Well it's been a bad week. My neck and back flared up badly (I have degenerative disc disease) and I've barely been moving and I've gotten depressed and so eating "bad" stuff.  Again this morning I was in so much pain that I was going to skip another water fitness class.  Instead I forced myself to go.  My effort was far from 100% and I really struggled at times but I'm glad I went. The Y has a whirlpool with some great jets that helped some with the spasms.  I managed to do a little bit of yard work despite my discomfort too. It was only about 20 minutes but it was better than sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself.  I did a few  hikes in the neighborhood with the kids too. Again it wasn't much but I managed to get in short bursts of activity throughout the day.  I was very surprised just now to find that my efforts amounted to 5.6 miles! SO....I ended up having a very productive day!  I'm pretty miserable now and I'm definitely going to have to crank up my heated mattress pad (wonderful to have a toasty bed when you're hurting!) but I'm feeling much better about myself.  I think I've learned a good lesson, some activity is better than none and it makes me feel better about myself. Also one of my grandson's had his opening day at baseball and hit a bases loaded triple! Go Dev! That makes me feel good too!!!!!

On the way home from work last night suddenly Lack of Motivation took control of my steering wheel turning my car to the exit ramp to go home!  It took several seconds for Determination to wrestle back control and I arrived safely at the Y.  To drive the message home to the reluctant parts of me I exercised longer and pushed myself...take that!!  Of course my body objected to that and retaliated so I ended up having to use my TENs unit night last night for my back and hip . I ended the day at 1600 calories but my carbs were 104 and mostly NOT the good kind and fat 80gms. All seems to be well today with the nutrition though. I've taken charge of my starchy carb cravings limiting them only whole wheat. My fat cravings were satisfied with an ounce of white cheddar and I'm managing the sweet cravings with chewing sugar-free gum and a sipping a diet rootbeer!  I'm short on fruit & veggies so far but I'll make up for it tonight. I'm still tired and achy and unmotivated but I just realized when I had all my energy the previous weeks I was drinking a lot of water and green tea and skipping the diet Coke.  I'm also getting headaches and body aches.  I'm definitely not drinking enough and when I do it's the wrong stuff this week. I think I had 3-4 cans of pop yesterday!  I'm going to go make myself some green or white tea and drink water and stay away from the chemicals in the pop and I'll see if things improve.

Making 2 steps forward and one step back on this healthy lifestyle trek this month. I've been going along great, getting in at the least 3-5 miles per day usually but have kinda crashed the last day or two. Saturday I burnt a ton on calories on FIVE hours of yard work. Sunday I hiked for about 1 & 1/2 hours at Girdled Rd Reservation with some of the Lighten Up group then later followed up with a walk with the kids to get in 8.8 miles!  Monday I worked around the house, ran errands etc and I even worked out at the Y after a really tough 45 minute water fitness class.  Tuesday I spent the day walking cemeteries doing my genealogy research. You really get a workout walking on the uneven ground in some of these old cemeteries and then un-burying headstones!  Even though I was exhausted afterwards my grandson Devin and I went to dinner at Cabanas after his karate (he got his black belt certificate!). Dev loves the children's chicken finger dinner. I got the chicken with pasta this time...yummy and just enough so that I was satisfied but not too full to GO WORK OUT! I did 40 minutes on the treadmill at 3.5 mph. After that I crashed. Bought a pint of Java Chip Frappuccino ice cream and ate 1/3 of the pint!  My mini vacation was over yesterday and I had to return to work but got breakfast on the way in. I managed a very light lunch to make up for it but finished the ice cream last night and some veggie chips as dinner. NOT so healthy and I just couldn't get motivated to work out at all.  Today I ate 2 breakfast burritos for breakfast and a tuna melt and Terra veggie chips for lunch. NOT good. That's 1340 calories already!!!  Good thing I had a late lunch!  I plan to eat a very light dinner and make myself work out extra hard at the Y.  That's the plan and I'm stickin' to it!!!  Tomorrow I WILL get back on track. The key for me is to get back on track as soon as possible otherwise I tend to wander into all the "bad" food territories and get lost for a while.   If I don't check in to say I found my way back within the next couple days call in a search party. I will probably be found in the dessert section!

Well all my hard work and motivation paid off these last few weeks and I lost my 5% with a little over a pound to spare! To avoid falling off my "straight and narrow" diet plan I decided to loosen up a little bit and prove to myself that I can make better choices in the long term eating "real" food, just for the weekend. Sometimes in the past, deprivation of favorite "not-so-healthy" foods has led me to binge eat. I gave myself a free pass to have anything I wanted then back to my diet today. My grandson Devin has been taking Taekwondo lessons since just after he turned 5yo, and now 3 yrs later, earned his 1st Degree Black Belt Saturday afternoon.  Of course this was a major event so we all celebrated at one of his favorite restaurants. Since it was a "free pass" day and I haven't had a good burger and fries in a long time I ordered a burger and fries with the sauce on the side in case I wanted a tiny bit and no condiments. I only ate half my burger and had the rest for dinner. I bought Devin an awesome celebratory cake and had only a small slice. Later the kids were passing around chips and it took only a couple chips until I was satisfied. Yesterday we went out for MY celebratory dinner and I ordered steak and ribs. Ya know, sometimes I just want to eat like everyone else is eating.  There was actually little fat on the meat and I discarded what little there was. Well I could only eat a portion of my meal and ate a light dinner later.   I ended both days with calories in the 1900s. Add in the exercise I did and I should be OK. What could have been a binge weekend ended up being a maintenance weekend. It was nice to know I could "let loose" and not lose total control.  I think a key was that I drank a whole bunch of water so I wouldn't over indulge much and ate slowly so I was really getting a taste of what I was eating. It takes a lot more fries to cure a fry craving if you're just shoveling them down and not savoring the indulgence.  It's also interesting that I'm a self-proclaimed Cheetos addict and could previously almost polish off a whole bag. Since I gave myself permission to eat them this weekend I didn't even want them. I'm thinking that maybe every Sunday, as long as I'm "good" all week I can allow myself a small portion of a "forbidden" food.  Today I had leftover ribs and half a potato for lunch and a roll. The rest of the steak may go on a salad for dinner tonight. I don't know, this food seems way too heavy for me now.  I'm looking forward to getting back to what may be my new definition of "real" food tomorrow. Bring on the KALE!!!!

Well I analyzed my nutrition and activity logs for the past 10 days and I'm doing pretty well. Only a couple days I got lazy and unmotivated and walked about 2 miles. Three days I made it 4 miles and 2 days I got in a little over 5 miles!  So overall I'm averaging about 3 1/2 miles a day and I'll try to improve on those numbers for the next week. Had really bad diet days Sat & Sun but I at least stayed under 2000 calories. At least Saturday I did enough walking to burn 1000 calories!  I'm averaging 1400 calories a day otherwise. We went to Cabanas Island Restaurant this week and I tried FISH on the low calorie menu! Cabanas's calorie controlled menu is very seafood heavy but of course it's an "Island Restaurant" and seafood can be very calorie friendly!  I normally dislike seafood but the tilapia sounded very appealing to expand my healthy protein options. My tilapia was very tender and flavorful and I would recommend it for anyone who doesn't care much for fish. The veggies were perfect, not too crunchy nor too soft.  My hubby ate my potatoes since I'm not eating starchy carbs opting instead for whole grains. He said they were quite tasty too. He's a fan of their burgers and fries. I hear the teriyaki tuna is popular so maybe I'll also try that some time. Who knows maybe I'll end up a regular fish eater? So the plan for next week....walk...walk...walk and maybe try the gym again since I'm getting more fit.  I need to take it slow with my bad back and neck but I do need to step it up to the next level to prepare for some exercise classes next month.  I'll also plan on having NO days where I go over 1400 calories, maybe dropping to 1200 a couple times a week so my body doesn't get too comfy with the calorie reduction.

My motivation to exercise has come back with the sunshine  these last couple days.  I managed 5.3 miles yesterday and 2.5 miles so far today!

This has probably been my sickliest winter EVER.  Just getting over the flu and decided I really needed to kick it up a notch and not to use feeling sick or tired or having my back flareups as an excuse 'cause the way this winter has been I may not feel better anytime soon. I went walking at lunch. It's sunny and I definitely need the sun after this winter!  It was soooo cold with a brisk wind. I wonder if you burn more calories if your body is trying to stay warm?? LOL.  Anyway I managed 2.6 miles! I even did my "ramping" that I used to do.  My "ramping" is walking up the ramps in the parking garage at work.  I started the ramps after walking about a mile and a half. By the top of the first ramp I was ready to quit!  BUT I kept going. No excuses. So proud of myself.  Went just as far as the 6th floor this time because that's where I parked my car.  Maybe tomorrow I can make it all the way to the top. And NO I don't take the elevator back down!  Need to tone those muscles walking back down too! My rule is now that if I want a diet Coke I have to go out to my car and get one!  So I managed to drink green tea all day because I didn't feel like walking out to my car til my lunch break.  Yesterday I drank green tea and ice water with lemon because I didn't feel like walking out to the car at all. This plan seems like it could be a good one if I stick to it to curb my diet Coke addiction.