New Years resolutions versus monthly goals

Welcome to the new year!  The new year is typically the time that people make resolutions.  It is the time that they set goals.  It is the time that they come up with their grand plans for being healthy, fit, active…whatever they want to be.  Nope, not doing it.  I’m not setting any new year’s resolutions per se. You see, a resolution for the whole year is HUGE and a long term event.  I don’t work well that way.  I absolutely want to reach my goals in 2020.  I absolutely want to make 2020 ‘my year’….but I’m not making resolutions.  What I WILL be doing is to continue my monthly goals.  I started this a year or two ago and having MONTHLY goals works really well for me.  It allows me to try again the next month if I really mess up (instead of waiting for the next year!)  and it gives me goals that I can easily identify and work on.    I try to keep my goals quite attainable and manageable.  I love the goals that really push me to my limit but let me be really honest…..when I mess up with those hard ones, I tend to throw up my hands and give up….since I can’t ‘win’.   This is bad for me!  SOOOO….I created a set of monthly goals that are designed to keep me on track and pushing forward towards a healthier life.  I sometimes do tweak them and adjust them accordingly.  But for the most part they stay the same each month.

 Since it is the beginning of the month, that means it is time to review the goals I had for the month of December and renew my vow to complete these goals during the month of January. 

Monthly Goals:

1.        Track every bite I eat-   I almost slipped up on this one a BUNCH of times.  So many times I was a day behind in my tracking and I almost gave up…but I kept telling myself, “This is a freebie goal…..it takes just a few minutes of your time….DO IT!”   So I did it.  And I’m proud to say that I have managed to mark this one as a victory for the month!  GO ME!

2.       Savings:   My mission was is to grow my savings.   My savings took a hit with a very large car repair bill for the old Honda and the down payment for the new car (and insurance for the new car).  Couple that with the cost of Christmas (gifts and whatnot) and I feel like it was just CRAZY and that I was barely keeping my head afloat.  BUT, while it may not be huge….December does show a gain in my savings account!

3.       Weigh Less than I do now.  I amended this goal during the month of December.  I amended it to be that I just wanted to maintain my weight through this month of birthdays and holidays!   December was the month to hang on tight!    Well…… I barely squeezed this one out!  I lost a half pound!

4.       Be active at least 3 times a week.  (20 minutes or more).  This can be anything.  It could be an intense workout or a simple lunchtime walk.  20 minutes of activity….3 times a week.   Uhhhh yeah.   How about we break it down into weeks. 

a.       Week 1- I failed miserably.  NOTHING

b.       Week 2 – We got our indoor bike this week and I managed three good rides and 2 lunchtime walks!  I was on fire! (ha…not really but I was moving more than normal!)

c.       Week 3 -  There were no lunchtime walks…but we hiked once and I rode that exercise bike 4 times! 

d.       Week 4- Christmas week……no bike rides …no lunchtime walks…..I was a slug!

e.       Week 5…which is only three days.   I nailed those three days!

So you can see that this was not exactly a win.   But at least it wasn’t a colossal failure!

5.       Keep my eating in check for @ least 6 days a week.  When I say keep my eating in check.  I try to keep my calories between 1200 and 1500 calories a day.  So to be in check I need my calories to be under 1500 calories.    Out of the 31 days…I only managed to keep my calories in check for 11 days!   YIKES!   I wasn’t totally out of control.  My calories only went over 2000 on about 2 or 3 days!  But still….I failed miserably at this goal!

6.       Average 5K steps a day.   I set my step count at 5K.   Yes, I know that they recommend 10K steps a day.  That’s fine….but five thousand is a stretch for me a LOT of days!  I also set it to an average…because that gives me a chance to ‘catch up’ if I just don’t walk much one day.   I started calculating my steps for the month a few days before then end of the month.  Would you believe with three days left in the month I found myself woefully short of steps. Ok, it wasn’t that bad….I was somewhere near 4500 steps as an average.  I calculated it up and figured out what I would need each of the last three days…and I went to work.  We walked a lot on Sunday….at the mall and in antique stores since it was raining!  I folded laundry and put each item away one at a time….hey 10 steps from the bed to the closet times 10 pieces of laundry adds up!  I made up a few of my necessary steps…but I still needed 5602 steps on Monday and Tuesday….and I worked both of those days…..so a desk job….a long commute in my car….and RAIN!   It was hard fought...but I somehow pulled it out!

My goals for January will be the same.  

1.        Track Every Bite

2.       Build my Savings

3.       Weigh less at the end of the month  (who cares how much as long as it is less!)

4.       Be active at least 3 times a week  (This may be bumped up to 4  in an upcoming month).

5.       Keep my eating in check at least 6 days of the week!

6.       Average 5,000 steps a day!  

So you can see that my goals for the month are not difficult.  They are easily attainable.  They are not rigid.  They are there to simply keep me going in the right direction.  They are designed to allow me to stumble, because this journey to lose weight is all about stumbling and then picking ourselves back up to persevere toward victory!   Onward and upward toward a better me!

2019 Reflections

2019 is coming to a close!  Where in the world did this year go???  It’s absolutely crazy!  I blinked and months upon months passed by!   I swear, the older I get the faster time goes by.

A few weeks ago I started a tag on Youtube that was all about reflecting upon the past year and looking forward to the new year.   It was meant and created to generate positive responses.   I am not going to simply recreate the questions and answers here.  What is the fun in that?   Instead, I am going to create some similar thoughts and positive questions for myself to reflect further.    I will tell you though….some of my answers on that video were good……so if you would like…you can follow the link and watch that video here.  

But right now it’s time to reflect!  And by all means….feel free to steal the questions and post your own answers!  But let me know so I don’t miss your post!

1.        What is one thing that you did right in the year 2019?  

For the first time in my adult life, I feel as if I actually got a handle on my food addiction.  Now I’m not saying that I have totally conquered and eradicated this addiction.  No, quite the contrary, that addiction is still a very real part of who I am.  I doubt I will ever eradicate it totally.  Instead I feel as if I was able to learn some valuable lessons and techniques for dealing with that addiction.  The first and biggest thing I did was to stop saying “I CAN’T have it.”  I can have anything I want.  I changed it to “You have to CHOOSE if you want it.”   Some days the want to eat the food won out. Other days the healthy living won the battle.  Either way, it became a choice!   The other thing that I did to help learn to control this addictive impulse was to really sit down and make it a practice to tell myself that ‘you don’t have to eat 6…one will suffice.  There WILL be more tomorrow.”    The best example of this one is Reece’s Cups.  I can buy a King sized package and eat ONE and not worry about the others until a few nights later.  Yeah, sometimes Jason does eat the other three but I don’t feel the rush to gobble them up…why?  Because I have trained myself to continually tell myself. “They will gladly sell you more at the store…..this is not the last whatever on earth!”   You would be surprised how well that works!   You may also be surprised to learn how empowering this is!

2.       Name One thing that you did that made you feel proud?  

I got on a mountain bike and rode.  It wasn’t pretty!  It wasn’t fast!  It wasn’t exactly skillful!  But I got on that bike and I went up and down trails that were at times petrifying!  Oh yeah, I cried… but I did it!  I have a long way to go…but I started this past summer and for that I am proud! (video proof right here…and if you haven’t watched it, I suggest you do so….It cracks me up every time I see the video!) but I did it!  I have a long way to go…but I started this past summer and for that I am proud!

3.       Did you set any goals for the year 2019 that you reached?

I didn’t  actually set any yearly goals.  However,  I DID set some monthly goals.  One of them was to track every day.  While I didn’t exactly reach that 100%....I missed one or two days I think…..well maybe not…but I think!  Ok, I couldn’t leave it at an “I Think”  So I went back to all of  my monthly goal review posts.  I am going to call December a victory…because I tracked everything up to this point…I’m not going to fail now!  No sirree!    So out of the 12 months…I managed to totally ace 10 months.  There was ONE day in march that I missed and I went completely rogue for about a week or two in May.     This is still a massive victory.  You see, I didn’t let the little snafu of missing one day and then missing a week or two a few months later.  I picked myself back up and I started tracking again.  I call that a victory!

4.       Name one thing you wish you would have done in 2019?   This question is NOT to make me look back with regret….but to make me look forward to 2020 with the thought that ‘not another year will pass me by without doing such and such.      

 There is really only one really big regret…and that is that I did NOT reach my goal weight!   I am happy with my progress in learning to deal with my food addiction.  I think that is huge.  Honestly, that is amazing!   Where the regret comes in is that I didn’t’ start sooner.  I didn’t focus a little harder.  I didn’t reach my goal.  I have actually lost about 15-20 pounds for this year and for that I couldn’t be happier.  But NEXT year, I want to be at goal when I’m writing a reflection post!

5.       Are you setting any new goals for the year?

   I do not plan to set any yearly goals.  I like the monthly goals that I have developed for myself.  They are working well for me.  They give me freedom to live my life yet still help guide me to a healthier existence.  I may start to tighten the reigns on some of them though.  Maybe I need to up the ante and make my workout 4 or 5 times a week instead of 3!  Time will tell…stay tuned!

6.       What is one thing you hope and wish for in 2020.  

Well since this is a weight loss website….I hope to lose lots of weight and to be amazingly fit!   And yes, my plans include getting there.   

So there you have it, my reflections on the year behind us and a wee little look into how I want the future to look!    It really is good for the soul to look back and reflect.  It gives us the opportunity to see our progress in a way that we sometimes overlook.  It gives us the chance to look at ways to improve ourselves for the upcoming year.  Now go out and reflect!  

Reflections about 2019

As the year comes to an end I have taken the time to reflect upon the year behind me and to look forward to the year ahead!

I can't call 2019 a totally successful year in terms of weight loss.  I got more serious about my efforts...and that was good!  But in the grand scheme of things I didn't lose much.   Wait.....I LOST....and that is what is important.  Right now it is looking as if I will be down about 10-15 pounds....depending on how the rest of December goes.  So that is a victory.  ANY pound down is a good one!

I didn't quite kick butt on the bike...but I did make some progress.  Exercise continues to be spotty and hit or miss.  However there are some things that may be changing!

My big thoughts came into play when I started to look forward to 2020.   I want to dedicate my 2020 to making me a better me.  This encompasses weight, fitness, work life and everything.  I want to be a better person in every way at this time next year!

I have a video that I put together with some of my reflections and my plans and hopes for the future.  Feel free to watch!   If you have a youtube channel consider yourself tagged.  Just let me know so I can come watch your video!

So what was your big accomplishments of 2019?   What do you want to accomplish in 2020?

This is a lifelong journey.  It is a lifelong quest to learn.  It is an adventure!  We reflect and we move forward and this is the perfect time to do that!

Plotting and planning

It's New Years Eve and I'm sitting at work for my final four hours of work for the year 2012. New Years is the perfect time to sit and look back at your life.  It's the time to ponder where you are, where you've been and where you want to go.  It's an opportunity that we actually have each and every day, but the new glow of a fresh year sparks the fire within most of us.   I think New Years Resolutions are great.  I set one back in the beginning of January 2006.  It was January 5th and I vowed that I would change.  That blog post changed my life.  I DID change.  And I loved the change however I slipped.  In the more recent years I've had detailed and grandiose plans for change.  I was a flamboyant failure the years I made grandiose goals. 

So I started thinking about this years goals.  And I came to the conclusion that yes, sometimes New Years resolutions are reached,  but many times these goals turn into failures in our lives.  I don't want failures.  I do not want to set myself up to fail...and I will not.   So i am not setting any New Years resolutions.  Nope.  Not gonna do it!  Could I let it pass without something in the works?   No, definitely not!

So my plan.  I joined a virtual trip across the States.  I'm starting in Yorktown, VA.  Every time I do activity I will enter it into the site and it will tell me how far I've walked total.  It will even apparently show me a picture of where I am in the trip.  How cool is that?    I do not have any goals to make it to a certain point by a certain day.  It is simply going to be a cool way to track my progress. I am going to cheat a bit.  I plan on counting exercise as 1 mile walked for every 20 minutes of exercise.  So an hour of zumba will be 3 miles.  :-)  I found a free app for a pedometer on my cell phone.  I have numerous pedometers at my house, but they are usually sitting in a basket on my bathroom counter, not doing me any good when I actually take a walk.  Ooops.  I ALWAYS have my cell phone with me.   Just search in the app store for BIDMC Pedometer.  I have done preliminary tests and it seems to work pretty well.  There are also apps such as mapmyride/walk and cyclemeter out there that work perfectly using your gps. (I am excited about the pedometer though because some places I walk doesn't get good cell reception so GPS doesn't work!)

So I've asked two friends via email to join me on this walk because yes; you can have virtual walking partners!  If you would like to be a virtual walking buddy visit the website exercise.lbl.gov, sign up and then find me.  You can find me one of two ways.  My id number is 72446 but you can find me under my name, which is MaryFran and my last name is simply an S  (in case you need it, birthday is 12-10-1972)  walk with me.  No goals in mind (it will ask for goals but I'm not worried about them) just friends helping each other exercise...virtually. 

If I'm exercising, I know that I tend to eat more healthy foods and in better quantities.  If I am exercising AND eating better the weight will fall off on it's own.  There is absolutely no need to set goals.  The weight will come off in it's own time.  I'm good with that!!!

Happy New Year!!!

A new year!

Happy New Year!!!!!

This is the year that I'm gonna do it!   I'm going to get my life straightened out.  That means weight, love, finances.  EVERYTHING!!! 

I have no resolutions.  I just know that I'm not living.  I've let life overtake me.  I want to live.  I want to suck everything that I can out of life.   It's gonna be hard, I've got some HUGE hurdles to overcome.   So no real resolutions.....just accept and embrace life!

A New Year

A new year always gives us the motivation to reflect on where we are at, on where we want to be and what steps we need to take to get there and setting goals to get there..    I didn't do too much reflecting.  I didn't do too much goal setting.   Ok, that's a lie.  I have a couple...but I didn't set up clear cut goals..for the most part. 

The first one....I am setting a goal to REALLY work on my photography.  Take the best pictures.  Edit them in such a way that they dazzle.  Just become the best I can be.  Push myself out of my comfort zone.

The second one...and it's the biggie.  Lose this weight once and for all.  I've eaten myself into oblivion the last year or two.  Things in my life got rough and while I tried to deal with those things....I stopped taking care of myself.  In essence, I stopped caring about myself.  The more weight I gained, the worse I felt about myself....and the more I ate.   I'm regaining control. It makes me sick to think that it was 5 years ago that I started this blog....and while i had already lost some of my weight back then...I find myself ALMOST back to where I was..  Yes, I need to face the truth. Voice it.  I've gained back half of what I lost.  Most of it within the last year.  I've ducked behind the camera lens (goal one helps on that one) and avoided having to face the truth in pictures.  But the real truth is that I have gained a fair amount of weight.   At my lowest, I was 180....I'm sitting at 240 right now. Still a far cry from the 315 which is the highest I saw on the scales...but it's still a LOT of weight to regain.  

Lets look at the good side.  I know HOW to lose weight.  I've proven that in the past.  Another good fact...I didn't regain all of it!

The negative side.....I feel like a failure....and those feelings feed  my desire to shovel food (my drug) into my mouth.

SOOO what am I doing about it?   I set up my menu for the next two weeks (I usually do this).  But I went one step further.  I calculated the points values for each meal.  So each night when I glance at the menu to figure out if any prep needs done for the next days meal (or anything pulled out of the big freezers) I can also quickly say "ohhh tomorrow nights dinner will utilize 15 points...that's a little high/low so I need to adjust my lunch accordingly"   Versus eat what I want and then just damn the consequences.  I'm preparing myself for battle. 

I have a challenge with a friend.   Basically we are going through from today...until the first week of spring (actually the monday after the first day of spring as we are weighing in on Mondays).  It's nothing major...just a friendly competition...winner (biggest percentage lost) is rewarded with a small monetary reward by the loser.  Nothing to break the bank ($20) but enough to motivate.  :-)   Knowing that I work well under compatitions.....I tried to get my husband to compete with me as a second competition to movitate me...but well.....I'll just have to settle for that one competition.

Todd and I will be taking a long weekend in late April....most likely to ride in Girls With Gears (if the motivation carries me into training for it)....but either way we hope to hook up with Donna and Andy our friends.  That is just shy of 4 months.  My pie in the sky goal is to be back at 200 pounds.   But I will be happy with being back into the 'two hundred-teens'.  It's possible to reach my pie in the sky goal...or at least come close......WITH discipline. 

So moving forward....no looking back.

A new year is upon us

Sooo the year rolls to an end. Well, we are on the final stretch right now. I sit back and I look at this last year. Weight wise, it's been a total disaster. I've totally lost my way and I've gained back weight. I've gained back a lot of weight. (Hey, isn't the end of the year time for true confessions). I've only gone up one size in my clothing....so that's good at least, because it could have been worse. I have learned some stuff about myself...some personal things that I've come to grips with...things that I'm learning to overcome. It's all good. Especially since overcoming these things will hopefully bring me back full cycle into a stage where I really WANT to lose the weight. I've never stopped wanting to lose weight. But that deep down drive to succeed has been a bit absent. Me looking deep into myself has hopefully opened the way for my success.

Sooo, I'm not setting New Years Resolutions. A resolution is to hoo hum, "this is something I'm forcing myself to do". I am setting goals for my new year. Goals that in some cases are going to actually require me to work for them. I've also got rewards set up in my mind for these goals. SOooooo here they are (and Donna if you are reading this...you are getting a sneak preview to them, instead of having to wait until Monday when we set up our time to share our goals!

Ok...here goes.

1. Expand my collection of recipes. I love to cook, and have tons of cookbooks and I have tons of recipes. But eating at home and eating healthy really is contingent upon not getting bored with the meals that are being made and served. For the last year and a half I have not eaten much beef (probably 5-10 times). I've never been a seafood eater. I am not ready to give up chicken and turkey, but I'm really toying with the idea of dropping pork from my diet. Vegetarian recipes are in short demand at my place. I've picked up some here and there over the years, but not enough to survive on long term. So that is my focus. Vegetarian recipes (and nope, I don't like the meat substitutes like soy and/or tofu...which of course is still soy). I'm sure I'll still be adding some meat based recipes in, but I want to focus more on vegetarian options...and honestly, I'll be just as happy without any meat. :-)

2. Lose weight. I want to get back to my goal weight of 180 pounds. Yes, I'd like to go lower, but my goal for this upcoming year is to simply get back to my Doctor recommended weight of 180. (bmi says I should be no more than 164)

3. Add strength training into my weekly routine. This one is a difficult one for me. When I'm running short on time, I tend to skip the strength training and only do cardio. I KNOW that I need the strength training. And this is really the only goal that I've set that I'm not looking forward to. How many times a week. Optimally, I'd like to get back to the three times a week deal. Realistically, at this point...ANYTHING is better than what I'm doing.

4. Set weekly goals for myself. Keeping the main goals still there, I'd like to set weekly goals for myself. It could be something as simple as 'remember to take my multivitamin each day'. Or it could be focus on water consumption. Or I could expound on one of my main goals...but each week I want to sit down and actually think about where I am and set look at where I want to be at the end of the week.

5. And here is the biggie. I want to propel myself, via bike, elliptical, walking, jogging, stationary bike, treadmill whatever a bare minimum of 60 miles a week. That is a bare minimum of 3120 miles for the year. The real number that I'm aiming for though.....100 miles a week for the year...that's 5200 miles for the year. I am not counting my normal everyday walking, which means I'm not going to wear a pedometer everyday and count the steps that i take when I go to the bathroom or cooking dinner towards my mileage........if I go for a walk on the canal and walk 3 miles, THAT will count...but normal every day walking...nope Not unless it's an abnormal day...like a day walking around DC....or Chicago...or something like that..something that is out of the ordinary. Ok, I have an update......I made it 5 days and I realized 100 miles was not doable...so I'm changing it to 60 miles a week..which give me room to have a day of rest each week and not be riding my bike hours every day of the week! More about the reasoning behind the change here.


Rewards for these goals. I've only set two rewards. When I get back to my goal weight....a vacation of my choice to where ever I want. If....no, when I reach the 5200 miles, my reward will be a piece of jewelry. Nothing over the top in price. A simple ring...a pair of earrings. Something that I can wear...and wear with pride knowing that I propelled myself for more than 5200 miles in a year.

So there you have it!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

A week or so ago, I sat down and started to think about my goals for the new year. I've added one more but here they are!

1. I will get myself back to my doctors approved weight watcher weight. That is roughly 20 pounds (yeah, stop gasping...I've gained 20 pounds since mid august!)
2. Continue to keep the business books up to date and not procrastinate (I've done pretty good this year...but in years past...eii yiii yiii)
3. Exercise at least 4 hours each week. That is 4 hours a week or 16 hours a month or 208 hours a year. Wow...when I think of that it really isn't that bad sounding. :-)
4. Try one new recipe a week. Yes, some weeks may not have one...some will have two or three. But at the end of the year, I'd like to have at least 52 new recipes. I get really good about trying new recipes and cooking ideas...but after a month or two, I stop and go back to the tried and true recipes/meals.
5. Religiously take my multi-vitamin (and calcium) pill!

I've made a pretty good start. The other week (Christmas day or there abouts....when I first started thinking about my goals), my weight had crept up to 201.8 pounds. As of this morning it's down to 197.6 That's pretty substantial! I've actually tried out 3 new recipes this past week! Exercise.....I started up on Monday...and I've ridden the exercise bike each day for between 30 to 60 minutes each day! As for the multivitamin....well I thought about it at dinner last night and didn't get up at that point...and promptly forgot about it. And I'm thinking about it right now...at work....so I can't take 'em now! But I will start that!!!

Today at work I'm going to sit down and really look at my schedule and think about a ww meeting. I was thinking Friday morning 9AM meeting would work...it would be tight, but it could possibly work (as long as the meeting didn't run over...or traffic was not bad....or whatever as I would need to be at work a short time after the meeting was to end). BUT upon a few weeks of saying I was going to get to the Friday morning meeting and I've realized that Fridays are usually a long day for me at work.......and the thought of tacking on two more hours (1/2 hour drive in, 1/2 hour drive back, 1/2 hour meeting, 1/2 hour pre meeting-weigh in time) just made me want to cry each week. If it's the only thing that will work, then I guess I'll have to do it. However, my schedule is changing in a week or two and I may be able to work something else out. I have to see! One thing I know.....I NEED to get back to meetings! Accountability! In the meantime...I'm DETERMINED to get back to 195 before I go to whatever meeting I end up going to this upcoming week. (probably Tuesday morning) That is what i weighed last time i was at a meeting!! Yeah, if I don't get there, I won't be upset...because I know how bad it really got and how much I've worked to get it down to where it is today. (4.2 pound down in fact) But it's still the goal that I have set for myself!