2/25/2015
For week of 2/18 - 2/25/2015
Weigh in Weight: 149.8 lbs loss of 2 oz
Major goal this week of getting under 150 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED!!! :)
This last week has been an emotional roller coaster. A friend of mine from Luther Seminary died on Friday morning from pancreatic cancer. Fucking cancer! I sunk into a small depression throughout Friday and part of Saturday and then pulled myself together enough so I could be present for my husband and son. It was just a rough weekend. Then, Preston was awesome at church on Sunday, which helped turn my emotional hazy into a much better mood.
It is "that" time of the month too, which didn't help my emotional state either. Poor Jason. He has been so patient with me and my random outbursts the last few days. He is so good to me!
I continue to work on my weekly goals. I let myself go a little bit as far as food portions go. I ate all the right foods (low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods), I just ate too much of it. So, for week 7, I am going to work on better portioning the food I eat, so that I do not overeat. And I'm going to continue trying to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Someday, I'll get my crap together and just go to bed earlier. Darn being a night owl. :p
During week 6, I did a lot of searching on pinterest for yummy looking low-sodium and low/no cholesterol recipes. I found a bunch that I look forward to trying out with my family. I look forward to making them with Jason soon. My husband is the cook in the family, but we like to make dinner together sometimes, so I think making these meals together will be fun for all of us. :)
Oh, and I got 4 days of speed walking on the treadmill in this week too, despite everything that happened and was going on. It is the Lenten season, which means constant go, go, go until after Easter services on Easter Sunday. I am pretty impressed that my husband and son work with me to give me the time to get my work outs in. I am truly blessed by this.
Week 6 was an up and down week for me, but now I must keep on keeping on, and you as well! :)
Goals for week 7: 2/25 - 3/4/2015
1) Focus on portion sizes of food at meals and snacks
2) Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
3) Make a few of the recipes I found on pinterest with Jason and Preston for meals this week.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Week 5 of Healthier Living in 2015
2/18/2015
For the week of 2/11 - 2/18/2015
Weigh in Weight: 150.0 lbs. loss of 0 lbs.
I am going to keep this post short and sweet this week. The liturgical season of Lent has begun and yesterday was Ash Wednesday, which is I am not posting until today. Lent is a stressful and busy season, but it is also a good season too. It's hard to explain to those who don't work in the church. It is a fulfilling season, but there are many demands on my husband Jason's time, so Preston and I get to have a lot of mother/son bonding time. So again, it's not bad, just stressful and busy.
I was able to successful accomplish 3 of my 4 goals for week 5 in my healthier living journey. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night still alludes me. There were a few nights when my son didn't sleep through the night and one particularly horrible night when we woke up 3 times for longer periods of time. When I was able to get sleep on those nights, I slept hard but woke up very tired. I wish his last stupid 2 year molar would pop through already. This whole teething thing is for the dogs (as my friend Karra would say.) So I will be keeping the goal of getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night on my goal list for week 6.
I have continued to eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and my sluggishness and headaches have pretty much disappeared for the most part. The best part of eating a diet like this, is that it also means you end up eating a low carb diet as well. But in the end, it is all about eating balanced meals. There is nothing wrong with carbs, as long it is not the only thing you eat. Because I have been doing so well lately with eating low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals, I am going to take it off my goal list for week 6. If I start to fall off, I can re-add it to my list later.
My morning prayer and reflection time has been wonderful. I feel better emotionally and mentally. I have so much to be thankful to God for in my life and remembering that has helped me in so many ways. I have a more positive attitude, even on the tough days when I'm hit with a case of the lonelies or boredom, or both. I have gotten in the habit after a few weeks of doing this every morning, so for now, I am going to leave it off my goal list for week 6, and can add it again later if I need to.
For week 5, I was able to do speed walking on the treadmill 4 days and get some outside walking in too on a couple of nice days we had here. In order to keep me motivated to continue doing my speed walking exercising, I better keep it on the list for week 6. Today I was so tired and unmotivated that I almost didn't do it. But I was able to talk myself into it and now feel so much better today than I would have if I didn't work out.
Week 5 was a good week despite my not losing any weight. I'm being positive about it because I accomplished a lot and I didn't gain any weight which is a good thing. Hopefully when I weigh in next Wednesday I'll be below 150. That's the goal. Until then: Keep on keeping on!!! :)
Goals for Week 6: 2/18 - 2/25/2015
1) Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
2) Speed walk exercises on the treadmill and/or outside 3 days this week
3) Find some new low-sodium, low/no cholesterol recipes for meals to make from our cookbooks and pinterest. Variety of choices is the key to success.
For the week of 2/11 - 2/18/2015
Weigh in Weight: 150.0 lbs. loss of 0 lbs.
I am going to keep this post short and sweet this week. The liturgical season of Lent has begun and yesterday was Ash Wednesday, which is I am not posting until today. Lent is a stressful and busy season, but it is also a good season too. It's hard to explain to those who don't work in the church. It is a fulfilling season, but there are many demands on my husband Jason's time, so Preston and I get to have a lot of mother/son bonding time. So again, it's not bad, just stressful and busy.
I was able to successful accomplish 3 of my 4 goals for week 5 in my healthier living journey. Getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night still alludes me. There were a few nights when my son didn't sleep through the night and one particularly horrible night when we woke up 3 times for longer periods of time. When I was able to get sleep on those nights, I slept hard but woke up very tired. I wish his last stupid 2 year molar would pop through already. This whole teething thing is for the dogs (as my friend Karra would say.) So I will be keeping the goal of getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night on my goal list for week 6.
I have continued to eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and my sluggishness and headaches have pretty much disappeared for the most part. The best part of eating a diet like this, is that it also means you end up eating a low carb diet as well. But in the end, it is all about eating balanced meals. There is nothing wrong with carbs, as long it is not the only thing you eat. Because I have been doing so well lately with eating low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals, I am going to take it off my goal list for week 6. If I start to fall off, I can re-add it to my list later.
My morning prayer and reflection time has been wonderful. I feel better emotionally and mentally. I have so much to be thankful to God for in my life and remembering that has helped me in so many ways. I have a more positive attitude, even on the tough days when I'm hit with a case of the lonelies or boredom, or both. I have gotten in the habit after a few weeks of doing this every morning, so for now, I am going to leave it off my goal list for week 6, and can add it again later if I need to.
For week 5, I was able to do speed walking on the treadmill 4 days and get some outside walking in too on a couple of nice days we had here. In order to keep me motivated to continue doing my speed walking exercising, I better keep it on the list for week 6. Today I was so tired and unmotivated that I almost didn't do it. But I was able to talk myself into it and now feel so much better today than I would have if I didn't work out.
Week 5 was a good week despite my not losing any weight. I'm being positive about it because I accomplished a lot and I didn't gain any weight which is a good thing. Hopefully when I weigh in next Wednesday I'll be below 150. That's the goal. Until then: Keep on keeping on!!! :)
Goals for Week 6: 2/18 - 2/25/2015
1) Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
2) Speed walk exercises on the treadmill and/or outside 3 days this week
3) Find some new low-sodium, low/no cholesterol recipes for meals to make from our cookbooks and pinterest. Variety of choices is the key to success.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Week 4 of Healthier Living in 2015
2/11/2015
For the week of 2/4 - 2/11/2015
Weigh in Weight: 150.0 lose of 2.6 lbs
Week 4 went much better than week 3 did. I accomplished most of my goals I made for myself for week 4. I worked on eating low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals. I did pretty well but did allow myself a few indulgences, but nothing like during week 3. I ate a lot of salads. I am going to continue this goal for week 5 because I feel better when I eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods. My mind and body feel less foggy since I have started eating this way, so I am going to continue to do so.
I was able to get in two days of speed walking on the treadmill and two days of speed walking outside. One of the two outside days I was also pushing my 33 lb son in his stroller, so I got a really good workout that day. I've been feeling physically better this week than last. I'm going to continue this goal for week 5.
Every morning during week 4, I took a few minutes and prayed and reflected on all of the blessings in my life. God is good! I have a wonderful husband, an amazing son, amazing family and friends and ways to communicate with them. Skype is one of the best inventions ever! I have a roof over my head, clothes to wear, food to eat and a vocation that I am seeing realized with the publication of my first book this year. I feel so much better emotionally and mentally since I started this exercise so I am going to keep it as a goal for week 5 too.
I fell short of my goal to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. It doesn't help that my son has woken up almost every night in the past week and a half in the middle of the night. He sometimes wakes up for a few seconds to a few minutes and then goes back to sleep without us having to go into his room. Other times, one of us have to go into his room to calm him down and it is usually Jason. When my son gets that way, the only one who can calm him down is his dad. I get up too to help out, and end up going back to bed, but not back to sleep until my husband comes back to bed to make sure both him and Preston are okay. So needless to say, I am keeping my goal of getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night on my list for week 5.
I'm keeping my goals for week 5 the same as week 4 because they are things I want to continue doing and things I need to continue to work on. So until next week, Keep on keeping on! :)
Goals for Week 5: 2/11/2015 - 2/18/2015
1) Get 7-8 hours of sleep a night
2) Continue to eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals
3) Speed walk on the treadmill and/or outside 3 days during the week
4) Pray and reflect on the blessings in life
For the week of 2/4 - 2/11/2015
Weigh in Weight: 150.0 lose of 2.6 lbs
Week 4 went much better than week 3 did. I accomplished most of my goals I made for myself for week 4. I worked on eating low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals. I did pretty well but did allow myself a few indulgences, but nothing like during week 3. I ate a lot of salads. I am going to continue this goal for week 5 because I feel better when I eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods. My mind and body feel less foggy since I have started eating this way, so I am going to continue to do so.
I was able to get in two days of speed walking on the treadmill and two days of speed walking outside. One of the two outside days I was also pushing my 33 lb son in his stroller, so I got a really good workout that day. I've been feeling physically better this week than last. I'm going to continue this goal for week 5.
Every morning during week 4, I took a few minutes and prayed and reflected on all of the blessings in my life. God is good! I have a wonderful husband, an amazing son, amazing family and friends and ways to communicate with them. Skype is one of the best inventions ever! I have a roof over my head, clothes to wear, food to eat and a vocation that I am seeing realized with the publication of my first book this year. I feel so much better emotionally and mentally since I started this exercise so I am going to keep it as a goal for week 5 too.
I fell short of my goal to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night. It doesn't help that my son has woken up almost every night in the past week and a half in the middle of the night. He sometimes wakes up for a few seconds to a few minutes and then goes back to sleep without us having to go into his room. Other times, one of us have to go into his room to calm him down and it is usually Jason. When my son gets that way, the only one who can calm him down is his dad. I get up too to help out, and end up going back to bed, but not back to sleep until my husband comes back to bed to make sure both him and Preston are okay. So needless to say, I am keeping my goal of getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night on my list for week 5.
I'm keeping my goals for week 5 the same as week 4 because they are things I want to continue doing and things I need to continue to work on. So until next week, Keep on keeping on! :)
Goals for Week 5: 2/11/2015 - 2/18/2015
1) Get 7-8 hours of sleep a night
2) Continue to eat low-sodium and low/no cholesterol foods and meals
3) Speed walk on the treadmill and/or outside 3 days during the week
4) Pray and reflect on the blessings in life
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Week 2 of Healthier Living in 2015
1/28/2015
For the week of 1/21-1/28/2015
Weigh in Weight for 1/28/2015: 150.6 lose of 2 lbs.
We have had gorgeous weather this last week. With the warmer temperatures melting the snow and ice off the roads in Fairfield, Preston and I have been able to go for relatively long walks the last couple of days. So movement and exercise have been in abundance this past week. I'm feeling great and have more energy than I've had since the fall.
As for completing this last weeks goals, I had my ups and downs.
I did really good with eating low/no cholesterol meals until we went out for lunch on Friday, the 23rd. I ate a lot at that meal. My entire 3-cheese chicken penne (sp?) meal and some spinach artichoke dip with tortilla chips. I went into lunch really really hungry and I just let myself eat. Monday the 26th was a late night and we ended up just having pizza with veggies and fruit for dinner. I had 2 pieces of pizza. I try to stick to 1. This is a goal I definitely need to work on.
I did great with my goal of filling half my plate at every meal with fruits and/or vegetables. It's so easy to do. It helps if you have something to dip your veggies into. We use a recipe from my South Beach Diet Book to make homemade hummus. We also make guacamole (we use spice packets that you can get for cheap at Walmart to make our guacamole.) Giving a little flavor to cut up carrots, celery, cucumber, and pepper makes it more fun to eat so many veggies at almost every meal. I find it is easier to eat more fruit at breakfast than vegetables, so that's what I've been doing each morning. When I eat grains, I only eat whole wheat grains, which contain good fibers that help the digestive system. It's all about a balanced meal folks.
I did okay with my goal of sleeping 7-8 hours each night. There were two nights that I had some trouble sleeping because I went to bed with too much on my mind. But 5 out of 7 nights is pretty good. I am going to keep this goal on my list of goals this week because I want to get to 7 out of 7 nights of 7-8 hours of sleep. I can totally tell the difference in my emotional, mental, and physical states of being when I get enough sleep each night.
So my goals for the week of 1/28-2/4/2015 are:
1) Drink 80 oz of water daily
2) Continue to fill half my plate with fruits and/or vegetables
3) Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
For the week of 1/21-1/28/2015
Weigh in Weight for 1/28/2015: 150.6 lose of 2 lbs.
We have had gorgeous weather this last week. With the warmer temperatures melting the snow and ice off the roads in Fairfield, Preston and I have been able to go for relatively long walks the last couple of days. So movement and exercise have been in abundance this past week. I'm feeling great and have more energy than I've had since the fall.
As for completing this last weeks goals, I had my ups and downs.
I did really good with eating low/no cholesterol meals until we went out for lunch on Friday, the 23rd. I ate a lot at that meal. My entire 3-cheese chicken penne (sp?) meal and some spinach artichoke dip with tortilla chips. I went into lunch really really hungry and I just let myself eat. Monday the 26th was a late night and we ended up just having pizza with veggies and fruit for dinner. I had 2 pieces of pizza. I try to stick to 1. This is a goal I definitely need to work on.
I did great with my goal of filling half my plate at every meal with fruits and/or vegetables. It's so easy to do. It helps if you have something to dip your veggies into. We use a recipe from my South Beach Diet Book to make homemade hummus. We also make guacamole (we use spice packets that you can get for cheap at Walmart to make our guacamole.) Giving a little flavor to cut up carrots, celery, cucumber, and pepper makes it more fun to eat so many veggies at almost every meal. I find it is easier to eat more fruit at breakfast than vegetables, so that's what I've been doing each morning. When I eat grains, I only eat whole wheat grains, which contain good fibers that help the digestive system. It's all about a balanced meal folks.
I did okay with my goal of sleeping 7-8 hours each night. There were two nights that I had some trouble sleeping because I went to bed with too much on my mind. But 5 out of 7 nights is pretty good. I am going to keep this goal on my list of goals this week because I want to get to 7 out of 7 nights of 7-8 hours of sleep. I can totally tell the difference in my emotional, mental, and physical states of being when I get enough sleep each night.
So my goals for the week of 1/28-2/4/2015 are:
1) Drink 80 oz of water daily
2) Continue to fill half my plate with fruits and/or vegetables
3) Get 7-8 hours of sleep each night
Week 1 of Healthier Living in 2015
1/21/2015
For the week of 1/14-1/21/2015
Weigh in Weight for 1/21/2015: 152.6 lbs. lose of less than 1 lb.
I decided a long time ago that I was going to weigh myself once a week, instead of several times a week. So every Wednesday morning I stand of the scale and weigh myself. On 1/14, I weighed in at 153.4 lbs. Not a great week for me. At the end of December, 2014 I was weighing in at 150.2 lbs. The average healthy weight for a person my height on the higher end is 135 lbs. So clearly I have a long way to go. Personally, I made the decision that I'd like to get to 145 lbs before I get pregnant again. But I might get pregnant before I get to that weight, I might not. And that is a blog post for another time.
My goals for the week of 1/14-1/21 were to drink more water, eat more low-sodium foods and get exercise in whenever I could. The exercising portion did not go very well. I was home most of the weekend by myself with my 2 year old son and he wasn't feeling the greatest, so I settled for being as active as I could and not sit around very much. The diet portion of my goals went much better. I stuck to eating meals with low-sodium content and I drank as much as 64 oz of water a day. I moved to drinking 0% milk because it has less than 5mg of cholesterol and I would have that in my cereal in the mornings. I am working on finding creative ways to get some moderate exercise in my daily routine, especially when I am on my own with my son. I can't exactly speed walk on the treadmill when I'm home with my son. He's not old enough for me to do that yet.
One thing that I have learned to do very well over the last 2+ years is to read food labels. The key to reading food labels is figuring out the serving size because then the percentages on the rest of the label make much more sense. It helps you to determine how much of something you can eat as far as cholesterol count, carb count and fat. It also tells you the amount of sodium and protein too, which is very important. We cook a lot of our own food and don't eat very much packaged food, but learning how to read labels allows you to approximate when you cook unpackaged foods too. Which in turn always you a better sense of what you are putting into your body, which in turn keeps you eating healthier. It is a complete lifestyle way of living. It kind of makes me want to become a hippy farmer (a term I picked up for my good friend Heather.)
Ultimately, the purpose of me chronicling my healthier living journey this year is to work on changing my lifestyle to live a healthier life for myself, my family and my friends. Like everyone, I have grand goals of weighing less and being more active with a daily exercise regimen, but sometimes life gets in the way. I might take on more commitments than I have time for so exercise might be hard to get in daily. I might be on my own with my son for a few days and need to focus on making sure he's well taken care of. The winter gets in the way of doing a lot of fun activities outdoors. (I am not a winter sports person at all.) Things come up in life, but this year long journey is a chronicle of how I deal with the ups and downs and in the end learning what it means to live a healthier life in every way.
Goals for the week of 1/21-1/28/2015
1) Fill half my plant at every meal with fruits and/or vegetables
2) Get 7-8 hrs of sleep each night
3) Continue working on eating no/low-cholesterol foods and no/low-sodium foods
For the week of 1/14-1/21/2015
Weigh in Weight for 1/21/2015: 152.6 lbs. lose of less than 1 lb.
I decided a long time ago that I was going to weigh myself once a week, instead of several times a week. So every Wednesday morning I stand of the scale and weigh myself. On 1/14, I weighed in at 153.4 lbs. Not a great week for me. At the end of December, 2014 I was weighing in at 150.2 lbs. The average healthy weight for a person my height on the higher end is 135 lbs. So clearly I have a long way to go. Personally, I made the decision that I'd like to get to 145 lbs before I get pregnant again. But I might get pregnant before I get to that weight, I might not. And that is a blog post for another time.
My goals for the week of 1/14-1/21 were to drink more water, eat more low-sodium foods and get exercise in whenever I could. The exercising portion did not go very well. I was home most of the weekend by myself with my 2 year old son and he wasn't feeling the greatest, so I settled for being as active as I could and not sit around very much. The diet portion of my goals went much better. I stuck to eating meals with low-sodium content and I drank as much as 64 oz of water a day. I moved to drinking 0% milk because it has less than 5mg of cholesterol and I would have that in my cereal in the mornings. I am working on finding creative ways to get some moderate exercise in my daily routine, especially when I am on my own with my son. I can't exactly speed walk on the treadmill when I'm home with my son. He's not old enough for me to do that yet.
One thing that I have learned to do very well over the last 2+ years is to read food labels. The key to reading food labels is figuring out the serving size because then the percentages on the rest of the label make much more sense. It helps you to determine how much of something you can eat as far as cholesterol count, carb count and fat. It also tells you the amount of sodium and protein too, which is very important. We cook a lot of our own food and don't eat very much packaged food, but learning how to read labels allows you to approximate when you cook unpackaged foods too. Which in turn always you a better sense of what you are putting into your body, which in turn keeps you eating healthier. It is a complete lifestyle way of living. It kind of makes me want to become a hippy farmer (a term I picked up for my good friend Heather.)
Ultimately, the purpose of me chronicling my healthier living journey this year is to work on changing my lifestyle to live a healthier life for myself, my family and my friends. Like everyone, I have grand goals of weighing less and being more active with a daily exercise regimen, but sometimes life gets in the way. I might take on more commitments than I have time for so exercise might be hard to get in daily. I might be on my own with my son for a few days and need to focus on making sure he's well taken care of. The winter gets in the way of doing a lot of fun activities outdoors. (I am not a winter sports person at all.) Things come up in life, but this year long journey is a chronicle of how I deal with the ups and downs and in the end learning what it means to live a healthier life in every way.
Goals for the week of 1/21-1/28/2015
1) Fill half my plant at every meal with fruits and/or vegetables
2) Get 7-8 hrs of sleep each night
3) Continue working on eating no/low-cholesterol foods and no/low-sodium foods
Healthier Living in 2015
I have decided after talking to one of my best friends that once a week I am going to blog about my goals about living healthier in 2015.
After finding out at the end of 2014 that I have unhealthy cholesterol levels and being predisposed to getting diabetes, I know I need to get in better shape by eating healthier and exercising more.
By blogging once a week, I will be able to share my triumphs and struggles and keep myself accountable.
I have missed two weeks in January already, so I am going to start blogging on Saturday, January 17th and continue to blog every week until the same date in 2016.
I am looking forward to sharing this adventure with all of you! :)
After finding out at the end of 2014 that I have unhealthy cholesterol levels and being predisposed to getting diabetes, I know I need to get in better shape by eating healthier and exercising more.
By blogging once a week, I will be able to share my triumphs and struggles and keep myself accountable.
I have missed two weeks in January already, so I am going to start blogging on Saturday, January 17th and continue to blog every week until the same date in 2016.
I am looking forward to sharing this adventure with all of you! :)
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