I'm feeling just as passionate and renewed about our plant strong diet as ever and I'm actually even exercising now too. I've been doing Lindsay Brin's CFS method for retraining my abs for about six weeks now. I can't say enough great things about this program. It's super easy - takes less than 10 minutes - and I'm already seeing a difference. It's especially great if you've had a baby within the last few years, have diastasis recti (which I do - here's what it is and how to test), or haven't exercised in a long time. I've also added in a slew of other exercises most days of the week: jumping jacks, squats, lunges, lung holds, push ups, and misc cardio. See my fancy color coded workout calendars:
For cardio, I usually walk about 3.5 miles pushing a stroller, or lately I've started playing tennis with my husband a couple days a week. Did you know I loved tennis? Me either! It's a great workout and super fun - even though we're not very good. :) The kids generally come with us and run around the court and chase the extra tennis balls - so it's great exercise for the entire family!
As far as nutrition goes, we've been sticking to my plant based diet and we're juicing about every other day lately. We found a fantastic source for juicing recipes where you put in all the fruits and vegetables in your fridge and it lists the different recipes you have the ingredients to make. It also lists the top health benefits for each recipe, so if you're looking to boost your immune system, you can search by that benefit. Or if you need to lower your cholesterol, or are looking to lose weight, etc... It's been a fantastic resource and we've found several new recipes we really liked. We took advantage of making recipes that helped boost the immune system when one of our kids got the stomach bug. I was pushing juice like crazy, but (knock on wood), it seems like we were able to avoid passing it around.
Cooking plant based seems to get better and better. We've learned to "wing it" and also some fast, easy meals that work for us so that we're not spending our every waking minute in the kitchen. This improvement has made the whole thing seem much more sustainable. I've also found that you have to keep the motivation going on a daily basis. Motivation is not just a one time thing - I have to continually find things that motivate me to keep going. I read about health and nutrition constantly, watch documentaries about food fairly often and I also search the Pinterest "health and fitness" category on pretty much a daily basis. For some reason, that keeps me fired up. You just have to find what works for you so that your fire doesn't fizzle. :)
In weight loss news, husband is still losing weight right and left (he's down to 197 lbs - the lowest he's been since we've been together - and he's just started working out a little in the last couple weeks) and I've lost another pound or two. Weight loss is very slow for me since I'm already pretty small, but 2 lbs is a noticeable difference on my frame.
Lastly, I decided this week that if I could afford to go back to school and change careers, I would totally become a nutritionist, specializing in plant based nutrition, and a certified personal trainer. Maybe someday. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment