June of Doom: The Wrap-Up

All in all, it’s been a pretty quick 30 days. Can it really be the end of June already?

Overall, I’m really happy with the effort I made to get my workouts in and keep my meals reasonable. I stuck with most of my goals, most days, with the exception of a couple of cocktails already this weekend (I was celebrating the end of June!).  Oh and yes, there was a slice of graduation cake, a slice of birthday cake, and another birthday cupcake somewhere in there along the way as well. What can you do? You have to live and celebrate.

RESULTS SO FAR:
While my weight hasn’t moved much (I’m down about three to four pounds), my body fat percentage is down almost a full 1% and my muscle mass is up almost as much. This doesn’t seem like much, but after a little research, I learned that for women in particular, it takes a significant effort to lose 1% fat, even if we have excess to shed, because our bodies are just wired to store it. So in short, I’m chalking this one up to success. Hopefully my body will gain a little momentum in this area over the NEXT four weeks.

As far as other measurements I’m tracking, I’ve lost about an inch off my hips and a half-inch in my waist. Again, nothing monumental, but it’s progress in the right direction and I’ll take it. More so than any numbers can show, I just FEEL better and my clothes fit more comfortably, so I know changes are taking place, even if oh-so-slowly.

So from here, we begin July. It really seems to work for me to set goals one month at a time. I can stick with just about anything for a mere four weeks. For this month, I have a few new goals and some modifications to the old ones.

FOOD:
Alcohol is allowed back in, in moderation - and just in time! Whose idea was it to forego delicious cool cocktails in June?! For me, alcohol means “skinny” cocktails only, the occasional lite beer, and ideally I’ll keep drinks only to the weekend. I’m going to continue to keep white starches to a minimum and skip excess carbs when I can (i.e. eat a burger with a fork, minus the top side of the bun). I won’t feel guilty about an occasional dessert, but I am going to try and keep substituting it with fruit and a little whipped cream as I did several times this past month. I’ve been learning a lot about subsitutions in recipes to save on calories and fat, and want to continue to cook favorite meals we skipped on the past several weeks, but in a lightened-up way.

WORKOUTS
I’m really enjoying my workouts right now and nothing is boring (yet) so for now, I’m going with the flow and not changing much. I did a very minor amount of strength training in June, just trying to guage where I was, and could definitely do more with that this month. My goal is to get two lower body and two upper body/ab sessions in every week. Even if the whole session is a mere ten minutes, I just want to get in the habit of working muscle groups in addition to the cardio I’m currently doing.

And if the above is true, I’m hopefully right on track. I can see and feel the most subtle of changes right now, but I’m hoping with another month of progress, they can seem more “legit”. By the end of the summer, here’s hoping someone other than me might be able to see a difference (fingers crossed)!