Work Clothes

I'm starting to enjoy, really enjoy, getting dressed for work. I tend to wear more dresses than pants, it's just so much more comfortable throughout the day!

Busy today- potential girls night get together tonight, as well- more interesting posts from me later!

<3

Holding Strong at Work

Starting my fourth week of work- cannot believe it is already been almost a month.

Starting out with determination has helped me!

Not one morsel of food bought in the cafeteria or from a vending machine. No drinks have been consumed aside from water and coffee (organic, home brewed!).

Every single day started with a half-hour to 45 minutes of activity (dog walking and a little yoga, usually... Though today Chris took Koda out so I did a cardio/strength workout!).

Also taking 15 minute walks at work 2-3 times a day.

My lunch today:

Sweet potatoes, roasted onions, roast chicken, roasted beets, homemade carrot-cabbage slaw!

So my weight has remained stable (between 123-124... It would be lower if I stopped having a couple beers on the weekend, but oh, I love beer!) and I feel strong and fit!

Stay strong at the office, friends... It's doable and worth it :)

It's hard... The prep is hard, waking up early to workout is hard, denying treats at work is hard. But it's good. I feel good!

Till next time <3

Dogs, Blueberries, Etc

It's a rainy day here in my city, and it's kind of raining everywhere, for about a three hour radius surrounding us! We decided last night to cancel hiking plans for today, I don't really like feeling like a drowned rat for 8 to 10 hours.. Not my cup of tea!

We did take the dog on a 6 mile walk yesterday- with a new dog friend!

Koda doesn't like to play with other dogs (he prefers to do his own thing) but is learning to coexist peacefully with other dogs. It makes me really happy :) The socialization with other dogs is really good for his brain, I think.

Also went to a family BBQ yesterday, got to see my grandmother who is 99 years old, which is always great, and I really enjoy seeing my cousins and their kids. I did have two beers and ate a little off Paleo, so I'm weighing in at 124 today. I'm okay with that, as it is a direct result of my choices, and I can make better choices today and other days to drop about a pound.. 122/123 is really a great place for me. Easy to maintain if I'm eating well.

Grocery shopping today was excellent - only spent $50 and had a great haul which included local, no spray blueberries... My absolute ADDICTION lately is blueberries! I meant it myself to about half a cup a day, but wow, do I love eating my blueberries in the morning. Blueberries are so thin-skinned and really susceptible to absorbing pesticides, though, so I pay extra for organic blueberries or the local, no spray ones. 

I will reiterate the importance of reducing the amount of chemicals, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics that you ingest through your food. These things mess with your internal organs, your immune system, your hormones, and all the things that make you an efficient and healthy human being.

Take care!! If you put a lot of effort into eating well as far as food types, I urge you to pay just as much attention to food quality.

Ok- off to do a little work out at home, since my walk with Koda this morning had become short due to rain!

Outdoors Yoga

On Monday night, my very good friend called me up because she was going to her yoga class. She usually brings her husband (they have a package at the yoga studio) but he didn't want to go that night, at the last minute. So she told me to throw on some yoga pants and she was picking me up!

It turned out that the class had been moved to a nearby park for outdoors yoga!

It was an hour-long class and the weather was perfect. It wasn't humid, it was warm but not hot, and there was a lovely breeze blowing. The sky was full of beautiful clouds and birds were chirping and kids are playing nearby and we did a lot of yoga off our mats in the grass, and it was just so lovely. It was a challenging class, but not beyond my skill set, so I got a really nice full body stretch and work out, but wasn't to taxing so I got to truly relax and get into the breathing and the calmness.

I'm so much more likely to enjoy exercise when it's outside :)

But, I highly recommend getting outside and doing some yoga with your feet firmly planted in the earth. It is so grounding and so lovely, especially if you pick a great day weatherwise to do it!

Last night, a bunch of us drove out to our friends new place in the country while they were gone, and flocked them (which means we covered their yard and pink flamingos.... tons and tons of pink flamingos). It was a lot of fun:

Do you see the flamingo in the barn? Ha ha :)

So, I've had a lovely few days. Weight is generally stable and I'm feeling pretty good. Money is still tight, and I think it always will be, but we're holding on. The job is going well, I am surprised by how much I like it, and how good I am at it! I've been getting a lot of comments from the people I'm training with that I'm doing exceptionally well and catching on fast and stuff like that. Finally, I'm also getting a lot of comments about my clothes! Lots of compliments and women asking where I got them and people telling me I look really professional. That's what I'm going for-- dressing for the job I want, not the job I have.

So yep- life! People and fun and work and activity and good food and pets and housework and more- the usual :) 

It's a harder balancing act than I thought it would be, but I'm trying to remain fluid and accepting of what is to come.

Namaste <3

Foods with more sugar than a donut

http://www.takepart.com/photos/shocking-sugar-stats/naked-pomegranate-blueberry-juice?cmpid=foodinc-fb

Crazy!

I mean, this is exactly why I don't risk buying processed foods. 

The NAKED juice, yoplait yogurt, nature valley bar, and Dole mixed fruit are crazy high in sugar!

Best to eat whole foods all the time. I know that sounds a little restrictive to a lot of people, but the human body was designed to eat whole foods, not things processed with chemicals and sugars and God knows what else.

Now, that's not to say that I am perfect and never buy or eat processed foods. I sure do. But I am well aware of what they contain, educated on how to read labels and ingredient list, and eat them knowing I am sacrificing a more ideal food for convenience.

But do I do this often?

No way.

Even when I veer a little off Paleo, I still stick with whole, clean foods whenever possible. In fact, I would say that's my main food philosophy, more so then Paleo (though I really believe grains are not the right choice for me), but unprocessed is the #1 goal.

Also... Pet peeve? I just heard a Light n Fit Greek yogurt commercial as I was typing this and they asked the question, "trying to get fit but missing real pleasure? Try our Greek yogurt!" 

UHHHH..

Being fit/healthy and having pleasure are not mutually exclusive. I have more pleasure than I ever thought I could by eating well, real food is tasty, but I didn't know that when I was overburdening my taste buds with an onslaught of sugar and salt that made it so that I couldn't taste anything else...

Grr. Propagating the falsehood that living healthy life is difficult and boring.

But.... Busy life right now so I will have to make this short!! Just wanted to check in and then let you guys know I am well and still on track.

<3

Being Active as a Way of Life (not an annoying chore!)

Chris was home when I got out of work on Friday, so we took the dog down to the river and took a 5+ mile walk:

Then we went to the movies, and saw The Purge 2 (junk food for my mind hahaha).

Saturday, I took Koda on a long walk while Chris started excavating our new walkway. Our old walkway was too close to the plants and being overgrown. It was also too narrow to actually walk on, and had no level base so it was all wavy and hard to walk on.

I then took the dog to visit my grandma. And when I got home, I joined Chris in the yard work:

I also bought a couple new plants (Russian sage and a rose colored barberry(?)), planted and mulched the new area.

It came out decent!

Tonight (Saturday) we are going on on night bike ride on a bike path with friends.

Tomorrow I am waking up early to do the grocery shopping, and then we are meeting some friends and their dogs with our dog at a lake nearby to go swimming!!

Busy, productive, fun, active :)

Again, living the life I preach. (Side note: weight is at 123 even!!)

Activity is not a chore, but a way of life. Exercise is no longer something I have to fit into my day, it just always is in my day by the way I live.

No White Potatoes for Me!

So, the Whole30 program might've changed their rules, and are adding white potatoes to the allowed food lists (as long as it's not in chip or fries form).

http://whole30.com/2014/07/new-whole30/

But not for me!

White potatoes make me inflamed, bloated, and actually break out in hives way worse than wheat does. Really white and processed flours can make me break out and get bloated pretty bad, too, but not like white potatoes.

So I'm sticking with the old ways.

I know they said that potatoes and nutrient dense and we should eliminate them while allowing things like taro and sweet potatoes. But since I do get my nutrients from those other starchy root vegetables, I don't feel a need to add white potatoes into my regular diet.

Once in a while, potatoes sometimes to get added into my 5% off plan time. But rarely, as I said, I react the worst to them.

But they are still off plan for me.

Got to do what works for us, as individuals :)

No plan is going to hold all the answers. But going Paleo and doing the whole30 gave me the best ground-floor knowledge I needed to learn how to eat well for my body. It cleaned my slate  completely and I got to figure out what worked great for me. I really appreciated getting back to real simple basics (veg, fruits, nuts, seeds, protein in eggs and lean meat). When I added anything back in, I got to see -CLEARLY- how it affected my body.

And then I couldn't bury my head in the sand anymore and pretend that processed foods were good for me (I would immediately feel lethargic and inflamed after eating them).

But if someone eats potatoes and they feel fine, more power to them. In the end, I am just a fan of the real, whole, clean food. Whatever you eat that makes you feel good and healthy and energetic is great!

Namaste :)

Work clothes, confidence

Same weight (but started my cycle, so being a pound or two heavier is normal!) as before..

But feeling cute at work:

Pencil skirt and heels!! Also, can you notice my smoothie on the counter in my mason jar. No work donuts for me... Just a spinach and berry homemade smoothie (got to practice what I preach).

What a girl I am, though. I never would've thought that I was capable of dressing like this and feeling confident!

Lots of work to get to this point... There was a long time that even when I was at goal weight, I didn't feel good about myself. Losing the weight isn't only work we have to do. It's not even the most important works sometimes.

Sometimes, you can't even lose the weigt till you do the mental work.

Back to the grind :)

Weight and more working out

Finally weighed in- skipped the last three days (first because I knew I was bloated and yesterday because I was rushing through my morning!): 124.4.

Not the worst. You guys know I'm trying to maintain between 122 and 123. I just have lost a significant percentage of my activity during the day now that the job has started. I used to be active most of the day. Lots of dog walking, Yoga whenever I felt like it, little bursts of strength training throughout the day.

Now I'm sitting at a desk for eight hours. Granted, I have two breaks and a lunch., At which I very purposefully am active by walking around or using the stairs.

But just not the same!!

Going to have to be a little more purposeful.. I need to shake off my tiredness at the end of the day and really get in a purposeful workout (especially strength focused!). I can see myself getting less fit and more soft if I don't put those efforts in.

But still, things are generally well. I like the job, though I do hope I don't have to stay at this entry-level for too long, and the house and the family and my health are all starting to fall into place around the new work schedule.

Got to get dressed!

Namaste <3

Work Lunch and Skirt

Chris and I did a lot of prep for our week yesterday, resulting in this lovely lunch:

Our fridge is now stocked with tons of Tupperware, full of:

Roasted beets

Roasted sweet potatoes

Baked chicken

Coleslaw

Pulled pork

Hamburgers

Cantaloupe

Brussels sprouts

Peas and carrots

Spinach/banana/raspberry smoothie

Want to have an easy time of packing lunches and grabbing snacks!

I drank wine at a birthday party last night, so no weigh in this morning (bloat!)... Will check tomorrow to make sure I'm right on track!!

Wanted to show you my new work skirt that I LOVE- a floral/navy pencil skirt from H&M:

Namaste <3

Dinner Out

Chris took me out to dinner last night to celebrate my first week at work. He took me to my favorite place right near our house.

It was lovely!

We shared a crab cake appetizer. I had a beautiful entrée. It was one of their specials. It was fresh caught halibut with artichoke hearts and arugula, red quinoa, and a red pepper coulis. Soooo good!! I love to order something really special, really unique, with really beautiful ingredients when I go out. To make those extra calories worth it!! 

We also shared a dessert that was the chefs take on strawberry shortcake, the cake was more of a doughnut type thing. So that was our very much not Paleo part of dinner. Like I said in the post a few months ago, we go out to eat so very rarely, that when we do, staying Paleo is not my number one concern. I'm not the type of person who can't get right back on the wagon the next day if I have a dinner off plan the night before.

So I slept in this morning while Chris woke up very early to head north to do trail work-- I just didn't have the energy!

Going to take the dog on a super long walk and maybe do something else active today, like ride my bike.

Namaste <3