Birthday Time

As I celebrate another year's birthday I have a lot to reflect upon. It's been a very difficult year when it came to maintaining my diet and exercise routine. However it's been an extremely rich year when it came to family, friends and romantic relationships. I traveled a ton including a crazy cool two week trip to Tokyo. My regimen of massages and copious amounts of unsweetened green tea seem to be working. I recently had a physical and am literally in perfect health: low cholesterol, low blood pressure- lungs, heart and blood in great order. All considerably lucky since I am still quite heavy and even put on weight this year. So now once again I am in that phase of trying to jump start a fitness and weight-loss program. I've started to workout again slowly with some spin, treadmill and elliptical time with a goal of covering about 10k steps per day. It's not that easy and requires a great deal of discipline. I'm up for the challenge though. One of my recent fitness breakthroughs has been the purchase of a foam roller. It's really helped with the sore tight muscles of getting back into my fitness routine. I tend towards being on the tighter side of the spectrum and you can just feel the muscles stretch/elongate as you roll up and down. I love it. I'm also trying to get in the habit of writing this blog again. It all coincides together, writing, healthy eating and working out. It's the trifecta of the game of life :)

I'm writing today from the lovely Four Seasons in Silicon Valley. No conferences to manage so I am fully enjoying my surroundings.  I started this Saturday early by west coast standards with a gorgeous egg white omelette and a high intensity cardio workout.  My omelette had organic shitake mushrooms and sweet grape tomatoes which are in huge abundance here. At the pool they also serve water infused with strawberries and basil, a refreshing zero calorie beverage.  I've been trying to stick to salads and then shrimp cocktail, a petite filet with asparagus for dinner but have been consuming way too much wine.  On Thursday night I probably had an entire bottle not to mention per-dinner champagne. When you are out with clients talking and enjoying you just lose track of the alcohol. Enjoyable but not great calorie wise.  I'm definitely going to try making a batch of the water when I get home later next week. Otherwise just trying to stay on track during my numerous flights this coming week which is a high priority task. Until next time...

Wow it's been quite a while. I've been traveling A LOT the last few months which has caused the absence of my blogs.  I am about to embark on some new travels next week again but hopefully I will find the time to write as I enjoy it. Writing also seems to keep me on track with my goals. When I don't write my blog I don't feel accountable which can undeniably lead to problems.  Writing for the first time in a few months is like getting back to the basics.  Am I starting from scratch? No not really as I've learned so much the last year and my body has changed substantially.  I am much fitter physically and emotionally.  A year ago I was a complete mess.  I was in a very unhappy relationship which perpetuated my being out of shape, socially smoking and eating garbage.  My surroundings were messy and unorganized as well.  I ended that relationship and started to get my life back in order. The new me started with a much needed trip to Newport Coast to visit a close friend. Each day I exercised ate healthy and wrote in my journal. I was in a pretty bad place but kept telling myself time heals all. I started dating again right away which in hindsight was a mistake. As we all know anyone you date right after a serious relationship is a rebound person and it NEVER works out.  I didn't actually believe that time heals all as the pain was so great but in fact my acclamations eventually came true. I've straightened out much of my life.  I am much more organized in every way which of course helps with eating healthy and exercising.  Hopefully my organization skills will help me get through the next few weeks of travel and craziness both personally and professionally. 

I have experienced some very big changes this week. I’ve started to do a major double up on my spin classes clocking in about 90 – 100 minutes three out of four days over the long weekend. Additionally, I performed a double on Thursday evening. My gym has back to back classes so times wise it is extra efficient, I just don’t cool down until the end of the second class. My body feels stronger already. I have to say I am proud of myself. It really makes a lot of my goals seem that much more attainable.

The other much sought personal goal for me has been to change the style by which I eat. I work up quite an appetite at the gym and even when I'm not at the gym I've found. As I've mentioned many times I also don't always make the best decisions when it comes to what kinds of food I eat.

The solution? To concentrate on specific foods. It is called the simply filling technique. It is very similar to what I did this past summer. You concentrate on zero point foods and add in whole grains and lean protein. You don't count but rather target in on how hungry you feel. You also receive a small points balance weekly for things like olive oil which are encouraged to have two tablespoons full of per day. I imagine that is because everything you are consuming is very low in fat.

So far I am enjoying the challenge. We'll see how it goes. I am off to do two back to back spin classes now. Enjoy this beautiful crisp Sunday in the Northeast and have a great week!

I recently took one of the many steps towards one of my resolutions for the new year. I made my way to the bike shop to start my research on road bikes. This event just happened to coincide with one of the only major snow storms so far this year on the East Coast. So I looked and talked to the experts but I didn't get to ride any. I did walk out of the shop with an awesome pair of Shimano indoor cycling shoes.

My new purchase has brought me once again to the next level of fitness but how has my diet been? Not good. I still eat way too much and per usual not always the right things to fuel my workouts. What to do about this? I have tried many approaches. I just don't seem to possess enough will power or self discipline. Maybe I don't want it enough?

I would say that one of my biggest roadblocks is my career or rather the all consuming hours spent on it. I start my day at around 7:30am at my desk or on my blackberry. By 7 or 8 at night I am completely emotionally and physically exhausted. This is because of the constant pressure to perform plus the constant threat of losing my job due to head count reductions as my firm closes and sells off different businesses. When I have serious issues weighing on my mind I've never been a successful dieter at such times. I need to work on changing that right away.

Happy Superbowl Sunday. Go Giants! I started my day in a special way. I did a two hour spin-a-thon for kidney research. As this is of course a very big eating day I thought a double workout might make a dent in the proposed party food later tonight.

I also have a pretty bad cold so for me to finish the two hours was quite a feat. I made my way into the steam room and to the sauna after which seemed to help my congestion. Of course I was starving afterwards. I went to a greek restaurant with some friends I spin with. I had a nice salad and half a pita. Pretty pretty good for me. I was satisfied as well.

A lot of the time when I see food I'll want to eat it even though I'm not hungry. Maybe it just looks yummy and I think it would taste great. It plays to big a part in my life. Today not so much. Maybe if I do two hours of cardio each day I won't eat :) I do want to do a triathlon so not too crazy of an idea. We'll see how this week goes. Can't wait for Madonna tonight.

Another year has gone by.  As we start 2012 it is only natural to think about what we accomplished in the last year and what we hope to accomplish this year.  After the excitement of the actual new year you really need to buckle down to continue to meet your goals.  Everything sounds so glamorous and attainable when you first conceive it. 
 
For example in my last blog I think I mentioned that I would love to compete in a triathilon.  Not the IRONMAN :)  Rather a .5 mile swim, 15 mile bike ride and 3.5 mile run.  It sounds amazing expecially the bike ride and swim but when I try to even run a quarter mile I am miserable.  It isn't that I physically can't do it, I have some kind of mental block. 

Another necessity for the new year is to get back tracking what goes in my mouth. When you start relaxing on recording each item things get missed or forgotten.  That is just the reality. 

In other news I'm definitely making a trip to the bike shop this weekend to select some cycling shoes and I might do a one day juice fast at the very end of the week. Maybe on Friday. 

I'm sure I'll be talking more about all these subjects in the months to come!