the table healthy.  I have a niece with a dairy allergy so no butter or milk in the mashed potatoes, nothing but olive oil & herbs on the roasted squash and brussel sprouts and carrots.

The Bad

1.  Stuffing -- My mom makes the best stuffing in the world (said most people on Thanksgiving).  She makes half in the bird and mixes it with some made in a casserole dish giving it a nice balance of moist and not-greasy, but it is still not even close to healthy.

2.  Gravy -- Speaking of grease....and deliciousness.  I only eat gravy once or twice a year.  I'm having it (see what I'm skipping instead).

3.  Pie -- Homemade pumpkin pie with a delicious homemade crust.  Yep, not skipping it.

The Expendable

1.  Rolls -- I love bread as much as the next gal, but I would rather have a little more stuffing than a roll & butter.  Speaking of...

2.  Butter -- Mom's gravy is so good I skip the butter on my potatoes and just do gravy and pepper.

3.  Ice Cream -- A little dollop of whipped cream on my pie is fine, save the ice cream for the kids!

I figure if my plate has more of the Good and less of the Bad I will be in good shape come Friday!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Ho Ho Holiday Temptations

When I started my path to a healthier lifestyle in July, I set a realistic goal for myself for that month. I knew my birthday and a cruise vacation would be too tempting to result in any significant weight loss.  My goal was not to gain any weight in July and in the end I lost 3 pounds that month.  I set some rules, especially for the vacation that I tried to stick to and in that same vein I present my goals for not gaining weight over the holidays:

1. Not Every Day is a Holiday: For me the holiday season runs from Thanksgiving through the 2nd week of January when I host a big dinner party for my friends, but not every day of those 7 weeks is a holiday.  On the normal days I need to follow normal rules about diet and exercise.

2. Not Every Meal is Special: On those days when there is a celebration or gathering there is no reason to blow the whole day.  Isolate the special meal and truly make it special by eating normally for the other meals of the day.

3.  No Treats Alone: I have blogged about living alone and I do, but during the holidays I spend a  lot of time with my family.  There is no excuse to eat treats alone.  That piece of pie, homemade cookie or box of delicious chocolates will be even sweeter with conversation and shared declarations of how truly tasty it is.  This makes you accountable for what you eat and makes it less about the food and more about the celebration.

4.  Gym 3X a Week (at least):  No excuses!

5.  Hydrate: Drinking water is the easiest of my habits to break and hydration is key for staying healthy and feeling full.

I feel confident in myself that if I stick to these 5 rules I will find the number on the scale to my satisfaction come January 13th!

GOALLLLL!!!!!

You may recall from the early days of this blog that I set a specific goal at the beginning of July as part of a long distance challenge.  I wasn't cut out for the long distance challenge really, but I did try to stick to the plan to achieve the goal.  The goal was a specific # of pounds on the scale by the Friday before Thanksgiving.

I am happy to report that with 1 week to go I have passed my goal weight by over a pound!  This was not a small amount of pounds either, as a coworker told me "this is a really big deal!"  I want to thank all of you that have been so supportive the past 4 months, who have gone on walks with me, eaten healthier in my presence and encouraged me, it has been an awesome 16 weeks.

I wish this meant I was done, but it does not, there are a lot more pounds to lose, but as we head into the holidays my goals are going to shift to maintenance until after New Years.  Tune in next week for my plan to not gain weight over the holidays!