US Wellness

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Short and Sweet

Today was my Friday and it was another good day.  I got a lot of things accomplished.  :)  I like when I go home feeling like I've made progress.  I'm most proud of the fact that I ate pretty strictly again today and even passed up cake and fudge at work without batting an eye.  Its been a while since I've been able to do that.  I am still having a bit of dairy for the calcium.  Food log goes like this:
  • Coffee with heavy cream
  • Chai Latte -> I'm not perfect, ok :)
  • Mixed veggies, chicken + broccoli
  • Buffalo burger, cucumbers
Food may have gone well, but the bright spot in my day was the baseball tickets I received as a gift.  It's always nice when people appreciate the things you do.  I've only been to one baseball game so far this year so this will be good.  (I do wish that I was still able to walk to Wrigley, rather than drive!) 

Tomorrow I'm getting my car back.  I left it at home last weekend because it was making a crazy noise.  My dad gave me his car to drive around so if you saw me this week that's not my Mitt Romney sticker.  :P 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Great Mood :)

Inspite of a lot of stresses, I was in a fantastic mood today.  Numerous reasons, but I'm so excited that my best friend is moving back to Chicago.  Its been quite a while since I've had good "girl time" with her and I'm looking forward to doing all the stuff that girls do! ;)  Another friend got some really good news and called to share it with me.


I FINALLY saw The Dark Knight Rises last night!  I had lowered my expectations for it because I've always been so in love with the second installment, but it did not disappoint.  There was a solid story (holy twists and turns, batman!) and of course, the effects were cool.  I would gladly see it again to try to pick up on anything that I might have missed the first time!  The sleep deprivation was totally worth it.


I was introducted to the iced chai tea with coconut last night at Argo.  Not sure how, but its better than the ones from Starbucks.  Its probably a good thing I don't have access to this on the regular.  I have limited myself to 3 of these this week, instead of daily.  #progress


I left work tonight hoping that I could speed home, change, and run to Zumba.  My usual 30 minute trip took 50 so there was no way I was going to make it back over to Arlington Heights in time.  Its probably a good idea to just start keeping clothes in my car so I can just head straight over there.  There's class again tomorrow, so I'll go to that. 


My cute new Tory Burch shoes showed up in the mail today and I love them!! :)  They will definiately become a new staple. 

I ate very strictly today.  I started the day off with coffee with a bit of heavy cream and then I had some strawberries.  For lunch I had a Chipotle salad with pork.  For dinner I had a fish burger (sounds gross, was decent) and some salad.  Feels good to have had a "clean" day! :)


Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Back to Blogging

I know it has been months since I made my last post.  I've been thinking a lot lately about how fun I thought it was to share things with you guys earlier in the year and I want to start doing it again.  I also need to have some accountability for changes I'd like to make going forward. 

So why did I quit blogging before?  Honestly, a combination of a lot of things.  I got disappointed in myself with lifting and Crossfit.  Because of some changes in my work life and a lot of traveling I couldn't make it to class hardly at all.  Since the middle of May I've been to CF 5 or 6 times.  When I did go to those classes, my performance had decreased and that was difficult on me mentally, even though its the logical thing.  In June, Mark and I decided that to save some money we would not renew our lease and we would move out to the 'burbs for a while until we figured out what we wanted to do.  It was probably the best decision for us, but not being in the city is depressing to me.  The overall point here is that I could have continued to post, but I thought it best to stop when I felt like all of the things I had to say were negative.  Who wants to read that all that time?

Today is July 24th, which is hard to believe.  I've had several weeks of haitus from pushing myself in the gym regularly.  I've been off and on with my paleo diet.  Its time to make some changes.  I am not thrilled with the CF gyms out in the 'burbs.  One of them wants you to show up, do your skill work on your own (unsupervised) and then partake in a quick wod.  It just doesn't seem right that someone isn't looking at my technique.  Also, the first night I tried them out the trainer tried to change my snatch technique a ton and I know that if there's ONE LIFT that I rock at....its snatch.  I'm not changing.  Sorry dude.    I haven't made it over to Crossfit Rise yet to work out.  It's on my to-do list.  Even though its been so hot, I've forced myself to run at night to do some activity.  To my surprise running doesn't seem nearly as horrible as it used to.  Surely because I have more endurance, I'm stronger, and I'm 15 lbs lighter than I've been in a while.  I also returned to Zumba last night, which didn't make me sweat.  I used to leave class panting and exhausted, but I felt like I barely worked last night.  Perhaps its the routines she was teaching or my own personal changes.  Even though it wasn't that taxing it was still fun and I'll probably keep doing it while we're out in the 'burbs. 

I haven't weighed myself in a few weeks, but the fit of my clothes hasn't changed.  I dropped to about 137 lbs in early June - loss of muscle probably.  My jeans that I had just gotten in the spring were falling off of me. If I had to guess I'd say I'm about 142 right now.  Enough background....get to the new plan, right?  Ideally, I will return to CF and strict paleo.  The combo of those 2 things seems to be the best thing for my body.  I would love to supplement that with Zumba or yoga for the cardio and the stretching. 

In the past couple of weeks I've gotten to do a lot of things for myself to help with stress.  I got a really awesome massage at Asha in Schaumburg and I got a pedicure at this place I LOVE in Rolling Meadows.  (Honestly, if you live by LeBleu and you don't go there.....your loss.  They will spend quality time on you and its cheap!)  I also splurged and got a haircut at Asha, too.  I've gotten some skinny clothes and thrown away or donated my "fat" clothes.  I ordered myself a really cute pair of Tory Burch flats and I'll probably wrap up this Month of Erica with a new purse. :)  [Stay tuned...I have my eye on a few different ones.]

Goals for the Month of August
1. Exercise (in some way) at least 4 days per week.  I am not sure if CF is in my August future, but running, Zumba, or yoga should be. 
2.  Quit drinking Starbucks iced chai tea lattes with whole milk all the damn time otherwise I will have to enroll in an addictions program
3.  Blog daily
4.  Weigh in at the end of the month at no more than 140 lbs

I hope everyone wants to follow this again and leave me comments. I always geeked out on looking at the number of hits I had every day.  :)  #lovegraphs