Week 1

I lost 4 pounds!

While I'm excited by that, I'm really more proud of the little changes I made to get to that 4 pound loss. In the past, whenever I've decided to 'diet' or lose weight or start an exercise regime, it's always felt SO big, like this huge shift in my life has to occur and the feeling is probably similar to what the earth felt as the continents broke up - painful, big, and a bit scary. While I've had success with those shifts in the past, they have never stuck. It takes a lot of energy to break up huge chunks of land, yo!

I went into this challenge with some basic goals, but nothing specific in terms of numbers of pounds or inches I wanted to lose. I still don't have those types of goals, despite some random numbers that have started to float around in my head. I don't know that I want those goals, at least not now. What I want is to continue with the small changes. Taking the stairs more instead of the elevator. Parking farther away from the door at work and at stores. Choosing fruit instead of fries. Choosing apple slices (and being surprised when almost the whole bag is gone) instead of chocolate. When choosing chocolate, choosing 3 Hershey kisses instead of multiple trips to candy jar a day. Choosing to listen to the positive voices in my brain instead of the negative ones. Choosing to thinking happy thoughts when going up the stairs and taking note this morning when my body automatically went to the stairwell rather than pausing for a second in front of the elevator. There's probably a dozen more little things that I have done and want to continue to do, but all of those small things are what I am most proud of this week. The fact that my jeans are quite as snug, well - that's just a bonus.

On to week 2!

10/6 - quick check in

Last night I walked a mile. I've been pretty happy with my food choices this week and curious to see what the scale will show tomorrow.

For today:

stairs at work
perhaps black bean soup for lunch
taco salad for dinner
another mile tonight

Getting re-focused

So the weekend wasn't so great. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't write my food down and didn't really exercise and I didn't really feel so hot.

But so far, this week has been better.

Doing the stairs at work (didn't even hate it this morning) and parking farther from the building - check.

Being mindful about what I eat and writing it down - check.

Walking tonight - soon to be check.

Looking forward to the black bean chili that is cookin' up in the crock pot for tonight's dinner!

Day 2

So yesterday I didn't eat enough during the day and was a bit (ok, a lot) cranky last night. Today is better.

I got out for lunch today and ordered off of the 'lite' menu. My years of WW taught me that lite really just means probably under 1000 calories (which it was way under that), but I still managed to have a really tasty sandwich and fruit on the side instead of fries. The food was great, I felt totally satisfied and hope to keep the crankies away.

I also made the decision to track my food on fitday.com instead of in a notebook. I've used this site in the past and like how it breaks down my intake and I can track various nutritional goals, exercise and weight. If you haven't tried it, check it out. Did I mention, it's also free?

The only thing I am a bit disappointed with is my cold. It's keeping me from stairs because I just get too winded and cough like a fiend after I'm done. I'm parking my car farther away and plan to walk tonight and this weekend and I'm feeling good about that. So far, so good.