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Part of a series of posts about setting easy monthly goals.
It’s time to review our goals from last month. I had two goals:
- Continue on my journey to be as healthy as I can be.
- Try to stay calm and centered.
Even though I didn’t explicitly say it in last month’s post, my second goal was mostly tied to my father’s declining health. Actually, the first and second goals were intertwined. I gained a lot of weight six years ago when my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I spent months stress eating everything in sight. I’ve since spent a great deal of time working on that (not to mention losing that weight) and now I don’t normally turn to food when I’m stressed or overwhelmed or sad. That’s not to say that I’m perfect, but I’m much, much better.
Overall, I had a pretty good month, in terms of food and exercise. That said, I did do some emotional eating last week. Not too much, but some. All things considered, I’m going to say that I met my goals for September. I don’t actually know if I gained or lost weight last week, because I am intentionally staying away from the scales for a few days. I’ll step on in a day or two and see how things look.
I have two goals for October:
- Be careful about my eating and use SparkPeople to help me stay on track. If am successful, then I hope to have lost another 5 pounds by the end of the month.
- Weed my garden and take care of my fall yard chores. Things got wild out there while we were on vacation, and while I have made inroads with the weeds, I haven’t been diligent. Plus, I need to put away the hoses and generally get things ready for the cold months.
What about you? What were your goals for September and what are you planning to do in October?
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I think I need to start fresh with some goals, since I’ve really fallen off the wagon (with goals, with emotional eating, with weight loss).
So… [brisk hand clap] …for October I will focus on activity every day, twice a day, Monday – Saturday. I’ll give myself a once-a-day pass for Sundays, since I spend the mornings at church, going up and down stairs. Luckily, I spent this morning kayaking on the river for 90 minutes (it was lovely!) and this evening was spent walking all over the high school for open house (upstairs, downstairs, in different buildings). That means that Day #1 has been a success! On to Days 2-31…
Notice that I said nothing about chocolate. That omission was intentional. I can only climb back on the wagon one limb at a time right now.
In September I ran my first half-marathon (which you know, and I’m very grateful for your friendly ear and advice!) which went unbelievably well, but I think I should have rested more in the week following, because I woke up yesterday with killer tightness in both my calves which hasn’t gone away yet, so no running until it lightens up. I’m going to get some long walks in though, because I have an 8k in November and I want to do some speed work.
Diet-wise, fall and winter are always difficult for me. I’m cold and I miss the sun and I eat. The salads and fruit smoothies that were so delicious in the spring and summer just aren’t as appealing. So, this year, my goal for October is to find healthy cold-weather recipes that will get all those fruits and veggies into me. (If they can get any of them into the children I will view it as a bonus!) Yesterday I tried cooking 1/3 cup steel-cut oats in 1 cup milk with a finely diced apple and cinnamon for breakfast, and ate it with a teaspoon of local unpasteurized honey and a tbsp of chopped almonds…so delicious! I’m off to a good start.
I’m glad you’re doing so well with the stress eating – I still struggle with that – but I’m learning to step on the scale afterwards and just accept that the scale will be a few pounds higher (mostly bloat from eating more refined sugar and flour than my body is used to having these days) and instead of freaking out I remind myself how far I am from where I started, and how long it took to get here, and how little time it will take me to deal with these few pounds. Just keep being kind to yourself.
It’s October, which means it’s crazy town over here. My goals: get my butt out of bed at least a couple times a week to run. Pull off 3 birthday parties, two Halloween parties, and celebrate my 10th anniversary with something F.U.N. Beyond that? Nothing. I’d add in get my kids to wear coordinating Halloween costumes, but I think that boat has sailed, doggone it. (I spent 2 months convincing them to be a pirate & parrot. Now the boy wants to be Darth Vader and the girl wants to be Little Red Riding Hood. I hate those stupid costume ads.)
no kidding about the wild and crazy jungle after getting back from a vacay….3 weeks gone to Tahoe, and this house looked like someone dumped a bunch o’ fertilizer on everything….not just the plants!
I’m going to keep biking. I rode my bike about 6 miles every day in Tahoe..such a pleasure where I was to hop on it, and just go go go! I only went on one power walk, near the end. My half hour walk did nothing bad to my knee (surgery now 3 months ago) when I tried it up there. So, I am going to keep doing that 2 – 3 times per week, hoping to get back to my one hour walk routine. I will bike 2-3 times per week as well, an every-other type week–and Sunday will most definitely be “off”. Day of rest. And boy do I need a vacation from my vacation!