The past two weeks have been very emotional for me.  Needless to say, I was struggling with food intake and keeping up with exercise.  Although I absolutely love my job I am kept very busy.  To add to that, my youngest son moved this weekend to NYC and now all four of my kids are in different states.  I know my husband and I have looked forward to being empty nesters for years, but now that we are here, it is sad.  I don’t think I would mind it so much if one or two of the kids lived closer.  And…. We have grandchildren (8 of them) and they are all out of state too. 

 

One of the reasons I so much want to lose weight and get in shape is so I can travel more with my husband, and play with the kids when we are together.  My mind knows what I need to do but my body does not want to cooperated.  There are times when I don’t even realize I am eating.  And I can come up with a lot of excuses to not exercise.  I have had some health issue over the past several years and most people would say they were wake up calls.  I say that too, but it is still difficult to do anything about it. 

 

Today I received a devotional that was about being an “empty nester”.  Wow…. Talk about timing.  I was also told to read a book that is about praying your way through a life style changes.  I am willing to try anything.

 

 

 

              

This past weekend was very busy.  My husband and I drove to Georgetown Indiana for our granddaughter’s baptism.  It was a wonderful weekend to spend with the family.  The weather was great so we could spend time outside.  Our son has a small farm with some animals. 

 

I did great on the drive down with not eating anything not on my list and I managed to stick with water.  The rest of the weekend was a challenge though because there was a lot of people and a lot of food.  In our family eating is what we do best and every gathering always has an abundance of food. 

 

I normally only weigh once a week, but I had to know the damage for the weekend.  What a pleasant surprise when I got on that scale this morning.  I maintained.  What a blessing.  I was trying so hard to not over eat and not to eat too much that was more fattening than I needed.  My diligence paid off. 

 

 

 

              

TRAVELING    

 

I have been traveling a lot lately and that has put a crimp in my plans.  I tend to do very well with I am at work because everything is routine, but traveling sure twists everything.

I try to be strong, but I don’t tend to exercise when I am away from home and I definitely eat way too much.  I often don’t even realize what I am doing when it comes to food.

Then are times when it is like, I better eat this now because I may never get it again.  I know that is dumb sounding, but it is how I think.

 

Last week and through the weekend I was in Florida.  I was with a group of me that just love to eat and drink.  I was definitely outnumbered. 

 

This weekend hopefully I will have a little more control.  I am traveling to Indiana to visit my son and his family.  My granddaughter is going to be baptized.  There will be about 20 people there and naturally a lot of food.  The difference, I hope is that I will be doing some of the cooking and I will have supporters around me. 

 

One thing that is good is that I did not gain much and I have a few weeks till the next weigh in.  Overall, my disappointment is that I am not where I had hoped to be at this point.

 

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

 

              

Moving Forward

 

This past week has been great.  I have said in the past that I am going to take my challenge a day at a time and that is working. 

 

I have had a very busy schedule lately, but I try to focus on just today.  Upon rising I fix breakfast and make my lunch to take to work.

I usually take a bottle of water and a cup of coffee with me on the way to work.  Once I am at work things go fine.  I continually drink water and pull out my snacks on an as needed basis.

My bag of goodies is pretty big these days but with all the right foods.  Raw vegetables, yogurt, nuts, an apple, salad with chicken.

 

I have been hunting up new recipes to fix for dinner.  My biggest problem then is leaving myself enough time.  I typically work out after work and by the time I get home I am tired.

Leftovers are great when I am in a hurry, but I don’t always have them.  Trying to solicit help from my son and husband is not working either.  I will just have to make more food when I do cook.

 

 

 

 

 

              This has truly been a rough month.  I seem to take two steps forward and one back.  It has been hard to keep my focus on what we are suppose to be doing.  I did not start off very well and now that I am truly working on a program I keep thinking about where I need to go and how far behind I am compaired to others.  My husband suggested this past weekend that I just look at one day at a time and not worry about compairing myself with others.  That has always been hard for me.  I am up and down.  There are days I feel outgoing and good about everything, then there are other days when I am just plain tired and want to hide out. 

 

I did lose 8.4 lbs this first month, but I know it could have been so much better if I had the right mindset.  So here I am just concentrating on today.  One day at a time, one meal at a time, one pound at a time.  Thus far today is going well.  I have to make sure I keep the right foods around me.  Fruits, nuts, yogurt, chicken, lettuce, you know the drill.  Tonight I need to get some rest (stayed up for the oscar’s last night), so I can keep my focus.

 

I have a great trainer that participated in the Lighten up contest several years back.  She is very familiar with the program and is very encouraging.  My problem is when I am tired I don’t even want to talk to her.  So…. Sleep is on the agenda for tonight.

 

 

 

I am really excited about being part of the lighten up group, but unfortunately right as I got started a few personal issues popped up.  Isn’t that always the way things happen.  So here I am several weeks into the program and I am really just starting.  I am a hard worker though and I believe I can turn things around. 

 

My first stumbling block was figuring out what I wanted to eat for breakfast.  Now I feel that is the only meal I don’t have to worry about.  I switch between yogurt with blueberries and eggbeaters with and orange and wheat tortilla.  I do love to eat, but putting the right things together is hard for me.  I don’t really like to grocery shop and naturally I am always hungry when I go to the store.  Last week I found some muesli at Big Lots.  It is all natural and really very good.  Just a ¼ of a cup of the mix with a ¼ of a cup of water, heat it up and it is very filling.

 

Over the years I can honestly say I never liked to exercise.  (I really still don’t!)  However, I am learning to just do it and not think about the fact that I really don’t like it.  I have to make arrangements though because if I leave it up to me to just go out and walk, it won’t happen.  Currently I am walking on a treadmill at work, working out with a trainer on Wednesday evenings at Slim and Fit in Mayfield and attending a boot camp at the same place on Tuesday.  I am going to try to take advantage of all the free stuff we have available while it lasts so I will go to the Y this weekend and register.  I can actually walk to the Y from home so I hope to make that a habit.

 

I have a good support system and I have found by getting my family to wear pedometers it is fun to see who can walk the furthest each day.  Typically I walk between 6,000 and 8,000 steps.  Yesterday was the first time I went over the 10,000 step mark.  I was so excited I was calling people at 9:30 at night. 

 

Now that my mind is getting in gear, I plan to read other blogs and try to stay positive.  Need to go – till later!

 

Angie