Goals for February

It's a new month so it is time to shake things up a bit. I have decided to add at least two days of strength training a week to my 6 days of cardio routine. I am really focusing on my biking to get ready for the 82 mile bike ride in June. So I am taking at least 4 spin classes a week. One day of the week I try to get in a double spin or at least a long class if I can. I am cross training on the other two days. I had started my walk/run program but my knee is really complaining about that so I am just walking fast or doing the elliptical. My hope is that as I get in better shape and drop weight my knees will stop wining and cooperate! We shall see.... I am trying to get a strength workout for my legs figured out. Apparently my right knee doesn't like to do squats of any kind- so I am in the process of figuring out what I can do.

I am also tracking my food daily using the livestrong.com  site. I can't believe how fast and easy it is to use. I have also found that as I insert my recipes in for nutritional information, they are then available for everyone to use. I highly recommend it for whatever your health and fitness goals are. It is by far the best site I have used and it is free!  I spent way too many days this week trying to figure out what I should be eating and when... I think I had some information overload. In fact one of my best friends and I  spent a good portion of a day trying to decide what we would eat for lunch! We of course laughed about it the next day and decided that we were making WAY to big of a deal about it. I am continuing to eat very healthy, no refined sugars of any kind, and really limiting any added sugars ( honey, fruit concentrates, etc..) I have also stuck to my no white flour, pasta, or rice. It is easy for me at home. It gets a little tricky when I am not, so I have to plan ahead and make the best choices that I can. The  livestrong.com site really helps me to make sure I am getting a good daily balance of nutrition and enough calories. Another thing I learned about this week- too little calories will make your body hold onto everything- so I have found that something between 1700 and 1800 calories work. I don't feel hungry but not over-full, and have enough energy to get me through the day. I have to adjust it a bit when I have a big workout and burn lots of calories vs a day when I don't.  I have found that my tastes are really changing and when I do eat something that I think is sweet, my family looks at me like I have lost my taste buds completely! But again I can't deny that I feel better than I have in such a long time, and that has made these changes easy for me.