Motivational Monday & Weekend Recap

I am linking up with the Motivation Monday Team again! Be sure to stop by the hosts' blogs, follow them, and leave them some love! Here's how you can find Wendy, Veronica, Morgan, Gwen, Tiff, Katie, and Alisha. I mentioned last week that it helps to find a buddy! You don't have to run with the buddy or even SEE your buddy. It's just someone to hold you accountable with your eating, running, etc. Katie @ Runs For Cookies has posted that her sister is her accountability partner. They both text each other to keep each other focused on their healthy eating. She has lost LOTS of weight and is to her goal yet still needs an accountability partner! So find yourself a buddy!

 

This week, my advice is to have a good support system. Does your husband/boyfriend/wife/family/friend support you? Do you have someone to call when you've had a really bad day? Do you have someone to call when you've had a really good day? I love being able to talk to my sis-in-law Paige and my sister Ashley. Ashley has been working out for a while and has lost over 20 pounds. She goes to the gym a lot and is really focused on being healthy. She is very motivational and very supportive of me (in all areas of my life). It helps that we are very close. Paige is wanting to get healthy as well. We were going to workout together multiple times a week, but her knees have been hurting so she has to slow down a little. Since we live together right now, we also meal plan and try to focus on making healthy meals for us and our husbands. I also always post pictures related to my workout on Facebook. I have friends who comment supportive things like, "Good job!" or even just "liking" the photo is supportive to me. If you surround yourself with people who don't think you'll be successful then it's even harder to succeed. You can still do it, but it takes more determination, commitment, and hard work. And we all know losing weight ALREADY takes a lot of those three things! If you have someone in your life who says things like, "Well we'll see how long this lasts" or laughs at you when you jiggle while you run then that person is NOT SUPPORTIVE of you and is going to laugh IF you fail! If you have someone in your life who knows you're trying to eat right and exercise, but talks about how they lost SO much weight with such-and-such weight loss pill then this person is not supportive of you doing it the "right" way. They may think they are being supportive, but they're not. I get very frustrated when someone tells me they lost 40 pounds in 3 months by taking whatever the latest miracle pill is yet I am running 4-5 days a week and counting calories and have "only" lost 5 pounds in 3 weeks. *rolls eyes* I won't continue to list every possible way a person can be supportive or unsupportive, but have a good support system!

 

Weekend Recap...
I started out doing very well on Saturday. I got up and ran at the hospital. I was eating pretty well and keeping up with my calories through MyFitnessPal. See...

After breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack, I had 887 remaining calories for the day including my exercise calories. We haven't gone grocery shopping so I really wasn't sure what we were going to have for dinner. My brother and sis-in-law took us out to dinner at this Italian place that we all LOVE. It is so delicious. I ended up having pizza! I am such a sucker for pizza. I could eat it multiple times a week. Thank God, I don't! I did order a "healthier" pizza with chicken, spinach, white onion, and black olives. I ate 3 pieces. This restaurant doesn't have a nutritional menu online. I was curious as to how many calories the pizza may have been so I went to this website to enter my pizza. It said my small pizza (12in, 8 pieces) was 1,471 calories. So divided by 8=183.875 a slice. I had 3 slices so about 552 calories. Not TOO bad for eating pizza. BUT I also had 2 pieces of bread dipped in alfredo sauce and parmesan cheese. Yikes! I also had fresh mozzarella with tomatoes, but I only had 2. It was SO GOOD. I ended up eating way too much. I really should have stopped at 2 pieces of pizza, but it was just so delicious.

Sunday I accidentally skipped breakfast. I normally have Spark and breakfast, but I skipped it. We went to Sunday lunch with my sis-in-law's family. We were going to Logan's Roadhouse so I hopped on the menu and pre-planned what I was going to have. I definitely recommend doing that if you're going out to eat. Actually SEEING how many calories are in something you may eat is a huge eye opener. We got to Logan's and the wait for our party was an hour to an hour and a half! WWWHAT! It was already like 12:30 or so. Plus we had Brynlee. There's no way that child is going to be happy waiting for that long and then having to wait for our food. So we went to Red Robin. I knew it was a burger place, but had never been there. So I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous to go there. I really wanted this California Wrap on a Spinach tortilla. So I looked up the calories AND it says it was something like 1,034. Uh, no. I ended up getting this delicious Avo-Cobb-O Salad with Baja Ranch and I am SO happy I got it. It was absolutely delicious. It had avocado, bacon, grilled chicken, black olives, tomatoes, egg, and blue cheese crumbles. With the dressing and a piece of focaccia bread, it was 749 calories. 749 healthy calories.

I spent a few hours tanning in the pool Paige and Kyle bought this weekend from Target. It's a 10 foot pool and such a great idea. We just sat around, listening to music, and playing with Brynlee. She loves it and doesn't have to wear a life jacket or ring. The guys went to play disc golf so we had.....pizza. Like I said, I LOVE pizza. Sigh.

Even if I were to workout every day or multiple times a day, you can't outrun a bad diet.

In order to see the scale go down and see a difference in my body, I have got to exercise AND control my plate. I am the only person who controls what goes in my mouth. Nobody holds me down and shoves pizza in my mouth. Nobody tells me that I have to eat pizza. It's such a weakness for me. I know that it's OKAY to eat pizza, but limit the amount that I have. I am really going to be working on that this week! I am meal planning right now so that Paige and I can go to the store later. We eat healthy when we have healthy food in the house. If we don't, we eat out a lot more or I skip breakfast. No good!

1600 calories of fruit, veggies, lean protein, and healthy carbs is obviously much better for me than 1600 calories of pizza, Mexican food, and other unhealthy food. DUH! I need to build this habit and run with it!

 

I am moving up to 2.75 miles tonight. I am SO nervous. I am going to attempt Week 4 of c25k. I should be on Week 5 this week, but I repeated Week 3 last week. What are you doing for exercise this week?

 

Do you have a good support system? Who is the most supportive of you and your goals (weight loss or other goals)?

 

Have a great week!

Challenge Yourself!

I posted about my fun Tuesday spent with new friends and their kiddos. I was just TOO tired to workout on Tuesday. I planned to use Wednesday as a rest day (I almost always do) since we were going to the Ranger's game that evening with my Mom and step-dad. We had a blast at the Ranger's game. I ate like shit (2 hot dogs and shared a pretzel, nachos, and lemon freeze with Joey and Brynlee) so I am glad I at least burned a few calories during my "quick" 1 mile run and 30 Day Shred workout.

I was supposed to get up on Thursday and run before Joey went to play disc golf. But uh, that didn't happen. I've posted a million times about how hard it is for me to get up early to go exercise. I get up when Brynlee wakes up, which is usually by 8:30am. That's not early. I used to have to be to work at 7am and had to take her to daycare before then. So I have gotten a bit spoiled  used to sleeping in. So yeah, I didn't get up and run before he left. So then I didn't run at all on Thursday. I could have ran Friday evening, we didn't do anything, but I didn't. *shrugs* I am trying very hard to only take two rest days a week, but it looks like I took 3 again this week.

I woke up at 7:45am this morning and Brynlee wasn't in her pack 'n play. Since we're still staying with my brother and sis-in-law, Joey sleeps in the office while Brynlee and myself sleep in the guest room. When we (me and Brynlee) go to bed at the same time, she just sleeps with me. But if I put her to bed before me then she normally goes in the pack 'n play. She is known for waking up, quietly, and destroying the bedroom. So when I woke up at 7:45, she wasn't there. Joey had gotten her last night when he went to bed. So he got up with her this morning. I know that I should have gotten up when I woke up and went for my run so it would be cooler outside, but I didn't. Are you surprised? LOL Instead, I played on my phone for a few minutes and then tried to go back to sleep. I ended up getting up at 8:30. I did go for a run though!

It was just me and this old man out there. He smiled and talked to me every time I ran by him (opposite directions). Except I couldn't hear him since I had my headphones in. The 3rd time I went by him, I took one headphone out and he said, "You are working real hard girl!" I wanted to say, "I could do better!" But I just smiled. I mentioned earlier in the week that my goal for this week is to run/walk 2.50 miles each time I go workout. Then next week I am moving up to 2.75 miles. I plan to slowly increase my mileage by 0.25 miles each week until I am at least doing a 10k. :) That's my goal! When I left the house, I checked the weather outside and it was 75 degrees. At the end of my run, it was 82! My pace was a lot slower today. I really struggled. It was hot, my legs were BURNING, and I just didn't feel like I was doing very well. I did run every time I was supposed to, but I just felt like my mind wanted to do more and my legs wouldn't let me. I really need to get fitted at a running store and buy new shoes, but with me not working...we just can't right now. That is going to be my reward for myself when I DO get a job.

Speaking of jobs, I have an interview on Thursday so keep your fingers crossed for me. I am SO tired of applying for jobs, having interviews, and not getting it. So I honestly don't have my hopes up at all about this one. I know they are interviewing a lot of people because the VP e-mailed me and said they are doing interviews on July 9th-11th and to select a time slot. There were 4 time slots on the 11th, 2 on the 10th, and 1 on the 9th. So I am guessing they are interviewing a lot of people. If I don't get the job, I am just going to start applying for jobs through one of the Temp agencies.

Okay back on track here, I am really struggling to force myself to do the 30 Day Shred Challenge. I am not doing very well with it at all. I decided not to beat myself up about it. I hate doing workout DVDs. Plus, I've done The Shred a few times so I get bored with it. I like to run. I enjoy it. So I am going to stick with that. I like to set goals for myself. That's why I've set the goal to increase my mileage each week by 0.25. That's doable. And it's a good goal. Today I REALLY wanted to just stop when I finished 2 miles. But I didn't...because of my goal. Plus, in my mind I'm like, "Oh...it's only another 0.50 miles. You got this." Do exercise that you enjoy! If you like Zumba, do Zumba! If you like to run, RUN! If you enjoy/don't mind workout DVDS, then you go girl! Find what works for you, and stick with it. BUT don't be afraid to try something new!

Are you exercising this weekend? Or do you take weekends "off"?