Cold Turkey

I always hate it when people say, regarding their food addiction, "well, it's not like alcohol or drugs -- you need food to survive!"

Yes, humans need FOOD to survive, but I don't think "food" includes cookies or brownies or muffins or cake. Which is why I decided that it's time for me to give this stuff up, at least for a while. The challenge I'm setting forth for myself, starting today, is no sweets until Thanksgiving. I just need to break my sugar cravings and I think just stopping completely is the only thing that's going to do it.

Of course, there's all those grey areas -- is sugar in my coffee sweets? Are my organic Maple & Pecan granola bars with flax sweets? For now, I'm going to allow these things with the intention that they too will be weaned out. Effective immediately will be all those things listed above, all of which I indulge in way too much.

I might make a possible pre-meditated exception for a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, just because it's that time of year, but that's only if I don't slip up before then.

There and Back Again

I remember reading an article with a list of tips for blog writing. Number one was: Never start off by mentioning how long it's been since you last post. I've stuck to that until now, but I feel like over a year of absence warrants some kind of explanation.

On June 6, 2010 I found out that I was pregnant. Since then, the world as I knew it has been shattered apart and put back together, with many priorities landing in different places -- some more surprising than others. Sadly, my two biggest priorities when it comes to this blog have been shoved pretty firmly to the bottom of the list. I'm hoping that than can begin to change now.

I've learned in the last 24 weeks that when it comes to being a parent, time is the greatest commodity. You're either waiting it out, battling against it and you're always longing for more. Time is what I need to meet my goals, and it's what I'm fighting for, starting today.

Given that I'm nursing, my options for health and fitness are limited, but in this case limited is far from non-existent. I can still make as many healthy eating options as possible and try to squeeze in exercise -- whether it's taking the stairs, parking farther away, or strapping the baby on for an early morning walk -- whenever I can. The most important thing is to not lose sight of my goals. They seem farther away now than ever, but this is not a race. I have the rest of my life to work toward them, and the goals of healthful living will never really be met, they'll only change and grow with me. I'm looking forward to the challenege!

"Writers write. Period." -- I remember reading this as the tag line of someone's blog a couple of years ago, and it's stayed with me. The statement is deceptively simple, and utterly true. Even if it's twenty minutes twice a week, even if it's from my smart phone in carpool, even if it's in my head while I'm changing the baby, I'm a writer and I must be writing. Right now, my goal is just to start carving out a little time to myself whenever I can and be constantly choosing action over apathy, something I battle in all aspects of my life.

And yes, it's been a while ... but I hope that you'll be seeing more of me from now on!

Challenge Day One

So, my big comeback didn't go exactly as planned. As I posted last time, my back kept getting worse to the point where I had to go in to Urgent Care to get some muscle relaxants so I was flat on my back for about a week. It was really frustrating because I wanted to work out but couldn't. And now that I'm finally back to normal, I'm just exhausted and don't want to work out! But hopefully I can make that change, because some of my girlfriends and I are having a challenge for the next five weeks to see who can lose the biggest percentage of weight. There's money and fabulous prizes at stake, so I really need to kick my butt in gear for this!

I'll admit - today wasn't a great start. But I'm still sticking with my goal of losing 20 pounds by my birthday and I think I can get there if I work really hard. I ate well today, but didn't get in much exercise, other than the fact that I had to park pretty far away from my building today. My intentions were to go for a walk during lunch, but it was raining and I didn't have an umbrella. By the time I got home I had lost all motivation. Tomorrow I'm going to force myself to get on that treadmill no matter what!

Food for today:
Breakfast: Banana, 1 tbsp Natural Peanut Butter
Lunch: Kashi Lemongrass Coconut Chicken Meal, apple
Snacks: 1 oz almonds, .5 cup Greek Yogurt, air-popped popcorn
Dinner: 4 oz ham steak, 1 cup Rice Pilaf, 1 artichoke
Dessert: Jello Chocolate Mousse
Calorie Consumed: 1411

Exercise:
Walking about 25 minutes to and from my car.
Calories Burned: ~100

Making Progress

Well, I don't know about a miraculous comeback, but so far, so good! I went for a walk by myself on Monday during lunch break and today I went with Judy which means I really had to work. Yesterday I ate really well with my only slip up being sharing the last of a chocolate Easter bunny with Frank just to get it out of the house. Today was a little tough because we had a family birthday party, but luckily they wound up ordering Subway for everyone, so that made it about as safe as a party thrown by Italians can be! I was tempted to get a foot long chicken breast with ranch dressing, but instead opted for a veggie flatbread, which was delicious! I did slip a little and have a cupcake for dessert, but considering I had eaten light all day and taken a long walk I think that I was OK.

I haven't weighted myself since before vacation, and at this point I think I'm going to wait until next Monday. That will give me a full week back on track so I'm not just looking at bloated water weight and I can get an idea of where I'm at.

Before the party this evening I ran to the grocery shop to pick up some food for the week and I think I did an alright job. I've felt so lost and confused when it comes to food lately -- I'm never sure what I should be eating and what's good or bad for me. There are so many conflicting studies and so many people giving advice for one fad or another that sometimes it's hard to see through all of it and know what's true. I've been trying to make a change gradually over to more natural, whole foods and away from processed crap. I'm also very gradually trying to incorporate organic foods into my diet as well, but it's tough. Organic food is so much more expensive that it often makes me hesitate and often makes me put something back on the shelf and pick up the non-organic alternative instead. But I'm going to keep trying to work options in where I can, because really, if you won't invest the money in your health and future, then where will you invest it?

Now I just have to get Frank on board ...

Writing has been going terribly -- well, I guess that's the wrong work, because really the writing has been non-existent. I think I'm trying to start too late at night, because I get comfortable and don't want to put the work in later in the evening. It's also a problem because we only have the one computer with internet, so if Frank is using it for something I don't want to just snatch it away from him to work on my writing. Even though I like the internet access for research and support, I think I might just have to force myself to start writing on the desktop computer. At least it's in a quiet room with few distractions.

Goals for tomorrow:
- Log all my food
- Go for a long walk at lunch time
- Sit down and write for one hour after dinner

My Big Comeback

Or, Vicky finally gets her head out of the cookie jar and starts working towards her goals again!

As you can see, I failed to meet my goals on the week before vacation. Vacation itself wasn't so bad. Although I did indulge in some delicious food, with the sheer amount of walking that I did in Barcelona and Paris I'm sure that I burned more calories that I consumed. The week since I've been back, however, is a different story. A weekend of getting over jet lag and enjoying a decadent Easter dinner -- complete with splitting a bottle of Prosecco with Frank and two desserts -- turned into a whole week of gastronomical debauchery. I am ready to start blogging regularly again and to start working toward my health and writing goals.

I'm setting a couple of goals:

1. To lose 20 pounds by my birthday.
2. To be finished with the rough draft of my novel by my birthday.

The first goal is totally doable, as long as I stick to my guns. The second might take a little luck, but at this point, I've procrastinated enough and I need to push hard to finish.

Short term goals for this week:

1. Exercise for at least a half an hour every day.
2. No sitting down from when I get home from work until 6 PM.
3. Write at least 250 words every day.

I think my biggest challenge is going to be managing my time better. I always feel like I don't have time to accomplish the things I want to do, when in reality I waste a lot of time surfing the internet or watching television. Those things are going to have to take the back burner because, let's face it -- I'm not passionate about them, and they keep me from achieving the goals that I am passionate about - living a healthy lifestyle and becoming a more disciplined writer. I feel as though I'm in a rut lately, and the only way to get out is going to be to fill my time accomplishing the things that I want to accomplish. Not waiting around for the perfect situation to come to me.

So here I go again!

Weigh In #2

For my second week:

I worked out 6 days, meeting my goal to work out at least 6 day this week.
I burned 2,445 calories, meeting my goal to burn at least 2,000 calories this week.
I wrote 1,831 words, falling just short of my goal of writing 2,000 words this week.
I lost 0 pounds this week.

All things considered, staying the same weight is probably the best I could have hoped for this week, so I'm happy with that. I really wish I could have eked out the measly 169 words to meet my writing goal, but in pretty typical fashion for me, I wrote myself to the brink of a big scene and then got stage fright to actually write it.

This is going to be a weird week since I'm (hopefully!) leaving for vacation on Thursday, so I'm not going to set any firm short term goals other than to work out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, try to write at least 250 words and not to eat my face off just because I know that I'm going on vacation at the end of the week.

Weigh In #1

Here are the stats for my first week:

I worked out 6 days, meeting my goal to work out at least 6 day per week.
I burned 2,754 calories, meeting my goal to burn at least 2,000 calories per week.
I wrote 0 words, failing to meet my goal of writing 5,000 words per week.
I lost 5.4 pounds this week!

As they say, two out of three ain't bad. I'm pleased with the weight loss and ready to stay on track to lose more! I have been thinking, however that I might need to reevaluate my writing goal to something more realistic, at least until I get started. So my writing goal this week will be to write 2,000 words. The goals will stay the same this week.

Game Plan

Since I’m just starting out, I want to set myself with some short-term goals and come up with a game plan for success.

Goal # 1 – Lose Weight and Get in Shape

Long Term Goal: Lose 60 pounds
Sort Term Goal: Lose 25 pounds by Memorial Day (~2 pounds per week for the next 12 weeks)
Plan: Log my food each day and keep between 1200 and 1400 calories, no more than 1600 calories. I’ll allow myself one cheat meal per week. Exercise at least a half an hour for at least 6 days per week. Burn at least 2000 calories per week.

Goal # 2 – Become a Disciplined Writer

Long Term Goal: Publish my novel, At Setting
Short Term Goal: Finish the rough draft
Plan: Write 5,000 words per week until the draft is complete.

At the end of each day, I plan on posting my number of calories consumed, number of calories burned and number of words written.

Tomorrow morning I’ll weigh in and begin my first week!