Tag Archives: monthly goals

April goals

April Fool’s!  Nature gave us an April Fool today.  I woke up expecting a lot of snow, but it had just started, so I drank some protein and then went to the gym. Apparently others had the same idea because it was quite crowded (for my gym) today!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Cable Squat to Row 3 sets of 12 at 50# Full Body
Close Grip Lat Pull Down 3 sets of 15 at 40# Back
Decline Sit ups 3 sets of 10 Core
Pushups 3 sets 10 Chest
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 12 at 140# Calves
Lower Back Extension 3 sets of 15 at 80# Low back
Pliet Squat 3 sets of 12 with 35# DB Lower Body
Front Raise 3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs, (16# total) Shoulders

The big snowstorm turned out to be nothing. There was a tiny coating on the grass and then it all turned to rain. I cannot express how glad I am to have it be rain and not snow!

Now on to breakfast!  Friday is my grain breakfast day now.  I soaked some steel cut oats last night and cooked them with cinnamon, pumpkin, and egg whites.

Topped with the ever-present coconut butter.  One of these days I am just going to sit there with the jar and spoon and have at it.

Lunch time!  I made tuna salad and used some protein waffles as bread.  This works out nicely, I have to say.

Kind of looks like a big jack-o-lantern face.

On to the goals for the month! Yesterday recapped March.  These are the things I am going to concentrate on for April.

1.  I am going to shoot for some weight loss. I see a lot of people either recommitting or taking that final push and it sort of has rubbed off on me to want to go a bit further.  I actually am just doing this through food and exercise and I am not going to weigh myself.  I just want to see where my body goes by feel.  It may not go anywhere, who knows.

2. I am going to reduce as much wheat in my diet as possible (or as much as I am willing to).  I think I might have some sensitivity to gluten or grains, which seemed to become more apparent to me when I would do the grain-free days I have been doing.  I am going to eat 8 bagels this month (Wed and Sun), but see if I can go wheat free on all other days.  Except for cupcakes :mrgreen:

3. I am really going out of my box this month with this one.  In looking at my weakest links for a healthy life, my weak links are sleep and meditation. I want to try a bit of meditation this month. I am only going to shoot for a couple days a week just to try it out. I have not been too successful in the past with this.

4.  I am going to work my way through recipes from Nourishing Traditions book by Sally Fallon. Obviously not all of them, because it is just a month LOL!

5.  More biking. And dammit – outside this month! I did 150 miles in March, so I will be increasing that amount.  As soon as overnight lows are above freezing, it’s on!

6. Okay – one more.  I am going to clean up the blog some.  Especially the recipe section and I will put a page up with links to all my lifting videos, and maybe a little store page with AF links in them (gotta pay for hosting and all that).

We shall see what comes of these goals.  All that talk of goals made me want a snack!  2% milk latte with some chocolate crisps.

I am making this box last forever, although there are only 3 crisps left.

Pixie is ready for her piano debut as well.

What are you looking at?

She likes the piano when the lid is closed (and John isn’t playing it).  I think it is because it is high up and she can be queen and survey us peons.

Work done for the week and dinner time!  I can really work any days I want, but there is not always much work on weekends, so it is easier just to plan on M-F.  I still have that odd feeling of thinking of Fridays only being half days, but they really haven’t been in quite some time.

I cooked up a little chicken with laughing cow and a new bottle of hot sauce opened!

I marked the last bottle and I opened it November 30th, so it took me 4 months to go through a big bottle.  John doesn’t use hot sauce.  Not that I am calling him a wimp or anything…

Snack time will be the pumpkin/cream/nut mixture tonight.

I’m getting in a rut!  It’s a tasty rut, though.  Lots of work on the half bath/laundry room this weekend.  I’ll be back with progress pictures on Sunday!

Have a super weekend!

March Round Up

Wow.  The last day of March!  This month sure did go by fast.  A lot of stuff happened this month, that is for sure.  But let’s start with breakfast, shall we?

I decided to eat before exercise this morning because I just wasn’t feeling it.  So, I put on the coffee and made up protein waffles (the oatmeal version).

I am totally addicted to this combo of the blueberry sauce and coconut butter.  I think I could just eat that as dessert all by itself.

I had to laugh this morning at John.  He was reading my blog post from yesterday and said I was very sneaky with the camera because he hadn’t noticed me taking a self-portrait.  I am not sure if it is because he is really oblivious to my picture taking or just to me in general :mrgreen:   Good thing I love him.

Work had a server issue for a little while this morning, so I decided to take advantage and ride the trainer.  Funny how I was not wanting to exercise when I got up and not all that thrilled with the prospect, but once I got on  – I ended up going for 12 miles instead of the planned 8.  I was feeling really good! Maybe is was my carb fest from yesterday or just a full night of sleep for a change.

Lunch time – I made a quick bowl of plain greek yogurt with berries, 1 tsp of honey, and 2 tbsp of flax seeds.  this is a yummy combo.

Now that I have lunch out of the way, it is time for the monthly assessment.

Goals and how I did:

1.  Start ramping up the bike riding on the trainer in preparation for outdoor rides (with cupcakes!).  This means longer ride times.  I bet we will even get in a long outdoor ride this month!  Epic fail on an outdoor ride!  Stupid nature.  I did bike 150 total miles on the trainer in March, which is 33 more total miles than February.

2.  Keep working with some sugar/grain free days.  Really liking eating the fat.  I am not focusing on any weight loss this month.  I will be increasing carbs to keep up with the increase in biking miles. I ate more this month and maintained my weight.  I struggled with nighttime snacking the last few days, though.   I also did a fair number of wheat and grain-free days.  I think my stomach likes the no-wheat days.  I need to reflect more on this.

3. Start soap production again, I think.  Need to sit down and really decide if I want to do a website and all that again. Not going to happen.  I decided I didn’t want something that would just be a hobby business as I already am pretty busy doing things I want to do, let alone something I would need to do if I had more customers.

4. Keep trying new recipes.  I have been having fun with this. Yep.  This month I made Coconut Flour Bread, Coconut flour pizza crust,  a King cake for Mardi Gras, coconut flour waffles (haha, you can see my new obsession), sweet potato shepherd’s pie

5.  Work on our new 1/2 bath addition!  We are making progress on this and I am excited to get past the initial construction and get into the nitty gritty. We are rocking and rolling on this project!  Plumbing and electrical inspection passed and we are now starting drywall.  I’ll have some nice progress pictures on Sunday!

Not bad overall.  The 2 other big things this month were the semi-impulse purchase of the baby grand and my job situation.  Funny how if you look at the month overall, it just looks like I got a raise.  But the start of the month had me hired to start training with a new company.  Then being torn between 2 options, going to work in an office for a few days, and then finally ending up staying with the current job full time with a raise.  It felt very tumultuous.

Whew.  I need some coffee and some pumpkin/nut/cream snackage.

I finished up my day right on time, even with the delay in work this morning.  Yep, it’s a good life.  For dinner, I made up a salad topped with some cooked cube steak, feta cheese, a drizzle of greek dressing, and some toasted pepitas.

This was very tasty.

Looks like we may actually miss the brunt of the Nor’easter coming.  At first they were predicting 6 to 10 inches, but now it looks like much less.  I hope!  I am so done with snow.  However, there is a glimmer of hope.

My tulips are coming up!  Along with a cigarette butt.  Thanks a lot to that litterbug.  🙄

The ice cream shop down the street opened their doors window today and even though it is chilly, we celebrated with the first cone of the year!

I got a kiddie cone with eyes, even if they are a little crooked.

Peanut butter flavor. We walked home and ate these because it was pretty brisk at about 45 degrees!

I will leave you a link to read a great article about perfect health.  I am really thinking about this to get my April goals listed for tomorrow and finding out what my weakest  link is.

Question: How was your March?

March goals

Lifting day! After the dreariness of yesterday, today’s bright sunshine was a welcome relief, even though it is still cold. I was up early, though, thanks to Ms. Pixie pushing on the door wanting her crack.  So, I was at the gym earlier than usual.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower Body
1-arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets of 8 with 20 DB# Back
Planks 3 sets of 60-second holds Core
Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 10 at 55# Chest
Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 170# Calves
Lower Back Extension 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low Back
Arnold Press 3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Pliet Squat 3 sets of 10 with 35# DB Lower Body

Good stuff. Out of all of those, the plank is the hardest. Least amount of weight and movement, the most sweat and increased heart rate.  Go figure.

I was ready for some peanut flour waffles!  Topped with coconut butter.

I am going to have to break down and order peanut flour online.  Maybe I can find a place that sells that and coconut flour (wanting to try that, too).

I wrapped up February yesterday, so now time for this months ‘to-do’ list!

1.  Start ramping up the bike riding on the trainer in preparation for outdoor rides (with cupcakes!).  This means longer ride times.  I bet we will even get in a long outdoor ride this month! 😀

2.  Keep working with some sugar/grain free days.  Really liking eating the fat.  I am not focusing on any weight loss this month.  I will be increasing carbs to keep up with the increase in biking miles.

3. Start soap production again, I think.  Need to sit down and really decide if I want to do a website and all that again.

4. Keep trying new recipes.  I have been having fun with this.

5.  Work on our new 1/2 bath addition!  We are making progress on this and I am excited to get past the initial construction and get into the nitty gritty.

This month will be fairly busy, so that is about all I am committing to.

Lunch time!  John wanted to go out for dinner tonight, so I wanted to get in my veggies with lunch.

This sauce on the chicken was an 1/8th cup of canned tomato sauce with 1 tsp of heavy cream.  Easy and really good!  You probably will be seeing this again soon. :mrgreen:

Lots of work to do today.  Gotta love this.  One of my files today included this:  “the patient sustained injury to his left middle finger when he placed it into a snowblower.”  Ummmm…. ow, and what were you thinking??? Seriously.

This job is kind of funny because it is sort of like tuning into a movie in the middle and not quite knowing what happened to get you where you are.  I just have to wonder what exactly goes through a person’s mind before they stick their finger into a snowblower.  Probably not much…

Latte break:

Tried to decide where to go for dinner that was inexpensive without being pizza.  So, that meant back to Denny’s LOL!

I had a cheese omelet (whole eggs)

Plus some fruit.

Then we stopped at K-Mart for a real quality evening as we needed coffee filters and motor oil.  I shouldn’t be mean because K-Mart had fresh strawberries for $1 a pound!  We picked up 3.  Might be making some jam this week.  Awesome!

Tonight I have some soap to make for a special order (one reason why I might crank the production back up) and working on the laundry room.  It is going to be a busy week.  Can’t wait for bagels tomorrow!

February Wrap Up and that’s a lot of fat!

Okay – March starts tomorrow and that really means spring is coming!  You wouldn’t think so with the amount of snow we had since Friday.  Here I am standing by a snow bank on the side of the house:

That would be about 4 feet high.  Our bobsled chute:

It is very hard to see to get out of the driveway.

We have a big overhang of snow on our garage, which will fall off sometime today.  It just froze this way.

Yes, I am still married to him…

Today is a rainy sleet mess, but at least we don’t have to shovel it!

I chose not to go to the gym today to run on the treadmill.  I thought about it while drinking up some protein.

Just not feeling the run,though; part of which is some nagging knee pain that I think might be related to my old back injury.  So, I stayed home and rode on the trainer for 10 miles.  Good enough!

Time for breakfast!  I made up a bunch of the magic rolls yesterday so we can eat them this week.  John really likes them.  I had an egg sammie with laughing cow.  Skipped the hot sauce in the a.m., though.

Since it is the last day of February, time to do a review. Here is the assessment of my goals for this month:

1. Continue with weight loss efforts.  Did really well here.  I lost 3 pounds, which is the last of the Christmas weight.  Woo Hoo! Like I said, 1 week to put on, 2 months to take off.

2.  Experiment with some eating protocols. Just for fun.  I might try doing a couple low carb days just to see what they are like.  Or more likely paleo/primal type eating.  I incorporated some lower carb days each week.  Really more of a sugar and grain free approach with higher fat.  This was a surprising hit for me.  I will discuss more below.

3. Be more productive with my down time.  Down time is great, but I don’t need to spend it all on the computer or playing games.  That means reading more books, going out for events, etc.  Success here.  John and I went to a couple of concerts and I read voraciously this month.  Not to mention the new half bath we are putting in.

4. Do more recipe cooking and not just meal assembly.  Another success!  Some of the cooking involved Chicken chili, Chicken with balsamic tomatoes, Magic Rolls, Coconut Curry Chicken.

5.  Clean the house for 15 minutes each day a la Fly Lady.  I was doing really well with this, then about mid month I started slacking off, especially when we started working on the renovation.  Oops.

A good month overall.  Tomorrow reboots with some new monthly objectives.

I was ready for a circular lunch today.  I needed fiber, so I did a 1-minute muffin (pumpkin) topped with some coconut butter.

Tasty.  I am wanting to do a cream cheese frosting on this thing again.  That always goes well with pumpkin.

So let’s talk some numbers and some fat.  Regarding doing the lower carb stuff during last month, this took me quite a bit out of my comfort zone.  Not so much having less carbs, because we all do that from time to time just naturally.  It was the fat.

Since I was keeping carbs at 100 and my protein requirement that I personally like is around 100 g – that left a lot of calories left over that I needed to eat.  So that meant fat.  Like butter, coconut butter, nuts (started to get out of hand with these), 2% milk.  I even moved to some half and half in my coffee.  I found out my body really likes the fat.  It kept me full.  In fact, I had to make sure I ate enough on some days.  It was such a great feeling to not have that nibbling urge.  I only had 1 day during February where I just out and out ate – and that was last week when I had some stress and just ate a lot of chocolate chips and nuts and granola.  The other day I ate a whole bunch of food was Superbowl Sunday.  Nuff said on that one. 😳

Anyway, there was a little bit of paranoia on my part that I would gain weight from eating all the fat, even though my calories were in check.  Still old prejudices there, although they are leaving.  I averaged 1704 calories per day during the month of February.  And less exercise than normal.  Now, I only did lower carb 3 to 4 days a week and my normal eating on the other days.  But overall, my whole monthly diet consisted of 40% fat.  On the lower carb days, it was as much as 65%.  And I still lost 3 pounds.

An experimental study of 1, but interesting nonetheless.  I was able to get in at least 20 grams of fiber on lower carb days, so not too low.  The not having cravings for sweets or just eating was the ultimate bonus in my book.

I could talk about this more, but I am sure many of you are like this:

Now back to regularly scheduled programming – afternoon snackage!

Fairly busy with work today, which is a great way to start out the week.  That latte kept me full until dinner (thank you 2% milk). Dinner was something different.  I stopped at the smokehouse yesterday to load up on meat for the freezer.  Sometimes you never know what kind of meats they will have.  They had cube steaks yesterday.  So I cooked one up to put atop some butter lettuce.  Topped with greek dressing and feta cheese.

This was really good.  I think I like the butter lettuce mix better than the spring mix I normally get.  I am not a big fan of the radicchio in it.

Tonight is the rest of the work and then a pumpkin snack:

Yeah, I recycled this picture for you LOL!

Question: What kind of salad mix is your favorite?