As I may have been unclear...

Miss April asked some very good questions on my check in blog. I guess my goals have been very broad - I'm a firm believer in brevity as details are usually less than riveting.

Goal 1: Cook at least once a day and DO THE FREAKING DISHES. 
This is my effort to reduce eating out. I don't particularly care for cooking but if I can find quick HEALTHY recipes, I'm more inclined to keep my food money spent at home and my calories more accountable.

Goal 2: Do a Vegan Day.
The vegan day is just a break from cooking and cleaning up after it. Plus it is one more day that I'm not ingesting animal products. I like to try and make it a weekend day since I'm most prone to over-eating on Saturdays and Sundays. I also use it as a reminder of how many cooked and processed items I still eat. Since my juice fast, I realize that I can say no to food entirely. I don't need food I need nutrients and a vegan day is just a little flexing of that willpower muscle... I choose not to do long stints because it leads to binging. I choose to be consistently good about diet and food intake. Sometimes it's nice to mix it up with a brief and healthy "challenge."

I don't do it to clean up my diet. My diet is pretty good.
- No alcohol since may.
- No soda for about 1 year now.
- No white sugars, corn syrup (hydrogenated or not) or sugar substitutes since August.
- No white breads/enriched flour since August.

I'm slowly weaning things I shouldn't consume out of my diet. Next is a lot of my meat products that can be replaced by tofu, tempeh and other vegan/vegetarian alternatives. I'm finding foods that I love that are healthy. I'm replacing a cheeseburger with a serving of cottage cheese. I'm replacing chips with cucumber slices. I'm replacing snickers with clif Z-bars. I'm making menus so I don't have to make decisions on the fly and so I can make educated and well planned trips to the grocery store. (each trip = an opportunity to buy crappy food).

Goal 3: Bedtime at 12:00a.m. 
A stressed body is one that's more resistant to give up pounds. I usually work until 10pm every night and I'm up by 7:00 - 7:30 every day to get to classes or the gym on time. Again this is a bedtime happening in increments. With school starting I've been up progressively later and later in efforts to get every thing done (homework, socializing, cleaning my studio). I've found myself going to bed at 12 and not being able to drift off until 1. - dang this exercising thing giving me so much energy! heh.


Goal 4: Stay on top of piles and piles of homework.
I'm taking some pretty time intensive classes, Voice Pedagogy, Form and Analysis (symphonic scores), Diction for Singers, Creative Writing, Dance Basics and Aquacise. And working 40 hours a week between my 3 jobs. I'm trying to find the time to make sure that everything is taken care of. Again, it's about reducing stress and trying to stay happy and motivated to keep moving.  When I get overwhelmed and behind, I take it out on myself in food and work out cancellations. I will not give myself those excuses. I will keep my crap together. I've done well so far with this... but I can feel that stress creeping up on me and I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve.


Goal 5: Get 7 hours of Gym Time in.
Exercise is structured in that I have 4 hours of work out classes in my academic schedule and 2 hours with a trainer/friend. It looks like this...

Monday - 45 min cardio; 15 min strength training
Tuesday - 60 min swimming/high activity cardio; 15 min stretching, 20 min pilates/yoga, 20 min tap/ballet/jazz/modern.
Wednesday - {free} Just walking to class and work approximately 1 hour/2-3 miles a day. I don't count it as exercise because it's part of my normal daily activity.
Thursday - 60 min swimming/high activity cardio; 15 min stretching, 40 min floor routines
Friday - 45 min cardio; 30 min strength training.

Total:  6 hours

It just means I have to find one more hour by myself somewhere in the middle (usually saturday mornings or Sunday nights). This is motivated by the fact I'm not in choirs this semester. With that stress being gone, I'm choosing to put as much time in the gym per week as I did between my two choir classes. I've spent 6 years obsessing about my music and letting my body go by the wayside. This year I put my body first.

A one pound loss... is still a loss. I would rather lose small amounts every week than go crashing down 5 or more lbs a week only to gain it back when my body revolts. It's also a Pre-period week. I'm surprised I've lost anything with the water I've been retaining. I can see it in my ankles and in my hands.

Plus really, I don't think this is about how fast can I drop the weight. It's about retraining myself to accept a healthier lifestyle. The numbers are motivating. But I refuse to let them be anything else. I would rather find myself craving vegetables and wanting a long walk than see a -3lb mark on the scale. It's about how I feel. My body feels great. My feet hold out longer when standing and walking. My back doesn't give me problems much anymore. I'm finding more "core" strength. My energy levels are high. I don't know how I would be surviving this semester if it weren't for the additional energy and focus.

I'm feeling pretty good about things. I'm exhausted from stress. I know I should be doing better scholastically and that seriously puts a damper on my mood and motiviation for the week. But I'm trying to keep that snarky, bitchy part of myself quiet - the part that walks out of classes when teachers are egotistical and infuriating. I'm finding myself very short tempered these days. But I guess that's the symptom of a body in transition.

Down 32lbs since July and counting.
Big fat love,
Nanette