Yikes! It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been so busy finishing off school and getting used to working full-time again, it’s been exhausting. I definitely didn’t have any time for food pics, but I do have a lovely one from a souped up Amy’s pizza I had a few weeks ago. I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things with the food blogging, but no guarantees. I still haven’t gotten used to waking up early and am usually rushing out the door with a slice of ezekiel after downing a green monster (and those all pretty much look the same).

Half of an Amy’s Pizza that had pesto sauce, mozzarella, tomatoes and broccoli. I added mushrooms, red onions, spinach, and basil.

I haven’t lost any weight, but I also haven’t gained, which I’m happy about. I’ve been doing some research on the relationship between stress, high cortisol levels and weight gain. Basically, what I’ve read is that cortisol levels rise when a person is stressed, which can contribute to weight gain and specifically, a person holds more weight in their abdomen area.

For the last month and a half, I’ve been eating relatively well (much healthier than I used to) and exercising moderately, so I should have lost more than just 2 lbs. in that amount of time, but I haven’t. Of course, I’ve had terrible sleeping patterns and lots of stress from my summer classes, and those two things must have slowed down my weight loss. Also, I noticed I was carrying more weight around my stomach even with my loss. And then when I finished school, I instantly felt lighter. I’d even gone down an inch in my stomach area! The human body is bizarre!

For the last two weeks of summer, I’m trying to up my fitness activities. Work keeps me pretty active running around after kids and all, but I’m trying to re-integrate swimming 2-3 times a week and doing the c25k program and 30 day shred regularly.

At least that’s the plan for this week and we’ll see how it goes!