Ushering In 2016

As the calendar turns, it is always quite easy to feel refreshed and recharged.  I admittedly am one of those people that jump on that band wagon and quite frankly, I take the motivation when I can get it!

Julie and I came up with a month long challenge to help us get started.  Actually, the original plan was to use it to get through the month of December, but in the end, December was just too overwhelming and stressful for both of us, so we decided to put it off until the new year.

We took inspiration from the calendar idea we did last year, but switched it up to make it a bit easier to accommodate our varying schedules and lifestyles.

The biggest changes were instead of putting an "activity" on the calendar for each day....we simply made a list of items and you get to pick which one you would like to do everyday.  Secondly, in place of the 1 month long challenge, we created 4 week long challenges.  This allows you to decide which one works best for you each week.  If you now you are going to be stuck behind a desk or in meetings for a week, an exercise challenge might not be the best suit for that week.  Lastly, you must food log every day for the month and do your weight and measurements at the beginning and end.

We also gave it a snazzy  name and Instagram hashtag!!

Are you ready?

Let me introduce you to the:

30 Day – Getting Our Shit In Order Challenge

#FaCaingGettingOurShitInOrder
Jan 1st  – Jan 31st

THE RULES

Weight, Pictures and Measurements to be done on the first and last day of the challenge.

  Food logging for the entire 30 days. 

Challenge consists of 4- week long challenges and 30-Daily Challenges. 

You pick a new daily challenge for each day and a new week long challenge at the beginning of each week (Friday) as best suits your schedule.

Weekly Challenges

1)      Cut and Burn – aim to cut 100 calories and burn 100 calories each day this week

2)      Distance Challenge – walk 40 km (24.85 miles)…only 10 km (6.21 miles) can come from everyday moment…the rest must be walking and/or running.

3)      Drop it like a squat - Every time you use the restroom, do 20 squats to add in some extra fitness to your day!

4)      No Soda Challenge - It's that simple. Cut out any and all soda for the week! Replace it with water or tea instead!

Daily Challenges

1)      Add 10 extra minutes of exercise to your workout today

2)      Try a new healthy recipe today

3)      Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water today

4)      Skip all sweets and treats today

5)      Take a picture of yourself in action today

6)      Write a note to a friend

7)      Create a new playlist to get your groove inspired

8)      What’s in your fridge?  Take a photo and share it

9)      How can you make your dinner healthier tonight?

10)   Get the recommended daily servings of fruit and veggies today

11)   Have a meatless meal

12)   Donate to your local food bank today

13)   Do something for yourself today

14)   “Spruce” yourself up today…when you feel good about the way you look, you feel better

15)   Take a picture of your lunch today

16)   BURPEE DAY! Do 25 burpees today (sets of 5, all at once, your choice!)

17)   Write out a compliment, and pull it out whenever you need a pick-me-up.

18)   Suns out/Guns out! Flex and snap a pic!

19)   NO DESSERT! Skip any additional food after dinner, opt out for water instead!

20)   Make all of your meals HOMEMADE meals! (No processed foods, sweets, snacks, etc!)

21)   Try a new breakfast recipe!

22)   Time for a new blog!! Get a new post up today!!

23/24) Set a personal distance record for running/walking 2km, then break it on another day.

      25) Post about something (big or small) you've accomplished... you deserve kudos!

      26) Snap shots of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner that day!

      27) Aim for 100oz of water

      28) Get up 10 minutes early and write in a journal or take time to meditate/reflect

      29) Make 1 short term (1 month), mid-term (2-4 months) and long term (up to 1 year) goals.

      30) Clean out your closet, if it doesn't fit, donate it!

Now, this challenge was to start on January 1st, and that just didn't work for me...so instead of giving up before it began, I just modified it and started it today and will tack on a few days at the beginning of February.

For my first weekly challenge, I picked the No Soda challenge.  I had gotten back into the habit of going days without drinking any water.  I know my body appreciates when I do and I am healthier when I do drink more water.  With winter here, I need all the help I can get.

My 7 daily challenges are:

Monday - # 22, new Blog Post

Tuesday - # 4 - skip all sweets and treats today

Wednesday - #29 - set some goals

Thursday - #1 - add 10 extra minutes to your workout

Friday - # 6 - write a note to a friend today

Saturday - # 19 - no dessert

Sunday - # 8 - what's in your fridge

So, there you have it, I hope you join us!  Don't forget to check out my Facebook page to follow along and share pics of you in action with our hashtag 

30 Day Photo Challenge

Julie and I have been teaming up together to keep the motivation train running.  We have scoured Pinterest for different challenges. We did a plank challenge and decided to switch it up a bit for October.  Instead of a different exercise challenge, we decided to make it a bit different and take advantage of technology.  Considering nearly everyone has a phone with a built in camera, we took on a photo challenge.

We are up to Day 12 now and today's challenge is SUNSET.  Looks like it might be a nice one tonight too!

Make sure you are following along with us.  We have our own hashtag on Instagram, so find us there!

Here are your "links"

Julie's Blog
Julie's Instagram
Amy's Instagram
Diary Of A Fat's Girls Facebook
Photo Challenge Hashtag

Motivation And My Lack Of It

It has been so long since I have sat down to devote some time to this blog.  It's not that I haven't wanted to or couldn't come up with something to write....it's just.....meh!

Life has been a roller coaster this year....full of emotions, busyness and nothing real important.

We sold a house and built one on to my parents.  The summer was busy with trying to get things set up and just enjoy our time.

Everything sort of went on the back burner.  I got lazy and when things were done for the day, instead of going to spend even 20 minutes on the treadmill, I sat down on the couch and wasted time on the computer.  I paid no focus to what I was eating and everything that goes along with that.

I stopped making TOPS a priority, because I wasn't seeing any results and just kept dropping and gaining the same 10 pounds!

I have been more active on my Facebook page, because I can easily post a picture for motivation or an interesting article, but I want to get back into being on here....this is my place to write it all out...the good and bad and have you follow along with me....that is assume there are still "YOU's" out there following this blog.

It's Thanksgiving here....I'm going to enjoy this last long weekend until Christmas.  I'm going to have turkey, stuffing, potatoes and dessert and not feel guilty.  I am also going to focus on getting back into the routine of exercise.  I think I need to create myself another walking challenge and a roadtrip based on my favorite show.

My bestie Julie and I are doing a photo challenge for the month of October....you can follow along with us on Instagram with our special hashtag  #FaCaingPhotos.

Here's to more constant blog updates!!

The Truth Of Tuesday Night

It has taken me a while to get into the swing of things again.  TOPS was last night and is back on my schedule of priorities in life.  I have struggled with it and my results for the past 6+ months.

Last night I was back on the scale for about the 3rd week in a row.  I started off my week strong with food logging and staying within my budget, but then the weekend came and it went off the rails from there.  I wasn't sure what to expect with the scale.  In the end, I got on and weighed in at 262.25 lbs, which was a loss of 1.25 lbs from the week prior.  Now to keep it up.

I was back with my trainer today and can get myself back into the groove of things.

I plan to back on here more too!

Children At Play

I wanted to share a little story from today.  For those of you on my personal Facebook, you have already read about it, but I also needed to vent my frustrations a little bit too.

I live in a small village of about 500 people.  It's a quaint little place and I feel very lucky to be raising my children here.  It's a place where I feel safe letting them walk to school, to a friend's house or outside playing without me needing to be there for every second of that time.

We built a new house attached to my parents house to be closer to them.  While located on a main road, we are situated beside a church that only sees people on Sundays.  My daughter, Abby (who is 5 1/2) thinks it's the perfect spot to ride her bike and I agree.  At our other house, there was no sidewalk, no paved shoulders to the roads and people who neglected to pay attention to the stop sign.  Her favorite thing though was to ride her scooter along the edge to the stop sign and back.  She would do this from 7:00 am until dark if we let her.

Now that we are have moved, she now likes to ride her bike along the shoulder of the road, which runs along my parent's front yard to the church drive way.  The driveway itself is a large circular driveway with so much space.  Having assessed the risks of being close to the main road, I still felt it was ok for her to do this unsupervised.  She is a smart one and knows to stay off the road itself.  She has been doing this alone for the past 3 days.  She basically rides down our driveway, along the side, around the church and back home.  It has been completely uneventful....until this morning.

My dad walked the kids to school this morning and on his way home, he was stopped by a police officer.  The officer explained that there had been a complaint called in about a child, around the age of 4, riding her bike on the road at 7:20 this morning.  Yup!   My child is 5 and has had the cops called on her.  My dad went in to see my mom and told her "Abby's in trouble this time...like REAL trouble!"

My mom called me at work to let me know.  I was stunned to say the least.  I wasn't upset about the person being concerned, but about their approach to it.  I am not a person that comes off as stand-offish or unapproachable.  It's a small neighbourhood and should I suspect one of my neighbours, I know which one is on the top of my list...if it was a stranger...well, I hope they at least waited to call until they were no longer behind the wheel of the car!

Here is the route in question:

I roughly measured it out tonight....approximately 55 feet across with about 4.5 feet of paved shoulder for her to ride on.  So, when I got home, I had to sit and explain to her that someone saw her, got concerned and the police came by to say someone saw her and were worried about her safety.  I also explained that instead of taking the side of the road, she would have to push her bike across the grass to the church.  Needless to say, tonight she did not want to play outside or ride her bike.

See, here is the trouble...I know people say it a lot....we need to go back to letting our kids play, but for people like me, who do that...there are others who don't agree and apparently feel the best way to deal with by calling authorities.

For now, I will keep an eye on her a bit closer and then once she gets comfortable again, I will let her be on her own.  She just loves to be out there, playing away with babies and her imagination!

What do you think?  Was I in the wrong or did this person act a bit to rash? Would you let your child ride this route?

 

Hitting The Refresh Button

It's been well over a month since I have sat down to write a little something on this blogspace.

If I'm being honest...I was on a slippery slope, going nowhere fast, letting life get the better of me.

I lost all interest in it all....in blogging, in TOPS, in attempting to get healthy.  It's a journey I have been on for so long, with so far to go and it was feeling overwhelming and pointless.  I felt that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't getting anywhere, however if I took a moment to be truthful, I wasn't really trying either.  My days and weeks were full of excuses and time lines I really had no intention to sticking too.

"When most of the house is packed, I can get back to focusing"
"When we are in the new house, I can get back to TOPS"
"When we are in the new house, I am going to start myself of on the right foot and exercise"
"When I get myself back on track, I will go back to TOPS...I can't go back having gained this much"

It's been almost 2 months since I have been to TOPS....I am neither back on track or into a new routine.  It's been 3 weeks since we have been in the new house and I have not exercised once!

Enough was enough and I knew I needed to do something.  I felt like a fish out of water and really needed to take action to fix that.

I have a girlfriend that is a personal trainer and I took up the courage to message her and find out what she would charge for some sessions.  Feeling it was reasonable, I have committed myself to at least 5 sessions, but I foresee it being much longer.  I need that weekly accountability and someone to help me make a plan for the week.  Left to my own devices, I would still continue to wallow in self pity, promising that tomorrow was a new day and I would get my shit together.

She came today and we did a little consult to find out exactly what I was hoping to get out of this and then about 20 minutes of exercise.

I'm not new to exercise...I have joined a few gyms and have had a personal trainer before, but haven't done any of those exercises in about 4 years.  We did a bit of circuit work, some squats, planks, push ups, curls and other work.  She also had me use the TRX equipment.  It hangs over your door and once I was able to convince myself that I wouldn't rip the door from the frame, I was able to appreciate the equipment for what it was.

It was exactly what I needed...I needed to once again feel confident in my abilities and know that this is something I can do...that I am much more capable than I have convinced my mind of.

As for TOPS....I am back to it next week.  It's our yearly potluck and awards night.  It will be nice to see everyone again and be motivated by everyone's success.  While I may be heavier than when I was last there, I am ready to start fresh.  So bare with me as I get this blog going again, my inspiration calendar back up and going and my Facebook page.  I hope you will take a minute or two to encourage me on and moving!

The Truth Of Tuesday Night

 I am an intelligent person

I will control my emotions,

not let my emotions control me.

Every time I am tempted to use food to satisfy my frustrated desires, build up my ego or dull my senses,

I will remember - even though I overeat in private,

my excess poundage is there for all the world to see!

I skipped posting last week and if I was being completely honest...I was too embarrassed to!  Over the course of one week, I had gained 3 lbs!  I suspect that most of that was put on during our night away to see the new house.

The trip did make me realize something.....I have an unhealthy emotional attachment to food.  While I don't think that it's uncommon, I didn't every really attach that to myself.  But I came to realize it when we stopped at Tim Horton's for breakfast sandwiches.  I was anticipating it the whole 45 minute drive....we ordered and I got everyone's out.  When I got to mine, it was totally wrong and I honestly wanted to cry.  YES!  I was so disappointed over a bagel and egg sandwich that I wanted to tear up.  I shook some sense into myself and realized how foolish that was!

So, I went last week, armed with my homework we had from my program the previous week.

My week one challenge to change had me exercising everyday.  I did it!  Even if it was only 15 minutes, I got out and did something extra everyday.  It must have paid off a bit because I was down.

Last week: 260.00 lbs

This week: 258.50 lbs

Loss of 1.50 lbs

For this upcoming week, I have decided to stay within my calorie limit (1625 as per Lose It) and log every day.  I also intend to keep up the exercise.

I actually have a virtual 5 km tomorrow with my bestie, Julie!  Wish us fast feet and success! :-)

You take my hand, 

and I'll take yours,

and we'll start out today.

For a helping hand is what we need to help us on our way.

The way to goal is a lonely road, 

we need someone to care.

Reach out my friend and take my hand, 

and then we're almost there!