Week 4.

I can't believe I'm already in the fourth week of this eight-week session. It's crazy how fast time is going by.

I don't have much to say today, just looking forward to class tonight. Hopefully it will inspire me, because I'm feeling pretty blah right now.

Oh! I did get on a pair of jean straight out of the dryer today without needing to do the deep-knee bends and wiggles I usually have to, to get them to loosen up. That was cool.

Let's talk food.

So far, I've been talking mostly about exercise. It's definitely important, but at least as important, and likely more so, is diet.

I don't do Jenny Craig, I don't follow the Atkins Diet, I don't go to Weight Watchers meetings... you get the idea. I know people who have had great success with all these methods, and I'm certainly not knocking them. They just weren't for me. What did work for me was...













(drumroll please)













Eating sensibly and portion control.


That's it.

I bought myself a $6 food scale at Walmart and started reading labels. I actually measured out a tablespoon of peanut butter, instead of just eyeballing it. You know what I discovered? That an actual serving was less than I was using, but it was still enough.

But then food sort of overtook my life. It felt as thought I spent my day thinking about what I would eat next, watching the clock to figure out when I could eat it (trying to space out my 3 meals plus 3 snacks evenly)... it become too hard, and I got burnt out. Seems silly that eating "right" would be hard, but it was, at least for me.

So I need to get back to basics. Quite a while ago I bought a book called The Eat Clean Diet and never read it. I'm going to do that now.

I need to start stocking low-cal, healthy snacks again, so that I can just grab something without having to put a lot of thought into it. It's easy to do this with junk food, so I'm going to make it just as easy for me to grab healthier options.

I'm going to do more meal-planning. This will spill over into other areas of my life, as I will be lessed stressed and more organized come dinnertime, which will lead to a happier mommy and a more relaxed, earlier meal, leaving extra time to focus on the kids, instead of going from the dinner table to the tub to bed. Not to mention that by meal planning, and only going to the grocery store once per week, I'll cut down on gas and spend less on groceries, too. There are many benefits to this, now I just need to put it into practice.

I ordered a food journal, too. I've always just used a notebook, but it got too hard to keep up with writing everything down. Or else I would write the food down, but then not take the time to fill in the nutritional information. Maybe if I have an journal actually designed for this purpose, with the pages already labeled and just needing to be filled in, I will be more successful at this.

I'm seeing small changes in my body already, and it makes me want to stay on track and is keeping me motivated. I never did make it out for a run this weekend, but we got some much-overdue stuff done around the house so that was okay. The fact that I'm heading out of town for a girls-only getaway next weekend is keeping me on track, too -- I want to be bringing home new clothes in a smaller size!

Okay, I'm done now.

It's the weekend!

So... what are your plans?

We are cleaning house today. And probably tomorrow. And I'm sure Sunday as well. Sigh.

It looks to be a beautiful weekend, so my goal is to get at least one walk/run in. Maybe I will take the dog. It would probably be better if he were a Great Dane or a Labrador or something... instead of a Jack Russell Terrier/Daschund cross -- complete with short legs. He has boundless energy though, so I bet I'm still done before he is!

I missed class last night. Second time this session. I just felt that my family needed me to be home last night. Girlie #1 got her braces yesterday, and was just sore and miserable, and wanted her mommy. :( Girlies 2 and 3 were both tired after long days at school, and the Boy is fighting a nasty cold. I just didn't feel right walking out the door and leaving Nate to deal with the fall-out.

So, instead, I'm walkin'. Yes, indeed, I'm walkin'. ;)

3 pounds!

I weighed myself last night after class, and I'm down by 3! :D

I started to get discouraged, because I was hoping to see a bigger drop, but then I realized three pounds in three weeks is a totally healthy weight loss. It's not coming off too fast, which makes you more likely to put it back on, so I'll take it. To be honest, I haven't been eating as good as I could be, even without following a strict diet. Seeing the smaller numbers already just makes me more determined to keep doing it!

I'm noticing a difference in my clothes already, too. I still wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the house in my favourite jeans, but I'm definitely closer to that point already, too.

Week 3.

Wow, time is really just flying by. I guess that's what happens when you have four kids at three different schools and are always on the go. It's funny, I thought I would have ALL this time this year, and I feel like I have even less than I did when the kids were home all summer.

I was thinking last night about the next session, and started to feel panicky. I think that may have been what went wrong last time -- the idea of committing to this healthier lifestyle for the rest of my life seemed too big a commitment to make. So I've decided that I'm going to take it one eight-week session at a time from now on. I'll focus on eating right and working out twice a week, and that's all I am going to ask of myself. If I get to the point where I want to pick up another class, or go for a run, or find the time to do a video at home, great. But it's not going to be an expectation I place on myself, and then I won't feel like I'm failing when I can't squeeze it in.

Also, eating right. I think this time I'm going to go with the "everything in moderation" approach, rather than the more hard-core "eat clean" approach. I don't want to feel guilty if I grab a couple of squares of chocolate once in a while. I also don't want to deny myself and then end up having a day where I gorge and eat three chocolate bars in one sitting. Again, expectations. I think knowing that I am eating better because I want to, rather than because I have to, will make it easier to stick to it.

I feel at peace with things today.

Interval training.

Are you familiar with the term? I am... now.

I can't believe in the two and a half years I've been working out with M we've never done a class like this before.

It kicked my ass, but at the same time was good. I was absolutely dripping wet by the time class was over, but yet it went surprisingly quickly. Usually the amount I sweat is directly proportion to how long it takes for class to be over, lol.

I don't feel NEARLY as bad today as I expected to. I felt worse last night than I do this morning, so that's good.

This morning Nate told me that he can already see a difference in my legs/hips. :D

I want to keep the momentum going, so I'll need to figure out some way of squeezing in some exercise on the weekend. It's Nate's weekend to work. so that makes it more difficult. Maybe I'll go for a run tomorrow night when he gets home.

We are doing the killer loop on Tuesday. It is as it sounds.

Week 2.

I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I last posted. Anyone who knows me IRL knows that I can't be quiet for that long. ;)

In fact, the blog did kind of hover in the back of my mind, but life got in the way and I wasn't able to post. Not that I didn't have time to sit here to post, mind you -- just that life stopped me from focusing on myself and my goals for a few days. Other things just needed my attention.

I did my best to stay on track, and didn't do terribly badly. I like being more conscious of what I'm putting in my body, and can really notice a difference when I've eaten something crappy and quick (not even fast food, necessarily) instead of taking the extra few minutes to make something balanced and nutritious.

I need to find more balance in other areas of my life, though, in order to be able to make it all fit together -- healthy eating, exercise, taking that precious time away from my family to get to the gym, 2 nights per week... how does it all work? Is there a way to manage to squeeze it all in and somehow not feel like you're dropping balls all over the place?

I skipped class last night. I didn't really want to, I just felt like I was needed at home. One of my kids had dental surgery on Monday at the follow up appt. was yesterday at 5:30 -- by the time we got home from that it was suppertime (which wasn't cooked yet, because I was uninspired yesterday and couldn't find a darn thing to make) and general madness ensued. So I stayed here to help man the fort, rather than leaving Nate (fuck it, nobody offered a suggestion as to what I should call my husband on here, so his first name it is) alone to deal with the hungry masses. I fully intended to go for a walk last night, but by the time we finally got the kids settled down it was too late to do anything.

I'm going to class tomorrow night for sure, though.