It is Mamavation Monday time again!
Last week, I got in a few bike rides. I had more planned but homework came into play again. I also said that my husband and I agreed to do morning work outs. We learned that waking up early is hard to do! We both used to be good morning people but three kids, my homework, his preschool business, and life in generally is making us non-morning people. The kids get up early … that is a given so any extra minute or two of sleep we get is an extra blessing and we are finding it near impossible to give that. I am not sure how to change that or if I am willing to push it too far right now.
So I weighed in on Friday and was up 3.5 lbs. So much for my half pound loss last week. ugh. I continue to go back and forth at this weight and it is driving me nuts. Exercise or not, I go back and forth. My body likes this weight … I do not! I think I was OK with this until now because my clothing sizes were still shrinking even if my weight wasn’t. Now that isn’t the case.
So I decided it was time to buckle down and watch what I eat. I have been eating better. If you missed it, check out my Ten Ways to Make Your Favorite Foods Healthier post! My husband gave himself the goal of eating vegetarian dinners during the week. (I thought he was NUTS when he did this but you will see I am now the nutty one!) We have been doing this and it has made a difference but I still snack and eat this or that. I grabbed a magazine off the rack in the check-out line last week (something I never do but I wanted something new to read.) In it was an article on vegan eating habits and the results on your metabolism. So yesterday, I gave myself the challenge so see if I could eat vegan for the day. I will add here that this is something I would have never tried even 8 months ago so I feel great I can challenge myself this way now! I figured one day wasn’t too bad and we were eating at home all day. I ate only what we had in the house and was very impressed with myself in meeting my challenge.
All of that being said, I am not becoming a Vegan. Case-in-point, we had steaks today with the in-laws for a Labor Day lunch. But I am watching what I eat. I made an almost-vegan peach cobbler for lunch. (Almost because I couldn’t find vegan butter in our small town so I went with a Smart Balance butter spread!) It is only day two of really watching what I eat but I find myself not finishing the breakfast the kids didn’t eat or grabbing a snack as I walk through the kitchen to do laundry. I am going to strive to watch what I eat this week (even with travel Thursday through next Tuesday … ack!) and report how that is going next week.
I am going to see where this takes me. I don’t know where it will but it is something I can do since I found I can’t get up at 5am right now to do a killer work out.
Oh do you wanna try that vegan peach cobbler? I found HERE at Novel Eats!
So I leave this week by asking … how you watch what you eat? Are you a label reader? Do you track it online or in a journal? Do you balance your meals or strive for vegetarian or vegan meals in your day? Share with me your tips and tricks! You can tell me to move my butt too because I know I need to keep up those bike workouts too!
Shake off that weight gain my dear and get back at it! I know you can do it!
That's so odd that you tried the vegan thing for a day because I was actually thinking of incorporating that into my week. One or two days completely vegan. I'm a vegetarian, so it might be easier for me, but I love my dairy products! Might be an interesting experiment though. Vegan Wednesdays?
It IS very cool that you have changed your thinking so much that you tried something that you would not have even thought twice about 8 months ago. So cool!!
I think it's pretty hard to lose if you're not writing down what you eat OR eating a VERY clean diet. I lose the best when I'm tracking. If I don't track, it's just too easy to go over calories. You can't out-train a bad diet unless you're Michael Phelps. Ha ha.
Look forward to seeing how the vegan thing goes. I think I might try it this week!
You sound like you know what it is that needs to be done. So it's a new week! You can do it!
Maybe you are gaining muscle?
I don't track what I eat, I honestly don't know what will make the best sense for me. I re-signed up for sparkpeople.com so maybe that will help me? Now that I think about it, if I menu planned that would make it super easy. *light bulb moment*
Best of luck to you this week!
Vegan eating is awesome if you can stick with the things that are "clean" and not processed. Should I be sending you some beano? LOL
Homework often gets in the way of many things. I have had a huge issue with working out since school started. I need to get up in the mornings and do it, but I am often so tired!
Have a great week
I feel ya on the waking up part! Between the kids, and me in school and full time jobs, I've not been successful at waking up early for the exercise part of my day! HANG IN THERE! YOU CAN DO IT!
I lived with a girl who was a vegan adn man oh man I never wanted fore meat when she cooked! I know you can do it and like leah said it is clean good food! *hugs*
I'm not much of a morning person either so I feel your pain. Sorry you had a bad week, but this week will be better because you already know what you need to do. 🙂
Vegan eating is hard but like anything, doable with enough desire. You could eat vegan one day a week, vegetarian one day to make it fun and encourage you to try more new foods. I do my best to read the labels. If it has a scad of ingredients, I tend to put it back on the shelf because that means it's been processed up the wazoo. If my mouth can't read the "ingredient", it's not going to eat it 🙂 Lots of fruits and veggies in my house, they are so yummy!
This is my major weakness too. I have a daily food log in my gmail calendar of what I'm suppose to eat at what time. Like fruit, veg, protein etc.. It helps when I actually follow it.
I started using SparkPeople.com in late December and have stuck with it to track my food and exercise. Tracking totally keeps me, well, on track! Like today. I had a big lunch so I know that I can only have an itty-bitty bedtime snack, if any at all. I also track my protein and fiber intake too, just to make sure I'm getting enough of those.
Hang in there, girl! It may be a bumpy, up-and-down ride, but we're all in this together. Hugs!