So it’s been a week of SELF CHALLENGE fun. I’ve pledged and placed those pledges where I need to remind myself why I’m doing this the most.
What next? well I needed to commit to the workouts – 2 strengths and 3 cardios a week. In this respect – last week was a breeze and an eye-opener. The strength workout is surprisingly difficult and left me feeling like I really used muscles 
. The cardio (3 separate run plans) are given with the option of walking or running, how to make it harder and how to make it easier. I did Cardio 1 on Tuesday, Cardio 3 on Thursday and Cardio 2 on Saturday. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s runs felt great. I was able to take a pace that allowed me to jog continuously for the entire 25 minute workout. It wasn’t until Saturday’s Cardio that I was terrified of the treadmill. There was screaming pain felt in both calves and I had to stop to stretch them out 3 times during the run. While it was terrifying I was in denial that this is how it’s going to be all the time.
Then I weighed myself. I’d gained an extra 5 lbs since Feb 25/08. No surprise. I usually go up way before I go down in weight. BUT – I knew the last thing I needed to do in order to get the most out of my SELF CHALLENGE was to tackle the MEAL PLAN!!!!
Uh ya. so Review — I was already forcing myself to log my every bite. But they were horrifyingly not the bites that were included in the outline provided by the SELF CHALLENGE. So last Thursday night I sat down at the gym and copied out/made my own SELF CHALLENGE – Jessica-tailored Foods Sheet detailing all the foods I was allowed to eat. 10 Fruits and Vegetables, 5 Whole Grains, 3 Dairies, 2 Healthy Fats, 2 Meats/Fish/Beans and 1 Treat a day later and I came to the conclusion that this is where I’ve tended to fail in the past.
Back track to Thursday afternoon: I was taping up my pledges around the home when Jane started following me around. Finally my “what???” look got her talking: “I haven’t asked you how I can help you make your pledge.” I was stumped – wasn’t my advertising the pledge enough for accountability???
Back to the SELF CHALLENGE – Jessica-tailored Foods Sheet construction activity that evening. I printed off a few copies and brought one up to give to Jane in her office. She was busy so I stuck a mini-post-it on the print out and wrote: “Jans, how can you help me keep my pledge??? go grocery shopping with me. Love and thanks, Checks.” We made a date to do it on the weekend so that come today, Monday morning, Week 2 of 12 would be tackled on the foods checklist too.
Saturday evening I took it one step further. We were planning to shop on Sunday so I took a print out of the SELF CHALLENGE – Jessica-tailored Foods Sheet and started highlighting the foods I would most realistically eat on a regular basis and could afford to do so. My mind was still so boggled about how I was going to make sure I met all the requirements including 10 servings of fruits and vegetables. Like many things in my life, I decided I needed a SELF CHALLENGE – Jessica-tailored weekly food checklist to keep it in order. The print out of this checklist is taped in my weekly organizer facing my school schedule (so the print out is taped to the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday page and the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays are highly visible — no homework will be skipped!). All I have to do is check off each serving as I go… that’s not bad.
Grocery shopping on Sunday turned out to be a real hustle and bustle. I had volunteered yesterday at Brock U for its bi-annual Open House. The result of which was me on my feet for about 8 hours straight doing laps around and through the school taking pictures. The taking pictures part made it all the more managable. I then visited Lee at the gym for what was supposed to be a 5-minute drive-by but turned into a 45-minute conversation about negativity in Lee’s life. I had no problem with the chat it was just that I was leaving less and less time to get to Food Basics with Janes.
We finally ended up making it to Basics for 7:45 p.m., the store closing at 8 p.m. on a Sunday. Thankfully we’d both had time to review the food sheet often enough to have an idea of what I needed, where it was in the store and in what sequence should we get it. We made it out of the store by 8 p.m., but we were the last ones out!
At home we had whole-wheat pasta with sauce and meatballs. Jane had an idea for a glass of red wine – 6 oz glass is considered a SAVORY treat allowed per day (147 calories). While I ate I started forming ideas to encourage myself to eat what I just bought. I stuck and wrote on yellow post-its in the fridge – things like: “JESSICA – MEAL 2 of 5 — tuna mix (tuna + mustard + zucchini) + small whole-wheat tortilla shell” on my Tuna Mix container. On the outside of the fridge I wrote 2 post-its and taped alongside the pledge: “JESSICA – not in fridge but must eat: bananas + apples counter –>, lazy suzy —> soup, lentils, grean beans, pineapples” there’s more but you smell what I’m cooking, right?
I also taped a post-it note to my Soy Milk cartons “JESSICA – BREAKFAST: oatmeal or honey-nut cheerios. GRAB A FRUIT!!!” That should be a hint enough for me not to forget to add in fruits and veggies into every meal.
For now here are some things I plan to eat this week:
Breakfast (Meal 1 of 5):
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soy milk (dairy) + honey-nut cheerios (multi-grain cereal) (Whole grain!) + blueberries or banana (F/V)
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soy milk (dairy) + long-grain (takes 15 minutes to cook) oatmeal (Whole Grain!) with grapefruit + blueberries (F/V)
3 hours after Breaky (meal 2 of 5) (snack/light):
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tuna mix (chunky light tuna (Meat/Fish/Bean) - canned in water + mustard (extras!) + chopped zucchini (F/V)) + 6″ (small) whole-wheat tortilla (Whole Grain!)
LUNCH — 3 hours later (meal 3 of 5) — in theory – biggest meal of day:
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salad - spinach mixed greens (F/V) (comes in huge container) + snow peas (F/V) + sesame seeds (F/V) + tomatoes (F/V) + red peppers (F/V) + slivered walnuts (healthy fat!) + cooked shrimp (meats/fish/beans) / salmon / chicken / turkey (all M/F/B) + lentils (MFB)
3 hours after Lunch (Meal 4 of 5) (smallest):
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air popped popcorn – 100 cal mini-bag (whole grain!)
Dinner 3 hours later (Meal 5 of 5) (medium-sized to small):
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sweet potatoes (F/V) + brussel sprouts (F/V) + cooked shrimp / salmon / chicken / turkey (MFBs)
** note to all you who counted and I still didn’t make the cut: please note that a “serving” of most fruits and veggies is teeny. So I might have 1/2 a cup of a fruit and it could could as 2 servings instead of 1.
One last thing. I’ve already had it in my mind that running is just that thing I need to start up for the summer. At 3 25-minute runs a week, I’m not getting enough running in to remarkably prepare to race. So I’m upping the running to at least 5 runs a week. It means that every day of the week I’m going out of my way to have a lot of cardio in my life – if I’m not on the treadmill, I’ll be busting a run with the puppies. I’m ready to getting running, are you?
Wish me luck — Js.
