Disney 2016

Disney 2016

Monday, September 30, 2013

Just a Week Became Two

I stuck with my South Beach Phase 1 for 14 days.  Yes, that was a week longer than I planned but I felt like I could keep it up so I did.

My 2 weeks ended yesterday.  The results were far less than I had secretly hoped but I had reached my not-so-secret goal by this morning so I guess I'm happy.

Now the question is, where do I go from here?  I think I need to switch to Weight Watchers but I'm a little afraid.  For today, I stayed low carb and just added in a half of an apple.  I'm thinking maybe I need to stay with the South Beach for a few more days while I get into the habit of tracking with WW.

It feels really good to be doing something!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Just a Week

Well, I woke up on Monday morning and on a whim, I decided that I wanted to try to go 7 days on Phase 1 of South Beach. 

You see, I've been miserably failing at the Weight Watchers thing.  I will admit that it is all because of my stinking lack of self control where food is concerned.  Sometimes I have it and sometimes I don't.  If only I could unlock the secret to always having it.

I'm not sure what prompted me to try this.  Years ago, I did South Beach (low carb) and dropped some weight but then it stopped working for me.  I wasn't too distraught though since it wasn't a lifestyle I enjoyed or thought I would want to maintain long term.  What it was good for was quickly dropping a few pounds.  I also feel like it helps "detox" my system from the carbs that I love so much.

While I haven't been gaining on Weight Watchers, I haven't been losing either.  I have a wedding coming up in 2 weeks and my dress would fit so much more comfortably if I could drop at least 5 lbs.  That is pretty much the reason why I jumped in to this.

How am I doing 4 days in?  Great!  I have stuck with it perfectly so far and it hasn't even been all that difficult.  I've had to resist the cookies and treats around the office and at Awana training but for whatever reason, I'm motivated to stick with it.  There are some side effects for me though, almost withdrawal-like symptoms.  I have had a dull headache for 4 days and I'm not sure how to describe my brain other than I am a bit "fuzzy" or "off".  In the past, that has lasted for about a week so I was not at all surprised by it.

I have just 3 more days and then I will re-evaluate and decide where to go from there.  The scale is moving for me so I'm happy.  Now I need to start fitting in the running again.


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Run4Home 5k

After Caitlyn & I ran our last 5k, one of Caitlyn's friends told her mom she would like to run a race also.  Her mom promptly emailed me and asked if we would take her along the next time we ran a race.  I didn't actually have any races planned so I started looking and came across the Run4Home 5k.  The race is a yearly fundraiser for a local homeless shelter.  I ran the 10k last year to earn a better corral time for Goofy in January so I was familiar with the race and knew it would be a good one for Caitlyn & her friend.

This is a nice local race, just over 400 participants between the 10k, 5k run and 5k walk.  There is plenty of parking right at the start and plenty of port o potties.  A much better ratio than most local races I've done.  It's a simple course running through neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown area and it even includes a nice overpass to challenge runners.  This year they had a fun contest and announced the first male and first female runners to reach the top of the hill.  They were announced as king and queen of the hill.  Their mile markers consist of a small simple sign and a volunteer standing there reading the time out loud from a stopwatch.  They like to poke fun at themselves and their creative mile markers.

Post race had tables of donuts, bagels, oranges, bananas, Starbucks, Gatorade, water and Chick Fil A sandwiches.  Not too shabby.  It was a nice bonus that Caitlyn's bib number won a door prize.  Nothing too fantastic, just a couple of shirts from last year's race. 


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Feeling Like a Failure

Life seems insanely busy these days and the more behind I get, the more like a failure I feel.

I have no idea how women who work full time do it all.  I should have an extra 10-15 hours a week over a mom who works full time yet I can't seem to find those hours. 

My list of shortcomings and failures grows daily.  For example:

1.  My poor kids eat Eggo Waffles every day for breakfast because I can't seem to find the time to cook anything healthy for them.  To make matters worse, they are on a chocolate chip waffle kick right now so I am essentially feeding them candy for breakfast.

2.  My poor kids do not end up with the healthiest of lunches at school.  Many days there are no fruits or vegetables present in their lunches at all.  Not unless you count fruit snacks or fruit roll-ups as a real fruit (for the record, I don't).  I did pack fresh blueberries in Caitlyn's lunch today.  I hope the lunch lady and teachers didn't have a heart attack.

3.  The nights I actually cook dinner during the week has dropped to maybe 50% of the time.  Some weeks I get 4 meals in and some weeks only 2 or 3.  It's not that I don't like to cook, I just can't seem to find the time to prepare everything while I am picking kids up from activities and running errands that had to wait until after work.

Ok, we've determined that my kids are malnourished and it's all my fault.  Goodness, I don't even want to continue.

4.  My bills get paid by the skin of my teeth.  They always get paid but it seems like when I finally have the time to tackle that BSOM (big stack of mail), things are almost due and I'm scrambling.

5.  My checkbook has not been balanced in more time than I will willingly admit to the world.  I'm quite embarrassed and this is most certainly the biggest undone thing in my life that brings me down. 

6.  My BSOCTF (big stack of crap to file) is about as big as it's ever been.  Really, this is inexcusable and I am horrified at how out of hand things are.  If I were to get audited right now, I would be in a big pile of doo-doo.  Fortunately, the only one who is effected by this one is myself. 

7.  Awana.  We currently have no commander for our Awana Club and it has left a large void.  Many things are undone, club starts in 3 weeks and for some reason, people are looking to me to know what to do and to get it done.  Like I have time on top of everything else.  Ugh.

8.  Running.  Or lack thereof.  It is getting dark earlier and I have been so busy that I haven't been walking or running hardly at all.  I know it would be a huge stress relief if I could work it in but I'm not sure how these days.

9.  Weight Watchers.  I fell off the wagon bad.  It was going great for a few weeks and then I blew it again and again and again and then I gave up.  I did start back up today but it's only been 1 day so it's too early to tell if I will be strong enough to make it stick this time.

10.  Housecleaning.  Ok, many people would say that my house is clean.  It's not clean to my standards though and this weighs heavy on me.  Why can I not keep a clean house anymore?  The standard of "company clean" has been significantly lowered in recent years.  Mostly because I've been making my kids pitch in and help out.  Not because I'm lazy but because it's my job to teach them how to do these things.  It takes much self control on my part to not go re-do things when they do a lousy job the first time around.

So there you have it.  Much of my dirty laundry aired out in public (yes, pun intended).  Laundry is another thing I can't seem to keep up with.  My family needs to stop wearing clothes but I digress.  I know that if I read this list as if it were someone else and not myself, first I would judge their lack of discipline and then I would come up with a solution to each and every point.  The thing is, I know much of this can be fixed with better planning and self discipline yet I can't seem to do it.  There are many things that I do well but that's not what this post is about.  Let's just say that much of the time I have is taken up by the things that I am getting done. 

Ahh well, I just wasted how much time writing this post when I could have been getting something on the above list done...