Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I've been using a pedometer for about a little under two years now. I've used it everyday consistently with the exception of one day, March 8 of last year, when I was sick with a bad cold. Every day since then, I've gotten at least 10,000 steps.

Now that I'm in my next phase of my workouts, I'm thinking of giving up the pedometer. I know I do a lot everyday and I do get the required steps in. I'm thinking maybe I should wear it on days that it's tough for me to get all the steps in, just for accountability on those days.

I eat very clean now but when I read about a vegan challenge last month, I thought I should give it a try. I want to see how I feel without meat or dairy for a week. The challenge begins tomorrow and will last seven days.

I will still get all the protein requirements. As you may recall, my trainer wants me to have a lot of protein, especially when I''m training hard. This vegan challenge has gotten me to examine my diet and I think I came up with a good plan for the week. Basically, the big thing I'll be missing is turkey and Greek yogurt. All the other food is pretty much the same. The plan I came up with will have me consuming the pea protein powder, lots of quinoa, beans, spinach, etc.

A while back, I wrote about the dangers of aspartame. This time, I wanted to focus on why I feel it's dangerous, on a more personal level.

Recently, I found a stash of Equal, Sweet and Low and Splenda packets. My sister had so many of these packets around and she brought them everywhere. I had already thrown out several hundred packets a while ago, so it surprised me how many she really hard. Just take a look at the picture above… the bag is filled with these packets. The problem is that my sister drank so much Diet Pepsi and Diet 7-Up that I think it may have made her depression even worse.

My personal trainer likes to mix up the work out every few weeks. This week, he has me using the free weights, which is more challenging than using the Cybex Smith Machine.

All the exercises are done on a weight bench. I'm doing exercises for all the muscle groups. The most challenging one for me was where I had to step up to the bench while holding onto weights. You have to make sure you have the proper balance for this exercise. I did this exercise before and it always had me confused. He taught me how to do it properly and I think I'll do better on this one than I did in the past.

A reminder of how far I've come...

Here's proof that the strength training is slowly working… My body fat percentage came down. It went from 22 percent down to 20! I think my abs are flattening out and maybe soon I'll see the muscles underneath.