How'd Week One Go?

Week One wasn't *terrible*. It wasn't 100% either, though.

Sugar: I actually did really great on my No Sweet Treats plan all last week (starting Monday) until Saturday. Saturday we attended FOUR birthday parties. Crazy, right? I was pretty proud of myself-- I had planned to have one treat at the last party. That friend is a great baker, and I knew her cake would be worth it. So I withstood the pink funfetti cupcakes at Party #1. I didn't eat the blue Robot cake at party #2. I just dropped the girls off at Party #3, so no temptations there! And I ate one cupcake at Party #4 (plus one chocolate covered pretzel rod). Then Sunday I wanted a trefoil cookie (Girl Scouts!!) and I thought, eh, it'll be fine. 2 cookies won't hurt. That turned into 4 cookies. Then the past few days I've had a cookie here and there. And I think I've kept myself to just one M&M since Saturday.

So the Week 2 Goal related to the Ultimate Cut Out The Sugar Goal, sill stay the same as Week One. Get that sweet treat craving kicked!!

Workouts:

I've been walking more! Yay! I am one workout behind this week-- I had intended to workout on Monday and it just didn't happen. One thing after another built up and it's the old excuse that I didn't get to it. I did work out today and will tomorrow, too to "catch up" on my 3 workouts this week!

Week 2 Goal is staying over-- 3 trainer workouts a week (with walking) and 4 days a week of stretches

Water. Oh. man. I thought this was going to be the easiest of the goals this week, but HAHAHAHA!!
I think I actually drank less water per day than I did even before I started this goal. I have no excuses or reasons. I either didn't want it, didn't think of it until later, or or or. Definitely need to step up my game this week!!



Exciting thing this week! I am planning my annual Labor Day Mommy's weekend off trip! Some friends and I are definitely hitting a beach this year! All the more reason to get healthy over the next few months!!

Week One: Goals

I know it's Wednesday, but maybe I'll roll over each week on Wednesdays? Start when and where you are-- no reason to wait until the arbitrary Monday!

Ultimate goal: Cut out all added sugar
Week 1 goal: Cut out sweet treats. 

I never thought I had a sweet tooth until I started paying attention!!
-B is currently potty training and gets M&Ms for his successes (I know, I know... food rewards aren't the best. We tried other things at first, but this is what is actually working). He would get 2 M&Ms, and I would get 2 M&Ms. Or 5. or 10.
-Girl Scout cookies are in my house. I tell myself I can eat just 2 and be satisfied. But I end up eating a third, and sometimes fourth after lunch. Then another 2-3-4 after dinner.
-When I drink my coffee I either like it really gussied up (mmmm maple & brown sugar lattes...), OR I like my plain old regular lattes and coffee with cinnamon toast or some sort of sweet roll or chocolate.

This needs to stop. I'm going to talk more about this concept later, but I am an Abstainer. It means I don't do moderation well (this is part of my eating disorder behavior, too). I'm an all or nothing sort of person and for this stage of my work, I am just going to abstain from sweet treats all together. When I feel more secure, and when these items are less of a binge temptation, I will see if I can add them back in once a week or something.

Ultimate Goal: Do some sort of workout/body movement/stretching activity every day
Week 1 Goal: Complete trainer workout (including a short walk) 3 times a week. Do stretching program on the off days. 

This goes with the Abstainer idea. I need to make sure I am doing something intentional to move my body every single day. If left to my own devices, especially in these cold winter months (It's not even 30* here today!), I just cuddle up under a blanket and read books all day. Luckily, my kids help with this sedentary lifestyle some. I am always going up stairs to check on them, picking things up around the house, chasing B down the sidewalk when we go pick up the girls. When it's warmer/my back is fully healed, we will walk the girls to and from school again. I did this the entire first semester, and it was great! It is .6 miles to their school, so it was really nice to walk about 2 miles each school day. I'm looking forward to that happening again!

I do have a trainer and she is awesome. I see her just once a month, where she comes to my home and goes through the month's exercises with me. Then I get an emailed plan of my workouts for the month. This is really the best set up for me. The gym isn't a good option for me right now, plus everything I need to do to get my core strengthened I can do at home. Her plans include doing the week's work out 3 days. I am doing a stretching set she put together for me the very first week when I was still pretty injured on the off days to keep the healing process going.

Ultimate goal: Drink 120 ounces of water every day. 
Week 1 goal: Drink 80 ounces of water each day this week. 

This is obvious, right? Water is important. I hear all the time you should drink the number of ounces that equals half of your weight, so this is sort of around there. Seems like a good place to start and adjustments can be made as needed. That's a LOT of water. I have a 20oz straw bottle I'm using, but I need to figure out how much I am actually drinking because I need ice in my water.


I guess those are my current ultimate goals. Notice I am not focusing on a number of pounds to lose in these big goals. I won't try to be all high and mighty about it-- the numbers are definitely in the back of my mind. But I am really going to try to keep them there-- in the back of the mind. I want to keep the focus on building healthy habits, and creating goals that are sustainable long term for me.

I'll be back early next week with a post about the whole Abstainer/Moderator concept!

Starting over. At the bottom of the mountain.

*Deep Breath*

I'm starting over.

7 years ago, I lost 60 pounds. My goal, my "why" was to get pregnant. And boy did I-- our twins are 6 years old now. I gained 90 pounds during the twin pregnancy, though my doctor has said at least 30 of that was water weight I put on due to pre-eclampsia. But still. 90.pounds.

After the girls (A & N) were a year old, I lost 60 pounds. Again. I did spin, bootcamp, running, weights. The whole shebang. Between losing the water weight and then the workouts, I still had 30 pounds of the twin weight on when I got pregnant again.

With my singleton, I gained just under 40 pounds.  I was pretty happy about it, and my doctor was, too. I lost 20 of those as soon as B was born. But I had learned when I was nursing the girls that I was one of those women who can't lose weight while nursing. My OB tried to make me feel better by saying that it means hundreds of years ago, my babies and I would have been the ones to survive famines and droughts. Didn't help a ton, but thanks. my goal while nursing is just to not gain weight, and then once weaned, my body lets the pounds go a little more easily. Plus, I am not chained to my baby and can get out and walk and exercise more easily.

But. Oh, here's a big but. when the baby (B) was 5 months old, I had my thyroid removed. It has been 2 years of tumult trying to get my meds figured out. I gained 40 pounds in the 6 months directly following my surgery. Let me assure you, this is not because of any particularly bad habits. My levels were so low, I barely got out of bed, and I surely didn't waste energy walking from the couch to the fridge when I was that low.

I've done some stops and starts these past two years and I have lost 12-13 pounds from the Most I Have Ever Weighed. I have a long, long way to go.  Let's add it up: 30 twin pounds, 20 Bennett pounds. 40 thyroid pounds. (90pounds) and then subtract the 12 I've lost-- I still have 78 pounds to get down to my lowest weight ever. I'm not sure if that's my ultimate goal, though, at this point. We're going to go 10 pounds at a time and see where I land. Where I'm comfortable. Where I'm not obsessed with each calorie, but able to enjoy life and food around me.

In January, I hurt my back while doing yoga. One of those "damn right I have the availability to do boat post" moments that you regret the day after. It took 6 weeks before I could walk upright again. I'm 10 weeks from the injury, and I can still feel my back getting tired REALLY fast. I am also noticing some disordered eating popping up here and there (I have been treated twice for an eating disorder. I will probably talk more about this in another post).

So I need to get back in it. I need some accountability. So I will be posting to this blog a couple of times a week. If you still follow this blog at all and it randomly popped up today, feel free to comment. Support is good. Accountability is good.

I am ready to work.