Weekly Chart #3

This was an excellent week!  I started using the My Fitness Pal app on my android phone and it's really helping.  I've tried recording everything I ate in the past, but it never really helped.  When I tried writing it down I just didn't realize how many calories I was actually consuming.  It's amazing to me that what seems like a reasonable portion of food is actually too much.  I guess it's just from years of overeating, which would explain why I'm where I'm at.  I also tried using the computer and logging things online, but I wasn't always near a computer and then I'd forget everything I ate, so that didn't work either.

always have my phone with me, since it has my task list, calendar, phone, alarm clock...  Yeah, my life is on my phone.  But anyway, that's really helpful for tracking my calories now.  I just pull my phone out of my pocket and enter what I've eaten and it records the calories for me.  I am now starting to realize what my portions should actually be.  Another added benefit is that it's net calories, so if I exercise I can eat more.  I haven't missed a day of working out since I started tracking on My Fitness Pal because I want more than the 1200 calories I'm supposed to have each day.  So I'm getting a good workout in every day.  I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but I already feel stronger and my weight is definitely on a downward trend!  Here's the chart from Sunday, and I'm extremely pleased to report that when I stood on the scale this morning it read 143.0 pounds!

 

Weekly Chart #2

This was a pretty good week.  Although I think some of the changes in my measurements can be attributed to returning to our normal eating habits after the holidays.

It did help this week to know that I'd have to post here and that it would very embarrassing if I hadn't made some improvements.  Hopefully I can keep up this pace!

Teaching Children About Choices

I thought it was hard to choose to control my own temper; well that's nothing compared to teaching a child to control his temper.  This first week back at school after winter break is always challenging because everyone is so tired.  Tonight my son allowed his temper to run away with him again.  After he calmed down a bit I talked to him about choosing to control his temper instead of letting his temper control him.  He seemed to understand then, although he despaired of ever learning to control his temper.

Later he got upset again and said that maybe he liked giving in to his temper.  I told him that while that may be true because sometimes it does feel good to just go and let your temper have its way; that he would regret it afterwards.  He then told me that was my brain, not his, and he wouldn't feel bad afterwards.  I then reminded him that he always feels bad after he's been mean and apologizes.  His response was, "I haven't apologized this time, have I?"  At which point I demonstrated another control mechanism and left the room.

I love being a mother.  But there are times when I think the reason I am a mother is because I yearned for patience one too many times!

Choosing My Food

My son has a bad temper, just like his mother (ahem!)  For the most part we're both pretty good about choosing not to let our temper have free reign.  But we both struggle more with our tempers at certain times.  My son's temper generally rears it's ugly head when he's hungry and/or tired.  My big issue is when I'm tired, which unfortunately is most of the time because I have chosen to put too much into my life.  But that's an issue for another post.  The real fun starts when we're having issues keeping our tempers under control at the same time.  As you can imagine, my husband and daughter generally run for cover when that happens.

Yesterday was the first day back on the regular schedule after two weeks of winter break.  So we were all tired last night, and it wasn't much fun to be in our house.  My son can be pretty hurtful when he gets angry as he lashes out verbally with such gems as:  "I hate this family, I wish I could run away from it.  I'm never going to get together with this family once I'm grown up."  Interestingly, I can remember having those same thoughts; but I was a teenager and he's six.  I don't know if I had those thoughts at six or not, but we've still got a long road ahead until he reaches the teenage years.  I can't imagine what he'll be thinking then.  Hopefully we'll succeed in at least teaching him to keep those thoughts to himself by then.

I'm a stress eater.  When things are stressful I want to "treat" myself with fat and sugar.  That's exactly how I felt last night before I finally got my son in bed.  I still have some of the delicious cut-out cookies that my sister-in-law makes for Christmas in my pantry.  I wanted nothing more than to have one of those cookies with a glass of milk.  Luckily I recognized why I wanted the cookie and watched an episode of The Two Fat Ladies instead of eating.  They're a joy to watch and sometimes the food is appealing, but the food on last night's episode didn't look very good so it was rather curative!  I actually scored two wins last night:  I chose not to eat a sugar cookie, and I chose not to yell at my kids (my daughter had a rare melt-down before bed last night too).  I was pretty proud of that accomplishment since I was just as tired as they were.

Today I chose not to eat an unhealthy snack (not even sure what I was planning to eat, I just know it was going to have sugar and fat, maybe one of those cookies in my pantry)!  The method for avoiding the food was different today.  I was working at home and had just exercised.  It was probably the endorphins, but I decided that I didn't want to waste all that hard work by taking in too many calories after burning a few.  I think that the real key is making healthier food choices is consciously choosing the food.

Of course consciously choosing the right thing is the real key to everything in life.  As Sirius Black said to Harry Potter in The Chamber of Secrets (movie version), "We all have light and dark inside us; it's the part we choose to act on that defines us."  It's not our intentions or inner thoughts that make us who we are.  It's the choices we make every second of every day that add up to the person we end up being.

Charting the Course to Fitness

Yesterday I posted all of my current measurements to hold myself accountable for changing those measurements.  I can't just keep talking about doing it, I've got to make choices that will lead me there.

My goals:

• Reach a weight between 125 and 128 pounds
• Reach a BMI below 22
• Reduce my waist size to 28 inches
• Reduce my hip size to 39 inches
• Obtain a waist-to-hip ratio of under .75

I'd like to reach these goals by the end of June, 6 months from now.

How I'm going to reach these goals:

• Make choices to move more often.  I work as an analyst and spend my day in front of the computer.  Work has been very busy lately so I often sit for very long stretches of time.  I need to remember to get up and move around the office during the day.
• Make choices to eat food that is healthy for me and fuels my body properly.  I need to plan ahead and bring food that is already prepared that is good for me.  Too often I'm in such a rush that I don't make or bring the right foods with me to work and end up eating whatever I can get quickly.
• Exercise 6 days per week.  It doesn't matter which days and I'm not training for a marathon.  But I need to get some form of aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes 6 days every week.  I also need to do strength training for at least 20 minutes 3 days per week.
• I have several exercise DVDs that I can use to help out.
• I love to walk and frequently do during lunch.
• I have all kinds of exercise equipment in the house.
• I have a subscription to Women's Health and can use the monthly exercise section to shake things up.
• I've got a Wii that can be especially helpful during the cold winter months when it can be harder to get outside during the day.
• I'm considering using a program called myfitnessbuddy on my Android phone to help with tracking food and exercise.  If I go that route I'll be sure to post a review.

So those are the goals and the plan.  I'll post updated measurements every Sunday to let you know how I'm doing following my charted course to better health and fitness.

Choosing to be...Healthy, and Accountable

I need to make different choices every day in order to be healthy again.  My father's health is in horrible condition and he expects medicine and surgery to fix all of the problems that he's created by eating poorly and getting no exercise.  Because I don't want to follow his course, I'm choosing a different one.  I am going to post my measurements here to hold myself accountable to reaching my goals.

Here's my baseline information:

Obviously my height won't be changing, but every other number needs to go down.  I'll post tomorrow about my goals and my plan and timeline for reaching those goals.