HYC update

Hard to believe it's Tuesday already-- it feels like the past few weeks have just flown by. All in all things have been progressing quite well, in spite of my lack of free time to document it all. Work has been picking up a lot as of lately, which is a good thing for sure. After my mini-breakdown last week I've been feeling a lot better about work in general, and moreso now that I've finally gotten my social security paperwork in order after having to make a second trip to the Social Security office in Almería yesterday.

This past weekend went well, nothing too exciting though. On Saturday Chechu and I had our respective tutoring sessions in Almería, after which we ran a few errands downtown and then headed back to our side of town to do a little grocery shopping. I was surprised to see quite a number of people at the beach that afternoon. In about a month and a half, the weather will definitely be hot enough to get in the water. I can't wait!!

Saturday evening after church we went out with some of the other young adults to our usual hang-out spot: the food court at the mall. Chechu and I ended up ordering hamburgers from BK and split a small order of fries. Not too bad considering what it could have been, but a cheat nonetheless. Originally our plan was to have our once-a-week non-diet meal on Sunday during lunch, but we ended up splurging a little on Saturday as well.

Sunday was pretty low-key for me, at least at the outset. Chechu had to be in Almería for church to lead worship and at the last minute I decided to stay home. I felt like I needed the extra time to sleep in a little and catch up on some cleaning and other work around the house. Chechu got back by 3pm and we had our non-diet lunch: pork loin fillets, refried beans (healthy version), rice, salad and mixed veggies. I actually filled up on the salad and mixed veggies. I had two small pork fillets and some beans. I didn't eat any of the rice. For dessert we split a white chocolate/strawberry cheesecake ice cream bar (amazing).

On Sunday evening after taking a nap we went to walk for about an hour along the boardwalk, which was nice. I ended up buying ice cream afterwards though-- a pint of BJ's chocolate chip cookie dough, which Chechu and I split while we watched movies.

On Monday morning I definitely noticed a difference in how I felt after eating so heavily on Sunday night. All during last week as we were following the diet, I felt so much lighter after each meal, instead of that weighted-down feeling I always had before after eating lots of meat and carbs. Chechu has noticed the same feeling as well.

So this leads me to my Healthy You Challenge update for the week. I've lost 6.4 pounds!! I'm really excited about that- it's the first considerable loss that I've had since I started in February. I was on track with my exercise goals this week as well, working out 4 days. I mostly did a lot of walking. I'm also excited for Chechu- he's lost 3.8 pounds this week!

This is what I'd like to accomplish over the next seven days:

1). Have only one "cheat meal" this week. We will be out of town on Saturday to attend a young adult Christian music concert in Linares. Both of us have discussed the need to plan our meals for that day, considering that we'll either have to bring food from home or eat out. We haven't decided on either at this point, but we'll get it together over the course of the week.

2). Exercise four days this week. Last week I did a lot of walking, and in most cases it was because I had to- running errands here and there. This week I want to focus on scheduling exercise into my day. Ideally, that would mean getting up at 7am every morning to work out before Chechu has to leave for work. I'd like to try for that at least once this week and on the remaining days work out in the evenings.

3). Journal more

Happy Tuesday all!