Healthy For Life – Week 6

We are almost halfway through February and I must admit that the 2.7 is getting more bearable. I cannot imagine 2.8 at all and 2.7 is still something that requires a lot of my personal motivation to get to but I can do it and I am not weeping like I was the first few days of the month. I know that’s how it’s supposed to work, but it’s still nice to see.

I’m still hungrier than usual and sneaking a bit more than I should which is why I think I’ve lost so little in the last few weeks. I’ve even had to weigh myself a few times to see a loss and not gain. Cheating? Maybe but I only note it if it does show a loss. And long term it all equals out anyway. I need to stop sneaking and eat better and more.

According to the fitbit, I am moving more which is good. Most days, I reach 9,000 or more steps now. And I am happy about that. I am trying to take the longer way, park far, and not be too lazy to go upstairs, etc. So that I can use the excuses to move more. The TMJ doctor helped me with my tailbone a bunch this week too so it’s feeling better and that makes a tangible difference. So all in all, progress is being made. However slow and small. Progress is progress.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

February 11, 2011 | Healthy for Life | 3 comments

Healthy For Life – Week 5

Well here we are. Another week. Another month even. I can’t believe January is over and I managed to do 2.6 miles every day. I can’t believe I survived the hotel room and CHA and 6am and still made it through. I am really tired this week. 2.7 is hard and has been a challenge. But honestly. I think even 2.6 would be right now. I am just trying to be kind to myself but also keep going. That’s the only trick here: to keep going. To do it anyway.

I’ve been hungrier than usual, too. I imagine that’s cause I was twice as active as usual during CHA. I’ve been trying to eat without overeating and not binge on candy or anything else bad. But I do let myself eat a few extra graham crackers if it will do the trick. And it often does.

Yesterday I told myself I’d finally stop drinking all the coffee but today I woke up and all I wanted was quiet time with my coffee and crackers. I think at this moment in time, it brings me too much comfort and does not do enough damage to warrant such a drastic change in my comfort level. So I am going to keep drinking it for now. Even if it means I lose weight more slowly. Slow and steady is ok with me.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

February 4, 2011 | Health, Healthy for Life | 4 comments

Exercising – What I am doing

Last week, my friend Kristen asked me what exactly I do when I exercise so I thought it might be a good idea to write it for all of you. Please bear in mind these important facts:

1. I am not a doctor. It is highly recommended that you go see a doctor before you start an exercise regimen.
2. You are not me and our bodies are not the same, nor are our schedules, backgrounds, fitness levels, etc. Please just make sure you’re doing what’s right for you.
3. It took me a while to find what works for me, and I am still open to changing it so know that it’s important to adjust as you go.
4. I’ve never done this before. I am no expert. I don’t secretly know what I’m doing or any of those things. I am just doing it and seeing how it goes.

Ok so with those caveats, we begin. I decided to start exercising on the evening of October 1, 2010. I had already bought nike plus many months before when I’d read about it on Cathy’s site and I’d bought the pouch too. So I just went outside and walked. For all of October, I walked outside, whatever time of day I could and I walked for as long as I could. I experimented with running and walking. I took Nathaniel along most of the time (sometimes Jake was home so I went by myself.) One or two days, Nathaniel was sick so I just walked in my tiny backyard back and forth about 65 times. There was no rhyme or reason. I just did as much as I could every day. The goal was to go out there daily even if for just 15 minutes a day. Here’s the chart from October, you can see I was totally inconsistent.

Towards the end of October, my mom bought me a treadmill, which was the greatest present. Since the day it arrived, I have used the treadmill every single day. I might choose to go out again when the weather is great but honestly I love the treadmill so I have no problem just using it every day. You can see that November was a hard month for me. Most days, I went as fast as I could. Some days I tried to go as far as I could. My knees hurt and I had to go to the doctor who told me I had runners’ knee. I bought a knee thing to wear on the treadmill but it didn’t help that much. Then I finally bought new sneakers and that made all the difference in the world. Happy sneakers meant no knee pain which meant happy Karen. Here’s the chart for November.

for some reason nike’s site won’t show November 30 when I show it in monthly mode. I tried using several browsers and many times so I just give up. In case you think I am hiding something, here’s the entry from November 30. You can also see here that I was pretty slow.

I was pretty frustrated by this point. I couldn’t decide if it was better to go longer or go faster (I still don’t know.) but I knew that I wanted and needed to be consistent. For me, consistency is continually the key to success. So I decided that for December I would walk 2.5 miles every day. That was 2 miles of walking and .5 miles of running. I generally do my walking at 3.8 which is pretty reasonable and my running at 4.5 which is slow. But I am still sweaty at the end and it’s a rate I can maintain day after day which is what matters to me. So for December there was one day when I couldn’t do more than 2.3 and I made up for it the next day by doing 2.7 but every other day, I just did my 2.5 miles.

For January, I upped it to 2.6 miles. 2 miles of walking and .6 miles of running. I did it every single day. Even during CHA, I woke up at went to the treadmill at the hotel. It sucked but I did it. That’s the thing with doing it every day, it makes it that much harder to give up.

And here’s February. Now I’m doing 2.7 miles a day. 2 walking .7 running. I didn’t change my speed at all. Just the distance.

And my plan is to increase it monthly until 3.12 (which will be June going at this rate) at which point, I will be doing a 5k daily. The plan for the second half of the year is to increase the walk to run ratio slowly. In June I will be doing 2+1.1 so I will do 1.9+1.2 in July etc. until the end of the year. I might even just do 2+1.1 for two months. We’ll see when I get there.

So here’s the chart so far:

124 consecutive days so far. 58 hours and 40 minutes. About 258 miles. I don’t care about the calories cause it’s almost always wrong since it means I have to adjust my weight constantly.

You should know:
1. I do this every single day because I know that if I stop, I will just stop. I hate exercising and I am doing it so I will not let myself stop. Even if I am tired. Even if I don’t feel like it (I never feel like it!). I am lucky that I haven’t been injured or really ill so far. If I do get there, we’ll figure it out. Until there’s a really really important reason, every single day it shall be.

2. I don’t work out too hard. I am not trying to push my body so that it doesn’t need too much time to heal so that I can do it every single day.

3. I do it around 11-12 most days. It’s the only time that seems to work well for me. I am awake and it’s early enough in the day that I feel a sense of accomplishment for the rest of the day. It’s also officially lunch hour so I don’t feel bad about work.

4. I generally read on my ipad while I walk which is the only time I read in my day and then put my ipod on for the running part. I listen to one song over twice right now and then the running part is over.

5. I’ve been doing this for 124 days and it’s still really really hard. Really hard. It’s hard to get myself to get up and do it. It’s hard to do it. It’s hard to make sure I am reaching my daily goal (2.7 right now). It’s just all hard. But I do it anyway. I just do it. I don’t give myself permission not to. That’s the only way it works for me.

That’s it. I hope that was clear and it helps with any questions you might have had (probably more than you ever wanted to know.) Feel free to ask more.

Please remember this is something I made up for me. Do what’s right for you. (Also, I kindly ask that you do not tell me to not do it daily. I appreciate your kindness and respect your knowledge, but I am not going to consider this option and it doesn’t help me to keep hearing it. So I respectfully ask you to please not say it.)

February 3, 2011 | Health | 8 comments

Healthy For Life – Week 4

I tend to have an obsessive personality. I also rely on numbers heavily in my life. These two things combined make for a bad combination when it comes to trying to lose weight.

I have one scale that’s sitting in the kids’ bathroom and I never ever use it. Since the beginning of this journey, I have been weighing myself using the Wii Fit once a week. Wednesday mornings. This Wednesday, when I got on the fit, it told me that I‘d gained 0.4lbs. Then I did it again and it told me I lost 0.7lbs. I was so confused that Thursday morning, I did it again and this time it looked like I’d lost only 0.2lbs and then it said I gained a bunch and I just gave up. I know it’s typical for a scale to move around throughout the day but all of these were in a row so it just goes to show you that even the way you stand can cause shifts in your weight. Also shows that it’s best not to obsess.

So the way I decided to calm myself down is by looking at this BMI chart. Look at the those dots sloping down over the last few months. That’s when I started this journey and there’s no doubt that it’s working. Regardless of what the scale says each week, this is what matters.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

January 28, 2011 | Healthy for Life | Leave a comment

Healthy For Life – Week 3

The last two days have been exceptionally hard on the exercise front. I feel tired and out of breath and close to giving up almost the whole time but especially during the running part.

One would think that after 110 consecutive days of exercise, it would all come easier at this point. Especially since I haven’t increased the distance or speed significantly. But here we are. I am tired and worn out. But I will still continue as I do each day. I will just sleep more and drink more water and eat more veggies and protein.

I want to be clear that this is still quite hard for me. Each day. I have to force myself to get off the couch, put my clothes on and just do it. Walking and running does not come naturally to me. It’s not something I crave or enjoy or look forward to. I am doing it because it’s good for me and not any other reason.

So much for all those sayings about 21 days to a new habit or whatever. 110 days in and I can still stop easily. But I won’t. I will get up and I will do it. For however long it takes. Every single day.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

January 21, 2011 | Healthy for Life | 19 comments

Healthy For Life – Week 2

This week didn’t feel any different than all the previous weeks but as it turned out I’ve lost more weight this week than any other week so far. I have no idea what I did differently. Actually, I know. Nothing. I did nothing differently. This just goes to show that some weeks you lose and some weeks you don’t and neither means anything. You just keep going and have faith that it will all work if you keep at it.

I’ve still been doing 2.6 miles a day and most days it feels completely okay to do so. I am often tired before I begin but I get up and do it anyway and most of the time, I feel fine throughout. So the lesson is to just do it. No matter how I feel.

I have officially passed the halfway point. I must be honest, I still don’t feel a lot thinner but that’s ok. I am just doing the same things I do and eating the same things I eat and I am trusting that things will work out and that I will wake up one morning and know that I’ve reached my goal. At least that’s the plan.

The highlight of this week was definitely the weight loss. I am now officially in the 120s and it’s time to celebrate.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

January 14, 2011 | Health, Healthy for Life | 8 comments

Healthy For Life – Week 1

The first week of the year wasn’t as full of stress as it could have been since I’d already been exercising for months. I am really glad that I didn’t wait until January to start because this way I’ve already spent months figuring out my routine and got into the swing of things. And I can just keep going and focus on the task at hand: getting healthy.

My goal for this week was to raise the 2.5 miles a day to 2.6. I might seem like a tiny change but since I always felt like I was barely making it to 2.5, I was worried about it. However, when Saturday rolled around, I just did it and I’ve been doing it everyday since.

The weight loss was low this week but that’s ok. As long as I lose .4 pounds every other week or something like that, the Wii tells me I am on track. I know there will be ups and downs throughout the year and I am prepared for that. Even a small loss shows movement in the right direction and keeps me motivated to continue.

The highlight of this week was the trip to Anthropologie for my December item. I had already seen this skirt online so when I tried it on and fit into a size four, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I am truly ecstatic.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

January 7, 2011 | Healthy for Life | 8 comments

2011 Projects – Healthy For Life

In 2009, I watched as Donna Downey slowly (or quickly in some cases) lost an amazing amount of weight. At the time, I told myself that she was doing a diet where you had to eat prepackaged food and those diets never worked for me. She was boxing in her garage and I didn’t even have a garage. She was running regularly and I am completely incapable of running at all. So 2009 came and went and I watched Donna get healthier and happier.

Then, in 2010, Cathy Zielske decided to tackle her health and body as well. She was simply eating less and moving more. She began running too. She shed weight and became healthier and healthier.

And I stopped reading her blog.

I couldn’t watch it anymore. It was a glaring reminder of the fact that I wanted to do this exact same thing and I had no excuse whatsoever for not doing it. I kept saying next week, next month, next year.

And then one day, on October 1, I decided I’d had enough. I decided that this was my life now. Every minute that passed was too late. If I was putting my health first then I best get started doing so. I didn’t want to wait another year. Or even another day. On October 2, 2010, I got up and started walking.

I have walked/run every single day since. Every. Day.

I’m writing this post on December 17, 2010. So far, I’ve lost 18lbs. And here’s what my nike+ chart looks like:

77 consecutive days of exercise. 136 (actually 137 cause it was off one day) miles of exercise. The calories are meaningless to me cause until recently I didn’t have the right weight in the tool and I don’t keep updating it.

This is the biggest portion of this project for me. I’ve done diets my whole life. I can stop eating almost anything for almost any amount of time. But I have never exercised this much before in my life.

Ever.

And i am not just exercising of course. I am also watching what I eat and I am parking away from my destination so I walk more, etc. I am not super-active since I work from home and my job is mostly done sitting on the couch. I do have a little boy so I am a bit more active than I usually am but I would not put me in an active category. So the exercise is super-important.

For me, what really made it all work is the nike+. I had bought it on a whim when I saw Cathy write about it but it sat on my desk for months. When I finally started walking, I used it from day one. And having the visual representation of my walks really helped me. I just love logging in every day and seeing another bar. No matter how high or low. Just proof that I worked out.

I went through a patch during mid-November where my left knee hurt a lot so I started walking only 1 mile a day and I went to the doctor (it was runner’s knee) and just slowed down. It was hard to go back to working out longer than 1 mile after that and I struggled for a while. Then I bought a new pair of shoes. The ones I’d been wearing were from years ago and they were never professionally fitted. I went to a running store around where I live and the saleswoman took her time, measured me several times, watched me walk, had me try several pairs and I came home with a new pair. My knee hasn’t hurt since. And as of November 30, I started a new routine where I walk 2.0 miles and I run for 0.5 miles.

Here’s my full plan for 2011 (most of it is continuing what I’ve been doing so far):
1. Work out everyday. No matter what. Even if just 1 mile. Minimum 1 mile.
2. Keep doing 2+0.5 and eventually work your way to 2(walk)+1.1(run) and ideally maybe even get to 3.1 miles (5K) of running a day if I can do it.
3. Eat at least 2-3 servings of veggies every day.
4. Eat some protein every day (even if a little)
5. Minimize the amount of processed food you eat as much as possible
6. Drink water
7. No more than 3 (ideally 2) coffees a day (there’s a long story here but I am not quitting the coffee yet.)
8. Introduce weight training (light) 3 times a week
9. Work your way to 10 pushups a day 3 times a week

So those are some of my goals. Ideally, I’ll end up running 5K a day and doing weights or pushups 6 days of the week. If this seems a lot please know that running is not fast running, it means going right above the speed where I can’t really walk so i have to run. So it’s super-slow running. And same with weights, we’re talking 1-3lbs weights. I am just trying to keep my body active. I am not trying to obtain huge muscles or become a runner.

Food is a weird issue for me because I don’t eat much of it. I never have. I don’t cook and so I often just eat whatever is super simple. Ever since I made this shift, I have not snacked, sneaked, or cheated at all. I have no desire to. I don’t think of this as a diet and so I crave nothing. This is a life plan for me. I am determined to make it. So McDonalds or Taco Bell has nothing on me. I don’t drink anything but water and this pre-made coffee I love. The coffee is not great for me but it’s filling and it helps me in other comforting ways. So for now, it stays.

Since I don’t cook, I wanted to find a plausible solution to eating more veggies and protein. I cook for my kids but I knew if I relied on coking for myself I wouldn’t do a good job most days. I found this frozen bag of mixed veggies: corn, peas, lima beans, green beans, carrots. I eat half a bag each day. It’s not the very best veggies since corn is starchy and peas too but it’s oodles better than graham crackers for nutrition. I also cook fresh veggies at least 1-2 times a week and have leftovers. Generally zucchini because both Nathaniel and I love it.

For protein, I either buy fresh sole and cook it (which again both of us love) or I am getting roasted chicken, tearing it apart and eating it all week long. A little bit each day. It’s cheap, healthy because it has no additives or sauces or anything, and it’s already cooked.

Some days I also eat high-fiber veggie soups. And I always have fresh fruit washed and ready in the fridge so if I need a snack, I get fruit.

Maybe eventually I will cook more and things will change. But for now, this is the plan. It’s relatively fresh and healthy. I still have my coffee and now I eat a few graham crackers each day, I plan to reduce those and replace with fruit or yogurt eventually. But I am not sweating it for now.

I drink a ton of water most days so I am not sweating that either.

One other thing I decided a few months ago is that I wanted to get a reward for each month I worked out. Not for losing weight or working out long or fast. Just doing it day after day for 30 (or 31) consecutive days. Since I am trying to lose weight, I didn’t want to make it food related. So I am buying a piece of clothing each month. Mostly from anthropologie so far. I started with things like jackets and blouses which I expect will still fit me at the end of the year. Eventually, I hope to move to pants/skirts/dresses. I love getting to go shop (even though I normally hate shopping) knowing that it’s my reward for a lot of hard work.

The way I track exercise progress is the nike+. When I add the other exercises, I will have to find another system for that. For food, I don’t track too closely right now but in the new year I will. I will likely use google docs and I have a new weight watchers calculator that uses their new system. And, finally, I weigh myself on the Wii Fit every Wednesday. I don’t have a scale and I trust the computer more than my eyes. The wii fit tells me the change in my BMI and the change in my weight which is all I need to know. In the beginning of 2011, I will also take measurements for my hips, arms, and waist so I can track those once a month.

I made a little template to fill each week (ignore the text, it’s pasted from a weekly gratitude post.):

In case you want one too, you can download my template here.

I bought a little colorful album from target and will be putting my weekly cards in there:

That’s the plan.

To me, this is the most important project for 2011. I will let go of everything else before I let this one go.

Here’s to getting healthy for life.

December 31, 2010 | Healthy for Life | 23 comments

2011 Projects – Us Right Now

This project started with the goal of getting in the photos more. I wrote a long post on shutter sisters about how I want to be in our family photos more often (full post here which got me thinking about how I can do that on a regular basis.

If I learned one lesson last year, it’s that things happen when they’re put on a schedule. A frequently recurring schedule.

I’ve been a huge fan of Tara Whitney’s Six people Twelve Times project.

And then there was this layout I made for Big Picture Classes last summer:

I decided to combine all those ideas and make a commitment this year to take weekly photos of all four of us.

I’ll be honest that this is the project I’m most worried about. Because this one requires commitment from my whole family and it means I have to use my tripod and self-timer more often. But I am blessed by the most amazing and kind family so I am going to take a leap of faith and I am going to assume it’s going to work. It might end up in the same spot in the house each week but I am ok with that. The idea is just to have photos of all of us together. It doesn’t have to be super-exotic or creative. We can try that for 2012, for this year I just want to start the habit of getting photos of all of us.

So I take the leap.

I spent a long time trying to figure out the format for this project. I thought of using the template I did for Weekly Gratitude last year but I wanted the photo to be bigger. I wanted a full 4×6 photo of us each week. So instead of going with a 4×6 album, I decided to go with a 2-up. Much to my delight, the colorful albums I love at Target also come in a 2-up format so I came up with this template:

Just in case any of you are interested in doing something similar or using the template for yourself, here it is: download me.

It’s two 4×6 photos. The top one is just a photo of us with the date on it. The bottom one lists each of our names and gives me space to put a sentence or two about each of us from that week. (Things like thoughts, mood, current obsessions, etc.)

I will then print them out and put them in this album:

and there will be a page for each week.

So here’s to crossing our fingers that this project comes to life. I will really really love to have this one at the end of 2011.

December 30, 2010 | Healthy for Life, Us Right Now | 18 comments

Weekly Gratitude – The Power of Music

In the beginning of October, I started walking every day. I decided that this was time to tackle my issues for once and all. I spent the first month walking while listening to a book on tape. I listened to several books and I felt that the book was keeping my attention focused elsewhere and helping me exercise. For the month of October, I averaged 15 minutes per mile. That’s not so bad for someone who hasn’t exercised a day in the last five years. (Actually, probably longer than that.)

This past Saturday, the book I was listening to was really boring so I decided to put some music on my iPod instead. I wasn’t sure if this would keep my attention in the same way but I didn’t want to waste time thinking about it so I put some of the loudest songs I had on my computer on the ipod and I got down to the business of exercising.

And let me tell you…..music makes a BIG difference.

While the book might be more interesting, the music is definitely more inspiring and gets me going in just the right way so that I can push myself harder and more without trying. I was so amazed at the results on Saturday that I have moved to using only music on my runs now.

Today’s average was: 11.16 minutes/mile.

That’s almost 4 minutes per mile faster. And the only change has been listening to music instead of audio books.

Talk about the inspirational power of music.

November 9, 2010 | Health, Weekly Gratitude | Leave a comment

52 Things – Find a decaf coffee I like..or how I Started to Change my Life

Here’s this week’s item:

40. Find a decaf coffee I like

Well, that’s not really the item I ended up doing but it morphed into something much bigger. I originally put this item on there because I was nursing and I really wanted to be able to drink several coffees a day without causing any harm to the little one.

But I tried a bunch of different coffees and didn’t like any of them. Except for the one I was already drinking, which is this:

Yes, I know, not real coffee. But it’s the only one I like and since I don’t think any soda or juice or anything else besides water, this was my one joy.

So months passed as I looked for alternatives. Other decafs. Teas. Herbal drinks. I tried a lot of different things. My friend Lori, intelligently, pointed out that decaf coffee likely had a lot of harmful things for the little one, too.

I’d pretty much given up on this item for the year.

I’ve always had a problem with my weight. Since I can remember. It only got worse in college and went downhill from there. I was never supremely overweight but always had a lot more fat than any person needed to have. The more important part is that my self-worth is wrapped up too much in my weight. I’ve dieted for pretty much most of my teens and twenties. I even lost 26 lbs with Weight Watchers in late 1990’s. In fact, I was doing relatively well until 2004 when I got pregnant with David. David and then Nathaniel meant that my weight is now back to the pre-Weight Watchers numbers and those are not pretty. Not to mention now my belly never recovered from baby number two.

Even when I did lose weight, it had always been due to change in diet. Or mostly not eating. Never through exercise. Ever. I never did sports as a kid (except for a few ski trips) and exercise is not something I do.

Really. It’s not.

For this reason alone, while inspired I’d frequently read Donna Downey’s weight loss posts with dismay. When it came to Cathy Zielske, I stopped altogether. I moved her blog out of my Reader and refused to read. But of course, every few weeks, I’d sneak a peek and feel terrible all over again.

I am not entirely sure where it came out of but suddenly, in October, I decided enough was enough. I was prioritizing everything else in my life except for what supposedly was the single biggest factor in my unhappiness and lack of self-worth.

So it was time. If these women could do it, so could I. Yes, I could.

I didn’t want to wait until January. Dates are arbitrary and now is always the best time to start anything. Even though it was already October 1, I decided I would start walking the very next day. I’d already bought a Nike+ device thanks to an older Cathy post so the next morning I put my shoes on and got to walking.

And I’ve walked every single day since: (that first Tuesday, my nike+ didn’t work for some reason.)

My goal was to walk somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes each day. Ideally between 1 to 2 miles a day. I cannot run. I just told myself to start where i was. Walk. Even if slowly. I can only start where I am and move from there.

The daily-ness was more important to me than the ability to do longer stretches at a time. I work well with routines and I know that if I give myself one day off, I will quickly start sneaking more days here and there. Everyday is not negotiable. It’s not something I can interpret differently or cheat on. It’s simple. Consistent.

In the last 23 days, I’ve walked daily and i’ve even started running very slowly for one minute or so every 6-7 minutes. Just slowly. Every now and then. I am not forcing myself. The goal is to keep doing this. That’s more important than anything else. Even if I just walk 2 miles a day every single day for the rest of this time, I will still shed the weight. It will happen.

So for the first few weeks, I only added these walks. I didn’t change my diet at all. But then two weeks in, I’d lost five pounds and I decided if I am walking this much, I should at least eat better, too. I don’t eat too much but I eat bad things. Not fried or fast food, but things with zero nutritional value. I also wanted to get my kids eating more veggies. At least Nathaniel who’s still malleable.

So I started a new food regiment last week. I still drink my coffee once (and sometimes even twice) a day. But for lunch, I eat a wrap with broccoli and low fat cheese and heirloom tomatoes. My snacks are a bunch of fruit and some plain yogurt ( I love plain yogurt and I spent a long time at the store comparing ingredients of all of them and bought the Greek one.) My mid of the day coffee(s) has been replaced with this tea:

Courtesy of Cathy’s blog. Thank you Cathy.

My dinners are very light. I generally used to only eat coffee and 2 graham crackers for dinner. Now, on days when I don’t drink another coffee, I eat a bowl of yogurt with some fruit. If I am really hungry, I’ll have more fruit and some water.

This weekend I discovered that Nathaniel will eat pretty much anything if it’s on my plate and not his. So now he’s had sole fish, heirloom tomatoes, summer and winter squash, green beans, and cucumbers just in the last three days. Progress.

I would say that I don’t know how long it will last but I do. This is going to last. Because I’ve decided that this time it’s a priority. I am doing this. I will get healthier, thinner, and have a better diet. Less processed foods. More moving. Healthier will equal happier in this case.

Just last week my wonderful parents bought me a treadmill. Hopefully it’s going to get here end of this week. Which is just in time for the winter. I went out for 25 minutes in the pouring rain today. I will not stop. It will be slow. But I will not stop.

This matters.

And that’s how my plight for the decaf coffee went away. (In the meantime, the little one pretty much stopped nursing, too.)

October 25, 2010 | 52 Things in 2010, Health | 8 comments

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