August Resolutions

Well, as you might have guessed from the dearth of posts that almost all aspects of my health efforts have gotten sidetracked. I have been hitting the gym frequently, mostly for Zumba classes, and the once-a-week Nia treat. However, I have also been doing a LOT of ice-cream and potato chip binging. Not good, for my physical, mental and subtle systems!

But August is a brand new month, and I once again reset my resolutions.

I currently hit the YMCA / dance studio on the following days for the following activities:

Monday: mid-morning 45mins Zumba followed by 1hr of Weights On Ball
Tuesday: mid-morning 45mins Zumba Gold followed by 15mins Zumba Sculpt
Wednesday: early morning 45mins Zumba
Thursday: mid-morning 45mins Zumba Gold followed by 15mins Zumba Sculpt
Friday: [keep intending to restart the Step class, but keep not going][This used to be my Nia day, but that's moved to Sunday until further notice]
Saturday: [not consistently, have caught mid-morning 1hr Zumba Gold plus 30mins Zumba Sculpt]
Sunday: 1hr Nia

#1: Ramp it up
Do cardio every day at the Y / dance studio / home [i.e. fully implement the above schedule], and follow-up with weights for upper-body toning [already doing 2-3x/week, want to do every day]. In addition, I will continue to bike to/from the Y unless the weather is bad, or I'm running way too late.


#2: Green smoothies for breakfast and lunch
I've been pretty successful in fixing myself one once I wake up (and when I'm late/don't feel like it, I grab an apple which is still much better than past behaviour!), but now I'd like to down another pretty much once I'm back from working out. This should help up my nutrition intake, and reduce the chances of stopping by Grab-A-Java for a vanilla latte after Nia!!

#3: 1.5L water intake
I've not been monitoring my water intake, but I know it's terribly erratic. You know how if you feel thirsty it means you're already dehydrated? Yeah, I know that thirst well. I'll be looking for a simple water filter jug to help with this, because sometimes the tap water tastes weird :p

Okay that's it for August. Notice I am silent about any specific quantity of weight loss goals, about Coke Zero consumption. If August goes well, then I can tighten things up next month. Right now, let's just focus on those above three things, k?

Some early smoothies

It's not like I was taking notes, so these combinations are picked from an unreliable memory :) but here's an attempt at recording some of my smoothie combos.

Saturday morning:
apple, banana, mango, radish, celery, carrots: a decent first try

Saturday afternoon:
apple, baby spinach, mango, carrots, soy milk: very 'light' without the banana

Sunday morning:
apple, banana, blueberries, baby spinach

Monday morning:
banana, tomato, radish, apple and a whole bunch of baby spinach

Tuesday morning:
banana, blueberries, radishes, spinach, tomato, ginger: color not so much green as blue, not as appealing: too many blueberries? Also, a little ginger goes a long way, I could have done with perhaps half of what I'd used; that plus two (small) radishes, and this smoothie had a bit of a kick!

As I mentioned before, I'm making it a point to have a (green) smoothie for breakfast/first thing in the morning: so far so good. Not going to clamp down on the other meals of the day yet. I also want to get to the gym daily again, whether for the 5:45am classes, or something else if I can't wake up: a bit of a challenge, but getting there again.

I'll try to remember to weigh myself at the Y today.

a late start in July

I cut myself some slack in June, knowing that come July & August, if things went the way they did the last time hubby turned into a vampire, I'd be able to hit the gym in the mornings on most days *and* eat both less and better.

Then I realised we were heading to the in-laws' for the July 4th weekend, so I cut myself even more slack.

I also had some sort of mental block about the [cheapo] blender plus food processor I'd picked up at Wal-Mart: it's been sitting in its opened box for a few weeks now, when I should have been fixing myself fruit & veggie smoothies already.

Grrr.

Well yesterday I made another round of fruit & veggie shopping:

• bananas
• cherries
• red seedless grapes
• 3lb bag of gala apples
• small container of fresh blueberries
• 2 cans of pineapple chunks in unsweetened pineapple juice
  
• a small bunch of beets
• a large container of baby spinach
• a bag-o-salad
  

(just ignore the fact that I also bought a pint of Ben&Jerry ice cream that I finished up in one go, *and* a package of Golden Oreos! shhhhh!!)

I also have the following 'in stock' from my previous round of shopping:

• a bunch of parsley
• cucumbers
• frozen strawberries
• 3 lemons
• celery
• some tomatoes
• 2 mangoes
  

... in addition to things that are almost always available here in chez naranek:

• a red onion
• semi-fresh ginger
• capsicums (capsica?) of various colors
• minced garlic
• lime juice (bottled)
  
• lemon juice (bottled)
• baby carrots
  

That's plenty to work with!

So here's the plan: minimum of one green smoothie daily, preferably in the morning. Seeing as I also plan to hit the gym by 5:45am almost every day, I should then plan to wakey around 5am on those days in order for the drink to be made *and* at least semi-digested before I start trouncing around! After a week, I'll reassess and perhaps start enforcing other raw meals. I should start daily updates again from next week. Stay tuned!

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