Week Two Day Six

Breakfast this morning: 1.5 TB peanut butter, 2 pieces light whole wheat toast, 6 oz. cottage cheese.

Morning snack:  1 cup grapes, 3/4 cup grapes

Lunch:  I didn't have lettuce, so I had my taco salad without the lettuce.  I replaced the lettuce with a grilled zucchini and a summer squash.  It was delicious

Afternoon snack:  1 cup dry cheerios

Dinner: A friend invited us over for dinner.  We had a bowl of meatball stew with carrots, potatoes, and onions.  It was really yummy.  Then I slipped into old habits.  There were very small dinner rolls, and I had five of them with a butter substitute.  Then came dessert that really is running me through the ringer now.  Paul and I brought a fruit tray that night.  When our hostess brought out dessert, she brought the fruit to the table along with a plate of molasses cookies and a plate of chocolate wafer cookies.  Guess what I ate- 2 molasses cookies and two chocolate wafer cookies.  The fruit was there and I didn't have a piece of it.  Ugh.   

Glasses of water: 8

Pedometer: 3746

Week Two Day Five

Today was technically a "day off" (because the district knows we'll come in anyway to finish our rooms, but oh well), so I got to sleep in an hour or so.   I had lots of energy and felt great.  Thought it was a workout day, Pippin was so chipper that I grabbed the harness and leash and he and I went on a walk first.  Then I came home, dropped him off, and walked over to the gym.  My knee felt so much better today.  I massaged the muscles around it a lot yesterday and stretched it as much as I could.  I was able to do so much more with it.  Yay!  When I got home, a warm breakfast didn't sound appealing, so I grabbed a fruit and granola yogurt parfait from McDonalds on the way to work.

I was out of cottage cheese, so morning snack was a cup of grapes and string cheese.  I hadn't brought lunch because I was out of the taco meat at home.  I picked up a chicken teriyaki sandwich from Subway on the way home.  Again- a lot of fast food, but I'm glad there are healthier choices I can have.

Tonight was supposed to be date night at the cheap theatre, but we were both pretty tired, so we stayed in and had an Office marathon.  We decided that tonight was also pizza night.  I had three pieces of it and a slice of cheese bread with a couple of diet A&W root beers.  While, yes, it was pizza and was anything but light, I don't have any guilt about it.  It was our choice for the night.

For a snack later, I had an ounce of cashews and an ounce and a half of almonds.  I also dipped into Paul's chocolate covered pretzels, and I had a bag of skittles.

A couple of observations from the last couple of days:

1.  This morning I noticed that my body felt different.  I felt more capable, stronger, healthier.  It was easier to move and I could almost feel it changing.  That was exciting.

2.  My evenings are my downfall.  Tomorrow I'm preparing some quick grab veggies and fruits.  Too often I'm going to the nuts and chips.  While the nuts are great, they're also a bit of a trigger food for me and I need to pair them with fruits and veggies.

3.  I have been a rock star at not eating the foods that have been out/passed around at staff meetings.  While this is great, I have noticed my tendency towards covert eating.  I think it's easier to not indulge in public right now because I'm focused and want to make healthy choices that others can see.  Now I need to work on making healthy choices when I'm by myself.  So far, I have been 100% honest in logging every bite of food that I've had, though there have been occasional "If I don't blog it, no one's going to know" moments.  If I don't eat the food I shouldn't, then I don't have that conundrum.

Week Two, Day Four

Sorry for the belated post.

I forget how exhausting the first week back for teachers can be.  For me, it's all the excitement of a fresh new year coupled with the enormous undertaking of teaching every individual student at his/her own level with ever-increasing class sizes.  With all of this in addition to trying to make healthy choices, it was a tiring day.

It began well, though.  It was not as hard to get up and go exercise as it was on Tuesday morning.  My right knee has been bothering me all week, but I still want to keep strengthening it, and did what I could at the gym.  (I walked there and back.)  I cooked my breakfast- my ususal omlette with a cup of grapes, and got my vitamins/meds in.

I made sure to get my morning snack in, even though I was eating it during our training.  Lunch was brought in- chips and sandwiches, so I stuck with the taco salad I brought.  No treats in the afternoon today.  Yay!

When I got home and Paul was telling me about his day, I kept falling asleep on the couch.  I was exhausted.  He ran to get a few groceries, and I sacked out instantly.  We had one of our go-to meals that we love- steak and steamed veggies.  I had a couple diet 7ups with the meal- I was thirsty and wanted something flavored.  This weekend, I'll pick up some limes and lemons to start my own flavored water.

For a snack that evening, I had an ounce of cashews, a couple cups of popcorn, about a cup of Baked Lays (they're almost gone), and, yes, one oreo cookie. 

All in all, a pretty successful, albeit tiring, day. 

Pedometer steps: 7523

Week Two Day Three

Well, today has been an up and down and back up kind of day.  Last night's late night made for a more sluggish morning.  I, once again, grabbed an egg McMuffin on the way to work.  I love them and am relieved that they have the right balance of carbs and proteins to work on the Curves program.

Once again, I stayed strong around all the breakfast goodies that were around and attempted to eat my morning snack.  However, the pineapple tasted a bit old and had made the cottage cheese taste old, too, so I ended up having a string cheese stick and fresh pineapple that was available at the meeting.

My principal was awesome and sprang for lunch from Baja Fresh for us.  I was able to research their menu last night and had a great chicken salad for lunch.  I also had a bag of tortilla chips that came with the meal.  The salsa verde sauce I was dipping my fork into was a bit warmer to my mouth.  I thought the chips would take it away, but they didn't.  Soooooo I went to the stash of licorice that is still in that bottom cabinet drawer.  I was going to take it to the staff room, but didn't follow through on that intention yet.  I had 10 pieces.

As the afternoon wore on, physically I tanked pretty hard.  I felt tired and weepy and tired some more.  I let myself have two tootsie roll suckers while I worked on seating charts.

By the time I got home, I was done.  I made the decision to have whatever I wanted tonight.  Paul had an early evening commitment, so we decided to get pizza for dinner after he got back.  I headed to the pantry and ate three peanut butter and honey sandwiches, 3 cups of Baked Lays chips, 4 Oreos, and had 1 diet sprite.  As I ate, I calmed down and began to feel better and more settled.  I texted Paul and asked him if we could do the pizza another night.  Instead, he picked up a Wendy's chicken salad on the way home for me.  I was so glad to finish on a healthy note.  As it got later in the evening, he decided to take Pippin on a walk, and I jumped at the chance to go with him.  I was going to do it after I got home from school and didn't follow through on it.  It was a humid, muggy atmosphere, but it felt so good to get out and walk with my boys around our beautiful, idyllic little park.

So, steps forward and back, but I think I'm still moving in the right direction.

11 glasses of water today
8009 steps on the pedometer

Week Two, Day Two

Most of the day was a really great success, and I was in good head space for most of it.

This morning, I woke up early enough to walk to the gym, had a good workout, and walked home.  I didn't have enough time to cook breakfast, so I snagged an Egg McMuffin on the way to work.  I took time during the morning staff meeting for my normal cottage cheese/pineapple snack, and then made sure to stop my later work in time enough to prepare and eat my taco salad.  At my afternoon meeting, I didn't take the snack that was passed around.  When I got home and talked about the day with Paul, I had my usual string cheese/cucumber/apple snack, and actually felt full afterwords.  I didn't have a lot of time to prepare dinner before an evening meeting, so Paul did a Subway run for our dinner.  I had a great sweet onion chicken teriyaki sandwich with lots of veggies.  I was full and doing great. 

At my evening meeting, I didn't eat the chocolate covered caramel macademia nut chews that were out.  However, through the course of things, as the meeting went later and later, I got more stressed out because I had planned to workout the following morning and as it kept going, I was getting less and less sleep.  (Yesterday I went to bed at 7:30 and got up this morning at 5.)  So I came home angry and frustrated.  I ended up eating 2 oz. of almonds, and 3 cups of baked Lays chips.  I also had a diet sprite.  Not the worst late evening eating, but not the best.  I'll get there, though.  

A plus was my water drinking today- I had 12 glasses. Also, I reached my new (since I started the blog) high on my pedometer- 8266 steps for the day.  The nice thing is is that as I was walking around and around my room doing set-up things, yes, I got sweaty, but I wasn't tired of walking around.  It was good.

Because of the late night and that I worked out today, tomorrow I will sleep in a little- not worry about working out, and Paul and I have planned to take Pippin on a nice long walk after we get done with school.  I can still get my other two workouts in on Thursday and Friday.

Week Two Day One

5:15 is a ridiculously early time to get up- especially when you've enjoyed a summer of sleeping in.  My alarm went off and I hit the snooze one too many times.  I got to Curves at 5:37 instead of at 5:30 for my workout.  I had an awesome check-in with my coach- a full weigh and measure.  The implementation of healthy habits definitely showed in my weight this week.  By the time we got done and got my goals set for the week, though, it was 6am- not enough time for me to workout, shower, get ready, cook breakfast, and get out of the door on time.  Instead of calling it all off, though, I went home and took Pippin for a morning walk- shorter than the workout and an active way to start off the morning.  I'll go in tomorrow morning.

Most of the day went really well.  I'm ending on a low note, so I need to recognize the successes of the day.  I took the time to cook myself an omelette and had breakfast at 6:30.   At school, I stuck to my morning snack (eaten in my car as I drove in between schools), and my lunch at 12:30.  Then I started into the ridiculous amount of training videos we are supposed to watch and take quizzes on this year.  I got bored watching them and found myself organizing my desk drawers.  My spring self thought she was being kind to my fall self, because in the bottom drawer of the file cabinet, I had stored licorice and tootsie roll pops.  I wasn't hungry.  My body was fine. But,just because it was there, I ate some- 5 pieces of licorice and 1 tootsie roll pop.  Ugh.

When I got home, I ate my green pepper slices, an apple, and a piece of string cheese as I chatted with Paul about our day.  

My downfall came in the evening.  I was tired.  I was frustrated that the tech things I was trying were not working.  I didn't have ingredients prepped and ready to go.  I ended up just grabbing what was fast and immediately available.  I had 2 hot dogs with ketchup and relish on whole wheat buns, about a cup and a half of Doritos (which really didn't taste that good.  They were too heavy and covered with flavoring.), a cup of light Lays chips, an ice cream sandwich and a chocolate bar.  Oh- and a few almonds, too.  Now I'm frustrated/tired and (completely unrelated), my legs ache a bit.  Tomorrow is fresh with no mistakes in it and I'm going to need to figure out how to make dinner easier and more successful.  

Food for the day:

6:30- Breakfast- Omelette (eggs, cheese, peppers, onion), 1 cup grapes

9:30- Mid-Morning snack- 3/4 C cottage cheese, 3/4 C pineapple

12:30- Lunch- Taco salad

3:45- Mid-Afternoon snack- green peppers, 1 apple, 1 string cheese

6:00- Dinner- 2 hot dogs, 2 whole wheat buns, ketchup, relish, 1.5 cups of Doritos, 1 cup of Lays chips, 1/2 oz almonds, an ice cream sandwich, bar of chocolate.  

Physical Activity:

Walked Pippin

Pedometer: 7148 (highest yet of the blog)

Day Seven

Breakfast:  I was a little tired of my morning omelette, so this morning I went with:
1/3 C oatmeal
1/4 C raisins
1 oz. chopped almonds
Cinnamon and Nutmeg. at 7:45.

It was a really good breakfast.  I'm glad I tried something new.

Between church and meetings, I didn't get my lunch in until 3:30.  I was very hungry, but made the choice to go ahead and prepare my taco salad instead of getting something instantly.  When I was done, I was craving sweets- not hungry, but craving.  I'm trying to differentiate between the two.  I ended up snacking on two .5 oz candy sticks- the old-fashioned kind.  That helped.

Paul rocked the grill again at 7.  We had steak and steamed vegetables.  I added to it a piece of wheat bread and cantaloupe and honeydew.  Food was on my mind a lot and I wanted a dessert.  I went ahead and had a Hershey's bar.  It did the trick.

For an evening snack, I had an oz. of almonds at about 9:15.

I drank 8 glasses of water.

This evening, I put together all my morning snacks, lunch salads, and afternoon snacks for the next four days.  I hope they stay good.

Tomorrow morning is my first workout at 5:30 for the new school year.   Let's see how I do. :0)

This being the end of the week, I need to review my goals:

Goals for this week:

1. Write down all my food and activity choices and report back nightly to this blog.
2. Transition back to eating 5 meals a day.
3. Eat whole foods whenever possible.
4. Work out three times a week.
5. Take Pippin on a daily walk

Goal 1- I did it!  I wrote down every bite I ate and reported it here.

Goal 2- The transition is still taking place.  I think next week's school routine will help.

Goal 3- I did really well.  The things I had that weren't whole foods: licorice, the sandwich bread, my salad dressings, the chicken teriyaki sauce on my sandwich, the McDonald's parfait, taco seasoning, diet root beer, diet 7up, fruit dip, veggie dip, kettle corn, some of the Sweet Tomato choices, 2 potato chips, 2 oreos, the Hershey's bar, and the stick candy.  

     As I look over this list, it looks like it's the smaller things to the side that weren't whole foods.  The bulk of what I ate were good choices.

Goal 4- I did it!

Goal 5- Nope.  It turned into an every-other day thing on the days I didn't work out.  I'm ok with that for now.

Next week's goals:

1. Same as above.  I need to keep making this a priority.
2. Same as above.
3. Same as above.
4. Same as above.
5. Take Pippin on a walk three times.

(Physical Activity:  Sunday is my day of rest.  I got 3326 steps in.)

Day Six

Eating:
9:00- my usual breakfast of 2 eggs, this time with green and yellow peppers, and 1 cup of cantaloupe.
3:30- Lunch/part of my mid-morning snack- 2 TB peanut butter, 1 piece wheat bread, 1 cup honeydew, 1/2 cucumber, 3/4 C cottage cheese, 4 C water, 2 of Paul's potato chips.

Now for the challenging part of the day- a baseball game.  Knowing I'd want peanuts at the game, I brought in (shh) two baggies of almonds- 1 oz. each.  My allotment for my mid-afternoon snack was 1 oz of almonds, and, knowing I'd be there longer, I chose a dinner option that gave me another 1/2 oz of almonds.  I did end up eating both 2 oz. of almonds, but didn't let myself go to the concessions stand even though I kind of wanted to attack the food our neighbors got.  I also chose a dinner option that allowed for 2.5 cups of popcorn.  I think I ate more than that, though, of Paul's popcorn that he bought- more like 3-4 cups.  I also brought in my trusty 4-cup water bottle and sipped on that during the game.  So, here's the total game damage:

7:30-10ish- 4 C water, 2 oz. almonds, 4 C popcorn

10:45- got home and was pretty hungry.  I'd already had my starch and nut allotment from dinner, so I had my protein and dairy left.  I really need to pick up some turkey breast or ham to eat for my quick protein option, because, once again, I ended up eating my usual 3/4 C cottage cheese, 2 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, and then 1 cup of dry cheerios, of all things.  It was a bit much.  Ooop!  I almost forgot- I did have 2 oreo cookies as well.


Physical Activity:
I dropped the ball on wearing my pedometer today, didn't work out, and didn't take Pip for a walk.
Le sigh.

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So, Monday morning I'll be checking in with my coach.  I'm interested to see what the numbers on the scale say, though I don't want to play the weight game.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and last year made my own version of it.  On my mantle piece are two glass candle containers with metal butterflies around them.  I love the use of butterflies because of the implication of transformation.  I spray painted one holder silver and the other gold.  I thought about doing the first one in black or white, but I also like the idea that while I'm not "gold" like I'd like to be, where I am now has value and is beautiful, too.  Inside the containers, instead of candles, are clear glass beads/stones.  When there is weight loss, I move them from the silver container to the gold, or back again if I gain.  I haven't touched them in a while and would like to see if I can eventually empty out the silver container.

Day Five

Still hanging onto the last few days of my summer vacation, today I had my Friday date with Paul.  Hello decision time.  My normal is to get a large 7up and a med/lge.-ish kettle corn (at the beginning of the year, we buy two plastic popcorn buckets that we can refill for $3 each time we go.  With how many movies we see, this helps a lot.:)  This kettle corn is one of my favorite treats.  So I decided to not cut it out yet.  Instead, I brought in a 4-cup bottled water to replace the 7up and enjoyed my movie treat and my refreshing drink.  Baby steps.

Next came lunch.  Our choice of restaurant usually rotates between Chevy's, Applebees, and Sweet Tomatoes.  We went for Sweet Tomatoes.  I love this place.  I loaded up a great salad: spinach, romaine lettuce, summer squash, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, approximately 1/4 C cheddar cheese, 1.5 TB sunflower seeds, and a side of three baby tomatoes and about 7 cucumber slices.  I got ranch dressing in a small container to dip my fork into for each bite, instead of putting it on the salad, and ended up eating about 1 TB of ranch, instead of the 2 TB in the container.  We both had water instead of lemonade.  So far so good.

Once the salad was done came the next challenge- the yummy warm buffet behind me.  Here are my usual choices- yes, for all the world to see, but you're my friends and family, right?  You'll love me anyway.  Here goes.  Normally, I go back for 2 blueberry muffins, 2 cornbread muffins, 3 of the honey whip butter servings, about 3 pieces of the pizza-ish squares, either a cup of soup or a baked potato, and then chocolate lava cake with ice cream on top with chocolate and caramel syrups.  I was sitting there deciding how to play this out.  I thought about going back for more salad and calling it good, but I think I would have left feeling victorious but deprived and frustrated.  The last thing I want to do is feel like I'm on a diet and can't have anything ever again.  Maybe I'll cut things out completely eventually, but for now, I'm transitioning.  As I type this, I realize that may sound like justification, but this is my journey, and I think these were the best choices for me to keep balance as I change.  So, here's what my plate looked like with my new choices: no blueberry muffins, 2 cornbread muffins, 2 instead of 3 honey whip containers, 1 pizza square, (I tried the soup that looked good, but it had too much pepper in it, so I only had a couple spoonfuls. Bummer.), 1/2 of the apple cobblerish dessert that I usually have, and 1/2 of my serving of ice cream with no syrups on top.  I left the restaurant satiated but not over-full, and happy.

That meal kept me full and I didn't feel like eating for the rest of the afternoon... until I started browsing Pinterest and saw post after post of delicious-looking recipes.  Paul to the rescue!  We ended up the day with grilled steak with veggies and fruit from yesterday's party.  No dip for me this time.  

I didn't get my five meals in, but I think there were successes.

Here's the day in a nutshell:

Eating:

11:00- bucket of kettle corn, 4 cups of water

2:00- large salad, 2 cornbread muffins, 2 honeywhip containers, 1 pizza square, apple cobbler and ice cream, 2 cups of water

8:00- 6 oz. steak, carrots, green pepper slices, yellow pepper slices, cubed cantaloupe and cubed honeydew, 1.5 cups of diet 7up

Physical Activity:

Worked out (yay and kill-me-now all at the same time)
     We got back from lunch at about 3:00.  Paul took an afternoon siesta and I worked on lesson planning on the computer. I was getting drowsy, but in the back of my mind loomed my workout.  I had one more to get in this week to make my goal.  I could do it tomorrow, right?  But tomorrow morning the gym is only open until 11 and Paul and I had plans to go to the temple in the morning.  3:45 went by....4 o'clock.... 4:15.... 4:30... when finally I pulled it together, got up, changed, and marched (ok- I didn't march) but walked my rear end over to Curves and worked out.  Victory!

5300 steps today, approximately. (I forgot to put my pedometer on in the morning, and when it was time to go to the movies, I couldn't find it.  I guesstimated about 1500 steps around the house and on the date,  1600 steps when I walked to the gym and back, and 2200 for the work out.  I've glanced at the pedometer to see how many steps to and from the gym, and after a work out, so those numbers should be close.  Luckily, in the evening I found the pedometer and am ready to go now.)

Day Four

Eating:
11- McDonald's fruit and granola parfait
1- cottage cheese and pineapple
3:15- 1 piece whole wheat bread, 2 TB peanut butter, 3/4 C cottage cheese
4:30- Two Taco Bell chicken soft tacos fresco style
5:15- 5 pieces of licorice
6:30-9:30- various pieces of vegetables, 1 C strawberries, 4 TB fruit dip, 1/2 TB veggie dip, 4 glasses 10-calorie A&W root beer

Only 4 glasses of water.

Physical Activity:
Took Pippin for a nice long 3,200 step walk this morning while it was still cool outside.
No workout today
6963 steps on the pedometer
_______________________
Today I started to fight myself and to feel deprived/frustrated/wanting to just eat whatever I wanted to eat.  I didn't take time to eat breakfast early in the morning, so I grabbed a parfait on the way to an appointment.  Then mid-afternoon, I was really hungry.  When Paul called letting me know he hadn't eaten yet today and was checking to see if I wanted him to pick me up anything, I was really tempted to just go for a burger and fries.  However, he suggested chicken soft tacos, which sounded good and helped satiate me.  I still indulged in the last of the licorice from the trip.

In the evening, we had friends over to play games, I tried to plan food that would be yummy and still be good for us.  I prepared a veggie tray, a fruit tray, and dips for each of them.  Initially, I planned to do different chocolate dipping fondue sauces, but I thought it would be too messy, so I changed to dips.  I had more fruit dip than I should have. :(  While not as good as just sticking to the fruit and veggies, I do think I made better choices than I would have before.

Day Three

Good news!  No headaches today and lots of successes.

Eating:
10:30- Breakfast- eggs, onion, cheese, grapes
1- Mid-Morning Snack- cottage cheese, pineapple
5:00- Lunch- taco salad
9:30- Dinner- 1 piece wheat bread, 2 TB peanut butter, 3/4 C cottage cheese

Drank 10 C Water

Exercise:
Walked to the gym
Worked out (ouch!  It's still really hard)
Pedometer steps: 5290

In the evening, I wasn't hungry for a real meal- only snacky stuff that are triggers for me.  I was able to substitute what I had planned with an open-faced peanut butter sandwich.  I love peanut butter and it was nice to have it in moderation.
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I took a nap in the afternoon, so sleep was hard to come by last night.  Staying up reading and waiting, I really had to fight the calls from the kitchen downstairs, but I did it.  Phew.

Day Two

Eating today:
10:15- Breakfast- 2 eggs, 1/2 C Cheddar Cheese, some onion, 1 Cup grapes
1:05- "Small morning meal"- 3/4 C Cottage Cheese, 3/4 C pineapple
5:15- "Lunch"- Taco Salad- 3 C lettuce, 3 oz. extra lean hamburger, 1/4 C black beans, 1/4 C corn, 1/8 onion, 1/2 tomato, cilantro, 1/2 C cheddar cheese
7:15- 4 pieces of licorice
8:45- Dinner- Subway sandwich- 6 inch sweet onion chicken teriyaki on wheat with cucumbers, tomato, lettuce, and green pepper
10:15- Evening small meal- 1 slice swiss cheese, 1/2 cucumber

Fitness stuff:
Exercise day off
Took Pippin for a walk to Subway, back home, and around the park
Pedometer: 4899

Today was much better.  An awesome appointment with my acupuncturist, a beautiful evening walk with the puppy as the full moon rose in the sky, and just a minor headache for about half an hour in the morning.  I got my 5 meals in, even though the times were later than they probably should have been.  I think I'm clinging onto these last days of my summer schedule where I can sleep in and stay up late.  All in all, though, I think today was successful.

Day One

Monday, August 19th:

8:30- Met with coach, worked out for half an hour.

10:30- Breakfast- 2 eggs, 1/2 C cheddar cheese, 1 cup grapes and apples

1- Mid-morning meal (a bit late ;) 3/4 C cottage cheese, 3/4 C pineapple

2:30- 6 pieces licorice

3:15- Lunch- Taco salad (lettuce, extra lean hamburger, black beans, corn, cheese, tomato, onion)

4:30- 4 pieces licorice

6- Dinner- string cheese, 1/2 cucumber, 1.5 inch slice of group hoagie sandwich

5:30-8ish- swimming with friends at Lake Hagg

9:15- apple

Drank 10 cups water

Pedometer steps: 4319, but I didn't wear it once I got to the lake.

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So all in all, it was a good start today.  I got my 5 little meals in, kept track of everything that I ate, and worked out.  I didn't get a walk in with Pippin, though.  I also had a headache most of the day.  I don't know if it was from drinking too much water or from sugar withdrawals, but it wasn't fun.  That's why I ate the licorice- to see if it would help, but it didn't.  

Thanks so much to all of you for your kind words and support.  

 Evening after swimming at Lake Hagg

Beautiful moon over the little beach we swam at.

Health Blog Intro

One of my favorite posts is from Ralph Waldo Emerson.  It is:

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our ability to do has increased.

 As long as I can remember, I have struggled to regulate my weight.  I have tried many programs and have had varying degrees of success and failure.  Currently, I am the heaviest I have weighed, and what should be normal activities are strenuous and uncomfortable.  I don't want to continue to stress my body, mind, and spirit like this.  The purpose of this blog is for me to be publicly accountable for my health choices.  I know success won't happen overnight and that I'm relearning years of accumulated habits and tastes, but I'm determined to keep trying.  Also, I want to focus on learning healthy habits, not on weight loss.  I know that as I put sound health principles in place, weight loss will follow.

This blog will be open for comments, and I would really appreciate your words of encouragement and support.  I have such a great support system of friends and family that love me and want the best for me.  If you have tips that you want to leave, that would be great.  Keep in mind, though, that there are a myriad of different health styles that work for different people.  I will gladly apply your help/advice if it fits with my goals for what I want to try and maintain.  I don't want to try too many things, though, and end up not succeeding at any of them.


Current Health Profile:

1.  Physical Activity:

• I have been working out at Curves since April and like the circuit format of the workouts. I got into the habit of working out 3 times a week for half an hour, but over the past month, I have been traveling and have gotten into the "Lazy Summer" routine and am now starting over with creating good habits.
• To increase my daily steps, I try to take Pippin for a walk around our cute little neighborhood park.

2.  Eating Habits:

• I am a sugar-holic and sugars and carbs call to me. 
• The Curves Complete program that I'm on advocates eating 5 smaller balanced meals, pairing healthy proteins and carbs.  I go to their website and select from certain food choices.  It reminds me a lot of Weight Watchers because I get to choose what I eat, but without the points calculations.  They've done it for me on the site.  I think their approach is balanced and lifestyle-oriented instead of limited time fad diet.  I do alright at sticking to sensible eating until I get busy or don't plan my meals.
• My default setting when I am busy or don't plan is not eating much during the day and overindulging in the evenings.

Goals for this week:

1. Write down all my food and activity choices and report back nightly to this blog.
2. Transition back to eating 5 meals a day.
3. Eat whole foods whenever possible.
4. Work out three times a week.
5. Take Pippin on a daily walk

Long-term goals:

1. Learn to eat a whole-foods diet and limit sugars as much as possible.
2. Workout 4-5 times weekly, with increasing ability for length of workout and strength training.

Thanks to everybody who took time to read this today.  It means so much to me to feel secure enough in my friends and family to not worry about judgment, but know you are there for me as I keep trying to "persist in doing" that which is difficult for me to do so that my "ability to do" will increase.