Monday, April 25, 2016

Checking In...

Well, it would appear that the crazy busy days of spring have officially hit... evidenced by my lack of posting last week!  Whoops!  I had actually made a vow to do my blogging in the evenings and schedule posts ahead of time to avoid a big lapse like that, but I just couldn't motivate myself to do so last week... After busy days at the office, coming home to do some exercising and eat supper, after that all I wanted to do was veg on the couch and watch Netflix.  I haven't even uploaded pics for my 366 Photo Challenge in over 2 weeks! eep!!  Busy spring takes a while to adjust to!

I did want to check in quickly though, since today marks one week since I vowed to focus more on returning to a healthy lifestyle.  Let's look back on my goals last week and see how I did:
  • Continue exercising for 30 mins every morning (Walk at Home, 21 Day Fix, Jillian Michaels, etc. DVDs) + 10 min walk at lunch, but ADD IN at least 20 mins of exercise at night (walk, or 20 min Ab DVD) = 1 hour exercise per day, 6 days a week. - Accomplished!  For the most part, anyways.  I did my 30 mins every morning, and 10 minute walk every work day at lunch.  The only night I didn't get in an extra 20 mins was the night I had shopping and dinner plans after work.  I also didn't get in any extra exercise on the weekend, just my half-hour workout on Saturday and Sunday is my rest day. But overall, I give this one a big CHECK!
  • Set a healthy meal plan for the week and stick to it - don't allow my arm to be twisted with unplanned treats!  I'm still struggling with this one.  I did set a meal plan for last week, but I forgot that we had our company Team Meeting on Tuesday, which meant pizza for lunch, so that was one unscheduled treat that I "gave in to" (and over-indulged in...3 pieces of pizza and 3 cookies...ugh Jillian!!!).  Also Friday was a bit of a bust... my meal plan that day went right out the window, breakfast, lunch, and supper.
  • Plan the treats ahead of time and enjoy them:  this week, it will be dinner out Wednesday night, 1 ice cream treat this weekend, and lunch at the Poker tourney on Saturday.  Otherwise, stick to the meal plan, or have small portions/healthy options (ie, Friday lunch, if they decide to order out at work, brunch at the restaurant after church Sunday, etc.).  Well, this kind of ties in to the above goal, so I can't say I did very well at accomplishing it.  I did enjoy my dinner out on Wednesday night as a full-on planned treat, and I did have lunch at the poker tourney on Saturday (but didn't over-do it, so that was good).  I wasn't tempted by ice cream on the weekend because it was so chilly out, but my mom's homemade banana cake more than made up for that!  And then of course I didn't do well with small portions or healthy options in the cases of work lunches - Pizza & cookies on Tuesday, Club Sandwich platter on Friday... I guess I'm a work in progress in this department for sure!
  • Continue drinking tons of water.  2 glasses of water first thing in the AM, 1 glass of water per hour at work, plus extra in the evening = 12 glasses of water/day.  Easy-peasey.  I drink water like it's going outta style, one of the few "healthy habits" I have stuck with.
  • No alcohol at Poker tourney on Saturday.  Check!  I drank water for the most part, along with a few Diet Pepsi's.  Didn't drink enough water though, because I came home with parched, dry lips.  I spent the rest of the night re-hydrating lol.
  • Cut out sugar and sweets as much as possible.  Start using fruit and Yonanas again as a "sweet treat".  Semi-accomplished... I did re-introduce fruit as my dessert after supper, I quit having a mid-afternoon chocolate break in the office, and I didn't get into any of the other chocolate and sweets I have stashed away at my house.  But as I mentioned, there were cookies on Tuesday... dessert after dinner on Wednesday... and Mom's homemade banana cake that I just couldn't resist!  Oh, and also, I bought two boxes of Girl Guide Cookies from Maddy on the weekend.  I haven't opened them yet, though, so that's good, right? ;)
  • No more evening snacking.  Make a cup of herbal tea if the snack cravings hit.  If I did one thing right last week, this was it!  I was successful in avoiding in the evening snack cravings.  Didn't even have to make the herbal tea to help curb them!  This was a big one for me, because evening snacks had become the norm again.  It was tough but I hung in there.
  • Try to cut the habit of falling asleep on the couch watching TV in the evening.  Keep moving to avoid falling asleep, and go to bed earlier if I discover I am falling asleep on the couch.  I was OK with this one...at least during the week.  If I noticed I was starting to feel sleepy on the couch, I'd move to my bed... even if it was only 9 pm.  I did end up falling asleep on the couch Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday evening, but I'm not too concerned about weekends.  It's week nights that I want to keep busy and avoid becoming an evening sloth!!
  • Read 10 pages a day of a book (I know, this has nothing to do with losing weight and getting healthy, but I'm disappointed in myself for not reading more lately.  We'll consider this a "personal development goal".)  Yay!  I did this one!  Well, actually, no... I missed two days...but on the following days, I read 20 pages.  This allowed me to FINALLY finish "Everything Must Go" by Elizabeth Flock, a book that I had been reading for over a month and should have finished long ago.  So glad I'm done it!  And now I'm flying through Mindy Kaling's first book "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" ...loving it! Hopefully my desire to read has been re-discovered. :)
  • Only weigh myself once per week.  Check!  I weighed myself last Tuesday morning.  I hated the number on the scales, and resisted the temptation to weigh again several times.  I'll check it again tomorrow and I doubt I'll see much difference (see, all the above mis-steps with eating healthy...) But at least I didn't weigh myself obsessively each day.
The goals for this week are much the same.  Here they are:
  • Exercise 30 minutes each morning, 10 minute walk at lunch, 20 minutes in the evening. Try to also fit in a walk on both Saturday and Sunday.
  • Make a healthy meal plan for the week and stick to it.  Remember...no arm twisting!!
  • The planned treats this week should be Soup & Sandwich lunch on Wednesday, lunch on Friday, and a brunch shower I'm going to on Saturday.  Continue to be mindful of portion sizes and make healthy choices whenever possible.
  • Continue using fruit and Yonanas as a "sweet treat".
  • Hang tough on not having snacks in the evening.  
  • Keep it up with reading at least 10 pages a day, and also keeping busy in the evenings to avoid falling asleep on the couch.
  • Boil eggs ahead of time to have for healthy lunches (veggies and dip, boiled egg, crackers and cheese) - also make some healthy homemade carrot muffins for afternoon snacks.
  • Only weigh myself once per week.
So yeah...they are pretty much the same goals as last week, but I really need to continue to focus on these ones and try to be better.  Here's hoping I can improve upon last week!

Happy Monday!!

No comments: