Week One

So how did it go?

Weight: In total – to get to my ideal weight – i need to lose 121 lbs.  I have set a goal to get to my target weight by end of April 2020.  That would be losing 1lb a week, every week.  I feel this is a realistic target as there will be weeks I lose more and week when i don’t lose any at all.  I am also fine with the long timescale.  If it happens before then that is a bonus.  I think in the past i have had unrealistic expectations of losing too much weight quickly and that set myself up for a failure.

The only thing I did this week that would affect my weight was drink the correct amount of water.  I did not consciously change my diet at all – I ate mince pies, drunk wine, had cheese and biscuits.  I downloaded an app (My Water) to help keep track of the water fluids I was consuming (wine has a negative effect).  You can tailor it to your own requirements and it will send reminders and handy tips.  I found that drinking nearly 4 litres of water every day really hard and only actually managed it once this week.  All the other days i was between 2.6 and 3.5 litres.  Amazingly I lost 5lb in weight this week.  Now i do know that this happens when you start a new regime but i am really surprised that this much weight came off.  Other positive effects were that my digestive system works better and I do feel better.

Can take 2 months or more to form good habits so i am going to keep monitoring water intake and it will get easier as the weight comes off as my body won;t need as much water to function.

The de-cluttering was a success and I did much more than planned so I was really please with progress, including the freezer – And it felt good!  This coming week I plan to finish de-cluttering the kitchen.

Goals for this week

  • Continue to de-clutter kitchen
  • Continue drinking water
  • Do 6000 steps a day: I know 10,000 is what i should be doing but i am working up to that – been so lazy over Christmas and New Year
  • Cook all evening meals from scratch: try and not go for the easy option but by cooking from scratch a lot of rubbish will be cut out.
  • Take a bit more time on my appearance – wear jewellery

Really please with how my first week has gone and looking forward to more achievements in week 2.

 

 

Starting Early

Ever since I posted the other day I have been feeling low.  I really need to get started on this journey rather than waiting.

Annual goals for 2018:

  • Get healthy: mentally and physically
  • Have a healthy work / life balance
  • Spend more time with family
  • Follow my dreams – eliminate all things I don’t enjoy or causes unnecessary stress
  • Have ME time

Being overweight is no fun. I have aches and pains I shouldn’t. My knees hurt constantly. I get tired, I can’t be bothered to do anything and I am so irritable. I don’t want to leave the house or do anything with anyone. Just horrible to be with.  I weighed myself and that was a bit of a shock.  I am now the heaviest I have ever been.

I have been researching how much water I should be drinking as this is the first thing I would like to get sorted. So the advice I am going to follow is:

Take your weight in pounds and divide by 2. This number is the amount of ounces you should be drinking daily.

In my case I currently weigh 261 lbs so this equates to 130.5 oz or 3.7 litres. This is a lot more than the 2 litres recommended. I think (hope) being properly hydrated will really help me get on the right track.  I have measured it using my normal drinking glass and it is 13 and a third glasses a day.  Of course other liquids would contribute towards that too but i am just going to concentrate on water for now.

D247FA9B-C12B-4C50-86D5-8109953895D1261 lbs shocked me but I am not surprised as I don’t feel well so another reason for just getting started right away.  Here is a simulation of what that looks like – certainly nothing I am proud of – but I am in control of changing this.

 

 

 

 

The other couple of habits are to do with my mental health.

  • Open my post and personal emails everyday.    This may not sound like much but the post can build up and then I get an illogical fear of getting behind and thinking that there is something terrible in the post.  It is not logical, I know that but the fear becomes real to the point I shake opening it. So I would rather avoid this altogether by keeping on top.
  • De-clutter the kitchen drawers.   Too much stuff can also get on top of me and I do have a tendency to hoard things I know longer need.  This year I would like to clear the house and make space so every week i will do something to improve this situation.

Preparation

When starting something new there needs to be time for preparation before launching in.  Tools need to be in place, plans written up and short and long term goals set.  That is what I would do at work if i was starting a new project so I am going to treat this in exactly the same way and perhaps I will be more successful.  Mental preparation – 10 days to get my head round this and get ready.

I have a bad habit of being too ambitious and I need to carefully take this into account as this could lead to failure.

I am going to try to concentrate on one or two things every week and build on that.  For this I have downloaded free planners from Productiveflourishing.com. Perhaps this is a little over the top but this is how I achieve professionally so we will see how it goes.

Firstly, I am going to try and enjoy Christmas and New Year celebrations and get the plan written.

Start date Thursday 4th of January 2018.