I was faithful to the gym and my exercise routine during the month of February- mostly because I had set the goal of working out 19 hours during the month in order to go to the Nike employee store :) But then March came- and so did the rain. This year, Portland received the most rain in a single month since 1959. Rain is fantastic! It calms my soul! But, along with rain comes lack of motivation. And the more hours spent drinking coffee, wine, and beer. April went by so quickly that I felt like I didnt even have a chance to go to the gym and May has been one celebratory event after another. And now, its June... middle of June almost!
Since coming home (6 days ago), I have been able to get back into a routine. I am getting 8-10 hours of sleep (gasp!), which provides me with enough energy throughout the entire day. There were times (weeks at a time, really) where I was lucky if I got 6 hours of sleep per night, which left me groggy, terse and depleted of energy. When the working day was finally over, I was more than content to not make one more stop before home. The gym and I entered a long distant relationship....
But enough of what happened! The reason I am writing this post is not to wallow in my excuses, but to climb up from the depths my recent sedentary lifestyle! I just looked at the calendar today and realized have so much going on in the next couple of months. Weddings, travel, boards exam, acquire a new job, moving back to Portland, etc. The list is long folks. But what I do know is this... I feel better when I am fit. I feel better about myself. I feel more energized when going about my day. And, I feel better about celebrating life's greatest moments over cheesecake or going out for drinks with friends without feeling guilty.
So, maybe we could reach a bit of a compromise?
The past 6 days, I have been logging my food intake and exercise regime into the app MyFitnessPal. It is fairly easy and straight forward to use and it is on my phone and thus accessible everywhere I go. My favorite feature is the "scan" option (for scanning barcodes), which saves time and effort when entering what you consumed. It can be a challenge to enter homemade items, but you usually find something similar to what you made. I also like that you can add in your workouts, which automatically subtract the calories you've burned from the calories you have consumed for the day. 
Time will tell how well this medium works for me to keep track of where I am at in this trek towards wellness. I am by no means a calorie counter (nor do I think that is healthy), but I do believe it is eye-opening when you start writing down what you are eating. I was shocked how many times I ate because I was bored (mindless calories). My main goal was to establish a baseline and then set goals to get to where I would like to be- which isnt necessarily a number on a scale, but rather a state of feeling comfortable with my body, energized for daily life and excited about eating well. Additionally, one of the items on my list is to lose 10 pounds. Not only would I like to ditch the extra 10 for the upcoming summer, but I wouldnt mind ditching them forever. I know this takes hard work, discipline and dedication, but I think it is a decent starting point and a good motivator! Cheers to starting the summer off on the right foot!
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