Durfette? PRESENT

[durfette]

Hi friends!

 

INTRO

(if you were around for my first challenge, this is literally copy and pasted from previous.

Feel free to skip)

 

A brief introduction about me:

I joined Nerd Fitness last year and was active on the boards for a few months until I got pregnant when I had zero energy for anything besides the bare necessities.

 I am a chemist by trade.

I love reading, podcasts, hiking, and binge watching shows. 

My personality is a cross between Leslie Knope and Linda Belcher. 
I have a broken sesamoid bone in my foot that makes some exercises difficult, and I'm working on finding exercises I enjoy that don't exacerbate the pain.

I love sugar toooo much.  

I'm a hyper emotional person, made even more so by all those new-mama hormones.

I struggle with trichotillomania, which means I sometimes pull out my eyelashes when I'm anxious.

Basically, I have a lot to work on. 

I have a tendency to use a lot of gifs and memes from whatever show I'm watching at the moment.

Currently, it's Bob's Burgers.

I organize my life via bullet journal. 

And I apologize in advance for how much I talk about my baby,

cuz I'm low-key obsessed with her and all her baby-goodness. 

 

 

 

This is my second challenge post partum, and I wouldn't count my last challenge as a total loss...but it was a rocky start. I have a very different outlook for this challenge. 

I'm going to focus more on the root of my health struggles, many of which amount to decision-fatigue and going too fast and being too busy to focus on the most important things. I really want to be aware of the choices I'm making in regard to my health in hopes of reverting some bad habits. I don't usually like having soft, amorphous  goals like this, but I'll get into specifics week by week. Over-specification and broad strokes have been my downfall in the past. 

 

OBJECTIVES

• Post daily on an Instagram account something I did for my health (@durfette.nf please follow me!)

• Check-in with my bullet journal each day (example on Insta)
• Log onto the Nerd Fitness forums once a week (cuz this community is bomb, but I can't drop in as much as I'd like)

 

And then on top of that, I will evaluate each week and make an appropriate plan based on the following:

 

PRIORITIES

 

 

1. OHANA MEANS FAMILY. 

If you followed my previous challenge, you'll recall that my schedule got very hectic, very quickly when I started back at work part-time. My husband and I are sharing baby duty, so when I'm at work 3 days a week, he's with the babe, and when he's at work 4 afternoons / nights a week, I'm with the babe. We have these narrow windows when we see each other where we basically high-five and play hot potato with the baby while we each try to accomplish chores and use the bathroom. Spending time with my husband and baby fill me up, and I'm happier if our relationship is in a good place. And happy people don't shoot their husbands make better health choices. 

 

2. NUTRITION IS 90% OF THE BATTLE

Eating healthy is probably the hardest thing for me, and a lot of it comes down to making the time to meal prep and plan accordingly. 

 

 

3. EXERCISE CUZ YOU WANT TO

I miiiiiisss working out and I miiiiisss feeling strong. Fortunately, I have a husband who supports me and a sister in law who loves my babe who is willing to watch her so I can go workout. I have already asked my husband and SIL for help.

Each week I will evaluate my schedule and my goals for the week and set forth from there! 

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

WEEK ONE goals (in addition to the three objectives listed above)

-Read scriptures every day

-Eat healthy snacks first (both at home AND at work)

-Go on walk with Baby Girl (BG) 2x (Monday and Thurs/Fri, when hubs is home)

-Exercise at gym 30 minutes, 2x (Thurs/Fri and Sat, when SIL visits)

 

Alright, best of luck friends! I'll only be checking once a week (I'm shooting for Sundays, since I count that the last day of my "week") so I'll see you then! 

[zeroh13]

Welcome back, Durfette! Good luck with your goals!

 

13 hours ago, durfette said:

(@durfett.nf please follow me!)

It looks like you left off an "e", but I found and followed you.

[Bean Sidhe]

Welcome back. I think your goals look great. Just remember, don't overload yourself. Your still learning to be a mom (HECK I am still learning to be a mom, and I have one in high school)

 

Anyway, following. I would follow you on Instawhatever, but I don't have one. .

[Wobbegong]

Yay Durfette! I'm sorry to hear last challenge kind of got derailed, but it looks like you've refocused and recalibrated to take your new job into account. That's great! Half the battle is just being aware of what enemies you're facing, and there's absolutely no shame in updating your challenge to be more relevant to your current goals and difficulties. 

 

Regarding goal #1, Ohana means no one gets left behind family, what exactly is your goal? To spend more time with them? How are you planning to accomplish that, given your current scheduling constraints? Not trying to be a downer, just curious about the plan of action. 

 

Have a great challenge! I'll be in and out, but even when I'm out know I'm cheering for you!

[PollyannaAgain]

I like your new set up! Good luck with everything!

[durfette]

On 10/23/2017 at 7:33 AM, zeroh13 said:

Welcome back, Durfette! Good luck with your goals!

 

It looks like you left off an "e", but I found and followed you.

 Thanks for letting me know! I fixed it. 

 

On 10/23/2017 at 4:38 PM, Wobbegong said:

family, what exactly is your goal? To spend more time with them? How are you planning to accomplish that, given your current scheduling constraints? Not trying to be a downer, just curious about the plan of action

It’s not really a plan of action so much as when I have to decide what to do with the little time I have, spending time with them is priority. Like for example, last night I was trying to meal prep ALL THE THINGS, but when my husband got home from work I still wasn’t quiiite finished. Sunday evening is one of our few precious hours together, so I leaned on my priority and didn’t make the carrot soup I was going to for lunches and instead quickly packed half a turkey sandwich on wheat bread  with veggies so we could hang out. Does that make sense? It’s just how I’m establishing. My priorities. 

[durfette]

Update

success! I think the daily check in with my bullet journal and making a specific effort to be present helped a lot! When I look at it, I wasn’t totally successful at my week’s challenge, but I was able to stay present and think about my choices better so i feel good about this week!

 

@Bean Sidhe thank you for the words of encouragement! My husband pointed out that yesterday that we’re still figuring out parenting too and I had to concede that he had a point... nothing like motherhood to mess up your schedule.

 

-scriptures (4/7 Days)

-healthy snacks first (4/7 Days)

-walks? (None at all. Whoops)

-exercise twice (yes, yes I did!)

 

and i I posted to my Instagram a healthy choice each day, I checked in with my Bujo (I feel like I should name my BuJo. Suggestions?), and here I am posting on Nerd Fitness! Woo!

 

now for this week...

 

WEEK TWO goals

-actually read scriptures every day

-exercise 2x

-eat 2 out of 3 meals healthily each day (in hopes of working up to that 80/20 rule)

-No buying candy as the store (I seem to be handed so much sugar without adding to the issue)

-No eating an entire box of Mac and cheese by yourself (it’s my Achilles heel, for real)

 

thank you @zeroh13 for letting me see that using the forums on my phones browser is easy! Hopefully this will help me check in a bit more. 

 

Im looking forward to checking out some other people’s challenges on my lunch break today! For now I gotta catch my train!

 

 

 

[Butternut]

Ah!!!! Durfette!!!!??? You had a baby!?!?

 

Where have I been!!?? It seems like just yesterday you were talking about you and your hubby were trying!!

 

sorry for all the exclamation points!! I'm just so excited for you! I always thought you'd be a good mama!

[Bean Sidhe]

On 10/30/2017 at 7:43 AM, durfette said:

Update

success! I think the daily check in with my bullet journal and making a specific effort to be present helped a lot! When I look at it, I wasn’t totally successful at my week’s challenge, but I was able to stay present and think about my choices better so i feel good about this week!

 

This is great to hear. Sometimes just having a daily reminder that you have things to do can help.

 

 

On 10/30/2017 at 7:43 AM, durfette said:

@Bean Sidhe thank you for the words of encouragement! My husband pointed out that yesterday that we’re still figuring out parenting too and I had to concede that he had a point... nothing like motherhood to mess up your schedule.

 

This is pretty much it. And remember this, no matter when you think you have a schedule, they will change it just because. I mean my Eldest Agent of Chaos went from not wanting to do anything to actively asking to be in activities 4 days a week. And its good for him, so we worked those in too.

 

On 10/30/2017 at 7:43 AM, durfette said:

-scriptures (4/7 Days)

-healthy snacks first (4/7 Days)

-walks? (None at all. Whoops)

-exercise twice (yes, yes I did!)

 

and i I posted to my Instagram a healthy choice each day, I checked in with my Bujo (I feel like I should name my BuJo. Suggestions?), and here I am posting on Nerd Fitness! Woo!

 

now for this week...

It sounds like your week went well. I haven't named my journal. It just has the title of "Trust your crazy ideas" so there is that. Right now its just my little blue book.

 

On 10/30/2017 at 7:43 AM, durfette said:

WEEK TWO goals

-actually read scriptures every day

-exercise 2x

-eat 2 out of 3 meals healthily each day (in hopes of working up to that 80/20 rule)

-No buying candy as the store (I seem to be handed so much sugar without adding to the issue)

-No eating an entire box of Mac and cheese by yourself (it’s my Achilles heel, for real)

 

thank you @zeroh13 for letting me see that using the forums on my phones browser is easy! Hopefully this will help me check in a bit more. 

 

Im looking forward to checking out some other people’s challenges on my lunch break today! For now I gotta catch my train!

 

Good luck this week. I think you will do great. Keep it up. and good luck with the sugar thing. Here in the US candy is everywhere right now due to Halloween and November 1st is half price candy day.

 

[durfette]

20 hours ago, Butternut said:

Ah!!!! Durfette!!!!??? You had a baby!?!?

 

Where have I been!!?? It seems like just yesterday you were talking about you and your hubby were trying!!

 

sorry for all the exclamation points!! I'm just so excited for you! I always thought you'd be a good mama!

Aw shucks! Thank you! I did have a gorgeous perfect little baby girl three months ago! ☺️ I’m so happy to see you here! I’ll have to go find your thread! 

 

 

[Butternut]

3 hours ago, durfette said:

Aw shucks! Thank you! I did have a gorgeous perfect little baby girl three months ago! ☺️ I’m so happy to see you here! I’ll have to go find your thread! 

 

 

 

Awwww! She is going to be a cutie with a genuine personality! 

 

I havent made a thread.... yet.. I'm kind of in la-la land. By the time I seat down I'm ready to sleep. 

 

Anyways! Congrats on the wee baby!

[durfette]

21 hours ago, Butternut said:

I havent made a thread.... yet..

well that explains why I haven't been able to find you! 

[durfette]

Hello friends! 

 

What week is this? Beginning of week 3? Okay. Okay okay. 

 

So so this week appears to have been a dumpster fire, but it didn’t feel that way...

First, I left my billet journal at work journal and so I’ve been without it for 4 out of 7 days this week. No bueno! I wasn’t able to check in physically with my bullet journal, but I wrote things down in a notepad I use sometimes. It wasn’t as effective and not as consistent without the physical reminder of my journal, but I didn’t do too badly. Second, my sister in law wasn’t feeling great on Saturday and didn’t come over to watch my little one. Thus, no second workout since my baby was ON ONE. But i did grocery shop and meal prep all the things! Which leads me to my third dumpster fire... I doubled a batch of white chicken chili... on a recipe that was already massive, not realizing I was out of space in my freezer to store the extra, like I planned. AGHHH SO MUCH CHILI. Fortunately, my SIL came to the rescue again and took some home with her when she came over last night. So now I have two freezer-fulls of meals. And enough chili to bathe in (you think I’m joking).

 

So victories this week:

-i did not buy candy at the store, despite ample opportunity

-I did not eat an entire box of mac n cheese

-I worked out once

-I ate real meals (if not always healthy) for the whole week with one exception (Thursday’s breakfast. Oops)

 

Oopsies this week:

-we had so many cookies in our house and I ate so many of them

-Halloween candy at work. And a specifically rough week (a friend I work with got fired. He needed to be fired, but it stressed me out and I literally hid out in the Mother’s room for an hour to avoid it.)

-Severe lack of planning. You know when you say “I’m gonna do all the things!” But don’t actually plan out how you will do all the things? I’m gonna fix that this week and try a lot of my same goals again. 

 

 

WEEK 3 GOALS

-actually plan how I will accomplish things

-workout 2x

-read scriptures EVERY DAY 

-eat 2/3 meals healthily (that means veggies, fruits, protein, whole grain, good fats)

-no buying sweets at the store again

-no eating a whole box of mac n cheese 

-Now here’s the kicker and I’m sort of embarrassed about how challenging it will be for me... limit daily sweets to 500 calories a day. I know that’s a lot and I know I have a problem. This way I have to think about calories every time I put a candy in my mouth, and I have a cap. I realized when I was logging everything I was getting burnt out, BUT I can use this same aversion in my favor. If I don’t want to log and calculate and such, then I’ll deem the sweet unworthy of the effort. I plan to fight urges with chewing gum after meals and snacks. 

 

Ooookay. Onto checking some of you lovelies’ forums. Good luck!!

[J3NN]

Hi, following you on Instagram. I never remember to post there, I like your idea of making it part of the challenge, I may do that next time, thanks for the idea!

 

Congrats on motherhood and having the opportunity to share the parenting time with your husband. Your little one will be blessed by having special time with both her parents.

 

Freezer cooking! I really need to get back in that habit, especially now that it's crockpot season. Even if I don't do it the traditional way and instead I buy a double batch for this week and make it and eat it but prep the other and freeze it... It would be so easy, I don't know why I don't do that more often.

 

Good luck with your goals this week!

[Bean Sidhe]

Hey, I am here, sorry I have been a bit behind this week. School is kicking my butt and I had a lack of motivation/cares for a few days. Sorry about that.

This weeks goals are good. I honestly tend to agree with you on the sweets thing. You need to cut back and then go to 0. If you go straight to 0, it will be felt more and you will crave it more. If you cut back and find alternatives, it can help and eventually go to 0. Hopefully the week is being kind to you.

 

When My life is working well (not going to lie, now is not it) then planning is key. But part of the secret is to not plan "Do all the things" but keep it manageable and doable. which is hard in and of itself. Sometimes, its just "I need to do these 2 or 3 things" On top of my daily to dos. Then you learn how to sneak a bit more in, then more. until its easier. Not going to lie, you may still fall flat on your face some days/weeks, (I say as I am covered in dirt) but just try to pick yourself up and keep going.

 

Good luck this week

[durfette]

On 11/6/2017 at 8:37 AM, J3NN said:

I like your idea of making it part of the challenge, I may do that next time, thanks for the idea!

 

Congrats on motherhood and having the opportunity to share the parenting time with your husband. Your little one will be blessed by having special time with both her parents.

Hi! Thanks so much. I really appreciate the follow and accountability. I sucked big time this week with daily updates... but I’m working on it! 

And I totally agree about having bonding time with both parents. Our little girl is very lucky to have a dad who adores her so much. 

 

On 11/10/2017 at 5:43 AM, Bean Sidhe said:

ey, I am here, sorry I have been a bit behind this week. School is kicking my butt and I had a lack of motivation/cares for a few days. Sorry about that.

This weeks goals are good. I honestly tend to agree with you on the sweets thing. You need to cut back and then go to 0. If you go straight to 0, it will be felt more and you will crave it more. If you cut back and find alternatives, it can help and eventually go to 0. Hopefully the week is being kind to you.

No worries at all!!! I’m just always happy to see you around.  

 

the hope is eventually to go to 0... or at least have sweets be a rare treat. I’m just really far from it so far. X |

[Wobbegong]

I'm not so sure about slowly cutting down on sweets. My experience with them is always that if I have even a little, I want more. (It's like feeding a gremlin after midnight, it's dangerous.) Well, I have very little in the way of self-control, so maybe that's just me. 

 

This latest time I went after a change, instead of trying to slowly cut down on sweets to get out of the habit, instead I just planned to replace sweet snacks with fatty and/or salty snacks. (Fat is more filling -- and the salt helps me remember to down some water, which is also filling.) So I stocked up on string cheese, deli sliced meats, olives, and nuts, and whenever I was craving a piece of chocolate I would have something from my "approved" list instead. At first I had to force it a little: when you want chocolate, why would string cheese be an appropriate substitute?! It wouldn't. But if I don't eat anything, the craving just grows and grows, and then I overeat. 

 

Eventually I determined I had done a good job of staying away for long enough that I deserved a treat, so I bought a candy bar and... it was disgusting. These days, when I'm in the grocery store and suddenly remember I could buy sugary snacks, I get all excited and go look at them, but once I'm actually faced with them I find them pretty repulsive. And since changing my diet a little, I'm no longer really hungry for snacks between meals anyway, so that's convenient. 

 

Of course, as usual, this is just anecdotal advice from a random person on the Internet... believe what you want and do what works for you. I just wanted to remind you there are other options. 

[Bean Sidhe]

On 11/13/2017 at 9:42 AM, durfette said:

the hope is eventually to go to 0... or at least have sweets be a rare treat. I’m just really far from it so far. X |

 

So how are things going with cutting back on the sweets?