Parch March

After a three week tropical vacation visiting relatives and enjoying beach resorts overseas, I had to make some sacrifices when I came home in terms of my nutrition to attain my goals. Although I did end up losing six pounds during the trip, I felt a little bit lazy with regard to my fitness and most of all my nutrition.

 I found myself eating too much white starch (mainly rice) and not eating enough raw vegetables. I drank a lot of water and coconut water, but had foods that contained high sodium and way too much animal protein. I also found a lot of processed foods had made their way to my plate whether I knew about it or not, but you take what you can get when you're not the one cooking for yourself.

I believe the weight loss that did occur was due to the hot and humid weather as well as doing a great amount of walking as we were site-seeing and of course, just to a means of transportation. I did five workouts including a short jog in 35 Celsius heat, but it shouldn't have been enough to explain the six pound weight loss, although I am still very happy about it.

This month, I want to concentrate on hitting my goals on time and making up for the last four pounds I didn't lose last month due to my dietary intake. I will partake in a month of sobriety, with a couple days made for exceptions for some special occasions.

I've decided to give up alcohol for 28 days of the month of March. I specified 28 days because there are a few occasions in this month that I would like to reserve a few drinks to help celebrate. By pre-determining these days, it gives me a way to work hard and to give myself a reward when those days come.

The weekly meal plan has also come back into my home. Not only is this good for my nutritional goals, it's also great for the family wallet and food budget. Plan out a tentative meal plan and you'll find you use all your perishables you bought for the week before they go bad and most of all, it keeps your intentions to your fitness goals honest.

There are few things I am looking forward to as I head back to normal life after my vacation. I miss my trainer. I know some people hate going to their training sessions because in all reality they are, at times, most of the time, hard to go through. I will be implementing 1-2 days of yoga a week to help me relax and appreciate other forms of exercise. Of course, I will do going back to my wonderful trail runs once my cold subsides.

It's nice to be back to some form or normalcy and I look forward to letting you know how well my "Parch March" sobriety campaign went when it's all said and done, but I am sure I will be blogging it up for you before that.

So I'm back to being active, sharing my experiences and NOT dieting. I frankly don't believe in 'diets' because too many people just have too often fail because of them, but that's another blog.