Thursday, August 10, 2017

Time To Lose a Few Pounds

Life has settled into a really great routine. "Routine" usually sounds like a bad thing, like things aren't fun or exciting, but run of the mill. But that's not the case. Life is good. Life is actually pretty great. We work all week and then play all weekend, which is exactly how I want life to be (unless of course I could just play all week and be independently wealthy, but that hasn't happened for me. Yet).

What happens for me when life settles into this sweet spot, however, is that I gain weight. I work hard all day, mostly at a desk in my office. I grab a bagel from the cafeteria for breakfast and then whatever I can find for lunch.Then I go home and collapse from exhaustion on the couch while binge-ing this show or that, and instead of cooking dinner, I order in or we go out. Then the week is over so we go visit breweries or go away for the weekend or whatever. The result is not really moving much, and eating and drinking very much. Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of makeup that allows me to eat and drink much and move little and not gain weight. So, this is what I have done.

Right after we got back from Cuba, I set a new schedule for myself. I get up and make a green smoothie for breakfast (since I hate veggies, this is the only way I am getting spinach into this body). No matter how tired I am after work, I come home and get into my work out clothes and get my ass moving. I either hit the treadmill or do kickboxing or HIIT training or lift weights. Then I cook an actual healthy meal - we haven't ordered delivery in months. And then I prep my healthy lunch for the next day. It feels good to do healthy things again, to take better care of my body and to feel strong again.

The weight isn't coming off as quickly as it used to, though, so I am anticipating having a hard time keeping my motivation going. The feeling of being healthier and stronger only carries me so far...I want to see that scale dropping. And it is dropping, don't get me wrong. But at my age (ahem), I guess things start to slow down and I have to work twice as hard to get shit done. Right now, I feel motivated to keep going even though things are slow, and I am trying to focus on my jeans being looser and my muscles feeling tighter.