Focusing On Me

Apparently I can't blog and take care of me at the same time. There have been lots of changes of here lately. I am in my 8th (or 9th...lost track) early morning workouts 4 days a week. It has now gone from something I had to drag myself out of bed for to just part of my routine. I love that! I feel great afterwards even though during some of these workouts I have been pretty sure I am going to die! I love that the workout changes everyday and it is never the same thing each day. Just when I think "Oh yeah...I got this" she has us do things that push us beyond our comfort zones. That is good though! I took a Nutrition 101 seminar a few weeks ago. It was done by a local OB/GYN. I brought home a lot of good tips and advice. One thing she said that stuck with me was that when women come to her and say that they are eating well and exercising but the weight is not coming off she asks them how much sleep they are getting. She said that your body needs at least 7 hours of sleep each night to repair and heal properly. So much to my husbands dismay we are going to bed earlier or as he says "when old people do". To get 7 hours of sleep on the night before a workout I need to be in bed by 9:30. We usually head that way around 9. That is pretty much an hour (at least) less then time in the evening than what we had before....so some things have fallen by the waste side....like blogging. I would much rather spend time watching a show with my husband than waiting for pics to upload and thanks to our slower than molasses internet I can't watch Netflix and upload pics at the same time. The funny thing is that since we implemented the earlier bedtime we find ourselves heading to bed early even on the evening we do not need to. Our teenagers think we are crazy! I do feel better in the mornings. I am trying to be more active in the evenings after dinner. If we have nothing else going on I try to take a walk or do a run. I like when my husband joins me because his legs are so much longer than mine I practically have to jog to keep up with him. I am really trying to create a more active lifestyle for all of us because if things go back to the way they were I feel like I am more likely to go back to the way I was. I have been doing way to much sitting around on my laptop seeing what everyone else is up to when I should be out taking care of myself! Each night I have been making a concous effort to get off my laptop and do something else. I have stacks and stacks of books I have picked up from garage sales or paperbackswap.com that I have never read because I have not been making the time. Starting now I am going to stay off my laptop after dinner and read more. Reading makes me happy and FB does not. That is one thing I am learning about myself. More often than not I leave Facebook frustrated and cranky. There is way to much whining and complaining! I just don't want to deal with it anymore but I do like keeping up to date with what family members and good friends are up to. So I am going to check in a few times a day but from dinner on I am going to be done. I need to be up and about moving or doing something that fills my tank up and does not empty it. The teenagers are doing less complaining about the lack of certain processed foods and more fruit/veggies lately. I have not bought any cold cereals except for cherrios in a few weeks. My oldest has started taking large containers of cut up fruit with her to eat on the bus every morning and I love that! I plan on making some homemade granola in the next few days. Took me awhile to find some natural shredded coconut for the recipe I was using. Finally found it at Kroger. We are still not loving brown rice but continue to give it a try. For stir fry nights I am making both brown and white to give the kids the option. I am just living with brown rice. I was really happy to find whole wheat egg noodles for my hamburger corn casserole (a family favorite). I had not seen it before. I started buying unsweetened vanilla almond milk for our smoothies. It is only 35 calories a cup so it decreases the calories of a smoothie big time when compared to milk. One other things I took away from the Nutrition Seminar I took was the advice to take liquid fish oil. It is great for your cardiovascular system, lungs, skin, AND when paired with exercise increases fat loss! It sounds gross but is comes in lemon and orange flavor and I just take it straight and I have had not problems with any fish taste. I have also noticed that I am not burping up fish taste like I have in the paste with fish oil pills. I feel like it is improving my dry heals and I have also noticed less water retention and swelling in my hands and feet since I started taking it. Not sure if that is the cause or just a coincidence. I am proud to say that I have lost 15 pounds to date! I keep checking each week to see if my wedding ring fits! That is going to be one of my biggest rewards the day that happens! I have not been able to wear my wedding ring in years. So sad! Clothes are definitely fitting differently. I have some "fat" jeans that I can't wear anymore because they are falling down. I also have other pairs that are getting loose. I have had to buy new workout clothes because some of the ones I was wearing started getting too loose! Woot woot! I am happy with the changes I am making. I feel better than I have in a long time and I know that the more weight comes off the better I will feel. I love the new friends I have made in my exercise class. It is an incredibly positive and supportive atmosphere. I look forward to walking in the doors every morning. I feel so lucky to have found this group of girls. I love how strong I am getting! We have done two intense cardio recently that I am pretty sure I could not have kept up with when I first started the class. I loved the feeling of accomplishment I had at the end when I realized I did every set without stopping before it was over. It was not easy but I did it! I want to continue to post of meal plans for the week on here so I am going to make an effort to be better about that. I am also going to post updates when I can, but I am not going to go crazy and stress about not posting daily. I need to step away from my laptop. Need to focus on myself and my family. When you make time for workouts and getting healthy something has to give and my family is of course not an option. I am not superwoman and have not desire to try to be!