My January Journey

Hi folks! If you read my last post from a month ago you know I was going to start my journey to become fit and healthy. *AKA loose weight! I thought I would make an update after one month.

I actually met my goals for exercise in January.  I think the extremely cold weather helped me since I did not want to leave the house, unless it was to go to work. (and I still did not want to go but I had to)

I set a goal of 20 miles on the treadmill and 40 miles on my exercise bike for the month of January.  I was able to meet both of the goals with only 1 day to spare!   I also did a month worth of squats and modified push ups.  (30 day challenge) 

I will tell you when you are on that treadmill run/walking and sweating your butt off you feel like you must be loosing a bunch of weight. Well, not so much..... I did loose 8 pounds though.  And I do appreciate that I did, but just wanted it to be a bit more!

I have also modified my diet somewhat. I have switched completely from simple carbs to complex carbohydrates, except for an occasional treat. I work at a hospital, you would think they would have healthy food options?! Well, NOPE they don't.  In fact they don't even have the salad bar open at supper time.  So when I actually am able to get a break *and that doesn't always happen, I usually have some pretty unhealthy options. I guess I really need to start packing my lunch.  I have always HATED packing, even for my kids.  It is just not my thing.

I will say that those "endorphins" do kick in when I exercise, so my mind has been in a great state, which is unusual for January. I usually suffer from the winter blahs.

This month I am going to start taking more supplements. I presently take a multi vitamin, fish oil and Vitamin D.  I am a huge fan of Vitamin D.  I never realized what a difference it could make until my doctor checked my levels and found them to be low and told me to start supplementing.  Vit D is one of the vitamins that is not found in a lot of foods. In fact, the main source is the sun and vitamin D fortified milk.  I am not much of a milk drinker, and here in Ohio don't get much sun for 9 months out of the year. I have been taking Vit D now for over a year and it has made a difference for sure. Fish oil, I cannot say for sure that it has, because I didn't feel any different after I started taking that, but there are plenty of studies that support the fact that Fish Oil is heart healthy. 

For the month of February I plan on starting to take CLA. (CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID) I had heard of this before but didn't pay much attention, however the other day I was watching Dr Oz and he was talking about CLA.  After the show I did some further research and it really does sound promising. It is found naturally in meat and dairy products, but not in very large amounts. (grass-fed animals have much more CLA then grain-fed animals) It has several reported benefits, including improving immune systems  and fat fighting properties. Some research also supports the fact that it fights cancer, especially in the intestinal track.

I also have decided to look into Pyruvate and MCT, and will write more about those in a future post.  Do you have experience with any of these supplements? I would love to hear from you about your experiences on your road to health.

Michelle