Author: Juliana

To refresh your memory, when I started this blogging journey I freely admitted to the world that I was a vain and shallow person and the only reason why I exercise is to look good.

Has anything changed?

NOPE!

I am still vain.  I am still shallow.  My reasons for exercising is to look good without depriving myself of all the food that I love to eat.  Has it worked?

Of course.

I am starting to look leaner and cms have dropped my hips.  In addition, all this happened without me restricting myself to a diet of salads 24/7.  For those of you who have been following my weekly blog, I have been quite plain and honest of the culinary delights that I indulged in during these three months.  The only reason why they didn’t stick to my bones is because I did increase my activity level.  Initially, I did start working out in the gym.  Then with the increased improvement of the weather, I then started to go for 1 hour and 15 minutes walks.  Now that the weather is starting to go downhill again, I am now going back to the gym and working out while watching TV.

My dietary changes do include eating more fish and salads, but I still enjoy my chocolate, potato chips and steaks.  May be in smaller portions, but I still enjoy them.

Now I know the big question that everyone is wondering the answer to.  Do I enjoy working out now.

Not at all.  I still only do it to ensure I can eat the food I want and only if there is a TV around or if it nice and sunny.  I don’t think that will ever change about me.  You will never find me signing up for a marathon, triathalon or anything of the sort.  I am definitely a slower pace person when it comes to physical activity.  I don’t like to sweat and I don’t like to be in pain and I will only exercise if it isn’t a miserable experience.

So I now end this blog, much in the same way that I begun it….with food in mind.

I had my health assessment yesterday and I found that I did lose weight and I did lose a few cms from my hips.

So to celebrate I had MacDonald’s for dinner.

Don’t worry, I made the healthy choice…I ordered a filet o’fish sandwich.

I also bit the bullet and joined the gym again last week.  I think if I had joined the gym a number of weeks before the assessment, I would have had better results in my health assessment.  I had gotten out of my daily 1 hour and 15 minute walking routine these last few weeks because it has been too cold and much too rainy.  As I was determined not to put any more weight on, I  joined the gym and started my work outs again on the elliptical and the treadmill.

The good part about joining the gym now is that since I am already used to working out for 1 hour and 15 minutes, I really don’t mind staying at the gym for an hour.  Prior to my 1 hour and 15 minutes walks, staying at the gym for more than a half hour felt painful, but now it is a total cinch.  Also, as I was walking almost every day, going to the gym every day isn’t as bad as it once was too.

I guess I really do have something to celebrate.

So I didn’t get any of the presents I had listed on my blog last week.  Oh well, may be some day.

I can’t say that I did a lot of exercise this week.  It was cold and wet, so walking just did not look too appealing this week.  I may need to renew my gym membership.  Especially since I am still refusing to give up my chocolate, steak, chicken and coconut cream pie addictions and I am refusing to change my dress sizes.

When I do go to the gym, the one activity that I enjoy doing is the elliptical.  The elliptical is low impact enough and manageable enough for me to want to do it without too much complaining.  The other good thing is that my gym does have a TV and as long as someone else isn’t watching anything, I can watch whatever I want.  Having a TV at the gym is key as it does help to pass the time.

I usually time my workouts around shows like “The Simpsons” or  “Friends”.  One time on the weekend there was the “Revenge of the Sith” on the TV, so I ended up working out an hour.  It’s amazing how much more inclined I can be to stay in the gym if there is something good on TV.

So let’s hope for more good shows on TV.  Because without those, there is no way I’m going to stay the same dress size.

I will be honest and say that there will be no eating healthy this week.  It’s my birthday and I am expecting to pig out.  And I’m not kidding about that…as I write this blog, I am eating a bag of potato chips.

I know for a lot of people, birthdays wreak havoc on their mental health…they see their lives passing by and that they feel like they are losing time.  I try and keep away from that line of thinking.  Every year brings wisdom, and with wisdom comes peace.

But it is my birthday and birthdays do mean presents.  So here is a list of things that I would like to get on my birthday.

1.   Scientists to discover that you only need to exercise once a week for 30 minutes to stay healthy

2.  Chocolate that takes weight off instead of putting it on

3.  Potato chips that don’t go straight to your hips

4.  Scientists to discover that bacon, steaks and Kentucky Fried Chicken are a great source of the good cholesterol

5.  Butter to be a good source of anti-oxidants.

Somehow I don’t think I’m going to get any of these items for my birthday, but no worries.

There will still be plenty of cake.