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Thursday, February 27, 2014

New Goals

This morning I've been planning new goals and how to reward myself for them.
I'm an unusual woman that looks for workout plans for men. I think that a woman should train like a man, after all we do not have enough testosterone to get the bulging muscles, but the men's training plans get results! That is what I'm looking for.
I am tired of the baby weight.
I am tired of being tired, and without energy.
I miss my workouts.
I really, really need some time for myself and myself only. This is the best and effective way to get it.

So starting March 3rd until March 30th I've put up a goal plan with reward system. I will pin it up on my motivation board in the kitchen. The only room where I will be seeing it daily. Every day after I have followed the workout for that day I will either check it off on the list or glue a star next to it. The weekly rewards are also written on the list so that I have extra motivation to complete things. My first reward is a Disney workout top that I've seen on pinterest. I think they are perfect!

At the end of the month if I have completed all workouts my hubby will get me a reward AND I will reward myself. Hey I need all the motivation I can get!
I also signed up my mom in law to help by babysitting on the days I go wandering and swimming.

I will also write regular blogs about how it's going here and I should reinstall twitter onto my phone and twitter about my workouts. Keeping all this a bit public will help me stay accountable. I think it would be slightly embarrassing writing about all these great plans then not following through.
On and I will look and see if I can post about it on sparks. I'm on that site often too.

So here's to a great March!!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Making your own Diet agenda, a rough how to

If you fail to plan then you plan to fail- Not sure who said that

A goal without a plan is a dream- have to look that one up too-

What I'm getting at is this: I finally realised what these saying mean. Yes really, I do.
I want to lose weight. And I have been going about it all wrong, and up until now I have hardly anything to show for it. You really do need to plan every little detail.
-Not only what will I eat and when. I tough that would be enough, but it wasn't.
-You have to check how many calories you need to maintain your currant weight, and every time you've lost around 3 to 4 kilos. Take maintenance calories minus 500 to lose.
-You have to plan when will I workout
-Who will watch my kid(s) (if you have any).
-You have to plan time for yourself/Friends/family/Partner
-You have to plan when will you do your shopping/errands/etc
-You have to plan EVERYTHING (OK at least I do)

Then there is the "emergency" planning:
-What should I do when I'm frustrated
-What should I do when I'm stressed
-What should I do when I'm bored
-What should I do when I feel like celebrating
-What should I do when I feel depressed
and so on and so forth.

If you really think about it it is a lot of planning and thinking that you have to do.
You have to really think about who you trust to support you. You don't need a saboteur. You have to realise that the one that is a big help now might be a drag later. (Here is the key word "might"). You have to remotivate yourself over and over again. You have to give yourself regular pep talks. You have to remember why you started in the first place. You have to think about your goal and what it means and what it might change in your life. You have to be realistic about it. Just because you reach that ultimate goal weight doesn't mean your life will magically change for the better.
You have to realise that losing weight is a lot of hard work, this isn't a easy task. You have to plan that it will cost money. Not a fortune but it will cost some. You need new clothes, shoes, underwear, etc, Healthy foods and some vitamins. For that you will also save money. You'll get sick less, you'll save on fast food, you'll save on insurance, in some catalogues you'll save because you need a smaller size etc.
You need to think up a reward system for yourself. At what stages you want to reward yourself and with what. It helps trust me.

After realising all of this, I sat down last night and started to plan things out. It took me a total of 5 hours thanks to my little girl to get it all done, but now I'm very happy with my results.
I choose a 2013 agenda that I had laying around. I bought it at the end of 2012 for the new work year, and didn't need it after all. You can use a notebook, spiral bound notebook, old diary or whatever suits you.
I grabbed a pencil and notebook, and started planning. Grocery shopping every Monday and Thursday, Friends and family visits on either Saturday/Sunday or Wednesdays. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays are fitness days, Saturday Nights are Date nights.
Next was agenda, wake up time, bed time, cleaning and daily cleaning chore, when to leave the house and for what I'm off for (Friends/errands/shopping etc), time to drive home, sports, dinner, TV time etc, etc
Then cleaning agenda, I made this a little easier on myself I checked pinterest and choose the best one for me on there and just redid a few things.
Sports agenda: at what time, list of sports I love, workouts I need to do, how long and shower afterwards, with babysitter.
Time for myself, I can't really plan this, I take the times when my little one is sleeping. For that I listed what I can do at that time. Blogging, knitting, reading, etc.
Next reward system. That was a little tricky. I figured I need to lose a total of 42 kilos for starters. I broke that down into 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% 25%, 30%, and end goal, then again into 3 kilo parts in between to keep motivation going. And again in U130, U120, U110 and U100 Kilos (U=under). Loads of reward possibilities. For small ones I have under 1 dollar ideas, for the major ones I have bigger things planned like small trips, massages, manicures etc. You need to figure out what rewards motivate you..
Last but not least meal plans and what day to make new ones. I choose Sunday to make new ones since I have all the food advertising and sales by then, that way I can choose stuff that is on sale to make.

Oh and a important day! When you week restarts and you weigh in! I choose Saturday for that. That way I can enjoy date night and make up for it the rest of the week. No guilt trips!

After doing all that planning I put it all into my agenda. Ignoring the dates just using the days that where listed I wrote it all down. Sometimes using a extra post it note to keep everything in the day needed. At the end where the addresses are usually listed I wrote down my goal list with space for when it was reached and rewards for that goal.

I set aside a part of the agenda for my thoughts, and my emergency contact lists. Who to call or talk to when I need support, what to do against boredom etc, breathing exercises against stress and frustration, and motivational quotes for those depressing times. (A little tip from me sparkpeople.com has a help button that is just great! I love it! Joining is free.)

Now all I have to do is decorate the thing as I go. Nothing more, nothing less. Stickers, magazine cut outs etc. You will go back and look at how far you've come from time to time. You'll want to look at the meal plans you've designed, the work outs you started, what really helped and what didn't. So take your time and plan well.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

busy, busy

The perils of dieting.

I'm getting ride of the baby fat, and boy is it hard! I made something for my foodie penpal and every time I went into or threw the kitchen I was so tempted!! The must yummy smells! I am so very glad that all is now packed away and ready to be sent off today. My hubby will take it to the mail for me when he goes to visit a freind. I'm in no mood or health to deal with going myslef. I have a terrible migrane headache.

Today I will take it easy as far as possible. I will take care of my little one, do some cooking, and maybe some knitting or crocheting. I have a few projects I want to start. I found a few adorable toys that I want to make. And there is a tshirt that I want to do for a girlfreind. It's her birthday soon. I have a parcel I want to finish up for my mom and sis in the states. Oh and some sewing I want to do.
Then there are freinds that want to be visited, and trails that are begging to be walked, couple time, and family get togethers to be planned. I am never bored.

Today I will be trying a few new recipes. Broccoli mousse on a salad bed, and crunchy veggie lasagne. Both easy and cheap to make, your in the kitchen no longer than 15 minutes for prep work, and dinner is ready in 30 minutes. I hope they both taste good. If they do they are going in my make more often list.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Dieting

Ahh the joys and frustrations of dieting.
Yes you read that right there are joys. New recipes, new clothes, lost weight, friend's compliments.
But it is the frustrations that keep you from being successful! Mine is not getting enough sleep! It is very hard to do that with a teething baby I can tell you! I have to remind myself time and time again that I don't need sweets I need sleep!!
It is slowly working but I am far from perfect.
As a help I am using a Weight Watchers program from 1996. That was when I first joined WW. I have all my paperwork from back then still so all I had to do was dig them out. I've put myself on this "diet" and so far it is working really well.

Tomorrow I have my baking and making day! I'm making nutella smarties cookies and self made hot chocolate on a spoon. I hope my foodie pen pal will love what I send her. It's not all that I'm sending, just a very small portion of a idea I had. Since it is February my FPP Theme is Valentine's day. All hearts and love.
March will be Luck of the Irish, because of St. Patrick's day. All greens and clovers and luck- I have ideas until July. That's when I stopped planning boxes to ship. Think I had enough planning in advance that I can shop for things here and there without problems.

Hubby and I wanted to go out with friends tonight, but they all canceled. So instead we are staying in and still bringing our little one to the babysitter. Instead of going out I'll take a long wanted bath, then movie night with popcorn!! Sleep in until I wake up on my own, and making and baking till the afternoon. Then I'll pick up my little girl with energy again.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Back

It's been a very LONG time since I've last logged in and bloged.
Since the last time I have:
-taken time off from foodie penpals due to stress in life
-did on/in the job schooling to persue a carerr
-put that on ice due to becoming pregnant
-getting things ready for baby
-moving and that twice. Once in the beginning of pregnancy, once months after
-having my little girl and getting accostomed to life with her

I'm still on baby leave, and so far life with baby is getting smoother that I can take things up again that I love doing.
I'm knitting again
-rejoined foodie penpals
-considering joining a gym to get my pre baby body back or at least close to it.

And I found my love of blogging again and want to stick with it. It's been way too long.