During the first week of January, I wrote this post about my health & fitness goals for the month. Isn’t it amazing how the days and weeks just fly by in retrospect (for example, this was supposed to post yesterday, oops!)? It really is about all of the little choices. I find myself getting on the wagon and off the wagon entirely too often lately, and I really want to get into the groove like my Mom of making this a slow and steady lifestyle change. She currently has a goal of losing 1# each week, and 37 weeks in she is down 35#. Isn’t that fantastic?! I think of how many times I wish I had just STUCK WITH IT when the progress was slow instead of getting frustrated and giving up and climbing back UP the numbers on the scale instead.

At any rate, here is my recap of my January goals:

• I joined another DietBet with a goal of losing 4% loss in 4 weeks
  I hit 157.2# on January 21st (1# below my goal). Then I went to MN for my Grandpa’s funeral, got out of the routine, and BAM…I was 161.2# on the final weigh-in day. So damn frustrated with myself about this. So there went $35. I’ve decided that money must not motivate me. I need to think of a different reward for myself!
• Make Mason Jar salads on Sundays to eat for lunches throughout the week.
  I’m doing fantastic with this! Every weekend I’ve been prepping 5-10 salads to eat throughout the week (every lunch & sometimes for dinner). This is a total win, and something I definitely plan on continuing.
• Track my calories with MyFitnessPal
  I did well with this until the MN trip and then fell off the wagon. I honestly do pretty well with my food types and portions nowdays – it’s just beer that gets me. *sigh*
• Average 30 minutes of exercise per day (930 minutes for the month).
  I did pretty well at this! Before the crazy week at work and MN trip, I was averaging 29m/day. Then things dropped and I finished at 815 minutes for the month (26m/day). I didn’t include my time spent running through the airport either. 😉
• Get 7,500 steps/day on my FitBit – no excuses
  Well, I had 11 days I was under my goal (including 2 days of being horribly sick & 2 days of all day plane travel), but I had enough really good days that my average for the month was 7,649. I’m happy with that, but still want to shoot for 7,500 EVERY day!
• Drink more water, less beer. The never ending goal. 🙂
  Ahem. Ya. Moving this up the priority list.

My health & fitness goals for February:

• Mental Health: Take a page from my Mom’s book – slow & steady wins the race. Choose LOVE when I get frustrated with myself, and instead of beating myself up and compounding one bad decision with another, treat myself with love and compassion and get right back at it.
• Nutrition: Continue to make mason jar salads and only drink beer 2-3x/week.
  I am pretty great about making healthy food choices. Now it’s time to focus on beer. I LOVE BEER. However, I don’t want beer to be an #issue. So it’s time to cut it back.
• Fitness: Average 30m exercise/day & get 7,500 steps/day on my Fitbit.
  I definitely feel better when I move my body every day. I’m going to work on doing more Jillian Michaels and less elliptical, since it’s really the toning that I NEED in my life. I also realized I have about 2.5 fingers of diastatis recti going on, which is part of my belly pooch problem, so I need to focus on doing exercises that will that issue as well and not worsen it. Does anyone have some good links/exercises for me?

The days and weeks and months and years will continue to fly by. I know that health & wellness will be something that is always part of my life, but I’m so ready for it to be more of the maintenance mode rather than constantly striving for something different mode. I can do this. My 33rd year will be a healthy one.

Eating one of my mason jar salads today while having lunch with my littles! <3