Taking Notes & Smashing Goals

Sunday had been an uplifting day. I woke up a little later than I had anticipated, likely because I had stayed up a little later than normal the night before. For a third day in a row (I think), I didn’t wake up with a headache. When I got up and ventured out of my room, I had my full breakfast before I decided I would have my first cigarette of the day. I decided to start my day with a few games on my tablet and then read a chapter from the book I had started recently. Mom invited me along for her walk, but I’m still not up to completing her typical four miles, so I politely declined. I was still feeling yesterday’s walk and didn’t want to feel like I was slowing her down, as she’s used to that distance already. While Mom was on her walk and Dad was out mowing our massive lawn, I took a nice long shower and psyched myself up for the rest of my day.

I had started a system for tracking my progress on some goals I had set so I could hold myself accountable for actually meeting those smaller, daily goals and remain on pace for my first “big” goal. Since that first big goal is to weigh within my most comfortable range (where I feel the healthiest), I had set that goal to be accomplished by my fortieth birthday – which just so happens to be 360 days away now, or little more than 51 weeks. Since my desired weight range is only 37-47 pounds less than what I weigh currently, this should be no problem once I have turned these smaller steps into habits. I don’t even need to lose a whole pound a week!

Since my birthday on Wednesday, I have successfully finished four-24 ounce cups of water each and every day, and on at least two of those days, I finished a fifth glass! I am certainly visiting my bathroom to relieve my bladder more often, but hey, it’s definitely worth it. I have been tracking my calorie intake and output with an awesome app that I should have never stopped using in the first place – the last time I had scaled down to around 155-160 pounds with it, I thought I would be fine without the app anymore. I failed to remember that it still meant I would have to keep my calories in balance or I would definitely gain it back (and then some). But, I had promised myself I would never again tip the scaled at 200+ pounds. I am determined to keep this promise!

So, I track my water and my calories, but I also have cut my Wild Cherry Pepsi intake down to one can every other day so far. For me, that is one of the biggest accomplishments I could attain! Recently I had been drinking 3-5 cans a day (again)! 3-5 cans! That’s nowhere near my worst relationship with sodas, but it’s still borderline insanity. The more I have increased my fruits and veggies and other healthy foods, the less I have room in my caloric budget (and my stomach!) for junk foods. That’s not to say I don’t still eat pizza (hello – my birthday dinner!?) and sugary snacks; I just eat fewer of them and/or in smaller portions. There’s no reason I shouldn’t enjoy cheese curds and jalapeno poppers occasionally; I just keep them in check.

Take today’s meals for instance:

Breakfast – medium banana & 1.5 cups of Tootie Fruities cereal in 0.5 cup of 1% milk
Lunch – 3 mozzarella sticks, 3 jalapeno poppers & a can of Wild Cherry Pepsi
Dinner – 5 oz. chicken breast (boneless & skinless), 0.5 of a very large yam (roughly 1 cup), 1 cup broccoli, & 0.5 cup green beans
Snacks – 4 Keebler Grasshopper cookies (think Girl Scout Thin Mints) & 2 Werther’s candies

I still didn’t eat the healthiest foods today (except for my dinner and the morning banana) but nevertheless, I came in under my allotted calorie intake and that’s what matters. And even though I declined to join Mom for a walk today, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t meet my daily exercise goal. In fact, after dinner, I decided to walk around the freshly cut lawn for my 30 minutes. I had no planned route or method of exercise, other than to get my heart rate up a little and to get my daily 30 minute minimum in, so I literally walked circles around the front four to six acres surrounding the house and other buildings, as well as the enormous vacant garden plot behind the house. I even took a few laps around the various fruit trees in the mini “orchard” in the front of the property (near the highway). There are so many gradual hills and slopes in the yard that I may as well have been hiking it. I am proud to report that I have not missed one 30+ minute workout yet, and I’m sure when I am able to more consistently handle a higher daily goal, that will increase as well.

Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com

The other small daily goals have nothing directly to do with weight loss, but they also were set with larger goals in mind. The first is to write for a minimum of one hour every day. It can be for the blog, for my private journal, some creative writing exercises – the point is, I wanted to get back to writing more often and damn it, I am going to do just that!

And finally, I have been practicing my meditations. Before the coronavirus changed our lives as we know it, I had been working with a secondary doctor learning relaxation therapies and other techniques to help my spiritual and mental health simultaneously. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to meet with her virtually in order to get the most benefit out of the techniques, especially since I don’t have access to the technology and software she has been using for my appointments. I can only hope that I will be able to return to see her soon, but in the meantime, I have been practicing with an app that she had directed me toward and it has been helpful.

Now, I wish I could report as great of results in sticking to these non-weight-related goals this first week, but to tell you so would be a lie. I am happy to report that I was able to complete some time every day to both of those goals, but I fell short of the total minimum times all but two days. I consider these successes nonetheless, because I was able to spend at least 5 minutes in meditation each day (instead of my minimum goal of 15 minutes), and although I didn’t necessarily just write for an hour every day, I did work on making improvements to this blog and write for that minimum hour each day. In fact, most days when I set off to write, I spent nearly 2-3 hours in total on the computer, directly aimed at my goals for writing. It just so happened that I was spending more time making small tweaks to the already existing posts and pages and less time actually writing new material. And hey, if I can live with those shortcomings, then I’m sure you will all forgive me (especially since you already know I am still pretty new to all this blogging stuff).

I am looking forward to getting these first five behaviors set as habits so I can slowly start adding in the other steps to creating the good habits necessary in achieving my biggest goals. I have been working hard on mind, body, and spirit to create a more positive life and I know I will get there.

I love myself too much to fail this time. I owe it to myself!

*Kelly Terese*