Recap from week 1

I was so focused on good nutrition and exercise last week that I totally forgot about blogging until Janet's friendly reminder Friday. I'll get better at this and had fun viewing other blogs this a.m.

After receiving my baseling results, I was shocked! I have much higher levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and body fat content than ever. This is a great time to focus on better health and I'm committed to some real life changes because I want a long healthy life and haven't been on that path for at least 3-4 years now.

I was pleased with everything last week. It was great to meet others in the challenge and I became quickly energeized to be successful with my goals. Overall, I lost 7 pounds and met my goal to exercise 6 days. I really feel great and can tell I'm getting stronger and can endure longer, more strenuous excercising. I'm very encouraged to continue forward!

Feeling I did a few things right...I thought I'd share a few things that worked for me.
1. Logging everything I ate. Not only did this help me calculate calories, carbs, etc. it was a very good visual to keep me in line with Jessica's nutrition recommendations.
2. Prevention.com has a lot of helpful weight-loss tips, exercise plans, menu's, shopping tips, etc. I've taken Prevention Magazine for at least a year now, but their web-site was a favorite for me last week. It's now part of my "favorites" and I receive their daily emails of the topics that mean most to me. I found their information very helpful and easy to follow.
3. Exercise felt so good. I worked out 6 days last week -- some more vigorous and longer than others, but I felt the combination worked for me. A couple of my children joined in with me and we had a good time together.
4. I ate very simple meals last week and had them planned day-after-day. I also increased my water intake significantly and it really did help fill some of the "empty" moments I had.

Feeling positive about last week, I'm going to do much the same for week 2. My shopping is done and I have new recipes to try. As I make a few new things this week, I'll share my new favorites. My first attempt is using flax seed in place of the oil/fat that a recipe calls for. I understand it's a great substitute so I'll make cinnamon apple muffins tonight to try it out.

I'm a recipe collector, so I'll be watching the other blogs for your creative menu ideas too!