Monday 10 September 2012

I keep falling out of routine!

My latest round of trying to lose weight has been slow.  Stupidly annoyingly so.  I seem to be able to get the momentum going for a few days and then it stops.  Either there's something for work I have to do that takes up my time, or I get distracted by TV, or house chores I've fallen behind in, etc, and I never get anywhere.   I was sick for nearly two weeks, sapping all my energy and making it hard for me to be motivated about losing weight or exercise.  So I stopped.  And all my plans and attempts at schedules and routines never seem to survive very long either.  I either run out of time to properly put them in place, or I don't fully plan them out, or I things take longer than I anticipate and so I run out of time to do everything I feel I should be doing.

What's really frustrating for me is that fact that mentally I feel really geared up.  I'm always feeling like, 'yep, I can do this.  I can do what is necessary to make it work'.  And yet, I don't.  Trying to lose weight is at the forefront of my mind, and I am constantly aware that this is something that I both want and need to do.  I hate feeling so uncomfortable in my own skin.  And I feel like my clients are judging me by my appearance and weight. 

I've been wondering if I'm trying to do too much at one time.  It took time for me to slip out of good habits, looking after myself, exercising, eating well.  Maybe my approach needs to be one of slowly building up good habits again.  So, I've decided to try and incorporate habits one week at a time.  If I manage to do them well for a whole week, I think I need to reward myself somehow.  Sounds stupid, but I almost want a sticker chart.  Or something physical anyway that I can put up on my wall, or my wardrobe door or in the bathroom so I can see it and have a reminder of how I'm doing and what I'm doing it for.

Some of the first things I want to put in place are:
  1. Sit-ups everyday
  1. Keep a food journal
  2. Walk for at least 30 minutes everyday
  1. 10 minutes of mixed exercise a day
  1. Eat smaller portions
  2. Make lunch everyday
  1. Go to bed at a regular hour
  1. Exercise every morning and each evening
  1. Drink black coffee
  1. Blog regularly
  2. Drink a bottle of water each day
  1. Walk for 5km everyday
  1. Get up at a regular hour

These are just for starters.  I'm sure I'll have more goals as I progress along.  I want to start off slow, one habit at a time.  I figure if I keep doing each item for 3 weeks, it becomes a habit, right? And then introduce something new every 2nd week, maybe even each week, so it builds up to me taking positive steps to address my weight and health. 

So far, I've done 25 sit-ups three mornings in a row.  Woo!  I even did another set yesterday evening before bed.  I know that sit-ups are probably not great when you are carrying a lot of weight in your stomach.  But I feel that when I have built up the muscle there, they'll be strong enough to hold some of my gut in!  At least, that has always seemed the case in the past. 

I'm keen to see this challenge through to the end of the week.  Definitely think I need to reward myself with something, just small, when I reach the end of a week.  And if I keep it all the way for 3 weeks and beyond, I'll give myself a bigger reward.

I'm also going to work on the food journal.  For now, I just want this week to be me writing down and taking note of every time I eat something.  One of the strategies that you are meant to use when food journaling is BLT.  If you bite it, lick it, or taste it, then you note it.  After today, I can already see when I ate most of my food and I even know why I ate it then.  I hadn't/couldn't decide what I was making for dinner so I ate mindlessly over about 45 minutes until I decided.  Some of it was good, like the 7 snow peas, but some of it was not good, like the muesli bar and 3 sweets. 

As far as going to the gym, well, I don't forsee it happening this week.  I missed tonight because I was waiting for a phone call that I couldn't miss.  I have a late evening at work tomorrow and Thursday, and Wednesdays I can never go because that's when I volunteer.  So, it will have to wait til next week I think.  In the mean time, I'll stick to getting into the habit of sit-ups each morning.

Oh! Last note!  I bought myself a digital scale so I could get an accurate measurement of my weight and progress and it doesn't seem to be working.  It did the first time I stepped on it, but this morning it went funny.  The screen went blank as if the weight was an overload, but it can handle up to 150kg, and I know that I am not that heavy!  I have replaced the battery but that doesn’t seem to have done it.  Anyone out there with suggestions or similar experience?  Please leave a comment below!

-Kathleen

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