New habits: eliminate the bad and add the good!

Another one bites the dust....week that is!  Thank heavens it’s Friday!  Woohoo!  Bring on the weekend! This week I focused on building some healthy habits.   I also got in some mid week exercise.  We had a mid week holiday which meant time off work!  It was really hot this week, and that brought about some splurges of ice cream....so my weight...well....we will get there.   Let’s  just say that in the grand scheme of things I’m going to call it a good week!

Habits

Habits, wow I could write forever about routines and habits.   We all have them.  I do.   My morning routine is exactly the same every day.  I wake up, go to the bathroom, lay out my clothes for the day, go back to the bathroom, turn on the water, weigh myself, shower....same exact order every single day!  That routine/habit isn’t a bad thing.  It is early and I am sometimes half asleep, so the habit is good. But sometimes we have habits that are not so good.  I have written about the sweet treat every night habit that I somehow picked up.  That’s not such a good one!  And I have managed to break the every night routine of getting something sweet....I still indulge but not every night as a rule.

Somehow when I took away the sweet treat habit, I picked up a ‘after work snack’ habit. Usually it’s Cheetos or chips so nothing remotely healthy!  Yeah I jumped right from the frying pan into the fire!  This is a bad habit that I am trying to break.  I have been working in baby steps to eliminate bad habits and begin good habits.  I have worked to combat the closet eating gorge-fest that I was having while Jason was in the shower. Talking to him and letting him know that I do closet eat helped, as does putting my snack into a bowl and leaving the kitchen.  So that was a break in the routine and a change of a habit.   That’s a victory!   But next up is breaking that snack after work routine.  I don’t REALLY need a snack!  Stay tuned for another victory as I break that habit!

The daily multivitamin habit that I started a few weeks ago is going well.  I do not believe that I have missed any day as of yet!  It has become part of my mindless morning routine!  VICTORY!

The next habit to work on has been begun!   A few months ago Jason and I talked about upper body strength and core strength.  We vowed to do push ups and planks every night.  I remembered for two...maybe three nights before I totally forgot!   It was an utter failure. Fast forward to last weekend.  I saw an article about planks.  I decided it was time to try to rebuild this habit/routine.  I immediately linked the article to my Facebook page and did something else that was bound to make me successful.   I set an alarm on my phone, set to go off each and every evening.  I tried to chose a good time that I wouldn’t be eating dinner, or cooking dinner, or already wiped out and half asleep.  And each night when that alarm has gone off I’ve gotten up off the couch and done my planks..standard, side and even some push ups.   My core strength and arm strength is weak...but that is bound to change!!!  Building healthy habits!!

Heat and weigh in

As I mentioned earlier, we have been in high heat and high humidity weather.   That makes me want ice cream!!!  It makes me want cold stuff!   So I have indulged  a few times.  This has affected my weigh in. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but I definitely didn’t do as well as I wanted!  I weighed in this morning at......

 That said, it’s been hot and while I’ve been drinking lots of water, I wake up thirsty....which tells me I still need more water!  And of course the monthly female ick has come and that causes water retention for me also.  So I’m not going to stress my weigh in this week!

Fourth of July Holiday

We had the Fourth of July holiday mid week.  That meant a day off of work for both of us.   It was hot. We stayed inside for much of the day.  However, we really wanted to do ‘something’ so we did drag ourselves out into the heat for a bit.  What did we chose to do? We went to the Monocacy Battlefield.  We enjoyed the nice cool visitor center and museum.  They have some walking trails that we decided to forego until the fall. (We now live close to this battlefield, so doing the trails this fall is not out of the realm of true possibility.). We opted for the driving tour instead.  We did get out of the car at each location to walk around a bit...

It was hot and a when we finished the car tour we hightailed it home to our wonderfully cool apartment!  It was a good way to spend a hot holiday!

Routine

I weigh every day (or try to...some days......well, I'm not perfect!).   I know that some people are dead set against weighing daily. This post is not intended to spark a debate, I'm just saying that this is what works for me.  It is what worked for me when I previously lost 130 plus pounds.  It's what I stopped doing right before I subsequently regained some of the weight.  For me it's a tool.  I don't worship the scale.  I get on the scale at a certain point each morning. (after the bathroom visit but before breakfast...and preferably naked or near 'nekid').  I weigh myself and I move on.  For me, it is a mini boost to let me know that what I'm doing is working.  And sometimes, it's a mini lesson to say 'not good MF', tighten those reins.    Are there days that I look at the scales and say "Dangit??? "  Days where I just want to throw in the towel?  YES, but knowing that I am going to have to step on the scale the next day helps keep me in line.  Honestly, the days that get me down the most are the days where my weight remains the exact same for a few days in a row.

So why am I talking about weighing daily?   For a couple of reasons.   I started watching and weighing myself daily at the beginning of this past week...and the numbers on those darn scales sat at roughly the same number. I HATE THAT!  Yet I kept plugging on, doing what I needed to do.   Yesterday I struggled. I wanted to eat.  I was hungry....dinner was late and it would have been so easy to go to the kitchen and get an extra bite of food. However, I didn't have the calories for it...so I refrained.  I so didn't want to exercise.  However, I made myself.  Ohhh, don't think it's all that great....I didn't go long....I didn't go hard.  But 20 minutes is better than nothing!    So this morning I stepped on the scale...and the numbers had dropped.  VICTORY!  Just what I needed to see after yesterday.  A drop on the scales....a reward for my efforts yesterday.  Confirmation that the choices that I made were the right ones!     THAT is why I weigh everyday. (The thing is this......if I'm making the right choices, the weight WILL drop...maybe not at the rate that I want it to drop, but drop it will!)

So my plans are made for my eating today.  I've got plans for a trip to the gym.  I'm working on sucking down the liquid to get my water intake.  I'm hot on the trail!  I'm keeping up with the routine...the consistency.....it will pay off (and the scales this morning validated that!)