Week 21 Summary - Operation Get Fit No Excuses

Welcome to the end of Week 21 of Operation Get Fit No Excuses! The time has flown by and I’ve learned a lot on the journey. It hit me today that this has been a real year of change and reinvention for myself and Padrone both. We have changed the way we eat. We started exercising. We’ve lost weight, so changed how we look. Padrone stopped smoking 3 months ago. And, today, I got a new haircut in a style I never would have considered before.

I have alternated my indoor and outdoor exercises to keep my muscles guessing. When you do the same routine all the time, your body will get used to it and that particular exercise won’t be as affective. There were a couple of days that I was unable to exercise because of an Epilepsy attack, but I got back out there as soon as I could. 

During my outdoor walking adventures, I’ve come across some really interesting people. Two of them stick out in my mind when I think about it. One lady was walking slow and I passed her. She gave me a dirty look and decided to walk faster so she could pass me back. Now, I was just keeping up a steady pace. I had my headphones in and my music pumped so I was in the zone! I don’t really pay much attention to other people because I’m trying to keep an eye on my own statistics (heartbeat, pace, steps, distance). So, a few minutes later, I ended up passing her again because she was bent over with her hands on her hips trying to breath! Moral of this story is to stay at your own pace and ignore everything else around you. You do you and don’t worry about what everybody else is doing.

The second incident that comes to mind involves a guy that looks like he stepped out of the 1970s. He had on a white tank undershirt (aka wife beater), black dress socks that came to his knees with brown ugly sandals! His shorts where made out of nylon and looked like some Bruce Jenner wore when he was running track. That isn’t even the funny part. The guy was bent over a bench doing what he thought was stretching. He was kicking his leg up in the air behind him like a donkey does when they get mad! I was doing my best not to laugh! Moral of this story is to get out and stay active no matter how you’re dressed! And don’t hurt yourself by exercising the wrong way. 

After so long a time of restricting my diet I decided to allow myself a “cheat treat” once a week. We found a place that serves cream coffee (known as a Frappe or Frappicino in America) and it’s so good! So, only once a week, I allow myself to enjoy one. I walk or exercise every day and  eat a low carb/low calorie vegetarian diet the rest of the time so I don’t have an ounce of guilt. The weird thing is that I don’t crave junk food or comfort food much anymore. If I see something that looks good on Facebook, I usually think that looks good but immediately follow that with lord I can’t imagine how much fat and calories that has in it! It’s all about perspective for me.

Last week was my 45th birthday week and also my weigh in week. I was disappointed with not having lost more weight or centimeters in my measurements. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’m ok with my results. I am still seeing progress and it’s actually a steady progress. Considering that I’m doing everything naturally and not using weird pills or strange diets, I’m happy and proud of myself. 

Thank you all again for your continued support and encouragement! See you next week!

Week 7 Summary Operation Get Fit No Excuses

This week’s summary is going to be brief because there really hasn’t been many things happening. 

Week 7 has finished with a frozen tundra outside our door! This past week, Europe has been covered in a polar vortex which made the temperatures go below freezing with extremely high winds. For the past two days, snow and ice have blanketed the entire county! Some places in the south haven’t seen snow since the 1950s, yet they received more than 5 inches.

Now that you know the weather has been horrendous, let’s talk about the good news. Thanks to technology, I’ve been able to still get great cardio and toning workouts everyday utilizing many different training videos online. The internet is a marvelous tool to find a routine for any fitness level.

This week, I’ve mixed it up using Walk at Home, Toning, HIIT, and Yoga videos. I personally like using videos that are 20 minutes or less because I never get bored this way, nor does my body get used to the same moves so that the exercise becomes ineffective. Using different trainers and techniques allows my body to workout many different areas with varying results. It also helps me figure out what types of exercises I like and which ones I don’t. 

Week 8 is probably going to be more in home only workouts as the weather isn’t looking much better. As soon as I get a halfway decent day, I’m going back out walking. I really miss it!

If you have been following my Get Fit journey, you know that I have changed the what I eat. I don’t eat regular bread or pasta, anything with sugar, sweets, sodas, or red meat. What I have been eating is all soy based foods and I’ve been experimenting with making low carb breads using different recipes. The first one I tried tasted great but had too many eggs in it and ended up tasting too ‘eggy’. I have found others that use almond or coconut flour and less eggs so will let you know how they come out. 

I’m still taking my vitamins and supplements daily and drinking herbal teas, sweetened with Stevia. Green and black teas are excellent in antioxidants and give me a boost of energy. I did make a couple of drinks with Tumeric called Golden Milk after my workouts and found they helped reduce any discomfort or swelling I was experiencing. 

Overall, I feel much better than I did when I started. I’ve stuck to my workouts, even on days when I wasn’t feeling like doing them. I am getting into a routine that is helping exercise just become a habit and I feel guilty if I don’t do it. I know everyone is busy with daily life, but it’s worth finding 30 minutes a day in your hectic schedule for exercise. 

I have also noticed that the longer I am not eating sweets and other things I’ve given up in my daily nutrition, the less I crave them. I feel like I’m training my mind and my body to be feel better, get better, and be better in general.

Thank you for taking the time out to come along with me on my journey and we shall see you next week.