Reaching a plateau

A note on reaching a plateau in your weight loss.
One is to make sure that you are still drinking enough water. A health instructor I had for a health class said that most diets advertise losing 5-10 pounds in the first two weeks. Most people do it successfully because... before that they are not drinking enough water, and once they do they lose the water they were retaining which sheds somewhere in the neighborhood of...5-10 pounds.

A second thing to do is when your body hits a plateau in weight loss a physical therapist told me once to "eat a big meal." It kicks your body back in to losing mode.

I've also heard varying your routine because your body gets efficient at doing what it does normally.

Silver Lining

So I'm probably in the worst shape of my whole life. I can barely walk up a few stairs without being winded. But (as I posted before) I've signed up for a Danskin mini-triathlon in July. I also plan to go on a backpacking trip this summer. (I'll save details of that for a future post.) We have a great gym setup in our basement. It includes a nice new TV and Tivo (which we don't have anywhere else in the house.) And yet I haven't worked out down there in... well.. I don't know how long it's been.
However, I did start with an easy 30 min. workout last night on the eliptical machine. (yea!!) I pressed the User 2 button (that's me) and the machine proeceded to step me through some settings to confirm. (Here comes the silver lining part.) Despite the fact that I haven't worked out in ages, my current weight is 7 lbs. less than when I set my weight on the machine! Cool! (Trust me, there's still a long way to go!)

Epiphany

I finally came to a realization about at least a good part of the reason I have such a problem going to bed on time.
Despite the fact that I go to work and spend time away from the kids, while I am at work I am running around like a crazy woman trying to get things done. When I am at home I am with the kids and running around like a crazy woman trying to take care of children and get things done.

The evenings are my only real time that things might be quiet. Usually I try to get whatever chores done and I then can have maybe some quiet time. However I also don't necessarily want the last thing I do during the day to be that I have cleaned the kitchen (or whatever the chore happens to be). I don't mind ending with the feeling I have accomplished a job but somehow doing the kitchen over and over and over again is not the same as say...I unpacked a box, or I sorted out all of my clothes to be donated, or I did something creative.

So therefore I find myself doing little stupid things and staying up really late. It probably doesn't hurt that pre-children my natural preference was for late night (not late late night...just late night....)

So now that I have come to realization that I am fighting my natural preference, craving some quiet time, and generally looking to end the day on something more meaningful or fun...I have to figure out how I am going to address this issue.

Menu planning

I've been trying to help Michael help me out around the house, and this week I discovered that if I make a menu and post it on the fridge, it helps make the grocery list easier to figure out (which means its easier for M to go to the store for me), and it's easier for him to start dinner when I'm running late in the evening (which is almost always).

While I was procrastinating surfing the web, I found Menu Plan Monday. Okay, so it's Thursday, but I didn't do the whole week on Monday. I don't know if I'll post my menu plan, but it meant that there was yummy crockpot corned beef for dinner tonight.

A serious goal!!

I just signed up for the Danskin Triathlon in MA that takes place at the end of July. I have a LONG way to go to get in shape, but a goal will help a lot. PLUS, my local friend, Sara, wants to do it with me. So I'll have a training partner. Yea!! I'd better get on that treadmill tonight!

BTW, I was thinking of also signing up for the NY metro area race (which takes place in Sandy Hook, NJ) since I have friends ;-) to stay with nearby, but that one's already full!!! Danskin runs a very popular race.

Daylight Savings Time

I want to call it "taking my daylight away from me time" because I really really miss having the sun up when I have to get out of bed in the morning. The winter days are too short here in Seattle, and I feel so much better when there is sun in the morning. It was only about a month ago when the sun was starting to show when I have to get up in the morning, and now it's gone again.

I can't say that I appreciate the extra light in the evening much since I spent it trying to wrangle the kids to bed and extra sunshine doesn't help.

I was good and moved my SAD lamp into the bathroom so I can sleep as long as I can manage and then turn on all the lights in the bathroom AND the SAD lamp so it's super duper bright in there while I take my shower and get ready in the morning. It seemed to help a bit this morning.

Of course, unless I go to bed soon, it won't be enough tomorrow.

We are here, we are here, we are here!

I haven't posted here in forever, sorry! I have been being good about going to the gym, 3 days a week since the beginning of January. I did miss one session when William had a day off from school and the other two didn't and one session when we had a snow day - but I used the snowblower and cleared the whole driveway, so that counts.

However, I am eating JUNK and too much of it. I lost no weight or inches for the month of February. I am very much an emotional eater and struggling with it. I make decent choices at mealtimes and then spend the afternoon shoving junk in my mouth. Somehow I have to get that under control or I will make very little progress.

Monday I go to the neurologist, finally. I will admit to a mild amount of underlying stress about that, which probably doesn't help the eating, and I really have no idea what she's going to say. I don't even know what I'm hoping to hear. But we'll find out!