Lunch: grabbed some healthy snacks at the health food store:
carrots and broccoli with hummus, cherry tomatoes, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple.
Dinner: pasta with chicken or shrimp

Man, I tried to pop my pinky finger joint earlier today and now it hurts when I bend it. Ughh....maybe it will go away.

Pinky finger joint has healed! I have never broken a bone in my body thank goodness....

Monday, Monday, Monday....

breakfast: kashi cereal with blueberries, fat free milk, cup of pomegranette juice.

lunch: will be provided by my work today...probably a sandwich.

snack: apple

dinner: grilled asparagus, grilled okra, leftover pasta (noodles, shrimp, peas, peppers).

Haven't loggeed on here in about 20 days. ugh. been eating unhealthy and not just because of halloween. i know that working out will really benefit me, its just so hard trying to stick with it. i keep blaming it on too much school work, which is true most days out of the week but there are a couple of days i could be working out. dang it!

breakfast: kashi cereal with ff milk
snack: kashi granola bar
lunch: ww + wg sandwich, spinach lettuce, cheese, turkey

plan:
snack: apple/grapes
dinner: taco salad (cow meat/taco seasoning/lettuce/sour cream/salsa/cheese/tortilla chips)

Well, I am done with undergrad!!! I graduate on Saturday morning and will celebrate in the evening. I just started working out again yesterday and today. Taking it very slow. Will stick to only cardio for now. For those who may read my journal, my exercises will seem really pathetic which you are right, they are because i have been so freaking out of shape its unreal! But Im on my journey back to being in shape and eating healthy. One step at a time.

Sunday: walked swiftly 5 miles.
By the way i went to a new park near my house and it was saying (online) how there is a hike and bike trail and all this other stuff. Well, i was only interested in the hike and bike trail. WTF?!! Thats quite the most retarded small trail i have ever seen! maybe its not finished yet, but it said it was done in summer 2008!! oh well, new park next weekend.

Monday: walked swiftly 2 miles. My freaking hips and feet are sore!! yes, i sit on my bum 45 hours a week!! so im thinking i may start jogging a tiny bit later in the week, but may put it off until next week so i can get used to the exercise and not injure myself.

Breakfast: don't try this at home: oatmeal with fresh blueberries in it. sick! i thought i had a genius idea, but its so gross with bb's. will stick to my plain oatmeal with a bit of honey and fat free milk. glass of pomegranette juice.

snack: peanut butter granola bar

lunch: cup of instant soup, cheap meal, packed with sodium, i know, not the heathliest. im super broke after christmas shopping!!

i ate grilled chicken with red and yellow bell peppers and asparagus and beans last night....mmmm!

tonight i will have 1/2 filet mignon, corn on the cob, and some veggies.

A few suggestions come to mind... depending how anal retentive you are, you might want to time your walks so you could have something you could actually have a notion of progress/regress about. That is, walking 5 miles in an hour is better than 5 miles in 75 minutes.

Nutrition-wise - drop the promegranate juice in favor of a real piece of fruit. Less calories and more nutrients that way. Also, if you've not tried steel cut oats, that might be an option - they take longer to digest than the steamed and rolled old-fashion oats, so will keep you fuller longer.

You're super broke and are having filet mignon? (Even if it's half of one?)

Keep up the good work.

Ha ha...well we had purchased the filet mignon a few weeks ago and froze them for another time. But last weekend I went Christmas shopping and will be broke until Monday. Funny...

Hhhmmm...about the oats, I am unsure as to the exact type of oats, i bought the large quaker oats cannister, the quick 1 minute kind because I dont have time to cook a feast in the morning. but its not instant so thats good. i will keep an eye out for steel cut, however, i like the kind where i can cook it in the microwave and it be done in 75 seconds. yea, i should eat some fruit instead of juice. like eat some messy fruit at home in the morning and bring something less messy like apples cut up for at work.

This morning I took a rest day to allow my legs and feet and hips to rest. will work out wed-fri, maybe saturday too. i have a pedometer i wear to see how far i have walked, i have a stop watch so i will time myself, my treadmill was given to me but the digital part (miles/calories/etc) doesnt work so i just make do with what i have. i dont mind not knowing the calories, i just like to know the distance. good idea Stingo to track my time, thanks!

Last night dinner: grilled chicken with yellow & red bell peppers, asparagus grilled, beans. water, handful of reeses pieces.

Breakfast: 1/4 cup oatmeal with 1/2 cup fat free milk, approx 1 tbsp honey, 1 glass pomegranette juice. 1 cup of green tea.

Lunch: (planned) cup of soup

Snack: (planned) peanut butter granola bar

Dinner: (planned) tonight if its not too windy will have the 1/2 filet mignon with steamed veggies and beans.

What are your goals?

And (to keep with the filet mignon theme) what does the wind have to do with having filet mignon? (A grill?)

Yes, sorry, we have an awesome BBQ pit outside and I live in an area where its windy a lot; however, the past few days and even today its super windy so my sister was having a hard time keeping the coals lit. We ended up broiling it inside last night and boiled some corn. I live in Texas and we actually had white roof tops this morning!! It somewhat snowed last night, of course nothing stayed on the ground, but for Texas thats crazy!!

Goals: To compete in a 5K race on 02/21/09. Somewhat of a short-term goal for me. Long-term is to keep up with the exercising and make it a part of my daily schedule, rather than thinking of it has an annoying task and blowing it off. Since I am just getting back into working out, this morning and the past few mornings I find it hard to push myself too hard and my chest/back of throat hurts as if I am getting a lot of cold air in my lungs. Trust me, its not anything to where I need to see a doctor, I just need to work my way up to strengthen everything in my body and my endurance. So to break down my goals to reach that 5K race, I found some information online for "preparing for a 5k". Here it is:

Wk 1: alternate 60 sec jog & 90 sec walk = 20 min
Wk 2: alternate 90 sec jog & 2 min walk = 20 min
Wk 3: jog 90 sec, walk 90 sec, jog 3 min, walk 3 min X 2
Wk 4: jog 3 min, walk 90 sec, jog 5 min, walk 2.5 min X 2
Wk 5: jog 5 min, walk 3 min X 3
Wk 6: jog 5 min, walk 3 min, jog 8 min, walk 3 min, jog 5 min
Wk 7: jog 25 min
Wk 8: jog 28 min
Wk 9: jog 30 min

**So this week is my chance to get myself used to working out (only cardio for now), then next week I will start the above schedule and try my best to keep up with the increases each week! I may have gotten this training schedule from coolrunnings website, cannot remember.

I have only 1 set of 5 lb. dumbbells at home. So maybe in a week or two I will start getting into strength training. I used to do it all the time and I def want to get back into it. I am just trying to ease my way back into the working out scene and not injure myself....also maybe its just trying to focus on one thing (like cardio) at first, then try to implement strength training a little later. ?? Unsure, but that's my plan anyway.

Thanks Stingo for your assistance!

I should weigh myself tomorrow morning, but I weigh about 130 and I am 5'6", 26 yrs old. Never been overweight, thankfully I have those genes, but I def don't want to live an unactive lifestyle and I always feel tired and lazy when I eat like crap and don't work out. So I have lots of reasons to make this change in my life.

Cardio of choice: treadmill/local park for running/jogging. I don't currently have a gym membership because I have a treadmill at home, an exercise ball, ankle weights, jump rope, and those 5 pounders. I love working out in the a.m. before work rather than after work so its easy working out at home.

Last night: 1/2 broiled filet mignon, corn on cob, 2 bites of spinach (my sis bought a gross kind of premade/frozen spinach....i love spinach but this kind was nasty). water. 1 handful of reeses pieces, 2 dark chocolate pieces.

Breakfast: oatmeal with ff milk, tsp honey. glass of pomegranette juice.

Snack: (planned) pb granola bar

Lunch: maybe chili or soup

Dinner: (unsure)

Work out for this morning (forgot to post):

5 min warm-up on treadmill with 5 min cool down. I walked approx 30 min excluding the warm-up & cool down with a total of 2 miles.

If you want to strengthen your entire body, I'd suggest starting some kind of resistance training, whether it's body weight, or weights (like a jug of water etc) that you make up yourself. That way you'll avoid imbalances between your upper and lower body.

Last night for dinner: premade/frozen lasagna. 1 small glass of red wine, although it tasted more like a chardonnay. 2 pieces of dark chocolate.

put up christmas lights in the freaking cold but its all done now.

morning work out: 2 miles in 40 minutes (including warm up and cool down). walking fast and i jogged for a minute or so. (didnt time it).

Breakfast: oatmeal with ff milk and tsp of honey. glass of pomegranette juice.

lunch: cup of soup

snack: 3 cookies and 3 bites of cheese. work had a holiday treat.

dinner: probably left over lasagna. cleaning the house tonight.

crap-a-zoid! I forgot to post my weight. I got on the scale this morning so I could get a more actual weight as I simply posted my approximate a day or so ago. I weigh 127.6 supposedly. I am not sure that I trust that scale. But, I will get weighed by the doctor scale tomorrow morning so I will try to compare. i will work out tomorrow morning and drink water and eat breakfast, but i was thinking i could go straight home after the appointment and weigh myself to try to compare my scale to theirs with the same amount of food/water in my system.

Dinner last night: left over lasagna and whole grain toast, 2 glasses red wine, dark chocolate.

Work out: 2 miles walking x 30 min excluding warmp up and cool down. 1 minutes jogging.

brkft: 2 slices whole grain toast with reduced fat crunchy pb and a little honey. 1 glass pomegranette juice. approx 10 blueberries.

lunch: unplanned, grandparents are in town for my graduation so we will go out to eat.

dinner: at my moms house.

2 chalupas for lunch on Friday, spinach and beef lasagna on Friday night with some wine and 1 beer.

saturday morning: toast with pb, pomegranette juice. (finally the pomegranette juice is gone so i will stop buying it).

sat lunch: calamari, grilled fish.

sat dinner: 2 slices pizza with beer.

sat night: too much alcohol for graduation celebration.

sunday: breakfast at 3pm (migas, coffee, queso and chips)

sunday dinner: still hung over, ate fried chicken tenders with gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy, few bites of mac 'n cheese.

monday: finally feeling better. bkft: 1/2 blueberry bagel with cream cheese.
lunch: soup

snack: pb granola bar

dinner: not sure. going grocery shopping after work.

will work out tomorrow morning since i needed the sleep last night and i didnt wake up this morning to work out.
and i think my scale at home is only 1 pound less than my doctors office. not bad.

So where's the strength training?