Back To Square, Er, DAY, One

It’s amazing how quickly the pounds can come back when you lose sight of your goals.

Wait – no, it isn’t, really…  That’s what got me here in the first place.

Monday was the last day of our cleanse, and hubs and I were both craving meat.  We had decided some time back that, on Tuesday, we would hit one of our favorite local restaurants for their truly awesome tri-tip sandwiches.  Since I had also mentioned that I wanted to see The Hunger Games, so we decided to make it something of a date night, in light of the fact that we didn’t have to get up at 4 am the next morning to drive to Oakland for work.  We could actually sleep in until 5:30.

Tuesday ended up being quite a nice evening for the both of us.  We enjoyed the dinner and the movie – including the fried onion rings and pear cider that ended up joining in on dinner, and the popcorn and Icee that ended up being our double dates for the movie.

The rest of the past week has featured more of the same – too much indulging in less-than-healthy foods and little or no purposeful physical activity.  I think I managed to backslide about half of the progress I made during the cleanse.

Part of it, I’m sure, is that I had been letting myself slack off while doing the cleanse, with respect to my self-defined healthy checks:

Meditation, exercise, and hypnotherapy can have multiple smilies.  I want at least one each on mediation and exercise, and at least two for hypnotherapy.  In order to achieve a successful day, I need to have a total of eight smilies.  If I miss on some point or other, I need to make it up with extra meditation, exercise, or hypnotherapy (or a combination).

I also need to be honest with myself regarding what constitutes healthy and unhealthy or uncontrolled eating.  Indulgences are OK, as long as they are controlled, measured, and in moderation – I don’t believe in making any food off limits, but it is necessary for me to realize I can’t just have them at my whim, nor can they be a reward for anything related to my goals.

For every seven days that I manage to achieve eight or more smilies, I will allow myself to have some “pleasure” reading – that which has no particular value to my mental, physical, emotional well-being, and is not meant to improve my career-related knowledge.

Every time I reduce my weight by 10%, I will treat myself to a massage.  My first logged weight on My Fitness Pal was 222.8, entered on June 4th, 2011.  I’ll use that as my starting point, so that means I can go for a massage when I reach 200.5 pounds.  A week ago, I was less than a pound away from that – today, the difference is 10!

I’ve also got in mind three special milestones that will net some more significant rewards – reaching ONE-derland, halfway to goal, and reaching goal.  I need to sit down and make myself a wish list, though, before I can really say what the rewards for these will be – I also need to define some rewards for my #gothedist2012 goals, and for my running goals.

Finally, I’m going to set myself one more goal – to try to post and share here at least three times per week.  Each week that I post at least three entries will result in some new music to listen to while I’m walking, hitting the treadmill, or sweating it out at the gym.

Staring Down The Gates Of One-derland

For the last three weeks (well, just short of…), I’ve been doing a dietary cleanse, eating only whole fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, vegetable oils, and protein shakes.

Thus far, I’ve lost fifteen pounds – and I’m within four pounds of finally dropping below 200 pounds, for the first time in years.  However, I’ve been stuck at the same number for the past couple of days.

I have one more days, counting today, of being on this restricted eating plan (which is a good thing, as I’m getting grumpy without eating meat or grain!).  If I manage to achieve this milestone when I weigh in Tuesday morning, I’ll treat myself to a massage!

What do you like to reward yourself with when you reach a significant milestone, and what would you consider to be such a milestone?

I’ve Been Away (Again…) – Part 2

So, yeah, you might say I got lost between March 21st and today…  Here, at last, is the Part 2 follow-up to my last post.

 

Literally:

My husband and I had a very nice weekend away, completely unplugged – there is no cell signal in and around Yosemite, and internet service at the hotels is outrageously priced.  I had a laptop with me, but only for the purpose of loading geocaches onto my GPS.

We arrived at the hotel just ahead of the rain, but got soaked going to get dinner.  Still, the view off of the deck was pretty spectacular.  There was a spa in the room, and a fireplace, so we had a nice relaxing evening.

The next morning, we slept late enough that we missed breakfast, so we made a brunch of fresh veggies (with a tasty red pepper hummus) and some smoked sausage and crackers.  After our repast, we loaded ourselves and the pup into the vehicle, to head into Yosemite National Park.

With the weather at hand, we didn’t get to really see any of the famous landmarks – the clouds were low and full of snow.  Since the gas station in El Portal was shut down, we decided to head up to Crane Flat, where the next nearest station was.

The drive was quite nice, as we were surrounded by absolutely untouched pristine white snow.  When we arrived at the station, we were amazed to see so much untouched whiteness.

Harley the Wonder-Collie thoroughly enjoyed getting out to check out the falling white stuff.  Unfortunately, since we were in the National Park, she was not able to go off-leash (although there was a fenced area next to the hotel that she thoroughly enjoyed).

Sadly, our tour of the Valley didn’t last long, as it was very wet and too slushy to get out for any hiking, and the tops of the cliffs were obscured by thick clouds, but we did get to see a lovely little waterfall on our way back down to the hotel.

Waterfall

When we awoke the next morning, this was the view off of our balcony at the hotel:

New Snow

We drove home that day, much more relaxed than we had been in several months.  It was a wonderful cleanse for my spirit, and allowed me to be ready to get back on track toward my goals.

I’ve Been Away (Again…) – Part 1

Figuratively:

For the last while (not sure how long, as it snuck up on me), I’ve been sliding in and out of a funk, in a slow downward spiral into the darkness where all I want to do is sleep.  Every time I started to think that I was ready to get back on track, I found that I was mistaken.  I even went without meditation and hypnotherapy sessions – it seems I was truly determined to self-sabotage this time.

Fortunately, a planned weekend away arrived just in the nick of time, and I feel I’m finally starting to come out of the hole again.  It took a change of scenery and a change in appearance, but something seems to be working…  I’m also going through some dietary changes; going (mostly) veg, with whey protein shakes to help keep things balanced, for the next three weeks.  It’s going to be interesting… 

Tomorrow, I’ll share some pictures from our weekend holiday – stay tuned!

Me Vs. The CPAP

Yup, just after 2 am is a really strange time for me to be writing a blog entry…

Well, here’s the story…

Back in November, I had a sleep study, and was diagnosed with mild-to-moderate sleep apnea.  The specialist decided I should go back for another, to see how I did with a CPAP machine.

I didn’t.

My body reacted to having air forced up the nostrils by stopping breathing – the gag reflex kicked in, and all the air that was going into my nose came right back out of my mouth.  They even tried two different masks – the first was at least semi-comfortable; the second was downright painful.  I thought my nose was being yanked off.

I also tensed up to the point where my jaws were clenched – not at all conducive to a restful night!  In fact, I came home from the aborted study more awake than when I left to go to the sleep center (and that’s why I’m still up!).

The tech at the center suggested having the doc prescribe a sleeping pill, and coming back to try again – it would relax me to the point where my body wouldn’t fight the machine.  Well, that’s all well and good for the test, but what about the subsequent weeks or months it will take to get to where I would actually be able to sleep with the damn thing on?  I don’t need to be dropping a sleeping pill every night!

I think I’ll tell the doc at the follow-up that I will just stick with my meditation and my hypnotherapy – they seem to be helping me sleep just fine, thank you very much!

I think I’ll go up to bed with a book until I can relax and fall asleep – for real this time!

I Owe You (And Myself) A Blog Entry

It’s time I caught up with myself, so that you can, too.

Probably the biggest thing to note is that I started a hypnotherapy program a week ago.  So far, it seems to be working – I’m sleeping better, and starting to make better food choices automatically.  It’s actually very relaxing, too – in fact, I will probably purchase my own light-and-sound machine at some point.  There are a number of programs available beyond the weight loss program I signed up for – I do believe there is a good value there.  I’m looking forward to seeing this evolve over the next nine months, and I’m feeling very positive.

As part of my program, I have a number of “inch-loss body wraps” included (and a 21-day cleanse that I will start in my third week).  I did my first body wrap yesterday, and found it actually very pleasant – not what I expected from being slathered in a lotion that smells like Red-Hot cinnamon candies and turned into a plastic-wrap mummy.  I also got to sit in an infrared sauna as part of the treatment (it worked much better than the one that I experienced at my visit to Spa Dhara recently) – I was thoroughly sweated after just 20 minutes.

The body wrap took nearly five inches off of me, too!  And I did a nice hypnosis session while I was wrapped.  I get to do at least three more of these, too!

I finally started up on #7daychip again too, and made it for 22 days this time.  I’m not sure why, but I had a down day on Monday, and just ate stupid.  I started over again on Tuesday, and am feeling pretty good just now, although it’s early in the game.

My objective this week is to start working out more consistently, and I had a hypnosis session customized to that purpose yesterday.

My big achievement for the week was my first-ever successful shoulder stand at yoga class last night – that felt awesome!

Another Fork In The Road

I’ve realized now that I’ve got to change my way of thinking in order to be successful at weight loss and healthy living, and I’ve been trying to do it on my own for a couple of months now.  So far, my results have been minimal, at best.

To that end, I’m trying out a different route, starting this Wednesday.

I’ll let you all know how it feels after the first go-round.