Knowledge is Power

I'm a Music Therapist and love Pinterest. I use it to get intervention ideas for the populations I work with. Today, this pin struck a chord. Totally tells the story of my path back to 270. Moving, debt, new job, new schools for the kids were stressors, then came the excuses. 

I joined a "Dietbet," but really have not started. I'm putting off the exercise, which there is no reason for. I've got the time!  I just feel like next week when the kids go to school, I'll be more apt to exercise. 

I've tried tracking a few days, but by mid afternoon find it cumbersome and stop. It's just part of the self sabotaging I've been doing. 

I know I can beat this, it's just a matter of motivation, because I realize how hard the journey is...

It's Time

I have avoided blogging all year, just as I have avoided exercise. I've put off till tomorrow rationalizing that I don't have the time, energy, etc. to do it today. Today, I was reminded about the "work" that goes into a healthy lifestyle. I received a group email from Sparkpeople. It struck me that I've been working just as hard to not live healthy. 

I am officially at my highest weight ever! My body composition has changed over the years and my waist is not at its highest, but my chest and shoulders are. I haven't touched exercise equipment in months and the last time I truly walked for exercise is over a month ago. 

I receive little reminder everyday asking if I've done 10 minutes of movement. At one point, I thought how ridiculous, but now I have a tough time answering yes. 

My sister-in-law is getting married Saturday. Today, I'll be shopping for something to wear. It's time to "work" at this healthy lifestyle. 

The New Year

I made it to a Weight Watcher meeting in December.  The two receptionists that I worked with asked if I'd like to come with them.  I went, but have not even bothered to open the new material.  Frankly, I haven't tracked, exercised or really given a rip since early last year.  Moving away from my gym, quitting my WW receptionist position, and just life in general has not motivated me to care much about my weight/health right now.

My wife, has used the elliptical more than I have this year so far.  She's trying to get down a few pounds before we head to Disney World in April.  She's hopped on it daily, and I've checked the room out to make sure the lights still right... I'm just not at the point of caring right now. I know what I need to do. I know how to do it. I know the WORK it takes to get the job done and that's really what's holding me back right now.  It's a lot of work to be diligent and stay strong in eating and living healthy.  One of these days, I'm hoping the switch will flip and I will realize that it's so much easier than I think. 

But for now, I'm happy at the 250 that I weighed in at on December 8.  Still at it, and this is actually the longest I've stayed the same for some time so maybe I am turning a corner.  I know one thing, I've been much busier since taking a Hospice Music Therapy position and have not had the time to snack that I once did.

I will carry on and hope for the kick in the butt I need to realize it is really not difficult to lose/maintain, just takes some dedication.

Three Blind Mice

November sure has flown by.  I am amazed at how fast time can fly by.  We had a touch of the flu come through our house the week after my MIL's birthday party.  My 4 yr. old, 8 yr. old, 6 yr. old and then my wife all had a stomach flu for a day.  It was fast moving and didn't effect anyone too bad.  The following week, I took the in-laws to the airport for a trip to Disney World and picked them up.  I also called to cancel my gym membership.  I didn't sign up for the bootcamp that I had taken for over 2 years and I decided to cut out training for the holidays and then decided that those were the only two days that I religiously made it to the gym, so I cancelled my membership.  I needed to give a 30 day notice, so I am actually still able to head to the gym till the end of the year.

Seems we've been sharing our house with some visitors for a while.  No idea how long, but by the amount of droppings we found, it's been awhile! We started cleaning and getting ready to decorate for Christmas and my wife found some brown rice looking stuff under our ottoman.  Turns out it was mouse droppings.  I stopped at Target to do some Black Friday shopping at 2:00 in the morning.  What did I buy? Just mouse traps.  By the time I woke up at 8:00, we had caught two mice.  We then did more cleaning and found a huge amount of droppings under an entertainment center.  The wife also joyously found a dead mouse instead the entertainment center.  We trapped another mouse each morning, but now haven't gotten one since Monday.  I did an inspection of the exterior and I'm pretty sure I found the "hole" they were coming in.  We have a porch slab that butts up to the house and in that corner, seems that was a big enough hole for them to find their way in.  I sealed it with some steel wool and a whole can of foaming insulation so I don't think we'll have a problem for a while.

Thanksgiving was a blast and we over did it on the pies once again.  Five at my Mom's and six at my MIL's.  I haven't been losing or gaining lately, but do plan on getting the motivation mojo flowing once again.

I had a job interview in August for a MT position and hadn't heard anything good or bad from the company.  Seems there was a lack of communication and I was meant to be hired then, but the person who interviewed me abruptly quit and my file was left in limbo till this week.  This morning, I met with the new administrator and we had a good discussion.  She left me know that there was now another MT interested in the position so I should hear either way next week.  Nothing like hearing about a job in a timely manner!

Election Day

I can't believe a week goes by so quickly.  I was quite busy last week getting ready for a party on Saturday.  Hope the wife appreciates the cleaning I did.  Each day I picked a different room/floor to conquer.  I saved the basement for Friday because that place just collects clutter, toys, junk, clothes, etc.  The kids like messing it up much more than cleaning it up.  I hid several totes including the play-doh, Barbies, dress-up, and baby dolls before the party Saturday.  I did have one little niece ask where the dress-up clothes were and I told her we weren't playing dress-up today.  She found plenty of other toys to play with.

We had a fun party Saturday for my MIL, who turns a certain retirement age this week.  Someone brought the flu-bug from MN and infested our family. Four year old sick Sunday, Eight year old sick Monday and Six year old sick today.  My 11-year old seems to avoid the germs as she stays away from them as much as possible even on a healthy day ;)

I did sneak out to vote and I did sneak downstairs to exercise, but my food choices suffer when there are large amounts of leftovers in the house.  I did track a few days last week, making it the first time I tracked in almost 4 weeks.  It is so easy to stop that habit!

I think I've convinced myself to quit my gym membership.  I have one more training session left and then I'll quit.  It will save a huge amount of money not paying the monthly membership, training sessions, and for Fit Club.  I could pay to go to Planet Fitness for 1 year for as much as I pay per month at my current gym.  It made sense when I lived closer and when I had kids at home because the daycare option was awesome.  Now, I'm lucky if I make it 3 times weekly.  I'll make sure to use the time wisely at home.

Get out and vote!!

Halloween

Halloween can not be over quick enough.  We bought a boat load of candy...3 bags of 150 each.  Why? We didn't want to run out? In our defense, we've never been in our house before for trick-or-treat so we had no idea what to expect, but 450 pieces of candy was probably being a bit more than prepared.  We live near the entrance of our subdivision and apparently all the kids head for the middle of the subdivision and don't bother making it all the way to our house.  We did have the neighborhood kids, but beyond a few other stragglers, we did not have many.  Possibly 30-40 kids, so we were more than prepared. 

Yesterday, the wife took a bowl full to school, unfortunately it was the bowl with the candy I didn't so much care for.  She left the chocolate bowl! I was great all day, but after coming home from work at 8:45pm I was hungry for something fast and the candy bowl won.  I grabbed 3 fun size candy bars, followed by 3 more.  I was able to reel it in and stop at that, but the damage was done.

The 4 yr old was so worn out from trick-or-treating that he fell asleep on the ride home from school and didn't wake up till morning.  It was early morning, 4:00, but he still slept more than 12 straight hours.  The other 3 kids had off yesterday, so after the 11 yr old was done charting her candy haul, we headed to the gym to swim.

My kids are awesome about eating candy.  I don't ever remember asking my Mom if I could eat some candy, but my kids have been asking every time they want a piece and they're not asking often.  I've probably eaten more than them with my quick bursts of sugar. 

Hope everyone is safe, we've got a little wind today, but nothing major. 

Trampoline

Thursdays I pick up #4 from school early every week.  This week, we had a parent/student project to do at 12:00 and then we were free to go home.  We decided while we were creating a Jack-o-latern masterpiece that we would jump on the trampoline as long as it was not raining.  We got home about 1:30 and went straight for the trampoline.  I had not "played" on the trampoline before, only crawling on it to grab said #4 to bring him inside when it was time.  So, I was quite surprised at how tired I did get after jumping for just a few minutes.  We probably stayed on the trampoline for 1/2 hour, but I definitely did not jump for that long.  I let him do most of the jumping while I goofed around.  We did jump around the perimeter, and did belly flops and lots of other jumping too.  I was exhausted!

Now I understand why the kids come in flushed, breathing hard and ready to drink a gallon of water.  It's a lot of work to "play" on a trampoline. 

I did not make it to the gym Thursday, but did 45 minutes on the elliptical.  I had other things to get done and needed to pick up #4.  Friday, not looking like a gym day either as I helped with a 1st grade Fall Celebration all morning.  I will be mowing the grass and running about to do a few other errands.  The day sure goes quick when I have a list of things to do. 

Get Up and Move

I was on Facebook yesterday and saw a post from Jack Sh*t stating that it was his last Facebook post.  It went along with his blog entry from the day prior stating that it was his last blog post.  His point was simple eat right and move!

I've been struggling with my exercise motivation lately.  Since moving, we are almost 1/2 hour from my gym.  I love the gym, but the 1/2 hour there and 1/2 hour back could be used better in my opinion.  Or could it?  I have an awesome elliptical and a home gym that was left in our new house when we moved, so I should have all the right stuff at home, but I make excuses at home.  I'll do it after the dishes, laundry, after breakfast, lunch, after I rest for awhile...really? What do I need to rest for if I've done nothing!

Last week, I did make to the gym 4 days in a row.  My goal was 4 out 5 days this week, but going to my Bootcamp class this morning, I got pushed, motivated and bullied into signing up for two Saturday classes.  It's a special promotion the gym puts on yearly, and everyone else in my Bootcamp class was signed up so they all ganged up on me to get me to sign up.  If I would have stayed home, easy excuses would have allowed me to sleep in Saturday, but since I went to the gym and worked out, I'll be going again Saturday.

I've had a sore back all week, I believe it's because the 4 yr old crawls into our bed and knees me in the back all night.  It's just annoying, but a pain anyway.  May be time to break out the reward chart for staying in his bed all night once again.

Where Are Your Shoes?

We have a room dedicated to shoes, coats, outdoor toys, etc. It's a room in back of the garage, which could be used as an office and someday I may use it as a music studio, but for now we call it the "den."  It serves as a catch all for backpacks, the vacuum and many other items.  I usually try to organize it about once a week because if I find shoes around the house I just toss them in this room.  You would think after living here for close to 10 months, the kids and the wife would be used to dropping there shoes, bags and coats off in this room.  It does not happen! 

I find shoes all over the place!  Today, I asked my 6 yr old where his gym shoes were so he could wear them.  He didn't have gym today, but it's awful dreary and rainy out, so I wanted him to wear these versus his Crocs.  Forty-five minutes after I started looking for them and had all but given up, he looked outside and said, "Daddy, I found my shoes!"  He LOOKED outside, did not go outside since it's been raining since early yesterday.  He had left his shoes by the trampoline on Sunday night.  After close to 3 inches of rain, these shoes are well water logged. 

Needless to say, he's wearing his Crocs today.  Just like I need to work on my eating habits, the kids and the wife need to work on there habits of leaving coats, shoes, bags EVERYWHERE!  Sure would be nice to have that 45 minutes back to exercise...

Halloween Candy

Dumb move! I opened the candy! It's not "Trick-or-Treat" until Sunday from 4:00pm to 7:00pm, but the candy bag is open.  Now, to keep the candy around until then before I need to go out and buy more.  My wife bought one bag of a tootsie roll mix type bag.  I would have been fine staying away from that till Sunday, but I went and bought more.  Fun size candy bars and Skittles, Starburst, chewy stuff mix.  I opened the candy bars.  I figured taking 2 fun size candy bars to work last night would be lots cheaper than buying a silly candy bar for $.95 from the vending machine.  It was and thankfully it's only been "a few" fun size bars so far. 

Today, I headed to Spin class at 9:00 even though I worked till midnight last night.  I did fine as I got at least 6 hrs of sleep versus my 3 hrs if I work till 3:00am.  After spin, I made up for the candy bars and did 20 minutes on the Stair climber hitting 100 floors and about 250 calories.  Last week, I made it to the gym Tuesday-Friday and exercised at home on Saturday so it was a good exercise week.  Eating wise, I did fine till my weekend working shifts.  I really don't need the snacks I sneak, it's just out of boredom that I eat during work.  I did choose wisely as I found snack size bags of Special K chips at Sam's Club last week.  Much better than buying them in bulk as I could eat the whole bulk bag in a sitting.

I did great staying away from snacks in between meals and this week will try to focus on tracking because I know that will be a key to success.  Here's to another 4 day week at the gym.  I may try Friday as well, but am helping at a 1st grade Halloween party till 11:00am.