Even bad cold can’t knock Parks off track
Not even a bad cold could throw Cathy Parks off track as she prepared to head into the fourth month of her healthy lifestyle challenge.
Parks was home sick from work on Friday, but she said she’s still sticking to her meal plan, and although she doesn’t have a lot of energy, she’s keeping up with her exercise plan at the gym.
And she said it’s paying off in pounds lost. “I’m down 41 1/2 now,” she explained. “I’m pretty pleased.”
Parks added that she is starting to see a difference in her appearance, but not as much as she was expecting. “I haven’t noticed it as much in my clothes as I thought I would,” she said. “I’m probably down a size.”
Still, she says she sees a difference in her face, and she is always getting positive comments from others who tell her they can’t get over how much she has lost. She added she especially meets a lot of people at the gym who offer their congratulations and encouragement. Parks said that their comments are always appreciated. “It gives you that little extra ‘oomph’ that you need.”
Her diet hasn’t gotten boring yet, either, she said, although she and her nutrition counselor
haven’t made a lot of changes. Parks said they probably won’t do anything drastic until her weight loss hits a major plateau, and so far that hasn’t happened.
She added that Terry, her counselor, thinks her weekly cheat meal may actually be what’s keeping her from hitting a plateau, because it fuels her metabolism and keeps her body from thinking that it’s losing too much weight. Although she knows there’s a plateau coming in her future at some point, Parks said she is content with her meal plan for now, and in the past couple of weeks she has been trying some new things.
One day she and her mother got together and tried out a bunch of Simply For Life recipes, including cabbage rolls, stuffed chicken breast and chicken fried rice. Parks said that she tries to make meals all at once when she has time, and then package and freeze them in individual portions for later. She always has soup made, and has pre-cooked chicken on hand to add to veggies or recipes.
“I never don’t have chicken in my fridge,” she said. “I always have it cooked.”
With plenty of food prepared, she’s ready for the coming weeks. “It’s great. I have enough stuff in the freezer and I’m ready to go.”
However, she got to use some of the food she had prepared right away, as her brother, who is also on the Simply For Life meal plan, stopped by shortly after she finished cooking.
She said he was amazed at the variety and taste of the food she served for dinner.
“I gave him one of the stuffed chicken breasts and he said, ‘I’m allowed to eat this?’ And I said, ‘You’re allowed to eat that!’” she explained with a laugh.
Parks said people often assume that when you diet, you don’t get to eat good food or things that you like, but that’s a misconception. “You just have to know how to make stuff so that it’s good for you,” she said.
As spring arrives on the Miramichi, Parks also said she is planning to start walking outside as well as going to the gym. Although she says she is not much of an outdoors person, she likes badminton, and walking on the track at James M Hill Memorial High School.
However, she added her trainer, Mark, has even more ambitious plans for her. “Mark says he wants to get me jogging outside this summer,” she said. “And biking. I haven’t biked much since I was a kid!”
Parks said that overall she is really amazed at how her challenge is going, and how long she has been able to stick with it. “Sometimes it really blows my mind it’s been that long,” she said. “I’m two and a half months into it, and that’s pretty crazy.”
