Month one evaluation.

Yesterday was one month since I started my diet. As of Friday I have lost 9.2 pounds. I am disappointed at these losses! I was hoping to be out of 190s or within a pound or two of being out, by month one, but I am nowhere close to that point. I used to lose a lot faster. Oh well.

My goal was to eat right and exercise. Well there is much room for improvement.

I have taken high sugar and high fat food out of my diet, half way through the month I eliminated bread, but I think I still eat too many bars/shakes. I like to keep those for the days that I don't have time to prepare a meal. I like to eat more whole foods.

I have been thinking one way to replace my morning bar is to have a smoothie. I like to make smoothie with Almond/Coconut milk, a small banana, one tablespoon peanut butter, and ice, very delicious and satisfying. That shall be my breakfast starting tomorrow.

On the exercise front, I am very satisfied with my yoga improvement. My first class I was tired and ready to leave half way through the class, and seriously if I was not embarrassed to face my friend/instructor afterward I would have left. But I am glad that I stayed. I am glad that I started practicing at home, at first for five minutes only. I am glad that I kept at it until now that I comfortably go through the 60-minute class. This past Friday I didn't look at the clock until we were sitting down for the cool down. That is how easily the hour passed for me. Of course there are poses that I can't get to the way I want to because of all the layers of fat in my middle, but I think my muscles have woken up and realized that they do remember these poses, lol, now I just need to lose these fats so that my muscles could go as far as they can. My next goal is to add a second class, Mondays, which is 90-minute class.

Which brings me to cardio. I have done cardio exactly three times in the past month, for about an hour each time. I am finding the elliptical and stationary bike too boring. I love spinning classes but they are offered only during the peak hours and my membership is off-peak hours, which means I can't attend spinning classes. My previous gym had passes that they periodically send to their members to give to their friends and family encouraging them to join the gym. I have been wondering if they have day passes here, and if I could use one or two to go to one of their spinning classes. That is the kind of cardio I like.

I had been thinking about running too. First off I like running, and secondly I lose weight a lot faster when I run. For example a few years ago my best friend talked me into running a 10K with her. We trained for 6 weeks. Of course I was running before we started training, but only once a week, rarely twice. At that point I was in the high 140s, was not losing weight fast and so I had decided not to weight myself. Two weeks into our training, when I felt my cloths were getting lose, I weight, and was down to 141. Four weeks later I was at 133. That is how fast I was losing, so close to my goal weight. If I remember correctly, we were running 3 days a week, running between 2-4 miles a day. We also had a long run that we started with 4 miles, increased every week until we were running 7 miles, and then cut back down to 5 miles, the week before the race.

Friday night, at the gym, when it got quite, I started surfing the net looking for experience of bloggers who were my size and had decided to run. As I was looking around I came across a challenge at Runner's World. The challenge is to run from Memorial Day to Independence Day, 38 consecutive days, one mile a day In their FAQ they are advising only people who have been running regularly for the past six months to participate. I think that is kind of extreme! I think people who have been running 4-5 times a week 3-6 miles a day for a month could easily participate. I decided I want to challenge myself. Of course I knew I couldn't run a mile but I thought I could start slow like with yoga. I want to write a separate post for my plan to run in this challenge, so stay tuned, lol.

Here are my goals for the second month on diet:

• Drink smoothies for breakfast instead of Atkins bar.
• Grill on weeknights that I am home early. Grill more veggies so that I could have as snack the next day instead of Atkins shake.
• Have at least 4 grain free days a week.
• Go to two yoga classes a week, one a 60-minute and the other a 90-minutes class.
• Run-walk one mile a day, everyday.
• On Fridays, after the yoga class, weight train lower body at least.