I’m going to change the order I do lunch.  If I plan to get a coffee drink, I’m going to make sure I eat my (healthy, pre-packed) lunch first and finish my water bottle.  If I still want the coffee, I will go get it, but I am much less likely to buy a cookie.

My exercise goals for the week:

1. today, yoga & bellydance class
2. tomorrow, 30-minute walk during dinner break
3. Wednesday, yoga & bellydance practice
4. Thursday, yoga & bellydance practice
5. Friday, 30-minute walk during lunch break
6. Saturday, gardening, long walk with dogs & family, yoga
7. Sunday, swimming?

I’m not sure what my weight is.  My scale gives a different reading every time I get on.  Maybe I need to just weigh at the Y when I go for my swim every week.  (Though I couldn’t go this week because of the storms.)

In coming weeks, I might experiment with some of their other plans, like the low-glycemic index plan, just to see if I like them better.

I wanted to post yesterday about how much I love my Sunday routine. I swim laps and then  tread water and then sit in the sauna.  This week I got to 13 laps.

I realized I’ve been better at carving out time to exercise.  Sundays I swim, Monday is bellydancing, Tuesday and Thursday are weights.  I haven’t quite been able to be consistent on Wednesdays or Saturdays, and Fridays are out of the question because I’m either working or driving between 3am and 5pm.  I do usually get a bit of a walk in at lunch time.

Lately I haven’t had much of an appetite.  I wonder if that’s my body’s way of saying it’s tired of being fat.  I didn’t do a very good job of listening to myself last week, so I ate when I wasn’t hungry and didn’t choose the healthiest foods.  I need to listen to my body, because I think that’s key.

I’m in a team challenge at eDiets, and I feel like I’m dragging the team down.  I’m going to try my hardest this week to get all the points each day.

Intuitive eating seems to be working.  I ate a little more than I need last night– it was nachos.  I have to work on eating especially tasty food even slower so I don’t keep eating after I’m full.  I also had about 10 ounces of soda, but I really wanted it, and stopped when I didn’t want it any more.

Yesterday, I parked about a mile from the library and walked the rest of the way. That was nice.  It was a beautiful day.  I’m going to try to get to bellydance class tonight and possibly go to the pool afterwards if my suit arrives.  It might be a busy day, though.  We’re test-driving a couple of cars to replace my poor, dead car this week.

I really hope I get better about listening to myself and respecting myself.

Oh, I need to add my webring codes back in before I get banished from all of them.  Ooops!

The plan was pretty easy to stick with throughout the week, but I dropped it on the weekend.  It’s possible the gain is from the spaghetti I ate last night and the working out that I did (muscles filling with water blah blah blah.)  I’m giving it another week before I ask for an adjustment.

So far, I have not done so well with my wellness class adjustments.  I have completely forgotten to take my iron, which is probably the most important change, since without getting my anemia taken care of, I won’t be able to work out hard.  I exercised at least 15 minutes every day except one, which is good.  And I stuck to my eating plan up until Friday afternoon. 

This week, my goals are to exercise at least 15 minutes a day (with 1 hour on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays), take my iron every day, and follow my eating plan all week.  The wild cards are Friday’s Happy Hour, and Saturday’s Big Date with DH.  I’m not going to set a weight goal, since I seem to be completely incapable of reaching any goal weight ever.

Today is supposed to be strength training, but I’m not sure if I have it in me.  I’m trying to sign up for a wellness class today, so depending on how that goes, I might be able to fit in a short circuit workout at the rec center on campus.  I also plan to take a walk at dinner time.  I’m bringing dinner, but I might go to the veggie restaurant and get a smoothie.

I can’t wait until I can fit into my swimsuit.  I think I have about 15 pounds to lose to get into the largest one I have.  Another ten will get me into the next one.  I want to get back to swimming laps at least once a week.

And, yesterday’s eDiets shopping trip was quite an eye-opener.  It cost $103 dollars and the only thing I bought that wasn’t on the list was honey-roasted peanuts for my son.  Some of that was staples like sesame oil or worcestershire sauce.  Another item was vegetable broth, which I need to plan to make on my own in the future.  I do hope that future menus will use some of the items left over from this week.  Otherwise, the plan will not be doable as a plan. However, DH liked last night’s dinner, so maybe the cost of making multiple dinners will convince him to eat healthy along with me.  Like I told him, this is not about dieting.  This is about teaching me how to cook healthy, tasty meals, and teaching me how to put together a daily menu.  These are things that were not done when I was a kid, for various reasons that no one needs to feel bad about.

Speaking of healthy foods, I’m getting frustrated with my son. He wants to lose about 5-10 pounds (he’s stocky, but not fat), but he refuses to eat healthy along with us.  He wouldn’t even try the bean tostada last night.  Yesterday, his only meal was from McD.  (He’s almost 17- there’s little I can do to make him make the right nutritional choices.  But, he knows there are healthy, low-fat, whole wheat options here at home, so it’s up to him.)

So far, eDiets has really annoyed me with about 20 “special offer” screens to get through before finalizing my order.  If this is what it’s like to use this program, I will cancel after the first month.  And, it looks like recipes are NOT included.

I did go for the 1-year special, which apparently does include recipes.  We’ll see how that goes.  I elected low sugar without soy or pork.  I’ll probably eliminate dairy later, but I think I’m having nutritional deficiencies from eliminating milk, so I need to leave it in.

I have printed out my first week of recipes and meals. I will probably substitute a couple of meals: Tuesday’s dinner will probably be from the vegetarian place near campus, while Friday lunch and dinner will also be from someplace near campus.  Today’s lunch is leftovers from Friday’s “Good Fortune Wrap.”  But I will have their dinner, the bean tostada.

Ways that it’s better than WeightWatchers: it was so easy to print out a week, INCLUDING recipes, which has been a frustrating thing with WeightWatchers.

Ways that it is the same as WeightWatchers: there’s not enough meals that have the same foods in common.  I don’t like to buy a 10-pack of tortillas to use just one, and have them be stale by the time they turn up again in the plan.

Ways that is is worse than WeightWatchers.  All the spam you have to wade through before getting your final receipt.