The Update (written Sunday 25th April, before my 6K race in Amsterdam)
It’s actually been a great week all things considering.
Since I decided how I am going to go about my Plan, I really have focused on it, on my health, my choices and my commitment to myself, without the pressure of having to be perfect or *having* to face the scale.
It has not been perfect. Not far from it but not close either. In tracking my intake on my WW program I found out two things:
My daily points are 29. I seem to always go over 29 (that’s ok, I have 49 “free points” a week or even 7 extra a day if you split it up that way). Striving for 29 and then failing each time was causing me stress, therefore, it’s a given I will go over and will use from my free points and completely ok (no guilt). The second thing – I exercise enough, nearly daily, to justify those 2 – 3 extra points a day. In theory I should be able to have my 49 points left for the weekend to use, if I have a week without any extracurricular activities.
I wanted to hit 50 in exercise points. That also did not happen. I did stay active up until Friday, though Monday was officially my rest day. Tuesday was running, pushups and sit-ups, Wednesday was cycling and Thursday I did my pushups and sit-ups. I wanted to go to the gym two times last week and I didn’t make it.
This leads me to questioning whether I should still go to the gym. At 48 per month it seems a bit of a waste if I only make it 4 times in that month. This is so annoying to me and I don’t know how to make it work. I’m actually really enjoying the gym and the Zumba classes when I go now, so I don’t want to quit, but I wish I could really make it work even though I work so far away from home and my commute is 4 hours a day. I’m going to have to think about this. I have an elliptical at home, it’s about 10 years old now and I’m not really using it much anymore (though it came in handy this winter when it was freezing out) and I’m thinking about getting rid of it. There are other things going on that need to be dealt with in my apartment, namely a certain 12-year old who will be needing her own room soon, and I really won’t have room for the elliptical anymore if we have to make space for that.
I had a LOT of victories last week. There was quite a lot of stress at work again and I didn’t give in to any of the stress through emotional eating. Another victory was leaving food on my plate when I had enough. Being that I am from the generation of the Clean Plate Club, this is big for me. I tracked every single day from Monday to yesterday (though I did not fill everything in for yesterday because I was afraid the whole program would blow up – too many points over). So even though I went over from Thursday onwards, I tracked. This is major. Another major victory – I actually looked at myself in the mirror and didn’t make disgusting faces at what I saw. I felt good. I even felt like I looked pretty hot one day. It’s a great feeling to like yourself!
Tracking helps a lot. It actually gives me an idea of what works and what doesn’t. I think knowing this I can kind of stick to the same items during the week (when it’s a normal work week) and feel good that I am on track without hardly even thinking about it. I went off plan a bit Thursday because I was invited to a special posh lunch with media from all over Europe, which was three course and included wine and coffee tastings. I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation; it’s not every day this happens.
So I tracked, I moved, I didn’t give in to emotional / stress eating. No matter what the numbers, this was a successful week.
Improvement areas are: gym, and my 100 pushups and 200 sit-ups programs. I did not get to Day 3 of Week 1/ Week 3 yet and I’m not sure when I will. So I think I will restart that this week. Better to restart than give up.
Plans for the new week:
This week will be tricky for several reasons.
1) Concert tonight in Amsterdam, means eating out for dinner
2) Queens’ Night/ Queens’ Day Thursday and Friday – this is a major national holiday for us. There will be booze and food involved. One good thing though – we have the kids this weekend which means I won’t be totally wankered on Friday, since I kind of need to be sober to be a decent parent, right? But Thursday night we will most definitely go out
3) That certain 12-year old I mentioned earlier? I promised to make cupcakes with her this weekend.
What I’m going to do
1) Running – Tuesday
2) Gym – Wednesday
3) Running – Friday midday or Saturday morning
4) Gym – Sunday
And of course get my pushups and sit-ups in this week.
Tomorrow I’ll post about my 6K run in Amsterdam!
I love reading your blogs!
Keep up the good work I know it is hard and I really see that you are well on track! it is great that you are putting a plan up of which days you intend to run/exercise. I also try to do this too and put the events into my calender and try to turn people down who come up with general invites for those days. I try to prioritise gym/spinning over other things in my life if I really can.. it is very difficult though as I would much rather be out with friends or doing other things but the feeling is great when you know you’ve beat the temptation to be unfaithful to the “beloved” gym hehe
Onto food…I really wish they knew how to make a yummy salad here in resturants, I wonder why that is? A salad is the most simple thing to make and it doesn’t even have to be 100% healthy (but way healthier than fries and mayo) there are great dressings they could use and all sorts of things such as roast chicken, ham, etc that could go into making a more healthy option for people trying to eat healthy. But no, their idea of a salad is a few lettuce leaves and a MASSIVE dolop of mayo that is more or less unediable. So onto the mainstream yummy fattening food is usually the only option…and on that note I am hungry! so I will leave you there.
Again keep it up! :O) BTW do you do WW in Dutch or English?
Hey Lisa!
There are two things we should do:
1) Coordinate agendas so we can go out again and
2) Make it our mission to find a decent salad here this spring/summer!
It is SO very tempting to skip gym and workouts to be social. Especially with you guys!!!
(Are you coming for curry night??? You’ll def need to not skip spinning that week ;-) )
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone
oh and Liss, I folow WW in Dutch! I have since 1999.
It sounds like you’re doing really great! You sound on top of things and calm and reasonable…and you’re making cupcakes and I WANT ONE!
We decided to give up our gym membership in WA state, because we’re traveling so much this summer, yes, but mostly because, like you, we’ve been trying to spend a lot of time outside in the fresh air, doing whatever we can do to exercise and have fun. I like it so much better than being in the gym. The gym is great though, serves its purpose, for sure.
I think it might be an idea to get a Zumba DVD for home and also come up with a plan for weights at home. Thing is of course, it’s much easier to use the machines at the gym than have the discipline to make a program for home and stick to that. I wonder how much it would cost for a personal trainer to come and make a program for me? I need to decide soon in any case – canceling memberships always take 2 months to be final! I honestly can’t imagine I’ll get there more frequently now that the weather is better – there a paths to bike, tracks to roller blade on and running to be done!!