Bah. I haven't updated my blog in quite a while now. Everyday I think to myself, alright, tonight, right before bed, just sit down and write it out. I really do enjoy writing up these things, but it's been a combination of forgetting and just procrastinating, thinking I'll do it first thing the next day or something along those lines. but oh well, who cares? Because I'm updating it right now, and that's all that matters.
So let's see, where did I leave off? Whew, 16 days ago, crap. So I finally made it to Thanksgiving weekend, which was a blast. Firstly, Thanksgiving was great, I thoroughly enjoyed company of family, as well as being able to eat a bit more than usual, and I allowed myself a little bit of sweets. Piece of pie, some small muffins for breakfast, and a couple cookies. It was pretty basic, but glad that I didn't go overboard. I did have quite a bit of sparkling... Mango spritzer? I forget what flavor it was, as well as sparkling apple cider, which I have no idea how much sugar those things have in them, since it's not labeled, but I'm hoping it wasn't too bad. Nonetheless, I finished up the month, and I'm very proud of myself. In about 2 months, I've lost ~10 pounds, which isn't too bad, since I've put on a lot of muscle as well. I can tell, because after doing a workout today, I was able to increase my reps by about 30-50% depending on the exercise. I definitely feel better overall, but I still need to take it up a notch. I also did enjoy some Du's Grill and Blast Burger (great burger place in Lake Oswego that opened up recently), but did not make it to Killer Burger. Oh well, Winter Break for that.
I got a little behind in workouts, as I wasn't feeling all that great over Thanksgiving break, and am not feeling all that well right now actually, speaking of it. It hasn't gotten awful like I have gotten in the past, but I'm still not 100% healthy at the moment. But yes, I did get a bit behind due to a lack of energy during my break, however, I was able to start up my third phase (last 5 weeks of the 90 days) today, the first of December. Well I guess it's the second now, but whatever, I'm still awake. Which I need to work on going to bed earlier... Ugh. Oh, and on top of the 10 pounds, I've also lost about an inch on my waistline so far, which is always nice; just remembered that.
I'm excited for these 90 days to be over, because I'm going to really take my workouts to a new level during Winter Term, as I'm going to start more cardio on top of my workouts. So I'll be starting to run, oooo ahhh. I'm going to start it off very easy, as I don't have much experience running, so half walking, half jogging to begin with basically, and I'm hoping to be able to run 3-4 miles without stopping by Spring Break. SPEAKING OF SPRING BREAK, my family might be going to Hawaii for the week! Not guaranteed yet, but it's a possibility that we're looking into. I loved going to Hawaii 2 years ago. Was fantastic that my roommate at the time, Nick, lives there (when not at school obviously), so I got to hang out with his family there. Anyways, yes, one of my main goals is to be able to and to start running on a more regular basis by summer, so what better way to do it than, to start running?! I hope it'll go well. But I'm planning on just doing up to about 30 minutes of walking/running 3 times per week (probably same days I do weights), and obviously increasing my duration of running each week until I can run 3-4 miles. I'd love to be able to do a ten mile run by the end of summer, even if it's slow as hell, just to say that I can do it. But that'll happens when it happens; I need to take baby steps.
I think I'm going to wind this down now, as I really ought to be going to sleep now. But, I finished my month of little to no sweets, and limited sugar, but what to do for December? Well, it won't be a challenge, however, it still has to do with food. I have two big eating habits; I eat big portions (and sometimes lots of portions), as well as I snack a lot. So I want to work on my snacking habits. And there are three reasons why I snack a lot. One - I sometimes don't eat complete meals, or eat meals at irregular hours and times, so I end up snacking to make up for meals, sometimes healthy food, usually, not so much. Two - I snack because I still feel hungry, due to not having enough time to digest and not feeling full yet; this leads to eating more than I should and feeling too full later on, meaning I ate more than I should have. Three - I snack because I'm bore; I hate that one. Luckily, I don't do the last one that often, but it will happen, I'm bored, and just get the munchies and eat a bunch of random food around the house/apartment. So the best way to combat this is to write down what I eat. I'm not going calorie counting, I hate that. But I want to be conscious of what I eat, and when. So firstly, don't eat because I'm bored, drink some water instead, or get un-bored. Secondly, after I've eaten something, snack-wise, or even a meal, make sure I wait before consuming more food, to make sure I'm really hungry or not. If I'm not sure yet, drink some water in the meantime, maybe it'll go away. And finally, make sure I eat enough meals, and don't eat all my food as snacks. Actually make or have something that isn't snacking, and actually meal-worthy. So like I said, I'll be writing down what I eat and when, just so I can think to myself, do I really need to eat that? Or could I at least wait? I also want to get in the habit of drinking more water, plus it could end up filling me up, to prevent me from snacking.
On top of that, I want to watch how much fat/cholesterol/dairy I consume. I've been eating a lot of greek yogurt recently, and I just realized HOW much I'm eating. That, plus about 1 cup of milk a day, can really stack up. I'm also drinking protein shakes (about 1-1.5 cups after a workout as a recovery drink, as well as to get a little extra protein in my diet, but without adding in a bunch of simple carbs (sugar), such as chocolate milk does. One problem with the shake is that 1 scoop of the powder gives 65 mg of cholesterol, and if I drink 1.5 scoops worth, then that's a lot of my daily cholesterol right there. Plus if I add in greek yogurt to either my meals/snacks or to my shake (I tried that the other day), that's adding in another 15-25 mg of cholesterol, coming in at around 40% of my daily recommended cholesterol (or at least that's what the back of the carton says! Either way, I don't want to go overboard on cholesterol). Anyways, I need to watch those catagories of my diet.
Alright, that's all for now I guess. 'til next time, stay fancy.
