Goals for January

Well..I have some goals

I did this two ways...just every day goals..things I will actually be able to accomplish ;) And then I made the workout calendar. Haha..That one might get some tinkering done with. And well you can see that on my Birthday not only will I be at college, I will then be going to the gym for a lovely session of C25K which I seem to be eternally starting over. Dag nab it. I am surely to get my 250 pounds of self into a runner. And it will surely help me in getting ready for Bloomsday. Yes I said that word. The biggest 12k fun run in the state if not in the US? I'd have to check on that. I made a verbal commitment to do it this year with two of my cousin's on my Dad's side. Now that being the beginning of the month I would like to think about moving out in, and the month before I want to be in California for two weeks for a class at a church I don't know if it will happen. But I am going to train for it. Especially if I get to do it with them :0) And it's less than 20.00 to register for, so I'm sure I will be ok...

So here they are :0) My goals

 

~Dairy Free/Gluten Free (1 milk coffee a week)

~Try 2 new foods this month to be determined

~Complete workout sheet

~Register for Bloomsday (May 4th)

~Research School of Worship for July at Bethel

~Make bed every day

~Get CD’s transferred to external hard drive by end of month

~Set aside time to read Bible, pray, worship daily
~Take care of my feet every day, whether its washing or soaking or putting a treatment on. Get these toes cleared up in 2014!!

~Stay off of the scale

So some of these are easy peasy. Like Registering for Bloomsday and making my bed. I mean really how hard is it to straighten out my comforter and make it look nice. Pretty hard apparently. I can't ever seem to do it. Unless I know someone that doesn't live in my house is going to be coming in my room. Then I make sure to do it. I'm really just lazy. That's all there is to it. 

And yes. For now I'm planning on treating myself to Dutch Bros Coffee the night of my college class. I will see how it starts affecting my stomach and go from there. I can't be running out of the class every week to go to the bathroom..so we shall see. 

I need to be serious about dairy free. I need to be serious about gluten free. My body is just so bloated. And I'm wondering if this eternal headache isn't from food and not the stagnant air warning that we are having. Those two right there are going to be the hardest goals to accomplish. I know that for sure.

I figured 2 new foods a month would be good to try. This is another thing I'm pretty leery about. But if I have to cut the majority of what I eat out of my life I'm gonna have to be adding stuff into it. So it's just going to have to happen whether I want it to or not. 

I just need to have a deadline for getting my cd's transferred to my hard drive. Ok. I have over 300 cd's that just take up room in my room. It's time for them to go digital and disappear. Well most of them. Some of them I'm going to keep (like the Christmas ones for sure) but the others unless they are signed or special things I'm planning on getting rid of. I don't even have a cd player anymore unless you count my computer. So the reasoning for me to keep them is really gone. It's really kinda sad. I was a die-hard CD girl. I didn't like going digital. I love opening the covers and seeing the lyrics and reading them cover to cover. But they just aren't the same anymore..and they are cheaper online. So I have caved. Plus I just don't have room to store over 300 cd's that I don't listen to anymore. Some people collect movies. I collected CD's :) I'm not much of a movie girl. I probably own less than 25 movies. And that might be generous. ;)

And to be honest, I haven't had success in the last couple of years at establishing a quiet time with the Lord routine. And I so desperately need to get a routine back. And this is the year it will happen :0)

So there you have it. My goals for January. I think at this point I'm only going to take it one month at a time. I can set my mind to do anything for 4 weeks. And that will keep it fresh and exciting. And it will keep me having to come up with more things to plan for. So yeah. There it is :0)

 

Wednesday weigh in Week 104

Well. I've made the decision that I will no longer be doing Wednesday Weigh ins.  In fact this is going to be my last Wednesday Weigh in because heck...who really wants to weigh themselves on Christmas morning!

The other morning I was coaching a friend, when really I was preaching to the choir like I like to do so well. She was scared about getting to her goal weight and then worried about gaining it all back. She has done amazing and really has like 2 or 3 pounds to go before hitting goal. Maintenance scares her. I spent some time telling her that the number on the scale doesn't define her. She can't live her life in fear of gaining all her weight back because that's what will happen. We go where we look. So if all she is doing is living in fear of gaining it back then that's what she will do. But if she lives her life and stays within her points and works out to maintain what she has lost, well then barring any weird medical reasons she should be fine. To LIVE. To not be obsessed over the scale and food. You know. That sort of pep talk :0)

And then I spent the next hour applying this to my life. I'm pretty sure we do the best thinking in the bathtub right? And that's where I decided it was time to be changing this blog up. I've been blogging for 2 years now. Pretty faithfully at least once a week. ;) And well I think I've gained and lost and gained and lost and somehow I think I am about 3 pounds heavier than what I started with 2 years ago. So posting my weight isn't really doing anything for me right now. Weight loss isn't really happening. And my life seems to be suffering.

So I'm taking the year off.

I went this summer without weighing myself. And I really enjoyed it. Haha..of course. I learned that I still need accountability. But it was nice to not feel like I was controlled by the number on the scale.

So my rough draft plan is to weigh myself on the 31st of December 2013, and then not weigh myself again until January 1, 2015. (WOAH. I just wrote that! That seems weird).

Now do I expect to lose weight. Oh absolutely.

But what I want to really do is shift my life around. I have spent much of my adult life OBSESSING over losing weight. I have let it control every aspect of my life on whether I do or don't do things,and  on who I think of myself as. I see the number on the scale. I see the fat girl. I see someone who at times I can't stand to be around so why should anyone else. I have become so inwardly focused on losing weight that I really haven't done much else with my life.

So that's what 2014 needs to be about. Re-prioritizing my life.

That doesn't mean that I'm not going to forgo exercising and learning how to eat healthier. Those are very much going to be goals. They just aren't going to be the focus of my life. I'm going to sit down and make some monthly goals of things that don't pertain to weight and I want to do what my blog is all about: Finishing what I start. It's more than weight. I need to learn how to get myself off of the foods that I'm allergic to. I need to figure out how to get my toenails cleared up. I need to figure out how to lower my debt so I can move out into my own apartment. I need to figure out a schedule so I can continue going to school and getting a degree.

There is more to life than weight loss. And I am going to spend my 2014 doing that. So the blog will be different in January. Opening my life up to other goals that I need to accomplish. I might be a little more boring. Or I might not...you never know ;) It's time to restart life without a scale. Without my life depending on that number. Now I might go the whole year and not lose anything. Well that would suck. Not gonna lie. But if I end up happier and mentally healthier than that would be worth it in the end. I wanna see some goals checked off my list next year. And I believe that this is the way to do it. Some things happen for a season. And there might be a season when Wednesday weigh ins come back. And that would be great. Or it might be retired for good. Who knows. I have a year to figure that out.

Can you lose weight long term and not weight yourself? I have no idea. But I'm about to find out. It's going to be an interesting year for sure. But I am looking forward to it. I'm ready for a change, and I think this will be good for me.

So stick around and see what happens? :0)

Wednesday weigh in week 56

Well that was two short lived weeks :( I lapsed this weekend. I guess you could say it was a "yeah, I will eat the stuff I said I wasn't going to". Mainly dairy. I had some mozzarella sticks and ranch. Plus I pretty much haven't exercised in a week again. And Wham! On goes almost 4 pounds. Really? Dairy will up my weight that fast? It's kinda crazy to think that. I mean that would mean I would literally have to avoid ALL of it. And we use so much in our cooking it's just crazy. Sour cream, cheese, milk, cream cheese. It all makes excellent additives to the food we eat. So now trying to avoid it is just downright awful. Not going to lie. It really kinda sucks. So here we are 3 weeks into the new year now, and I'm a little disappointed. Disappointed that I didn't say no to the cheese when I should have, and disappointed that I didn't make the time to workout. If it wasn't so goshdang cold!! I have come to realize that as much as I want to think that I can go run on the treadmill over at my grandma's house, I can't. It hurts me more I think running on the treadmill then it does running outside. My knees and my back were almost instantly hurting on the treadmill, still, once I figured out the incline. So maybe I was just made to run outside? But running in feels like 9 degree weather? Oy vey. I'm gonna have to get really disciplined for that one...

Wednesday Weigh in Week 54

Whew! First weigh in of the year and....

It was a success :0) I have no idea how I did it, but I lost almost a pound. And I'm just gonna go with it. (And notice the pretty nails? Grandma took me and my sister out for pedicures yesterday. It was quite the grandma/granddaughter affair. I like the idea of a pedicure and I like how my feet feel. I just feel sorry for the person touching my feet :( Hopefully this year I will get my bad feet under control and will be able to enjoy maybe a monthly pedicure :) And I took full advantage of using my teal nail polish from Mary Kay! :0))

Anyways. I have done my darndest to avoid dairy since the beginning of the year (haha..2 days). I even said no to mac&cheese for dinner (!!) This saying no is going to take some getting used to. But it will happen. Now I just have to get rid of the dairy as much as I can permanently. I guess the eggs doesn't seem as hard. As long as I don't have a lot of things that have eggs in them I should be ok. And yes I do missed a good fried egg sandwich every now and then. But I want a healthy body! I'm pretty resigned to no peanuts by now. It's been 6 months. I guess I can't really say if I miss it or not? I'm gonna cave soon and get some almond butter. I am just gonna not care about price, because I do want to experience an almond butter and honey sandwich. I miss being able to just eat a sandwich quickly when I am hungry and need something to eat. I have been eating way too many ritz and graham crackers. I am not going to go completely gluten free here, but as much as I can I will be avoiding bread and breaded things. But I can't avoid everything sadly enough.

I need to start tracking my beef and headaches though. I've had some headaches and I can't tell if they are happening on the days I have beef or not. So I am gonna make sure that I start being more aware of the days that I do eat the beef and what happens later in the day. Because if that's the case I might as well stop eating it altogether. I have a feeling chicken and turkey are going to be my friend :)

Other than that, I spent today getting all the Christmas decorations put away. I have to head back to work on Monday, so it needed to get all done, plus I was ready to have the living room back to normal! As much as I would love to entertain the idea of just leaving the Christmas tree up all year! I think that would be fun one year to leave it up. You know, just as a conversation starter ;)

I am loving my garmin. It's fun to come home and upload my workoout! I am still trying to figure out the heart rate monitor though. The day I got it to work it told me my heart rate was 35 beats per minute..and I thought that was a little low LOL! Especially when I knew I was breathing harder than that. I do have to figure something out for the chafing however...I want to wear it and not have it rub me raw :/ I have done 3 workouts with it. And I love being able to go to my garmin connect site and check all the stuff out. 

I always seem to snap back into it during January. I just feel good about it this year :) I have a lot of things I would like to see happen. So I am just plugging away at it :0)

Happy New Year!

2013. Wow. I for one am incredibly ready for a new year! I am ready for a fresh start for sure. The tale end of last year was just a tough one. And while I learned a lot about myself, I didn't quite accomplish my goals. It makes me rather hesitant to make goals for 2013, but I know if I don't have a goal that I won't accomplish much. I had a goal of losing 100 pounds last year and I lost 12. And I'm not going to let it take 10 more years to lose the 100+ pounds that I want to lose. So I know for sure the goal this year is to lose more than 12 pounds and keep it off :0) I know that I want to have some fitness and food goals this year. But I haven't figured out what. I know food wise my main goal this year is to actually quit eating all the foods that I am allergic to.Which sounds so easy to SAY. But not so easy to do. Cause gosh dang it. I really wanted an ice cream sundae at dinner tonight for my dessert. This no milk thing is for the birds. Or eggs. I have pretty much accepted the peanuts. Luckily I won't be going into shock if I eat them on accident. Well maybe after not eating them for almost 6 months I might. But I'm just not going to go down that route. I did have a few episodes of my throat closing up last year, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was.

So I had an idea of having a goal of running a 5k every month. But then I thought that was a little silly because after I get trained for Bloomsday I will be running more than that every time I go running. I'm still toying around with the idea. It would be interesting to see my time change over the year as I get faster. I might still do that.

I know I want to do Bloomsday in May. That's a 12k. And that's really all I have planned for this year. If something else presents itself this year that would be great :)

And I'm pretty sure I am ready for slightly warmer weather ;) Running when it's 34 and slightly snowing just isn't a whole lot of fun. But at least I still made it out there to run. Not that we are just getting into winter or anything, but I hope it stays a bit warmer for my runs. None of this 20 degree high stuff!

OH! I got a pedicure today. First time in almost a year. They hurt, but I think they might help. I might have to start doing them more often :( As much as I don't really have the money for them, I think they are going to be helpful to my feet during this whole training thing :)

Really rambling today..Not so direct with my goals, but I am going to give it some thought before I settle on them I think :0)

Wednesday Weigh in Week 53

Alrighty Steph. There ya go, Week 53 ;)

Well Christmas is over and done with. Man the day after Christmas sometimes seems like a major letdown! You have this giant build up to Christmas and deadlines and making sure all the presents are bought (or at my house made) and wrapped and food is made and then it happens. And then you wake up the day after Christmas. And you eat all your Christmas candy to "get rid of it" because January 1st is coming you know, and there is a New Year's resolution just waiting to be made and broken. I mean I literally have consumed way more amounts of sugar today than a person should. Well actually I have consumed way more in the past 3 days. No wonder I have a headache right now. This sugar coma is going to be a doozy to get rid of.

But I did manage to get up this morning and weigh myself before the boys got out of bed. I *only* gained .6 pounds last week. Which brings my year end total to 12 pounds.

12 pounds.

That's not exactly Finishing What I Start. But I am fully aware of my actions and I am not really making any excuses for them. I didn't workout like I should have and I didn't eat like I should have. And there you go. I didn't lose weight. Although ironically enough 12 pounds is 10% of what I really wanted to lose.

I did learn a lot about myself this year though.

I learned I do really good with deadlines and goals. I had a goal to lose weight by a friend's wedding in March and I did that. But once the wedding came and I "cheated" on my eating, I never did get back eating right the rest of the year. And once again, I will be losing weight for a wedding. Though I'm not in it, I am attending it ;) And that's still the same.

I learned that I am a HUGE stress eater. When I don't know how to control things and circumstances come up that there is nothing I can do about them, I will eat. And eat. And eat. I will eat to deal with things too. Food has always been my turn to comfort. It's always been there. Even in secret. I ate due to circumstances that were beyond my control and the food was the only thing I could control. It's like I punish myself with food. It seems like it would be a reward. But a lot of times it was just how much food can I shove in my mouth before I forget about my problems...

I learned that I am allergic to a lot of foods. Which is horrifying. Because it's all foods that I love. So all this food I love is hurting my body and I still continue to eat it. Because I can't seem to give it up. Well the peanuts I  gave up immediately. I haven't had peanut butter anything since July of this year. That number was so off the charts scary I have no idea how I wasn't sick from it. But giving up milk, cheese, and ice cream and eggs is like a big sad thing. I have to learn how to say No and stick with it. And I just might see my body change.

BUT.

I also learned that I am a lot stronger than I thought. I started the Couch to 5k not once, but twice this year. The first time I did it all the way completely without missing a day. The second time I actually skipped the last two weeks almost and just got straight to running for 30 minutes. When I was really doing well I was running consistently 3 times a week. And that's good for me! Just changing and running right after work was a really good time for me. Except now. LOL. Now I get off work at 3:30 and it's getting dark by 4:15. Not enough time to get my runs in :/
 I actually enjoy the plan I made for my Bloomsday training, I just need to get back to it and stick to it. (Which I will be doing as soon as I get my gym cleaned up. It turned into extra craft room this year and has sawdust all over it because we were cutting wood inside because it was too windy outside. Now there is a layer of sawdust everywhere :/)

I learned that I kinda sorta like to run. It's definitely good me time. I have learned however that living in the desert it's hard to find a good time to run that I'm not running in 90+ weather. I had very good intentions over the summer, but I can't get up and go in the mornings when I have the boys and my mom is already at work. So we might have to work something out this summer. We will see. Spring and Fall running was amazing. Haven't made it out a whole lot this winter, but now that I have my new Garmin, I will be getting out there more. Nothing like a new toy to get you re-motivated. As well as signing up for Bloomsday. I gotta talk to my buddies and make sure it's still a go. I know none of us have been following the plan hardly at all. But there is still 5 months to go, and I know I will be ready by then :)

So the goal over the next few days is to not continue to beat myself up mentally over not completing my goal. I am lighter slightly than I was last year. And that's good. I just need some determination to stick around and the willpower to accomplish what I want to. January is the time of year where I get all hard core about this. And then I usually taper off about March. So the goal is to make it through to April :) And beyond. The magic number every month is 9 LOL! 9 pounds a month. Seems so easy peasy on paper. I just need it to be easy peasy in life. I will of course be coming up with some new goals. I know I am going to have to make eating goals and working out goals every month to make this work for the next year. But I am a goal maker for sure. I just need to be a goal finisher..

Finishing the goal. Finishing what I start. Still happening.

<3

Happy New Year

I decided today that I was going to be like every other person in the world today that is starting a diet. I am going to stuff myself full of all the foods that I am going to swear of eating tomorrow.

Ha.

Not quite. Almost though. I woke up today and immediately started drinking my water. Because I knew that it's going to be that one last night. That one last night where I am going to have cheese. That one last night where I am going to have pizza. And a root beer float for crying out loud. Because tomorrow is when I will be getting serious about getting rid of this yeast that seems to be in my body. And honestly, I haven't really pigged out today. I kinda feel like it because I haven't had cheese and bread in a couple of days, so by the time I had a late lunch (2 small bowls of velveeta dip with some tortilla chips and fritos) it was 2:30 and we ended up eating dinner super early at 4:30 today. So I wasn't quite hungry, but that pizza was hot. And dang it all if my sister wasn't being good and got the thin crust. So I figured if I got the water going early enough that I wouldn't feel so bloated later today or tomorrow. I mean it seems logical right?

I don't know how long I will be not eating dairy or gluten or yeast. It's really going to depend on how my body feels and if my feet start to clear up. If my feet show that they are clearing up then I will probably continue on the diet. I already know that I have an intolerance to gluten. I went off it for about 3 weeks earlier this year and I felt great after about the 1st week. I wasn't so bloated and gassy. It was great. So the sugar and the dairy are next.

It's going to be quite life-changing. I am going to have to learn to like new foods, since essentially this cuts out almost everything that I eat. I will be continuing to drink my latte in the morning with a little bit of milk. So I am not cutting milk out entirely, but pretty dang close. But if I have to stop that for a while I will do that too. I am here to get my body healthy.

So my goal is to blog every day that I am able in 2012. I know realistically there might be days when I am traveling and away from a computer. But for the most part, for my accountability, I want to blog every day.

Farewell 2011, Welcome 2012. It's going to be quite the year :)