I have now been back on track for 7 days (nearly 8 since it's 6 in the evening now...) and I feel pretty good. Especially considering how I've felt the last 3 or 4 months.
Talking with Hubby this morning, I can't remember the last time I've gone a whole week on program. I think the last time I followed any program for more than a week is when I started the Whole 30 back in September.
Which makes me realize just how much I need to track what I eat. And I've been eating well this week. I did splurge on Thursday because Hubby and I were celebrating the fact I finally got a "performance based" raise at work, my first one in 15 years. That's not to say I haven't any raises in that time, because I did. But those were longevity raises, market value increases, and state mandated raises. It felt great to know that my team supervisor and section supervisor both fought hard to get me this raise and appreciate all the work I have done in the last 15 months. So a celebration was in order! Hubby and I went to our favorite restaurant where I made an okay choice for dinner, had one drink, then we went to a local natural grocery store and got a wonderful take home dessert. I tracked everything and didn't feel the least bit guilty about what I ate.
Even though I had been weighing daily to stay accountable, I decided to not weigh on Friday because I knew I would be up because of dinner and dessert. Instead, I waited until today. I was still up, but I know that could be a combination of things (and mainly because I didn't drink enough water yesterday).
There was a bit of a domino effect with getting back on track... other things seem to fall into place as well. This past week I focused on tracking my food intake, drinking my water, and getting enough sleep. I did well with all that, which lead to me feeling less emotional this week, and lead to an increase in steps.
My Fitbit is linked to my MyFitnessPal account, so the more I move, the more calories I burn and that, for me, means more calories I can use for food. I've always been a person who needs to eat my activity calories in order to lose weight, plus, being able to eat more is always a good thing! Since I could now see throughout the day how many calories I was burning... or not burning... it got me to moving more. A lot more than the previous week. The week before I got back on track, I walked just over 29,000 steps for the whole week. Yep, an average of less than 5,000 steps a day. But this week? I walked over 59,000 steps! Okay, no where near what I was walking two years ago, but a big improvement over the last couple of months.
I have a series of goals I want to focus on this week. I want to continue with my three main goals of tracking my healthy food choices on MyFitnessPal, drinking 64 oz of water a day, and getting at least 7 3/4 hours of sleep a night. In addition to those, the two other goals I'm working on this week is to do the ROMWOD stretching everyday and to not eat while standing up.
I mentioned in the previous blog that the Beck Diet Solution (BDS) Day 3 focus was to eat while sitting down and that I didn't have a problem with that. Well... apparently I do have an issue with that and didn't even realize it. I've caught myself twice today eating while standing up. The first time was this morning before Hubby and I did the ROMWOD, while he was getting the yoga mats out and bringing the workout up on the TV, I stood watching him, eating a banana. As I put the last bite in my mouth in dawned on me what I had done. Then just a little bit ago, I did it again. Hubby had made Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Doughnuts (from the 21 Day Sugar Detox recipe book) and I took a bite or two while I was talking to him... while I was standing up. At least in that case, I caught myself and I forced myself to sit down to finish it. So obviously I need to work on that a bit more.
Day 4 of BDS is "Give Yourself Credit." This step is help with negative thoughts that cause you to go off program. This is an easy concept but hard to follow through. It's easy to berate myself for giving in to temptation, but I need to learn to give myself credit for still tracking the food or credit for getting right back on program. This morning when I realized I had downed the banana while standing up, I started to berate myself but then gave myself credit for recognizing what I had done. I didn't walk or move as much today as I would have liked, but I am giving myself credit for getting enough steps to double the amount that I did last week (okay, Hubby helped me get the steps today by parking a bit farther from the stores when we ran errands this morning).
And a big thing that I have not been giving myself credit for is my overall weight loss. I realized the other day, that I knew exactly how much weight I need to lose again in order to get to my goal weight, but I couldn't tell you how much I had lost overall. I lost sight of the fact that even though I have gained quite a bit of weight back, I had kept over 70 pounds off. How many people can say that? And despite my weight gain, I haven't given up. I am still a work in process.
I am working through the BDS slowly this time around. In the book there are 42 Days of various things to focus on to keep you on your diet. Instead of working one each day, I'm trying to focus on those steps I need to work. Such as sitting down to eat. Once I've felt I have that under control, I'll move onto the next one. Before, I always felt the need to do the book as written, one day at time. But one day is not enough to make something a habit.
I'm in no rush. Like anyone who is trying to lose weight, I would like the weight to go away overnight, but I know that's not going to happen. I am slowest loser there is... it took me 6 years to lose a hundred pounds, so I can't expect to get back to my goal weight in a few months. I'm back to taking this one day at time.
So, this week my focus and goals are:
1 - Eat as clean as possible and track my food intake on MyFitnessPal
2 - Drink 64 oz of water per day
3 - Get at least 7 3/4 hours of sleep a night
4 - Eat while sitting down
5 - Do the ROMWOD stretches everyday
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