Turkey Day vs. Me

The Holidays are upon us and so is the yearly battle with not gaining the dreaded "holiday weight".

Last year on Thanksgiving morning, I was up at 6 am for a 7am spin class. For dinner, it was just my sister and I and we made a vegetable with some fast and fancy green beans, a sweet potato bake, and addicting roasted cauliflower. The best part, I ate it all guilt free.

This year, my sweethearts family joined us for Thanksgiving. The plan was to get up every day at 6 am to keep to my usual schedule and routine. That was to include my weekly runs, P90X DVDs and the stair master. More importantly, the plan was to enjoy my Turkey dinner, but in moderation.

I would love to say that I did all of the above, but the truth is...I didn't even come close. I can blame the not exercising on the company. Which is true, but only in part. If I really wanted too, I could have made time and excused myself to get it done. But I just didn't feel like it. In fact, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, my boyfriend had to force me out of bed to work out. I was grateful later but downright whinny at the time. As for food....I indulged in waaaay to much mash potatoes, macaroni and cheese and the best....cheesecake, pumpkin pie and even some awesome mimosas.

The result of my Happy Thanksgiving on my body? I have yet to brave the scale. I decided I'll get back on track today and weigh in on Sunday. I didn't quite make it up for my 6 am workout as planned but I did get it in when I got home tonight. However, due to the many splurges on this Monday, I really don't think the workout made a dent in the extra calories I consumed and didn't need today. That's the hardest part of cheating on a holiday like Thanksgiving. I've gotten so use to taking in larger quantities of calories than I'm use too and suddenly I am cutting back and I feeling starved!

To make matters even worse? The lack of exercise flared up the Fibromyalgia. By Friday, everything was aching at some point or another and the meds just weren't cutting through the pain and the exhaustion was setting in. Oddly enough, this made me NOT want to exercise even more!

I guess the lesson learned this fine Holiday is that you can't win them all. Now it's time to get back on track. No body is perfect.

Thanksgiving is now over and Christmas is just around the corner. I will be spending it in NC with my sweethearts family. Lets hope I make out better this time. If not with the food, at least with the exercising!

Week in review

Monday, May 10, 2010

My goal this week was to get up every day at 6 am to get in a morning workout.

This morning I was suppose to do my P90X CardioX and Ab Ripper routines. However, it's only Monday and already I've failed! The alarm went off, I got out of bed, brushed my teeth and decided it was too cold and I went back to bed. How pathetic! That means I had to workout after work and miss my target excursion. I'm bummed, but I only have myself to blame. At least I got my workout in and didn't talk myself out of it this evening after getting home. Had to stay away from the couch so I didn't get comfortable. That was the key to this evenings success!

Also proud to say that a few of us went out to lunch today (rare for me during the week), to Amicci's for a friends birthday and I ordered a shrimp salad with a healthy red wine dressing. I also sparingly sampled a couple of other plates but was well behaved. Now I can enjoy a small slice of homemade strawberry pie, compliments of my friend Katie. Thanks Katie!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Today, I was suppose to meet a new running partner, CCJ, to run 6 miles at Patterson Park but unfortunately, the weather had different plans for us. Instead, I worked an hour late and then drove straight to the fitness center at my apartment complex to hit the treadmill. The fear being, if I went home first to feed the cats and change, I wouldn't make it back out of the house. Glad to say I accomplished today's goal and ran 6 miles. Even better, I did it in 1:00:17. Nice to see my pace back up there and away from the 12 min pace I've been keeping lately.

Also met my goal of getting up at 6am this morning to complete my hour long P90X stretch workout. Was a great way to start my day.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Didn't make it out of bed this morning at 6 am to do my cardio and ab routines. However, I did make it to the gym after work to do my upper body work out and managed an ab routine there. My goal is to have arms and abs of steel by year end! Yeah right! One can only hope!

A confession though....I had a mini twix, a mini snickers and a semi-sweet dark chocolate nugget with almonds today. Yummy! Hey, I can justify the nugget! It's DARK chocolate AND has ALMONDS! Right? Right?

I'm still hoping for a week where I make it up at 6 am, EVERY WEEK DAY, consecutively!

Oh and the best part - I managed to get in my target excursion and found a shrug to go with tube dress I plan to show off this weekend at a Spring Gathering!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I thought about going back to bed for a minute or two but when I rolled over, I realized just how stiff I was and thought stretching would go along way. I was glad I did it afterwards. It not only eased up the Fibromyalgia, but the sore muscles from working out.

Met my new running partner, CCJ, at Druid Hill Lake this evening. I was suppose to run 8 miles but if I calculated correctly, only made it through 7.75 miles. My right knee and both my thighs were in pretty rough shape in that last quarter. Maybe next week. My 10 mile race is on June 19th, so I have a little over a month to finish training.

However, I was so sore when I got home that I soaked in a hot bath. Would have been better for the body if I had some Epsom salt, but not this evening.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Woohoo! I managed to get up and exercise at 6 am THREE days this week! Last week I'm pretty certain it was only two, so I'm already improving! Did my cardio and abs this morning knowing, I wouldn't be exercising after work.

Also enjoyed lunch at Houlihan's with a couple of girlfriends from work and enjoyed a delicious corn tortilla soup and a jumbo shrimp salad. Who said eating heatlhy can't taste good and be affordable? They have awesome lunch entrees.

Instead, I made some healthy chicken and black bean enchiladas. I've been trying to make a new recipe each weekend to freeze for fresh "prepared" meals instead of frozen meals. I've noticed I loose more weight when I'm eating less processed foods.

Now lets hope I make it through the Spring Gathering without too much damage! Good thing I have a Spin and Zumba class Saturday morning and I'm running 6 miles Sunday morning!