I found myself in the diet pill section of Sam's Club, desperate for a quick fix after three weeks of gorging myself in Florida (vacation - why?) and a road trip to Yellowstone that was filled with snacks, rich food, cakes, chips and soda, which I don't even normally drink. All reason had gone out the door and I was spiraling into the valley of nothing-ness aforementioned. Don't judge me......I am human and have a hard time finding balance when it comes to food.
In that oh so familiar moment, I yet again talked myself out of buying some "cheap shot" that doesn't work and talked myself into getting back on the wagon that I'd fallen of over summer vacation. Whooohoooo...bottom is hit, motivation sets in, vegetables are bought, and a workout schedule for the upcoming week planned.
All of that went wonderfully until the weekend. Weekends are the worst for me but I'm not going to whine and moan about that. I am going to tell you what worked.
PREPARE
A serious key for me! If I don't have good food & snacks to turn to, I will eat anything in sight, including nasty tasting candy or those cheap Walmart knock off snacks. I find when I load my fridge up with vegetables (corn doesn't really count) and fruit (but take it easy on the fruit), I am actually more likely to eat them. Another tip I learned during Weight Watchers is to wash, divide, measure...whatever you have to do to your fruits & veggies and put them in baggies. Then they're ready to go. My new favorite is slicing up green, red, yellow peppers and mixing them with snap peas. I've also thrown tons of red cabbage into stir fry's and its super yummy!
SCHEDULE
If you didn't know already, I LOVE to workout. It just makes me feel so good and I have energy (for a few hours anyway) after. Teaching Zumba is a blast and I sweat buckets so that covers the cardio, but cardio alone will not cut it. I find the best results when I partner cardio workouts with weight training of some sort. Please refer to a previous post about Pump class. You will not end up like a bodybuilder from pump class.....I promise.
I haven't taken a spin class for months and haven't been regularly cycling (indoors) since February. From my experience, NOTHING makes you're legs look better. Cycle class should be a good combination of cardio endurance and strength building. My endorphins soar when I'm done with a cycle class. It's exhilerating and wonderful.
BUT my new obsession is 8 Strikes, a cardio kickbox class at LVAC. Kicks my tail - in a good way. Sweaty doesn't even describe what I look like when I'm done, more like I just got out of the pool. It is a complete body workout, arms, legs, butt and core! AMAZING.....try it.
TRACK
One of the most vital keys in Weight Watchers is to track what you eat and the points value of every item you put in your mouth. Whether you do weight watchers or not, you should track your food and your activity. Just write it in a journal or ask me about a tracking app for your phone. You will be amazed how many things you eat that you're not even aware of.....left overs from the kids, the samples at the store, tasting the frosting from your kids birthday cake just to make sure its yummy -
CONSISTANCE
This one is my least favorite and the least fun. So the first two weeks of my brave new world went pretty good. I try not to judge progress by the scale but its hard not to. I didn't loose much weight, a pound or two of my 6 vacation lbs. I definitely felt better and feel a difference in my body and strength and energy. This week (week 3) not so hot! New things are always exciting.......then they loose their sparkle. Hmmm what to do? Do what works......start over.....go buy veggies, make a workout plan, track, be positive. That's what I'm going to do.
