It really helped me to blog about The Total Wellness Challenge earlier this year, so I am going to do it again this time. I don’t expect anyone to read it, but it hold me more accountable and gives me a record to look back on.
Today is the first day of the Fall 2018 Challenge! Let’s Do This!
Weight Loss Goal
I am going to be fully transparent here. I weigh more right now than I have in over 20 years (not counting pregnancies). My ideal weight is between 120-125 lbs. After a spring and summer of lots of travel, a heel injury, and “giving myself permission,” I gained weight. Wearing cute sundresses made it harder for me to tell how my weight gain affected me, and I avoided the scale. Today I am just over 131 lbs. My shorts and pants are tight and I don’t feel good about that.
The Scale
For most of my adult life, until the past couple of years, I weighed myself every day. When I was younger, my father would ask me frequently how much I weighed (and when I hesitated to tell him, he would guess). About 5 years ago I started to be very comfortable with my weight, and gradually stopped my daily weigh-ins. Now, I check occasionally, and I think have been avoiding the scale lately because I didn’t want to know what I weighed.
I am going to weigh myself once a week during the Challenge. This will be hard for me, as I am anxious to lose weight, and will want some reassurance that what I am doing is working. However, I also know that since I have more weight to lose, the process will probably be slower than I want it to, and I don’t want to be discouraged or lost motivation as a result. Once a week seems like a realistic timeframe in which to see some results (hopefully!)
Meal Planning
In addition to weighing myself, I also used to obsessively plan my meals for the week. As my kids grew up and were home less in the evening, I stopped planning meals and got lazy about what I made for dinner. My husband started making a couple of meals on the weekends which could be reheated (how awesome!), and I often found myself at meetings or events where there was pizza or other food to munch on in place of dinner.
I am planning meals during the Challenge – even when I have evening events. I will eat before I go and try to avoid temptation.
Alcohol
I have had a really fun summer! I enjoyed myself, which is great. I also enjoyed having a beer or glass of wine (or two) most nights of the week. During the Challenge, I am going to try to avoid alcohol during the week, and only have a beer or glass of wine on Saturday, and only if socializing.
Exercise
I have continued to exercise, just not making a serious effort to push myself. I am going to try to push harder, to get my fitness back up to where it has been. I have a heel spur which hurts after I run, so I need to also commit to stretching if I am going to be able to add mileage and intensity to my runs. I am also going to commit to a core/strengthening workout at least twice a week.
Ultimately, to lose 6+ lbs. it will come down to eliminating some foods I love (carbs) and alcohol for several weeks. It may not be realistic to expect this to happen in the 4 weeks of the Challenge, but hopefully I will see some results and be motivated to keep up the patterns after the Challenge ends.
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