Good Start
Last week was sort of a test for me, to see if I have the grit to get up early to work out and eat clean and track calories.
The wins:
I only tracked part of a day on Saturday and didn't track on Sunday. Saturday night, in an effort to not have stuff go to waste, I cooked up some BBQ popcorn chicken from the freezer and we had some sweet potato puffs (like tater tots) and onion rings with it. Total junk food, and I really didn't like or want it (the sweet potato puffs were to die for, but the rest was not appetizing to me even though I ate a little) but we had a huge family sized bag that the kids were letting sit and I didn't want it to get freezer burnt or go to waste. It was more fat, salt and sugar than I've been eating so I didn't end up needing a bedtime snack that night and I drank a ton of water. I can't say it made me feel that good. On Sunday I had my usual breakfast and finished up my grapes with a Babybel cheese as a snack, but at church we always have a potluck lunch after service. I had an open faced BBQ pork sandwhich, a couple tablespoons of baked beans, and some potato salad with a small serving of homemade mac and cheese which was more like dried out, overcooked noodles with dried veggies and barely any cheese. Yech. I didn't have any dessert like I usually do. Later that afternoon I took my kids to a park and we stopped at Subway for dinner so I had a 6 inch sub on bread. I was definitely in the mode of "I'll start back again on Monday". And I did get right back on track yesterday, but not with the workouts. Today I purposely didn't re-set my alarm for 4:30 because I just felt so very drained by the end of last week and I was probably inaccurately blaming it on the loss of sleep due to the hormonal shifts that are happening for me right now.
So I will get back on track. Today I feel so groggy, stiff, I have sniffles and watery eyes and I just feel like a couple more hours of sleep, a couple more cups of coffee and some slow, steamy yoga or something. If only my days were freed up to do that sort of thing! Since they are not, and I have to work for a living, I am planning to do some yoga tonight after work, and follow it with a hot steamy bath and then paint my nails while watching one of my favorite shows. There might be some hot tea involved too. We are in a pattern of gloomy, rainy, colder-than-expected weather and it is weighing down my mood lately too, so I may also use my Happy Light tonight too. In Ayurveda, I am naturally someone who is cold, dry and thick and the recommendation for me are always things that warm, and it really makes sense to me so I am really looking forward to the heat therapy tonight! Sometimes, we have to take care of ourselves and pamper ourselves as a way of self-love and self-healing. I am ready for a little bit of that!
Going forward, I have toyed with some different ideas of trying different times of day for my workouts so that I don't have to compromise sleep. I could fairly easily work something into my lunch break, that would be walking as there isn't much else I can do at work. I could also try out after-work stuff, if it's planned and I don't want to let myself down, I may have success with that. My boys are usually chilled out doing their own thing in the evening.
And one last thing I noticed that I want to change is this idea that calories don't matter and workouts are needed on the weekends. The lax weekends have always been a struggle for me, and lately my weekends have been so much work that I look forward to the work week starting so I can have a bit of a break. Still, a workout can be as simple as taking the dog for a real walk on the weekends, that's not such a huge sacrifice.
So I'm still working on some things. I do want to have my bloodwork impress my doctor when I go back next year, and falling into old familiar patterns with food and laze will not make that happen. I'm not self-bashing, I'm just being real. I am lazy and I don't like exerting myself but I'm going to have to push if I want to keep myself healthy as I age. I want to get into my 80's and not have to take anything but vitamins and thyroid meds. Lets see if that's possible!
The wins:
- I worked out 4 out of 5 days which made me feel better physically and mentally
- I was more awake during the first half of my day
- My metabolism was stoked, I was constantly hungry
- Tracking kept me eating clean all 5 days
- I was exhausted, seriously drained by the end of the week
- My sleep quality felt reall low compared to normal
- I was sick of thinking about tracking food
- I probabaly didn't eat very realistically or intuitively because I was tracking
- No weight loss
I only tracked part of a day on Saturday and didn't track on Sunday. Saturday night, in an effort to not have stuff go to waste, I cooked up some BBQ popcorn chicken from the freezer and we had some sweet potato puffs (like tater tots) and onion rings with it. Total junk food, and I really didn't like or want it (the sweet potato puffs were to die for, but the rest was not appetizing to me even though I ate a little) but we had a huge family sized bag that the kids were letting sit and I didn't want it to get freezer burnt or go to waste. It was more fat, salt and sugar than I've been eating so I didn't end up needing a bedtime snack that night and I drank a ton of water. I can't say it made me feel that good. On Sunday I had my usual breakfast and finished up my grapes with a Babybel cheese as a snack, but at church we always have a potluck lunch after service. I had an open faced BBQ pork sandwhich, a couple tablespoons of baked beans, and some potato salad with a small serving of homemade mac and cheese which was more like dried out, overcooked noodles with dried veggies and barely any cheese. Yech. I didn't have any dessert like I usually do. Later that afternoon I took my kids to a park and we stopped at Subway for dinner so I had a 6 inch sub on bread. I was definitely in the mode of "I'll start back again on Monday". And I did get right back on track yesterday, but not with the workouts. Today I purposely didn't re-set my alarm for 4:30 because I just felt so very drained by the end of last week and I was probably inaccurately blaming it on the loss of sleep due to the hormonal shifts that are happening for me right now.
So I will get back on track. Today I feel so groggy, stiff, I have sniffles and watery eyes and I just feel like a couple more hours of sleep, a couple more cups of coffee and some slow, steamy yoga or something. If only my days were freed up to do that sort of thing! Since they are not, and I have to work for a living, I am planning to do some yoga tonight after work, and follow it with a hot steamy bath and then paint my nails while watching one of my favorite shows. There might be some hot tea involved too. We are in a pattern of gloomy, rainy, colder-than-expected weather and it is weighing down my mood lately too, so I may also use my Happy Light tonight too. In Ayurveda, I am naturally someone who is cold, dry and thick and the recommendation for me are always things that warm, and it really makes sense to me so I am really looking forward to the heat therapy tonight! Sometimes, we have to take care of ourselves and pamper ourselves as a way of self-love and self-healing. I am ready for a little bit of that!
Going forward, I have toyed with some different ideas of trying different times of day for my workouts so that I don't have to compromise sleep. I could fairly easily work something into my lunch break, that would be walking as there isn't much else I can do at work. I could also try out after-work stuff, if it's planned and I don't want to let myself down, I may have success with that. My boys are usually chilled out doing their own thing in the evening.
And one last thing I noticed that I want to change is this idea that calories don't matter and workouts are needed on the weekends. The lax weekends have always been a struggle for me, and lately my weekends have been so much work that I look forward to the work week starting so I can have a bit of a break. Still, a workout can be as simple as taking the dog for a real walk on the weekends, that's not such a huge sacrifice.
So I'm still working on some things. I do want to have my bloodwork impress my doctor when I go back next year, and falling into old familiar patterns with food and laze will not make that happen. I'm not self-bashing, I'm just being real. I am lazy and I don't like exerting myself but I'm going to have to push if I want to keep myself healthy as I age. I want to get into my 80's and not have to take anything but vitamins and thyroid meds. Lets see if that's possible!
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