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!!!!!

drop dead healthy

New month, new food. Originally I planned to start dieting January 1, but that lasted 2 days when I realized I wasn't getting married for 6 months. But now that April has begun, I've decided to eat less. Also I'm not really sorry if this post offends you or makes you angry or sad for me. I'm getting married in June and want to be very small in my pictures and for myself and future husband and that's just my thing. I know how to eat and not eat and I know what's healthy and unhealthy, so lemme be.

The #1 reason why I'm even writing this is so I can be accountable to "someone." If I put it on the Internet, people read it and know about and it makes me conscious of my decision and goals. I actually eat fairly well and cook regularly, but I eat whatever I want, whenever I want, usually, and that's the main thing I want to change. Here are my April goals:

1) No treats. Damn. This is going to be the hardest. If you know me at all, my catchphrase is "Got any treats?" I'm going to let myself have 1 normal day a week because if I cut off treats and normal foods entirely, I will be super grumpy.
2) No food after 8 PM.
3) Minimal carbs. I'm really bad at tracking this because literally everything I put in my mouth has carbs I think. But I'm going to try to up the fruits, vegetables and protein and minimize carbs to quinoa and cereal in the morning (but it is protein-y cereal!)
4) 30 min. cardio minimum daily (except Sunday). This is also hard because I'm 94% sure I have a stress fracture in my right foot. I've been trying to rest it these past couple days and have only been doing the bike for my cardio. I hate it because it's boring and I feel like I'm not doing anything but everything else hurts :( In addition to cardio I alternate between doing abs and arms so it's about an hour long workout.
5) Keep a food/exercise log. Don't worry, I won't put it on here, but I will keep one. It makes all the difference when you have to write down "Reese's peanut butter egg" on a piece of paper. Ugh.
6) Healthy snacks. I think this is going to be my key and the best thing to prevent me from killing myself. I am always hungry but I never have healthy snacks to munch on. I never pack any for school and by the time I get home to make a meal, I'm ravenous and start munching on whatever is around, healthy or not.
7) Drink more water. I'm so bad at this. I only drink water when I'm thirsty and when I'm eating. I'm going to try and drink a glass before each meal because it makes you full and is good for you. Also I hate always having to pee which always happens when I increase my water intake.
8) Take the stairs. This is really fun cuz I work on the 7th floor of my building. As in 7 out of 7 floors.

I also started reading Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs this weekend. Jacobs takes on these year long (?) challenges and devotes his entire life to them, then reports back. He did a year of living biblically, where he followed all of Moses' Law, including the ridiculous ones and read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica A-Z. In this book he devotes his life to trying all sorts of diets and fitness regiments in an attempt to be his healthiest self. It's very entertaining and I'm learning some good tips.

I think that's a fairly good list. I have number goals but I don't want to share those. Maybe another time? Happy Hunger Games.