Friday, December 26, 2014

2014: Food & Exercise

When it comes to food and exercise, I like to evaluate from time to time what does and doesn't work. Most times, I keep an old-fashioned pen and paper diary in which I record what I eat as well as how much I move and work out. Looking back at 2014, here are some things I noticed:

Food
  • Starting the day with plenty of greens and some protein keeps me properly fueled and makes me eat better for the rest of the day. 
  • Eating during a smaller eating window makes me sleep better and makes weight maintenance a lot easier. I usually eat breakfast around 6 a.m. and eat my last meal around 2 p.m. In the afternoon/evening I enjoy herbal teas. About twice a week, I eat an early dinner around 5 p.m. 
  • Meal prep is key to eating well. Whenever I spend a few hours in the kitchen on the weekends to pre-cook and prep food for the week, we eat a lot better. 
  • Being “too perfect” backfired in the summer. I had gotten to a very low weight by May (looking back, a bit too low), and I believe that led to some not-so-good food choices during the summer. While gaining a few pounds was actually good, not making food choices that made me feel my best was not a good thing. Going forward, I will remember to balance my food choices consistently and will always focus on eating what makes me feel my best.
  • Eating healthy, simple, & delicious food consistently makes weight maintenance and feeling my best easy. For me, this includes lots of veggies, enough fat, and some protein for most meals. I also eat limited amounts of fruit as well as some dark chocolate on most days. 
Exercise
  • Walking at least 10,000 steps a day makes me feel my best. However, I also reached my limits a few times when I had a few back-to-back weeks with 100,000+ steps, and my weak/permanently injured ankle let me know. More is not always better!
  • Barre classes help my low back - which has been bothering me for years - feel its best. If I take two classes a week, the pain is completely gone. 
  • Yoga and meditation are an important part of my workouts that I tend to skip when things get busy and stressful - right when they are most needed! I need to make sure to make them a priority! 
  • After very inconsistent weight workouts in the middle in the year, I got back to a more consistent weight lifting schedule, and it feels great. 
Finally, to feel my best, I have been working hard at slowing down and enjoying the “little things” every day. When the kid woke us up at 6 a.m., we made the most of it and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise as a family!

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Questions: How were your food choices and workouts in 2014? What worked? What didn’t work? Anything you’ll change in 2015?

Be well,
Andrea