Good Morning, well, almost afternoon!
So far, it has been a good day, totally in control, but the day is young. Breakfast was a Zone bar, and diet coke. I am getting ready to fill my 32oz cup with ice water, and start sipping that. That's a huge perk here that I keep forgetting about- we have a big cooler of bottled water, and it is about 25-30 steps away. Free, cold, bottled water, and I don't take full advantage of it. That changes now.
And, I even just got up and filled my glass- 32oz with a few cubes of ice, just to make sure I drink it all while it is still cold, and refreshing.
Lunch is going to be consumed momentarily- turkey breast with swiss on rye bread (a better choice than the soggy white bread) and a big deli pickle. Dinner will have to be decided later, but worst case scenario will be chicken breast & yellow rice from Chicken Kitchen. Moving will do wonders for my planning & preparing, so I'll focus on what I can control no matter where I am.
So, that means for this month, the following:
* I will drink a minimum of 96oz of water, every day, without fail
* I will limit my caffeinated soda intake to no more than 2 cans per day
* I will prepare baggies with cereal, and buy a week's worth of cottage doubles to bring to the office & leave in the fridge so that I have a healthy breakfast every morning
* I will wear my pedometer and log my steps daily, to gague exactly how sedentary I really am, and begin working additional steps into my workday.
* I will journal all food eaten, good, or bad
* I will take a multivitamin every day, until I can replenish my full stash
That's a start for me, and it's a lot more than I have done for myself so far this year. Today, the focus starts to shift to me, and I need to believe that I am worth the time and effort.
Question of the day:
First, thank you, Elisha, for doing these again. They always get my head back in the game, thinking about what I need to be doing, and how to get back there.
Such an easy question, it seems…but there are so many aspects and layers. I want to lose weight because I don’t want the alternatives. If I keep going in the direction I have been going, I’ll develop diabeties, like my mother did. I have a family history or arthritis that settles into the knees, a great grandmother who was house-bound in a 3rd story walkup apartment because of her knees, and my mother who has had arthoscopic surgery in both knees before she was 50. If I don’t get the weight off, I’m as good as dead, and I’d like to think I have a lot to live for. A good job. Amazing friends who are better than sisters. My family. I have a wonderful husband who loves me. We just built the home of our dreams. I’d like to be around to enjoy it, after we struggled for so long to be able to buy the land, and then all the problems we had throughout the building process. I’m hoping to gain health. And energy. Fewer aches and pains. I’m hoping to avoid some of the attention that comes with being so overweight. Needing seatbelt extenders on a plane. Making sure that anywhere we go, we can get a table & not a booth. I don’t know when I started to gain the weight. I know my kindergarten and early childhood pictures show I was a normal size, but then, like 6th and 7th grade, I’m bigger than the other kids. In high school, I was a size 18, but carried it really well & no one would have known.
One thing in the past that I recently replayed in my head, and to my dear friend Mary who had to listen to me blather on for 2 hours, is that I think that part of my weight gain was as a result of growing up poor. I started working when I was 14 so that I wouldn’t be such a burden to my parents. I didn’t feel that I should ask for a certain shampoo, or hairspray, or anything that wasn’t the generic, or cheapest brand available. So I wanted to contribute. Having money of my own, to me, meant power. Meant control over myself, but instead, I kind of went nutso. Since we never had fast food, or an abundance of anything, it was kind of a free-for-all, I think. I could stop at a fast food place and get whatever I wanted, and afford it. And then working at a fast food place, and then in the mall, with a food court, and then waitressing, and helping in the bar- all places where bad food is available, in abundance. Call it lack of self control, combined with knowing nothing about nutrition, and not having a lot of variety, or choices growing up. Call it self destruction, emotional eating, food as an escape from poverty, from reality, from depression, and from having to deal with problems head on, instead of looking for the easy out and escape.
Comments:
Julie- I can't wait to see your links- you get some great articles & newsletters, and are so wonderful to share with us!
Joy- love the mini challenges- that should help so much with the motivation, and a kick start each week as there's something new to look forward to.
Elisha- I will join you in the chocolate-free Lent. I've been dipping into the hershey kisses too often, and even last night, after posting, hubby bought me a little square of Ghiradelli chocolate with raspberry filling. I shared it with him, but I didn't need that, now did I? Sheesh! Oh- and have you tried the diet black cherry vanilla coke? YUMMO!
Ok chicks, I'll stop by tonight after work & report my dinner, and what I accomplished, water & step-wise. Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, and March 1st!