Of Progress & Goals (A&I July BSG: Week 1)

You know what “they” say, right? “Fall six times. Stand up seven.” Or something like that. Anyway, that’s what the end of June was for me. After a hiatus of a bit over a year -- a year spent settling into a new house, enduring more stress than necessary at the hands of the Army (or more specifically, someone who didn’t do his job causing us to suffer the consequences), taking a big family vacation with an extra kid (my little “sister”) in tow, going through a rough pregnancy, welcoming Squeaky to the family, bidding my husband farewell for another deployment, and finding my own “new normal” as a completely on my own brand new mom of two -- I returned to SparkPeople for yet another attempt at meeting my overall goal to shed the preschooler weight (the baby weight is gone; less than a month postpartum, I was over ten pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant) and set a better example for my kids.

That being said, another thing “they” say is that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, so I knew I had to make some changes. Thus, I shunned the traditional specific goals and decided to spend a couple of weeks just thinking about what had gone wrong in the past and making small changes to avoid those pitfalls. It was enlightening. Almost immediately, I learned four things.

-- I have always tried to fit my life into my diet and fitness plan instead of doing the opposite.

-- The minute I tell myself I can’t have a particular food group or that I can have only, say, 1300 calories a day, my mind immediately becomes obsessed with food, and I become stressed out.

-- I cannot talk to the people I previously considered my biggest cheerleaders about losing weight because their approach errs on the side of policing me. They may not judge, but inevitably, the constant topic of conversation revolves around food, and the end result is that I am, once again, focused on the one topic that will cause me to stress and binge or will make me feel like a failure if I don’t measure up to what they expect of me, what they’ve accomplished themselves, or my own idea of perfection.

-- I have trigger foods, and no matter how motivated I’m feeling, they absolutely cannot be in the house. (Sorry. LittleDude. This means you’ll have make do with lollipops in your reward jar instead of mini peanut butter cups -- just until Mommy gets a little stronger.)

So that brings me to July. This is going to be a challenging month. Yesterday, my mom and little “sister” arrived. (By the way, I use quotation marks because while I consider her my little sister and while she calls me “Sissy,” she is not legally or biologically my sister. She’s my cousin’s granddaughter who comes from an abusive home, was raised for the first six months of her life by my parents, and who spends as much time as any of us can convince her biological parents to allow with my family.) My mom falls into that aforementioned category of people who are overly supportive to the point of stressing me out, so now I find myself navigating the rest of month trying to stick with my program without really saying, “Hey, I’m trying to lose weight and get healthier.” This is going to be a huge challenge because we tend to eat out a lot when my mom is here, there tends to be junk food in the house when my little “sister” is here, and if the past month is any indication, the weather is not going to cooperate for me to suggest a neighborhood walk, a game in the backyard, or any other outdoor activity every day. It’s a good thing I’m focused on covert fitness right now. I’m expecting a slight dip in my fitness minutes because I won’t be able to hit the treadmill while they’re here (it’s folded up in their room) but, honestly, the vast majority of my minutes and steps come just from my daily life. If I can amp that up with a few special projects around the house, do my ST at night once I’ve retired to my bedroom, and just make the healthiest choices I can make food-wise, I think I’ll be okay. So, here are July’s goals.

-- Steps: 10k per day at least 24 days this month.

-- Strength Training: 3x per week

-- Cardio: 200 exercise minutes on FitBit at least 24 days this month.

-- Nutrition: Stay in range at least 24 days this month.

-- Nutrition: 8 glasses of water every day and 9 glasses at least 24 days this month.

-- Motivation: Do not beat myself up if a day doesn’t go as planned. Forgive myself, and move on.

Good luck to all my fellow BSG participants!