Checking In

Portland has decided to be beautiful this week and I'm so thankful!  It seems we've finally emerged from winter and are headed into a nice spring.  This past weekend, Mr and I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the yard and getting things ready to enjoy.  Last summer we completely demolished the backyard because the previous owners neglected it to the point where nothing was salvageable so we took everything out and only were able to complete the paving-stone patio and put new sod down before summer was over.  This year we are focused on adding back in some lovely plants to brighten it up so on Sunday morning we took a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot and came home with a few dwarf boxwood shrubs and a handful of pink and purple azaleas... and quite the load of bark dust.  After tilling the dirt and adding some better quality soil, we planted the boxwoods and alternated them with azaleas in the back corner near the patio.  Our plan for the long stretch of nothing on our neighbor-side fence line is to clean up the edges, dig out an old maple stump and put bark dust down.  Mr bought 3 hop rhizomes and we've got them started in small planters, but the plan is to eventually get large half barrels to plant them in and then put them along that fence line to create some more privacy between us and the neighbors.  An added bonus- organic homegrown hops for Mr's home brews!  Still on the list of to do's is to get an awesome fire pit that we can enjoy as well.

Besides getting dirty in the yard, we've had the opportunity to figure out how to repair a dryer.  Yay, home ownership!!  We were catching up on laundry over the weekend and had 1 last load to dry on Sunday night.  I put the clothes in the dryer, turned it on a timed setting and went to bed.  I woke up at 4am because I heard something rattling around... so I listened for a moment and realized that I was hearing the dryer.  I got out of bed to see what was going on and found that the dryer had been running all night, and without heat!  So I turned it off, pulled the still damp clothes out and hung them around and figured we could fix it.  Yesterday when both Mr and I got home from work and had eaten dinner we decided to tackle the dryer issue so began by pulling it out from the closet in which both the dryer and washer sit.  To my absolute horror there was about 2 inches of filth baked to the floor and baseboards in the closet.  I'm not just talking about dust and dryer lint.  It was as if every time the previous owners did laundry they threw a sock or hand towel behind or to the side of one of the machines.  Years of the damp and hot had created a rock hard formation of baby socks/towels/popcorn kernels/pistachio shells/etc on the floor.  We literally had to use a paint scraper to SCRAPE the layer of yuck from the floor before I could even begin to clean it.  I'm not disgusted by much, but it was quite the sight.  We checked the fuses and what we could see and it didn't seem to help fix anything, so today we will look at replacing the heating element and hopefully that works!

And to follow up on my commitment of eating cleaner and moving more here is how the past week and a half has gone:  If I had to grade myself I'd give myself a C+.  Not the best, but average.  I did really well journaling my food for the first 4 or so days and then we had a work offsite and I was so consumed all day that I would forget to write down what I was eating when and by the end of the night I was so tired I didn't even care.  I didn't do great at exercising, but I will chalk that up to fighting off a sinus infection and working 12 hour + days.  Every time I tried to do something active I would get crazy dizzy, my head would hurt and I would just want to die.  Actually, last week was just too much all around.  But over the weekend I got a great workout in while doing yard work and cleaning the house so I feel pretty good about that.  And last night I ran a mile after the great dryer debacle.  Today the plan is to do one of my Jillian Michael's dvd's or a 30 minute circuit (one I pinned online) while watching Downton Abbey.  I've been doing pretty well keeping my fluid intake up and have been trying to replace my coffee with tea every couple days.

So that's what is new with us this week!  What's new with you?

Getting After It

Oooohhhh.  *BIG SIGH*

You guys.  Do you know what happens in the winter?  Heather eats whatever she wants and stops running as much as she should and gains a few pounds and gets soft.  I know I'm not the only one that lets this happen.

And this year I am truly committing myself to getting in shape before bathing suit season.  I am serious. So today I'm sitting down and crafting a healthy eating plan to keep myself on track and to have a plan to fall back on so I'm not scrambling to find things to eat each day.  And when I'm done with my eating plan/menu I am crafting an exercise schedule because I don't follow through when I have to think about what I'm doing- it just has to be a "plug and play" situation where I know exactly what I'm doing on exactly what days or else I waffle between what I should do and what I want to do and end up sitting on the couch in my running stuff looking at Pinterest and not actually exercising.

My food guidelines aren't going to be super strict because I find that when I totally deprive myself I end up hating everything, being grumpy all of the time and not sticking with it after about a month and a half.  Instead here is what I was thinking- eating more lean proteins and vegetables.  Cutting down on the carbs and grains I eat and trying to stick mostly with brown rice and sweet potatoes vs breads and pastas, but the occasional whole wheat bread or pasta is fine.  Keep the dairy to a minimum- I've already cut out dairy yogurt and dairy creamer in my coffee to coconut yogurt and coconut creamer but ensuring that I'm using olive oil instead of butter (which I mostly already do) and keep the cheese to a minimum... which is the hard part because I love cheese.  Cut down on the processed/packaged foods- we already keep it pretty minimum, but sometimes I find it easier to grab a prepackaged bag of snack crackers rather than preparing fruit and nuts for a snack.  If I want a small piece of chocolate or a small serving of a goody, I can have it.  If I want a beer or glass of wine, I can have it- just make sure I'm not having sugar-loaded cocktails.  Sometimes it's the little indulgences that make a difference between feeling like you hate life and feeling like you are healthy and happy.

I have decided to keep a food journal using an App on my phone to make sure I am conscious of what I am putting in my body each day, and also keeping a regular daily journal to log how I am feeling- not just about food and exercise but in general.

My exercise guideline is to just move more. I am a fairly active person (not always in the traditional "Take a jog" way, but I work up a sweat deep cleaning and rearranging my house on a weekly basis) so mostly I just want to ensure that I am more consistent with my exercise and that I plan out what I'm going to do.  I want to do some sort of resistance work 2 times a week and then cardio at least 3 times a week.  Mr also wants to start taking long hikes on the weekends since the weather is starting to improve and he has made a goal of climbing a mountain soon.

I know I can do this, I just need to remind myself to make the healthy and better decisions on a daily basis and that the occasional goody or extra is not bad.

So here we go.