I've been consumed by work as usual over the last two weeks. That's the balance issue I have. But I have been getting up at 5:00 every morning, packing my gym bag the night before, and driving the 20 miles to Atlantic to walk every day with my friend Jodie before school. Some mornings we have been the "walking zombies" but we did it anyway. We've decided with kids in High School sports and activities that morning is the best time to get it done. In that aspect I have "stayed the course". I feel great when I've done my walk in the morning. We've even started to "walk-run" the last week and every other day we take a different route to change it up for our bodies.
I have not however been doing my "resistance training" for the last two weeks which I understand is probably the most important at my age or any age for a women. Older women get a "pouch" around their waist and some of that is because they are losing inches because of "osteoporosis" and the skin accumulates there. I don't want a pouch. I already have a small one, but it is disappearing slowly. So Stacey from Alegent called me Friday and sent me an "interval resistance" program. It takes about 20 minutes and should be done every other day. Jodie and I both want to get started with this.
Food has been going pretty well. I eat breakfast at school when I am done working out. I either have peanut butter on one of the "hundred" calorie buns or Low fat Yoplait Yogurt on my Kashi Go Lean cereal. For lunch I have been having a Waldorf salad with walnuts, Craisins, and Granny Smith apples on lettuce with raspberry vinaigrette dressing some days and I've broken down and had a Chef salad other days knowing that the ham is not good for me because of the sodium content.
I've been staying late at work so supper has been hard to get "right". Some nights we have eggs, some nights I'll have a salad with tuna and some nights I've stopped and picked up "fast food". I've always tried to get a salad but I never know until after I eat it and look it up on the Internet how much sodium it really has.
I did make a "Shrimp Scampi" dish for supper the other night with wheat pasta, everyone at my house liked it.
I'm still pretty tired at night, but we have not yet had air-conditioning at school . It is supposed to be hooked up on Tuesday of this week. I can't wait.
I bought a size smaller pants last week, that felt great. So what do I need to get together so I can really be successful for the "long haul".
I need to continue to be consistent with my walking but also add my "resistance" exercises at least twice a week. This is my exercise goal.
I do pretty well lately with "portion control". I bought an extra set of plastic measuring cups. I leave them in the cereal box, the nut mixture I eat as a snack, the Craisins or whatever I measure quite frequently. That is helping me alot.
In the food area however, I need to be more "proactive". I need to get suppers planned ahead and let Bill know so he can start it if he gets home first. He is coaching Jr. High Football, Gabe's in football, Drew's at work, and I'm at work. We need to share this responsibility. Bill's a good cook but not at making anything healthy. This is probably the biggest area to work on.
Last night Bill and I went shopping together. All we brought home was Kashi cereal, lots of yogurt ( I'm lucky that the people at my house like it), fresh fruit, and ingredients for my lunches for the next week, and lost of Crystal Light drink mix. It was a different looking shopping cart than I've normally had with Bill.
Gabe had his first football game Friday night. They have a new team shirt every year with a quote on the back. This years quote is "None of us are as good as all of us". I think this applies to the Better U program as well. We all need help from our family, friends, coworkers, communities and our sponsors. This is an awesome experience and one that can be very successful if we all "work together". '
I'm looking forward to the last six weeks with my team of bloggers, Toni, Tara, Stacey, Maggie, Jayme, Jen, Tyler and all the people who read our blogs. Go Red Better U - it says it all.

Blessings,
Laurie