Week 16, Day 5

Hi Everyone! I hope your holiday weekend has been going well. Mine has been calm and a great time to rest. I haven't been focused so much on fitness and diet as I have been on rest and peace. Yesterday I asked you about goals and motivators, and my friend Claire said this coming year she wants to focus on getting more sleep. Getting enough rest is such an important part of our overall health! So I've been getting rest this weekend in preparation for hitting it really hard when Season 9 of the Biggest Loser begins this coming Tuesday.

Okay, now for the food and exercise journal. Um...food first. Breakfast was crappy. I had crackers and some leftover Hershey's kisses. Terrible, huh? Honest, though. And for dinner I had some pasta with tuna, cheese, and mixed veggies. I like this particular mix of veggies because it has red peppers, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, green beans, and cauliflower -- a nice mix of colors and flavors. As for exercise...sadly, not much. I hurt today. I think this sub-zero weather isn't helping. Even my face hurts today. And I'm really, really tired. I keep telling myself I'll do better tomorrow. But...then tomorrow turns into today and I don't get it done. Really, I need to get it done. Now that I've told you about my terrible habit of procrastination, maybe I'll have better luck at overcoming it. Let's see if I can just conquer it at least one day -- tomorrow. :)

Today's Tip:
Keeping with the idea of sleep being important to our overall health, I found some interesting information on the National Institutes of Health website. They report that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirms that not getting enough sleep is tied to several health problems, including obesity. Ways to get better quality sleep, according to the CDC, include:

* Keep a regular sleep schedule.
* Avoid stimulating activities for two hours before bedtime.
* Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evening.
* Sleep in a dark, quiet, well-ventilated room.
* Avoid going to bed hungry.

To read more about it, click here.

Week 16, Day 4

What a great way to start 2010 -- watching reruns of Season 3 from Biggest Loser. I missed Season 3 when it originally ran, so this was great! This was awesome motivation to get me completely in the mood to get going and not fall in the trap holiday eating can put us in. Wooohooo!

Now that's not to say I ate well today. LOL. I didn't do badly. But I didn't eat really well. I had 3 banana mini muffins for breakfast. Two yogurts for lunch. A really crappy Burger King hamburger for mid-afternoon snack --and believe me, I wish I hadn't. Ugh -- how do people eat those things? I didn't sleep well last night because I was babysitting Little Man and kept one ear open for him, so I was really tired today and got a soda at Burger King to load up on caffeine. Big mistake. Really, I don't know how I drank those things before. Nasty. Completely nasty. I had a couple of sips and had to throw the rest out. Anyway, for dinner I had a bowl of Italian wedding soup -- canned, and added the traditional blackeyed peas for New Years to it. Not great tasting, but who am I to argue with tradition? And the whole shebang was only about 400 calories, so it wasn't too bad. I'm guessing the whole day only cost me about 1000 calories. So I guess it wasn't too bad a start to the new year.

Little Man gave me a bit of a workout -- as always. I love the little guy to pieces. And he's old enough now that we can really interact. He brings toys to me now for us to play with. And...he runs from me when he doesn't want to do what I want him to. I can't be mad at him -- it's too cute to watch his little hiney running from me! First Son and Wifey went to Brownville, NE, last night and spent New Year's --and their 2nd anniversary -- at an elegant little bed and breakfast inn on the Missouri River. Dinner was served, their room was upgraded to the best possible, and fireworks were shot off at midnight. It was all quite festive, and I'm so glad that Adam and I were available to watch Little Man so First Son and Wifey could go spend a special anniversary together. And I'm delighted that I've come far enough in my journey to have quite efficiently taken care of an 18-month old. Six months ago I couldn't have. Again...a great way to begin the new year!

RESOLUTIONS
The temp tonight is 16 below zero -- that's the actual temp, not the wind chill. Since I have asthma, that's a concerning figure. And this is all the more reason for me to continue without ceasing on this journey. I must get in shape if only because the extremes of each season shouldn't be a life-and-death event for me. I'm not one to make a whole list of New Year's resolutions, but I am always aware of WHY I'm on this journey, why A New Suit exists. What are YOUR motivators as you enter 2010? What are YOUR hopes and dreams for the coming year -- and how can I help you achieve them? Let me know!

Week 16, Day 3

Although this blog is ongoing, this is the final post of 2009, and like many people, I have a weight gain to report from the holiday season. But not too much. I went from 226 on Dec 22 to 230 today. All things considered, a 4 pound gain isn't too bad. Right?

And by "all things considered", I mean a blizzard on Christmas Eve, being snowed in until the following Tuesday, and graciously eating in moderation the food our hosts (my parents) abundantly shared. Sweet rolls for breakfast, dessert each night, noodles, cheese, and such at dinner time, etc. Mom and Dad have eaten this way for decades, and the holidays are no time to make a big hairy deal out of special meals for me, especially when we're snowed in and eating food they hadn't counted on sharing out of their limited means. And Mom, bless her heart, is one of those good cooks who always insists everyone take second helpings. Workouts were limited. No stairs, no bike, no way to get out for a walk, none of my usual stuff.

My innards have been paying for Christmas week. I don't handle stress well, for one thing. And I inherited my mother's finicky innards. So the weather watching and crazy ride over to Iowa on Christmas Eve had my insides pretty well wrecked. I was completely determined to NOT miss this Christmas since my dad is facing some major health hurdles in the very near future (please pray for him). But I think I must have been a bit nuts to take off in the kind of weather we were having. There were times when the road wasn't even visible --heck, none of the outside was visible, and I'm quite certain it was only God and His angels keeping us on the highway. It took us a little under three hours to make an hour and 15 minutes trip. Then there was more weather watching as we tried to figure when we could leave to get Adam back to work. He got someone to work for him on Saturday and completely missed Sunday. Monday he had off, and finally on Tuesday morning the highways cleared enough to allow tow trucks through -- I figured then if we got stuck, at least someone could come rescue us. Between all this an the normal stresses of holidays, I have been alternating between diarrhea, nothing moving at all, and throwing up (which just started yesterday --yippy).

NEW YEAR GOAL
The good news is that the new season of Biggest Loser begins next week on Tuesday, January 5. I'm so excited! My older son, Dan, got me one of the Biggest Loser videos and some resistance bands for Christmas. With that and the exercise shoes Adam got me, I'm all set to make great progress in the coming months. As you know, my goal is it make it to 184 by March 27. I'm at 230 today, so I've got a looong way to go. Frankly, I'm not sure I can make it. But I KNOW I can at least get under 200 pounds by then. And I WILL make that goal for SURE! What are YOUR goals?

Today's Tip:
All the experts say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that we should take it easy on the evening meal. My friend Charlotte found this on someone else's blog, and I thought it was good to share here as a reminder of the way our meals should be eaten: "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar." Thanks, Charlotte!

Happy New Year, Everyone!