Fae

The elusive magic faerie of motivation finally sprinkled her magic dust on me and I am om track stronger than I've been in a while. For some reason I have been feeling like I am finally slimming a little despite the past weeks' little cheats. On Friday, I was feeling so good that I avoided eating anything off plan all day in preparation for my special Friday dinner date with my husband, which has become a new tradition. I had a burger with tater tots and a margarita and felt good after. Saturday, while I was getting groceries I noticed my mind was focusing on healthy foods and opportunities instead of buying things under the guise that they are for my son just so I can eat them too. I intentionally didn't buy any tortilla chips because they are just so hard for me to resist. We did end up baking some pizzas from out local cheese store for family dinner that night. I was expecting my stomach to feel bad after the amount of cheese on the pizza but it felt fine. Apparently it's only the healthy stuff like bell peppers and eggs that my stomach protests. Sunday was low-key. I ate pretty normal all day except for 3 pieces of wheat bread since I still can't find keto bread at my local grocery store. I was noticing strong cravings for sweets on Sunday. It could have been the box of Nutty Buddy in the pantry, but I think it is from the increased carb intake over the weekend. I vowed to myself that I wouldn't eat any sweets because I know I am sensitive to them and once they're in my bloodstream it's hard to stop craving more. I was successful in not caving and thankfully those cravings passed. I have been noticing that my lower body was crabby lately; stiff and sore and my ankle is getting sore and swollen again sometimes. It makes me feel prematurely old, and my natural response to that discomfort is to do less,rest so it can feel better. That just brings me back to the orthopedic surgeon telling me I have injury related arthritis of my knee and I need to lose weight to prolong having it replaced as long as I can. IE, they don't do knee replacements on obese people because we are causing our own problem. I injured my knee running when I was at my lightest weight. It all seems so ironic! At any rate, I know weak muscles make me have instability, and also cause me to use my body incorrectly which at least contributes to the generalized discomfort. So I have decided to challenge myself this week. I am going to challenge myself to do one 20 minute Peleton workout each day Monday through Friday. I might challenge myself even mote to go straight through until next Monday. That will include 2 days of strength training, 2 planned days of yoga and 3 days of cardio so my muscles have a chance to heal in between strength training. I knew it wouldn't be a walk in the park. Yesterday I did a total body strength class. It was a lot of legs, glutes and abs, then at the end we did push ups and planks. Sheesh! I was shaky after all that. My heart rate was up in the 150's which I rarely ever push myself to. I hate having shaky arms and haven't trained them in years because of it, but I know I need it now more than ever because I am starting to get elbow pain, probably (again) from weak muscles surrounding the joint. Today was cardio. There are very few classes listed as "beginner" they are almost all intermediate or advanced. I have spoken of my feelings about this, I feel like they discount people who aren't already fit. BUT, after doing my 20 minute HIIT cardio session today (which did make me use my sore legs for squat-type moves and burgers, and made me use my sore arms foe bear crawls, I figured out that I have to look out for myself and modify what I need to. For me it wasn't the intensity that I needed to change but the total disregard for my bum knee. The quick twists with knee planted amd all the fricking jumping were not making my knee happy. I am proud of myself though because in the past if I saw something was looking bad for my knee I wouldn't even attempt it, now I will at least Try it first and if my knee says no I listen and modify. So when they were doing squat-jumps I did squats to tip toes instead. I still had a great workout and by not hurting my knee it will help me decide to do more workouts. I know that I have a long history of not pushing myself hard enough. This app will definitely push my activity level and I do know I need that in order to see change, especially as I edge ever closer to menopause. I am looking forward to seeing how I feel mentally and physically at the end of my self-challenge. I hope I can make it a habit at least 5 days a week. I think it will help with my instability (terrible balance) and aches. My food has been 100% on track so far this week. I prepped everything (even if it is something easy to throw together) so that it is super convenient because laziness at meal time has led to me not making good choices. It has helped a lot this week. I found a very simple recipe to make keto "ice cream" using just heavy cream and strawberries. I added some powdered super greens and sugar-free chocolate chips and it is so tasty! that's my breakfast this week and you couldn't convince me to eat anything off plan when that's my plan! So I finally get to report an positive update on my progress. I love it when the magic faerie visits!