DAY 113 - BACK ON TRACK

This will be a quick update.  My refocused efforts during church camp paid off.  I pre-planned all of my meals, ran between 2 and 3 miles each morning and I lost over 4 LBS while there.  Granted, I was 'RE-losing weight I had already lost, but I'm still very proud of not letting circumstances like traveling and a family reunion completely derail my efforts.

I'm now in another challenging time.  I'm "home" for a week visiting my parents.  I typically eat a lot of unhealthy food, don't exercise and gain a lot of weight while visiting them. However a year ago when I visited I changed that unhealthy pattern.  It felt great to combine my visit with feeling healthy.  My experience of managing being home in a healthy manner plus my success in managing church camp last week gave me the confidence to manage this trip in a healthy manner. I went to the grocery store the day after arriving and loaded up with healthy food and most importantly made the CHOICE to eat healthy and exercise.  I have been here 3 days and I have exercised every day.  Plus, I'm helping my Dad refinish the back deck which I am hoping is burning some extra calories.

Another important aspect of being healthy while I'm here is making sure I'm getting enough sleep. I have slept at least 7  hours each night.  I feel so much better! Amazing what consistent sleep can do!

Once I get home, I will get back to regular blogging but for now this is my summary on what I have figured out about living a healthy lifestyle, especially while trying to lose weight:

*I'm in control, circumstances don't control me (or what I eat)
*I always have a choice to be healthy
*pre-planning is critical to my success
*sleep is critical to being healthy
*being focussed on God puts everything in perspective
*don't obsess over less than healthy choices, just make the next choice a healthy one

DAY 104 - REFOCUSING MY EFFORTS

Wow! My life has been crazier than usual and I have not been focusing on my GREEN vs RED system in well over a week (since we traveled out of town on June 14th.).

I really didn't think it would be so easy to fall back into old habits but I was gradually losing focus on my 5 basic goals each day.

The GREEN vs RED system DOES WORK when I am intentional about doing my very best to meet every goal every day. The most important goal is reading my Bible and intentionally praying. I have managed to do these two things most days but I'm not doing them in a God-honoring manner, which would be taking time to do read God's word and pray first thing in the morning. Instead, I have been "cramming" in these two vital activities at the very end of the day when I am exhausted.

I have also been so lacking in adequate sleep I wonder how I am functioning and I know  my body, mind and emotions are suffering the consequences of sleep deprivation.

Then my diet has been wheels off for 10 days! I don't know if I have been GREEN with calories since our recent trip. My husband and his brothers hosted their family reunion this year which was a lot if fun but we were all very busy and I didn't make the healthiest choices.

We finished up the reunion this afternoon. I'm now packed and ready to leave with our oldest child to church camp tomorrow. I had to make a decision to get back on track immediately or risk regaining all my lost weight. Between our out of town trip, hosting the reunion, being a church camp counselor and then traveling to spend a week with my parents and siblings, I have been in a prime position to lose all of my hard earned progress.

NO WAY is that happening.  I have officially refocused, I have planned and logged all my meals for camp (I'm taking a lot of my own food so I have better control of type of food and calories etc.  I will weigh in the morning and then not again until Saturday morning.  I plan to get any regained weight back off.  When I return from camp,  I will begin blogging my cards with my progress each day.
I will post from camp if possible. Until next time. Choose healthy habits and have a happy heart!
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DAY 102 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 26.8 LBS

I ate great all day but then got to the family reunion and didn't have a plan on what or when I was going to eat dinner. So, I snacked on nuts and trail mix, ate a few of the kids' French fries and then ordered a sandwich with fresh fruit for dessert. The sandwich was very big and I ate it all even though I was full. I'm falling back into bad habits with my eating. My calories have been over most days for the past week. Although I am concerned about calories, I'm more concerned with sleep, or lack of it, so I am in bed and ready for sleep now!

Calories: 3311
Exercise: bootcamp
Sleep: 2.5 hours
Water: 80 oz
Spiritual: did not read Bible, did pray

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DAY 101 - TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS 28.4 LBS

I had a good drop in weight this morning. This was not surprising because I knew from logging my food over our trip last week, there was no way I had actually gained that much weight.

Today was my oldest child's birthday. I passed up the birthday cupcake and ice cream at her party because I knew we were eating out for dinner and then going for ice cream afterwards. I was over on my calories, but considering we were in birthday mode all day long, I think I did pretty well.

I should not be up this late, I know it, I will get the lack of sleep thing figured out. It is definitely a lack of boundaries and lack of time management that keeps me up. I am going to have to create a schedule and live by it. My husband has been telling me this forever. My lifelong friend has been encouraging me to get enough sleep because it is CRITICALLY important to every other area of my life (if I am truly going to be healthy). I say I want to be healthy but I can't claim to actually BE HEALTHY until I regularly get enough sleep! I have some serious effort and change (which is the hard part) that has to occur.

DAY 98 - OUT OF TOWN

I ate too much again. Even though my diet has been poor, I have had a strong desire to exercise which is good. I will be back on track tomorrow with my diet and I'm going to bootcamp as well. I am dreading getting on the scale in the morning. I'm sure my weight is going to be WAY up. Part of the increase will be real, some will be from not drinking my water, increased sodium, and traveling. I will give myself a week to get back to where I was before our trip.

I have some challenges in the 2 1/2 weeks ahead (family reunion, going to church camp, and traveling home to see my family) but I have a plan to overcome the challenges. I DO NOT want to repeat what I just did over the last five days. I will go into more detail about my plan in the next few days, for now, I'm going to sleep.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Calories - 3638
Exercise - Elliptical Machine 53 minutes
Sleep - 8 hours
Water - 50 oz
Spiritual - Read Bible and prayed

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DAY 97 - OUT OF TOWN - 13th Wedding Anniversary

June 17, 2013
We celebrated our wedding anniversary by going to dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants with our three awesome kids. I ate way too much. It was great food but I definitely can't eat like that every day.

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DAY 96 - OUT OF TOWN - CANNOT WEIGH

Calories - 2719
Exercise - Ran 2 miles, Walked 4 miles
Sleep - 6 hours
Water - 100
Spiritual - Bible/Prayer
Sugar - 128/45

Today was better than yesterday. It helps tremendously to get my exercise out of the way early. I was running this morning at 6:30.  We are at a hotel tonight with an excellent fitness area. I'm going to bed shortly so I can workout early in the morning.

I'm taking the kids to tour the Blue Bell Creamery and I am planning on enjoying the ice cream sample at the end of the tour!
R
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