Starting out the weekend right for a change. Hard-boiled egg, apple, a few grapes and a tablespoon of Justin's honey peanut butter blend and spin class. I love getting my workout done first thing in the morning. There is nothing more invigorating. I am also feeling motivated again to get fit and lose the rest of the weight. What has changed?

I spent a lot of time this week reading fitness blogs written by others and checking out some websites. I also changed the way I was eating and cut down on my portion sizes. In addition I tried some new combinations. I put sliced pear with my grilled chicken breast and some hummus. It was delish and it helped to fuel that day's workout. I also had green apple with spinach, cranberries and walnuts for a dinner salad. They have this place called "Chopped" in the city. They now have it in Rye, NY and because the rent is cheaper for the franchise the prices are great. You can get an organic salad with protein and a drink for under $10. At that price it is almost as cheap as making your own salad. I've been getting dinner there with the girls post workout. It beats coming home at 8pm not having planned and eating crap which is a scenario that I can fall into quite easily after working a ten hour day.

Post spin I'm feeling good like I can get to my goal. That is what matters. If you think you can you will.

It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I'm in CT today. The top is down on my convertible and I'm listening to some holiday music. I just drove by some new restaurants and started to think a lot more about regarding my preoccupation with food. I think about the subject way too much. Why am I so enamored by the idea of trying a new restaurant. It is like I think that I am going to find some miracle food that is both delicious and calorie free and that never happens :)

Thanksgiving was very pleasant this year with lots of quality family time and an overabundance of food of course. In addition to the usual turkey and sides our family put a Jewish spin on things with a bagels and lox brunch. That was one thing I didn't eat and instead had egg whites. I did participate in all the other meals but skipped cake and pie. I got an hour long spin class in on the morning of the actual holiday which was helpful.

My instructor was Ted, an older man who is a local fire fighter. He plays very cool rock and screams at you to pick up the pace. It is a huge class of 60 which is extra motivating. I burn around 400-500 calories in his classes. After class he told us we could now eat/drink and not worry about it. My other spin instructor Kelly who is my all time favorite was much more realistic and said we could have one extra item now after spin class. You don't burn 2000 calories in spin which is the average caloric intake during a thanksgiving type dinner. I also think it can be dangerous to start that line of thinking so I try to accurately track calories burned versus what I eat. The other crazy fact I read was what eating a huge meal does to your body. Some researchers say that continuously eating like that can cause certain types of cancer. Another reason out of a slew of others to eat healthy and in moderation.

I have started to get my fitness back on track to pre-traveling levels. Now to get my eating on the same track.

I was so busy getting ready for the holidays last weekend that I didn't get a chance to write my blog.  Right now I have a brief interlude between cooking and picking up family so I escaped to Starbucks for an hour, my favorite reprieve from the craziness at home. 

I would give myself a C+ for the last few weeks. I went to spin class but again for the second week in a row that was all I did. Thanksgiving is now upon us. My strategy is I will taste things and not limit what I can have.  I know myself pretty well in the sense that if I say I can't have an item at all I'll end up having that same item the next day, week or month. It is just how it works with me. 

I guess I've lost a lot of the motivation I had the first few months. I need to find a way to get that back. Exactly how I'm going to that I'm not sure. Maybe the first step should be to read through all the blogs I wrote while I lost the 38 pounds.  Maybe I should do another juice fast to cleanse so I can eat clean again. I'll think about it and let you know how and what I decide to do. 

I want to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all. Try to make the holiday about special time with family and not about the food :)

Everyday is a new day. We wake up each morning to a new set of challenges and circumstance. Will I stay on my plan today or will I be tempted by some random starchy carb. Some of my weekly readers may have noticed that I stopped posting my weight loss the last few weeks. It is because I haven't lost anymore, just maintained my past losses.

As of this morning, I have no more business trips planned for the rest of 2011. I am happy about this and looking forward to truly getting back on track. Traveling especially out of the country presents a unique set of challenges for the dieter sometimes being stuck with few healthy options.

I started my first day home ready to rock and roll. Coffee with skim milk, a hard-boiled egg and some apple slices. I'm dressed for the gym and plan on getting a bunch of cardio in. I am hoping I'll have a proper weight loss to report next week.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. As a little side note this week I was quite proud of myself. I didn't consume any Halloween candy whatsoever in the period leading up to the holiday or on the actual day. This was a first for me.

Getting back now to my blog from last week and my unfortunate trip to LA... As a little refresher I was shocked when I realized the travel agency from work had booked me in the wrong hotel in the wrong city of Hollywood when I was supposed to be in downtown LA. Hollywood is near LA except with the traffic in the LA area being possibly the worst in the country it makes a huge difference.

Of course there was a conference and some event at the Staples Center so most hotels in LA were sold out. I was finally able to get a room at some crazy hotel for a mere $500 a night. This hotel coincidentally turned out to be the most disgusting hotel I've ever stayed in. It smelled of mold and most items in the actual room were broken. I was just disgusted. I was going out in Beverly Hills that night and told myself it was only one night changed and left.

I was definitely stressed at dinner. I over indulged and even insisted on dessert. My actual dinner was extremely healthy so it wasn't a huge deal but definitely an example of emotional eating. The rest of my trip I soothed myself with herbal tea and returned to NY a few days later after checking in to a very nice hotel for the duration of my LA stint.

I'm off to Toronto this coming week and then I hope to get back to my normal routine of going to the gym.

This past week was an insane week in every way. The craziness started on Tuesday morning when I was picked up at work at around 10:30am to catch a Virgin America flight to LA. I got dropped off at a terminal I've never been to which is rare as I've flown all over the world from JFK. It was really quite strange and a little deserted. What was even stranger was there was no curbside check in and I couldn't even find the Virgin counter to check in. There were just rows of closed counters for airlines I've never heard of. My destination ended up being around a corner so I was finally able to get my boarding pass.

I then proceeded down some stairs to some kind of shopping mall but no security line. I aimlessly wandered for a bit inhaled a piece of pizza as I was getting aggravated. Always a bad idea in any situation. With a little investigating you can always find a nice salad. I then proceeded to walk for a while to attempt to find the security line for wherever the gates were as this seemed to be a big mystery consisting of construction and long empty corridors. Finally, voila I had arrived at the empty security line.

I made it through and stopped for an iced Peet's coffee with plenty of skim milk. I've read a lot of research about the relationship between adequate amounts of calcium and weight-loss. I try to include some in my diet whenever possible.

As I boarded the plane the interior was accented with purple lights and there were pink headphones aligned perfectly in front of the seats in my row. I noticed a computer screen which I began to explore. You could order drinks and snacks to be delivered right to your seat as well as foreign films, chat and games. The five hour flight went by pretty quickly. I had some cheese and fruit with a glass of wine to pass the time.

When I arrived in LA I was met by a driver who said we were going to a hotel in Hollywood but that wasn't my intended destination. Stay tuned next week for my LA adventure.

I've read a lot of magazine articles recently that say you can get a decent calorie burn from chores around the house. I decided to test that theory out today.  I cleaned my kitchen for about four hours.  I put some tunes on and got ready.  I emptied all the cabinets and fridge.  I vacuumed out all the cabinets, scrubbed them down and cleaned all the items before putting them back. I followed the same process with the refrigerator. I also threw some old stuff out. I kept the garbage bag on the floor on purpose so that I had to use those core muscles each time I threw an item out. 

Later in the day I went for a walk into town. I was definitely tired and my muscles were even a little sore.  I would say it worked.   I don't think it can replace navy seals or anything to that extent but it is a great feeling to know I got a lot accomplished in my apartment and burned some calories at the same time.