I should assess last week’s success based on how I felt last week and not how I feel today after three days of camping.
Last week I’d started to feel quite a bit better. I’d bought the liquid (plant based) iron supplement that I should technically take all the time and I started taking my vitamins again. I also hit the gym that first day and that felt fantastic! My other big win last week was going to get my hair cut. My anxiety level seems to have dropped quite a bit now that those two things are done and I’ve noticed that I’d started to become more myself again. I was cooking proper meals all week and doing prep work & chores and not feeling resentful and like I was walking through cement. These are all good signs!
I didn’t quite achieve everything on my plan last week though and those misses are related to where I don’t really feel that fantastic this morning! I was supposed to do a 4km+ walk 5 out of 7 days and I only achieved barely 3 of them. I really just ran out of time and I realize that I should have made that my priority before anything else, but I didn’t. Grace’s leg was also bothering her (her “surrender” incident more than likely) and I totally used that as an excuse to carry on with other chores and errands rather than just go out by myself. I also didn’t totally stay away from potatoes, they came in the form of potato chips while camping and those were accompanied by alcohol, definitely more than was necessary. I did stay solid on the “No sugar, sweetener, honey or chocolate” although of course I know that there is sugar in alcohol. My thing with the sugar is much more to avoid eating sweet treats compulsively and that is working out just fine.
My big lesson that I took away from this week (and mostly from this long weekend) is that while I struck sugar from my diet, what I should have done is struck “excess” from my diet. I’m not even so sure that sugar is actually the sole culprit in helping to drive under my general wellness. I really wonder if it’s not excess. Granted my big excess previously has been sugar, chocolate, ice cream, but after this weekend of eating too many chips, too many unsalted mixed nuts, too much alcohol and really feeling quite horrible and heavy and puffy and tired this morning, I suspect my Four Week Feel Better agenda should have noted “Nothing to excess” as one of the stipulations.
Alas, life, she is a constant lesson and if you’re paying attention to it then nothing that happens was wasted.
This is a short work week here in Canada, just Tuesday through Friday for us and that will be very welcome! Below is my third week plan. Same as the first two but with two gym days. My plan is to go Wednesday and Friday morning but since Ray is on dayshift I may see about hitting a spinning class as one of those days instead, just to try and avoid any previous inclination that I’ve had to become completely obsessed with any one thing until I burn out on it.
I also know that I’m not going to achieve the “4km+ walk 4 out of 7 days” this week in the way that I would normally expect from myself. Because Ray is on dayshift we will walk our dog together every evening and we generally take a much more relaxed stroll than what I would push myself to do when I’m alone. However, while I likely won’t get sweaty and breathless and try to chase my limits of (walking) speed, the walk that we’ll take together should help build my “Feel Better” in a different way and that I’m alright with.
WEEK THREE: October 8 – 14
- No sugar, sweetener, honey, chocolate
- No potatoes
- Lights out at 8:50pm
- No eating after 7pm
- 3 water bottles + 1 tea (or 4 water)
- 4km (or more) walk 4 out of 7 days
- TWO early morning gym days, do whatever for an hour
Some of the things on the lists don’t seem quite as crucial anymore now that I’m starting to feel more like myself but I’m leaving them on there. I made a plan for myself and assigned a timeline and that’s what I’m going to follow through with. As with last week and the one before, although it’s not on the list, I’m also trying to avoid dairy, limit alcohol (bad weekend!) and now that I’ve had it pointed out to me, I’ll be avoiding excess…of anything.
Feel free to wander over to another blog that I contribute to with my sister. It’s one that we both post to, pictures, recipes, anecdotes. Anything light and fun that maybe doesn’t quite fit on our regular blogs. Go see Half A Pear
Fitty vs Fatty 