The long and winding road to fitness, day 202

Wow!  There are times I regret not giving this weight loss journey my all for the past 202 days…how much weight would I have lost had I done that?

But…I can’t change the past…what I can do is use this to motivate me to work harder to stick with my food plan and exercise program.  I’ve done really well for the past few days.  I guess going back to work does have its advantages.

I’ve been preparing my food the night before and keying everything into my nutrition tracker at SparkPeople.com.  Not sure what the psychology behind this is, but it helps me stick with it…hmm…could be plain laziness, I may be too lazy to want to go back in and change things.

I’ve also been exercising every day.  Not crazy, not over doing it, but doing some cardio and strength training every day.  My body will get used to it…sometime, I hope.

And I did lose 1 pound last week even with not so great eating the first part of the week…vacation, you know…I do much better when I’m on a routine.  But a pound is a pound and I’ll take it.  I’ll take it and work to lose at least that much this week.

Now to get some sleep tonight.  For some wild reason, we’re going in at 5 am tomorrow.  I thought those days would be over since the holidays are behind us.  Shows just how much I know, doesn’t it?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 195

Welcome to the new year!  How exciting to have another opportunity to make our lives better, to live healthier.  Today has been a good day with both nutrition and exercise.  I stayed within my calorie range (under 1650) and got in upper body strength training and some time on the exercise bike.  I also did some stretching.  I’m not sure if I’ll be sore tomorrow or not, but it felt good to get back to my exercise routine.

I even cooked a good lunch today.  I had tilapia, half of a baked sweet potato, and cooked cabbage (hey, you can’t overlook that luck thing that just might result from eating cabbage on New Year’s Day).  I have enough prepared that I can eat the same meal again tomorrow, except I’m going to make cole slaw instead of cooked cabbage.

I spent a little time on SparkPeople.com tracking my nutrition and fitness, visiting a couple of teams, leaving some replies to some posts, and doing a little reading.  I haven’t started the private spark team for our work livewell challenge yet, but I’m going to do that sometime this week.

I have to admit I had a couple of times throughout the day when I thought about getting something to eat that I hadn’t planned on…those pesky old habits are sure difficult to overcome, aren’t they?  One of my ingrained habits is eating snack food while I read.  I think, years ago, that’s how I learned to cope with things I didn’t want to think about and emotions I didn’t want to feel.    And it worked…while I was doing it.  But the funny thing about all of that is that those emotions and thoughts come right back as soon as I stop the combined eating/reading.  I’ve decided I’ll substitute a cup of hot tea with stevia for the snack foods while I’m reading.  At least that’s one way to break that habit.  Of course, there comes a time when I’ll have to deal with the other stuff…feeling the things I’ve spent a lifetime running from and allowing myself to think about and deal with everything else.  I know that works, I’ve done it before.  Unfortunately I allowed myself to slip right back into those long-established bad habits.  Now to become more aware and vigilant with myself.

A pretty successful day 195 on this road, wouldn’t you say? (Sorry no pictures today…for some crazy reason, I couldn’t upload any today…)

The long and winding road to fitness, day 182

Wow…not a good day today as far as the food goes…exercise?  Yeah, quite a bit of exercise today, some strength training before work, a couple of hours of up and down the ladder early on, a lot of walking the rest of the day.  At least I have that going for me.

But my eating today…sheesh…I don’t even want to go into what I ate…not much that was good for me.  Only one fruit and one veggie for the day.  I didn’t do any meal or snack preparations for the day and my diet definitely showed it.  I’ve got to make the time to do some cooking.  I’ve just got the rest of this week to go and then my work schedule won’t be quite so crazy…at least we’re off that six-day work week now.  Still going in at 5 am just because we’re so busy…those four hours before we open are really the only time we can get anything done.

And then there’s the sleep thing…still not getting enough sleep.  I have the chance to sleep in a little tomorrow, looking forward to that.  But I’m really looking forward to that vacation in early January…time to cook, sleep, get back into a regular exercise routine…ahh…sounds divine, doesn’t it?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 180

Another long day at work…a day that started much too early…I’m pretty much looking forward to an end of these 5 am days…a little sleep would be a good thing.

My eating was just okay today, once again not enough fruits and veggies and too much unhealthy junk.  I have just been too tired to prepare anything for the past few days and by the time lunch rolls around we’re too busy for me to leave to run over to Subway.  I did stop at the store this evening and pick up a few frozen dinners.  One of the things I’m going to do when I’m not working all the time is stop buying frozen meals and start actually cooking good food.

I did do some strength training this morning before work and did a lot of walking and ladder climbing at work, so I did get in some good exercise.

Oh, our company will be starting another live well challenge in January.  I’ve been signing people up for it for the past couple of days.  Most of the people seem really excited about it.  I’m going to try to get several more folks signed up tomorrow.  Right now we have about a third of our associates signed up…my goal for our store is to get at least 75% of our associates signed up.  I’d aim for 100% but I know we won’t get that because one of the women said she wasn’t interested…so…anyhow, several of us are planning to use this challenge to kickstart our own fitness/weight loss program.  We’ve even talked about setting up a private team on SparkPeople.com…if I can get maybe a couple more people interested in that, I’ll do it.

So maybe I’m not doing as well as I’d like right now on my road to fitness, but I’m setting up a plan to get back on the straight and narrow…just gotta do it…I’m tired of feeling like this (and looking like this) and want to get back to feeling good, energized, in shape…

The long and winding road to fitness, day 170

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Ho ho ho…wouldn’t you know…I’m moving slow…ho ho ho!!  Moving slow tonight for sure.  I’m just so tired, didn’t sleep well last night…again…I don’t even know how many times I woke up last night.  What I wouldn’t give for a full, uninterrupted eight hours of sleep.  Now with a 5 am truck in the morning, I know I won’t be able to get that much sleep tonight.  But I am going to go to bed as early as possible.

I had a good day with my eating today.  Ended the day with five fruits and veggies.  I made my version of a Subway sandwich for lunch…delish!!

Exercise?  Well, I did do a few minutes of strength training before work this morning and then did a ton of walking around all day.  Another crazy busy day…all day…

And I’m not sure what the deal is with people feeling free to make what I perceive as insulting remarks over the past couple of days.  I had an older couple come through my line.  I asked them if they’d like to sign up to receive our ads and coupons via email.  The lady declined, saying she already gets too many emails that she has to delete.  I told her I end up deleting numerous emails every day without ever opening them.  The man asked if I was on the computer every day.  When I told him I was, he said he valued his time too much to waste time on the computer every day.  Well…okay…I told them that I write every day…he said he didn’t have the time for that.  The entire time, his wife was telling him to shut up…I guess she understood how it sounded.  You know, I think we all do things that other people might consider a waste of time.  We make the time to do what’s important to us.  But to say things like that?  Do people no longer feel any kind of obligation to at least try to be polite?

What about you?  Are you one of those people who mull things over before making a comment?  Or do you just say whatever you’re thinking?  And then how do you feel later about what you said or didn’t say?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 150

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I guess this is another milestone of sorts.  150 days on this journey…not bad.  I feel like I’m reestablishing some good habits…exercise every day, if only for 10 or 15 minutes, eating more fruits and veggies, eating a bit healthier…so I think I’ll be in good shape going through the holidays…able to resist most of the temptations and continue to work on my fitness.

I did some walking and core exercises before work today.  Ate a Healthy Choice meal for lunch, at around 3 pm…oh, did I forget to mention that the auditor showed up at our store today?  How could that have slipped my mind?  Of course, my boss was freaking out.  I always try to remain calm (doesn’t always work, but that’s the intent anyhow).  I was able to fix the issues with the electronic I9s before she got there so we got those points. 

We did really well.  Ended with a score of 90.48 which tied the best in the district!~  And the points we missed were two things that were easily corrected and something we’ll never miss again.  I felt kind of bad for one of the department managers, he said he’d spend all weekend thinking about the one point that was in his department.  I told him that this was a learning experience for him and that I bet he’d never allow that mistake to happen again.  Granted, I might not have been quite so understanding had we not passed!  But I do look at this as an opportunity to see where we are and what we need to work on, and it’s a good thing for a relatively new department manager to experience.

So anyhow, I was in the office with the auditor.  She had finished the audit and was getting ready to email the results to us so we could print them out.  Chris wasn’t aware of the results at this time.  The auditor looked at me and asked if he’d been driving me crazy worrying about the audit.  Then she said she thought it would be funny if I acted like we hadn’t done well.  Of course, me being the joker that I am, I had to agree with that.  So I got on the radio headset and acted all serious, told Chris that Sherry was in the office and…”uh, we need you to come in here.  We’ve got some issues we need to talk about.”  He came running in to the office and asked if we’d failed.  I told him the copy was on the printer.  He pulled it off and read it.  Then said I’d just about given him a heart attack.  “Do you want to feel my heart?  Do you want to feel my heart?”, he kept asking that as he held his hand over his heart.  That might have been kind of mean on my part, but it was also pretty funny…

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 149

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Right now all I want to do is go soak in a hot tub and go to bed.  What a crazy, hectic, stressful, exhausting day this was.  Ahh…tis the season!!  A funny thing happened today though.  I was in the stockroom sorting repacks (freezing, by the way…wouldn’t you think they’d spring for some heat in that stock room?)  when some guy stepped through the door (the door that clearly has a sign that says “employees only”, and asked me if I worked here.  I felt like smacking my head and saying, “duh”…but I didn’t…I simply told him that I do indeed work at the store.  He then asked me if I knew how much “that is” and points up toward the ceiling.  Well, I had no idea what he was talking about, so walked out of the stockroom to try to figure out what he needed.  He wanted to know how much a floor plant was but then quickly told me he wasn’t going to buy it…oookay…so I moved a bunch of stuff around so I could get a ladder in there to tell him how much a plant that he wasn’t going to buy would cost…hmm…if you’re not going to buy it I guess it won’t cost you anything, will it?

My day was so crazy that I didn’t eat the lunch I brought to work…I didn’t eat lunch at all…so I ended up with only two fruits and a veggie for the day.  Darn it!!  I even left my lunch bag in the fridge, so I guess I can eat that yummy salad tomorrow.

I did do about 10 minutes of strength training before I left the house this morning.  Of course a lot of walking and lifting and throwing things and screaming (oh wait, make that silent screaming…no one heard me screaming, it was all in my head…no, no, not voices in my head, just that silent screaming to relieve some of that stress). 

I have to admit I was more than thrilled to get out of there today.  My body hurts and I’m tired…what’s that?  I think my bed is calling my name even though it is only about 6:30.

Oh, and I must mention this…go Hoosiers!!  The boys are coming together, looking vastly improved, the basketball world will be in proper alignment once again!

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 138

So did everyone remember to set their clocks back?  A couple of our folks forgot, fortunately for us, in the fall all that does is get them to work an hour early…ha!

I spent most of my day today working on the ad set…never thought I’d get that thing completed.  Seems like every time I walked some where, I’d see something else that needed a sign.  Ooh…and we just might be lucky enough to get a corporate visitor tomorrow to watch us work the truck.  Watch us?  Are you kidding me?  Roll up your sleeves and help…hahaha….oh, I simply have to stop making myself laugh so much.

I had a good day with the eating today.  Six (or maybe just five and a half) servings of fruits and veggies…no junk…ate only what I took to work.  Yea!!  And my exercise was okay.  I did strength training and walked for 20 minutes before work, then did a ton of walking and ladder climbing over the course of the day at work.  Came home and did a little housework.  I’m thinking early to bed tonight since I’ve got to be at work at 5 am!

New neighbors moved in yesterday…apparently with small children..oh joy!!  At least I keep Spooky inside so she doesn’t have to worry about being traumatized by young children.  When someone new moves into your neighborhood, do you stop in and welcome them to the neighborhood…or does that only happen in the movies and on tv?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 136

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A pretty good day today.  I guess getting a decent night’s sleep helps.  I managed to get in about 7 hours last night and am hoping to do the same tonight.  It was crazy busy with people stocking up on all of the discounted Halloween and fall merchandise.  And yes, people have already started their Christmas shopping.  Back in my pre-retail days, I always set the goal of finishing all of my shopping by Thanksgiving.  Now I’m lucky to finish it at all.  Gotta love those gift cards.  And really, I like getting gift cards myself.  Then I can just go out and buy whatever the heck I want…oh wait, I pretty much do that anyhow…well, within reason…no trips to Paris or fancy shmancy cars…but you know what I’m saying, right?  There really are advantages to living by yourself.

I stopped at Kroger this morning before work to stock up on healthy dinners for the freezer at work.  I didn’t even realize they were having one of their mega sale things where you get $5 off your purchase if you buy ten items.  So, yes, I bought 10 Healthy Choice meals for work.  The one I ate for lunch today was really quite tasty…lemon pepper fish with rice and broccoli…only 350 calories and decent as far as sodium goes.  And, you know, that’s something I would be unlikely to prepare for myself so it’s a real treat to be able to throw it in the microwave and have a hot meal ready in 5 minutes or so.

I ended the day under on calories again.  Wow!  Two days in a row.  What’s going on? I also did some walking and strength training this morning.  And lots of walking at work, lots of walking, lots of talking…it’ll be nice to have tomorrow off and be able to enjoy a little peace and quiet.  I can be quite the talker, but I also like some time to myself.  I NEED time to myself in order to function.  I’ve been that way my entire life…never minded alone time.  I know there are a lot of people who want to be surrounded by people every minute of every day, but not me.  Being able to get away from people gives me time to recharge and go out and do it all again.

I’ve got to run some errands in the morning.  Then I’ll come home and clean house and do some cooking.  And maybe, just maybe, I’ll find a few minutes to do a little extra writing.  How about you?  What’s in store for your weekend?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 134

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Have you ever had one of those days where you know you’ve been busy all day and have nothing to show for it?  That was my day today.  Go, go, go…and get absolutely nothing done.  But, such is life in the retail industry at times.  Maybe tomorrow will be a bit more productive…

I did upper body strength training and walked for 20 minutes this morning.  One of these days I’ll get back to working out for an hour or so a day, but that day probably won’t be here until after the holiday season.  We start our six-day work weeks in another week, so this is my last weekend off…boo!!  I do well to keep the house clean during that time of the year.

I did a good job with my eating today.  Twice avoided fast food and stuck with my plan.  I ate six fruits and veggies over the course of the day.  I feel pretty darn good about that.  Aiming to repeat tomorrow.  Had a V8 at lunch (low sodium) along with this chicken broccoli thing and half of a roasted squash.  That’s the most veggies I’ve had at lunch in quite some time. 

I need to do some cooking this weekend, haven’t sat down and planned anything yet, but I want something that is healthy, has loads of veggies and is easy to take to work.  I’ve been thinking about a pot of veggie soup and salad for lunch next week (I’ve noticed I tend to try to make healthier versions of some of my favorite restaurant meals…you know, Olive Garden soup and salad).

Definitely early to bed for me tonight.  3:30 will be here much too soon…sweet dreams to all!!

 

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