Cleaning Up the Bill of Health One Week at a Time

Hey there. So, it just re-occurred to me that Daylight Savings Time starts again tonight, so I don't want to stay up too late. The Math Team ended up getting third at today's match. I'm glad to take eight students, but I hope to get more people consistently involved with the meets next year. This was our last regular meet, so the next step is state in April and then nationals in May (assuming we have people qualify for that).

For the past couple of years, I've been involved in a New Year's Fitness Challenge with some co-workers through the local Community Center. The challenge goes into April and there are weekly weigh-ins. There have also been nutrition classes, but not much else in terms of pushing people day to day. I'll admit that last year, I kind of stopped caring halfway in and didn't really change myself.

This past holiday season, I was already thinking that I wanted to get back into shape, so I was mentally gearing up for the Fitness Challenge. My initial weigh-in included some holiday weight, but I told myself that I should be focusing on feeling good and practicing good habits rather than having a specific number to shoot for. This year, the fitness challenge has a point system to help each participant motivated throughout each week. During each day, you can earn points for things like drinking 64 ounces of water, stopping eating before a certain time, and keeping a food journal. In reality, the points really don't mean anything, but the fact that I can quantify my day and see what I need to work on for the future has been helpful.

It's a little over halfway through the challenge, but I feel like things are already starting to improve for the better. Thanks to the points, I've been deliberate about not snacking late at night, which I've done quite a bit of during high school/college/here. I'm also pushing myself to consistently drink 64+ ounces of water a day. At the beginning of the challenge, there were days when I would maybe get half of that. However, as I found out a week or two okay, if I have a water bottle next to me while working on the computer, it will magically empty without me realizing it. I think I've been able to go a week-and-a-half straight with completing the 64-ounce goal each day.

I will admit that I'm still having struggles - the biggest two are definitely getting daily exercise and adding vegetables to my diet. Right around my birthday, I completed a Health Assessment through work and these two challenges also popped up in those results. (On a positive note, my cholesterol and blood pressure continued to be excellent - thanks Mom & Dad & ancestors I got the good genes from!) Unfortunately, this week has been kind of a tough week in both of these struggles.

In high school, I didn't go out to deliberately run or lift weights in the name of "exercise". Instead, I was active through the clubs I was involved in - show choir, marching band, musical theater, etc. It was something that was fun, but I never thought about it as exercise. When that didn't exist in college, I never really picked up the exercise habit, so that's why I'm still struggling with it now. Fortunately, with the Robotics competition this week, I think I'll be active by being on my feet at the arena for three full days.

At this point, I'm about 10 pounds down from my first weigh-in in January. My waist measurement also dropped by a couple of inches. I think one thing that made things stick a little more this year is that I'm doing this all for me - not my co-workers, not my family, not a special someone, but me. It's thinking about the future, but also the fact that I know how tight certain pairs of pants are and seeing that number slowly drop over the past several weeks has definitely pushed me onward. 

So yeah, outside of Math team and Robotics, that was what was on my mind today. Also, I figured that sharing some positive updates are always good to read, right?

Well, good luck with adjusting to the lost hour of sleep! See you tomorrow!