In the Holiday Flow

Greetings, Kittens!

Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Yule, Merry Christmas and a Joyous Kwanzaa to all! I’m happy to say, the holidays haven’t added to the scale. Yay! They haven’t taken the number down either, but considering the abundant treats in every direction, I take it as a win.

I’ve spent the last month healing, with only a setback or two. I believe whatever happened, the inflammation is entirely gone and all the joints and muscles are doing well. I’m definitely grateful.

The setbacks have meant no riding, but hooping has worked well. As long as I pay very close attention to my knee, there have been no issues. I’m hoping the increase in my supplements will lubricate the joint further and I’ll be riding for the new year. I still have my 1000 mile goal to reach, I also have a goal of riding 260-300 of the 366 days in 2012. That’s five to six days a week every week, which is very reasonable. It means before I travel, if I think I won’t have access to a bike, I’ll have to ride daily the four to eight weeks before, depending on how long I’ll be gone. But that’s reasonable as well, since it’s right in the other room.

I’ve been hyper aware of my eating this month, which is awesome. My food journal had started collecting dust and now it’s back on duty. I haven’t sweated the numbers, rather simply wanting to get them down and keep them from being outrageous. Check and check. So I’m all ready to wed that awareness to increased cardio and strength training, and see results astound and amaze.

While the scale has remained steady, I’ve lost noticeable inches the last month and that’s another yay. Yay! I think that my measurements in February will be in more impressive after the increase in sustained cardio and the increase in walking for a full month. Speaking of which *Major Fitness Squee* I get my new pedometer this afternoon, I’m so excited!

I’ve missed fitness walking so much more than I could have imagined. There’s such a longing to have it back regularly, that I’ll happily alter my biking goal if my knee only lets me do one or the other. Between them, I’d much rather get in all my steps and get back the way my body and mind felt when 15-20k a day was the norm. Today I can start that. *Second Fitness Squee*

I’m looking forward to the yearly fitness craze to hit us in January. I have a list of things to pick up when the sales start. I need new handweights and resistance bands, some workout shorts and new shoes. I’m also hoping for a few Wii sports games at a reasonable price. Can’t wait!

What will you all be replacing and stocking up on during the January sales?

Happy New Year!

~X                 

Onward and Downward?

Well, as we gear up for the Holidays, I know many of you are staying really focused on your weight loss efforts. I am trying to get refocused as my foot continues to heal. I have another few weeks (about 2.5) until I go back to the doctor and hopefully get told I can walk again. In the mean time I am doing range of motion stuff with the boot off and trying to do some exercises to strengthen my legs without putting weight on my foot. LOL! That gets easier after next week because I start a new job where they have a gym. Yay! I plan on trying to use the machines and getting some muscle tone built up until I can really bust in to some cardio work. We shall see. 

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday and sticking to what ever plan of attack you have devised for surviving. Me, I'm just gonna try and control the impulse to eat EVERYTHING. We'll see how that goes. Merry Christmas all! 

It's that time of the Year.

No... not the holidays. The time of the year when every begins to obsess about their diet and losing weight. Note this also occurs immediately before the beginning of swimsuit season. And if you are from down under, these times actually coincide.

I saw a post on Facebook the other day that really resonated with me. It said, "It's not what you eat between Thanksgiving and Christmas that counts, it's what you eat between Christmas and Thanksgiving."

I ate all my favorites on Thanksgiving. I plan on eating all of my favorites at Christmas, too. What I'm not doing is the mindless grazing at parties. There were no late-night leftovers from Thanksgiving. (We ate at my mother's and didn't take anything home with us.)

Healthy eating isn't about deprivation, it is about substitution. Make better choices, eat smaller portions of those can't-live-without-them favorites. I'm substituting royal icing for buttercream on my cookies this year. That is about 100 calorie per cookie savings. What are you doing this year to have your cake and eat it too?