Staying Motivated

So it's beginning to happen yet again, I'm losing motivation to really stick with changed eating habits.  Please tell me why it happens why I allow it to happen, about 3-4 weeks in every time. I have not totally fallen off the wagon but I definitely don't have the motivation I did when I first started.

Source

Work has gotten busy again with the return of the students so obviously I have been busy there, but it hasn't been the meals, but the other things in between meals that I feel are throwing me off.   I am happy with losing 0.6 lb last week in the midst of sorority recruitment, but I want more this next week and know it's going to take an effort.

I know it's about making better choices and I've decided that TODAY I am going to work on that. It's one of the first days in awhile that I am home, without any plans and no work so I am going to plan meals and cook for the week because I know if I have stuff ready to go things will be easier! 

Source

My other goal for the week is to get to the gym/get a workout in at least 5 days, including 2 days of lifting and 3-5 days of cardio for at least 30 minutes.  The good thing is that I got a run/walk in on Friday and then lifted and did cardio Saturday so I have 3 more trips in the next 5 days!

How do you stay motivated to eat healthy and keep on a good track?

Celebrating Small Wins

So my day job is being a fraternity/sorority advisor at a university.  I love my job (most days) but this means that January for me is ridiculously busy.  Well right now I am in the middle of that craziness.  I worked last weekend with our councils and presidents and tonight begins sorority recruitment.  Recruitment means little time at home, LOTS of time in my office/on campus and no normal routine. 

Source

Today I am trying to celebrate the small wins from the week.  I weigh in on Fridays and tracked an additional 1.6 lbs lost, but on the flip side I've only made it to the gym once.  So while I try to celebrate the win of another pound gone, I am internally beating myself for not working out more.  I'm hopeful that I can sneak away for a quick run tomorrow when I get recruitment started, but realistically know that I will be working off 5 hours of sleep max and I'm not a person who likes less than 8! I also know how much better I feel when I do get that workout in!  Any suggestions on how to stay motivated and not let the gym be the first thing that goes during the busy times?

Revisiting Ritual

I got the best present in the mail on Thursday, one that I wasn't expecting this week....it's a copy of the Phi Mu Ritual book.  Phi Mu is very protective of their ritual book, which I appreciate but since I don't currently work with a collegiate chapter of theirs, it's been hard for me to get my hands on, but after a conversation with our wonderful National President, I was able to borrow one to read. 

Source

If you know me at all, you know that I always read before going to bed, so you know what my reading was Thursday night....yup, I read the ritual book.  It's been awhile since I have been fortunate enough to go through a Phi Mu ritual so it's been fun reading this and realizing that I remember more than I thought.  This is definitely something that's on my 32 list and I am glad that I have had this wonderful opportunity and plan on taking full advantage of it!

TTG-Acts of Kindness

Today is January 11th, on the 11th of the month the challenge is to do a random act of kindness (or two) in honor of my sorority sister Tara, and her unborn son, who lost her battle against a heart issue in November.  When I started the 32 list I put this on my list and set a reminder on my calendar for the 11th of every month, so I knew that it was coming up this week and I was was trying to figure out what to do.  I realize that this doesn't have to be a major thing but just needs to be something.

So today while I was in Wal-Mart and had been standing in line for a good 5+ minutes and not moving very quickly an older man and his wife came up behind me holding about 5 things each.  While my cart wasn't full, I knew that I was paying in two different groups so I decided to let the man and his wife go ahead of me.  Did it add another 5-10 minutes to my trip? Sure, but he was very thankful and I got a "God bless you" or some such comment, so in my mind it was worth it.   

Please take a moment and check out Tara's page: http://ttgactsofkindness.tumblr.com/
Maybe challenge yourself to go out of your way and do a random act of kindness for some you run into.

So hard....

I feel like for most some people starting a blog would be the easiest part of this list.  For more it's probably one of the hardest.  I'm not someone who easily shares things about herself and it probably didn't help that over the holidays one of my friends actively discouraged my doing this unless I protected the blog so you had to get approved to read it.  Well my internal dialogue said that was against the point of this. I want to be open and honest about this journey and I figure to do that I need to do this.

As the New Year began I stopped and reflected as I saw people commenting about resolutions and how most people fail in keeping them.  Good thing I don't consider these resolutions, but more like goals, or in my life a to-do list, a rather long to-do list, but one nonetheless.  Once my holiday travels were over I jumped right in and began to tackle the first thing on my list, losing weight.  This task also became very real for me this week when I went to the doctor.  The doctor confirmed for me the thing I was expecting, that my cholesterol is high.  I don't mean just a little high, I mean high enough that I have a year to try and bring it down with diet and exercise or face going on medication.  While high cholesterol runs in my family (I've started writing down my history so I know this), I never expected to be faced with it this soon.  While it threw me for more of a loop than I expected I am also using it as another piece of motivation.

At the end of week one of watching my eating habits (I refuse to call it a diet, because it's not) I am down 1.4 lbs.  I also made it to the gym twice last week to log just over 8 miles. I need to get on that one I guess.  Time to go create my workout plan for the week.