Good Excuses are Still Excuses (and I made some good choices this week too!)

Last week was officially a week from hell.  I'd like to say I handled the stress well and fueled my body with good, healthy foods throughout.  But no, that's not what happened.  On the upside, I did mostly fuel my body with wholesome foods and I exercised a good amount so let's focus on that instead.  Well phooey, this is a fitness blog so you know I'll tell you all about both.

Oh, but before I do that, I'll share a few pictures from my super fun night out at the Mother's Social on Wednesday evening.

Photo booth fun (Hi Michelle & Alison!)

The two Michelles

Can you tell how much fun we had?!  It was great.  And I even won a few things at the raffle.  A birthday party at a local playhouse (where we'll be celebrating Myra's #3 in September), a gift card to an Indian restaurant and to a bakery.  Yum!

These pictures should be motivation to keep up my does-a-body-good ways.  Because as you can see my arms were totally exposed and guess what?  I felt totally comfortable.  Entirely.  I should make a note on my calendar because that's a first.  I didn't worry about all the neurotic, ridiculous stuff I usually worry about.  I think all the people (here and in real life) telling me I'm nuts when it comes to my arms, I think I'm finally convinced they don't look huge or weird.  So the motivation didn't happen that night, I had a couple cocktails and more than enough food, including more deserts than I needed.  And no dancing to balance it out, wasn't a dancing party.

Thursday started out well enough,  went to work and happily social worked away all morning.  Had lunch in San Anselmo at a favorite little cafe that I haven't been to in forever, the aptly named Comforts.  They have a Chinese Chicken Salad that is out of this world.  But instead I ordered healthier items from the deli counter - a grilled chicken breast, black bean salad and steamed veggies.  I can't tell you how satisfied I was eating my meal.  It wasn't that it was the best food ever, though it was quite tasty, it was that I felt good eating what I knew was good fuel for my body.

Then my good day went all to hell when a work situation arose that required me to make a police report.  That's never a good thing.  The good news is my boss told me to take the rest of the day off once I was done at the police station.  After all the unpleasantness I really needed my workout.

I headed to the gym for a spin on the upright bike, 25 minutes, level 8.  That was followed up by strength training - back, biceps, core.  After the gym I headed to Larkspur where I planned to see Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on the big screen.  They filmed them recording the NPR quiz show.  But before that I grabbed dinner at a local seafood restaurant - I was starving!  I made more healthy choices, grilled fish with two sides - a beet salad and a kale salad.  Yum!  My food was good and the show had me laughing out loud enough times to make up for my not-funny-at-all afternoon.

After the show I was exhausted and dying to get in bed but I stopped at a local grocer for some chocolate, I wanted something sweet.  I ended up with a dark chocolate bar, the over-sized fancy kind, and a bag of corn nuts because...there's no because when it comes to corn nuts, you just want them.  And I ate both items.  So much for my healthy dinner.  No.  Wait.  Bad food choices don't erase good food choices, they co-exist, in balance.

That brings me, finally, to Friday.  The day in which all the week's intensity caught up with me and I sort of drug myself through the day feeling tired and in need of a nap.  I weighed myself, 141 pounds - moving back down thankfully.  I had a nice work morning, a yummy lunch consisting of salad, chicken breast, and a hearty bowl of soup.  I might have had 4 squares of more fancy chocolate.  I went to the gym after work but was pressed for time. I couldn't do my normal 3 mile run so I did what I could, 1.5 miles.  I alternated 6.4 and 7.4mph every 1 minute.  13 minutes, 11 seconds later I hopped off the 'mill and did chest/triceps/core.  For some reason chest presses were hard and I couldn't do my first set of 8 with 30 pound dumbbells.  Who knows.

Yes I ate the whole package :o

Dinner was a grilled chicken breast, quinoa and a salad with avocado.  After the kids were in bed I did some grocery shopping and Mochi ice cream from Trader Joe's (green tea flavor) might have made it into my mouth.  Along with a few bites of 85% dark chocolate.  This was a clear case of, "I've had a hard week and I'm going to do whatever I want."  Don't get me started on the irrational nature of that sentence.  We all know that what I want is a healthy body I can feel good about.  But sometimes what I want now overrides what I want more, and that's what happened last night.

But today is a new day - and the weekend!  We're headed to a birthday party in a few.  I'm going to pack a salad and skip the cake.  I lost a pound this week and I really want to keep it off, possibly lose another.  I'm shooting to be back under 140 hopefully by the end of the month.  If I want to make that happen I can't keep eating chocolate and ice cream and all the rest.  Unfortunately good excuses don't erase bad calories.