What can you do in 30 Days?

So, it’s already the 19th of January (technically the 20th if you look at the clock - oops).

I was a little slow to get going on this “project” this year, and though I haven’t posted at all this month I’ve been well on my way since January 9th!

I also have about 4-5 posts half written in my head for this Blog. I just have to get it down on “paper” and posted.

One post at a time though.

Which leads me to the question “What can you do in 30 days?”! My BFF Melissa sent a group of us an email last week with this title. She had followed a Twitter link and found a blog entry (I don’t know where sorry) about someone who was losing a lot of weight. When she was looking at the big picture it was overwhelming, but when she broke her goals down into 30 day increments it was much more manageable.

Here’s an excerpt of what she copied in an email to me:

This began a pattern of creating 30 day plans or challenges for myself. I discovered a great post at Steve Pavlina’s blog titled “30 Days to Success” which describes what he calls a 30 day trial. The concept is basically that 30 days is a reasonable time to commit to something that we want to change in our life. This could be the introduction of a healthy new habit or the demise of something that we feel is negative in our life.

What if you told yourself that you were committing to something, not forever…but for 30 days? If, at the end of 30 days, you never wanted to engage in the activity again, you wouldn’t have to, BUT if in fact a healthy habit is a result, how wonderful would that be?

If you are just starting out with your weight loss and have a huge list of things that you want to change, what is ONE things that you could commit to doing for the next 30 days? Could you commit to a 15 min. walk? Taking a daily vitamin? Drinking 8 glasses of water? Eating 3-5 servings of fruits/vegetables a day? What could your 30 day action plan be?

I love this idea. I think the reason I kept procrastinating at the beginning of the year is because I was so overwhelmed myself. It’s so easy to get caught up in everything that needs to be done right now. So, I decided to start my own 30 day increments.

In my first 30 days (January 9-February 8 ) I chose to focus on 2 things:

* Stop drinking Pop
* Track all food regardless of what it is in my Body Bug program

Well, here we are at the end of Day 11 and I’ve held to both of these goals! I love it!!! There’s only 2 things I’m responsible to myself for this month and I CAN do it!

I find myself already looking forward to the 2nd 30 days and what I might set as goals for that one!

Stay Tuned … more posts coming soon!!!

Changes …

… are coming. Stay tuned.

Monday 5/18/09

Breakfast

8 oz NF/SF Chai 2
String Cheese 2
Pumpkin Seeds 2

Lunch

PB Sandwich 8
Goldfish Crackers 3

Snack

Fig Newtons 4

Dinner

Total Points: 21
Point Target: 38
WPA Balance: 35
APs Earned: 0

Thursday Weigh In!

Another loss!

I was down .8 lbs last night at weigh in. It seems like so much hard work for so little change - but you know, I’m completely happy with it. I know I stayed on course, I know I worked my program. So in the last 2 weeks that means 6.6 lbs. I can live with that.

The one thing I do need to get back in the groove with now is EXERCISE. Ugh - I hate it. But it’s just a fact of life unfortunately. That’s my goal for next week. To earn 10 AP’s at minimum. It sholdn’t be that hard really, I just need to set my mind to it.

I don’t have time today, or this weekend likely, but I’m going to be revamping my side bar to fit more of where I’m at in my progress. I don’t know what the changes are going to be, but clearly, everything that’s there is not relevant to me right now.

Goals for this week:

1 - Earn 10 Activity Points
2 - Do not use ALL of my WPA’s this week - try to use only a total of 20 of the 35
3 - Continue to journal all foods and the times that I eat in my 3 Month journal
4 - Have a good loss next week, but be happy with whatever shows up knowing that I put the work in no matter what!

Seven Weeks!

So, it’s been 7 weeks since I rejoined Weight Waters.

Seven long weeks.

I told myself that this time, THIS TIME, I wouldn’t quit. I was going to keep going through the good and the ugly. Let’s just say the first 5 weeks were definitely UGLY. I think I jumped the gun on joining. That’s not an excuse, just the truth.

I would half heartedly try, knowing I had to weigh in - and I did weigh in. Some weeks I was lucky with a loss, other weeks I had a gain. Two weeks ago, I KNEW I had a gain. I had forgotten my weigh in book at home, and had almost talked myself into just skipping. But then I remembered - NOT THIS TIME, NO MATTER WHAT. So, I sucked it up. I went. I told Debbie (the receptionist) that I had left my book at home. I also told her that I didn’t really want to get on the scale. She gave me an out. She told me that I didn’t HAVE to. I told her I was going to get on the scale, but I didn’t want to know the results, no matter what. She weighed me, wrote it in her book, and on we went.

Even at that point, I still hadn’t made that turn in my head. As petty as this is going to seem, the moment came just seconds later when the friend I go with asked me how I did. I told her I didn’t know - would find out the next week. I, of course, ask how she did as it was completely apparent that I was supposed to, she had a huge smile on her face, so I knew she did well. She smugly told me that she had lost 2.8 lbs.

Don’t get me wrong. I was happy for her. I want her to succeed. But I was miffed. At that moment I felt a switch in my head. I went home, ate pizza for dinner ( a last supper if you will), and knew I was waking up with a new attitude.

Since that next day, Friday July 18th, I’ve been POP (perfectly on program). I’ve written down everything I’ve eaten, all my points, and the times of days that I’ve eaten everything at in my WW 3 month journal. I tried e-Tools, but frankly, I HATE journaling online for some reason. Writing it down works so much better for me.

I haven’t had POP (my beloved Diet Mt Dew) in that entire time. I swore off pop - at least until I can control it. I’ve made a point of drinking 100 oz of water at work EVERY DAY. I’ve actually eaten out several times in these 2 weeks - and made my points work for me. I’ve cut out the fries when I get a hamburger. And you know what? I haven’t missed the fries. Go figure. I had McDonalds last weekend and I got a Happy Meal! Perfect serving sizes of everything.

My first weigh after truly committing was last week - DOWN 5.8 lbs! I KNEW I could do it - I just had to do it. The scale isn’t looking as nice this week - I might be down a lb or so tomorrow - we’ll see. After such a great loss last week, I really can’t complain I guess. Over all, for the 7 weeks, I’m down 6.6 lbs. Not a great average when you look at it that way, but that’s ok.

The one thing I had forgotten about getting in the groove again was how CONSUMING eating and food is in my life when I’m OP. It’s all I think about. Literally, all the time. I think about what I’m going to eat next and at what time. It doesn’t matter if I’m hungry or not - it’s always on my radar. If someone offers me something that I hadn’t planned on, I have to think about how many points I have planned already for the day and if it’ll fit in (I turned DOWN a donut last Friday!). It’s always, always, always on my mind. I can’t remember if that gets better or not. I hope so. But for now, that’s my safety zone. Everyone at work respects my boundaries and don’t push - if I say No, they know I mean No and leave it at that. I feel good about how things are going.

Sunday’s seem to be my nemesis. Both the past Sunday’s have been extremely high point days for me, with me using 15-20 WPA’s on each Sunday. I don’t really want to use that many on one given day, but sometimes you just have to. This week I think Saturday will be that day. I’m getting up early to go to on an all day crop. I’ll be up from 5am to at least Midnight. Dinners and afternoon snacks are provided for me, so I have no control there. But, that’s what WPA’s are for. I’ll journal everything, have no guilt, and move on!

Alright, tomorrow is the last day of the month, and I’ve gotta go in early!

Talk soon!

I joined!

I joined! Officially!

More later.

I’ve changed things up!

I know I haven’t been around in awhile. I haven’t gone AWOL completely!

I’ve just changed some things up in my routines.

I’m not stressing about going to the gym. I’m doing walk/runs from home in the mornings, and my goal for the gym now is strength training. I’ve also bought a physio ball for home, plus I have my Bowflex dumbbells for home as well.

I’ve also switched up how I track my food. I’m counting calories for now. And actually enjoying it believe it or not. It’s something new, something different. I’m using the download-able software from Fitday to track everything. And it does track EVERYTHING - right down to your mood.

My blood pressure is great right now - today is measured at 114/73 - can’t beat that for sure.

I’m feeling good about things. I just need to get back here and start posting more again. I’m going to work on it - promise. And I’ll give more detailed updates of what I’m doing as well. I need to try and go back and update my mileage charts and gym visits as well.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend - it’s a hot one here (95 degrees the last I looked)!

Training, Perfect Days, Journaling

So many topics, so little time!

I got back on the treadmill tonight! I didn’t really feel like running - I do hate it afterall. So, I decided to make my walk on the treadmill worth it. I steadily increased the incline until it was at 4%, and my speed stayed steady at 2.9 mph.

I wore my HRM tonight, for the first time in a long time, and my heart rate stayed in the mid-150’s during the hardest part of my walk. That’s exactly where I want it to be so I was good to go. I walked for 42 minutes for a total of 1.86 miles.

I’ve started listening to Jillian Micheals radio show via podcasts on my iTunes. It’s great to listen to while working out. It makes the time fly! You can access her podcasts here by the way! She’s really motivating. The one I was listening to today was really appropriate. She was talking about how when you go to do your workout, if you have negative feelings about it - it’s going to be a crappy workout. But if you imagine what it’s doing for you, and how hard you’re working, it’ll make the workout feel and go so much better. The funny thing is, I was going to stop at 30 minutes tonight, but I got so engrossed in listening to her, that I ended up missing the 30 min mark, and so then just kept going until it went to the next segment! I would highly recommend her podcasts!

So, on to perfect days. Kathy challenged herself to have ONE PERFECT DAY today on her weight loss program. I didn’t know about it until after mid-day when I saw it on Melissa’s blog, but what a great idea.

I also, like both Kathy and Melissa, follow the WW program. (I’m still using the point ranges, not target points). And while my perfect day isn’t going to be completely per WW guidelines, for me, it’s pretty dang close! I got in my dairy, I got in my oil, I got in good protein (salmon), I’m counting my points, I’m drinking my water, and I exercised today. The only place I’m really lacking today is in the fruit/veggie department. But, I’m going to choose to be ok with that, and call it a perfect day anyway! To follow their lead, I’ll also post my food journal for the day.

Perfect Day Journal

Breakfast - Toast, Butter, Milk (10)
Snack - String Cheese (2)
Lunch - Pasta Salad, Salmon, Diet Mt Dew (9)
Snack - Zbar (2)
Snack - Pasta Salad (6)
Dinner - Toast, Egg, 2% Cheese Slice, Milk (6)
Snack - 2 Mini Cadberry Eggs (2)

Water: 72 oz
Points: 38

So, looking at my journal, I find myself eating a lot of times during the day. I’m going to try and plan better meal choices for smaller type meals. I also need to cut that pop out, but it’s hard. I only have one more can left of the evil stuff and then I’m not going to buy anymore for awhile. I need to cut it completely!

Alright - I’m outta here. Got some stuff to do before I sit and relax tonight.

Biking Again

I did the bike again tonight.

I wasn’t quite as fast tonight - only managed 5.61 miles in 30 minutes.

I think I figured out why my foot hurt last night. I realized halfway through my workout tonight that I hold my foot crooked in the stirrup - so it’s resting on it’s side. Once I straightened it out, it was fine.

Go figure!

Over 100 Miles!

Well, I officially passed the 100 mile mark for this year. Way later than I had hoped, but I made it!!

I’ve actually at 103+ miles after tonight.

I changed it up tonight. Instead of walking on the treadmill, I did the stationary bike for 30 minutes and managed to travel 6.16 miles. I was pretty pleased with that. The only reason I didn’t go a little bit longer was because my right foot was killing me. My left was fine, but it was like my right foot was cramping. I don’t know if I wasn’t positioning that foot properly on the pedal or what. I’ll probably do the bike again tomorrow, so I’m going to be more mindful of how I’m using that foot.

I was averaging over 12 mph on the bike. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but I was pretty happy with it.

It feels good to be in the gym again. It makes me motivated again. Which is definitely a good thing. The rest of this week is going to be able getting comfortable in my gym routine, and this weekend is going to be spent planning my entire menu for next week, and getting everything to mesh together.

I’ve decided to put the morning workouts on hold until at least Thursday, but likely Friday. I know for sure I’m not going to be able to workout after work on Friday, so I’m going to do my best to get my butt in bed early-ish on Thursday so as to get up and get there in the morning. I don’t know why I keep putting it off - I shouldn’t. It’s just something I need to get comfortable with I guess.

Ok, off to clean the kitchen before the Finale for The Biggest Loser starts!