Picking up speed….

I forget how exhilarating it feels once you start sticking to a healthy program.  While trying to get motivated for this change in my life from April 21 – May 21, I discovered that I lost 8 pounds!  That’s with about 25% effort!  It has me geeked for month 2 and I am giving it 100%!

So I have been sticking to a diet consistent with the 1330 calories a day that http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ recommends and I gave myself some freedom and didn’t track over the holiday weekend.  This doesn’t mean I went on a bingefest for the weekend, I just didn’t want to look up and post every thing I ate/drank for the holiday weekend.  I still tried to make smart choices and allowed a few treats.  I was warned by a well meaning friend that 1330 calories was too low for someone burning 500+ calories a day at the gym.  So I posted my stats to Instagram and received advice from none other than the amazing Jillian Michaels herself.

So basically I am not eating up to 1650 calories every day, but on the days I hit the gym, I am not beating myself up if I go over 1330.  If I seem to hit a plateau, I will revisit it.  I am still flabbergasted that someone who gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to train and coach people took time out from her busy day to give me some advice.  She is A-Ok in my book!

I am also enjoying playing with healthier foods and cooking around the calories I have left every day for dinner.  Whole Foods has become a more regular stop for me after the gym and I have found a few things there that I love.  Their spicy Italian chicken sausage is from free range, hormone and anti-biotic free chicken, it’s delish and it’s only 140 calories a link!!  Sauteed that up with a chopped up organic yellow bell pepper, a quarter of a sweet vidalia onion, 1 jalapeno pepper and a serving of Cento tomato sauce and tossed in 1 serving of organic basmati brown rice!  Yummy and satisfying dinner that filled an entire dinner plate and was 394 calories!!  Left some room for the delicious dairy free cherry nirvana by Purely Decadent that I picked up at Whole Foods.  My other Whole Foods favorite (thanks Mom!) is The Republic of Tea’s Hibiscus Pineapple Lychee Tea.  I am not a tea drinker and this stuff is yum-o!

I am not getting in as many runs as I really need to for my marathon training, so that needs work.  I am NOT a morning person, so successfully waking up with the sun to squeeze in a morning run has been a challenge.  I love my spinning classes (now that I’ve narrowed down who the lousy instructors are at LA Fitness) and I don’t want to give them up since I am burning above 500 calories in each 1 hour class AND it’s one of those cardio exercises that pushes your body to burn even more calories after you are done.  So I am trying to get to bed earlier and sleeping with the blinds and curtains open (don’t even think about it pervs, I sleep in pajamas!) so I can rise with the sun.

I think the thing that I feel best about is feeling the bloating going down and my pants aren’t tight anymore.  I look forward to pulling some of my smaller sizes out of the closet in the near future. 

It’s not always easy….  you won’t ALWAYS want to work out…  You will crave ice cream, pizza and an adult beverage from time to time.  But when I begin to lose focus I just look at the screen of my iPhone…