Get Fit: Week -1

I am calling this Week -1 because technically I wasn't set to start until June 1.  However, after my first day of the summer, I realized it was a little silly to wait.  So I started Tuesday!  Here is how I did:

TUESDAY:
Exercise - 1 hour yoga
Diet - began my plant-based diet - exceptions were cottage cheese and a fruit smoothie from Juice Stop, which has yogurt.  Cottage cheese is a frequent exception.  It's high in protein and delicious.  I eat 1%.  Here's a picture of my breakfast:

No idea why this picture came in upside down...

It was delish, all except for the almond milk.  I liked it in college but I just couldn't choke it down.  I'd rather not drink milk than drink that stuff straight!

WEDNESDAY:
Exercise - walked 2.5 miles pushing the jogger (which has to count for more, right?)

I remembered to take a picture right after I told my son it was time to go home, hence the pouty expression.

I downloaded a free walk-tracker app.  The timings are off - on the first walk I played with Charlie quite a bit (He would yell "Stop the stoller!" and I would stop, and then he would yell "Start the stroller!" and sometimes we would stop to look at things or get a drink.)  And on the second workout, which was on the way back from the park, I forgot to turn the tracker off after I got home - it didn't take me 39 minutes two walk .81 miles!  Bottom line - it was a fun way to get some exercise.  And we had some fun at the park too:

Diet - I did well today with one exception.  I started by eating small portions of things throughout the day.  I probably ate 5 or 6 meals, one of which was a half-serving of almonds which I ate on the walk.  Almonds are technically plant-based, but they are high in fat, so I was careful to keep to a small portion size.  (And they are so stinking delicious that I could eat the entire bag without breaking a sweat.)  The one exception was dinner.  It was my mom's birthday dinner and we had planned to grill out.  Instead of eating a hearty, meaty burger, I opted for a Boca burger, but I did eat it with bread and cheese (both no-nos) and I had a few slices of seasoned potato wedges and half a corn-on-the-cob.  As veggies go, potatoes and corn are about the worst ones you can eat because they are so starchy.  But, as this was Week -1, I didn't worry too much.

THURSDAY:
Exercise - 1 hour yoga
Diet -Thursday was 100% on it.  Had a great day.  And I bought a scale and recorded my "starting weight."

FRIDAY:
Exercise - 1 hour yoga, only this time it was Power Flow yoga, which is a little more demanding.  I was sore after this one!
Diet - did very well, even when we went out to eat for lunch.  We took my son out of town to visit the Thomas the Train exhibit (which he loved) and ended up grabbing lunch.  Normally we would have driven through somewhere, but I can't really do that and stay on track, so we went to Jason's Deli.  I ate a delicious veggie salad with a very small amount of balsamic vinaigrette dressing and a boiled egg.  Yummy.

SATURDAY:
Exercise - walked 1.8 miles pushing the jogger and perusing our neighborhood garage sales.  I stopped and started the tracker whenever I would stop, but I did forget to turn it off when I returned home.

I also did a (very) abbreviated version of the 30-Day Shred.  I did abbreviated because my back started hurting pretty badly again today.  I don't know if it was the lifting and bending I did for garage sale stuff or what, but it's been pretty brutal.  I decided to go a little easy on myself.

Diet - did well again today, but we had an unforeseen excursion to this restaurant that evening:

We did music for a wedding and ended up going out to eat with our pastor and his family, and this is about the worst place for someone attempting to eat vegan.  Since this was unplanned, I had to work on the fly.  I ended up ordering a salad with no cheese (which they gave me anyway, but I was able to eat around it).  The salad had boiled egg, avocado, chicken, and bacon bits as toppings.  I ate everything except all of the chicken (though I did allow myself a few small bites).  The bacon was too hard to eat around but the chicken was in strips, so it was easy to pull off.  The dressing was the real issue.  They didn't have any lite options so I had to order regular.  I was able to keep it minimal with a trick I learned from Lindsey.  I asked for the dressing on the side, and instead of dumping it on top of the salad, I very lightly dipped my fork in the dressing before stabbing the food.  You still get flavor but you don't get near the intake, and I had depleted less than half the little cup of dressing by the time I was done.  This was definitely a "cheat" meal, but when I think about what I would have normally eaten (fries, fries, and more fries until the meal came, and then a banzai burger and more fries), I feel pretty good.

Comments:
I feel very good about my Week -1 progress.  My scale is already showing a difference (about 4 lbs), and though I haven't seen anything yet, I am excited about the possibilities.  I am really surprised at how easy it's been!  I think the key has been to keep busy.  I am constantly chasing my kids around, running errands, doing housework, and going places, which really helps to keep my mind off food.