MapMyWalk: February 2014

February....what a month you were. Between being sick, it being cold, or whatever....February was not the month for walking for me.  Here are my numbers:

32.99 Total Miles

9.3 Total Hours

5,033 Total Calories

13 Workouts

As you can see, I'm off the pace I need to be on. But it wasn't the best month for activity. Kate and I took turns spending a lot of the month battling sicknesses or allergies, more like it, and then when I would start to feel good the weather would go all freezing crazy on me and I just didn't want to walk in that.

I did make some changes in February that don't have to do with exercise though. The are on the other side of the equation: nutrition. We need more vegetables in our diet, and less junk like breads and complex carbs that aren't really doing much for us, nutritionally. I was inspired by a friend of mine who follows a Paleo diet. Think caveman - hunter/gatherer type diet. Meats, veggies, fruits....if you can kill it or grow it you can eat it. I'm not the type to just go cold turkey into a Paleo life style. I know me, and I know that I'll at some point fall off the program and when I do, it will be ugly. So I'm making small changes that are directing me towards that goal. Will I ever be total Paleo? Who knows. But I know that I'll be better than I am now.

So my first cuts were pretty simple - no more protein bars and no more bread as a side item (rolls, breadsticks, buns, etc.) I had become quite reliant on protein bars, which let's face it, are basically amped up candy bars with a little less sugar. But it had become my go-to breakfast of choice because I was being lazy. That meant that mid-morning I was hungry again, so I would have to snack before lunch. Since I was out of protein bars when I decided to cut something, it was an easy choice and since then I have actually been cooking breakfast for myself each morning. I stocked up on turkey bacon, eggs, and even bought some vegetarian sausage. Guess what? I no longer need that mid-morning snack.

It was just about cutting out though - I needed to add in something good so that meant veggies. A neighbor had told me about Bountiful Baskets and then my sis-in-law bought in to her local one, which reminded me of it and I decided to go for it so I bought my first farm share basket last weekend. I came home with a TON of vegetables, some I have eaten before and others that were completely new to me. Jicama, anyone? Thus began a week of experimenting and eating better. I have a freezer full of veggies for dinners and we have been eating pretty well around here lately.

Look at those carrots! I'll be honest - I had never seen a carrot outside of sitting in the produce section at a grocery store. I didn't grow up with gardeners, and I don't frequent farmer's markets...so when I saw these carrots I was school girl giddy. I even called my mom and texted her a photo. I'm a total nerd.

I volunteered at the school where we picked up our produce this week because I thought it would be fun to see how the process worked, and it so was! We literally unloaded the produce truck, we sorted everything and then began an assembly line to fill the baskets that each person's food went into. I got a couple of freebies for being a volunteer and got to check out and leave first while everyone else who didn't show up to volunteer had to stand in line. It was a lot of fun, actually.

All this led to a 4 pound weight loss in our first week of veggie eating. I've felt really satisfed after meals and even learned that I kind of like roasted jicama. I could get used to this.