Weigh-In Wednesday

Yes, it is time to bring back Weigh-In Wednesdays! 

The scale has not been my friend as of late, but I do want to hold myself accountable. And I find that putting it out there for all the world to read is the best way for me to do that. 

Two weeks ago, I weighed in at 188.6 lbs. I was devastated. How could I let this happen? How could I get so lazy and careless with my eating again? After all the questions, the self shaming and of course the tears, I knew a change needed to happen. 

Food choices have been my biggest downfall. I knew that I needed to be making better food choices and that meal prep would be key. The last two weeks I have made meal plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I made lists for the grocery store that included only healthy items. I meal prepped like crazy. And most importantly, I stuck to those meals and stayed within my calories. 

My workouts are becoming more consistent again too. I've been getting back to TRX classes one or two times a week and lifting weights two to three times a week. We have been trying to get out and hike more and more and we have been trail running more frequently. 

Just in these two weeks, I have already seen a change. Mentally, I can see that I am getting back on the right path. And physically I am feeling better and stronger with each workout. And with each great food choice and each workout, I can feel my momentum picking up steam. And I'm loving it! 

I'm happy to report that I am already seeing all of these changes on the scale too. I stepped on this morning and I am down to 186.2 lbs! Two lbs in two weeks. I will take it! I'm happy to see the number going down and it is giving me more and more momentum to keep going. I've done it once, and I'm going to do it again! 

Project List

Projects. Where do I even begin? 

I have a million projects floating around in my head that I would like to accomplish. I mean who doesn't?! But realistically speaking, I know I can't accomplish all of them by the end of the year. So I need to prioritize. 

A lot of the projects I want to work on, have to do with preserving things that are very important to me and my family. After my Mom passed away, I brought home probably three boxes worth of pictures. And while letting them sit in the box requires way less time and effort, I don't want to take the chance that something may happen and they could be lost forever. Especially after my Dad almost lost his house to a fire earlier this year, it made me realize even more how much this needs to be done. 

I looked into the cost of having someone do it for me. I wanted to find someone local because I was worried about placing all of my pictures in the mail. That took a bit of time to even find someone local. But when I did, I quickly realized that it was going to more expensive than I even imagined. At $0.39 cents a photo, it was going to add up very quickly. 

So I did a little research and I bought a printer/scanner a few weeks ago, so now I need to start taking an hour or two every week to start scanning and sorting all of these photos. My hope is to be able to put them all on an external hard drive and put that in a fire safe so that if something ever does happen, we still have a digital copy of everything we had. I know this is going to take some time to complete. And to be honest I was hoping to have already gotten started on this one, but that has not happened. I know part of that is because I just can't bring myself to go through all of those pictures. But with time and some healing, I know I will get to it. 

Another project that I have been wanting to work on for years is going through all of my Mom's old cookbooks and recreating them. I had her cookbooks prior to her passing and they are falling apart. Pages are trying to fall out, the bindings are breaking, some recipes are barely readable because of things being spilled on them. You know, the usual things that happen when you constantly use and bake with the cookbook open. But I don't want to simply re-type them and bind them. I want to still use the old pages that hold all the love that she poured into each recipe she made. I want to be able to open that recipe and remember all the great times I had baking and cooking with her. I need to find a creative way to do that. I also have a few recipes of hers that aren't in those that I want to be able to add to it. Anyone have any creative suggestions for this?

I have a bunch of other mini projects that won't take as much time, but these two are the ones that I want to get done. They have sentimental value and that's a big driving factor. I'm hoping that as I get more and more of it completed that it will drive me to work harder to get them done.  Here's to hoping that I can complete these sometime this year. I know if I do, it will make me feel better. And who doesn't want to feel better. It's a win win! 

Accountability? Who Has Time For That?

Accountability. Great word, but I'm not so great at it. I'm gonna be honest, I know that I am struggling. Struggling with my eating. Struggling with consistently working out. That whole health and fitness area of my life is a mess.

I honestly never thought that I would be struggling again in this area. I had gotten my life together in this aspect. I was rocking it. And then all of a sudden I wasn't. I'm not even sure what happened that derailed me so badly. But it did and here I am once again feeling completely uncomfortable in my own skin. So uncomfortable that I have even been afraid to get back on the scale. I did a few months ago and I was back up over 180 lbs. WHAT?!!!! Yeah, that was a big eye opener. I need to get this shiz under control again. 

I've started focusing a lot on what I am eating. Trying to make better decisions. Trying to stay within my calories. The one thing that I am having a hard time giving up is coffee. That sweet delicious drink that keeps me from going bat shit crazy through out the day at work. I've switched to sugar free though, so that at least has cut some calories out, but I need to try and work on limiting it to once or twice a week instead of every day. Not only that, but it would be a huge cost savings as well. 

I've been trying to get back into the swing of consistent workouts too. We've been hiking a lot more and I know that is a big help. But my weight lifting three to four times a week hasn't been as consistent. So that is a big focus and goal for me for the next few weeks is to get back to those consistent workouts. I think once I get back into a good routine, hopefully I will get back to that mindset of loving my workouts and not wanting to skip them. And I know the weight will start coming off when that happens. 

It's a process and I'm taking the right steps, but it is going to take some time. I have to remember that part. It's not going to happen over night. It didn't happen overnight last time and I just need to trust myself and the process going forward. Here's to getting back on track!