Tweak, Tweak, Tweak... (like the sound of crickets)

So, this journey of losing weight and keeping it off for life, without any use of pills or supplements is all about tweaking.  You have to constantly re-evaluate, measure, and determine if what you're doing right now is working for you.

I am LOVING my workout schedule. NEVER have I stuck with a schedule for 4 weeks and done EVERY workout (ok I did miss a few stretch sessions but still) and really enjoyed it.  I find myself getting better at the workouts and even with an injured quad (right quad healed, left almost recovered) I can keep up and modify here and there, and still get a great sweat going.  We have one week left in the Alpha phase of T25.  I'm going to double up on workouts 3 times/week to see if that helps kick start me in the right direction.  After this 5th and final week of Alpha phase, we move onto the next phase, Beta.  Yikes!  I'm excited though.  It's been neat to see myself get stronger and improve each week. 

I haven't run (except a tiny bit in softball) in almost 2 weeks and that has me just a tad stir crazy, but planning to try a run in the morning to see how I do.  Nothing major, may run 2 miles or may run really slow intervals. We will just see. 

I've lost another few inches off my thighs, though the scale isn't moving too much.  My body loves the 180s! Sound familiar?  This is where I was last year (around March-ish) when I had been stuck in the 180s for 8 months and was going crazy.  So Nate thinks it might be a set point for my body.  I've got to change something else in order to break this set point.  I need to do it quick before I begin to get discouraged again like I did last year, just before gaining 40 lbs back!

And we all know that's NOT gonna happen.

So I've decided to go strict Whole 30 again for 30 days, starting tomorrow.  Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to be miserable, as honestly, it's just a few tweaks away from where I am.  But it is definitely challenging.  I think fruit has equaled dessert for me a little bit which causes the sugar dragon to sneak back into my life.  I have also enjoyed a bit more cheese than necessary...(gosh I love a caprese salad...) I need to get that in check and see if I can't jump start my weight loss again.

This week I ate lavash pizza twice which had cheese on it...and probably overate it (felt too full more than once) and also had caprese salad at lunch once this week along with another salad for my meal.  lol. Now I did split the caprese salad with someone else but that was still a few ounces of full fat mozz I could have done without.  Added a thin slice of cheese to an omelet earlier this week and had some gorgonzola on a salad.  yeah...definitely overdoing the dairy.  I also had a great friend send me some chocolate hazelnut almond butter (homemade - no sugar added) and I ate it warmed up on a banana twice...once with honey!  I know!  Also had homemade "ice cream" which is frozen banana mixed with canned pumpkin and cinnamon.  No added sweetener and I still lost a pound this week, but I wonder what I would have lost without all that cheese and not using fruit as a treat?  There's some "food" for thought.

So tomorrow starts my 2nd official W30 (even though my first was almost a W60!).  So through September 10th I'll be working hard to stay compliant which means even more planning!

Here's how I'll prep:

1) hard boil some eggs - will have hard boiled eggs with me this week to snack on if I get legitimately hungry as well as if I get stuck somewhere with no hard boiled eggs (like I did this week).   
2) pack some baby carrots in snack baggies
3) put my larabars away.  sigh.  now I love larabars.  They are completely natural food.  No additives and no junk.  BUT they aren't necessary.  Not if I can pack something else. It will just take more thinking and planning on my part.  Don't get me wrong, I only had larabars twice this week.  But they are dried fruit which is supposed to be limited during W30.  (in fact, I ate NO dried fruit in my first W30 at all).
4) make SURE I get my water in.  this has been a little harder with all the driving in the middle of nowhere places I travel through.  Going to make sure I have my cooler in the back of my car.
5) PLAN EVERY MEAL. Sound extreme?  Well, honestly it's not.  I plan just about every meal now, but I don't necessarily hit each one on paper. I won't be journaling food (cause ain't nobody got time for that!) but I am going to plan in advance so there's no question I will stay on track!
6) Switching out my snap peas.  I eat these every single morning for breakfast.  They are on the approved list for W30, but they aren't highlighted. Instead, I'm going to stick to the highlighted veggie recommendations on the W30 shopping list.  (click here for the list - it's free online!)

So there you have it.  I'm excited!  I feel really good about pretty much everything.  Going to spend a little time planning for my success tomorrow afternoon with some food prep.  For now, I'm off to make next week's menu (I do that anyway every Saturday and make my grocery list accordingly) and will keep you all posted on how it's going!  Going to see about taking pictures of every meal during this time's W30 and post on my blog page.  Excited!

Here we go!  Waving goodbye to the 180s.  Leaving you with a picture from last night - heading to an art exhibit of a great friend of mine! 

Clara