Silvergamma

Blerg. So unmotivated right now. Hoping that the short week helps. My husband is finishing up his last week of school, and I think the stress bug is pervasive through the whole house.

Buggered up my food goal yesterday. Damn you snack cabinet! Hit all the other goals though, so onward and upward! A big bloated today due to hormones. I can feel some of my self punishing tendencies pushing at me from the edges. "Up 2 pound!? Work out! Eat less! Don't have those left overs from last night, they were probably too high in sodium!" So managing the crazy with self care, and compassion. I know what's going on, and am staying the course instead of trying to over compensate.

This weekend went pretty well in spite of being very busy. Ate pretty well, got the dog out for some good walks and training enrichment, kept the coffee and booze down. Here's looking forward to week 3!

Seriously ! I haven't had a lot of time to update this week, but things have been going well. Lot's of cooking in the evening -> left overs for lunch time success!

During my lunch time walk today, I picked "listening stations" along the way to stop and soak in the sounds. A bridge over the river, a spot near a tall stand of cotton wood trees, and a wide open meadow/wetland. The bike path is also pretty near to roads, and it was really neat how after just a little while listening you are able to tune out the cars, and hear all the little things like birds, running water and wind in the leaves. Cool challenge, I think I'm going to integrate this into my daily walks. It's also amazing how dazzling beautiful things are when you open your eyes after listening with them closed.

Yesterday was on point. Now to maintain momentum this week!

4pm energy drop. The sugar and coffee are both yelling at me, quite loudly. I think I need to factor in a 2pm snack. /puts on spotify nature noises, gets some water, and ignores the peanut butter filled pretzels.

This weekend was a bit of a fall apart weekend on the food front. Nailed the other goals fine -> 3/4 both Saturday and Sunday. Finished up last week with a C point wise. Doing well so far today. Focusing with being compassionate to myself, and not trying to punish myself for a bad weekend of eating junk (as is my first instinct). Good vegan lunch waiting in the fridge, good breakfast, single cup of coffee. Going to try for a lunch time walk, and a walk after work with the pooch and husband.

I totally dig the cosplay based goals! When my husband is done with school, it's on my list of things to try my hand at. I love sewing and sculpting -> I drool over all the cool costuming out there! I can also super relate to the messing around with ones face too much (I've had bad skin since I was a teenager, so some unconscious actions there for me as well). You are the second person I've seen recently mention hand mudras. I hadn't heard about them before, but am totally going to read up on them. Maybe for my next set of goals.

Yeah... Total exercise in willpower! We have coffee available all the time too. I'm a stress/emotion/boredom eater, so it's an issue. I think if I can cut out the bonus calories from crappy snacks I'll be on track to start meeting my other health goals. Yesterday I was doing really well, but then the rain rolled in in the afternoon, and it got all dark and... yeah a chocolate "granola bar" happened. That 3pm lull yo. While I did bring in my breakfast and lunch, I'm going to doc a point from yesterday for the snack cabinet being mightier than I was. In happy news, Tasha (the dogglet) and I had a really awesome training session. She's starting to be able to relax more which is an important skill for a high energy adolescent pooch. We almost made it all the way through Day 1 of the relaxation protocol. She got up once which is the best that she has done to date. We also got out for a 2.5 mile run, which is the first time I've been running in months, so that was also pretty awesome. Any outside time counts, but getting a higher intensity session in felt great.

If you need me, I'll be standing waist deep in the river, blissed out, watching the sun sparkle on the water.

Yesterday snowballed toward the end of the day. Ended up hitting up the snack cabinet at work, and didn't get in a training session with the pooch. I did good about getting outside, and only had one cup of coffee. -> 2/4 for yesterday. Having a good morning so far today. Packed a really good breakfast and lunch and included a couple of snack items for the 3pm munchies (peppers and hummus!). Took the dog for a 2.5 mile run which is the first time I've been running in ages. Onward and upward!

4/4 yesterday! Got the dog out for a walk this morning before leaving the house. I had a dentist appointment -> I had oatmeal at home before leaving for the day. We haven't had time to go grocery shopping yet this week, so I'm going to have to buy lunch today, but that's ok. An excuse to leave my desk and walk to the deli. I'm still going to count that as working toward my goal because it's a real lunch and not just scrounging granola bars out of the snack cabinet. The coffee thing is getting easier. I might bump down to 3 cups/week.

I think we've all been there. It's a super complicated thing on so many levels (emotionally, scientifically, socially etc.). Stick to focusing on positive, small changes. Eat enough good stuff to keep your energy up, and be kind to yourself. Also... I've only taken one pole class, and it kicked my ass! The fact that you teach and do that on a regular basis -> That's an impressive level of fitness!

In addition to tracking food, I would suggest trying to get a decent measurement of your body fat percent. You sound very active and educated about this stuff, so it would probably be beneficial to you to have a good feel for your body composition. That will also help guide your goals better. You don't want to sacrifice strength just to lose weight, which indicates to me that you are more interested in lowering your body fat. I've really been enjoying Go Kaleo's blog. She talks about body composition a lot. This one might be relevant to your interests: https://gokaleo.com/2012/09/19/lastfivepounds/