Losing it at 30
Getting Healthy and Keeping My Sanity
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!"
Struggling
Well, I’ve hit that part in a new fitness routine when it just isn’t exciting anymore. This morning I wanted to cry when I stepped on the scale and realized I had gained 2 pounds.
No, it’s not a lot, but when you lose weight in ounce increments, 2 pounds seems like a ton of weight.
Part of the issue is the medications that I’m currently on. Since the weather has been all over the place, my asthma has gotten out of control. All weekend, I felt lethargic and fell off the healthy food bandwagon, so I basically eliminated all of my hard work the previous week within a few meals.
On Monday, I dragged myself to the gym, but by 2 p.m., I realized I was having an asthma attack.
Numerous attempts at the rescue inhaler (albuterol) didn’t work, so Monday night I went with rescue inhaler + prednisone, a steroid that is known to cause weight gain.
Tuesday, I woke up and still had breathing issues. I barreled through the day and stopped by Target last night to pick up Singulair* and Allegra D. Pure Barre? There was no way.
I went home, did a breathing treatment on my nebulizer, took a prednisone and added a Singulair and Allegra D.
This morning, I repeated the process (and skipped boot camp again). The bonus was that I felt amped up on all the “asthma speed” and had an incredibly productive morning at work.
The good news is that I’m finally feeling better. However, I’m tired of having bad days. Yes, I’m whining, but I’m frustrated with my health and inability to lose weight.
I know the answer is to rest up, get better and keep going, but sometimes the healthy lifestyle seems really hard and frustrating.
Last night at Target, I wanted nothing more than to buy a huge bag of Twizzlers and tear into them. Instead, I ended up buying almost $200 of Jason Wu for Target clothes, which are all a bit too small. Victory?
*In 2011, Singulair was running $150 a month with my insurance, so I only got it filled when I needed it. This year, I was thrilled to discover that Blue Cross put it on a preferred prescription list, so it’s only $50 a month now! Whenever I let my medications lapse like this, I always have a flare up.
Missing Exercise
Still feeling under the weather. I wanted to get up early this morning and workout, but I still felt awful when I woke up. I even briefly considered taking another sick day.
While dragging myself through the morning ablutions, I realized how much I miss working out. It’s only been a few days, but I feel a difference. My lower back hurt yesterday from my office chair, and my joints were stiff. Last night, I realized that I haven’t stretched since Saturday. How quickly, we lose the effects of exercise!
Right now, I can’t wait to get back to boot camp and just sweat. Since I sit so much at work and do cerebral activities (primarily graphic design, strategy and writing), exercise has become an important outlet for me to use another part of my brain. I didn’t realize how much that I’ve come to enjoy it in the last few weeks.
I’ve also tried to keep my diet clean. While I stumbled a bit yesterday when someone brought peppermint puffs to the office (the peppermint was refreshing to my sore throat), I resisted temptation last night at the grocery store. Usually when I get sick, it becomes a junk food free-for-all with a giant bag of Twizzlers (my weakness). I resisted the candy aisle even though I felt terrible. Baby steps.
Check out all these tips from fitness expert Kit Rich on how to whip that core into shape!
I love anything with Greek yogurt. It’s become a staple of my diet. I also love asparagus! I just ran this through Weight Watchers, and it’s 3 PointsPlus at four servings.
I’ll be making this later tonight.
Super Clean Cream of Asparagus Soup Recipe - protein packed!
Ingredients (4-5 servings):
1 medium onion, diced
2 pounds of asparagus, trimmed and cut in one inch pieces, remove the “woody part”
4-cups of chicken stock
1/2-cup Greek yogurt, nonfat or 2% fat
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBS of cayenne pepper
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add asparagus and cook until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and drain. Reserve 2 cups cooking liquid from the boil.
2. Dice onions and sautee on high heat until slightly browned.
3. Transfer cooking liquid and asparagus to a food processor and puree until smooth. (If you don’t like biting onion, you can puree the sautee too. Otherwise just leave it to stir in by hand later.)
4. Combine asparagus puree with chicken broth in a medium stockpot and heat over medium until warm. Stir in yogurt, salt, pepper, onion, and cayenne. Serve!
A Second Chance
On Saturday, I decided that getting burned out in order to meet a challenge at Pure Barre was silly. If it took me a day or two longer to make 20 classes, I would survive. I still deserved to reward myself for staying motivated.
The weather was lovely on Sunday, so we set out to visit the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn. Despite growing up in the Volunteer State, I had never been there.
The tour was fun and interesting. The location of the distillery is idyllic and what you imagine Tennessee to look like. The photo below was my favorite part of the tour.
We got back too late on Sunday to make the 3:15 p.m. Pure Barre, but I thoroughly enjoyed my day off. It was nice not to put on yoga pants and running shoes.
Yesterday, I woke up and realized that I couldn’t breath when my alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. I slept through boot camp and tried to get up for work but collapsed back into bed after my shower. My asthma was acting up, and I was running a low-grade fever. Sounds like sick day.
After calling into the office and medicating myself with several doses of albuterol to clear up my breathing, I slept for most of the day. That’s always a sign that I’m really sick. Good thing that I had decided not to make the 20-class challenge.
Last night, I checked my email and got the February Pure Barre newsletter. The 20-class challenge officially ends February 2. Sigh. I’m still in this.
As of today, I’m short three classes. Due to a Junior League meeting and my cold, I can’t work out today. If I’m feeling any better tomorrow, I may try to take two classes and then wrap it up on Thursday evening.
If not, I’ll survive. Between boot camp in the morning and Pure Barre at night, I’ve worked out more in the month of January than I ever have before. For that, I’m proud of myself.
Family: More Important than Goals
On Friday, I feverishly drove to Pure Barre and made it to the 5:30 p.m. class a few minutes late. The interstate was terrible, and I later learned that there was a fatal accident that made rush hour traffic so much worse.
Saturday came and the weather was beautiful. I dragged myself to Pure Barre again and was just in a bad mood throughout the class. It was the weekend. I was tired of exercising. Was meeting a 20-class challenge really worth it? Despite the endorphin rush that class always brings, I wanted to do something different.
The weather was beautiful. While a tad chilly, there was a beautiful blue sky out. I needed to do something fun. All that I’ve done in January is workout and go home to sleep. While it’s been mostly rainy and bleak, I felt like breaking out of my self-imposed hibernation.
My family felt the same way, so I met up with my parents and took in the Hunter Museum of American Art, which is always fun to enjoy on a sunny day due to views of the Tennessee River.
We took in the exhibitions on Dorthea Lange and Herman Miller (which was poorly written and badly organized but interesting). Then we headed over to the Hot Chocolatier. I’ve had their truffles several times, but I’ve never been to the shop. Yum! I may have a new favorite spot in Chattanooga.
Wait a minute. I’m trying to eat healthy. How do you do that in a chocolate shop?
Not very easily. Between eating healthy and my gluten intolerance, there wasn’t much I could eat. I opted for chocolate-covered dried pineapples and a frozen white chocolate drink.
The drink was probably loaded with whole milk and fat, but it was delicious. I don’t care. I’ve eaten cleanly for weeks without messing up. Remember the struggle to find balance? One trip to a chocolatier doesn’t have to blow the rest of my day.
Instead, I sat there and enjoyed the time with my family.
After we indulged in chocolate, we hopped down to Urban Stack for burgers. However, this is where I decided to cut back. Urban Stack isn’t super friendly to gluten-free folks. They offer burgers with a lettuce wrap, but it didn’t seem appealing. Why spend $10 for a piece of meat wrapped in lettuce? I decided to get a dinner-sized salad with grilled chicken, strawberries, snow peas, corn and beets and skipped the salad dressing.
The next day, I stepped on the scale and realized I had gained 1.4 pounds. Such is life. But it was a beautiful day that I wouldn’t trade with my family for anything.
Good thing I just made a whole PITCHER of green tea!!
Glad that I like green tea.
(Source: secretskinny)
About Me
My name is Adrienne. I recently turned 30 and accidentally embarked on a new fitness adventure thanks to two Groupons that were about to expire.
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