It totally cracks me up looking for hamster pictures for this series! If you have a hamster and want to share a picture of your pet, please send them to me!
So this is my 5th week hitting the gym... I'm slowly increasing my activity from 30 minutes to 45-60 minutes of cardio 3-4x a week. I am trying to work in my strength training routine at least twice a week. I'm beginning to challenge myself a little bit more each time I go to the gym with cardio. I jogged for the first time on the treadmill yesterday. It was only in one minute increments, but i did it. It's slow... but I know we'll get there.
My frustrations this week lie not in the gym routine... but in my eating. It is SO easy to revert to mindless eating. I've realized it's literally going to take months to make a "permanent" change in my eating habits. A few moments of weakness can can really hurt the scales at the end of the week. My "trigger" foods are chips and chocolate, and just eating too much of them... usually mindlessly.
For instance on Tuesday night I got home after the gym, I was starving and over the weekend on a trip I bought a bag of gluten free pretzels. (A purchase don't make often, because I know the consequences!) While standing in the kitchen chatting with hubs, having our daily catch up, I munched 2-3 servings of pretzels without even thinking about it. Then after that I munched on some lunch meat that I was preparing for a salad. Then I munched on a few gluten free cookies (agreeing to review gluten free foods for companies is an evil thing to do!) When I added up my calories after dinner, my mouth hit the floor. I had done so well during the day... it wasn't until I was famished after the gym that I just munched, munched, munched mindlessly and added an additional 900+ calories to my day's total. That's over half of my daily calorie allotment. Which of course completely blew up my total calories for the day. I was so utterly frustrated with myself. I couldn't believe I had let my evening snacking/mindless eating get so out of control in ONE afternoon.
I'm going to work hard this month to reach my calorie & protein goals. I really want to get under the 200 lb. mark by April. I'd love to knock the socks off of my Nurse Practicer for my May appointment. That would be an awesome reward at the end of the month.
I think what makes this journey different than every other weight loss journey I've had in the past is that I'm NOT going to give up. I'm paying too much at the gym to give up! lol Seriously though, I know this is going to be hard... it is hard. I know it may take a year or more to reach my goal... but I WILL get there.
It may be a long struggle to conquer my bad eating habits, but I'm determined to make it a lifestyle. And I lived an unhealthy lifestyle for most of my adult years... so it won't change overnight... it won't change in a week... it won't change magically in a month... there will be a lot of steps backward on the journey forward. But I'll get there.
Don't give up. Eat more carrots. Be a Gym Hamster.
