Wholesome Me

I've successfully completed week 3 of Weight Loss Quest 2.0! I finally found a bike on c-list and purchased it yesterday. We had to take it to a local bike shop to have the inner tube of the back tire replaced for a measly $14. Eventually I'll need to replace the wheel and rear brakes, but for the time being the bike will serve it's purpose. We took our bikes to Gresham City Park, were a portion of the 40 mile bike loop cuts behind the park. The loop itself cuts behind our apartments, (if you take a look at the map, we live off of 174th Ave and Powell Blvd, just to the left of Powell Butte Nature Park, we're we have hiked a few trail heads) but unfortunately the route to the east is under construction until Sept. 15th. One night this week we should pick the loop up to the west and head towards downtown. I can't wait for the day I can begin and complete the whole loop!

This week's goal will be the same as last weeks. I'm actually biting at the bit to incorporate an additional day of physical activity! I didn't know that I was capable of such a thing! I'm going to stick with 4, 25 minute sessions of activity as to not over whelm myself, but I'm excited for next week when I get to make that 5, not 4!

I really am feeling more up beat the past week or so. For awhile there, my outlook on life was bleak and menacing. I haven't felt quite that low since I was in high school. I'm thankful though, that it was only situational depression, not chronic. Though I have been known to suffer from seasonal affective disorder. Which I'm sure can get pretty sever living in the Pacific Northwest. However, I'm feeling confident that my urge to achieve and maintain regular physical activity will help keep this at a minimum. Not to mention, the more active I become, the social I will want to be. Though for the time being, I've kept my social activities to a minimum.

I realized last week, after finding some really awesome vegetarian blogs, that a portion of my weight gain is more than likely attributed to my increased consumption of processed foods. There was a point (late college years) that I kept that a minimum. Ever since T and I began dating, and moved into together, along with the hike in consumer prices, we've relied more and more on processed foods. This week I'm putting a stop to all that. I bought a ton of gains from the bulk food section at Winco, including unprocessed quinoa, oatmeal, couscous, pastas, raw sugar, unbleached flour, and whole wheat flour to name a few. I came up with an awesome breakfast muffin recipe with dried apricots and crushed pineapple. I dropped boxed cereal and am going to try really hard to not eat granola bars. Though I do buy them for T, because it is a good on the go, low protein snack for him. I'm also going to reduce the amount of dairy I consume. I'm working hard to eliminate eggs in my baking. I'm working on a vegan version of those muffins. As soon as I master the recipe, I will post it here. I am also trying to reduce the amount of cheese I eat. I'm sure this is also attributing factor. I want to make as many things as I can instead of buying the prepackaged version. I'm hoping it will be cheaper and cut back on packaging waste. I bought a frozen pizza during my weekly shopping trip purely from habit, even though I have a quick and simple crust recipe I could make myself! It will be hard to break those old habits but I want to create a wholesome, unprocessed, fresh food environment. I think my biggest struggle will be creating easy snacks instead buying a box of something. Hmm time to go research recipes.

Oh and I lost 1.5 pounds last week. Nice, slowly, steady weight loss. I gotta keep this up!


Note: I gained 5 pounds during my hiatus and changed the parameters of the scale accordingly.