may day

favorite treat // avocado toast // winner winner chicken dinner // all hummus everything

New month new month one month closer to wedding month! This is my hunger games update. I cannot lie, it's been hard as hell And I have messed up lots of times. But, I do feel as though I have made significant progress. My body feels stronger and cleaner. I'm very aware of what I put into my mouth and now I look at food as minutes on the elliptical. Here are my goals I set in April and how I'm doing with them:

1) No treats. Ok so I eat treats. Not as many as I used to, but I would be a  liar if I said I didn't partake of the candy jar sitting on my desk at work. But Preston discovered the most amazing treat substitute. They are Carbmaster yogurts made by Kroger. They come in the most bizarre treat-like flavors like banana cream pie (favorite), cinnamon roll, key lime pie and caramel spice cake. And they are only 60 calories. SIXTY. That is like. 7 minutes on the elliptical. And they're yummy and sweet. I always have these at the end of the day when I want to make myself a pazookie.

2) No food after 8 pm. Yeah no. The cutoff has been 9:30, 10ish recently. However, if I do consume after 8, I try to eat protein and nothing too "meal-like." Mostly snacks and yogurt.

3) Minimal carbs. I'm doing pretty well with this. I have protein-y cereal for breakfast and lots of eggs or chicken with vegetables throughout the day. I also have hummus with everything, which probably has carbs. But at 70 calories for 2 tbsp, I'm like whatever. Every so often I have quinoa, which I think is perfectly acceptable. I also let myself have avocado on toast because it's so delicious and filling. Cutting out carbs completely only makes me feel weak, hungry and grumpy. 

4) 30 min. cardio minimum daily. Hell yeah. This is probably the goal I have best kept. I have upped my cardio to 60-120 minutes a day. I recently discovered I can use the elliptical now, (before it was putting too much pressure on my stress fractured foot) which burns twice as many calories as the bike. Nothing feels better than getting in a solid hour or more of "running." I hope by the middle or end of this month I will be back on the treadmill. In addition to cardio, I do 15-20 minutes of lifting or ab exercises.  

5) Keep a food/exercise log. The bane of my existence is pictured below. The Myfitnesspal app is the best and worst thing to ever grace my iPhone screen. At the beginning you put in your current weight and how much you want to weigh and it devises a plan for you. Mine has been 1200 calories a day and I definitely consume that much or more, but you can add in your cardio and it cancels out what you eat. There is nothing more satisfying than entering in a day's food intake, having 50 calories left and then entering an hour and half of cardio. I love this app because it's made me so aware of all of the things I put into my mouth. My only complaint is that there is no way to calculate weight or strength training, which definitely burns calories. So when I have a bad day, I always keep it in the back of my head that I burned even more than what I recorded.

6) Healthy snacks. My purse always has almonds or a granola bar and when I'm at work, I usually pack a bunch of snacks ranging from celery and peanut butter, fruit and yogurt to get me through my shift.

7) Drink more water. I could do better with this. Some days I drink tons and other days, only when I'm thirsty. Overall though, I have been consuming more water.

8) Take the stairs. Oh hell yeah. This sucks. The other day I had to bring something to the first floor. I work on the seventh. Myfitnesspal also doesn't have how many calories stairs burn. Ugggh.

Since school has ended, I have been working 4.5 hours a day and this is my last week at my Dean's Office job. It makes me sad to leave my little desk, but this time next week I will have literally all day to work out, tan and read until I go home June 9. I'm really pleased with the progress I have made and look forward to this next month of even more intense work outs and dieting. That's a lie, I'm not looking forward to the dieting in the least. But at least I will have all day to burn off whatever I eat. 46 days!!!!!