Health and Fitness Goals for August

Last month I set myself an easy target:
* Whole30

How'd I do? Good! I'm on day 30 right now, because I started a little later than I expected, and I'll be doing reintroduction over the next week.

I wound up having more fruit than the plan recommended (because for a long time I forgot there was a limit), but other than that, I stuck pretty close.

As far as weight went, I did wind up weighing in, though without reading the results. I knew I was losing, because I had to switch the jeans I was wearing, and because I forgot to turn off FitBit badges. Oops. Anyway, I snooped at my trend already.



That's not a bad drop for a month. Given the lack of change in my exercise routine, it's also entirely diet-based. Not the lowest I've ever been, but significant progress on the way there.



It's also a bigger drop than I'd had in either the previous two months. So while Whole30 isn't for weight loss, it did help me out there.

I'll get the primary benefit (I hope), during the reintroduction phase, where I can figure out what food I should avoid. Other than that, though, I didn't notice a huge shift in my help (other than a sharp reduction in negative responses to food). I'd been hoping for some additional benefits, since they list a few, but no. I also didn't get the whole "Tiger Blood" phase. I think I felt better on average, once I got though the first two weeks, but nothing that made an impression.

I'm glad I did it and I think I will realize a benefit to it once I'm done, but it's not any different than the last time I went generic low-carb, really. Maybe it was the fruit :)

Right, now, goals for August:
* Run two 5K Virtual Races
* Come up with a Way of Eating that works for me

I've started using SparkPeople's Virtual Races ( www.sparkpeople.com/mysp
ark/virtual-race-home.asp ) to make sure I do run instead of walk on occasion. I want those to be a full 5K run/jog, even if it's a slow pace. I'll work on adding speed once I can reliably pull off at least two a month.

As much as I liked the Whole30, it's not something I'm going to be able to do full time. There are some things I just want to have on occasion, even though I'm an Abstainer, not a Moderator. The last time I had success with a way of eating, I added a cheat day. It wasn't so I could have huge amounts of food, but so I could have some of the things that were off-plan for me. I'm going to go back to that for a little while (once I finish reintroduction and know what I can eat), and then stick to a low(er)-carb concept the rest of the time, at least for August.

If that works, then I'll keep it going.