More Than A Number

Today was not a great day for me. Today’s goals were:

• No more than 1 soda. This I did follow through on and had no soda today!
• Stick to my calorie goal. I had no soda and I even avoided the office today after hearing they had donuts. However, my niece’s mom is sick so I picked KK up after work and took her to get something to eat and to the store so her mom could rest. I wasn’t planning on this and I didn’t make good choices. Instead of soda, I had lemonade. Not sure that saved me any calories. And now I feel all bloated and gross.
• Get 20 minutes of exercise. Walking around the store with my niece counts, right?

All in all, I did meet 2 out of 3 goals. So I guess it wasn’t such a bad day after all. And I got to spend time with my cute little niece, KK, which always makes for a good day. 

Today I realized who I want to get healthier for: my future self. How many times have I wished my past self hadn’t indulged, skipped the gym, spent hours in front of the tv, etc.? And how many times have I been so happy the next day that I didn’t indulge, went to the gym, read a book instead of watching tv, etc.?

Although I did enjoy my one soda and a few small white chocolate covered pretzels today, I met my goals of limiting myself to one soda. My other goal was to not overdo it when I went out to dinner with a friend but said friend rescheduled for this weekend. Instead, I cooked fish, broccoli & rice for dinner. And I managed to stick to my calorie goal per MFP! Not only that, but I took my dog, Sam, for a nice long walk when I got home. He was very happy with my decision!

Unfortunately, I woke up with a headache which lasted all day despite Excedrin. The soda didn’t help, the walk didn’t help but a nice long, hot epsom salt bath helped. Epsom salts really help draw out those toxins.

I keep picturing what my future self will look like: thin with a nice flat stomach. And I realized what I fear the most in this process is not giving up my favorite foods and the soothing feeling I get from over eating. No, it is that I will not lose weight. Really, though, what’s the worst that could happen? I don’t lose weight but I am healthier, have more energy and if I keep working out, I will definitely see some positive changes to my body. There’s no good reason to not keep moving forward with making better changes.

What do you want to tell your future self? What do you want to do now to make life better for your future self? What’s your biggest fear when it comes to being healthier and losing weight?

          I’m exhausted! I haven’t been sleeping well. I am not doing a very good job at updating my blog.

          After a horrible weekend (and Monday) of eating whatever I wanted, I decided to set small daily goals. Yesterday’s was to get some exercise. I was so tired when I got home but still managed to put in 20 minutes on the rebounder (mini-trampoline).

          Today’s goals were to limit myself to only one soda and no more than three bites of sweets. I didn’t have the soda or any sweets! Maybe telling myself I can have some but limiting it helps? I certainly hope this is a turning point.

          Knowing how tired I’d be after work, I didn’t plan to exercise. Yet I managed to find the energy and worked out at the gym for over an hour! Then I stopped on the way home for Chipotle. The good news is I was still less than 50 calories over my goal for the day.

          I’ve been asking God to give me verses to help me through this. Last night, I read this, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Chris our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” Jude 24-25 The phrase “able to keep you from stumbling” really resonated with me. I’m trusting God to keep me from stumbling! J

          Going forward, I will keep setting small daily goals. I can do this!

I did pretty good today. I stuck to eating low carb, took my lunch, got a good amount of sleep last night, took some healthy snacks to work but I did not exercise. I kind of knew this was likely to be where I didn’t follow through since I knew I’d be home late this evening.

If I didn’t have a headache, I’d blog more. For now, let me just put tomorrow’s plan in writing:

1. Stick to low carb diet
2. Pack my lunch for work
3. Take plenty of healthy snacks to work
4. Cook dinner
5. Go to bed at a decent hour
6. Exercise for at least 10 minutes

I have not been doing well in terms of keeping myself healthy. I have decided to just take it a day at a time. Tomorrow I will:

• Take my lunch to work
• Pack lots of healthy snacks for work
• Stick to a low carb diet
• Get some exercise
• Go to bed at a decent hour

Looking at this list, it all seems pretty simple, right? I’ll come back tomorrow to update you on how my day went & come up with a plan for Friday.

So I am declaring myself a part-time vegan. Some days I manage to eat vegan all day. Other days, just breakfast.

Breakfast is probably the easiest meal for me to eat vegan. I usually eat oatmeal with ground flax and cinnamon. Switching cow’s milk for almond milk is so easy. As is using soy creamer in place of cow’s milk in my coffee.  And on the days I do not have time to cook oatmeal I eat toasted Ezekiel bread. Now I’m just working on exchanging butter for coconut oil on my toast.

Since I can not seem to stick to vegan all day, every day, I am now going to commit to eating vegan for breakfast and lunch every day and dinner at least 3 days per week. Hopefully I can slowly phase my taste buds over to 100% vegan.

Today for lunch I made vegan burgers. Way cheaper than buying them! It did take an hour but it made 8 so I can freeze them for future use. My mom thought they were better than hers. Here’s the recipe I used: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/07/13/our-perfect-veggie-burger/ My only changes were I used carrot pulp from juicing instead of shredded carrots and used almond flour and sunflower seed flour instead of chopped nuts. Then I topped my burger with my favorite toppings: salsa and avocado!