Weekly Meal Plan

This last week I didn't meal plan.  And holy moly- I didn't stick to my diet.  Little cheats here and there made my stomach upset.  So.  Here's my meal plan for this week.

Breakfast (for the week)- egg bake (eggs, egg whites, veggies, hot turkey sausage)

Lunches: salad, bell peppers with tuna (amazing), leftovers

Dinners: Pesto chicken & roasted broccoli,  turkey burgers & salad, pork tenderloin & roasted brussels with proscuitto, fried cauliflower rice, grilled stuffed portabello mushrooms. 

I don't have links to the recipes right now but if you'd like them- I'll pull them up!  I'm really excited about the cauliflower rice.  I love that stuff an inappropriate amount.

As far as exercise- when it's not raining I'll take the kids on walks.  If it rains, I'll fire up the Biggest Loser workouts.  For me, it's not about killing myself to lose weight, it's about making changes I can keep up with to make myself healthier.  For me.  And my family.

Updated Goals

I am still proud of myself for finishing the 1/2 yesterday.  My legs are sore, my skin is blistered, but I am so proud.  Here's my updated goal list for 2013.

January- Finish the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon - Completed woot!
February- Stick with my diet
March- Increase exercise
April- Turn 30 (Yikes!)
May- Go to the American Humanist Association convention in San Diego
June-  Stick with my diet and exercise
July- Girls' Trip to Vegas!!
August-
September-
October-
November-
December- Celebrate meeting all of my goals and losing (hopefully) 50lbs.

Sometime this year I may do another run.  I'm not sure, though.  I want to do more hiking.  I'm sure I'll keep up with my exercise, but I want to mix it up some.

And as of last week I'm down 6.6 lbs and 6 inches overall and down 11.6 since Christmas.  I feel good.  I feel strong.  I feel in control.

::collapses onto couch::

Y'all.  I just completed a half marathon.  13.1 miles in just about 3:30.  The first half was awesome through Disneyland and California Adventure.  The 2nd half through Anaheim was boring.  But we finished.  And I have a shiny medal (and blisters) to prove it.

At this time, I don't think I'll do another one.  But we'll see. 

Week 1

The first week back into it, I lost 2.6lbs and 3.75in.  Awesome.  Slow and steady wins the race.  I'm already down 8.6 from Christmas.

Thank you awesome support system!!  I'm feeling SO good the last week.  Sure I've been sore.  But amazing overall.  I'm off to make dinner.  Thank you all for your continued support. 

Successes

Often times I get caught up on my failures that I have a difficult time sticking with it.  Overall, I'm a pretty optimistic person so it catches me by surprise that I can't be about my weightloss.

Here are my successes so far this week:

I've exercised.
I haven't cheated on my diet. I have stuck with my diet.
I'm pretty ready for the week back to work, food wise.
I haven't slacked on my water intake.  I have kept up with my water intake.

I'm proud.  I'm also deciding on how to reward myself in (possibly) 10lb increments.  New clothes may be needed, a massage, a facial... I cannot wait.

Have a good weekend, readers :)

Anxiety

I don't even know how many different times I've started this post.

I've always dealt with some form of anxiety.  From typical things like the first day of school or dances, to having a full blown panic attack the grocery store.  Things got worse after Katie and Matthew died but I learned and coped. 

I learned that exercise helped.  Sometimes.  I learned that watching my diet, crocheting, sleep, taking care of myself helped.  Sometimes.  Then we got Michael and Ruthy.  Again- not their legal names.  Yet.

Becoming the mom to two toddlers overnight paired with incident reports (every time they got hurt) made my anxiety skyrocket.  How could I keep them safe all of the time?  What if the courts looked down upon us for the bruises the kids would inevitably get?  What if the courts took the kids away because of one too many bruises?  What if they got really hurt?  What if something happened to Tim and I'm solely responsible for the kids?

And up went the anxiety.

I tried the breathing techniques, the exercising, everything I used before.  Nothing helped.  I could not get out of my head enough to see that they're kids- accidents happen.  The court and our caseworkers, obviously, knew that.  I just couldn't stop thinking of something happening to them.

So I went to see my doctor.  I cried through the entire appointment.  He diagnosed me with generalized anxiety and gave me some medications to help.  He encouraged me to see a counselor who specializes in grief/baby loss and to take my medications as prescribed.

Overall, I'm so much better.  I still have times where everything is so overwhelming and I don't feel like I can handle it, but that's normal.  That's parenting.  That- I can handle.  I'm hoping that with the weight loss and diet changes that I'll get to an even better place.  Maybe even a place where I don't need the medications. 

Happy 2013!

I hope you all have a wonderful 2013.

Now is the time that resolutions are made to, in general, make us better people.  I do have a lot of lofty goals for 2013 and I really don't want to be disappointed in myself like I was in 2012.  I want to I'm going to look back and be proud of myself.  I'm going to make monthly goals for myself. 

Here's what I have so far:

January- Finish the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon
February- Stick with my diet
March- Increase exercise
April- Turn 30 (Yikes!)
May- Go to the American Humanist Association convention in San Diego
June-  Stick with my diet and exercise
July-
August-
September-
October-
November-
December- Celebrate meeting all of my goals and losing (hopefully) 50lbs.


And that's all I have so far.  What are you planning on doing to make you better in 2013?