Let's Shape Up!

I started doing Zumba again today in the mornings. I usually do my six mile routine in the mornings, however since school is not back in session, after I drop the kids off, the sun is too hot to go out, and then my husband found out he has high cholesterol and I told him he needs to start working out with me, so I decided to walk in the evenings with my husband when he gets home from work. Yesterday he felt tired and didn’t want to walk and that kind of broke my vibes to work out, and it upset me a bit. So, I decided to do something in doors in the mornings and then also workout with him in the evenings, which will be a plus for me either way.

I still love Zumba, just 46 minutes of fun and a good sweat. I am also going to start my 10 Minute trainer routine, I was to start it today, but it slipped my mind, so hopefully tomorrow I will do it. I won’t do it when I do Zumba, maybe in the afternoon. I also want to try going up and down the stairs more often, because for someone who can jog 5 miles straight, going up the stairs at any great speed, knocks the wind out of me.

Today was a refreshing workout, and I mean that literally. About quarter way through my workout the heavens opened up and down came the rain. Now, I could either finish the routine, or turn back, which meant I would get soaked either way so I decided to finish my full 6 miles. I was soaked from head to toe, but the silver lining behind the dark cloud was that with such a downpour this meant it was cool as opposed to the high humidity that’s normally around at that time of my workout. The lack of heat meant I had more stamina so I was able to jog 5 miles straight! YES guys I did!! WHOOT!!! WHOOT!!!. It felt awesome. Five whole miles of straight jogging felt great. I am hoping I can do it again, when it’s not so cool out.

I am hoping to go to the gym tomorrow for weight day, but not sure, my workout buddy is still sick and seems to be getting worse. We will see. If gym doesn’t work out, then I will go jogging and see if I can do the 5 miles again.

I didn’t go to the gym yesterday to do my weight training. My gym buddy wasn’t well and since it’s her membership I couldn’t make undertake my regular routine. We were planning on going in the evening, but she wasn’t able to go until later in the night so I went and did cardio in the evening around 6pm. I didn’t do my usual 6 miles routine, I only did 4 miles. I power walked 2 and then jogged the other 2. Tomorrow is still going to be a cardio day; but the 6 mile routine and hopefully back to the gym again on Wednesday.

I couldn’t afford to not workout this morning because I ate a lot over the weekend. Yep. I sure did. Let me give you a breakdown, my husband decided he wanted to do some jerk chicken and festival (traditional Jamaican dish), and I ate a lot of that, because I love me some jerk chicken! And oh my goodness I love festival!! Anyhow, to top it off I had 3 Corona 2 glasses of Moscato and cake with ice cream on top and I tried the Twix ice cream bars for the first time along with some Chester’s hot fries, and that was all Saturday. Sunday I tried to balance it all out, I think I did pretty well. I had the last of the jerk chicken and wholegrain bread, sad to say no festival because they were all done for breakfast with a slice of avocado, fish and rice and peas for dinner and then one more Corona and some more Moscato and a wine from the Riesling region, which I did not like at all.

My scale finally went below 153, it only said 152.8, not much but enough to make me very happy this morning and even more pumped to work out today, and drink loads of water, to ensure that the 0.2 pounds doesn’t come back.

Losing weight is a struggle for a lot of people. Maintaining the lost weight is a struggle for all. The slower the weight lost, the longer it takes to gain the weight back. A lot of diets promote no carbs, fruits only or salads; while all these will give you weight loss, they give you quick weight loss and what you find is that once you are not dieting, you regain a lot of the weight you had previously lost.

My best advice is to take it slowly, one day at a time. Eat no less than 1200 calories per day, and this 1200 minimum isn’t for everyone, some people need to eat no less than 1400 and so on. Initially when I started on my weight loss journey, I stuck to a 1200 calories diet. After I lost the first few pounds, I hit a plateau. I knew then it was time to “shake up” my routine. I then increased my calories to 1400 per day.

I try to eat a minimum of 4 fruits per day. I drink my protein shake after every workout. I also eat every 2-3 hours. That is vital because eating often helps the metabolism work faster and prevents it from getting lazy which results in your body storing the food as fat. I also drink a lot of water. On Sundays, which is my rest day I drink 64 ounce of water. Monday thru Saturday, I drink a minimum of 96 ounces of water, maximum of 128 ounces.

I need to try and increase my vegetable intake. I mainly eat vegetables with dinner, but I need to add it to my lunch as well, to increase my vegetable requirements.

Let’s do this the healthy way.