First week of June

For June, I'm "drilling down". I'm back to basics on the diet, and 'pumping up' the exercise, quite literally!

On the intake side of the equation, I'm trying to keep it simple. I'm still going 'clean Paleo', by continuing to eliminate all grains, dairy, legumes, processed food, and added sugar. This part has become almost 'habit', so I've been pushing it towards low carb - more broccoli, less sweet potato. I'm not being super anal about the squeaky cleanliness of all my meat products - sure, I'd love all my beef to be organic, grass-fed; and my chicken & pork to be organic and pastured - but I'm making the best choices available without going to extreme measures. I'm also trying to eliminate the mid-afternoon snack, or '4th Meal', so that I can get good & hungry between meals, which will improve my insulin sensitivity & leptin signaling, not to mention my own comfort level, as I'm still programmed by years of blood sugar crashing leading to my becoming 'hangry'.

It's a brave new world!

On the output side of the equation, I'm absolutely continuing with Aqua Fit! Sure, it's a bunch of old ladies, and I'd like to graduate to something 'more', but not until I lose a good bit more weight. I enjoy being in the water, and this works well enough to not need 'fixing'. I love the Monday night class, it's much more intense than Wednesday & Saturday. I'm committed to Mondays, although I have to leave work early. I'm also committed to hitting it twice a week, so if I make it Mon & Wed, I can reward myself with sleeping in on Saturday. Motivation!!! Nice to have Saturday's in reserve, though.

Additionally, I'm now lifting weights twice a week, during lunch. This keeps my schedule open, but will hopefully not only improve my core strength, but also 'pump up' my good cholesterol.

...and that's not all! Of course I'm continuing with my 10,000 steps per day, pushing it up to 12-ish, so that I average 10k, even with a recovery day. Also continuing with 'Bodypump' exercise - I have a half dozen old school moves I do each school night.

...and the hits don't stop there! I am now also doing one bike ride, and one long 'hike' each week! I rode my bike 5 miles yesterday, and discovered muscles that clearly aren't getting used elsewhere! I have a 3 mile 'quick-walk' that I'm currently hitting a 17 minute pace - looking to trim that down as the summer progresses!

...and how does all of this add up? I'm nicely sore this week, but certainly not 'wrecked',