I can't believe it's already almost noon. I stayed up way too late last night watching Downton Abbey on Netflix, and daylight savings time just compounded the problem! Here's a few pictures of what I've been up to the last few days!
On Thursday night, Ben's dad was in town, so his sister made a really nice dinner and we played a couple games of Carcassonne. It was a lot of fun! Ben and I had never played before but we each won one game- gotta love beginner's luck!
I dragged my mom with me to Kohl's on Friday, with the intention of buying a new comforter for my bed...but I ended up thinking better of it. I only bought a couple of pairs of workout pants and a pizza pan. I've gotta save up some more money if I want to go on vacation again this winter!
Saturday night has
traditionally been date night for Ben and I, but neither of us is very
good at thinking of anything exciting to do! Usually we just end up
going out to eat and maybe renting a movie. Instead, we decided to take
Charlie to Petsmart in Ankeny. He's been stir crazy around the house
lately, and he's never been there before. He did pretty well
overall...although he did end up peeing a bit on the floor. They have
cleaning supplies at the ends of some of the aisles, though, so no big
deal. We got Milo a little kitty cave, and Charlie got a couple of
stuffed toys and a new collar. Charlie was zonked out for the rest of
the night- it must have been pretty overstimulating for him.
Time to check in for February. This month I only worked out 18/30 days (including Mar 1-2), so not a fantastic effort. I also managed to regain 2 of the lbs l lost last month. I don't want to spend time obsessing about it, though. This week was Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and I think it's a good exercise to spend a little time thinking about all that we can do/have done rather than imperfections we still want to fix. I'm at a fairly healthy weight, all of my body parts are operational, and I have become much stronger over the past year thanks to the exercise I've been doing. I have an awesome relationship with my family and boyfriend, plus my two pets at home. I'm fortunate enough to be continuing my education (paid for by my job no less!), and I'm doing pretty well in my classes. Several of days I didn't exercise were because I was caught up in my research at work. I love my job! I'm grateful to have access to food to allow me to gain those two lbs, considering the number of people that are extremely malnourished worldwide.
That being said, I am going to try something new this month. I HATE food journaling. It's such a pain in the butt! I think part of the reason I don't like it, though, is because it forces me to realize how many calories that treat I want has. I don't usually have time to preplan my meals or obsess over calorie counts, but I'm going to log food at least 5 days of the week. I've logged a few days this past week, and although I haven't always made good choices, it does make me cringe to see the calories some of my food has. Sometimes the thought of having to log it makes me change my mind! The MyFitnessPal app on my phone is fantastic for food journaling.
I also just downloaded an app called GymPact. Starting Monday, I will be paying $5 per workout out of my required 5 days per week that I don't do. However, if I do workout 5 days per week, I get a small amount of money, financed by the people who didn't make their "pact". It's a cool idea! All you have to do is check-in via GPS at your gym and workout for 30 min or more.
You also have the option to wear the phone in an armband and have it sense movement rather than using GPS if you want to go jogging, etc. It will definitely help me stay motivated to go to the gym- I don't have money to waste!
One last tool I'll mention. It's an app called Paprika that is AWESOME to organize recipes. It has a built in browser that is able to download recipes straight from websites- no writing anything down! Then you can put those recipes into a meal plan for the week and add ingredients to a shopping list that is organized by section of the grocery store. It's great! My problem is I plan to cook something and then forget to defrost meat or whatever....but I'm working on that. : P
