Setting New Goals

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I'm doing really good maintaining my weight!  Too bad I'm not at goal and NEED to maintain.  I think the many years of yo-yo dieting has caught up with me and my metabolism is shot.  Eating less isn't enough anymore to get the scale to move downward.   I'm up to ten minutes on the stationary bike!  My goal is to ride for twenty minutes by the end of the month.

The scale might not be moving the way I want it to, but I've made progress since deciding to get healthy.  I had three goals to start with and I've accomplished all three!
     The first goal was to eat breakfast every morning.  I can't even imagine NOT having breakfast now.  It makes such a difference in how I feel and how I approach food the rest of the day.
     The second goal was to drink more water and less diet Coke.  I'm happy to say I drink lots more water now.  I still occasionally have a diet Coke but at least it's not the only beverage I drink throughout the day.
     The third goal was to cut  back on sweets.  No one is more surprised than I am at how much I have cut back.  I had to have something sweet every single day.  This didn't affect just my weight but my blood sugar also.  The sweets were killing me, literally.  I still allow myself a treat every week, but just one serving.  There was the binge a couple of weeks ago, but I was able to gain control much sooner than in the past.  This is progress!

So it's time to set and achieve new goals.  Here they are.
     1.  Ride the stationary bike for 20 minutes by the end of April
     2.  Give up foods containing artificial sweeteners
     3.  Keep a food diary.  I keep saying I'm going to do this but I haven't started.  It will help me see what I eat, when I eat, and how it affects my blood sugar.

Have you set or reached goals for your health?  

Have a great weekend!!

xo Annette xo

Friday Follow Up~Continuing Progress

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I've lost seven pounds so far! WooHoo!!!  It was mostly a good week.  There was one night that I became very frustrated and my first thought was to eat.  My bank statement didn't show two deposits and I panicked when I couldn't find the deposit receipts to take to the bank the next day.  I was so stressed about it and Michael suggested we get out of the house and go to dinner to get away from the computer for a little while.  So I was thinking of all my favorite places where I could get the best not good for me appetizer, entree and dessert.  Cheese fries, southwest egg rolls, crab dip, red velvet cupcake, chocolate coca cola cake, and my mind was going crazy trying to decide where to go.  But in the end, I settled on fried pickles, a grilled salmon salad and no dessert.  Maybe not the healthiest choice but not as bad as I wanted to be!  I felt really good that I didn't bury my frustration in something a lot worse.

One of the things I had been putting off and finally did was take my measurements.  I really didn't want to know what they were, but I knew that when I reach my goal I would want to know how many inches I lost.  It was as bad as I thought it would be, but I decided not to dwell on it.  It is what it is and I'm working to make it better.  That's all I can do.

How was your week?

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Annette xo

Friday Follow Up~Making Progress

In the past, when I wanted to lose weight, I joined Weight Watchers.  It's a great plan and I lost weight every time I joined.  I truly enjoyed the meetings and strived to learn something new each week that I could apply to my own circumstances.  At some point, I would start feeling guilty about the money it cost, and I would give up the meetings with every intention of continuing the plan on my own.  I never made it past two weeks before I was back to the bad habits and the weight was creeping back on.

It's been five weeks since I started this journey doing my own food plan.  I feel like I've been liberated!  I'm not counting points or calories.  I'm not weighing or measuring anything.  I'm losing weight on my own!  I'm making healthy choices, being mindful of what I eat, when I eat it and how much I eat.  I haven't deprived myself of anything, and I haven't binged at all.  All of these things add up to a HUGE accomplishment for me.    For the first time ever, I feel in control.  I also feel like what I'm doing is doable for life.

This past week was difficult.  I'm barely sleeping due to not being able to use my Cpap machine.  I'm extremely fatigued and lethargic.  I realized I was mindlessly snacking and not focusing on fixing breakfast or lunch.  In other words, going back to the old habits.  Once I realized what I was doing, and more importantly, WHY I was doing it, I was able to refocus and get back on track.  I think it's so much easier to change behavior once you understand why you're behaving a certain way.

This week I lost 2 pounds for a total of 6!  I'm very happy with my progress so far!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Annette xo