I'm planning on making some changes in my life and home, and I've decided to document it here so that I have some accountability, as well as an incentive :)
First change: Eating habits. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning, and found that I weighed as much as I did when I was 6-8 months pregnant. Aaaggghhh!!! What happened! I guess this whole getting older thing is taking a toll on my metabolism. I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted and it never affected the scale (even after I had Sydney). Which leads me to my next change...
Second change: Exercise. I've never done well at keeping an exercise plan. I've just done my thing, and it's never been a problem, until now. I'm so out of shape! After stepping on the scale yesterday morning, I decided to put together an exercise routine, lunges, lying abductions (that's what they called them online:), leg raises, and crunches. I felt really good yesterday morning and afternoon. By late afternoon I could feel my thighs, butt and stomach tightening up, so I stretched some more. This morning is hurts to sit down, or even take a normal size step. At least I know I worked something... right? Hopefully I didn't injury anything :)
Third change: Eating out. This is a little embarrassing, but on average I eat out at least 3 times a week (that's a good week). Isn't that ridiculous? I work part time at home and take care of my 2 little girls. I don't have the time or money to keep doing this! It takes so much effort to pack the kids up to go anywhere, not to mention the time it takes to drive to the restaurant. There are a couple restaurants across the street from us, but I have to be pretty desperate to pay that much money. The next closest restaurants are 15 minutes away, so it usually takes an hour or more to pick the food up.
Fourth change: Sydney's room. Not that Sydney really cares what her room looks like, but it's so boring! The walls are white, her bedspread is white (it was mine when I was a little girl), the "decorations" on her shelf are some that I had growing up, but they just look pathetic really, and she has a light pink, green and purple valance above her window that seems too baby-ish for her now. Needless to say, this is not my definition of a fun room. So I'm thinking I need to get some color into it, but I don't really know where to start. Do I find a bedspread that we like first, and then find paint and decorations to match? I'm on a very tight budget so I can't really go all out. Maybe I could even keep the white bedspread and just spend money on paint to add the color. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I am not good at this stuff.
So here's the plan... I'm going to eat 1,350 calories or less a day, focusing on my fruits, vegetables, and water intake. I'm still considering whether or not to allow myself a free day. I don't want to restrict myself so much that I start binge eating. I'm going to exercise at least 4 times a week. I'm only going to allow myself to eat out 1-2 times a week (this includes date nights with Nick). I'm planning on this helping me save money, so I can redo Sydney's room :)
What do you think? Am I going too easy on myself, or have I set unrealistic goals. I'm hoping I can create better eating and exercising habits for myself, and that they become life long. I'm planning on doing an update in a few weeks or so... stay tuned :)
5 comments:
You're so good! I need to follow your plan, too :) I get in the habit of eating whatever I want while I'm nursing b/c the baby takes so many calories with the milk, it doesn't matter.... What'll I do when Grant isn't nursing in about 6 weeks?! Ahh...
My thought on Sydney's room-- buy cute pillows for the bed. It may be cheaper to find a few little pillows than to buy a whole new bedspread. They would add a little color to the white bedspread, then you could pick out colors from those to paint and maybe you can find cute fabric that will match for the valance. Sounds like fun to do up a room-- I have yet to do anything to either of my boys' rooms :)
GOOD LUCK Heather!!!! You're great!!
First of all... you look great! But, I totally understand the feeling. I'm in the same boat with the weight loss thing. Here are my thoughts:
Eating: Having a free day I think is beneficial to the right kind of person. For me, I'd rather have the goal of eating 1300 calories a day and have an extra 500-1000 or so in a week that I can use at my advantage throughout the week. because if I don't do that I will go crazy on that ONE day!
Exercising: I think you sound like that's going well. I just bought a double jogging stroller if you ever want to borrow it or go on walks/jogs with me!
Eating out; have no advice b/c you sound as bad as me! I love eating out so much! it's really hard to justify sometimes though so just make sure you have easy yummy food at home. Even it's like splurging at the grocery store it's probably still cheaper than going out as much. (make sense? it does in my head!)
Syd's room: I think you should have the girls paint pictures on nice cardstock and frame it! This is always really cute. Also, you could just paint. that's like 30 dollars of complete transformation there! I think it's really cute she has your bedspread!
Man, i'm writing a lot. I have no idea why!
You're awesome!
Oh Heather it sounds like we are on the same page!! AAHHHH after my trip to Vermont I was tagged in some photos and I did not like what I saw! I'm usually the one behind the camera and I about croaked when I saw all of my chins. Well Hello chins it is not nice to meet you! I too weigh as much as I did when I was 7 months pregnant! I bought a trampoline last week at Walmart that has a cal counter/timer and resistant bands. In one "jumping session" for 40 minutes according to the counter I burned 560 cal! So I'm excited and have been doing this almost for a week now. Plus the tramp is a great way to wear Cameron out as well during the day... I've also stopped eating past 7:00. SO those are just some things I'm trying and I will see how much it will pay off.
As far as Sydney's room goes I would sugest finding something to tie your colors all together such as a rug, bedspread or maybe even curtains and then work your color scheme from there. I'm just going off of a design show I watch called Myles of Styles. I really don't know a thing about decorating! Good luck with everythings! You are great Heather!!
Heather!! You are amazing. I need help in all of those areas too. I think that you will do great and stick with it! You go girl!
PS I would love to help with syd's room. We could look up some cute ideas and then find a way to impliment them for cheap!!
Take Alisha up on that! Her house is so dang cute I'd just about PAY her to redo mine! That is, if I had money to do that... :)
I agree with what Lori said about the diet--give yourself some free calories. It serves two purposes: it keeps your body guessing at how many calories you'll be getting, so it doesn't start hoarding calories, and it gives you the freedom to break your diet when you need it most. I find that I don't count calories terribly well, but just the thought of "Do I really want to eat all those calories" keeps me much lower than I'm sure I usually consume. Good luck!
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