Some time in early August, I decided to 1) stop drinking sugary-sweet sodas 2) stop eating candy 3) start eating more healthfully and mindfully 4) start exercising at the health club at least 3 times a week.
I’m not counting calories, although I’m paying more attention to portion size and varying things with more salads and vegetables than before. And I’ve lost 10 pounds – possibly 12, because I can’t remember if my starting point was 238 (ugh) or 236 (somewhat less ugh). Either way, good for me. I seem to have succeeded in making workouts part of my routine, which is a huge help. A typical week includes at least 3 workouts, and on the weekends as long as the weather holds, David and I try to get out and walk in the forest preserves or either Morton Arboretum or the Chicago Botanic Garden.
It’s pleasant having a routine, especially as I’ve always been such a chaotic and anti-organized person. Usually, I have time Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and/or Fridays, with Wednesdays being set aside for choir practice. David’s working out after he gets out of the office too. So it’s all good, and definitely good for us both.
Although I do occasionally have something sweet, it’s become routine for me to drink nothing but water at lunch and dinner. Last night for the Festival of Meat at Texas de Brazil, I had a rather tasty frozen mango lemonade, and passed on dessert because I’d already had a sweet-overload treat at work to celebrate Boss’ Day. One of my co-workers always bakes the best cakes for birthdays, and although I’ve passed on it more recently, decided to have a small piece because it was chocolate with vanilla buttercream and gummie bears…. yes, I ate it, and it was like a sugar bomb going off in my mouth. So although I was somewhat tempted by the much more elaborate dessert options at the restaurant, I really didn’t want the super-rich sweetness explosion thing again.
And that’ll probably be it, I hope, through the dangerous days leading up to Halloween, when all the teams at work start to put out bowls of candy. I’m off on Friday the 30th so I won’t even have to do a costume this year, and we may not even be home Saturday when the neighborhood kids go around, so may not have bags of the stuff tempting me, either.
After that, the Food Coma-inducing holidays are coming, including a special birthday, so I’ll have to be careful to watch the sugar-fat intake and continue with the thrice-weekly (at least) workouts.
Not that my workouts are all that intense, mind you. I generally either do 30-40 minutes on an elliptical machine, or about the same amount of time on a recumbent bike. I seem to do better if I’m listening to something on my iPhone (either music or an NPR program, though FM radio is probably in the future). I don’t seem to stick with the concentration on breathing and heart rate so much if I’m scanning news stories in Google Reader, frankly. Maybe I should make a Workouts playlist… anyway, I enjoy being in my own skin while working out, and then showering and putting on smelly stuff before heading home.
The nice thing is that the club is in the basement of my building at work, and due to a deal struck between my company and theirs, my monthly rate just dropped to $20.00. It’s much nicer than Bally’s, has a decent lap pool and a CLEAN, large Jacuzzi pool, and a private weight/workout area in the women’s locker room. Which is a key factor for a lot of us females, because the main weight and aerobic machine/flexibility/dance studios are in the sub-basement, but have 2-story ceilings with windows from the basement corridor leading to the health club. So anyone walking along can look down and see who’s lifting, who’s on the treadmills, who’s in the aerobics studio, and who’s playing raquetball and squash. They’ve got basketball courts on the far end, in guyland, which are also visible from the basement level corridor. And some of us female types just don’t want to hang it all out there, in its sweaty majesty, for just anybody walking by. So when I lift weights, I stick to the women’s locker room area and generally have it to myself.
I’m lucky that it’s there and enjoy chatting with the staff, especially mi amiga Latina qué labora nel club. She’s the cutest thing and she loves getting me to say something in Spanish, and seems to think I’m an amazing gringa for even trying. Haven’t seen her around for a week or more, hope she’s okay but expect she’s probably visiting relatives or something.
No exercise today, it being Saturday, and although it was more or less sunny earlier, we went out to lunch at Panera, shopped for some new clothes at REI, and came home. Tomorrow, though, we plan to go out to Volo Bog as the weather is supposed to be more reliably clear, and I anticipate that we’ll walk at least a couple of loop trails for the better part of an hour or more.