Finding My Way

We were pummeled with 17” of snow over the weekend.  School was even called off on Monday and pretty much the whole town was shut down.  Pretty surreal considering we normally have this little bubble that protects us from all the major snowstorms. 

That wasn’t the only bubble that burst.  My healthy habits bubble burst as well.  I wish I could pop in here and say how peachy keen everything is going for me and that this new me is loving the changes healthy habits I’m trying to incorporate into my life.  But I can’t because I’m not.  This is hard.  For me, the hardest part is that my whole family isn’t on board with me.  It’s just me (less sugar) against them (lotsa sugar).

Maybe it’s not that I’m not enjoying the changes…I just haven’t fully adjusted.  I broke down allowed myself to have sweets last week.  One day it was 2 jellybeans, the next it was ice cream, then some gobstoppers, and it seems that now I can’t stop.  The first week when I cut back on sugar I did fine.  Then the second week has been a whole ‘nother story.  I’m trying my hardest to remember this is a journey, not an overnight “ta-da!”.  One day at a time. 

The other main habit I was trying to incorporate for April is to wake up by 7 a.m each morning.  I’m sure you are wondering how that’s going for me.  Yeah, not so well.  I have only been up before 7 three or so days this month, which is pretty frustrating.  I know that it would help if I could actually get my butt in bed before 11:30, but I’m going to be honest and say that I haven’t really been trying that hard.  Most nights my head hits the pillow at 11:30 and I’m out within a few minutes.

As for exercise, I’m still keeping up.  I even went so far as to restart the C25K.  I’m not starting over from the very beginning, I decided to start at week 6.  I did w6d1 yesterday and felt pretty good afterwards.  No foot pain!  I have been having some slight hip pain though, and I’m not sure if it’s from the walking at home video or what.  It’s not uber painful though, so for now I’m just pushing through, with the help of Advil.

Even though this week was less than perfect, I do have one good thing that happened.  Weigh-in was at 171!!! 

Thoughts from you?  Any suggestions on how to make myself get out of bed earlier each morning?

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?

A New Month, A New ME!

Oh, boy.  I’m not even sure where to begin.  I’m sure you (the whole one person who reads this) noticed that I took a semi-hiatus from my blog.  Other than the fact that I plain and simple just gave up on myself, I have no good reason for ignoring this little ol’ blog of mine.

On that note, Hi!!  {Insert me waving hello!}  As I mentioned above, I pretty much gave up on myself.  I had quite the pity party for me as for why I can’t figure out this weight-loss thing.  I mean I’ve been working on losing those last 10 lbs. since last summer, only to have gained an extra 10 lbs. in the meantime.  Obviously my eating was out of control and I just didn’t seem to want to do anything about it.

I do feel as though I’ve been working my butt off, exercise wise.  I’ve been doing the c25k and have gotten all the way to week 8 day 1.  Yup, I’ve ran for 28 minutes straight!  Seriously!?  I didn’t ever think I would be able to run for longer than 30 seconds.  Heck, when I hit week 4 of the c25k and had to run for 5-minutes I thought it was over.  But, I persevered and just kept pushing my way through. 

Then, the foot pain started, right about the time I started running for 20+ minutes at a time.  I’ve tried a couple of different things to relieve it, both of which didn’t.  In the meantime, I’ve taken the past week and a half off from running, hoping to give my foot a little relief.  I also returned the new pair of shoes and orthotics that I thought might help, but didn’t make the pain any better.  While at the shoe store today, I had the lady measure my foot so I knew exactly what size I should be getting. 

Funny how you think you know what size shoes you wear because you’ve worn the same size since like 7th grade.  Even funnier - while pregnant with my kiddos I remember hearing that some women’s feet grow while they are pregnant.  I felt so lucky that didn’t happen to me throughout my three pregnancies.  Guess the joke is on me as my feet really did grow.  When the lady measured my foot, I measured past the 10.  Past it!  I’ve always only bought size 10.  Pretty sure this would be why I’ve been having foot pain for the past YEAR!

So, here’s what I have realized in the three weeks I’ve been away: 

1. Consuming sugar, and lots of it, will not help with weight loss
2. I’m not losing because I’m not tracking
3. The reason I’m having constant foot pain isn’t because I need orthotics or a foot doctor – rather, I need the right SIZE shoes!
4. Walking really does my body good!

I’m not sure what came over me this month but I’ve really, honestly been trying my damnedest to stay dedicated to myself and my health.  Since the calendar changed to April 1st, I’ve been more focused and able to resist the candy & cookies; I’ve been very dedicated to my food tracker at SparkPeople (and even staying in range!!); and best of all, I’m beginning to move more and I feel so good!! 

On Tuesday, March 26 I weighed in at 176.  I forgot to weigh myself this past Tuesday so I decided to do it on Wednesday.  174!  So two pounds down and I’ve only put in the effort for 4 days.  Totally motivating if you ask me.  Now, the old me would be “rewarding” myself with all of my kids’ Easter candy or the best chocolate chip cookies made by Aunt Sandy (6 dozen that she sent home with us).  The new me is totally rejuvenated and ready for spring!  We’ve had gorgeous weather (40s & 50s) which makes it super nice to be outside.

That’s my past three weeks in a nutshell.  SparkPeople is running a #RiseandShine Challenge for April.  I’ve decided to partake and will update what exactly this means for me with my next blog.  Along with the #RiseandShine Challenge, I’ve started tracking my healthy habits this month so that I can see and celebrate my triumphs, big and small.  I’ll also update you with those healthy habits that I’m trying to reestablish into my life.

Tuesday Weigh-In…late again

=(  Why am I either IN or OUT?  I need to find my happy medium so I can get this scale moving down!  I stayed the same this weigh-in, which I’m fine with.  I mean I obviously would have been happy to see the scale go down, but like I said before, I have to really start putting in more effort.  It’s like I try and try and try, only to sabotage myself later with cookies or ice cream.  I have to get this moderation thing under control because I’m outta control right now.  I was talking with a friend today and told her about my poor eating habits.  She said when she started running she was always wanting to eat too.  She recommended those little cheese wedges, but I completely forgot to check for them at Target tonight.  I am 100% proud of myself today as far as eating – Pretty good on portion sizes, NO cookies or ice cream and only ONE Frootie tootsie roll (normally it would be like 50!).  Progress baby! =)  As for exercise, I was on a roll last week and repeated week 6 of C25K.  I also had Jillian kick my booty with the 30 Day Shred.  Then I took a break and didn’t go back to my routine the next day. =(  I started up again yesterday with w6d3 of c25k and will be starting week 7 tomorrow.
Here are my stats for the week:
12/18/12 Weigh-In (WI): 173
01/08/13 WI: 171.5 (-1.5)
01/15/13 GW: 170 WI: 173 (+1.5)
01/22/13 GW: 168.5 WI: 174.5 (+1.5)
01/29/13 GW: 167 WI: 172.5 (-2!!)
02/05/13 GW: 171 WI:  174.5 (+2)
02/12/13 GW: 169.5  WI: 172.5 (-2)
02/19/13 GW: 168  WI:  176 (+3.5)
02/26/13 GW: 166.5  WI:  175 (-1)
03/05/13  GW:  174  WI:  176.5 (+1.5)
03/12/13  GW: 175 WI:  176.5 (no change)
03/19/13  GW: 175 WI: 
03/26/13  GW:  173.5  WI:
My goal this week is to keep up the momentum with minimal candy, and no ice cream treats or cookies!  Did you reach your goal for the week?  What are your goals for the upcoming week?

***edited to add - I just remembered why I made myself take a break last week from Friday - Monday.  My baby boy has a double ear infection and strep throat and had pretty much been glued to me the entire four days.  He's on the mend though after being on an antibiotic so am hoping he keeps getting better.***

Tuesday Weigh-In…A Day Late

Okay, well, here I stand…so utterly embarrassed.  I know I can’t hide forever though just because the scale isn’t going the way I want it to go.  The scale might move in the right direction if I actually put forth some effort.  I’m still trying to figure out why I just don’t seem to care.  The scale keeps going up, uP, UP and I don’t find myself doing a damn thing to change the old habits that crept back into my life.

Basically, the entire last week of February I just gave up the exercise and continued to give into any and every thing that has sugar in it.

Even though I didn’t report my weight last week, I did do a weigh-in.  I was just too embarrassed.  I don’t even know why, I thought for sure you’d be proud of me since I actually lost a pound.  However, as you can see from my chart, I went back up 1.5 pounds this week.  I am still way over my goal weight from the end of February.

12/18/12 Weigh-In (WI): 173
01/08/13 WI: 171.5 (-1.5)

01/15/13 GW: 170 WI: 173 (+1.5)
01/22/13 GW: 168.5 WI: 174.5 (+1.5)
01/29/13 GW: 167 WI: 172.5 (-2!!)
02/05/13 GW: 171 WI:  174.5 (+2)
02/12/13 GW: 169.5  WI: 172.5 (-2)
02/19/13 GW: 168  WI:  176 (+3.5)
02/26/13 GW: 166.5  WI:  175 (-1)
03/05/13  GW:  174  WI:  176.5 (+1.5)
03/12/13  GW: 175

I really need to find my inner strength to do this.  My “sugar baby” keeps on growing and growing and I’m really not comfortable anymore.  I’ve been doing great this week for exercise…Sunday and Tuesday I did the C25K.  Monday and Wednesday I found myself grueling my way through the 30 Day Shred.  I’m still working on getting my eating under control.  I really need to get my portions in check.  Obviously.  That and my late night snacking, which I completely blame on Mr. Chaotic. 

source

Tuesday Weigh-In

Did it again.  The scale moved up, up, up.  =(  I’m 100% positive that I gave up on myself last week after a very crabby night with Mr. Chaotic.  Healthy food?  Yeah right!  Exercise?  What’s that?  I was furious at him so rather than turn to the treadmill for a run, I just gave up altogether.  Stupid, huh!

Here are my stats:

12/18/12 Weigh-In (WI): 173
01/08/13 WI: 171.5 (-1.5)

01/15/13 GW: 170 WI: 173 (+1.5)
01/22/13 GW: 168.5 WI: 174.5 (+1.5)
01/29/13 GW: 167 WI: 172.5 (-2!!)
02/05/13 GW: 171 WI:  174.5 (+2)
02/12/13 GW: 169.5  WI: 172.5 (-2)
02/19/13 GW: 168  WI:  176 (3.5)
02/26/13 GW: 166.5

As you can see, my self-sabotage really affected my weight this week.  But, rather than beat myself up about it, I made the decision to just get over it and get on with my progress.  I did W5D3 of the C25K on Sunday.  I had to run for 20 minutes straight!  It says it was supposed to be 2 miles, but I’m pretty slow on my treadmill, so it was more like 1.5 miles.  But, the point is I ran for 20 minutes without stopping!!!!

Have you been where I am?  Any advice for how to deal with self-sabotage would be greatly appreciated.

Tuesday Weigh-In

I feel like I had a much better week, though I’m still a sucker for sugar.  My eating wasn’t out of control crazy, but I still need to relearn portions.  I hit my weekly cardio goal of four days last week, completing Week 4 of the C25K.  Dare I say I’m actually starting to enjoy running?  I’m sure I just jinxed myself and now I’m going to get an injury.  As for strength training last week I didn’t make goal as I only did it one day.

Here are my stats:

12/18/12 Weigh-In (WI): 173
01/08/13 WI: 171.5 (-1.5)

01/15/13 GW: 170 WI: 173 (+1.5)
01/22/13 GW: 168.5 WI: 174.5 (+1.5)
01/29/13 GW: 167 WI: 172.5 (-2!!)
02/05/13 GW: 171 WI:  174.5 (+2)
02/12/13 GW: 169.5  WI: 172.5 (-2)
02/19/13 GW: 168
02/26/13 GW: 166.5

The positive is that I lost this week!  As you can see though, I keep gaining and losing those same two dang pounds.  I’m hoping to change that.  I’ve increased my protein by adding protein powder to my smoothies.  I’ve been trying to have oatmeal for breakfast most days and eggs (1 egg, 2 whites) or salad (with chicken breast) for lunch.

I also came across an article on the benefits of an Omega 3-6-9 supplement.  The article said that the blend of fatty acids helps regulate blood sugar and hormones to reduce sugar cravings.  It also aids in weight loss, boosts the immune system, helps the digestive system, plus improves the appearance of your skin, hair, and nails.  The instant I saw that it reduces sugar cravings, I thought I have to give it a try.  I went to the health food store yesterday and found a supplement in soft gel form.

My goals for this week are to keep up with the C25K (week 5) and keep my portions in check and my sugar consumption low.  I’m also going to continue increasing my protein and taking my new Omega 3-6-9 supplement along with my other daily vitamins in hopes that it helps reduce my sugar cravings.

Are you making an effort towards your health?  Just start with 10 minutes a day and before you know it you’ll be up to 30.

**Disclaimer:  Obviously, I am not a professional so please consult with a physician before altering your diet, medications or starting an exercise program.