Going HAM: Off the Wagon

My weekend, in a nutshell. 

Well, it happened. After staying treat-free and keeping up with my workouts for all of January, February has not been going so well. Last week was ... terrible. Not terrible in an overall life sense, but terrible in terms of my following my Going HAM rules and trying to get healthier.

It started with the workouts. I had scheduled a LASIK consultation for Thursday, and they told me not to wear my contacts for as long as possible beforehand. I planned to work out while wearing my glasses (or, like, wear them to the treadmill and then run blind), but in reality, I just didn't work out. I met with my trainer on Wednesday, but that was it. For the whole week.

Then came the food choices. I was doing OK until Thursday night, when I broke into the rest of the Oreos. Then on Friday, I really wanted doughnuts while I was at work. After that, I went crazy. There were Girl Scout cookies, pancakes, peanut butter cups, pizza, and garlic bread. I couldn't stop (or I didn't want to). If I was going to ignore the rules, I was going to ignore them in a big way.

Sunday rolled around, and I felt pretty awful (both physically and psychologically). The junk may have tasted good in the moment, but now I was a bloated mess who felt bad about my utter lack of self-control. I'm not even sure what caused the bender; I wasn't particularly stressed or upset about anything (my usual triggers for overeating), and I didn't have a lot of temptation in my environment. But it happened.

Now, there's nothing to do but move forward. I spent Sunday afternoon meal planning, shopping and prepping my food for the week. I have a little less than two weeks left 'till my birthday, and I'm rededicating myself to stick to the plan until then. I scheduled my workouts, and bought some healthy "treats" (e.g., Greek yogurt with berries) to have in case my sweet tooth flares up. Onward and upward!

Going HAM: An Update

Hola, peeps! Rest assured, I am still alive and didn't forget about this little blog of mine. The past few weeks have been kinda crazy with activities and a couple of projects I'm working on, but I'm hoping I'll be back to regular posting in a few weeks (at the latest). In the meantime, I wanted to stop by and give you a quick update on my HAM objectives. 

No sweets: This part is going really well. I haven't really been tempted -- I even baked a cake for my co-worker's birthday and didn't try it! I've had a few cravings, which I've been able to satisfy with a handful of dried fruit or a Greek yogurt, but for the most part this has been easy.

Keep a food log: This is going OK. I've been keeping up with the log, but the first two weeks I was allowing myself more splurges (pizza, nachos, etc.) than I'd like. Also, since I was consuming a lot more calories last month, I feel hungry A LOT. My body has to get used to eating normal portions again, and that's where I seem to be running into trouble. I eat my allotted healthy meals and snacks and then at 8:30 p.m., I'm hungry again, so I eat a PB&J or chips or whatever snacky thing I have available. Need to work on that this week, for sheez.

Get your workouts in: This has been kind of a struggle. I've been going to the gym five days a week, but the individual workouts have been rough. Like I want to go to bed immediately afterward. And then the next morning I'm so tired I can't imagine going back to the gym. I'm not sure if it's because I've had a low-level cold for the past few weeks, or I'm got out of my intense workout routine and so now they're more challenging, but I am getting my ass kicked on the regular. I'm trying to push through in hopes that it will get easier soon.

Overall, I feel like the plan is working. I'm down eight pounds from January 1 and I feel much better (not overstuffed and bloated like I was for basically all of December). My specific goals (in addition to those above) are as follows:

- Keep splurges to less than 10% (3-4 meals) per week

- Eat extra veggies/protein when you get hungry

- Take your vitamins

This week's workout schedule:

Monday - kickboxing

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - trainer workout

Thursday - sprint intervals

Friday - weights

Saturday - sprint intervals

Things I'm eating this week -- I make recipes on Sunday and eat the same thing every day for a week:

- Scrambled egg whites (and one whole egg) with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, and onions for breakfast

- Yellow Dal from The Happy Herbivore cookbook for lunch

- Salsa Chickpea Lettuce Wraps for dinner

That's all I got. :) Catch y'all on the flip side!