Week in Review

Another week has come and gone as has another month, so it is time for my week in review.

• Exercise - So far I have had 4 days of solid higher intensity exercise. I am thinking about taking today off and focus on lighter cardio exercise while still burning calories and I will more than likely do that. But, when it comes to exercise my mind changes and I may still pop in a DVD later in the day (I like to switch up the times of day in which I do exercise). I still plan on taking next week off from my DVDs and focus on doing some walking / jogging / running. Because my body does need to rest. 
• Water - All I can say is that my water intake has greatly improved. I get the majority of my intake during my workouts but as long as I am getting it in, it doesn't matter to me what time of the day it is coming.  
• Calorie deficit - From Monday through Thursday, I have finished my days with over a 500 calorie deficit which is something that I hope to continue through today. I always struggled with eating my exercise calories back but for the past couple of weeks I haven't been eating them and I can say that right now I don't think I will go back to eating them. It has been one of the best decisions I have made on this journey thus far. 
• Low carb - so far so good on staying low carb. I cut them out when I can and only eat them in moderation when I do decide to have some. 

So far, things have been going rather well this past month and I hope they continue to go this well in the future. I have set a new goal of being down another 15 pounds by the time Christmas comes around. If I succeed in that, it will be a Christmas gift to myself, but it will be one that is well worth it. 

Week in Review

Another week has passed and in my eyes, it was another successful one. Of course with every success comes room for improvement, but I am a work in progress.

• Exercise - For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to pop in my workout DVD Monday morning. Thankfully for me, my godmother and I went walking so I was able to burn my calories that way. Then, once I made it home, I popped in the DVD and found a group exercise routine on there which, although short, was a definite full body workout. Tuesday and Wednesday was Body Rev / Cardio Conditioning, while Thursday and today are Ultimate Cardio Body days. I still managed to get in my five days of working out and torched some calories. 
• Calorie deficit - I had another week where I didn't eat back any of my exercise calories. I think this is what has been helping me recently. I am finishing the day with a significant amount of calories that I don't even have an intention of eating back. After working out in the morning (or early afternoon), a snack and 3 balanced meals, I am full. Some nights, I will allow myself to have some dessert, but not every night (another huge improvement for me). 
• Low to no carb - I am slowly starting to allow carbs back into my system. I am not eating them every single day, but I am eating them again. I may have a carb at breakfast and then no more for the rest of the day. Or, I may wait and eat my one carb at dinner time. It all depends. 
• Water - my water intake has greatly improved. I keep a Bubba Keg 52 ounce mug full of water with me before, during and after my workouts so I can make sure I am getting my water in. 

Another week is finally in the books which means I am another week closer to achieving another goal, a goal that doesn't necessarily have to be weight related, a goal that lets me know I have had 7 wonderful months on this journey. Slow and steady will always win the race. 

Week In Review

On Wednesday, I wrote about my goals and how they were coming along so far. I should have known that if I spoke too soon, I would jinx myself. Although, I did in fact jinx myself, I am pretty impressed with how my week has gone.

• Exercise - I missed one day of exercising this week, yesterday to be exact. I don't know what was going on with my body but it was so tired and I had absolutely no energy at all. I started my workout but my body just wasn't following along with what my mind wanted to do. I am not terribly upset about missing one day of exercise, because I have finished each day with over 525 calories.
• Calorie deficit - As I mentioned above, each day this week I have finished my days with over 525 calories. Essentially, I have not been eating back any of my exercise calories this week. I avoid eating back any of my exercise calories by adding them at the end of the day.
• Low to no carbs - other than cereal, I only had two carbs this week. Half of a club sandwich on Wednesday and about 1/4 cup of hibachi rice yesterday. For me, that is beyond impressive because I do love my carbs. Yesterday, I had the biggest craving for a cheeseburger and french fries, I still do at this point, but I have placed that on my no eating list because of the carbs and I want to actually succeed at going very low to no carbs. 
• Water - my water intake has greatly improved this week mainly because it is so hot outside and I have been pushing myself harder in my workouts. 
• Lose at least 1.2. pounds - I would definitely hope that I see a loss on the scale this week. Especially since I have been doing intense cardio with a little strength training mixed in. 

Although this week seems like it dragged on, I am just glad that it is Friday and the weekend is ahead of me. Tomorrow is definitely going to be a much needed rest day because my body is tired and it definitely needs to rest. Aside from my body needing to rest, my muscles need time to repair themselves.

Everyday I am feeling better about myself and that is proof that my journey is moving in the right direction. I still have a long way to go but it will be more than worth it when I get to the finish line. 

Weekly Goals Update

My week has been progressing rather well. I hit a pivotal moment in my journey yesterday when I finally realized how I reacted to myself and not how others saw me. Check out how my weekly goals are coming along.

• Exercise - I have been pushing myself in these exercises this week. The one thing I can say about these exercises is that they are pretty repetitive. I am not saying that in a bad way but in a way that indicates, once you have done them on one disc you are ready to do them again on another disc and have the hang of it. My workouts have been lasting a little over an hour and I have yet to do the 13 minute workout this week (giving me my two a day) but the week is only half way over and I still have time. 
• Calorie deficit - since the start of my week on Monday, I have not eaten back any of my exercise calories. I simply don't log them until the end of the day that way I can make sure I don't eat any of them back. I seem to have a greater average weight loss at the end of the week when I have a higher calorie deficit at the end of the day. 
• Low to no carbs - for the past two days, I didn't eat any carb (grain, pasta, etc.) other than cereal but today I must admit that I had a half of a club sandwich when I went out with my godmother. On the plus size, it was only a half of a sandwich and I picked the croutons out of my salad. This is just a minor incident and I will steadily be moving forward on my low to no carb plan. 
• Water - I have taken down at least 4 cups today and have done pretty well over the last couple of days. 
• Lose at least 1.2 pounds - that is still left up in the air since the week is not over yet. 

So far, I have done pretty well on my goals, but I still have two days left in this week and I am not sure what those two days will bring, but I hope they bring something good. 

Week In Review

I cannot believe another week has passed. It feels like yesterday was Monday but I guess its true that time flies when you are having fun and this week I had a lot of fun with my workouts. This has been one of my most successful weeks since being on this journey, even if the numbers don't reflect that tomorrow.

• Exercise - when it comes to exercising, I kicked it up a notch this week and really pushed myself. Each day my goal was to burn more calories than the day before and I was able to do that. The greatest feeling I have after every workout is not just completing it but actually accomplishing the calories burned goal I had set for myself. Because I was beating my goal each day, I only had one day where I managed to get in two workouts. Two a days will always be something I strive towards. Here is my breakdown of calories burned for this week. My weekly goals of exercise minutes is still 120 minutes (I will be increasing that since it is set to 4 days 30 minutes per day. I plan to increase it to 5 days and anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes per day pretty soon).  My calories burned goal for the week is still 1,090 (which will also be increasing when I increase my exercise minutes in MFP).

• Water - I kicked it up several notches this week with my water intake and not only I am proud of that (not to toot my own horn) but I owe it to my workouts. The harder I pushed myself, the more intense the workout became and the more water my body needed. 
• Balanced meals - my meals were pretty good this week, they were balanced and measured out. My snacks consisted of a rice cake and either peaches or pineapples. Each of my meals this week had one meat, veggie and carb - which I consider to be pretty balanced. I did have one night where I had a healthy serving of four veggies and one meat with no carbs. 

I don't know if I will see a loss this week, I hope so, I really want to see one but the scale can lie and it often does. If my body is any indicator of how I feel I have accomplished more than any number on the scale could.

Week In Review

I can say, this week has been a very good week for me. I truly am proud of what I have accomplished this week and although I have a long road ahead of me, I know that if I keep pushing myself like I did this week, everything should fall into place.

Here is how my week went:

• Exercise / Weekly Weigh In - I have put in 5 days of exercise this week alone which is something to be proud of and it is only Friday! This week I completed Bob Harper's Pure Burn / Super Strength and it focused mainly on weight lifting in addition to cardio. I am pretty nervous for my weigh in tomorrow since I have been lifting weights all week. I would have been fine with a gain, because it would have been a gain in muscle but I would have also been fine with a loss. If I do have a gain, I won't be stressing it because of the muscle build. Here is a break down of my calories this week via MyFitnessPal. My weekly goal of exercise minutes is 120, this week alone I have completed 331 minutes. My calories burned goal is 1,090 and this week alone I have burned 2,184. 

• Water - My water intake has definitely improved this week and I owe it all to my intense workout sessions. Either way I look at it, I am getting water in, which is what I have needed all along. 
• Balanced Eating - My eating has been all over the place this week. For the most part my eating during my main meals was balanced but I had a strong craving for brownies on Monday and I can never eat one brownie and be done with them, I have to "help" eat them until they are gone. It is a bad habit and one that I am keeping under check. On the other hand I did pretty good with my eating yesterday. Unfortunately I left my turkey burgers in the house, so they never made it out to the grill so I chose to eat a hamburger and will be fixing my turkey burgers tonight. Other than the burger swap, I stuck to my spaghetti salad and a small helping of baked beans. I was surprised that I didn't have a taste for a hot dog, but I will admit that I enjoyed some fried chicken wings. Dessert was on another level, I am not ashamed to admit that I did enjoy a small (so small it was gone in 3 bites) helping of apple pie and blue bell ice cream, a cupcake and small slice of key lime pie. The only reason I am not ashamed to admit what I ate is because I have worked hard during my workout this week and it wasn't like I spend every day eating like that. 

I definitely have a long way to go but July is off to a very good start and I plan to keep it going like that. I have made more progress this week than I have in a while and although I won't be celebrating that just yet, I feel that good things are waiting for me as long as I keep pushing myself to be the best I can be.

Week In Review

Looking back on my week, it started off well but I decided to switch things up around Wednesday. Here is how I did on my weekly goals.

• Exercise - I did fine with my exercise on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I decided to take a rest day, then as an slightly unfortunate coincidence, Thursday followed suit. I can say that today will also be a rest day. Why? For the past two weeks I have lost 2 pounds (once each week) by exercising and eating some of my exercise calories back. This week I want to see if I lose anything and how much, by not exercising. 
• Water - I am not sure what went wrong in my water intake, but I don't think I managed to get anything more than a couple of bottles into my system this week. Drinking water is always a goal that I will have every week because it is something that I have a yo-yo relationship with. I love water, some days I am in the mood for it, other days I am not. That's just how life goes I suppose. 
• Monitor snacking - I am proud to say that I monitored my snacking very well this week. My snacks usually consisted of peaches, which lately have tasted like they were picked right off of a peach tree and lightly sweetened, they were just that good! (thanks Dole!).
• Focus on balanced meals - my meals were pretty balanced, typically consisting of one carb, one veggie and a meat. That is something that I am proud of because I have been trying to limit myself to one carb per meal. 

The only thing that was different this week was the fact that I made the choice to give up three days of exercise to see if I would gain, lose or maintain any weight. That may seem like I am sabotaging my own weight loss journey, but according to MFP, the calories that I am allotted each day, are calories that would allow me to lose weight without exercise and tomorrow I will see if that is true or not. 

Week In Review

Looking back, my week started off rather well. The scales worked in my favor last week and I can only hope that they will work out in my favor this week, but I am not 100% sure about that.

When it came down to exercise, I managed to get in 4 days. It wasn't 5 like I had hoped, but thanks to my GERD, I had to abandon my Biggest Loser workout on Thursday in favor of Zumba (at least I still got something in). On top of that the weather has been too nice outside to workout inside so I don't mind missing a few days of the Biggest Loser to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside and workout.

MFP gives you a daily goal for both exercise minutes and calories burned. My weekly goal for workout minutes is 120 minutes (4 workouts per week) and so far I have surpassed that goal with 171 minutes completed. As far as calories burned, my goal is 1090 but I have only burned 1055.

My water intake has been sufficient. As always, it could have been better but it was not my worst week by far for water intake.

I manged to monitor my snacking very well this week. I stuck to eating Luna bars when I really needed a snack and when I didn't necessarily have to have a snack, I tried to focus my mind on things that did not revolve around food.

When I look back to my meals for the week, some have been higher in calories, some haven't. I try to eat my higher calorie meals on Monday or Tuesday and lower the calories as my week goes on. For some reason, Thursdays have always been my higher calorie days.

On the other hand, I have noticed that when I eat higher calories on Fridays my weigh in almost always results in a gain. If I eat a lower amount of calories, it almost always results in the gaining of a few ounces. Therefore on Fridays, I have to eat nearly all of my calories but eat them in low calorie foods (more fruits, more vegetables, etc.). The best thing about this week is that I had another successful week staying under my calorie allotment.

I don't know what to expect for this week and that is mainly because when my GERD acts up, I become bloated (a true TMI moment) and the scales are not my friend. If I lose a few ounces, a pound, etc. then of course I will be happy but if I don't, or gain, I won't beat myself up about it because I know in advance that my GERD flare up has paid a small part.

Week In Review

At the beginning of the week, I always think "oh, this week is going to go by so slow" and at the end of the week my attitude has changed to "oh, this week went by so fast" and there are times when I wonder where did all the time go. Did I accomplish all that I wanted to? Did I have an unexpected rest day, when I could have moved my workout to earlier in the day and got it in?

After last weeks 4 (yes, 4!) rest days, I was determined that I was not going to have another week like I did last week.

When it came to exercising I feel that I did pretty good (and that is not to toot my own horn). I worked out all 5 days this week, like scheduled. Yesterday, I knew a terrible storm was going to blow through that night and that we would probably lose power (which we did) so I moved my workout to the morning. That was the best decision I could have made because it proved to me that I am truly dedicated to changing this lifestyle.

I can't help but be proud of myself because I did make it all 5 days, adjusted my schedule and I even beat a couple calorie goals I had.

My water intake has definitely improved. Numerous bottles a day, plus refilling various water bottles has left me a happy (not dehydrated) camper! This is something I have definitely been struggling with lately and I hope to only improve on that.

When it comes to stopping the useless snacking, I could have done better. I seem to have an obsession with Otis Spunkmeyer bake-up brownie rounds. One day I successfully ate 4 of them! I am not proud of that number, nor am I proud that all four of them combined is a whopping 600 calories! The only good thing about that is that I had enough calories at the end of the day, even with eating them and I have burned those cookies off. Now, I limit myself to just one cookie per day, if that. When I have a sweet tooth, I have been eating grapes to satisfy that (normally 18 - 20 grapes) instead of over indulging on junk foods.

I would say that I focused on round eating this week. For three straight days I had a tuna fish sandwich at lunch (I can't say that I won't fix another one for lunch today) but it was better than a high calorie meal. Dinner has been pretty good as well (yesterday was an exception) with most of my dinners being my higher calorie meals. Breakfast has also been balanced.

Overall, this week was very good. The numbers on the scale have fluctuated so much recently that I don't know what to expect. Some weeks I lose, others I gain. Two weeks ago I lost over a pound, last week I gained over two. It's a never ending battle but I am here to push through that. If I gain weight this week, it doesn't mean that I will be giving up, it means that I have a few more adjustments to do. If I lose weight this week, other than being happy, it means that I am doing something right and need to continue on that.

Week In Review

This week wasn't my best but it also wasn't my worst. After a birthday weekend full of good eating (by good eating I mean not counting one single calorie) I had to buckle down and get back on track.

So far, I have managed to exercise three days this week (not counting today since I am writing this before I would even begin exercising). Three, out of the four days that have passed, is not too bad at all (although I still struggle with my rest days). Relay for Life is coming up and if you are familiar with the event then you will know that it is hard NOT to burn any calories. If I do have another unexpected rest day today, I still have Sunday and Monday to catch up.

I did manage to limit the amounts of sweet I consumed. I think I had birthday cake & ice cream one day and an ice cream cone on another day. Still, 2 days isn't too bad either. My water intake was also better. On some days it seems like I cannot get enough water and that is probably my body telling me that I am dehydrated. Logging everything went pretty well this week too, but as always there is room for improvement.

I am not sure that I will see a loss this week, more like a gain. I say a gain simply because on a week where I lose more than 1 pound, I tend to gain some of it back (if not all and more) and then I have to work twice as hard to get it off.

Tomorrow may be a weekly measurements or non-scale victory day depending on how my body feels when I wake up in the morning. Either way, I know I have to face the scales some day and hopefully these 3 pounds I have been fighting to lose will come off before the end of the month.

Week In Review

I feel very good about this week. I am not sure what it is, but this has been one of my best weeks  I have had on this journey thus far. Yes, it did start of rocky (especially with all of that eating over the Memorial day weekend) but I feel that it is ending on a high note. Without further adieu, here is how I did on my weekly goals.

• Exercise - I have successfully exercised Monday through Friday!! That is the best that I have done on this journey as well. My motivation came from creating my workout calendar and I wanted to make sure that I was crossing the days off. Each day exercised, leads to another week completed. 
• Logging everything - my logging was pretty good as well. I logged at least two meals and a snack each day (notice how I said at least, some days I was able to log all 3 meals). Logging my meals helps me stay under my calorie budget but it also shows me if I need to eat more calories to get closer to that goal. 
• Water - if you follow me on Instagram, you already know that my water intake is getting better. I have been drinking more water each day and although I may not be refilling my CamelBak every few hours, I am drinking the majority of the water that is in there.
• Limit the amount of sweets eaten - I am proud to say that I only had mint chocolate chip ice cream 2 days this week. For me, that is a huge accomplishment because I love, love, LOVE, mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

I didn't step on the scale at all last week so I am not sure if I gained anything (strong possibility that I did) therefore I am not sure how my weigh in will go this week. If I have a gain, it could mean that I gained last week and am losing some of that this week. On the other hand, if I have a loss, I won't even think of a rationale for that, because I won't need one.

I am more excited to take measurements tomorrow (even if there is no change) than I am to step on the scale but at this point, I am just excited to see what tomorrow will bring.  Hopefully good news, if not, I am still excited about my progress this week, because I definitely feel that I am ending on a very good note.

Week In Review

This was a breakthrough week for me. I wasn't sure what to expect when I took a week off from exercising last week and watching what I ate, especially since I knew it was going to take me sometime to get back into my "normal" (or what had become my normal) routine.

I gave myself 4 goals this week, which meant I was at risk for not achieving 4 goals. My first goal was to keep desserts under control. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, my sweet tooth has been high control and I have been giving in to it because I knew if I didn't have a"small" dessert, I would overdo it in the long run. This week I told myself that I wasn't going to have dessert until my birthday and each day I had dessert, I told myself the same thing for the rest of the week. One of the things I realized is that having dessert isn't going to kill me, especially when I am having things that are either low in calorie or I have enough calories to spare. In my mind, saying that I am not going to eat something means more than saying I am going to eat it, but watch how many calories I am consuming. Looking at the calendar, even if I started my no sweets adventure tomorrow I would still be getting in enough days to see how much of a difference it makes. One thing I can say is that I will never truly give up sweets, I may only take a break from them every once in a while.

My second goal was to get more water into my system. I can say that this week was a pretty good week for my water consumption. I am not sure what it was about this week, but water has been my beverage of choice. I haven't had a diet Dr. Pepper all week, which I am proud of.

My third goals was getting in more exercise and I definitely did that this week. I was able to get back into my gym twice this week, which is always an amazing feeling. But an even more amazing feeling is being able to workout in general. I hate the pre-workout feeling, where I am dragging myself around; but once I get into my workout I feel like a beast and end up loving the post-workout feeling. I finished day 12 of the Biggest Loser workout today which means I will be moving on to the next level, weeks 3-4.

As far as keeping carbs at bay (my fourth goal), that was on the back burner this week. Every time I looked I was eating a ham biscuits and pasta salad and I am not ashamed to say that because it certainly was good. This week, I have consumed more carbs that I can remember, but I also worked harder in my workouts, so I am not so worried about it.

With that being said, I am not sure what my weigh in day will bring, especially since I didn't weigh myself last week, I have nothing to compare to. On one hand if I have lost weight then I will be happy, but if I have gained weight, I will attribute that to building up a little muscle. Either way, I feel very comfortable at this point in my journey because it seems as if everything is finally coming together.

Week In Review & Boston Reflections

Looking back on my week, it was neither exceptional nor was it horrible, I would say it was somewhere in between but before I talk about my week I want to address something bigger.

I have always wanted to participate in a marathon (whether half or full) and my heart goes out to those in Boston who were doing what they wanted (and what many of them loved)  but an act of senselessness brought that to a tragic end. I will never be able to understand how the minds of other individuals work, why would anyone want to bring harm to other; especially innocent children who did nothing to you. Why must anyone take their anger, hate or frustration out on others?

Since Monday, many runners (even if they were not in Boston) have united to run for a common goal, to run for those affected; not just the individuals who were there but their families as well. I also commend the family members of those affected (whether they are survivors or they lost their lives) because they have been brave when others have not been able to, they also need our prayers to get them through this and my heart goes out to them also.

Looking back on my week, I did better than I thought I would. There were two days this week where I was actually able to drink about 30 ounces of water. That is a first for me (to have two days, that were not 90 degrees or above) that I was able to do that. I was able to give up the bulk of my Diet Dr. Pepper's, I only had 2 this week (one from the machine at school and one at home). This was a major accomplishment for me because lately I have only wanted Sweet Tea, Diet Dr. Pepper or Water (all in that order with the healthiest beverage option being last).

My eating was okay this week, I try to eat my larger meals at the beginning of the week and then eat smaller meals as the week progresses and I managed to do that. Exercise more, I have wanted to test my Polar FT4 out so bad that I couldn't wait to get in the gym the other day (check out Wednesdays post for a review on the Polar FT4) and I was impressed with the numbers I was seeing.

Today, was the best workout I have had on this journey. 52 total minutes in which I worked out my legs and did two elliptical (one for 30 minutes, the other for a 15 minutes cool down). Because I never know the proper names of machines, I have included the picture down below for reference (the two machines were the Precor on the left and the one on the right).

Earlier this month I gained 4.2 pounds and manged to lose 3 of those pounds last week, my goal for this week was to lose 1.2 pounds and although I am really hoping that I did, I feel that I am in a spot on the journey that my weight will fluctuate until I can find something that really works for me. Looking at what I have written down, I suppose my week wasn't too bad but as always there is room for improvement and tomorrow I will see whether my efforts this week have paid off or not. 

Week In Review

Another week has come and gone, looking back on it, this week went by rather quickly (it's funny how on Monday it never seems that Friday will get here). With all that aside, I feel that I have had another good week. Of course, if I stepped on the scale it would probably say otherwise, but I feel really good about my week.

As usual, I had goals for this week. As usual, I had goals I didn't meet.

Drinking at least 32 ounces of water seems to be impossible for me. There was only one day this week that I was able to drink over 32 ounces of water, simply because it was 94 degrees outside and by the time I got inside I felt like a dog left out in the heat with no water in its bowl. This will be a goal of mine until I finally accomplish it.

As far as staying low carb, this week there were a couple of days where I had one main carb and my side item was another carb. That really didn't bother me as much because there were more times this week when my meals didn't consist of more than one carb.

Exercise was pretty much non-existent this week. I went to the gym, literally ran in, hoped on the machine for 15 minutes, then ran back out - I was that short on time, but wanted to get in a much needed (even if very short) workout. That is the day in which I really tested out my New Balance N4 HRM.

I am still working on being proud of the body I am in but one thing I am proud of is knowing that my workout clothes are getting looser. That is a major non-scale victory. This week and last week have been so good for me that I could probably go without getting on the scale once again, but I know I will have to eventually.

Hopefully, if I do choose to weigh-in tomorrow, the results will be something I have worked for.

Week In Review

Yet another week has come and gone. Educational wise, that is a good thing - I am closer to the end of the semester but it also means that I am one week closer to my estimated goal date (September 14). According to Lose It!, I will have lost a total of 63 pounds by that date in September. As I get closer to that date, it seems that the weeks fly putting me even closer to that date.

Luckily went I went to the gym this week, there was already someone on the Precor machine (the elliptical - see picture, machine on left) so I had to go to the machine on the right (not sure what its technical name is, I call it "the other elliptical"). This gave me the chance to switch up my routine. Lately I have been sticking to one machine for multiple days at the gym instead of switching the machines up. 

As far as working out this week, I did manage at least 3 days; 2 at the gym and 2 at home. Of course 2 + 2 = 4 but my 2 days at home were sort of half days of Yoga Meltdown so I just combined those. The weather is shaping up to be much better next week so hopefully I can get out and walk each day.

Once again, I came no where close to drinking 32 ounces of water daily. Lately I have had this Diet Dr. Pepper craving and this entire week, that craving has been satisfied almost daily. I did manage to stay low carb for another week in a row, except for Thursday when I had this craving for Pizza Hut personal pan pizza and bread sticks (the Pizza Hut on campus gives you an exceptional deal when you get a combo which includes the personal pan pizza, bread sticks and a medium drink). 

Lately, I have been struggling with eating closer to my calorie goal and looking back on this week, to get closer to my goal I have been incorporating desserts, which I would like to stop incorporating and incorporate smoothies into my day. 

Coming off of this week, I feel like I have had a good week and even if I gain a few ounces or a pound, I feel good about myself (which is a major non-scale victory) and my week. For me, looking back on my week and feeling good about myself means more to me than any number on the scale (okay, if I saw a lower number tomorrow I would be very very excited, but I shall not dwell on that). Tomorrows weigh in will be replaced with measurements because I feel that my entire week was a huge non-scale victory. 

Week In Review

Time sure did fly by this week, not sure where it went to, but I don't think much of it was on my side. Lately, since the time changed, it seems that I don't have time for anything anymore.

Looking back at this week, I would say I had a mediocre week, not too bad but not necessarily the best.

Once again I fell short of drinking 32 ounces of water a day but I am getting better, taking down almost 20 ounces a day. It's not that I don't like water, I just can't consume mass amounts in one sitting.

As far as staying low carb goes, I did okay with it, I could have done better but I did pick up a habit for sweets this week. Of course, they weren't the healthiest choice, but they were good and now out of my cravings.

I managed 2 of 3 days with Yoga Meltdown, 1 day short of my goal, 1 day better than I thought I would do. I still haven't made up my mind on if I will go back to 30DS or RI30 as alternatives or stick Yoga Meltdown out.

I am not sure how close I was to my calorie budget each day, I know I didn't get over, but some days I was no where near as close as I should have been and that is starting to bother me.

As this week comes to a close, I am not sure if I am ready for what tomorrow brings, but I know that I can't wait to get on the scale to see.

Week In Review

Another week has come and gone and I can definitely say it was pretty stressful. The silver lining in all of this, the week is over and I made some great progress in the gym while taking out all of my stress.

Looking back on my weekly goals, I accomplished 4 out of the 6 so far.

This week it was really tough for me to smile with all my stress, but for some reason when I got into the gym I smiled because I knew that was the best place for me to be, the best place to take my frustrations out versus falling back on my progress and eating junk food.

I was able to exercise for nearly 30 minutes each day, today I put in 45 minutes on the elliptical alone which I am very proud of. I noticed that with walking to and from classes I am exercising for nearly 20 minutes while at school. Those trips back and forth don't seem like much but they really add up.

I have gotten closer to my calorie budget each day, which is a big thing for me when it comes to my weekly weigh-ins. On weeks where I ate closer to my budget, I lose more weight, versus weeks where I don't and I gain back ounce.

I also managed to stay low carb, having one or no carbs at each meals. This has helped me so much so far because I am able to incorporate more vegetables into my meals and with summer right around the corner it will be easier than ever to incorporate fresh vegetables in my meals.

Unfortunately, I feel short of my goal of drinking 32 ounces of water or more in a day, so that will be another goal of mine until I accomplish it. I also have no idea if I lost at least 1 pound because weigh-in day hasn't arrived and even when it gets here I am thinking about amending my weigh-in days to focus more on non-scale victories this month before getting back to focusing on my numbers.

As this week comes to a close, I am proud of the goals that I have accomplished and ready to tackle the goals that I have left to accomplish.