Whew! It’s been a while. My life has been pretty crazy and full of unexpected and planned events since the end of last year, which put my health and fitness on the back burner. This should NEVER happen and I’m committed to doing my best to always put my well being first. How else can we throw ourselves into the unexpected and persevere, if our bodies, minds, and souls are not fit?

Instead of dwelling on what I didn’t do, I’ll get right to the point. Today I finished my first full week of exercising and eating reasonably well. In fact, I accepted Zuzana’s from BodyRock.TV 30 Day Challenge, where we are not allowed to eat sugar. We are still allowed to get sweets the natural way, like fruit, just no added sugar. At first, I wasn’t interested, since I didn’t think I ate that many sweets, but then I realized that I put sugar in my coffee, in my oatmeal, I’ve been having chocolate a little too often and thought “Hey, let’s see if I can do this.” Well, I’m happy to report it’s been 7 days and I’ve been drinking my coffee without sugar! I think I’m getting used to it and I like it. Sugar is the only thing that our bodies never need, since it turns carbs into sugar for energy and as we all know, sugar contributes to weight gain.

I am also taking a Health class and learning more and more about nutrition. Additionally, I acquired this really fun fitness helper, called FitBit that I can’t wait to talk about. I am looking forward to sharing all this with you and will do my best to keep my promise to myself to continue writing my blog as I resume my journey through health and fitness.

Fitness

I decided to follow Zuzana’s schedule, which is: 2 days of work, followed by 1 day of rest. This amounts to 5 days of intense workouts and plenty of time to rest and recover. I did my workouts in the morning on an empty stomach (but had breakfast right after) and felt really good during the day. Monday and Tuesday were brutal… It was my first time after a 2 month absence and I couldn’t even get through the full routine. I was dizzy and nauseous, so it was pretty bad.

Thursday I did one of her older routines, which I can’t find. It was a time challenge and in 15 minutes I had to do as many rounds of: 20 Prisoner Squats and 5 Push ups as possible, but I was only able to do 6 and half.

Friday, I did the Booty Lift Workout , which was super tough. and I completed mine in 26 minutes and 20 seconds.

I was really sore and looked very forward to Saturday as Active Rest Day, even though it wasn’t so active. I was so exhausted that I slept a lot and lounged around with Lenny. Then went to see Shutter Island, which was great!

Today, I did the Round Booty Workout, which made me want to give up at least 10 times. It was really intense and took me 33 minutes and 10 seconds to complete. Just to put in perspective, it took Zuzana about 18 minutes. I’ve got long ways to go! I’m hoping to do the routines from this week in a month or two, to see if my stamina improves. I certainly anticipate that. Overall, it felt great to start working out again, I could feel my body itching for an ass whoopin and I’m really trying to stay on target with my goals.

Diet

My diet has certainly slipped in those two months, but I’m coming back. For a time, I stopped bringing food to work, but I’ve changed that in the last few weeks. As before, I stock myself with food at work so I don’t eat out. I have Hard Boiled Eggs (free range), Oatmeal, Natural Peanut Butter, Canned Beans, Raw Vegetables (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Avocado, Red Onion), Fruit (Bananas, Blueberries, Honey Dew, Grapes), WW Pita, Grape Seed Oil (my new favorite), and Balsamic Vinegar. If I cook good stuff (tonight I made Turkey Meat Balls, WW Cous-Cous, sauteed Mushrooms and Onions, and Sauteed Kale with Red Onions in Balsamic Vinegar), I’ll bring a serving or two to work.