Keep it Goin'

This past week was a good week for kickboxing. Wednesday night was especially great. I was feeling much more comfortable with the combinations on the bag and was receiving a ton of positive feedback both from my trainer and the other students in the class. At one point I was told that I work out like a 21 year old. Definitely a major confidence boost! My kicks are feeling stronger and I'm punching the bag much harder.

My Wave Shape performance is also improving. Thursday's session felt really strong and I was able to make it through every exercise without modifications or resting. There is only about a week and a half left before the 30 day challenge ends. I fit in all three sessions for last week, so hopefully I'll be able to do the same for this week.

I also went rollerblading, which is such a fun and relaxing way to work out. I'm not convinced it's as good of a workout as other activities, but I enjoy it. I'm also trying to be more conscious of what I'm eating and signed up for an account on WebMD to track my nutrition. With all the working out, I've been under my calorie goal for most days in the past week. I haven't been hungry, and I've felt like I've had plenty of energy, so I figure it's not too big of a problem. I've cut out alcohol for the week, but have still been enjoying dessert. Here are two of the salads I made this week:

Salmon w/ Mango Salsa

Steak w/ Roasted Corn, Grilled Onions, & Chimichurri Sauce

Today was the start of our backyard "remodel." We are hoping to level the yard, build a retaining wall with a gardening area, and build a patio where we can grill and eat. I spent about an hour pulling all the weeds in the yard, and then another few moving rock. Yuck! I am a bit nervous that this project is bigger than we can handle, but Eric seems somewhat more confident that we can do it. There are only about three weeks before we go on vacation, and Eric has already committed to helping his parents move next weekend. I just hope we're able to finish it to an acceptable stopping point before fall. I'm counting this as my workout for today. I don't think anyone will argue with me on that one. Below are some starting pictures of our backyard.

This is where our new patio and garden will be.

This is where we will have a retaining wall to hide the electrical boxes.

We're not doing anything to our deck (yet), but look at all those weeds I pulled!