Focus

As I said in my last post, SparkPeople is running a #RiseandShine Challenge for the month of April.  Basically, they want you to take time for yourself by waking up and starting your day with a healthy breakfast and/or exercise first thing.  I already wake up and eat a healthy breakfast, but I still don’t have make time to exercise first thing.  Therefore, I kind of turned April into my own challenge.  I’m challenging myself to get my booty to bed by 11:30 and to wake up by 7 a.m. so I can eat my breakfast before having to deal with the hustle and bustle known as breakfast time with 3 kids. 

Most of you are probably thinking that this isn’t really any sort of challenge, but for me, it’s tough!  My whole life, I’ve been a night-owl, usually staying up until 1-2 a.m.  Since having kids, I really haven’t changed too much, I’m still usually up until at least midnight, sometimes even 1-1:30 a.m – only to be woken up bright and early by one or all of the kiddos.  Talk about a crabby mama!

I started my challenge on April 1st, and honestly haven’t been doing so well.  Out of the 9 days so far, I’ve only been awake at 7 a.m. three times.  Two of them being yesterday and today.  I am totally giving credit to my new little fitbit that I bought for myself and the little silent alarm that vibrates me out of bed!  lol.

I’ve also decided to start tracking my “healthy habits”.  I got the idea from a multi-behavior reward chart that is supposed to help children with their behavior.  This is my tracker:

The habits I’m tracking are

1. Wake up at 7 a.m.  Like I said earlier, I’m not doing so well here.  Ultimately my goal is to wake up and exercise right away, but for now, I’m just working on getting up at 7!
2. Exercise 30 minutes.  I’m giving myself two rest days a week, otherwise I feel like I’m going to burn myself out.  I finally received my 3 workout DVDs in the mail and so far I am loving them!  Plus, spring never seems like it’s going to get here is just around the corner so I foresee myself heading outside for my walks.
3. Drink my water.  My aim is 8 cups daily, but will take whatever I get.  I do notice I seem to eat less when I drink more water.
4. Less sugar.  Notice I didn’t say NO sugar?  For me, it’s all about balance.  Obviously I was taking in way too much sugar, even though I wasn’t drinking pop.  My sugar overload came in the form of candy, cookies, and ice cream on a very daily basis.  So, I’ve decided to cut it out of my daily intake.  You’ll notice on my tracker sheet that I still allowed myself to have a piece of birthday cake at a party that I went to over the weekend.
5. More fruits and veggies.  My daily goal is 3-5, but mostly I just aim to have a piece of fruit for my snacks and also a fruit or veggie with my lunch and supper. 
6. Track ALL of my food.  The number one thing I give credit to my pounds disappearing!  Okay, and my willpower to resist all the sugary goodness still lurking in my cupboards.  Honestly though, when I wasn’t tracking, I didn’t give a whoop what I put in my mouth.
7. Lights out by 11:30.  Not to repeat myself, but I’m a night owl.  This is tough.  Ultimately I would like to get myself to bed by 10:30.  I’m hoping this will help me be a much happier person.

Whew, this is getting to be quite the lengthy post.  If you stuck by me, thank you.  I truly appreciate it! I would like to close by telling you that I weighed in this morning and I saw a loss…again.  {I’m totally doing the happy dance right now}  I’m down another two pounds, bringing me to 172!!

How was your week?  Have you been adding in any healthy habits?