Hello faithful readers!,
Long time no post!
I got totally consumed by wedding planning la la land for the last 6 months and totally forgot I even had a blog! But now I am back and determined to keep this thing going! Thanks to all the folks who stopped by while I was gone!
Quick life update: I am married! Woohoo! I am so excited to be married! I am finding it challenging as a I now have to commute to work which is an hour and twenty minutes away! Fitting in going to the gym alongside the commute is pretty killer! I am working on getting creative with my workouts and trying to incorporate a lot of movement into daily life to make up for less structured gym time!
Quick Exercise update: So I took 10 weeks off running :-( kinda regretting that one, but I think my body needed a break, I got a really terrible cold in July that lasted for over 3 weeks. I kept getting better then running and getting worse so I eventually had to cut running out completely until I was better. for weeks afterwards, every time I ran I got an upset stomach or started feeling unwell. It was frustrating, but that is life! By the time I was finally full recovered It was time to fly home to finish planning my wedding, get married and then go on honeymoon! tons of walking at Disney World kept me active at least! Then we had the planning and preparing for the Scottish Blessing (to celebrate with all our friends and family) which again consumed my time! So finally this week after 10 weeks off I got back into running (after being forced to by my running partners who were running with me today whether I wanted to or not! Hard going getting my fitness back, and painful to go from running 8-10 miles before the summer to being back down to 3-4 miles! but most importantly I am back to it! started the week off with 3 miles which flew by faster then I expected (after I got over the first mile!) and finished the week with 4.3 miles with my running buddies (and felt I could have gone at least another 2 miles!) my plan is to increase my mileage by one mile a week until I am back into the 8-10 mile area and take it from there! so by my calculations by Christmas I will be easily (?!) back where I want to be! that doesn't seem so bad! I am so happy to be back at
Quick weight update: my goal was to lose half my body weight by the time I got married, and while I didn't quite get there I got really close! I was within 1 pound of my goal! Not too shabby! Since the wedding I have been doing lots of traveling and figuring out married life and celebrating back in Scotland with our friends and family here, so with that has come a bit of regain, but nothing that I am really worried about long term! I have a lifetime to figure out a good balance of socializing, eating and exercising!
Quick Diet update: So dear husband and I are giving a shot to the 5:2 diet. So far I haven't tried any set diets, just used Sparkpeople.com (highly recommend it! Friend me! my user name is Karebearcares) and counted my calories. But now with all the commuting, and trying to get to know people from my husbands work etc we are eating out a bit more frequently so I need to find something that works for my new life. So we are giving the 5:2 a bash, or for me 4:3 it's really nothing earth shattering it's the same idea as calorie cycling which I have been doing all along. You eat a small amount of calories on some days of the week, which allows you to eat more calories other days of the week and still loose weight or maintain depending on your goals and calorie targets. it's not any sort of magic, or secret tricks, it's just a different way of counting calories. For many people they only count calories on their low calories days and eat sensibly the other days, others count calories all days and just allow themselves more some days then others. I plan to do a mix of both, but this will allow me to relax on days when we do go out to eat and I can't get accurate calorie totals, hopefully I can enjoy the meal and just be more careful the following day. To me this mimics how I see long term maintenance working so hopefully it will work! Ill keep you updated!
Weekly weigh in:
Down 2 pounds this week! (13.5 pounds from goal!) I would count week 1 of the 5:2 a success! but the jury is still out on this one as I usually quickly drop weight after a gain and often drop it faster then 2 pounds a week. But I have really struggled to get back on track since the wedding, and having some lower calorie days and high calories days certainly has helped ease me back in, at least mentally!
Thanks for following along! Have any experience with Calorie cycling? any good recipes for low calorie days? (I am looking for filling recipes in the 200-300 calories range)
Long time no post!
I got totally consumed by wedding planning la la land for the last 6 months and totally forgot I even had a blog! But now I am back and determined to keep this thing going! Thanks to all the folks who stopped by while I was gone!
Quick life update: I am married! Woohoo! I am so excited to be married! I am finding it challenging as a I now have to commute to work which is an hour and twenty minutes away! Fitting in going to the gym alongside the commute is pretty killer! I am working on getting creative with my workouts and trying to incorporate a lot of movement into daily life to make up for less structured gym time!
Quick Exercise update: So I took 10 weeks off running :-( kinda regretting that one, but I think my body needed a break, I got a really terrible cold in July that lasted for over 3 weeks. I kept getting better then running and getting worse so I eventually had to cut running out completely until I was better. for weeks afterwards, every time I ran I got an upset stomach or started feeling unwell. It was frustrating, but that is life! By the time I was finally full recovered It was time to fly home to finish planning my wedding, get married and then go on honeymoon! tons of walking at Disney World kept me active at least! Then we had the planning and preparing for the Scottish Blessing (to celebrate with all our friends and family) which again consumed my time! So finally this week after 10 weeks off I got back into running (after being forced to by my running partners who were running with me today whether I wanted to or not! Hard going getting my fitness back, and painful to go from running 8-10 miles before the summer to being back down to 3-4 miles! but most importantly I am back to it! started the week off with 3 miles which flew by faster then I expected (after I got over the first mile!) and finished the week with 4.3 miles with my running buddies (and felt I could have gone at least another 2 miles!) my plan is to increase my mileage by one mile a week until I am back into the 8-10 mile area and take it from there! so by my calculations by Christmas I will be easily (?!) back where I want to be! that doesn't seem so bad! I am so happy to be back at
Quick weight update: my goal was to lose half my body weight by the time I got married, and while I didn't quite get there I got really close! I was within 1 pound of my goal! Not too shabby! Since the wedding I have been doing lots of traveling and figuring out married life and celebrating back in Scotland with our friends and family here, so with that has come a bit of regain, but nothing that I am really worried about long term! I have a lifetime to figure out a good balance of socializing, eating and exercising!
Quick Diet update: So dear husband and I are giving a shot to the 5:2 diet. So far I haven't tried any set diets, just used Sparkpeople.com (highly recommend it! Friend me! my user name is Karebearcares) and counted my calories. But now with all the commuting, and trying to get to know people from my husbands work etc we are eating out a bit more frequently so I need to find something that works for my new life. So we are giving the 5:2 a bash, or for me 4:3 it's really nothing earth shattering it's the same idea as calorie cycling which I have been doing all along. You eat a small amount of calories on some days of the week, which allows you to eat more calories other days of the week and still loose weight or maintain depending on your goals and calorie targets. it's not any sort of magic, or secret tricks, it's just a different way of counting calories. For many people they only count calories on their low calories days and eat sensibly the other days, others count calories all days and just allow themselves more some days then others. I plan to do a mix of both, but this will allow me to relax on days when we do go out to eat and I can't get accurate calorie totals, hopefully I can enjoy the meal and just be more careful the following day. To me this mimics how I see long term maintenance working so hopefully it will work! Ill keep you updated!
Weekly weigh in:
Down 2 pounds this week! (13.5 pounds from goal!) I would count week 1 of the 5:2 a success! but the jury is still out on this one as I usually quickly drop weight after a gain and often drop it faster then 2 pounds a week. But I have really struggled to get back on track since the wedding, and having some lower calorie days and high calories days certainly has helped ease me back in, at least mentally!
Thanks for following along! Have any experience with Calorie cycling? any good recipes for low calorie days? (I am looking for filling recipes in the 200-300 calories range)