Confessions Of A Real Life Cookie Monster

 Another ten day chunk down, and I can tell that I'm getting discouraged.  I haven't been logging into my Google Drive to make X marks on days that I'm doing things, or capturing pictures of myself exercising, or bringing any awesome stories of how I overcame a struggle or made a better choice, because my attitude has shifted. Another 10 days gone by, and I pretty much just maintained where I was at the beginning.  At this point, I'm half a pound heavier than when I started this thing over a month ago. Right now, I feel like this is a dreaded diet , that ugly four letter word, instead of feeling like I'm in a new lifestyle meant to increase my longevity and, oh yea, weight loss. Right now, I feel like Garfield... Here's the stats on the week: 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Need for 10-day period Meatless Diet X X 3 days Exercise 10 10 25 85 total 130 minutes No Chips/Fries X X X X X X X X every day Prayer/Pos. Affirms. X X X X X X X X X X every da

Another mini-chunk down!  It's been about one quarter of the way through my 100 day journey.  How's it going so far?  I've been sticking with my plan, but I still haven't dropped any weight from my original amount.  In fact, even though I did lose weight in these 10 days, I'm still above my starting weight 26 days ago.  This sucks.   Here's what I've been working on these last 10 days: 10 Day Window ADD: DROP: REPLACE with: April 20 - 29 Daily prayer and/or positive affirmations Chips & Fries Whole wheat crackers and/or lettuce wraps And here's how I did! 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Need for 10-day period Meatless Diet X X X 3 days Exercise 10 120 total 90 minutes No Chips/Fries ~ X X X X X X X X X every day Prayer/Pos.Affirm. X X X X X X X X X X I've been working on praying more often, so this was a good opportunity for me to make SURE that I had purposeful conversations with the Lord every day, which I want to be routine

True.  But I meant to gain GOOD things like weight loss and an increase of energy, NOT WEIGHT!!!  So as you can see from my title, I wasn't too happy to discover that over the course of my first 10 day mini-chunk of my 100 day goal, I actually GAINED a pound (okay, 1.1 pounds to be exact) while taking 3 days off of meat and adding mandatory exercise.  THAT IS SO DEPRESSING!  I know that "often" people tend to do that at first (so they say, whoever " they " is, anyway) PLUS this chunk of days did fall across Easter celebrated with TWO different families, but it still came at quite a gut-check. To recap, here's what my plan was on my first 10-day chunk: 10 Day Window ADD: DROP: REPLACE with: April 10 - 19 Exercise - Total of 90 minutes over 10 days Meat 2 days per week throughout this challenge Healthy fats & other proteins And here were my results: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Need for 10-day period Meatless Diet X X X 3 days Exercise 45 5

I know, I know... I lay out a huge goal and then you don't hear from me for 9 days, BUT it was because I was busy!  Yes, busy planning this challenge for myself, but also on... VACATION! I flew all the way across the country to see one of my BEST friends who had a baby two months ago, my "nephew" who I totally fell in love with and just couldn't bear to tear myself away from to pull out the computer and get this out there...  but it was scribbled all crazy in my notebook (in which every detail of my life gets worked out on paper) during my hours in the airport. I technically started 3 days ago, but will catch you up real quick.  I ended up doing 10 day windows with mini-goals for each one, just because the mini-goals that were most important to me fit better in that range.  Every other week, the "Add" goal relates to exercise, while the opposite weeks relate more to personal development.  The weeks that there is NOT an exercise increase, I have chosen

So far on all of my posts, I have been counting up - starting each title with the number of the days that I have been walking this journey with you, the readers, on this blog. I realized that as the numbers tick higher, it seemed a bit daunting to look back and be disappointed in myself at what I HAVEN'T done in the last 100 or so days.  Mainly, that I haven't lost a ton of weight, that I haven't bucked down enough to get done what I need to. There are a whole lot of issues with that paragraph - I KNOW, I KNOW .  I know that I should concentrate on all the positive things I've accomplished, at how much better I feel, and at how much I've enjoyed the process.  I know that weight is not necessarily a determining factor of health, and that life isn't about what you look like and that it's what's inside that counts.  I know all of that, but I JUST WANT TO BE LESS FAT, OKAY? But I also know that it's of my own doing, or lack thereof (to a certain e

About a month ago, I started sharing what I'd learned from reading Charles Duhigg's  The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business mostly while sitting in the airport on my way to an amazing Beachbody conference.  I wanted to finish up my findings here in this post (see Day 57 for part 1).  I'll be including quotes from the book along with my paraphrasing and my personal comments... As a reminder, in part 1 of my little book review, I discussed how the core of the book is understanding the habit loop and then figuring out how to switch the routine.  "This process within our brains is a three step loop.  First, there is a  cue , a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use.  Then there is the  routine , which can be physical or mental or emotional.  Finally, there is a  reward , which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future."  So now that we understand why habit