Wow is all I can say about the last two months. I have had some amazing moments in those
months and have been kept fairly busy. I
have been adapting to a fuller schedule as I continue on my journey to become
healthier. I am loving life right now
though and wake up each morning with a smile on my face, even though I am
waking up at the crack of stupid.
If you want to read a bit more about my resolutions feel free to check
out my previous posts:
New Year’s Resolutions Past and Present (the first post)
2014 Monthly Goal Check-In for March
1) Move More/Lose More
I am feeling the most proud of this goal right now. I am consistently hitting 10,000 steps each
day and on at least half of the week I am also hitting over 11,000. The biggest change in the last two months
with this goal is the fact that I joined the gym and am going most mornings to
use the treadmill. It is a bit
challenging especially on weekdays because in order to get the work out in
before starting my job, I’m getting up at 4:30am. I will admit that there are days I question
my sanity and my drive to do this but what has kept me going is the knowledge that
the more work I do now the easier it is going to be to do my first 5K in September. I have taken to visualizing how good it is
going to feel when I cross the finish line to help keep me moving. It makes even the hardest days on the
treadmill a little bit easier.
I’m also incredibly excited with the ‘lose more’ part of this
goal. In the last two months I have done
extremely well with my weight loss.
Since the middle of April, when I started regularly going to the gym, my
weight has for the most part been steadily going down. The total weight loss for 2014 now stands at
14 pounds (with 10.9 of that being lost in since the middle of April). I also hit a huge personal milestone this
month and finally lost all the weight I had gained when my friend Will passed
away. You can read about that here.
2) One Day a Week Vegetarian
The last couple of months have been bad for this goal. As my schedule has gotten busier and my time
shorter I have to admit that my meal planning has lacked a bit. As soon as meal planning lacks my meat free
days tend to fall to the sidelines because I don’t have as many recipes yet
that I can just make at the drop of hat and know that I will love. I am trying though and have made it my mission
to get back to full meal plans each week instead of the quick ones I have been
doing which will also mean getting back to my meat free days.
3) Regular Blog Posts
Writing blogs much like meal planning has been a challenge. I am learning that I have far too many
hobbies and things going on in my life to keep up with it all without plans in
place. I’m working on find a new balance
that will let me get the things I really want to do done. So for the month of June my mission for this
particular goal is to post a blog entry once a week which will mean 5 entries
including this one – only four more to go.
4) 365 Photo-a-Day Project
I am very happy that this goal is still running along smoothly. I have continued to take photos each day and
have started the process of getting them turned into digital pages that I can
print. I really do love this project and
I love looking back on my 2013 pages. As
a side I also finished the last of my 2013 pages so I just have to send them
off and I can officially say last year’s project is done.
5) Read 50 Books
I am now up to 18 books read this year, which apparently puts me 2
books behind schedule for hitting my 50 by the end of the year. This doesn’t worry me yet because I think I’m
still doing better than I was last year at this time. I have been reading quite a mix of books and
have found a few new favourites in the last two months. The two that stand out most in my brain are
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Skinny by Donna Cooner. Both were easy reads but both had me in tears
at the end for different reasons. I am
continuing to make reading a priority and try to read at least a chapter a
day. In order to hit my goal though I
really need to spend a little more time reading on my weekends so that shall be
the plan for June.
6) Nanowrimo challenge Complete
a Draft of Conor’s Story
Well I attempted to do the Nanowrimo challenge in April but just didn’t
have enough time to get it done. I may
have done better if I had used Conor’s story rather than the story that came
from my dream but oh well. I did learn
that I really am a planner. As
interesting as it was to try and write a story I hadn’t planned I struggled a
great deal with it. I like to know the
story fairly well before I try to write it so that when I start writing it just
flows. This allows me to feel like I’m
making progress and not just messing around.
It is not a complete loss though because at least now I know how to best
channel my creativity to get results. It
is all about outlining and planning. I’m
just a geek that way I guess. Hehe!
As for Conor’s story well sadly I haven’t had much of a chance to work
on it, well at least not with pen and paper anyway. I have discovered that the treadmill is a
great place to work on the ideas in my head.
I am slowly filling my phone up with notes taken while I’m walking. It has been pretty wonderful. When I get the chance to sit down with Conor’s
story I feel like it will flow well.
At the end of March I wrote that I was feeling excited about the way my
life was going. I was looking forward to
starting at the gym and I have to say that the last couple of months have not
disappointed. I have been feeling strong,
positive and driven. I have been feeling
like I can take on any task that I come up with and that I will find
success. I am amazed in a lot of ways
how truly positive I feel about everything right now. It gives me hope that this year really will
be the best year of my life to date.
I didn’t realize how powerful the idea of achieving 10,000 steps in a
day would actually be when I went out and bought a pedometer so I could start
tracking my movement. I also didn’t
realize how much a small little electronic device could change my life in major
ways.
Getting a pedometer is something I have wanted to do for a long
time. In the past I have tried a few of
the traditional type that clip onto your belt or pants but because of my size
they just don’t work as well as I would like them to. This led me to start to look for other types
and on the recommendation of a friend I started to consider the FitbitFlex. I wasn’t totally sure it would be
the right choice for me, mostly because I don’t where watchers or bracelets so
I figured having a pedometer on my wrist would actually annoy me. I also wasn’t sold on the price of the little
gadget. At just over $100 it seemed
like a lot of money to be spending on something that I figured I would lose
interest in but on September 12, I made the decision to go out and buy
one. I haven’t looked back since and
just over three months later I have to say that I’m still as in love with this
fancy pedometer as I was when I bought it.
Of course buying a fancy pedometer didn’t instantly mean I was getting
10000 steps a day. The fact was that
after the first day of tracking not only was I wondering how on earth people
can actually get 10,000 steps but I was also questioning how active I thought I
was compared to what this little tracker was now showing me. 10,000 steps seemed like it was a faraway
goal but I knew it was something that I wanted to achieve. In true Jill fashion I made a plan. The cool
thing about the Fitbit is that it lets you set a goal and when you reach that
goal it vibrates. (It also has a smiley
face that shows when you achieve your goals and you look at your profile on the
computer, and who doesn’t like smiley faces).
So I decided that I would start with 5000 steps. It was a little more than I had done on the
first day so I knew I would have to push myself to move a little bit more but
it wasn’t a scary number. The first week
I hit 5000 6 out of 7 days so the next logical step was to up my goal to
6000. I made steady progress from 6000
to 7000 to 8000 but then I got stalled out a little bit. 8000 was a hard target to hit unless I
actually worked on it. This was the
first time I had to really consider my daily routine (which because of longer
commutes is still messed up) so I could find ways to get more steps in
regularly.
The biggest problem for me to get past the 8000 mark was that I just
don’t have the same amount of time I used to in order to workout, which would
make 8000 and higher much easier to achieve.
I also have to admit that even if I do have the time since we moved further
away that I’m more likely to make an excuse to skip the workout. So with all of that in mind I knew that I had
to find a way to get to the goal even on those days where I don’t manage to
sneak in a workout. I began to look at
all the little things I could do that would add more steps to my total without
stealing away time. Some of these things
seemed really silly at first but I have been blown away by how many steps they
have added to my day.
The first thing I started to do was set a reminder in my outlook
calendar at work. An hour after I arrive
at work it pops up and tells me to take a break and go for a walk. Having a very computer heavy job there are
days that I would go hours without moving, especially if I’m focused on a
specific project. Having the message pop
up becomes a great reminder that I have been sitting and I need to move. I get up, stretch and go for a walk, whether
it is to the bathroom, or the sink to get water or even just a quick trip
around the floor I work on. The important
part for me is that I just get up and move.
The results were pretty noticeable.
I went from earning 2000-3000 steps during my work day to around 5000
before I leave the building. 2000-3000
extra steps from just getting up from my desk and taking a quick break. It doesn’t use much of my time but it adds up
in shocking ways. It also had an
unexpected side effect in that I am not getting that afternoon drained feeling
now.
The second thing I started to do was for when I got home. I will admit that I watch a lot of TV. In a perfect world I would stop it and do
something more productive with my time but I’m not ready to make that decision
yet. I needed to find a way that I could
still watch my favourite shows and still become more active. Well much like the pop up message at work I
began to get up on commercials. When my
favourite shows break I get up and do laps around the house, march on the spot
or just goof around and dance to the music in my head (I’m pretty sure my cat
thinks I’m nuts at this point). Well for
every five minutes (which is usually about two commercial breaks) I earn an
extra 500-600 steps which adds up nicely in my overall total. Again like the walking at work it wasn’t a
change that required a lot of effort on my part other than making sure when the
commercials come on I stand up. After a
long day at work I’m not going to lie this is sometimes a challenge but now it
is so much a habit I find that I’m even doing it in the morning if I happen to
have a few minutes where I’m actually watching Canada AM while I get ready for
work.
Those two little steps alone helped let me get to 9000 steps and have
been helping me achieve 10,000 at least some of the time. I have also found myself more aware of how
much I am moving which means I’m doing things like parking further away from
stores or instead of taking short cuts I actually walk the long way around to
do things. The fun little tracker on my
wrist acts as a constant reminder of my desire to be moving more. It has become an anchor that I can touch and
feel and even gives me feedback so I know if I’m doing what I need to be doing.
My goal is now set at 10000 steps a day. I have plans to continue to increase that
limit in the future but for now it has stayed there for the past month or
so. I have a rule with myself that if
I’m not hitting my goal the majority of the days of the week I won’t up the
limit. 10000 has been a challenge. The first week I moved to 10000 steps I ended
up feeling incredibly discouraged. It
was a busy week and I only ended up hitting 10000 once. I was mad at myself. Then a friend at worked asked a simple
question that changed my view of how I look at the step goal. She asked me if I had a number in my head
that I wouldn’t go under. I didn’t. I hadn’t thought about having a range for a
goal but suddenly it made sense. I set
the goal range as 8000-10000. It is a
range that is challenging for me but at least now I can let go of the
disappointment of not meeting a goal as long as I hit 8000. The funny thing about cutting myself that
little bit of slack though is it actually made it easier for me to hit 10000
thanks to another little feature of the fitbit.
In increments of 20% of your goal a little light becomes lit on the
flex. So when I hit 8000 I have all five
lights lit up even if I haven’t reached my goal. Well once I hit all five lights I know that
my goal is close and so I push a little harder to get there so that I can feel
that familiar vibration on my wrist that tells me I have achieved my goal. It’s funny to me the strange games we play
with our minds but I guess in the end if it works I’m not going to argue with
myself about it.
One of the lessons I have taken from having my fitbit is that although
I used to consider myself fairly active I was really fooling myself. Sure I was working out but then I would spend
the rest of the day sitting in front of a computer or my TV which is completely
counterproductive. The tracking on the
fitbit shows you not only how many steps you are doing but also what time you
are doing it. I quickly realized that
sure I had moments were I was fairly active but I had a lot more time where I
wasn`t moving at all. It really shocked
me when I saw it and it changed the way I look at myself. As I continue to work towards my goal of
being a healthy weight I will also continue the goal of making sure that I have
more activity in my life than I do down time.
Since getting my fitbit I have been recommending it to everyone because
the best part of this small investment has been the benefits that I have gained. Since buying it I have watched my weight
begin to steadily go down instead of the bouncing around I had been doing. In fact since getting it without changing
anything other than the amount of moving I’m doing I have managed to lose 12.5
pounds which works out to be around a pound a week. This little device has motivated me in so
many ways now. It is incredible positive
to see results week after week and the positivity is rolling into other
areas. Seeing the weight go down week
after week also helps me make better choices when I’m grocery shopping, eating
out and cooking. You don’t want to work
hard to move more only to screw up the graph because you eat crap.
I want to end this entry with a quote I wrote down after a play in
Rosebud. It is a little quote that has
stuck with me and seems appropriate.
“Sometimes it’s the littlest things that stay with you the
longest.” This quote applies to so many
things in my head but in this instance it just reaffirms to me the power of
what we think of as little. Don’t write
something off just because it seems silly or small because all those things can
add up to be huge, even one minute of activity is better for you than one
minute of doing nothing and quickly one minute can turn into 2 minutes which
can turn into 5 until before you know it you are earning your own 10000 steps. For me it has always been a case of little
changes snowballing to become big changes and motivation.
