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:
- Sit-ups everyday
- Keep a food journal
- Walk for at least 30 minutes everyday
- 10 minutes of mixed exercise a day
- Eat smaller portions
- Make lunch everyday
- Go to bed at a regular hour
- Exercise every morning and each evening
- Drink black coffee
- Blog regularly
- Drink a bottle of water each day
- Walk for 5km everyday
- 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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