Weekly Weigh In

Although I can't report as much progress as I would be able to if I was making better choices all the time, I'm not unhappy with the current results of 131.9 which are headed in the right direction.  I've had a couple of bad days recently with my eating because I completely gave in and used food to deal with stress, despite the fact that I know better.  I did it once to deal with work stress, and another time to deal with parenting stress.

I'm trying to find more productive and healthier ways of dealing with the stress.  Because my entire family struggles with keeping our stress levels in check, we purchased a CD with guided meditations.  I've successfully used the bedtime meditation to help me to relax and fall asleep a couple of times now.  Luckily I have an office at work (I'm so grateful not to be sitting in a cube farm).  My plan is to close the door and use the instant calm meditation the next time I get overloaded at work.  I've also gotten some good recommendations about an app called Simply Being, so I've purchased that and will try it too.

I've found that journaling and trying to really articulate my feelings and emotions has helped more in dealing with the parenting stress.  I experience such a wide variety of emotions with that stress; it's much complicated and deeper than work stress.  The work stress mainly deals with self-worth issues.  Parenting stress impacts my very core and I sometimes feel inadequate as a person, not just in a particular task.  All of those swirling emotions are under laid with a fierce and all-encompassing love.  So trying to sort them out and write about them seems to help.

The other thing that always helps me is being able to get outside.  I know that part of this is just cyclical and that when I can get outdoors in the sunshine and feel the breeze and move my body, I nearly always feel better.  Today we had lunch with my parents at their house and then went for a walk.  Someone in their neighborhood had the most wonderful, ultra deluxe bird house.

I'm sure that I'll be able to make even better choices about food as the weather gets nicer with spring finally arriving this coming week, and make even more progress towards my goal.