First Quarter Scores - Week 12 Summary

Teresa Marie's New Leaf Relativity: 
It's About Making Good Choices

At the end of last week - the end of March, it's the close on the first quarter of the year. WOW - this time has gone so quickly. Time to reflect on my journey so far - this blog will focus on the number, my next blog will discuss some of my tips to others looking to turn over a new leaf and live a healthier life. In a nutshell turning over a new leaf is simple - just eat right and move more. Now the execution of that is challenging!

This week I made more progress. I am anticipating a slow week or plateau ahead, but so far I have continued downward.  I was able to get in a good amount of exercise and stuck to my food plan. This week I lost 3.5 pounds! Down is Good. This keeps my weekly average to 3 pounds lost.

The first quarter is a good time to huddle up and check my progress against my goals for life- and this year in particular. 

Here we go - given the list of goals at the start of the year, I grade myself excellent A+ on 3 out of 7, the remaining 4 progress to be made. 

Road Warrior Weekly - Week 11 Summary

The past week I have been on the road traveling for vacation and then work. My goal for the week was to maintain my eating plan.  It turned out to be much more challenging than I anticipated. 


Week 11: I ate more than 66% of my meals in restaurants/hotels or catered through work.  It was hardest when "sandwiches" were delivered or dining out without translated menus.  There were some pretty tempting treats - like this coconut-mango panna cotta I ordered and had three small bites.   I was 10% high on my calorie count this week. 

I was in 5 cities in three countries - lots of time in planes, taxi, trains, and meetings! so... little time to exercise. None-the-less, I did get in a walk every day. One day in New York City I practically hit a new high in terms of steps, the weather was fairly nice and we walked all over town and did lots of steps. Over the week I averaged 1 hr workout per day - only because I hit it hard on a few days I was at home and with friends.

Health Benefits - from the inside out!

With a focus on getting fit this year - I had a check-up with my doctor before starting my nutrition and exercise plan. Part of this was full set of blood work. Not surprising there were two measures that my Doctor was not pleased with - my cholesterol level (and particle size) and my Vitamin D level. 

30% reduction in LDL via Diet and Exercise!

My Cholesterol level and mix was way off - honestly it has been all of my adult life as far as I know.  It is common, maybe even inevitable that LDL, my bad cholesterol, would be in unhealthily high. I would say it's familial hypercholesterolemia, but whatever the reason, I have to get it under control. I would routinely see total cholesterol levels in the 300's - where the target is 200 or less. I have not wanted to take daily medication and I wasn't sure what I could achieve with diet and exercise alone.  

It was interesting that my cholesterol levels in January were the lowest I'd seen in a long time. That was 240 total - less than 300!. Then amazingly, the results from March were even lower. I was able to reduce the bad cholesterol by 30% - my total cholesterol was just 221! So close to "normal" range. Why is that?  

Evil Work Temptations .. Week 10

This week there was progress, not perfection. And I'm OK with that.

If a photo is worth 1000 words - this one is also worth 1000's of calories. There are seven break rooms at work. Each is stocked with treats as shown. Plus there are sodas, instant soups, Coffee flavorings and practically every other person has candy on their desks. This time of year there are Girl Scout Cookies too.

Workplace Snacks Abound!

Evil Work Temptations - coupled with long meeting days, makes Fit a challenge, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE!
 

No excuses here.

Girls Night Out - the old 1-2 punch

At any prior point in my life, when I said I was going out with the girls after work, never ever would I mean we were going to a boxing class. 

My how times change :)

Girls Night Out - Punching it :)

I burned up more than 420 cals/hr - OMG C-A-R-D-I-O!!!!
(Patrick, you were right that there would be boxing in my future!)

Have a great day and thank you for reading my blog!

Teresa Marie

Balancing Work and Working Out - Week 9

How many people pledge each new years to be more active or lose weight. These are some of the most popular resolutions - however, analysis shows that just 8% of those that make new year's resolutions actually achieve them (and older adults achieve their goals less!). I am 64 days into the new year and my new leaf plan - living a healthier life. 

Two Months - 29 Pounds Lost!! 

If you read my back-story there are have several reasons for my commitment to start exercising and making better food choices. One reason I hadn't thought of was the "stress busting" power of exercise.  My workout schedule is time intensive and it's often hard to fit into the day. There are so many other things I could be doing with that 1 - 1.5 hours every single day. So the last thing I expected was that regular exercise has made getting life balance easier.

Week 8 - Spring Ahead

After a low number last week I was determined to up the count this week and I hit it with even more determination. I was not disappointed.  

Source: http://www.gocomics.com

It seemed oddly appropriate to see this comic earlier this week.  "The Born Loser" comic was one of my father's favorites. Somewhere I have our all time favorites snipped out and tucked away. This one just hit very close to my new reality!  Couch potato that I was but am no more. I've found inspiration and support to "Be a Loser" at Five Seasons. So happy to have entered and been selected. Now if I can just follow in Mark Wrights footsteps it will be an awesome year and new beginning! I'm going to be a "Biggest Loser" this year and loving the journey!

Mark Wright - http://workingoutallwright.blogspot.com/

This past week was a combination of great food choices (less carbs and more protein) and diligence in hitting my cardio numbers.  While last week the numbers seemed too low - this week they seem to high. On average I'm hitting 3.3 pound loss per week. From here through the end of the year I need to average 2#/wk to make my goal.

This past week more people started to say I looked as if I'd been losing weight. I had the surprise of putting on clothing that I thought would now fit only to immediately put it into the too big pile.  

So what's proposed for next week:
- Start interval training on cardio (more efficient)
- Attend one kick boxing session with my girlfriend
- Continue planning for a great veggie garden this year!


Getting so excited for Spring! Can't wait to be walking outside.

Teresa Marie