My Weekend and Planning for the Week

This past weekend, my husband and I went dancing, did some cooking, and continued to "train" for our upcoming vacation. Friday, we went to our ballroom dancing class, we are learning the Tango, and I think we finally have it down to the point where we can "graduate" to the next level next time around - Yay us!! We have found that dance is really difficult for the first month or so, but once it starts to click, it is awesome fun! 

Saturday, we went on our "train walk,"our 17 mile walk down the coast from Oceanside to Solana Beach. It was a gorgeous day, shorts weather, and we had a beautiful, relaxing walk (and burned a good amount of calories in the process). We stopped at the half way point and had a yummy picnic lunch of oranges, apples, and dry cheerios (I know, dry cheerios probably do not sound great, but they did the trick - usually, we take blueberry yogurt muffins, but we just didn't have the time to bake them the night before). After our walk, we went out to lunch, we had Mexican food. Lots of calories. We still do go out to eat now and then, we're just careful about it. Even though our dinner was heavy and calorie-laden, the exercise we did throughout the rest of the day kept us within our calorie budget. So, we certainly wouldn't do this every day, but it's fine for a treat once in a while. And we treated ourselves on Saturday. 

Sunday, we woke up early and went for a beautiful hike at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. Gorgeous. We arrived early enough to beat the crowds and hiked around for 3 1/2 hours. It was beautiful, it was fun, and it put me in a really great mood for the remainder of the day. What a fantastic way to start the day! Sunday afternoon, we prepared for the week by cooking an enormous pot of minestrone soup (I say "we," really, it was my husband).  We ate pretty light all day on Sunday and I ended up netting just over 700 calories for the day, and I wasn't hungry once. Fruit and veggies, baby! 

Every week, I try to have at least some idea of how I'm going to eat right and exercise enough to make my daily and weekly goals. So the plan for the week, Monday (today) is a low exercise day, so I need to keep my calories low. I try never to go an entire day without doing any exercise, this is not too difficult except when I travel. I always try at least to go for a walk at lunch, and that is the plan for today, to go for a good lunch walk and then to go for a nice walk with my husband when I get home. This is not Zumba or an intense work-out, but it will do along with a bit of a stricter diet. Tuesday, I have a lunch meeting for a board on which I serve. I will check out the menu and order responsibly, but it will likely still exceed the calories I generally alot for lunch, so that means breakfast and dinner need to be light and I need to watch my snacking really closely. Breakfast will probably be the same as usual and dinner will be white fish and veggies. Snacks on Tuesday will be fruit and veggies and I will be avoiding bread products and salty foods (restaurant food is always more salty than homemade, in my experience, even when the restaurant food doesn't taste particularly salty). Wednesday through Friday will be my typical Wednesday through Friday - no eating out or anything like that around which I need to plan, and I'm not travelling or anything, so my exercise routine shouldn't be disrupted. 

Enjoy your week!

Seriously?!

Okay, here is my little rant for the day
Feeling a little lethargic in the morning? Hey, instead of getting more sleep or exercising a bit, Mountain Dew has your answer - they are introducing a new breakfast drink. WTF?  Well, apparently, this is quite the healthful concoction because it has 5% juice and vitamin B and C.  AND it has only like a third the caffeine when compared with a 16-oz cup of Starbuck's coffee. Yeah, that's where we want to set the bar. sigh. Is it any wonder that diabetes is a rising problem in this country? Who drinks this stuff for breakfast? (says the person who used to drink a 16-oz peppermint white chocolate mocha EVERY morning) ....oh...currently dismounting my high horse...

Relaxing Weekends

It used to be, before this whole weight loss / lifestyle-change undertaking, that I would look forward to my relaxing weekends. At that time, when I thought about relaxing, I thought about very sedentary activities. To me, relaxing was going to a movie or two, going to the theater  going out to dinner, snuggling on the couch with my hubby watching T.V. and the like. At the end of the weekend, after all of my "relaxing," I was not really relaxed. I would often feel tired and lethargic, I would not sleep well, I would toss and turn and wake up several times during the night, and there were many days when I would barely be able to stay awake or focus. I still like to snuggle on the couch with my husband and go to movies and the theater occasionally, but these activities no longer occupy the majority of my weekend time.

This weekend, I relaxed. My husband and I went dancing on Friday night, we are learning the Tango this month. On Saturday, we went for a nice long walk. We have season passes to Disneyland and we have a "circuit" that we walk around the park and the surrounding hotels. We will walk around the parks and do our "circuit" for about 5 or 6 hours. We pack a lunch of fruit, lots of water, and a couple of blueberry-yogurt muffins (or some other low-calorie snacks) and we avoid the food in the park (except the fruit, we will eat that in a pinch).  It is always a fun, active, and relaxing day. Sunday, we went for a beautiful 3 hour hike at Torrey Pines State Park. It is about a ten to fifteen minute drive from our house, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Finally, Sunday evening, we went dancing again - more Tango lessons. After our dance class on Sunday night, I was blissfully exhausted. Tired, but a different kind of tired - not lethargic. Even though I was exhausted, I felt relaxed and de-stressed. And I slept beautifully last night. I find myself refreshed and ready for the week this morning. It may seem counter-intuitive, but our "active weekends" are far, far more relaxing and enjoyable than our sedentary "relaxing" weekends used to be.  If someone would have told me that two years ago, I would never have believed it.

Training for Vacation

Whoever thought I would need to train for my vacation?? But I am. My husband and I have booked a hike in Ireland for June (yay!!!). The hike is about 140 miles, we booked an 11 day hike with one extra day to rest on day 6, so we will be hiking it in 9 days because the first and last days of the hike are just checking in and checking out. We will be hiking 15 - 20 miles a day, so for the past several weeks, we have started going for very long hikes and / or walks every weekend day to prepare. As soon as the days start to get longer, we will start to do long walks after work. I have no doubt that we can do this, I just want to have the stamina to enjoy the hike and then to enjoy the little pubs and towns at the end of the day - to get the most out of the experience. So, we are training for our vacation, and I have never looked forward to a vacation so much in my life!

It's also nice to have a goal that, while it will help my husband and I stay fit and maintain our weight, the main thrust of the goal is not necessarily weight loss, but to be in shape to make the most of our summer vacation. We are going to take these new, fit bodies out for a spin!