accountability update #1
When I first started blogging about food, fitness and my weight loss journey way back when, I did it for one reason—accountability. When you make a promise, set a goal and share your results with a group of people, you are inherently more apt to be successful. That’s why, when you first start a new healthy lifestyle, the “experts” always say to make sure to tell people around you what’s going on. Once the whole world knows, once it’s outside of you, it becomes real. And that reality makes it harder to skip out on doing your best.
So I’m going to get back to my blogging roots (har, har, see what I did there?). I’m going to start posting weekly accountability updates. The truth is, I really want to start taking better care of myself. It’s not that I’m anywhere near back to the Mountain Dew chugging, Double Quarter Pounder noshing, couch potato-dom I once was, but I’m definitely not the healthiest I’ve ever been either. I’ve let sugar slip in and take a stronghold in my life. I spend more time avoiding the treadmill than I should. My kettlebells have a hefty layer of dust on them. And I kinda forgot that I’m supposed to drink something called “water”.
It’s cool though. It happens. This healthy living thing is a roller coaster, and right now, I’m on one of those dips right before you go up-and-up-and-up. And you all are going to help push my butt all the way up that hill, k?
Each and every Friday, I’m going to try I am going to pop in here and share with you guys how I’m doing on the health front. This means, food, hydration, fitness, and…dun-dun-dun….weigh-ins. BTHR has never been about being a weight loss blog (not that there is anything wrong with that), but I’m sick of skirting around the issue here. I feel a lot healthier when I’m a little bit narrower, and I’d love to share that journey with you guys. Weight loss isn’t going to be my main bag, but the facts are: (1) I want to lose some weight. (2) I like you guys and I want to talk to you about it.
Alright, you in? Let’s get accountable. Warning: this week wasn’t great.
Food
The quality of my food was great this week. Lots of veggies, fruit, whole grains and healthy proteins, the problem comes with portion. I actually looked at my plate before dinner last night and thought, “This is way too much food!” and still ate it all anyway. Logically, I know I need to get back to basics and start tracking my food and weighing and measuring, but I just can’t bring myself to get back into the habit. As my dear friend Krissie said, I just need to stop being a brat and do it already. Too much organic, local, high quality food is still too much food. I really need to get over the idea that I can eat my weight in honey because it’s local and raw. That doesn’t negate the fact that it’s pure sugar and calories, yo.
How to improve next week: Measure and track my dang food! That’s it. Just do it. All of it. Every bite. Please add me as a friend at MyFitnessPal and yell at me if you see me missing a meal from today on. Please. I’d also like to cut back a bit on the sugar overload that’s going on up in here.
Fitness
The ugly truth: I didn’t workout once this week.
I just can’t seem to get my fitness mojo back lately. Other than yoga, I haven’t been able to be really consistently doing anything. And while a nice 90 minutes worth of Bikram is great for light strength and stretching, I really need to get some hardcore cardio and strength back into my fitness regime. I’m struggling a lot with the “all or nothing” mentality with fitness lately. If I skip one scheduled workout, I seem to say, “Welp! This week is shot. Let’s go sit on the couch for the remaining 6 days.” Again, I need to stop being a brat.
How to improve next week: Get in at least two short cardio workouts to get the fitness ball re-rolling. No need to kill it at the gym, just something to get me back in the groove of working out regularly. Walking, even. Walking is good!
Hydration
I have yet to figure out hydration at home. When I was working five days a week at a desk job, it was easy. I had a giant water bottle 18″ from my face and sipped on it all day long. But at home? I’m worthless. I’ve jokingly said I was going to start walking around the house with a CamelBak on, but it might be my only solution! I’ll try to track my water stats more closely this week, but I’d say I averaged between 4-6 glasses a day. Better than nothing, but definitely lower than I’d like.
How to improve next week: Drink 16 ounces of water when I wake up, before my morning tea. Other than tea, only drink other beverages (milk, coffee, juice, beer, etc.) after I’ve hit my water goal for the day. Aim for 80 ounces of water per day.
Weight
Starting Weight: 272 lbs
Last Week’s Weight: 233.6 lbs
This Week’s Weight: 232.2 lbs
This Week’s Loss: -1.4 lbs
Despite my massive portions and sedentary week, I somehow managed to shave off a pound and a half. Part of it probably has to do with feeling under the weather—I had a fever for a bit, that probably burned off some calories that my treadmill didn’t.
I’m still struggling with seeing that 230+ number on the scale. I was down to 215 back in September and felt amazing. Like I could never lose another pound again and be happy forever. But at 230+? None of my clothes fit. My knees hurt. I feel generally frumpy. It’s crazy what 15 pounds can do.
How to improve next week: Track food. Work out. Keep hydrated. Done and done.
Other Updates:
- I’ve joined the FitFluential DietBet for this month! I put $25 into the pot and I’ve pledged to lose 4% of my body weight in four weeks (a touch over nine pounds). At the end of the four weeks, me and everyone else who succeeds gets to split the pot. Money is an excellent motivator for me! The FitFluential pot is up well over $4000! Granted, nine pounds is going to be really difficult to shed so quickly, but I’m up for the challenge.
- One of my big goals for this week is to get our home gym to feel a little more welcoming. We have all of our equipment pushed against a wall in our unfinished basement. It’s functional, but it’s not very motivational (unless you are into this kind of thinspiration thanks to our Halloween decoration stash). I think a little bit of rearranging, a few homey touches and we could have a really impressive space.
How did your week go? Was it healthy? Did you hit your goals?
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I’m Cassie. I’m a Midwestern girl trying to live a healthy life without being too crazy about it. I’m a lover of fresh veggies, bright colors, craft beer, hiking, funky eyeglasses, and really, really dark chocolate.
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I much prefer going by how I feel about my body than how heavy I am. Right now I feel pretty great though I know I would be a bit more comfortable with a few less centimetres around my midsection. I’m easily 20lbs heavier than I was for my bikini birthday but I’m in much better shape.
9lbs seems like a lot for such a short period of time. I hope you win part of that pot without having to sacrifice too much to get there.
Oh my plan it definitely to not go crazy. I can actually drop 9 pounds pretty quickly. I think that’s part of the deal with being so much bigger (and taller!) is that the weight falls off in bigger chunks.
And I’m with you about how you feel versus the number. I like to think of the number on the scale as just one of a whole bunch of ways to track health. And combined with how unhealthy I’ve been feeling, it’s time to make a change.
Have you tried the LoseIt app? Not sure if it’s iPhone specific or not but it’s getting me RESULTS. I tell it how much I want to lose, it tells me how many calories a day to eat and I log my exercise (which is me getting off my ass, finally!) You can even “friend” each other and stay ACCOUNTABLE and motivate each other. You get badges for accomplishments, it’s changing my life!
I’m on this boat too. I’m ready for a better version of me. if you’re interested in using the app (which by the way, has a huge database of food for tracking and a barcode scanner,) I’d love to friend each other and be support!
Cassie…good for you for having a plan! It’s nice that you realize that health is an up and down kind of thing and not to stress out too much about being in a “down” because that just means you can start going “up” again! I definitely agree about portion sizes…they are key. I started my “up” the day after Thanksgiving as I was sitting on the couch thinking, “there is TOO much of a belly bump here!” and mostly with portion sizes I have lost over 15 pounds since then…without denying myself any treat over the holidays…I keep telling myself…”THIS is MY year!!!” I look forward to your weekly progress reports and know that others are cheering you on and working just as hard!
Kaye
I’m in such a similar place right now. I don’t know where motivation has gone. I don’t want to track food, I don’t want to work out, I have a hard time remembering to drink water and take a vitamin.
But I want to be healthy. So I’ll keep plugging away. Glad you are finding ways to motivate yourself.
Love the accountability! I’m really struggling, and I need to do something! I didn’t work out once last week because of that crazy all or nothing mentality. I totally know what you mean about feeling not so great at 230. For me there’s a huge jump between 230 and 215, but right now I’m headed in the wrong direction!
I have struggled for years. Good for you on all this accountability!!! I started reading Practical Paleo at Christmas, & my husband & I started eating that way on dec 31. 18 days later & I’m down 10 pounds & he’s down about the same. It’s seriously changed my life. Worth a try! The theory blew me away!!
Good for you for posting about your struggles! I’ve been dealing with the same portion-size problem. I think that part of it is because, when I’m serving dinner for myself and my boyfriend, I give us each the same amount… even though he’s a guy who works out six days a week and is 100 pounds heavier than me. That’s a problem.
You are not alone! I have been feeling the same with dieting and exercise. We’re the same height and age and I’m about 215 but used to average 200 trying to be 170 :-/. There was lots of stress in the fall with holidays and saving money for/moving into our new home. It’s time to get myself back! I use Loseit on my phone and when I’m dilligent I see great results. Plus I’m super stoked about the Dietbet thing! Also, look into Bodyrock.tv the workouts are 12 minutes and the website is a little unorganized but you’ll be sweating bullets with in 3 minutes. Good luck! I’m excited about accountability ’cause I need it to!
I continue to work after losing weight. Despite my best efforts to be perfect, I haven’t lost any weight. Keep at it and don’t think about being too perfect.
i enjoy these posts. in terms of hydration – i recently bought a huuuuuge 2.2 liter jug from amazon – 2.2 L is the IOM recommended daily intake for women. i fill it up in the AM and lug it around with me all day. it helps me tremendously to see the amount of water i have consumed and what i have left to drink. i always make sure to finish it. this has completely changed my hydration habits.
I love this idea. I have my last 30lbs to loose this year. I know all to well what it is like to carry that extra weight that just makes you feel out of sorts. It will be fun to follow along and will be a great reminder for myself. You can do it Cassie. We are all here with you!!!!
Maybe your accountability will get me inspired to work harder. I am doing better with water so I have to give myself that one, at least. Baby steps.
Can I just say – I LOVE YOU! I appreciate your honesty and even telling us all how much you weigh! I think since it’s the dead of winter, we’re all in the same boat.
My school just got a wellness grant that has money for monthly incentives, and at the end of the year a weekend at Sunriver Idaho. They aren’t basing it on weight loss as much as making healthy choices. Still unclear how the criteria will be set — but I’m glad. We’ve worked so hard with the kids and our garden program/farm to fork program that our lunch program is killer. Now the grownups need to walk the talk.
I just started (again) using myfitnesspal, so I will friend you for sure. For January – I set a goal of 30 minutes 3x/week on the eliptical. (It’s been in the negative digits for weeks now, so I can’t do anything outside except walk my 1 block to school!) I am tracking my food and hydration as well. I signed up for the Portland Shamrock Run, March 17th – so I have a training goal that’s a couple months off.
Good start! Keep it up!
Hey girl, you inspired me to start doing myfitnesspal again. I, too, was being a brat because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of tracking my calories and didn’t think I needed to, but I need to bite the bullet and just do it.
I’m not going to be tracking some things, like my froyo last night, because it’s important to me to not be obsessive about it and enjoy things without worrying about going over my limit. I really need to stick to this and commit 100% to exercise because I’m sick of feeling like a bloated mess.
What made you switch from SparkPeople to MyfitnessPal?
I switched originally because the MFP iPhone app had barcode scanning for food tracking (and the SP app didn’t), but I think SP recently added it to their iPhone app. I just never made the switch back.
Last year I started using myfitnesspal & then kinda quit for awhile. Then a friend asked me to join her on sparkpeople so I did. I was excited to see you’re using an a calorie counting website (I love logging my food & reading others’ food logs)! So, anyways I’m following you on myfitnesspal, but using sparkpeople & yes, there is a barcode scanner. I never use it, however, so I can’t tell you how well it works.
I think it’s great that you’re using your blog as an accountability tool. I think LOTS of people have portion control problems, myself included! You have some really realistic goals so I’m sure you’ll be successful
This post has inspired me to finally post a comment to you
I’ve been reading your blog for a long time now, along with the Broken Plow. I am in the same boat as you right now. I’ve been slowly losing weight over the past couple years but this winter I’ve gained 10lbs of it back. I feel sluggish and unmotivated and it plain sucks! I now have 30lbs to lose before I am where I want to be. Emotional/bored eating is what sucks me in. Water is not my friend when I’m at home and can barely drink 5 8oz servings. I have my schedule written out for tomorrow so I know what I’m eating, when I’m working out, and going to try my hardest to guzzle water. Looking forward to seeing your next update. Good luck to all of us getting back to healthy living!!
I have been doing a similar thing since the beginning of the month. Basically, setting small goals each week and then fessing up on my blog. Like you, I need the accountability and I think doing a weekly evaluation keeps me focused.
Sounds like you know what you need to do, so I’m sure you will get there! Best of luck to you!
Loving the accountability and positivity Cassie! It’s so motivating to see others working toward their health and fitness goals!