a peek inside the fishbowl

Day 29! Day 29!

You’ll have to imagine me jumping up and down SHOUTING THIS FROM THE ROOFTOPS.

I am feeling pretty good. If you look at what I’ve eaten this month I think you’ll see that I’ve been doing ok from a dietary perspective (aside from all of that bacon, of course. Sigh.)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have lost some weight. At this point, I’m not sure how much, but I wanted to mention that I haven’t made any drastic changes to my exercise routine during this time. Speaking of which, some of you might remember the seven-minute workout I mentioned in this post. Well, I did it for a few weeks, got sick, and then totally forgot about it. But these past few weeks I’ve fine-tuned something I’ve been calling my Lazy Gal’s Guide to Fitness. It includes these things:

• A brisk 30-minute walk on the treadmill six days a week while I watch something indulgent on Netflix. (This 30 minutes includes some easy inclines and five minutes of punching the air with hand weights.) I’ve actually been doing this for a long time now. Right after that, I do…
• 10 modified push-ups
• plus a one minute plank
• some gentle stretching.
• Today, I think I’ll start adding ten triceps dips into the mix. They’re easy to do.

Basically, I chose the parts of the seven-minute work out that really worked for me and brought them back to my morning routine. I’m glad I did, because there are actually abs (!) underneath that muffin top and I think this is helping.

The other thing I do:

• Move mindfully and with gusto.

Pushing a grocery cart across the parking lot, hoisting bins into the car, walking home with shopping bags, carrying laundry up the stairs, bending down and reaching for stuff around the house… I focus on my muscles and work them a bit harder. I think to myself: I can add a ten percent lift, stretch, lunge or hoist because I can. That’s the glory of it: Using our muscles because we are healthy and have muscles to use. Hallelujah!

I have one more post coming up about Whole 30 and then I think I’m done! It which will be about our experience overall, mixed in with a few other observations (remember, Mark did this with me!)  as well as some thoughts as I ponder life after Whole 30. This will be the post in which I also reveal a few key figures, so stay tuned. ;)