In the Thick of it, and 2016 Plans

This is the first night I've had time to myself to take a bit of a break! It's been busy around here. My pre-Christmas clampdown went quite well. Ate "clean", no processed food, lots of veggies, calories in check but made an exception for two cookies made by a friend. They were delicious and I have no food regret. Office temptations were nothing to me for some reason and I was able to resist the crap. Pre-Christmas weigh-in on the 23rd was down to 169.1 lbs. 

Christmas was pretty good in all aspects. Visiting with my family is always wonderful. Travel was great as there was no snow and the weather was unusually warm. I swam lengths for a half-hour at a  hotel pool, then splashed around for another 30 minutes. So relaxing. At my Mom's since she's been out of commission, there wasn't much bad stuff around, with the exception of a box of chocolates and a box of fancy cookies. For suppers, we prepared roast meats like turkey, chicken, beef roast and assorted veggies. Baked potatoes. Others ate lasagna and that was fine. I made sure my Mom went out for her walks by going out with her. I understand how it easy it is to become unmotivated.


This week I'm in the middle of a big challenge: food every-frikking-where! Since I'm hosting friends, visiting friends, and New Years eve and day are bigger events than last year. Last night, huge multi-course supper. Oof! All good healthy food, no deep-fried nor any cheese-laden things, but just too much of it. And each course served with alcohol. Yes I've been drinking a lot of calories this week. Am going to stop now so I don't drink through the New Year. 

On the good side, it's snowing now and I've been exercising by shoveling snow out of the driveway: An hour this morning and another half-hour this afternoon.

Plan for 2016: Consistency with food and exercise, and becoming more fit and healthy.  I weigh pretty much the same as last year at this same time, and have bounced up and down a little, but not much. For my height, which is short-far from statuesque, 160s/170s is still obese. 

Once I get back into the daily routine on January 4th, I'll be doing the following to ensure I'm moving toward fitness rather than staying in the same rut:

• As always, eating a paleo-ish template with low-sugar and low-sodium. I plan to track and keep calories under 1800.

• Every work-day morning: Walking 40 minutes to the public transportation station (through snow, sleet or shine).
• Every work-day evening: 30 minutes of Body-weight exercises to build muscles.
• Every work-day night: Getting into the bed before 11pm in order to wake up in time to walk in the morning.

Weekends are not always spent at home, sometimes I travel to my mom's... so...

• Weekend mornings: Walk 40 minutes wherever I am, even if it's outside around the block or inside in a mall 100 times!
• Weekend nights: Not succumbing to temptations through booze to eat what I shouldn't.

I'll post a post-holiday weight on the 4th. I don't think it'll be much over 170, but we'll see :)

Start of Holiday Madness

We're in the beginnings of Holiday Madness around here. Parties, pot-lucks, restaurants, concerts, shopping, decorating and not forgetting to keep up with Marie Kondo style of tidying up all my stuff from top to bottom. I'm in the middle of shredding old bills and other paperwork that I'd stored in a huge filing cabinet. Want to get down to one binder for all my paperwork. Big challenge.

As for the eating, and the scale, I'm happy to report all is well on that score: Down to 171.2lbs. I've been counting calories, watching my portions closely, eating lots of veggies, and making sure not to snack on junky crap, especially this time of year when the office is filled with it. I am tempted, I can't lie about that. And I do go to bed with the feeling that I "need" to eat something more (which I really don't) but I'm ignoring that feeling. For the first time in a long while, I'm actually waking up hungry, not starving but hungry. 

Other than that, the weather has been so amazingly warm here! I've been walking outside, and even bike riding! This is unheard of in these parts at this time of here. We're usually deluged in drifts of snow! I've been sticking to making sure I get my heart pumping regularly, and de-stressing with yoga t'ai chi or simple stretching before bed.

These next few weeks, and into the New Year will be tough and challenge-filled, but I'm going to hang on and do what it takes to keep feeling good and healthy.