Reality Check

Another school year and fall sports season is underway.

I love the first week of school - I always have - even as a student myself. Each year began with such wonderful opportunities. Who was in my class? What were my teachers like? What new things would occur? Then, the novelty fades, the grind of homework kicks in, and soon I would being dreaming of summer vacation.

Now that my kids are in school, I admit I live vicariously through them. I can't wait for class to start, who is in their class? What are their teachers like? And what adventure awaits? School pictures and open house extend the excitement and then the grind kicks in.

It's the same with sports. This fall it's soccer and baseball. Her team has had a little more success on the field than he has, and playoffs are beginning to seem a little unrealistic. Juggling practice, dance, homework and weekend games have been a challenge in addition to coordinating social time.

Likewise it's the same with my weight. I am down over thirty pounds since January, but not as far as I want to be. My exercise program has slowed to a glacial pace and I have succumbed to pumpkin spice coffee and dare I say a bagel. I have read Karen's blog and her tremendous success in remaining gluten free even in the midst of some challenging circumstances. Having gone pretty much gluten free for about three weeks in August into September, I can report I did feel better. Then delving into some pasta for lunch, a margarita with dinner, and stumbling on the Halloween candy resulted in my morphing into a sugar jacked crazy person. Within days I noticed my mood became crappier, my focus was off and I bloated and gained five pounds. And the cravings....oh the cravings.

So, another short fast is in order to break the sugar/gluten and get back on track. Let's see how it goes.

Harnessing the Power

One week ago my friend, Karen and I began a new route on our journey to good health. It's called the Power of 20. As I mentioned in my last post, the idea is to strive to complete 20 healthy things each day.

Not surprisingly, I am a little late to the party. The most challenging aspect was not making the good choice, but finding a way to record these choices. I tried to use hash tags, which was a great way to hit my goal, but not very useful for recording and sharing the details of the day. The next day I expanded into categories (exercise, water, food, acts of kindness). I found a great app called Drinking Water, which sends a posts every time you are to drink an 8 ounce glass of water. And, when you complete your 64 ounces, the app actually gives you a round of applause. That was a nice little bonus.

Some of my exercise choices included taking the stairs a few times each day, and taking a walk outside at work and after work with the dog. I have not been as diligent with my videos and the elliptical machine. But that changes today. My brothers, their girlfriends and Mark and I signed up for a relay marathon later this month. Each person has to run about 4.3 miles. Embarrassingly, I sent text to everyone hoping to bag out of it. But, they are all still in. I looked at the kids' schedules hoping for conflicts with their games. Nope! The day is free. And, my parents have already offered to keep the kids overnight the day before. No kids, no sports, no excuses. Time to lace the sneakers up and sync my new songs to the ipod and hit the pavement. Sigh! I have not lost or gained anything in 2 weeks. But really need to kick the exercise in gear. Hopefully that will keep things moving in the right direction.

My new favorite food has been these prepared salads with cabbage, kale, and lettuce. I add some lean protein and enjoy it. One bag covers two meals. I'm almost done with the protein shakes I purchased a few months back. Now there is space in the cupboards. I also have to invest the time tonight to prepare the food for the upcoming week. Spring sports begin this week, so our schedule becomes a little more challenging. This is more of a reason to get out of bed when my alarm goes off in the morning.

I also want to renew my habit of sending out cards/notes during the week. This was particularly helpful this past week when I had a very bad day at work. The nuances of my job prevent me from disclosing any details, but it was bad on so many levels. So, to balance the bad, I did three things. First, I circled back with every person I interacted with in a manner that was stressful, and cleared the air. Second, I went out of my way to praise others and give thanks (to their supervisors) for their hard work. Third, I opened the dialogue with my supervisors and sought their thought process for handling similar issues. It will be helpful the next time these events happen.

So we press onward towards harnessing the power of 20.

I spent more time with the kids this week tuning in to what they were interested in doing. I paid it forward at work, and spent some quality time with Mark.

Twenty Questions

Well, my miracle morning lasted all of one day. Perhaps that was not the right plan. While I have been pretty steady in eliminating alcohol, processed food and unnecessary carbs, I could have done better with my exercising and water intake. So rather than obsess about the negative I am joining my forever optimistic-glass is half full- gal pal in the magical 20 plan. It's really pretty simple. Do 20 healthy things per day. It could be related to food - eating something healthy, or refraining from an unhealthy choice, exercising, stress reducing activities or just random acts of kindness. Each week we will set aside $20 towards a fun weekend away. Also, on the 20th day of each month, we will have a free reward yourself day. In April, the 20th is Easter. So I see a guilt free Cadbury egg (or two) in my future.

Today is Mark's birthday, and as is our tradition, he brought home cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Thankfully, the magical 20 plan begins April 1st.

The new beginning

I finally began following my miracle morning plan. I have a simple exercise routine that's only ten minutes long, but enough to get the blood flowing. I also picked up a small devotional to read each morning with a Bible verse or two. This blog will serve as my writing. Of course there is silence and prayer.

The season of Lent begins today. Many of the elders in the church are fasting and praying. Each Wednesday they gather to pray together and open it up to others to join. Our schedule works for me to participate. Lent has been one of those times when I am all in or all out. One year I gave up coffee. For those who know me that was incredibly difficult. This year I am going liquid and raw, no alcohol and no coffee. I'm ready with soups, salads, some protein shakes, smoothies, and lots of water.

Since my writing in the morning is only 6 minutes, I can write the rest tonight.

First Ten gone

In mid December I spoke with the life coach, who works hand in hand with the doctor to help me lose weight. After participating in a test to determine metabolism we sat down to talk about menus. That day I had gained three pounds from the last Dr visit. It was an all-time low (figuratively of course) since I was officially the heaviest I had ever been.

After a month of stress management, exercise and a week of clean eating, I am happy to report that 12 pounds are gone. My largest size pants are too big, and since the month is half over, I may go for two sizes in January. So operation tight pants is well on its way.

A burning desire

Who doesn't love a good book? While I could name a few, I can honestly say that I'm not one of them. My go-to selections are usually non fiction business books. Sure I've read some novels and most of the popular trilogy series, although I am waiting for a vacation to determine if I'm team Edward or the other guy. My comfort level is non fiction.

My top three books of 2013 were Quiet, by Susan Cain, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, and Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter. Quiet is about introverts and their many positive qualities. The Power of Habit is self explanatory, and Grain Brain discusses the dangers of gluten. Each book was insightful and educational. I enjoyed each one. But I selected them in the first place with the hope of garnering some gem to help me in my weight loss journey. Similarly, with The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. Somehow if I can find that magic combination, I will finally succeed.

Then I picked up and started Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In it are the seventeen components for success. The first of which is to possess a burning desire to achieve "X." Whatever X is. As I listened to the stories of successful people, they all possessed a burning desire. One person wanted to be a business associate of Thomas Edison. Yes, that Thomas Edison. Did I mention the book is really old? Another wanted his son, who was born without ears or a means to hear to actually hear and speak. Finally a third, a military leader sailed with his men to a foreign land during war and then burned the boats on which they arrived stating to his men "win or perish." All three stories included successful results. So I have determined that I need to have a burning desire to weigh 135. So what am I going to do to burn all the boats behind me so I have no choice but to win? One idea is to organize my clothes by size and at the end of every month give away every article of clothing of the highest size. I'm sure I will come up with other incentives.

So that's my goal this year: to weigh 135.

Off to a good start

Yesterday I cut my blog a little short, but my daughter suggested we watch a scary movie together. Since I am usually persona non grata in her eyes these days I jumped at the chance. Due to her love of all things scary, I knew it would not be the last time I jumped. We settled in and watched The Invisable. I was relieved it was more thriller than horror, and was glad for our time together.

I began describing one part of my miracle morning, affirmations. The five I choose to memorize are:

I am forgiven and I will not be tormented by my past errors. 1 John 5:4

I am healed and sickness will not lord over my body. 1 Peter 2:24

I do not worry about everyday life. God knows my needs and meets them because I make His Kingdom my primary concern. Matthew 6:25

I forgive those whom I have anything against so that my prayers are not hindered. Mark 11:25

The Holy Spirit is my helper; I am never alone and I have the peace of God. Philippians 4:7

This ought to give me a good start.

Five out of six parts should be easy to incorporate. Prayer, reading my Bible, affirmations, visualizing, and writing. In fact these five can all be done in a half hour. It's the exercising and meal planning that will be the most challenging. For me it always has been.

The most important part of my success is taking some time each week to plan and prepare. It took me about three hours yesterday to cook, measure, chop and pack meals for the week. There is plenty of food, so no risk of starving. There is also plenty of variety, including carbs. But carbs are only consumed during the first three of the five meals. I bought some gluten free pretzels and one loaf of gluten free bread. As I transition I won't need these, but did not want to stop cold turkey.

Today is a day off from work for me so there is a little more flexibility in getting all of my workouts in. And staying on task with food. So here's to success.