Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Love this! Though Proverbs is misspelled!

More Than That Donut...

So, here I am, about a month into my Positive Life Change. I had my 5th workout today, and I felt great afterward, though I did wonder if maybe I should have felt "more worked out". I did the prescribed leg work (reps and weight), and I broke a sweat, even did my ab work, then stretched. I hope I did everything correctly.

I've been watching what I eat more carefully and have been intentional on eating more fruits and veggies. I added green beans to a Sunday night pasta and beef sausage dish and ate some salad; I've eaten fruit every day this week; I was quite proud of myself today as my plate from Luby's looked like the plate on this blog (half veggies, 1/4 protein, 1/4 grain! And two days ago, something came out of my mouth that shocked both my husband and myself. He had brought home a couple of donuts - one glazed and one chocolate frosted. There I stood looking them in their frosty eyes (donut holes). And then, as I mustered up the strength to resist, out came, "I want to have a baby more than I want that donut!" But before I turned away from them, I watched as my husband's mouth dropped. Not that this has been kept a secret from him, but I think he was attempting to keep my rejection of the donuts separate from himself. I reassured him and while pinching some of my stomach flab, reiterated that I desperately want to get rid of it.

Of course, after he left for work it was a little harder to stick to my guns. I ate a quarter of each one. Afterward, I felt satisfied with my half donut, and resolved to eat anything unhealthy only in moderation if the temptation was too great. I've been down that road many times where deprivation leads to binging.

Which brings me to a question - what is worse? Half of a donut or half of a buenuelo?

Anyway, I'm motivated to keep up my workouts! Though I'm not looking forward to my next weigh and measure in 8 days, after being in bed for 5 days with the flu and basically just eating, eating, eating. I will be happy if I didn't gain anything, but ecstatic if I lost just a little something. Time for sleep, goodnight!

Friday, January 20, 2012

What my plate should look like...and yours, too!

I had pinned this to my Pinterest back in December and tonight someone re-pinned, reminding me that I had it! Oh Lord, help me to remember to eat this way!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Taking pleasure in my productivity - stuffy nose, pounding head, and all

At the end of every year, for the past few years, I've scrambled to "get my room in order". Mostly this NewYear's Eve ritual has consisted of dusting, organizing, vacuming my room from top to bottom. This year, I neglected to enter the New Year with a clean room. I hated that I had so much going on that I missed it.
Well, two weeks into the New Year, I finally began to get my room in order. I appears that I made the work harder on myself by taking up a hobby - scrapbooking. For whatever reason, this has made more of a mess of my workstation that my jewelry making. It has been my goal to document every crafting project by a post onto youtube, but I sometimes do not have the patience to make a video and wait for it to upload. I have taken pictures of various projects, but I haven't had the time to post them to my craft blog http://www.newthingdesigns2.blogspot.com/ .

I've been sick the past few days (and detoxing about a week before that), so I feel pretty terrible, but being in my room all day to rest and quarentine myself pushed me to point of frustration with the disorganization of my room enough to make me get out of bed and clean stuff up - head pounding and all. Even in the pre-organization phase (piling like-stuff together in mounds) I made time to craft a bit and cleared some stuff out of the way in the process.

My organization wisdom from God today: "productivity is getting stuff done and enjoying it".
And the "blessing" of my cooking after some chinese food: Nothing in the world can compare to perseverance.
Amen!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My Positive Life Change: A Target Weight for Future Pregnancy

At the start of every year, I seem to have a routine: start a resolution & begin a blog. Usually 3 months later, I have another routine: drop the resolution and stop the blog.

Well, this year I have dropped the term"resolution" and have adopted the phrase, "Positive Life Change". The good part, I've put money on it, so I'm more apt to keeping up with this life change, and I technically began before Christmas, so I was psyching myself up for it for a good 10 days.

What is it you ask? I joined a gym, yeah, a lot of people do that around the start of the year with a resolution to "lose more weight and look great". I do confess, those were my goals in years past. In 2012, this takes on a deeper meaning and a purpose for more than vanity's sake. For my first appointment at my gym I was scheduled for a weigh and measure, where I found out that in the past 2 years I had put on 26 pounds, and that my current weight of 176 (the heaviest I've ever been in my life!) included 66 pounds of body fat! I was so distracted by those numbers that I could not process my measurements that followed as a personal trainer took the tape to my apple shape. I must have had a look of shock on my face - the trainer asked me if I was alright. I was honest and shared that my current weight was my Mt. Everest peak. She tried to console me, but I was in a daze. She had a tone of empathy as she asked what my goal weight was. I drew a blank. I truthfully stated I didn't have one. For the first time since I've been on a weight loss journey (since puberty), I did not have a number in mind, only the thoughts of  "I want to be healthy. I want to be fit. I want to have a baby."

Two years ago, about 3 weeks after I married my husband, we had thoughts of starting a family once we were more settled in our marriage and I was more healthy. Back then, I was 150 pounds and I thought myself too heavy for a healthy pregnancy. Naturally, I planned to work on this. I threw myself full-fledged into my nonprofit work, which means I started spending 14 hour days sitting at a computer, sometimes eating 2 or 3 meals there. And thus began my weight gain. Terrible. Unhealthy. Never Again. It is now so painfully relevant why I've been so void of energy. Ugh. Add to this energy drain the stress of being an executive director of a new nonprofit, and I see the recipe for my disaster.

So, now I have a new recipe: eat right (more veggies, more fruit, more water, less junk food, less caffeine, and more often because I tend to eat only twice a day) better sleeping hours, less stress, a de-stress activity or two, and a whole lot more exercise. Consistency. It seems simple, especially since I actually enjoy breaking a sweat and feeling a rush of endorphins.

I have yet to mention, that the kind personal trainer gave me a goal weight - 130 pounds. I'm not quite sure I want to go that low...the thought of it is kind of scary. I haven't weighed that little since I was 15, so I kind of don't remember what it is to be that size. Or shape. I do not have a concept in my mind what I would look like. But that really isn't the point - the point is to get to a body that is healthy to bear children. And I am going to partly use this blog to keep myself motivated and on track.

So far, I am 4 workouts into the plan and consciously making healthier food choices. Here's to a healthier me!
- Jen