Month 1 Healthy Lifestyle Results!!!

Oh my gosh, month 1 of my....healthy lifestyle revamp as you may call it is over! And I actually did surprisingly well! Okay, so it may have been a little easier this month since I was on research and I pretty much had tons of free time to exercise and watch my diet. But nonetheless, I did it and I'm soooo happy I was finally able to keep a healthy workout/eating routine for a full four weeks!! That's definitely a huge accomplishment and I'm so happy I did it. In the past, I've fallen off the bandwagon after week 2, but here's week 4 and I'm still going strong! :)

As far as June goes, my diet was much much better and I've been exercising regularly. My diet definitely improved from before but wasn't stellar and there's lots of room for improvement. I did follow a calorie-restricted eating plan with only 1200-1400 net calories each day and did well in terms of not going over except on binge days. I only had one, maybe two, binge days a week which is great since I was able to get all my food cravings out of the way! The only problem is that I didn't really eat nutritious meals on my healthy days. Yes I had a calorie-controlled diet, but I was eating things like potatoes, breads, pasta, frozen foods, cheese....lots and lots of carbs and fats and salt with very little protein. I was able to justify higher calorie foods since I've been working out and so can eat more calories than normal. Fortunately, the number of calories is the most important thing for weight loss so yes I did lose weight despite eating utter junk. But, I kinda feel tired, less energetic, and more bloated. I think that if I focus on eating more protein and drinking more water/eating less salt, I'd feel SO much better and less bloated (meaning my clothes would look much better on me!). So that is my number one priority for next month. I'm really hoping I can keep a balanced diet during my very first core rotation in July. I'm not so worried about keeping up my workout schedule, but I'm a little worried about my eating habits. I tend to stress eat in stressful situations and on busy days, so I'm really hoping to watch my diet and make sure I'm eating enough protein with minimal salt.

But I don't want to be a debbie downer, since I'm SO proud of myself for keeping up a healthy lifestyle for one month!!!!! I was finally able to control my eating and begin a solid, steady workout schedule! I do find that I like working out most at the Wexford gym, which is quite far from my apartment but hey...if thats the only place I can work out, so be it because right now working out is more important to me than watching gas money. I'm trying to only go to that gym maybe 2-3 x a week to not waste so much gas, but like i said driving far to workout is better than not working out at all right now! Not sure if I can continue my morning workouts due to my early start schedule, so evening workouts may become my main workout time next month.

I've lost I would guess near 5 pounds this week. Maybe a bit more, but definitely no more than 10. I'm a bit scared to weigh myself because I'm scared to find a smaller weight loss than normal and get bad news and hence fall off the wagon. So, for now I'll take the fact that my jeans fit better, my face looks slimmer, and my love handles have decreased is a really really good sign! Again, I wish it was more but hey something is better than nothing. I'm hoping this trend continues into July and I can keep shedding the pounds! I'm hoping my tummy fat goes because that's the biggest hunk of fat on my body. I'm sooooo happy though and feel really optimistic and not burned out and that's an amazing sign.

Here's a summary as well as what I want to accomplish next month :)

Month 1 Achievements
- Worked out every week at least 4-5x! (thirty minutes each)
- Ate within 1200-1400 net calories each day
- Only 1 or 2 binge days a week, all moderately controlled (not totally crazy overeating!)

Goals for Month 2
- Drink more water! At least 3 (24-oz) water bottles
- Eat more protein and less carbs
- Watch salt intake and try to keep it under 2000 mg
- Plan out meals ahead of time so I don't go hungry mid-way through the day
- Try to workout 3-4x a week at least for thirty minutes each