It’s here… Valentine’s Week!

(source)

At some point this week, you’ll be confronted by chocolate in honor of Valentine’s Day.  Much like Halloween, this week we need to make a decision to control the amount of sweets we consume.  On the flip side though, there are a lot of health benefits to chocolate for our hearts!

According to the Hershey Center for Health & Nutrition, recent studies show that natural cocoa and dark chocolate may have properties that contribute to heart health such as reducing blood pressure and cholesterol– whoop whoop!

(source)

Here are a few valentine’s week tips:

–Take a look at Hershey’s Perfect Portion Guide to help you visually determine how much of common foods to eat. Did you know that 1 oz. of dark chocolate is about the size of a matchbox?

–Choose one treat for the week.  I am anticipating a dessert at dinner Monday night with Neal.

–Enjoy chocolate as part of a balanced, homemade snack by adding bits of dark chocolate to yogurt, oatmeal, trail mix or low fat ice cream.

–Try incorporating a little cocoa into everyday meals, such as this recipe for Cocoa Spiced Beef Stir Fry.

–Indulge for 100 calories or less with HERSHEY’S portion-controlled chocolate such as:

–HERSHEY’S KISSES SPECIAL DARK Dark Chocolates – 5 pieces

–HERSHEY’S BLISS Dark Chocolates – 3 pieces

–HERSHEY’S EXTRA DARK Dark Chocolate Tasting Squares – 2 pieces

Have a sweeter Valentine’s Day this year by incorporating moderate amounts chocolate into your lifestyle.  Thank you to The Hershey Company for this information about the health benefits of cocoa.

Weekly Plan: February 13-19

Last week was rough.  I was very busy both at work and with graduate school and allowed it to affect my health and fitness.  I went into the week with a plan to workout each day, but I allowed my schedule to get the best of me, which kept me from the gym.  I want to approach this week differently, creating a realistic plan and having a back up plan just in case things get crazy again.

Workout Plans

Other Plans
Monday Cycle Abs Valentines date with Neal
Tuesday Cardio and weights at gym, abs at home Biggest Loser night
Wednesday Cycle Bootcamp Dinner out and basketball game
Thursday Early AM run with Neal, abs at home Dinner date with Becky
Friday Cardio and weights at gym Cake tasting
Saturday Long run with Neal Grad work and shopping for flower girl dresses
Sunday Abs at home Grad work and honeymoon planning

Goals

-Log all of my calories on My Fitness Pal (I didn’t log at all last week)

-Drink at least 64 oz. of water each day

-Make wise choices when eating out this week (4 dinner dates and cake tasting)

-Push myself in my workouts, ensuring maximum calorie burn

I want this week to be really successful!   It’s really starting to hit me that my dress fitting will be in 2.5 months and that my wedding is in less than 5 months.  I’m not looking to lose a crazy amount of weight prior to the wedding, but I’d love it if I could get back down to my lowest weight by the wedding (207 lbs).  To lose roughly 22 pounds, I am going to have to count everything I consume and stick to my workout plan.  I know I can do this, I want to do this! I will be weighing in every Saturday morning and will be tracking my weight on the right margin of Coffee, Cake and Cardio.

Here we go!

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