Yesterday was April 1 and there was no joking around for me! I officially started my March health plan. Yes, an entire month late, but better late than never, right?! The rules are as follows:

  1. No alcohol
  2. No refined sugar (honey, maple syrup, molasses, fruit are allowed)
  3. Exercise at least 15 minutes a day (walking doesn’t count – must be HIIT, running, etc.)
  4. Must have soup or smoothie for at least one meal
  5. Exceptions for birthdays/holidays/very special occasions

I don’t have a scale but I think I might buy one to keep myself on track. So far I have been just relying on the mirror, how my clothes fit and how I feel as my gauge of success. But a scale would be a lot more official and perhaps seeing the number change (or not change) would be a better motivator. I will also post weekly pictures and update this post with my progress. Wish me luck!

  • My body at the end of March

Week 1: April 1 – April 7

Well, I started off strong and went running two days in a row. Yay me! Unfortunately, I bit it really hard on my second jog and scraped up my knees, hands and my ego pretty bad. At least I likely gave a bunch of people driving by a good laugh. Anyway, my exercise went a little down hill after that. But I have managed to stay away from alcohol and have eaten almost no refined sugars. Hooray! I have been pretty good about eating a smoothie or soup for at least one meal. I think the real issue is that I need to just eat less in general. So much easier said than done!

Oh, and I bought a scale. The cheapest one I could find . . . and sadly it would appear that I got what I paid for. My brand new $12 scale is a bit off. I mean, when nothing is on it the dial doesn’t rest on 0. It will still work for what I need though. I am currently at 160 on my crappy scale. During the winter when I went into urgent care for my bout with Satin’s cough I weighed 165. That’s 20 lbs more than pre-baby. So basically, I want my crappy scale to read 145 and then I will be happy. For the past week it hasn’t varied much, so I think week 2 I need to up the running and somehow figure out how to eat less. Goal will be for the scale to read 155 by beginning of next week.

Onwards and upwards! Or, technically, downwards if we’re talking about my weight. . . ; )

Week 2: April 8 – April 14

I was doing well in the beginning but unfortunately I lost some steam this week. I have still been doing alright with eating healthy; for the most part I have a smoothie or soup for one of my meals and I haven’t been drinking or eating sugar. However, I have not been good about getting exercise every day. I blame this partly on the fact that on Saturday I had a terrible day with the kiddos and on Sunday I got some kind of bug or 24 hour flu or something so I didn’t get out of bed much. The weather also got really rainy and gray so maybe that had something to do with it too? Not really sure, but I need to get back into the exercise regime for sure.

I was able to adjust my scale so it now reads 0 when nothing is on it. The good news is that the scale is now accurate, and I reached my target goal of being at 155 almost every day this week. However, that means that I was at 155 last week too and I haven’t lost any weight. It’s interesting that I am now at the famed “10 lbs” that everyone talks about being the hardest to lose after having kids. Technically I have 15 to go because in the past I have been closer to 143 so I would love to just have a target of 140. Exercise is going to be the key. If I can’t get down even 5 lbs by the end of the month then I am going to have to update the diet and I might try and go back to how I had to eat when I had gestational diabetes. That was super limiting and effective for keeping me lean. We’ll see . . . Goal for 4/21 is to be at 150 – time to get running!!!

Week 3 & 4: April 15 – May 3rd

Well, unfortunately April turned out a bit like March. I started out strong with lots of motivation, but by the end of the month my resolve definitely waned. Here is a summary of my thoughts:

Positives:

  • I was able to refrain from drinking alcohol unless there was a special occasion. This felt great and I will definitely be continuing this as much as possible moving forward. It will save money and help me be more healthy in general so hopefully this will just become the norm for me. As much as it tastes good to have a beer or glass of wine with dinner, there really is no need.
  • I went on my longest run yet! According to my phone it was about 8 miles, but I haven’t actually mapped the route so not positive about that. Either way, it’s much more than I had done previously so I am very excited to be getting back in to long distance jogs rather than just slow 3 milers.
  • I didn’t gain any weight

Negatives:

  • I didn’t lose any weight and am still 155 lbs.
  • I didn’t stay super strict about no sugar. I definitely ate less than usual, but next month I want to try and cut it out again.
  • I didn’t have soup or smoothie for 2 of my meals. This really started to taper off towards the end of the month. I don’t know the last time I had a smoothie. I was alright about soups and I am still doing good about making them and having it available. But I need to get more committed to having it once a day.
  • I didn’t exercise every day. This is bad in many ways. My entire mood and energy level goes down when I don’t get exercise. This needs to be prioritized in order for me to feel good, and will obviously need to happen more if I am serious about wanting to lose weight. It’s clear I don’t have the willpower yet to lose weight with diet alone.
  • I didn’t post weekly like I intended. This is bad because it just goes back to my frustrating habit of not always following through. It’s part of a bigger problem with my life habits that I will likely need to work on forever. But at least I know it’s a problem and I know I want to work on it and get better about it.

One Month Later

  • My body on May 2nd

I’m not sure that I will update this post again, or if I’ll write a new one. But I will certainly be posting about progress by the end of May.

I have always been a very private person, and was raised to be very independent. Because of this I always try to do things on my own and don’t typically feel comfortable telling people about a project or a job search or whatever I’m working on until it’s done. Like, “I just did this, and I did it on my own.” As I have gotten older, I’ve realized that this is a problematic mindset for various reasons. But I could (and probably should) write a whole post on that issue.

The reason I bring it up is that I have never been great about reaching out to a community for support. I am trying to get better about this as I get older because there are so many benefits to involving other people in ones struggles and successes. We are all better when we can contribute positively to a common goal. I have never tried losing weight in one of those community type programs, but maybe now is the time to try. It would certainly be something that is out of my comfort zone, and for that reason alone it would be worth it. As I get older I want to always be willing to try new things and to push myself out of my comfort zone. As a parent, the more experiences I have the better I will be able to provide advice and suggestions to my children as they struggle through their own issues. I’m not sure what my weight loss goal or strategy will be for this month – but rest assured I will be posting about it. Stay tuned!