February Update

Greetings:

It's time for an update.   It also helps that I'm sitting at my parents' house and pleasantly have nothing to do.  Didn't need to bring work with me and my email duties are already done for the day.   I weighed in on Wednesday and was surprisingly disappointed that I had gained a pound.   I say it was a surprise due to the fact that both Jon and I worked out more and I was mindful with my food tracking.   The leader reminded me that I should be using some of my extra points and eating protein to help my body recover from workouts.  I'm trying to be better with that this week.   Being back in full gear with work has really helped with my activity points.   Most days I'm reaching 100% with my ActiveLink or going past 100%.   That means I usually earn 3-4 extra food points a day and those accumulate throughout the week if I need extra points for meals.  I've been trying to not use any of those extra activity points and I usually don't feel like I need to either.    I'm going to try to sneak in more yogurt.   I'm already eating a ton of eggs as omelets are a common food for me.   I'm also trying to keep some deli chicken in the house as it's wonderful on sandwiches.  It's a pesto chicken breast.   Hy-Vee slices it for sandwiches and sells it at their deli.   It's a tad bit pricey but worth it. 

Working out has been enjoyable but I have to admit the crowds at the gym suck.   It's only happened once but I had to stand around and wait for cardio equipment.   Jon and I are trying to be logical with the time we visit the gym.   My hatred of the elipitical is officially gone.   It's been easier to bump up  my time on the machine to about 40 minutes of continuous "elipticalling".   I was always amazed with how fast some people go on them (especially women).  I've been nosy and looked at some of their set-ups.   I could go a million miles an hour too if the resistance was set at 1.   I always aim for 4 to 7 as a resistance.  Oh well, whatever burns calories for people.   I've only been focusing on cardio in the recent weeks but do need to spend some time with the weight machines.   My arm feels almost 100% so doing upper body work isn't so worrisome.   My butt is still rather bruised and tender though but luckily it doesn't affect how I walk or move.   Only hurts when I sit too long or lay too long. 

I didn't reach my goal of being down 20 lbs by the end of January.   I'm extending the goal to the end of February.   I'm officially down 16 lbs due to last week's gain.   My body is always so tricky when it comes to losing the first 20.   It usually causes me to fall off the wagon but fortunately that's  not the case this time around. 

I don't really have any recipes to share as the meals we tried last week weren't that great.   I found out that Jon isn't a great fan of cilantro.   The different version of chicken chili wasn't as great as our original taco chicken chili.   I also made stuffed green peppers and wasn't very impressed with them either.   Oh well.   I have other things to try that hopefully appeal to us.

Stay warm!  Happy Groundhog's Day!