It’s been a long minute since I’ve shared my Wellness Wins, huh? But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any, more so that I’m behind on posting and life in general. What’s new?
The truth is there have been a lot of ups and downs in the weight loss party lately, but I’m still moving forward. Let’s get into it.
Healthy Recipes I’ve Been Loving
The whole eating thing is and always will be the hardest part of healthy living for me. It’s not that I don’t love healthy foods. I love them very much. So much so that even when I have the best of intentions in cooking a delicious and wholesome recipe, I don’t quite know when to stop eating it. That, and the hours between around 8 p.m. and bedtime when my stomach decides that it wants to eat every morsel of food in the house. It’s something that I’m really trying to work on, with varying degrees of success.
I know there’s no magic secret to finding self control, you just have to want it more than you want a cheeseburger. And, well, often… I don’t. But I am trying to make more conscious choices and remind myself that I will live if I say no to my favorite food once or twice.
I mean, I hope I will.
I will… right?
Anyway, on to the fun stuff. Here are some of the healthy recipes I’ve tried and loved lately!
Skinny Taste is one of my favorite recipe blogs. A coworker recommended it to me years ago and it’s still the place I turn if I’m looking for a healthier version of one of my favorite meals. This Brussels sprouts carbonara was so good! We used local Brussels from a roadside stand, which made it even more fun.
I always look for dinners that will make good leftovers for lunch during the week. Because I’m weird, I can’t stand reheated chicken so I’m always on the hunt for creative non-chicken dinners. While this reheated well, it wasn’t incredibly filling for lunch. Probably because Tom and I both had large dinner portions, resulting in smaller lunch portions. Womp womp.
Two other Skinny Taste recipes proved more successful at the leftover game – this Mini Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup and these Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas. Both were as delicious the next day as they were the first time. Highly recommended!
Other great meals include this Sweet Potato Coconut Curry from Life Made Simple, this Quinoa Fried Rice from Gimme Some Oven and this Vegetable Pad Thai from Mother Thyme. If you’re sensing a pattern, yes I will make anything that I can cover with hot sauce or sriracha. The hotter the better!
I Joined a Gym
Towards the end of October, I finally broke down and signed up for a gym membership. I’d been holding out in an effort to save money, but with temps falling and the sun going down before the workday ends it started to get harder and harder to fit in my walks, and at-home workouts were frankly starting to bore me.
I was pretty excited to get back into a gym and a more regular workout schedule, and especially back to my favorite classes. I know a lot of fitness gurus will say that casually attending fitness classes isn’t really a workout program, but it’s a hell of a lot more effective than the complete lack of a fitness regimen I was observing prior to getting back to the gym.
For now, it’s working for me and I’m seeing positive changes on the scale and in the mirror (tiny, minor ones, but hey). My favorite classes are Zumba and another more choreography-focused dance class that my gym offers. I also really enjoy Soul Cycle-type classes (they’re called something else at my gym) and Barre. Once or twice a week I force myself (FORCE myself) to go to a Body Pump class to lift a little heavier, but I dread it every time. Weight training is far from my fave, but I know it’s necessary.
But I’m Still Sweating Outdoors
The gym is a great fitness solution during the week, but on the weekends I love to get out into the fresh air as long as the sun is shining. We walked all over the Arboretum two weeks ago, which certainly wasn’t exercise but was still a nice way to be active and bring joy into my soul.
It was so much fun that when I woke up to a sunny day this past Sunday, I knew I had to get out there. Tom and I decided to head to Rock Creek Park for a gorgeous 4-ish mile hike.
I’m savoring these last remnants of pretty Fall colors and warmer temps. The past couple of days have been gloomy and drizzly and terrible, but I have these memories to look back on, which makes it oh so much easier.
This was actually my first time at Rock Creek Park, which is simply criminal. I hope this was only the first of many visits, for both my health and my happiness.
While I may not have lost ten pounds since I started writing these Wellness posts, I’ve started to really focus on the fact that it’s my choice whether a day is healthy or not, whether my approach to life is positive or negative. I don’t win every time, but I keep going.
I used to do Crossfit for a couple of years, but quit back in the Summer to save money, as well. I also didn’t like the fact that our gym owner was insisting on doing the Crossfit Open even though she was 8 months pregnant, but that is another story altogether!
A friend of mine got back into Muay Thai earlier this year. I guess the trick is to find something that mixes up cardio & weight training with something that is actually fun and motivating to go to regularly. So, kudos to you for getting back to the gym! I am not sure what I am going to do next, but reading this post reminded that I have no excuse not to get back on a regular exercise routine, especially with Winter coming soon!
I think I would really enjoy learning a martial art, other than the fact that I’m very inflexible and probably wouldn’t be very good at it 🙂
“I know there’s no magic secret to finding self control, you just have to want it more than you want a cheeseburger. And, well, often… I don’t. But I am trying to make more conscious choices and remind myself that I will live if I say no to my favorite food once or twice.” —> YES! Well, not the cheeseburger part but the rest of it! I’m right there with you.
And totally get your decision about joining a gym. To be honest, if we had better options around, I would’ve joined a long time ago.
Oftentimes the cheese is more appealing to me than the burger, one of my biggest weaknesses. And chocolate of course. But being a just the teeniest bit more aware of it has helped me quite a bit so far 🙂
OMG those outdoor photos! Why work out indoors in a gym when you got that! Haha, I understand the weather gets cold outside of TX – my sis joined a gym and lost 15 lbs! She’s loving Zumba anf cardio dance classes
One thing I love about my gym is that during the day you can still catch glimpses of the nearby river, so I don’t feel quite as cooped up that way. Zumba is one of my favorites! It’s just such good stress relief.
Great photography! & I’m glad these changes are making you happy! I joined a gym & hated it – maybe going on walks will help me x
http://www.beckieeschle.com
Thanks Beckie! It’s hard to take a bad photo when the scenery is that lovely 🙂
Self-control when it comes to food is my downfall. Whether it’s snacking after the kids go to bed or just making the full fat/carb/no-vegetable-laden meal and have seconds, I just can’t stop myself some nights. I’ll have to check out Skinny Taste for healthier recipes too.
I completely relate. I just love food!
I wish I lived in a place like that where sweating outside was beautiful. Good for you though for getting back in the healthy swing of things. Keep a workout schedule is very important so I hope you can get back on track with that, everything else will fall into place.
Thanks Angela! As far as workouts go, things are finally falling back into place. Now I’ve got to get my nutrition back on point!