Invest in Myself: Week 31

Welcome to the recap of Invest in Myself, Week 31.

It was a busy week, but I was able to go with the flow of the busyness. My cat Rhett is still with us, too, at least for a short while longer, so that's good.

Let's review my week...

Motivation & Accountability

I lost a quarter pound this week. Usually I would only count that as maintaining my weight loss since it's such a small amount, but I want to give myself credit for the downward trend.

For week 31 of the Real Appeal program we focused on the benefits of strength training. I know that it would serve me well to add some strength training into my routine, but I haven't made it a priority. Maybe it's something I'll work on in season 3 of the program, which starts with week 33.

Nutrition

I continued to track everything I ate this week. During my business trip, I tried a new protein bar by Manitoba Harvest called Hemp Yeah!. I got three bars to try in a chat pack from Ripple Street (#Sponsored #HempYeahBarsPack).

I liked them better than my usual bars (Larabar or RxBar) for a few reasons. They:

• taste better - dark chocolate almond sea salt was my favorite flavor
• didn't upset my digestive system - they are vegan and free of gluten, dairy, and soy. I think I'm sensitive to the dates in Larabars and RxBars.
• have a higher protein/carb ratio (10 grams protein, 16 grams carbs) - I prefer more protein and less carbs in my bars (however, Hemp Yeah! bars have more added sugar, which I try to minimize)
• have healthy fats with omegas 3 & 6 

the bars from my Chat Pack

I've already bought a box of the dark chocolate almond sea salt flavor to keep on hand for business trips and other times I need an emergency snack.

Exercise

I walked once and ran once this week. The 10 Weeks to 10k program kicked off on Monday. I'm looking forward to working on improving my run/walk ratio. I've been doing intervals of 1 minute run/1 minute walk for so long. I used to run for a much longer interval and I'd like to build back up to at least 2/1, maybe 3/1.

10 Weeks to 10k coaches & participants
photo courtesy of John Koss

Self-Care

The week was busy, so I made sure I had some downtime this weekend to decompress and catch up on things like laundry and cleaning. I know laundry and cleaning might not sound like self-care, but it is satisfying to me to catch up on chores like that. It helps me feel like I've got a good handle on my life and things are under control.

Looking Ahead

I'm going to continue to focus on taking care of Rhett this week. I also have plans to meet a friend for a coloring date tomorrow, which is something I always look forward to and enjoy. Towards the end of the week we have a Board meeting so I'll be out of my routine and dealing with extra stress for a couple of days. But I plan to go with the flow, like I did this week.

See you next week!