Life is good!!!!

I got in 5 great workouts last week, plus a bonus yoga session. The Friday yoga was really more for relaxation and flexibility than exercise, so I'm not gonna count it as a work out. Either way, I was so proud of myself. I also ate really well. I was distinctly aware of my calories, and kept them low. I am completely confident that you must cook for yourself. There is simply no way to keep track of your calories when you eat out so much. I try my best to make good choices...grilled options, steamed options, veggies, etc. However, I am never so confident in my eating as I am when I am preparing meals for myself.

So...lets now talk about what's really important. In T minus 23 days I will be on my way to beautiful Puerto Rico!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah baby! I cannot wait. What's most important is that I look great in a bikini. I've been working diligently to get my minimum of four workouts in per week. This week I have done 2 yoga work outs and a strength training/skills & drill work out. I'm going to get a cardio workout in this evening and perhaps even an early morning workout tomorrow. I am also staying committed to my diet. I find that I slip in space for little cheats that work against me. For instance, this past Monday I got a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner (good), but also ate some of the fries that came with it (bad). Its not that I'm inhaling every bad food around me, but those little things added all together might be working against me. My eating plan for the next month is to maintain my light breakfast, light lunch, 100 calorie afternoon snack, sensible dinner plan. I want to do this up until the 12th of May. Then starting the 13th...its diet time. Yes, I hated my last diet. Yes, I vowed never to do it again. However, I looked great on vacation. Also, I won't be in training or anything, so I will be able to have some good healthy options. The plan is Smoothie for breakfast, Salad for lunch, fresh fruit (or 100 calorie snack in afternoon), and light dinner (grilled fish, steamed veggies, sandwich, cereal, etc). The critical piece of this week (or really the entire month) will be NO CHEATS! I really must choose the 'healthiest' options available, rather than just a healthy option. I'm going to give it my best, so we'll see how it goes.

Speaking of good food choices and being aware of what you eat...I am not so much trying to decrease my meat intake as much as to increase my vegetable and raw food intake. I have come to the consensus that there are tremendous health benefits to eating a mostly veggie and even somewhat raw food diet. At this point in my life I am simply not ready to release meat and cooked foods from my diet. However, I am definitely making more of an effort to try some of the vegetarian options offered when I eat out (or even cook them for myself) as well as to incorporate more raw foods (like spinach salad, veggies w/dip, etc). In fact, there is a veggie/vegan/raw foods restaurant in Chicago that I am hoping to try this weekend. I've heard good things about it, but you never know. I really want to have a healthy lifestyle. So many diseases are preventable when you maintain your health...not to mention the number of diseases possibly caused by the way that we treat our bodies. I hope that I can stick with this. I think my life is heading in a good direction right now, and I want to stay on this path.