Healthy Living Challenge

My birthday was a few weeks ago

(yay! happy birthday to me!!)

I realized

This body of mine is not getting any younger so I need to treat it right.

Unfortunately, gaining weight is the easiest task

I dont have the high speed metabolism my little sister does

She can easily eat a whole box of pizza, wings and a pint of ice cream and fit nicely into her size zero jeans

....

All my life I've always had to watch what I ate

(my weakness is sweets)

It was pretty easy when I was younger

I could drop five pounds at the blink of an eye

so as much as I tried to stay on the healthy track, I knew I could sneak in a few cheat days and loose the extra pounds by the weekend.

But now that I'm older

This body of mine is less forgiving

So today I decided to take a healthy living challenge!!!!

Healthy living is NOT a diet

It's NOT about weight loss

It is about replacing bad habits with good ones

Taking care of yourself from the inside out

Because

I noticed that the healthier I am, the better I feel

I'm more motivated and just plain happier

So

how am I doing this?

Well 

Working out is the easy part for me

I must go to the gym at least 3 times a week for 1.5 - 2 hours

My gym routine starts with running

I must run

If I haven't run

I haven't worked out

3.5 is the absolute minimum (for my laziest days)

but I always shoot for 4, 4.5 or 5

The goal is always to do the first mile in 7mins 

(a goal i got after watching a guy do a 6:30min mile on the treadmill. I was pretty amazed)

After running its weight lifting and abs

I've noticed that women tend to shy away from weight lifting

That used to be me cuz I didn't want to turn into muscle woman.

But

....

It takes a whole lot for women to build muscle

You would have to be lifting extremely heavy weights frequently

When it comes to my arms, I don't go over 20 pounds

I just increase the reps

so lift away!

Next

Eating right

Unfortunately, and I learnt this the hard way, you can work out as much as you want

but if you don't eat right

you will gain weight

So my healthy living challenge is really about food

Trying to drastically decrease my intake or processed foods

Sweets are my number 1 weakness

So, trying my best to replace the junky sweets for fruits

More veggies

More lean meats

and

...

COOKING MORE!!!!

About cooking:

I love it!

It's relaxing and artistic for me

and I blame New York for my lack of cooking as much as I would like

Before the move, I had a nice big spacious kitchen to cook in

I would turn up my music, get in the zone and cook up a storm

loved it!

But now, living in my tiny little space

I'm not as inspired

So when I do cook

Its always something quick and easy

...

I decided to start cooking more and being more creative

And so

I made this yummy salad

Arugula with salmon, butternut squash, zucchini and carrots

And

My new snack food

Edamame cooked with sea salt

So 

That's my healthy living challenge

Good luck to me!

...