8.12 Exercise and Food Plan

This week's exercise and food plans (recipes are likely on my www.veggiebyseason.com blog in the near future!)

Monday: Spin 60 minutes
Tuesday: Swimming 30 minutes (building my base back up!)
Wednesday: 60 minutes
Thursday: Run 3 miles
Friday: Spin 60 minutes
Saturday: TRX 60 minutes
Sunday: Run 4 miles

Breakfasts are currently 2% Greek yogurt with a chopped up peach
Lunches are salads with veggies, goat or blue cheese, tofu or garbanzo beans and balsamic

Dinners -
Monday: Mushroom and Tempeh Pizza (homemade-ish, dough from Whole Foods)
Tuesday: Cornbread and Poblano Strata
Wednesday: Spaghetti with Homemade TVP "Meatballs" and Spinach
Thursday: Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Friday: Mushroom, Barley and Christmas Lima Bean Risotto
Saturday: Out for JJ's birthday!
Sunday: Spring Leek Hash with Polenta Rounds and Goat Cheese

An active weekend

So moving cross-country can be pretty terrifying. However, with it only being for one year, it seemed a lot more manageable. The logistics were a bit of a pain, selling our home, putting everything into storage, crashing with our parents for a few weeks, driving two cars across the country... but we did it, and it has been so worth it! 

JJ came out here to interview in April, but I never saw Boise until we drove here. I researched a lot ahead of time, but I really had no idea. I got SO lucky with our apartment. It's truly everything we could have wanted. It has greenbelt access (a paved, 20 mile bike path along the Boise River), it has a pool, it's in a great area of town, and is easily accessible to JJ's work, the Y, Whole Foods, parks, you name it, we've got it. I think we're going to be spoiled living here, to be honest!

Here are some photos my husband took on the greenbelt last week:

view from the lake behind our apartment and Boise River

So exercise has been great, for so many reasons. Firstly, I am now working part time, which allows me to go to the YMCA as often as I want to. Secondly, we're right on the greenbelt and have great roads around here to run and bike, and thirdly, JJ is home at NORMAL 8-5 hours, so I have so much more flexibility and we can do a lot of extra fun exercise, like ride bikes to the park and play there.

I have really adjusted to life here, I just miss my friends! Since we know we'll only be here a year, it's hard to want to get invested and get out there to meet people. We're going to church, and I go to classes, but no other opportunities have come up to meet people.

So a recap of the weekend's activities and eats:

Friday - Spin class
Saturday - TRX class and then fun time in the kiddie pool
Sunday - 3 mile run, 6 mile bike ride on the greenbelt

Eats were actually pretty good! I cook all week, we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home M-F, the weekends are when we go out a bit. Saturday's lunch was from a deli, I had the veggie sandwich (shared with Violet) and a side of coleslaw. Saturday's dinner was at The Green Chile, I had the veggie fajitas, which I made into a giant salad. Sunday's lunch was Cafe Rio (YUM!) Vegetarian Taco Salad with only half the tortilla eaten, and Sunday dinner was at home. Considering the amount of exercise, I feel good about it! And we've been using the heck out of our Entertainment Book... it's been a great way to try some new places in Boise! The BOGOs have been treating our tiny, resident/part time working budget well.

Hope you had a great weekend full of exercise and delicious food!

Getting fit in Boise

Ever since I knew we were moving to Boise, I decided to use the year as my 'finally get in shape' year. I am only working part time, and we have a Y membership, plus we live on the Greenbelt, so there's no reason not to get to where I ultimately want to be, around 145 lbs. (Though my goal weight is 142 lbs. just to hit the -110 lbs. mark, then I think 145 will be my comfortable place, we'll see though).

I have been going to spinning three days a week, TRX one day a week, and running two days a week. I also want to add in yoga and swimming laps, but I think that will come once my daughter starts preschool after Labor Day. I know it sounds crazy, but there are so many exercise classes I want to do, that it's hard to pick how to use my time! 

The YMCA here is amazing, I absolutely love it so far. The facilities are gorgeous, the teachers are great, childcare is wonderful, and it's so worth the somewhat steep price tag since I'm using it for so many classes. JJ talked me into taking a TRX class with him last Saturday instead of Body Pump alone. Wow, what a workout! It uses your core about the entire class, definitely a step up from Body Pump in degree of difficulty. I do like Pump because it's predictable (one part of the body targeted per song) and you can easily see how much you improve (adding weight), but TRX works the whole body, the whole time. And wow, was I sore for days afterwards! 

Now for some honest truth that's hard for me to talk about (so maybe it's good that I don't think anyone is reading)... JJ's career change is going to be a truly great thing for our family for so many reasons, but one especially selfish one. When JJ travels and works late nights, it's easy for me to binge eat. I'm lonely, I'm bored, I'm tired, it doesn't matter what it is, but it happens. Now he's home every night and weekend, and I'm doing really well with it! I still have to talk myself out of boredom eating at times, but I'm getting better. I really hope that I can work on this habit during the next year to where it's eliminated.... but I know it won't be easy.  So there's my dirty secrets - Our year in Boise is my finally get fit year, and I'm glad my husband is around so I don't binge.

Discussion questions:

What are you favorite group exercise classes?

Have you tried TRX? What do you think?

Guess who's back?

I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog, but I'm ready for a return!

My life has changed so very much, and I need a place to record my thoughts, eats, exercise, and get a little support!

I said I'd come back when I got to -100 lbs... and I was SO close, down to -92lbs, but I've slipped a bit. I'm about 15 lbs. away.... and more determined than ever to get to my ultimate goal of -110lbs.

My life is a little chaos right now, so diet and exercise will be my controllables. Thank goodness for that!