todays triumph

Last night I started getting sleepy around 9pm. Usually I'm up at till after midnight and dragging myself out of bed around 8am. Going to sleep early means I can get up earlier so I was excited to get to bed last night. I gave myself an 11pm bedtime and I think I'll be able to stick to it. I woke up at 5:30am and went to the gym.

I felt SO GOOD once I finished my workout. The trainer from Boot Camp fitness saw me and gave me the thumbs up. I was a sweaty mess but I felt great.

I was in a rush to pack my lunch today (yesterday I had a salad from mc donalds and I bought fruits from the fruit stand). Since I'm really trying to be budget conscious I packed some of the vegetarian chili I made last week, half a baked chicken breast, leftover scrambled eggs and a tortilla wrap. But I needed veggies to go with my meal and I remembered I had some frozen spinach in the freezer. I just heated up my lunch and I am amazed at how quick and painless my lunch was. I'm gonna be buying tons of frozen spinach!

planning works!

My excitement has me posting like crazy. Hopefully I wont lose focus or momentum. I got the meal planning down for this week so I can start planning my workouts. I have a membership at my local YMCA and the facility is really, really nice. They have a full schedule of dance classes, yoga, pilates, water aerobics. There's a swimming pool, top notch equipment and weight room. The locker rooms are nice too - clean showers, steamroom and a sauna. I definitely don't take advantage of it like I should so I want to turn that around.

I've taken some dance classes there before. Caribbean dance was grueling but fun. African dance and belly dance were nice too. I've spent $15 on a african dance class before at a dance studio and the class at the Y was just as good. I'm interested in doing the boot camp fitness class too but I'm scared. I've always wanted to try boot camp fitness so I think I'm gonna go ahead and say eff it. There are two morning classes on mondays and wednesdays. 6:30AM-7:15AM. Thats super early but if my meals and gym bag is packed and my clothes are laid out the night before I really could do it. It's all in the planning. Tonight I'm going to caribbean dance then I'm going home to change and hang out with my friends. I seriously have to think about what drives me and what will get me to the gym when I dnnt feel like going.

Here's what my ideal workout schedule is looking like for next week

Mon - Boot Camp 6:30AM-7:15AM
Tue - rest
Wed - Boot Camp 6:30AM-7:15AM
Thu - Caribbean Dance 6:30PM-7:30PM
Fri - African Dance 6PM-7PM
Sat - rest
Sun - Belly Dance 2:30PM-3:30PM

I know half of my workouts are gonna be very demanding (boot camp, caribbean dance) but at least I know once I got the hard stuff out the way that I'll be able to have more fun with the other classes. The first week is always the hardest anyway so I'm glad I'll be home for most of the week. I'll have time to juice up something for my sore muscles. I need to find a recipe for that right now.

Planning is really giving me the edge I need. While food shopping last night it felt good to have a list to refer to. Even this morning it helped because while the food was prepared I was in a rush so I couldnt remember off top what was in the fridge. Having the meals stuck on the fridge made it simple to pack and get moving. I'll be planning all of my meals from now on.

Meal Plan

When I start working out I can always get the ball rolling and stay on task with going to the gym. I struggle with meal planning and making healthy food choices on the go. I also need to save money and cut back on spending so much on take out food. On average I can spend anywhere from $7-$15 a day on food. Times that by 5 and I spend anywhere between $35 to $75 for food during the work week. Thats not including dinner (~$7 a meal) or meals on the weekend. Thats too much damn money! Spending close to $400 a month on food for one person is irresponsible. I could be saving that extra money and using it towards paying down my debts, saving for a car or taking a nice vacation once I reach my weight loss goals.

I planned my meals for the next 7 days. I'm giving myself a budget of $30. From week to week I'll see what I can cut back on. Ultimately I want to plan my meals for the month and do bulk shopping for ingridients. Baby steps.

Meals

Fruit, peanuts and green tea
blueberry/blackberry/strawberry, soy milk and ice smoothie
whole wheat tortilla/english muffin, scrambled eggs and veggies
Fish, brown rice and steamed bok choy
Spinach and tomato salad
Vegetarian Chilli

Shopping list

Fish - I love red snapper but I need to stay within my budget
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
2 onions
6 large tomatoes
garlic
3 bell peppers
spinach
bok choy
strawberries
mangoes
soy milk
whole wheat tortillas or whole wheat english muffins

I'll be going to chinatown after work for the fish, fruits and vegetables. I'll pick up the canned beans, soy milk and whole wheat tortillas/english muffins at the supermarket near my house. When I get home I'll update and we'll see if I was able to stay within my budget.

UPDATE

I havent had this much fun food shopping in a long time. Here's what I got.

6 red snapper filets - $6.99
5 tomatoes on the vine - $2
5 bulbs of garlic - $1
2 green peppers - $1
2 lbs baby spinach - $1
1 lb strawberries - $1
2 lbs bok choy - $2.08
Silk Almond milk - $3.99
tomato tortilla wraps - $3.39
1 can crushed tomatoes - $1.89
1 can pinto beans - $0.89
1 can kidney beans - $0.79

TOTAL: $26.02

YAY! I stayed within the budget with $3.98 to spare :) Now I'm off to do all my cooking. I'll portion the meals out into plastic containers and stack them in the fridge. I'm even gonna make two smoothies and pour them into some empty vitamin water bottles.