monday morning health and fitness recap. (looong, wordy, picture-less post, what am I thinking here???)

So new feature today: as I talked about last week, I'm going to start posting what I did/didn't do fitness/health wise in the prior week, for me, this is really to keep me on my toes because I've been terrible about motivating myself in the past few weeks. But, i also figured it would be helpful to at least some readers who are also interested in staying fit and healthy.

I'm going to start off with a brief history (read: lecture) on why its important to 1. EAT and 2. exercise with some moderation

back in the day, not so long ago, I was very, very stupid. I ate approx. one meal a day (usually dinner,) with a handful of candy or two or maybe a yogurt if I was being really healthy thrown in earlier in the day. I ran, and ran, and ran and ran some more- every day, for over an hour. I was grumpy, I got sick ALL the time, my hair and nails were brittle and weak. And you know what? I weighed 4 lbs (I know, not a lot) more than I average now. I couldn't lose weight not matter how much more I ran or how much less I ate- I was miserable, like reallly miserable.

It dawned on me that I needed to change things- ok really, I always knew that what I was doing wasn't healthy, and I did know how to eat healthy: I'd certainly read enough about it and just decided it wasn't for me, because I thought I would balloon out because I was already eating so little and working out so much. I just decided that even if I did turn into a ball of chub, that was better than being miserable for the rest of my life.

I started, eating, a lot, like 2x if not more the calories that I used to consume, 3-4 meals a day, running less, and added strength training. Miraculously, I didn't gain any weight (other than an initial couple of lbs as my body adjusted) and over time I dropped those and a few more, easily. So if your one of those countless women starving yourself and killing yourself with cardio, stop. right now. you'll be happier, and you'll prob look better.

Here's what I now aim for every week:

2-3 yoga sessions

1-2 strength sessions ( I only do abs and upper body, I dont do lower body, I know, Bad Natalie, bad, but I hate it and I feel like yoga takes care of me enough on that front)

3-4 runs- average distance somewhere between 4.5-7 miles, I don't run at a steady state, but do intervals or slowly up the speed and then come back down. (sometimes supplanted with elliptical if i'm feeling knee achy, or lazy)

Here's an example of what I eat on a given day:

breakfast- (this tends to be pretty similar every day, what can I say, I don't get creative in the morning, Im just happy to be sort of functioning the first hour Im awake) steel cut oatmeal, a whole bunch of berries, a small handful of almonds, coffee with a lot of skim milk, and an apple or banana

lunch- (this is just an example, as lunch varies a lot- but this is what I have packed for today) spinach salad with turkey bacon and hard boiled egg (I don't use dressing, just a little bit of balsamic), half a bagel with pb and jelly

snack- cottage cheese or greek yogurt with fruit, or a couple pieces of cheese and crackers and some carrots

dinner- varies a TON- but here's what I'm making tonight- pasta with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and turkey sausage in tomato sauce with a bit of goat cheese and cream in it (recipe totally made up, but I heart it) and a small arugula salad with pears and pecorino.

Dessert- which i usually do eat- a couple spoons of ice cream, or pieces of chocolate or candy.

See, I told you I eat a ton.

I'm not aiming to really change anything about my diet, It works pretty well for me, but maybe I'd like to eat a little less on weekends/when I go out. maybe. Really I think I'd like to drink a little less, especially of empty calorie laden cocktails.

Ok onto the part of this post that is actually going to become a weekly occurrence:

last week.

I sucked. on all fronts. all the nice weather and outdoor drinking was bad for my motivation, I just wanted to be out and about with friends/the boy/the cat during all of my free time and as a result, I was pretty lazy about working out.

What I managed to do:

3 yoga sessions

2 runs (1 was 4.5 miles one was 5.5)

a piddly 1/2 hour of abs and some arm/chest work.

lame. Like, really, really, lame.

I'm aiming to do a lot better this week- and off to a decent start- I already did yoga this morning and am heading to the gym after class for what will hopefully be a 5 mile run.