Good morning!!
Final day of the Skinny Dippin' Rally!! I honestly have NO idea how this will turn out...it's exciting for the "wrong" reasons. :) I expected this month to be full of witty banter between two sisters. Back and forth taunting and bragging on the blog! Teases of how much weight was lost! Threats of fat pants being mailed to the other! Pictures of the "Prize Sign" posted!
What a let down, right? Sigh. Sorry, folks!! I think any future challenges will have to be with a more willing and available partner. :) Truthfully, Joann may have lost 20 pounds this month. She may send me a picture tomorrow of a scale showing a great loss, but I really had hoped for more on the blog front. Her telling us what she was doing for diet, struggles she met with her schedule, that kind of stuff...
Anyway, I am actually excited to weigh tomorrow morning. This is not because I've had a good and easy week. Opposite of that! It has been a struggle. Giving me numbers (points) rather than foods I should/shouldn't or can/can't eat has proven to be a lot different. When I open the refrigerator and know I could eat anything in there, but I have to track it and check the points value...that is just flat intimidating to me! Not to mention this week's strange obstacles and changes in my life. Well, my Weight Watcher's point tally shows me at a -2 as of last night. Yep, not only did I blow my flex points and my activity points, but I am even NEGATIVE for the week! Crazy. I will fix that today and plan to end even, but I don't know how that is going to translate at tomorrow's weigh in. I have been doing a couple of things in addition to the diet that I think of as my "little tricks". Hopefully to counteract the few indulgences I allowed myself the past couple of days.
This week's challenges involved Vacation Bible School for the boys, a broken computer cord, and a new attitude being displayed by my 20 month old daughter. Yeeeehaw. The VBS was awesome. The boys were excited from day one and they came home singing songs and talking about new friends. We had the opportunity to go last night for a performance of their songs and a nice dinner with the other families involved. We met some really nice people! The only reason this was a "challenge" is the timing. They were to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00 each morning. This should be no problem for the family that wakes at 6:30, right? Well, Zoe's new attitude comes into play...she has been "sleep training" (crying it out) and not going to sleep until 9:00 pm! Then she sleeps in until at least 8:00. Let me say this..."sleeping in" is supposed to be awesome. Unfortunately, when only 25% are doing it, it is not a treat. It becomes a nuisance.
We will skip ahead to discuss this attitude problem. Now, Zoe is my first girl AND she is the youngest of 4. I don't know what I expected, but this is a whole new "terrible two's" for me! She is very defiant and strong-willed and stubborn and LOUD. The LOUD is the worst part, truly. Even when she says "no" I can write it off as cute. When she gets to screaming and yelling, particularly when it involves "MOMMA"...well, I can barely think let alone expect myself to stay out of the kitchen! What is it about that stress that just makes me want to stuff my face? The funny thing is how much I've trained my brain to still want to stay somewhat "healthy". So, I just overeat fruit. Ha, ha, ha. Or, my biggest blunder of the week, peanut butter and honey sandwiches! I know that is not healthy, but let's be honest it is kind of weak in the grand scheme of "junk food". Now, you may be wondering how on earth those two things got me to my negative 2 score on Weight Watchers? Well, I made a fruit salad and used some canned peaches and pineapple which DO have a point value on WW. Peanut butter and honey have values, plus bread, bread, bread...so yummy.
I'm rambling and getting distracted. Well, I really just wanted to talk about my "little tricks"! Very little, actually. Number one is the old standby of drinking 100 ounces of water a day. Every time I feel myself gravitating towards the kitchen or putting something extra in my mouth, I fill up my 20 ounce water cup and drink it. All of it. This has likely resulted in more than 100 ounces of water on a couple days, but I know I got at least that amount every day. Number two is that I have stopped eating by 6:30 each night. I read somewhere (sorry, should cite my source) that your body needs 12 hours of "fasting" in order to start burning fat overnight. This does contradict some of my other diets which recommend (and even encourage) a late snack. Either way, this week, I have made it a point to eat nothing beyond 6:30. It's actually not hard for me to do that...night time is NOT my favorite snacking time. The chaos of getting the kids in pajamas and to bed has been enough to keep me out of the kitchen and consequently crash as soon as the quiet settles over the house. Number three is my "early breakfast" every day. 6:30 or 7:00 am, I have an apple and a cup of coffee. I call this my own version of the Activia Challenge. :) Ha, ha. It helps me to curb my appetite long enough to get the kids fed and dressed and allows me time to consider my breakfast options. I love breakfast, and always have. When you wake up as early as we do, it can be super easy to just get in the kitchen and eat, eat, eat. Then, once the kids are up and ready to eat, it makes me want to eat again. I think breakfast is not only important to eat, but it is also a good chance to set up your day right! If you eat well in the morning, you may want to stay "good" all day. Either way, it's been working for me! Also, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Well...it's can't hurt!
So, a quick note about exercise. I'm loving it. I start the final week of Couch to 5K on Friday, even though I would not call yesterday's run a "success". I think I got very overzealous and came out of the gate too strong. I had mapped out a route around my friend's house who agreed to watch Zoe while I ran. As I was running, I got SO hot and my legs were burning and I just kept thinking, I'm going to quit, I'm going to quit. Now, these thoughts are nothing new, but I finally hit a wall and just couldn't keep going. Just couldn't. I was very angry with myself and managed to hold back the tears somehow. I didn't complete the route, so when I got home I mapped out what I did complete and discovered I finished 2.34 miles in 23.5 minutes. Conclusion: I was running too fast in the beginning. For me to be able to walk about .4 mile and still average a 10 minute mile? Outdoors? Yeah...I need a pace car to follow me, apparently! I am going to rest my sore legs today and get back to it tomorrow. I will move on to Week 9 and begin my full 30 minute runs.
I do want to share how God used my frustrations and turned it around quickly. As I mentioned, I was very upset and mentally yelling at myself for quitting. I tried to begin running again, but my legs had truly had it. I got back to my friend's house and stretched on her porch while asking God what I was to learn from this, what had I done wrong? Why had the other runs seemed to be going so well? Just when I was feeling confident about Monday's 5K, I get hit with this? WHY? Well, my friend had already left for our Bible study group, so nobody was home and I assumed the door was locked. Needless to say, I was pretty sweaty and gross...not exactly wanting to join my group looking like that! I went into her backyard which is surrounded by a tall privacy fence and decided to change clothes back there. As I looked around to find a spot that was hidden from any neighbors who may have been looking out their 2nd floor window, I found myself in the corner outside of her bedroom window. As I changed tops, I had a vision of her husband being home and peeking out his window at a most inopportune moment! Not wanting this to become a reality, once I changed my shirt, I decided to get in the backseat of my minivan for the pants changing. If any of you has children and a mini-van, I am hoping you will understand this next part. I moved the booster seat over and peeled off my pants...then I accidentally sat down. On potato chips and stickers and sucker sticks and something unidentifiable! EEEEWWWWW. Yeah. Sweaty butt and legs. It was disgusting, but got me laughing! Hard! Then I finally get my pants on and try to open the door...only to remember I had put the childproof lock on, so the kids couldn't get out of the backseat without me opening the door for them. Awesome.
I hope this helped you laugh today! It was a fantastic reminder yesterday to not be so overly confident with myself that I don't credit God for my running success, but also to realize He loves me and would rather see me laugh (even at my own expense!) than be sad. It was a whirlwind of emotions. :)
Have a great day! I plan to, as well.
xoxo
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