Listening to Your Body

Hi, all!

Happy Thursday! How are you all doing on this beautiful day? We're in the homestretch of the week, are you close to accomplishing your goals?  I have another interview this afternoon, so hopefully I'll get positive results. This job would be nice because hopefully I'd be able to transfer to one of their locations out in Seattle once I move.  

This morning, I was feeling incredibly tired and a little fatigued, so I chose not to workout. Maybe I'll workout after I get back from my interview and maybe I won't. I'm trying to do a better job at listening to my body. If I need rest, then I'll give myself rest. If I don't need rest, then I'll workout. Too many times, I've pushed my body too far and didn't give myself rest and that's when an injury happens or I feel so fatigued that I'm down for days.  I'm definitely a work in process but as long as I move forward, that's all that matters.

It's been sort of strange for me lately, I've been under my calorie goal by quite a bit this week. 3 of 4 days, I have been at least 300 calories under my goal and this is after forcing myself to eat a bit more in the evening to get a little closer to my goal. I don't want to be too far under my goal and honestly, this could be the reason why I've been feeling so fatigued lately. It seems that I'm going to have to start eating a little bigger breakfast and lunch because those meals have been lower lately. I never thought I'd have to try and eat more because I'm not getting enough calories.

Well, I'm off. I need to finish up a few things, have lunch and then head to my interview. I hope that you all are having an amazing day. Until next time!

~Sara~

Fatigue and Numbers

Hi, all!

Happy Thursday! How are you all doing today? We're so close to being at the weekend, how are you doing on your goals? Mine are going amazingly so far, I'm right on track to meet and exceed mine.

Yesterday went well, I worked out and was under my calorie goal. I love being able to look at my weight, nutrition and fitness chart and see how my numbers are each day. It's really interesting to see how my weight changes from day to day because I'm able to analyze why it is getting higher or lower. I also enjoy seeing the calorie goal compared to my actual calories and my net calories. Seeing those fitness minutes and calories burned increasing each day is so motivating as well. I can't wait to see the numbers for the entire month, so I can analyze what I need to do differently to reach my goals.

Today is going wonderfully thus far, I had a workout and I'm on track nutritionally. My workout today was shorter than normal though, only 30 minutes of walking and upper body strength training. My legs were feeling sort of fatigued, so I cut it short. I'd rather cut my workout short than get an injury or need to take off for a few extra days. A short workout is better than no workout at all.

Well, I'm off to make dinner. Tonight I'm having a delicious stir fry with chicken and sunflower seeds. I cannot wait to eat it and I will enjoy every bite of my delicious and healthy dinner. I hope you've all had an amazing day. Until next time!

~Sara~

Discouraged and Motivation

Hi all!

Happy Friday! How are you all doing today? I cannot believe it's already Friday, this week has flown by, which is both a positive and negative. This week I have not accomplished as much as I had hoped, but thankfully I'm ahead on my homework. I just need to push through and continue moving forward.

I'm going to be honest, this week I have been feeling really down for some reason. I have been feeling so fatigued, tired and lacking motivation. The reason why is unknown, but I haven't give up. I'm working really hard to overcome whatever is going on with me. I'm still working out and eating within my calorie goal, so that is positive. The effort I gave may not have been 100%, but working out at 50% is better than not working out at all.

Part of me is feeling discouraged because I have such a long way to go to reach my health goals.
Last night one of my online friends posted something on instagram that really spoke to me. It said that even if you can't see results physically, every effort is changing your body from the inside.
This is completely true. Even though I haven't lost a bunch of clothing sizes, still have stomach rolls, still have a great deal of excess fat all over my body, does not mean that I haven't made changes.
I calculated the calories of a typical day before I changed my eating habits and the results were staggering. Yesterday, I ate 2171 calories (21 calories under my goal). Before I changed my eating habits, I would eat between 2000 and 2200 calories at lunch alone!?! Then add in another 1300 - 1500 calories for dinner and an evening snack. I would skip breakfast most days, eat a huge lunch, bigger dinner and evening snack. On a daily basis, I was eating between 3400 and 3600, if not more! It's no wonder why I was continually gaining weight before. From 3400 (at the least) to 2200 calories a day. I'm not hungry, I can eat all throughout the day, if I pick my food carefully. Plus, I'm losing weight, so what's not to love?!?

Today was abs day, feeling great after my ab routine! I probably could have done more sets but I will work on that next week. Hopefully next week I'll have a bit more motivation as well. I'll be getting my cardio in this evening, while dinner is cooking. Well, I'm off to hopefully get a bunch of school work accomplished. I hope that you all have an amazing day. Until next time!

~Sara~

Weekly Fitness Goals

Hi all!

How are you on this Wednesday? Personally, I can't really complain. Staying busy with my homework, I'm focusing on my final paper and presentation today. Things will calm down a bit after this week and won't really get crazy again until about a month from now. I love taking my classes the way they are now but it really stinks that the final of one class and week one of the next class fall into the same week.

I am absolutely adoring the fact that I'm back into a healthier nutrition and fitness routine. When I started out, my walking was really light, not wanting to hurt my back while it's still healing. Now, my back is still healing, but I am trying to be more efficient with my workouts. I was logging a bunch of fitness minutes (900+ in 2 weeks), which is great, but my calorie burn was quite low for that many minutes. My legs were getting extremely fatigued because of the amount of minutes I was logging. So now, I am trying to have a higher calorie burn in fewer minutes. Currently, my goal is to burn 300 calories/workout and around 45 minutes a day (225 minutes/week). Sticking with that goal and my nutritional goals will help me lose 1 lb a week.

Time to get back to my final. I hope you all have a wonderful day and evening. Until next time!

~Sara~

Fitness and busyness

Hi all!

How are you all today? It is an absolutely beautiful day here in southeastern Wisconsin, too bad I am stuck inside working on schoolwork. Maybe a little later I'll bring my laptop outside with me and get some work done, while enjoying the beautiful weather.

I have been working out daily for 13 days now and my legs are starting to feel a little fatigued. It's no wonder why, I've had 859 fitness minutes, not including the 60+ from today. 442 of them happening this week alone, so I'm pretty exhausted. Today I've already walked 60+ minutes and burned 300+ calories, so I'm thinking about not walking while dinner cooks.

This morning while I was in the bathroom, I was curious to see what my weight was, so I stepped on the scale (my weigh-in isn't for another 2 days). I'm happy to say that my fitness and nutrition is definitely paying off because I saw about a pound loss so far, I'm not logging it and will weigh-in officially on Sunday.

Things are still incredibly busy in my world, my outline is still in process, but hopefully I'll get it done today. Then it's time to start my final and everything else that I need to get done. Time to get back to work. Wish me luck. Have a wonderful day! Until next time!

~Sara~