2016 - Day 1

Okay, okay, okay. Obviously December was a write-off. In so many ways. But I've been looking forward to today for a week and a half, totally ready to get back on track.

And it started so well! I weighed myself (oof!) and tracked my food (yay!). I was making smart food choices, feeling good. In all honesty, I had been gorging myself on every sweet thing in the house for a week, so I was pretty over it all.

But then, as I was prepping dinner, after having to tell my eldest child not to scream in her sister's face for the 1,254 time today, a vision appeared at the back of the fridge. A big chunk of Nanaimo bar that I'd forgotten about.

There's no story here. I caved.

BUT overall, I ate about three tons LESS food today than I have been, so that's a step in the right direction.

And I'm feeling very positive about this new year, wanting to not only track my progress weekly, but also monthly. I want to set some actual weight loss goals to hit each month. Like, 4 pounds a month. That is totally achievable. And since I don't need or want to lose 48 pounds in total, I can just start with the first half of the year and then work on maintaining in the second half.

A couple other goals:
- Commit to one evening workout class each week. I think this will be Thursday evening Body Pump. I did a Body Pump class the other day for the first time in ages and I loved it. It's true that I could barely move for two days afterward and there was no comfortable resting position for my biceps, but that will go away quickly enough.
- Less social media time. Period.
- More time talking to or watching something with my lovely husband.
- More interactive, positive, playful parenting. Less repeatedly (and uselessly) telling them not to do something from across the room.
- Create something.

Here we go.

Not Quite Better Than Before...

Here's how my past week played out:

Huge container of Christmas cookies
+ Crazy, intense work deadlines
+ Prep to host 5th birthday party in my home
+ Christmas gift buying
+ Christmas tree decorating
+ Birthday party that included 7 other 5 year olds
+ Gymnastics/dance lessons
+ Letters to Santa
- Gym visits
- Full food tracking
+ Weird stomach bug
= A not very good week for creating new habits.

Seriously. However, I'm not giving myself a failing grade, because I did manage to stay really on track food wise from Monday through Thursday, between the hours of 6AM and 6PM. Not perfect, but still quite good, considering all of the things.

Things slid seriously downhill on Friday, which was a "vacation" day for me. I used it to never sit down once and clean the whole house from top to bottom so that the kids could trash it the next day. Since I never sat down - and felt slightly sorry for myself that I couldn't do so - I pretty much grabbed any food within reach that looked yummy and could be eaten while vacuuming.

On party day, there were chips and cake and the like. You understand.

And Sunday, before the stomach bug knocked me over at the end of the day, I was not yet ready to get back on the healthy eating road. And so I didn't.

Today, tummy bug. Ate plain, starchy things for most of the day. Started to feel better, so then I ate the yummy stuff.

Tomorrow I am hoping to tiptoe back to the healthy habits. However, I have not figured out dinner, since I'll be running from work to a gymnastics show. Plus, we get our "Christmas Boxes" tomorrow at work. It's my first year and it's a big deal, apparently. I've heard popcorn is involved. If that popcorn is covered in a caramel-type substance, I can't make any promises. And then Wednesday is my daughter's ACTUAL birthday and she has requested hotdogs and French fries for dinner. Plus cupcakes.

I'm trying!!

Better Than Before - Day Fourteen

WHY DID I THINK GOING TO AN EVENT CALLED COOKIES AND COCOA WOULD BE OKAY!?

Cookie exchange. Roughly 10 different, delicious treats to sample. Plus homemade ice cream. Plus I brought home a huge tupperware full of treats.

Let me state the obvious - I don't feel well!

BUT - I will say that I made sure to have my raw veggies for a morning snack, a big healthy salad for lunch AND then turned our taco dinner into a taco salad for me. So even though I know very well that I didn't entirely balance out my serious indulgences, at least I kept some of the healthy habits going.

Better than Before - Day Twelve and Thirteen

Okay, quick post because it's late, I'm tired, and my to-do list for the night is not yet done.

Friday - Did great food-wise all day at work, despite sudden overwhelming pile of work. Motivation was helped by the fact that the scale rewarded me with a good, positive number first thing in the morning.

Things deteriorated a bit once I got home. Basically I stopped tracking what I was eating, baked two holiday items with the girlies, and then sampled said holiday items. Sigh.

Saturday - I packed too much into this day. Swimming/gymnastics lessons first thing, followed by a super quick turnaround time to go to a moms and kids holiday party. (Side note: Why are there never dads and kids parties? My oldest asked me that today. I feel it is a brilliant idea.) Potluck-type parties are a weakness of mine, because my favourite thing is to eat small amounts of a large variety of things. So any virtuous thoughts I had going into the party quickly flew out of my brain.

Dropped the kids back at home early afternoon, so I could turn around and run a couple of errands on my own. (This is when I realized I needed some water. The sugar from the party was giving me a headache!) Came home for about 1.5 hours (various household chores) and then the girls and I went to hang with my bestie and her daughter while Jamie grocery shopped. Then home for dinner (and wine!) followed by bedtime routines, more baking (for tomorrow's event), kitchen clean-up and then two hours of work, to give me a head start on the insanity of next week. And while I did my work, I ate the last piece of chocolate mousse cake from the fridge. It was a pity treat.

No tracking, no exercise, lots of sugar (including some eaten furtively, without enjoyment or other people present). Weekends - particularly during the holiday season - are going to be tough.

Better Than Before - Day Eleven

Good story from my morning: After a rough night (My children have night terrors. They are not as bad as some of the ones I've read about, but they are as awful as we've experienced, so they feel pretty craptastic.) and a rough morning routine (We woke up late - we were all tired from aforementioned night terrors - and I was stress-y, yell-y mommy, trying to get everyone to MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!), I started my day downtown at an appointment with a physiotherapist that I trust, to get a second opinion on my knee issues and put a plan in motion to fix me up before I fall apart. To get there, I had to get off the streetcar beside the French bakery that makes my favourite cookie in the entire city. I contemplated going off plan and enjoying the gooey greatness. The scales were tipping in favour of the cookie, but then I remembered my rule to not scarf down treats all alone, in secret. That treats should be enjoyed with people I enjoy.

AND I RESISTED! Cue the trumpets. Throw the confetti.

But, a small confession. While we were waiting for our pizza to be delivered (a veggie pizza that I totally accounted for in my food log), I grabbed the very last of my homemade oatmeal cookies and snuck away from my children to eat it. I didn't even remember the rule! Two steps forward, two steps back, and all that...

As usually happens this time of year, I am suddenly very BUSY! Lots of happy, good stuff busy and then an absolute avalanche of work stuff busy. I'm feeling sort of overwhelmed, which is normal for me when I'm at the bottom of the mountain of stuff to do. I'm going to set the alarm for tomorrow, go to work early, and start climbing the mountain, so I feel better.

Sad truth - the gym isn't happening at the moment. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. But I did make my 10,000 steps. And tonight I will do my new and improved knee exercises.

Better Than Before - Day Ten

It is 9PM and the littlest child has been in her bedroom, but crazy chatty, for more than an hour! Mama is TI-RED!

After a slight lull at work, my to-do list has exploded. My planned lunchtime workout did not happen. But my eating was totally on-track, with plenty of healthy snacks consumed. I also got off the bus early, to fit in extra steps, but my FitBit has yet to vibrate, so I'm not quite at 10,000 yet.

My evening plan for post dinner/playtime/bedtime/kitchen cleaning was supposed to be some sort of workout here at home, followed by more work. Usually the children are asleep by 8, but since we've only just reached that point in the evening a whole hour later, I cannot bring myself to do the workout OR - to be honest - the work! Probably better to get to bed soon and wind down, so I can get a good sleep in and be fresh tomorrow.

Interesting note on the food front. I have been really good about eating really healthy, whole foods, so I haven't really been hungry. I've WANTED to eat, but not out of hunger, just out of habit. But tonight we had pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner and I only had white pasta in the house. Well, I'm totally hungry! The white pasta is so empty! Good thing to learn.

Better Than Before - Day Nine

Major fail with my sleeping goals last night. I stayed up way too late. Do you know that weird feeling when you just can't stop looking at the Internet? Like, nothing is interesting and you're tired, but you feel compelled to just keep looking? That was me. And then, because they have radar for this sort of thing, June decided to crawl into bed with us at 3AM. I don't fight it when our kids want to be in our bed, but with Violet we can just play musical beds and one of us can take over her single bed. Because our queen is not big enough for both of us and a kid. But June is still in a converted crib, so there's no switch to be had. Last night reminded me that this little girl needs a big bed pronto!

Felt super back on track this morning and packed up my healthy snacks to face the day. Slung my gym bag over my shoulder with all sorts of lunchtime workout resolutions. BUT, I had totally forgotten that we'd planned a team lunch today to celebrate a birthday. So instead of the gym, we went for delicious Middle Eastern food.

I studied the menu carefully and chose a fatoush salad with falafel. I knew the deep fried balls were not going to look good on my food log, but I also knew that the majority of my lunch was veggies and I was legitimately enjoying a meal out with lovely people. And man, it was SO good. I also had half a pita and was super sparing with the tahini. Seriously, I'm still thinking about all the yumminess.

I entered everything into my food log on my Fitbit and - lo and behold - I was all out of calories FOR THE DAY! It was 1:30PM. So I made an alternate plan. I asked my husband to get the kiddos and I went to an evening gym class! A step class which was very high energy and I burned a bunch of calories. Yay me!! (My knee is a little unhappy, but I'm icing it as I type.)

Sometimes, when I'm away from it for too long, I forget that I actually really love high intensity exercise. The adrenaline rush and the feeling of accomplishment when it's all done really works for me.

So, home to a healthy dinner here. I have yet to enter those calories - and I may not have earned enough to counteract them, but I'm still calling it a win. My teeth are also brushed, so I can't have any of the treats in the house. (We have good treats right now...)