Take a Walk

This 5,000 steps a day thing is not easy on days off. My first day I went 2,200 all day. So yesterday, I invited my mom and Buddy to go for a walk around Bradley Lake Park. It was chilly out, but by the end of the day I got to 5,250 steps! Yay! And Buddy thoroughly enjoyed every moment. He wanted to tackle the geese and jump in the water. He loves every human being that walks by and wants to be their new best friend. He is totally the dog from "Up". 

On to the food side of things. Today I went grocery shopping and bought some fun new items for some new recipes I found on Pinterest. For lunch I made these Cherry, cranberry, chicken and pecan wraps! They were soo good! I bought these multi-grain flatbread wraps for the recipe and I think I'm in love. They seem pretty healthy and don't taste like cardboard!

Courtesy of Menu Musings. Get the recipe here

I also got some roasted, unsalted nuts with some dried fruit for a quick snack. I got some Quinoa, an avocado and a Tangelo, which is something I have never tried but have heard is "Amay-zay-zing!"

Using the above ingredients (minus the nuts) I decided to make a Pinterest inspired dinner! Blackened chicken with cilantro lime Quinoa topped with an avocado crema and a side of Tangelo. I was a little nervous about the Quinoa, because the 2 times I made it in the past, it wasn't great and my husband was very sweet...but unimpressed. So I slaved over the stove, (not really, took a total of about 40 minutes) and came out with.....

Get the recipe here

Ta-da! And it was REALLY yummy! And guess who said, "I am going to go get more Quinoa." That's right, my husband. *High five to myself*. I also have 1 serving left over, which means we didn't have 4 servings each, which is depressing when you make a recipe for 8 and 2 of you eat the whole thing up. This recipe served 2-4, so I feel pretty good about the portion size.

I am excited about my new finds today and hope to continue to find new, exciting, healthy, and tasty recipes!

Off to work tomorrow and Friday. The only reason I am excited to go to work tomorrow is to see how many steps I take compared to my days off.

Today's steps so far: 4839

Sidetracked Celebration

Yesterday was my birthday. Unfortunately I had to work, but my co-workers made my day special by being so generous and thoughtful! Several people got me gifts and cards and they secretly pitched in to buy pizza for the celebrating! I LOVE pizza!! And I TOTALLY forgot that I was trying to be healthier until I was licking the dusted Parmesan off my fingers after my third piece of pizza. Oops. Then I thought, "It's my birthday. Today is special. Don't worry about it." So I ate 2 truffles and went back to work.

I came home to my wonderful husband and he took me out to eat at one of our favorite spots, Katie Downs. We love going to share a pizza and a salad. Even though I ate 3 pieces earlier, I still wanted to continue our tradition by ordering a pizza and a veggie salad.

Not many people party at Katie Downs at 9:00 pm on a Sunday evening.

The salad was fresh, which helped with the super rich pizza we ordered. I ate 2 pieces of the pizza and was done. My stomach shut down for the evening, grumbling in protest about how badly I had treated it through the day.

I feel like days like this are when I give up. Thoughts of "you messed up already, why keep trying?" and "you messed up, so might as well go big and REALLY mess up...make it worthwhile" keep tempting me to stop. And yeah, I may have done a doozy on my goals, but it's a new day, right? I can't totally give up on things I love eating, I just have to eat smaller portions and splurge on occasion.

So what changes today? Well, there is still celebrating to be done, but it can be healthy too, right? My mom treated me to lunch at one of our favorite little cafe's in south Puyallup called Oasis. We shared 2 healthy, perfectly portioned sandwiches. Yum!

Also, I have this thing at work called "Healthy at Work." You have to earn 100 points over the year to earn a 50% discount on health insurance. I signed up for the first 8 week challenge to walk 5,000 steps a day. I borrowed my mom's pedometer and will tally how many steps I am at whenever I post. I am really interested to see how many steps I take at work! Any guesses?

Now for three days off to relax and celebrate...in moderation ;)

Buddy wanted to wish me a happy birthday as well!

Day 1 - Motivation

It's hard to get motivated with such grey, gloomy weather. I am having a hard time getting warm this morning despite having the heat on, a blanket, and my awesome Montana socks from Elanor.

Of course, a logical solution would be to go exercise! Warm up! Sweat! But I can't even get off the couch right now. I thought about going for a light jog around Bradley Lake Park...but it's too cold and sad outside. Plus I don't know if there would be people around and I don't want to run there by myself. Idea 2. Go to the gym at our apartments...but it's small and boring. And people are there and that makes me nervous to work out in such close quarters. Excuses, excuses.

All right then, that leaves me my third option. Do something at home. SO, I will sit on Pinterest and get inspired (discouraged and frustrated) by looking at fit people and how easy it is to get in shape. Not working. Okay...let's see what is On Demand for exercise. Let's see...Calorie blaster, not quite up for that today. Advanced Pilates I would die. Prenatal yoga....no. Oh, More Daily Energy sounds nice...oh....it's 53 minutes. Seems like an oxymoron.  Ah, here we go. Beginner Shape Up Yoga - 24 minutes. And there's pretty flowers on the title. Let me give this a try...

24 minutes later...I did it! I am a little warmer and a little nauseous, but I did it! And I realized how stiff I am. Therefore, I am going to try stretching every day and see if my muscles feel better.

Tomorrow I start a 4 day stretch of work, of which I am dreading. I walk a lot at work and can hardly move after a 12 hour shift, so extra exercise will not be occurring. Therefore, I will focus the next few days on my eating habits, dun dun dun. Stay tuned!

The Simple Beginning

I never thought I would start a blog. I don't lead a particulary interesting or exciting life, nor do I have profound thoughts that are begging to be heard. No. This blog simply started after having a good talk with my husband about becoming who I desire to be. I have struggled with feeling uncomfortable in my own skin, longing to be a better me. This is especially true when it comes to being physically healthy. I have struggled with guilt and frustration when it comes to exercising, eating healthy and feeling physically fresh and accomplished. I have not been very open about this, which may be why I have struggled my whole life. Something needed to be different. So here I am, writing a blog to be accountable to the changes I want to make in order to become the me I am supposed to be.

This blog will be a lot about my journey to physical health but will also include bits and pieces of my life as a nurse, new wife and hopefully a mom in the future. I hope to inspire others to be healthy and join me as I make life changes that become permanent. I am not all knowing and frankly I don't know where to begin besides starting this blog. So please join me, be encouraged, and think about committing to take this journey with me.