Day 6: My Morning Smoothie

Every morning that the hubs and I work out, we follow it up with a delicious morning smoothie. Thought I'd share the recipe with you guys in case you wanted to try it out too....

1 1/2 cup almond milk
1 scoop Spiru-Tein protein powder (Right now, we're using vanilla but we'll be trying out chocolate next.)
1 whole banana
2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
2 ice cubes
2 handfuls of spinach

Blend and pour into two tall glasses. That's it!

If you've never had spinach in a smoothie before, trust me. You really do not taste it at all. It just adds more minerals and turns the drink green. :) If you don't like soy protein powder, you can always replace the Spiru-Tein with whey or hemp protein powder instead.

Day 5: Cardio Survival Report

As you might recall, I've been doing the All-Cardio Challenge from BackonPointe this week. Well, here I am to tell you how much it sucked on the first day.

I have not jumped rope since I was in grade school. For some reason, I remembered it as being easier than it actually is. At first, I had to do the jump skip, where you jump over the rope one leg at a time. Then I tried to jump with both feet and my legs literally felt like lead. I truly felt like I was going to collapse in a heap when I landed. Those 30 seconds could not go by fast enough.

The other exercises weren't that awful...until after the water break. I did okay getting through the first few exercises in the second set, but when I got down to the last 30 seconds of high knees, I thought my heart would burst out of my chest. Originally when I planned to do this workout with hubs, I pictured us leisurely walking down our cul-de-sac afterward, cooling down and talking about our plans for the day together.

Ha! As soon as I dropped my last high knee, I plopped down on our driveway. When I did manage to get up, it was to walk into the house so I could collapse on the living room floor. I laid there for about 10 minutes, catching my breath. I felt fat and out of shape and just generally terrible. But - here's the thing - I felt great the rest of the day, albeit starving.

The real trouble started the next day, when delayed onset soreness kicked in. When I tell y'all that I was walking like a penguin, I am not joking. Anytime I sat down for 30 minutes or more, I could barely stand up afterward. Not fun. But I got up and did Couch25K day 1 anyway. And it wasn't that awful!

Wednesday, it was back to the All-Cardio Challenge and I was miserable at first. The first set of jumping jacks almost killed me. But that got easier as the routine went on. I was actually able to cool off and walk afterward!

Thursday I overslept and did nothing all day. I ended up feeling awful - sluggish, bloated, and overweight. That was also the first day that I had coffee this week. It's also why this post is just getting published now.

*Note to self: Exercise makes the whole day go better!

Day 4: Gone Shopping

I made my first trip to the store on Sunday to get ready for this week of veggie eating. My goal was to spend just $100 on groceries for this week. After I visited both Publix and Kroger, my total was $100.89. So close.

Here's a rundown of my shopping list:

Dry pasta
Vegetarian vegetable soup
Flour tortillas
Corn tortillas
Olive oil
Sour cream
Raw almonds
Vegetable bouillon
Light salad dressing
Artichoke hearts
Grated Parmesan
Frozen vegetable mix
Yellow squash
Zucchini squash
Cucumber
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Grapes
Bananas
Basil
Dry kidney beans
Dry black beans
Daiya mozzarella vegan cheese
Tofurky "Turkey" deli slices
Tofurky brat "sausages"
White corn
White mushrooms
Sweet onions
Sweet potatoes
Multigrain bread
Large eggs
Avocado
Peanut butter
Picante sauce

Not bad, right? A lot of that stuff was on sale. Summer is a really great time for getting cheap produce. I'll be planning a trip to our international farmer's market soon, where I should get a chance to really clean up. Come back later on and find out how our first week of vegetarian meals turned out!

Day 3: Starting Couch25K

Okay, so today is D-day for me. Running is one of the few things in life that I love and hate simultaneously. My earliest memory of running is me panting heavily around the softball field at my elementary school, trying desperately to finish a mile in 11 minutes 10 seconds so I could pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test in fifth grade. I was the very last person to cross the finish line. Good times.

After that, I didn't even attempt to run again until I was 28. Hubs and I signed up for a 5K together and I trained religiously. Of course, when I got there I still couldn't run the whole thing, but we completed it. I felt alternately great and awful during the race. Great when I first started. Awful when I realized I had only run a mile and I was already tired. Great when it was over. We did another 5K a couple of months later.

That fall, I joined Black Girls Run! - an incredible running club with groups all over the U.S. It's a community of black women and women of other races who support their commitment to health. I began running with them three times a week and started to actually like running. (On a few days, I genuinely loved it.) I signed up for a half marathon, finished it with several members of the group, and felt like a superhero.

But all that was over a year ago and I've only attempted to walk/run a handful of times since. This time, I'm starting out with Couch25K, a free, gentle introduction to running a consecutive 3.1 miles - something I was never able to do even when I ran regularly. You can get a look at the complete C25K nine-week schedule at CoolRunning.

Here's my prescribed workout for Day 1:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Jog 60 seconds. Walk 90 seconds. Repeat jog and walk intervals for 20 minutes. 

I'll probably add a five-minute cooldown and stretch afterwards.

We actually have an ideal neighborhood for walking or running. The streets are fairly quiet and they're completely paved. The only problem is: We have a killer hill at the very beginning of our subdivision. I think I'll be staying away from that until I have a couple of weeks under my belt. I'll be back to post my Day 1 experience later on.

Day 2: Cardio Workout Plan

What's a healthy eating plan without a workout plan? A waste of time. So here's my workout plan for the next week. I'll be completing this All-Cardio Challenge from BackonPointe on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I'll be starting Couch25K tomorrow and doing that on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. 

Yes, I'll be working out seven days a week. At least at first. The goal here is to create a habit of working out so that I'll actually like it enough to continue afterwards, even on days when the last thing I want to do is move a muscle.

Eventually, I'll be (hopefully) changing this challenge for one involving weights. But for now, this'll do. I'll post my post-workout survival feelings for this later.

Day 1: Accepting the Need for Change

It's been six months since I've had my fourth child. I just turned 30 two weeks ago. When I thought of how I'd look and feel by age 30, I was not expecting this. Mind you, I'm not morbidly obese. In fact, I may not even technically be obese yet. But I'm at least 25 pounds overweight. And I'm 35 pounds heavier than I was before I had my children. This is not cool.

Last spring, I had turned things around for the first time in my life. Our whole family was practicing veganism (if you can believe that) and I was running and working out regularly. I dropped 25 pounds and completed my first half-marathon. Two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant. Between the morning sickness, the pelvic pain, and the constant working, I gave up eating healthfully and working out....which is how I got here.

So, this is going to be my way of holding myself accountable. Blogging about changing my lifestyle, my eating habits, and (hopefully) my overall health. As the name of this blog shows, I'll be transitioning to vegetarianism. Since I'll still be eating eggs (and cheese occasionally), I won't be a true vegan this time around. But I'll be posting my exercise habits, meals, and mood changes along the way.

When I get back from the store today, I'll post my shopping list and the total we paid, so you can get an idea how much a similar plan might cost you. We have six people in our family, though, so you may have to scale down a bit.

I hope this journal is helpful to someone out there and I hope it gives me the motivation to stick with my life changes once and for all.