I am officially tired of the winter weather.
I have dreams of shooting hoops in my driveway (without wearing mittens and ice skates) and spending entire afternoons in the backyard with my girls – running around like crazy people, tossing a Frisbee, playing catch and kicking a soccer ball. Spring is such a healthy-feeling period of time for me as I crack open the windows, letting the fresh air blow in – fumigating the house from all the wintertime illnesses and related germs that have been trapped inside for months.
That big ball of heat in the sky gets a bit warmer and sticks around a little longer each day, giving us more outdoor fun time which equates to more physicality and time-spent-in-motion for me and my family. All positive things, save for the bees that come out to play as well!
For now though, the gym is still my main source of exercise. I completed two 40 minute mid-afternoon workouts this past weekend, while my daughter was napping. It was the first time I ever got out of the house in the middle of the day to go to the gym. Usually exercise is a pre-work activity for me. Needless to say, I am quite proud of myself. You see, normally if I do not get up and start the day strong, I will not have the motivation to make the 15 minute drive to the gym or do much of anything – be it cleaning, laundry, etc. Getting dressed at 2pm and plowing through the snow still covering my driveway was a big deal for me and I felt great doing it. I incorporated the ab crunch machine again, two sets of 15 crunches at 110 lbs on both days. Very difficult exercise for me, but very necessary as most of my excess weight is located in my chest and stomach. I could feel the burn immediately and from what I hear – that is a good thing!
We ate some great, healthy and full dinners on Sunday and Monday evenings. A herb-roasted chicken with cinnamon squash, asparagus with roasted red peppers and onions and haricot verts with carrots on Sunday (we took the easy way out – all that great sounding food was pre-made by Whole Foods). An amazingly moist and delicious meatloaf with roasted shallot mashed potatoes and peas was (a homemade) dinner on Monday night (and lunch on Tuesday). Tuesday evening’s dinner consisted of a bowl of Special K and a toasted plain bagel with peanut butter. We do the breakfast-for-dinner thing at least once a week. It is the best!
I am trying to give up butter again. I neglected to mention that early on in Dad’s Losing It, but butter is one of my favorite food items. I still cook with it, but I am cutting back completely on my use of butter on bagels, English muffins, etc. I am going exclusively with my low-sodium peanut butter from now on.
Dad’s Losing It articles are published every Saturday and Tuesday. Follow Jeff’s journey during the rest of the week in the Dad’s Losing It Forum. In the Forum, Jeff discusses his individual workout routines and soundtracks, among other tidbits and musings from the week.
Jeff is a Family Fun blogger. Read more of his posts here.