The highs, lows and DOH's!!!!!

So I've been doing this change of life thing for about a month now (I refuse to refer to what I'm doing as a diet. The word 'diet' has such a negative essence to it. 'Diet' to me is eating only tuna fish, watermelon and green beans for a month to lose a quick 10er. A diet is cutting out all carbs and pretending you actually like pizza minus the crust, garlic bread hold the the bread and pasta sans noodles. Diets have never worked for me, therefore this isn't a diet because this is working and will continue to work.) and I've had some definite ups and just a few downs.

In my month or so of really paying attention to my intake of food and exercise I have found somethings that've worked for me and some that have really made me look at myself and think "why didn't you see THAT one coming?!?!?!" So here's the "skinny" on what I'm doing, what I did and what I smacked myself in the forehead over...

If I don't have it, I can't eat it. Simple logic, really. It was also one of the easier things to do that really worked for me. I do have to admit, if it weren't for my husband this step may not have been such an easy one. First of all, Marco has taken over the task of grocery shopping for the most part, bless his big heart. I don't go to the store so I'm not tempted to buy heaps of unhealthy food. Of course it's not always possible that I avoid the store, so when I do have to go, I don't rush in unarmed. I go in full armor, which consists of 2 main items. By grabbing a small carry basket that you can only fit a small amount of food in instead of a shopping cart that you can load tons of stuff into I've protected myself from impulse buying. The biggest part of my shield comes is a very small package... it's a list. I will not shop without a list. I've always been a list maker anyway... something I've inherited from my mom... but this list making just makes my little compulsion to make columns of words seem functional and less like I have OCD. I know the store well enough to know exactly where everything I need is. I write the list accordingly to the layout of the store and shop quickly. I go in, I get the list, I do not deviate and I get the heck out of there. So at home, I don't have junk food, chips, snacks, chocolate, soda.. so I don't have it so I can't eat it.

That little plan also came back to bite me in the arse the first week into it. I didn't buy junkfood, so that was good, but I didn't buy anything to replace my snacks either. So when I went to the cupboard or fridge there was just nothing in it at all. That made me start looking into Marco's little stash of treats, which weren't the healthiest. So I had to re-work my list to make sure I had SOMETHING in the house for when I did get hungry.

Something else that worked was keeping a bottle of water with me at my desk at work. It's unbelievable how much that has really changed my drinking habits. Before, I wouldn't drink anything pretty much all day. Now I am constantly drinking water and definitely get my daily intake plus some. I took a look at how many calories/sugar/crap that was in the juices I had been drinking with my lunch and it was really eye opening. If I'm going to ingest THAT many calories, it's gonna be in something substantial, not some little glass of juice.

Along the same lines, in the afternoons at work one girl from the department usually goes and gets everybody a soda from the machines. As I don't want to totally restrict myself from the things I like (like 'diets' do) I do allow myself 2 diet cokes a week, but only if I've already drank at least 3 bottles of water already that day. I will also have a diet soda on the days we eat with the in-laws for dinner. It only happens about once a week or every other week, so it's not a big deal, yet it surprisingly leaves me satisfied.

Another small thing I have learned that helps is brushing my teeth. Not that I didn't used to bunch my teeth before, don't get me wrong. But now, in the evenings, after supper, I immediately go and brush my teeth. I love the way a clean mouth feels. It's just so... kissable. And nobody I know wants to eat right after they've brushed their teeth. This will usually sustain me from wanting to snack late in the evenings and I'm good until bedtime.

What totally backfired on me (a definite Doh! moment) was bringing a ton of snacks to work with me to keep in my drawer at my desk. Although they were healthier than what I would usually bring it just seemed like I was trying to tempt myself. Every time I would open the drawer I would see the food, which then would make me want to eat the food, even if I wasn't hungry before opening the drawer. Why test myself? I now grab 2 snacks for at work, one for morning one in the afternoon and leave them in my purse. If I am truly hungry I'll eat a snack but many times I come home with one snack left that I just didn't eat because it wasn't sitting there staring me in the face.

As far as exercise is concerned so far I've found that mixing things up is what works best for me. If I walk every day for a month I'd be bored out of my mind and really would have no interest in keeping up with it. So I've found various activities that I like to do and that Marco can do with me and so far it's working really well. We bike together, we play tennis, we shot hoops (but only once as we both majorly sucked), we swam, we walked and we're gonna play squash one of these times. By keeping my routine anything but routine I find it so much easier to stick with it. I don't dread exercising because I found things that I like and things that I can do with Marco. Anything that gives me some extra one on one time with him is great in my book! I do exercise alone when he's not around. My favorite so far is naked free dance, but that's a whole different blog!

One oops moment, or rather "why didn't I see THAT one coming" happened during bike riding. We had ridden the night before along the canal and out in the country. It was absolutely beautiful. So the next night we thought, hey that was fun let's do it again. Now keep in mind I hadn't ridden a bike in probably 3 years before this. Well about 5 minutes into the second ride I had a searing pain and burning in my tailbone. I really thought my arse must be on fire. Apparently my bottom needed to grow accustomed to that tiny little seat. Being a trooper I pushed on... about 10 minutes after that, so 15 minutes into the ride, I had to literally reach down to touch my butt as I could no longer feel it and I was pretty sure I dropped it somewhere along the canal. We ended up having to stop to let our...ummmm..Extremities.... regain consciousness and blood flow. Lesson learned. Baby steps, build up and get a cushy seat!

I've posted this one before, but I'll say it again because it's so very true. I don't make myself feel frantic about exercising or eating and it's really been helpful. I don't wake up thinking "oh my God I have to exercise, I have to get this weight off, I have to lose 100 pounds." I've set that realistic goal of 2 lbs a week or 8 lbs a month and I have come to terms with the fact that weightloss is gonna take some time. Patience and persistence!

So those are a few of my high and lows so far. Hopefully the highs will grow, the lows will slow and the DOH's, well there's always gonna be some of those.