Koaladle

Still doing the steps, still counting calories. I started adding some bike rides into the mix and reactivated my facebook so I could get more involved with the community surrounding the Hogwarts Running Club. May take a little break from NF; I have very busy weeks headed my way and my long term habits are well in hand. 

7 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

 

Edit: Also, I know I'm still doing a lot of introspecting in this challenge, and I apologize for all my navel-gazing ... going to counseling has made me hyperaware of my emotional state and how I'm reacting to it much of the time, and so I spend a lot of time thinking about myself, and winding up in a weird thought-spiral. I know this challenge hasn't been as interesting as some, and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing too much; but sometimes even just hanging onto a little progress is better than nothing.

Let's unpack this.

First off, this is your challenge and it can be about whatever you need it to be. The goal is a healthy body and a happy

 heart, not to entertain the masses. 

Secondly, this challenge is fascinating. Few people are willing to be so honest and vulnerable about their personal growth and we are privileged to be invited along.

10 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

Also, apologies for the crazy hair; this was post-bath so my hair was undone and I had taken my makeup off.

What to say to literally ANYONE who feels the need to say something

(Sassy Janeway is an excellent image search)

I get that desire to present yourself in an empowering way or a way that makes you feel ready to take on the world, but you don't need to be ON all the time. You certainly don't need to put up with anyone who can't handle the HORRORS of undone hair and a makeup free face. <3 <3 <3 Don't apologize for that! You are lovely and amazing no matter what your level of formality because you are compassionate, creative, and kind.

10 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

I'm angry at myself. These are the foundations of my faith and I'm still doing so many things wrong. I don't even understand or relate to God in the right way. And while I can see the positive side that at least I'm learning now and "better late than never" and all that, I just want it to "click" so I can level up and find that peace and relationship that I've desperately wanted and missed out on for the 24 years I've been a believer.

I would suggest giving yourself the patience you'd give a child. You're starting this relationship over from the foundation and building it back up into something stronger and more beautiful. There's a lot of joy to be had in that! See if you can't choose to celebrate this process rather than looking at it like an achievement with an end result. Maybe track your biases like you would fitness--write down a bunch of baggage you want to get rid of and cross them out as you let them go so you can see your progress. 

Say the self talk out loud. Good things will feel great and bad things will get corrected into something positive because you seriously don't want to say that crap out loud.

4 minutes ago, PrincessMononoke said:

They actually said " put the bible down and enjoy each other" I was kinda shocked but

DO THIS. Hold hands, sneak kisses, be playful. Inject as much spontaneity as you can! A huge part of Christianity is actively living scripture and you can't do that with your nose in the Bible--so actively live (and enjoy!) your vows. <3 

4 minutes ago, PrincessMononoke said:

On that note here is something I did today-

OH MY GOSH HOW CUTE IS THIS! <3 <3 <3 <3

On 2/19/2018 at 6:51 AM, jonfirestar said:

Good plan. Are you feeling any better? 

MUCH. It was a 24 hour blerg with a couple of moments over the holiday weekend.

I'm changing the challenge a little bit. During our Anniversary Staycation, I noticed how much time I spend in the house. While I don't begrudge people occasionally hermitting. the fact is that I am home ALL the time and almost always indoors. This morning I carved out some time to drink coffee and knit in the backyard and it was HEAVENLY. Our neighborhood is pretty active; we have kids outside and playing, birdsong, neighbors mowing lawns, and the occasional dog barking, not to mention living up to the name Sunshine State. I'm going to change my challenge goal "10 active hours" to "7 hours outside per week". I don't get anything from that many active hours so I'll keep it a nice bonus accomplishment rather than enforcing a habit. 

"Oh, wow, a super active day!"

This weekend was not particularly productive, although we did do taxes and overhaul our financial plan for the year. Husband was incredibly burnt out, but we did finally make it to that date. As an extra bonus, I took a selfie and felt gorgeous for the first time in years (literally years). I normally make horrific faces when I get within 4 feet of a camera, but my makeup was perfect and my hair was a level of lovely I'd never attained myself. 

Me to myself:

Anyway, today is going to be a BIG chore day. I'm talking kitchen deep clean, dusting, sweep and swab, laundry, making dinner, wiping dog drool off the picture window, and de-furring the couch (which has gotten so gross to me that I don't sit on it, but FEAR NOT I jut have a very low threshold). If for some reason I don't make my step goal today (not bloody likely) but I get the "oh shit, woman" stamp of approval (very likely), I will be satisfied (no I won't, but I'll try).

For my next challenge, I think I'm going to add "put effort into appearance". It is a major boost to my self esteem to give a shit about how I present myself. I put care into almost everything and frankly I deserve some of that too. For now, it'll be a little extra accomplishment (like the active hour goal).

By the way, buy tissues and watch "Queer Eye" on Netflix.

SUMMARY

Daily Goals

• Track Food--In progress
• Self Care--Plan to shower, do a little makeup, dry hair, and wear Outside Adult clothing
• Creative Outlet--CRUSHED IT! And as a reward, more tonight
• Do Chores--Plan to deep clean the kitchen, make dinner, dust/sweep/swab, fold laundry/assemble work clothes for Handsome Husband, 
• Family Time--CRUSHED IT! Ate breakfast together

Challenge Goals

• Finish Green Stripe--CRUSHED IT! Let's change this to Yellow Stripe and see how far I get in a week!
• Ten Active Hours Spend 7 hours outside per week--1/7, but if I only make it to five this first week, that's okay
• Finish Binding Journal--No progress yet

We decided to put it off. It's too expensive and special an outing to risk a Bridesmaids incident. XD

(GIFs so horrifying I'll let you look them up) 

17 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

 

 

Ignore how tired I look, but I also got my hair colored dark brown yesterday:

 

 

 

That hair color absolutely suits you! Definitely getting Janeway, especially with the red blouse. 

DAY FOUR:

Did steps, knit a lot, had a nice, relaxing day, blah blah. BUT THEN

I'd been craving ice cream for a couple weeks, so as a anniversary treat we got pints of ice cream. Specifically pints so that 1) I can test out my self control around food, and 2) if I totally fail at self control it doesn't devastate a month of work. So far, I haven't gone off the deep end! Whoo! Unfortunately, I woke up tummy sick this morning. Really, REALLY sick. I'll spare the gruesome details, but between drinking wine last night (no alcohol since Christmas) and forgetting that my dairy intake has been cut back in a big way, I am absolutely miserable. This is much worse than when I had to start eating meat again before I deployed, probably because back then I didn't COMPLETELY FORGET TWO DIETARY CHANGES!!!

Wish me luck; we're supposed to go out on a very fancy date tonight but right now I don''t want to go anywhere that isn't a direct path from my bed to the bathroom.

DAY THREE:

Monthly weigh-in is done and dusted! I am 240.2 pounds (roughly) and have lost 2 inches on my waist, three on my hips, and 1.5 on my thighs. I didn't do a bust measurement because my standard measuring bra is in a laundry bin somewhere, but I suspect I've gotten smaller there as well. Since I can round down to 240 I went ahead and colored in my wand progress chart to celebrate! Whoohoo!

Speaking of celebrations, my anniversary is coming up. I'm forgoing a fancy dinner out tonight for a dinner later this week at a Brazilian steakhouse. It's a dinner not for stretchy pants, but for a full-skirted dress (dodge the limitations of a waistline!). Granted, I can't eat as much as I used to, but still--delicious. 

Going to hit that low step goal and spend the rest of the day knitting. I think my legs will be fully functional in the morning.

23 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

my quest to impress Captain Janeway

RELATABLE. 

DAY TWO:

My calories seemed to evaporate today, but I did track my food and am closing in on my lower step goal (10,000). Other than knitting and going to bed early it's a low key day. I may need tomorrow as well for recovery since my calves are still mooing (as opposed to dogs barking? Makes sense in my head). Heating pad, hydration, naps, the muscle roller, and protein will eventually work healing magic. 

Tomorrow I'm going to do my monthly weigh-in and measurement day! I stepped on the scale this morning and saw 240.6 (squeeeeeee) but was hungry and not patient enough to do the thing. 

Terra , you are amazing and positive and 100% right.

That sounds like so much to take on at once, but you are going to come through like a champ. 

End of challenge wrap up:

On steps and portion sizes, I have been consistently doing well. The quality of food has room for improvement, but the quantities are definitely controlled. I chose Super Bowl Sunday as a holiday (i.e. get pizza delivered and *gasp* have a single serving of soda) but even then I was marking time the entire first half and most of the second. By the time I went to bed I hit 30,000 steps and had burnt off my excess food. In fact, I've hit 30,000 steps a few times and during Zero Week of the next challenge I upped my goal to 12,000 in addition to yoga every night or using my weights. 

Anyway, this is my second challenge in a row that's gone super well. Here's to the third! Same topic name, as always.

DAY ONE: I'm taking an easy day because I volunteered at the Donna Marathon yesterday. My morning started at 5 and I didn't leave the bridge until 3:30 when the fire department kicked me off. Towards the end, I was jogging/walking up and down the bridge with the racers who were on their own or dancing manically to cheer them on so heeeeyyy DOMS how you been? Most painful 13,000 steps in my life. Worth it, but it means today I was proud just to make it to my minimum 10,000. Tomorrow may be the same but I'll try to space out the steps and hit the higher goal. Nothing like a rest day!

Back again for my third challenge in a row! WHOO!

I'm building on my last challenge by continuing to log my food, upping my step goal to 12,000 steps, having ten active hours per day (a very high goal to keep it challenging), and spending ten minutes every day doing yoga. The daily schedule still stands (do chores, work out, self care, creative outlet, family time, use journal). 

A couple extra things: I want to make major progress on the knit blanket I'm making because heeeeyyy there's a due date on that, and also to actually finish binding the journal I made. It'll take an afternoon, tops, so there's no reason to put it off any longer.

1 hour ago, Xena said:

So happy to see you! And sorry that people made unsympathetic comments about your last pregnancy. Maybe just look puzzled when they say something rude and say something like "We're so excited for this baby and really appreciate how supportive our friends have been."

 

Why are people so weird sometimes?? And not in a cool quirky way?!

That just makes me so grumpy at them. How rude and insensitive!

I always congratulate first, and walk it back if that's not well received. Better to be a little over-enthusiastic because it's at least supportive. If that support needs to be redirected a little bit, that's still easier and kinder than that snarky BS. People, man.

MLP? I am HERE for this!

I AM ALL TIME BEST KOALADLE TODAY! My victories include:

1. Hitting an all time high step count (30,237) the day after hitting the previous all time high (20,176)
2. Since I started this effort, I have earned all the Hogwarts Running Club medals in my posession 2.5 times
3. I burnt more calories today (1,711) than I eat on a normal day (1,610)
4. Calculating the trend of my weight loss against the caloric deficit logged on MFP, not only does marching have an equivalent calorie burn to walking, but I have a good eye for measurements and portions. Everything is lining up accurately
5. The quality of my diet is vastly improved (though it could use more veggies) and I usually hit the provided macros okay. 
6. I have found an easy food prep that is filling, fairly healthy, and since chicken goes on sale a lot here, it's not expensive, either
7. I drank enough water today--and have successfully weaned off soda for seltzer, and now seltzer for still. 
8. Came out to my brother today! I have two more family members to tell personally before I don't care about being outed.
9. Made plans to see two different old friends within the next couple months
10. Over the last two days, I washed, dried, folded, and put away six loads of laundry (took a week off for health reasons and came back like a champ) and our house looks like adults live there. 

My emotional health is doing really well! Focusing on two main changes and taking time for self care has made a huge difference in my day. I've made sure not to allow self care to be an excuse to miss step days or neglect logging my food and instead use it as a tool to ensure I can get those two goals done. 

Footage of my progress in the last year:

(Cable Car Chaos)

3 minutes ago, Starpuck said:

Holy smokes, what a knockout weekend!  That's amazing!   Great job sticking to moderation on all those fronts, and getting the steps in!  

Maaan.  You're like super gold star Ranger!  I love it!  Love it love it love it!

 

 

I keep saying, it's like this is the time that something clicked.  As the year goes on I'm going to make things harder and shake things up, but for now I'm just doing what I know I can sustain. 

That's The Horsey Show in a nutshell! XD Love it!

21 hours ago, Fonzico said:

Double congrats on making good choices while totally out of it, AND the scale victory!

Look at you;


Crushing it!

I've only seen this as ANGER GIF but I love the crushing it application. XD TAKE THAT, GOALS!

Friday was rough. I'm taking three different "may cause drowsiness"es, but managed to power through a very social day. My husband is part of the local longsword club and a member had a birthday. Having no kids but being made of Prime Minivan stock, I made both cupcakes and high protein muffins (chocolate and blueberry lemon), 48 in all, but only ate one! 

Husband's reaction to me resisting cupcake-apocalypse

And while everyone was hitting each other with swords, I walked/jogged around the parking lot to hit my step goal, at dinner only ate two pieces of pizza, and was just below the calorie goal for the day. I'm getting the hang of this! 

Saturday was another success story with steps and calories, plus I dragged myself to a basketball game to play with the pep band. I was totally in zombie mode and could barely focus on the music so I didn't last through the second game, but I did make the effort so I'll take it. Sunday is a lazy day, so between medically induced naps I'm going to do the step thing and knit that blanket. Bonus points for a kitchen deep clean! 

Oh no, that sounds difficult. Sending highly concentrated Patience your way!