holiday monday

I'll do an official wrap-up on Wednesday, like I like to do but I thought I should report in on this holiday Monday.

The first week went pretty well, all things considered. Some of the factors which made the first week a little tough on me were a full 5 days of mega-humid weather and me having my period. Two not-so-great things that don't go well together.

I took Friday off from work so I'd have a four-day weekend and was glad of it. I have spent the past few days puttering around the house, playing with the dogs and getting caught up on my housework. Being at home like this is usually pretty dangerous for me. The snacking devils call my name frequently when I'm home. Keeping busy cleaning helped me to keep the snacks at bay.

We did have some microwave popcorn during a movie on Sunday but overall, foodwise, I'm pretty happy with our efforts. I'm also thrilled with how just a little bit of regular exercise is making me feel. My right knee has improved significantly and I feel like I'm moving around a lot easier now. My husband has noticed it too. The knee thing was really getting bad. If I sat for any length of time, when I stood up, it was taking me a while to sort my knee out. Over the weekend, this was not the case. The flexibility in the knee is improved and the pain is almost completely gone. Not bad for one week huh??

I think that the baby steps thing is the key for me. I'm easing back into the exercise thing and am feeling almost immediate benefits. For me, I know if I tried to do too much too quickly, I'd hurt myself, get discouraged and fall off track. That's not going to happen this time!!

ups and downs

So yesterday was day 3. We both found it a little harder to get through our bike rides on day 3 than it was on day 1 and 2. I rode exactly the same distance last night that I had done on Tuesday but it took me a lot more effort to get there. I know that it's good to work harder, this is not supposed to be easy.

A few months ago I started a new job. My old office was on the ground floor of a small building. Very rarely I would need to go up to the second floor so I got pretty lazy. The new job is a building I have worked in before. It's really old and cut up weirdly and we have lots of stairs. I mean LOTS of stairs. My office is on the third floor, the washrooms and kitchen are on the second floor so I'm up and down them several times a day.

When I first moved over to the new office, I was only there 2 weeks before I had a week of a vacation scheduled. After that break, I was in the office for about 3 weeks and then had another 2 week vacation booked. This week is the 3rd week since I've returned from my vacation and I am finally starting to feel a little better about running up and down the stairs. Now, I'm not actually running up and down them but every day, it gets a little bit easier to do them. Sad huh?? I am THAT out of shape, stairs are a struggle, or were. They are definitely not as tough as they had been and I'm looking forward to being able to do them faster and more frequently as time goes on.

So, right now, the focus continues to be on movement. The more I can move myself, the better!!

just like starting over

Holy crap on a cracker, I cannot believe how long it has been since I've posted here!

Admittedly, my journey to a healthier me has taken lots of twists and turns over the past year. Lots of restarts, lots of derailing...

At the moment, I'm taking a kinder, gentler approach to things and both my husband and I are doing this together.

For the longest time, we've been complaining to each other about how far off track we both got. Neither of us has been thrilled with how we've been feeling, unfit and generally yucky. He's a type II diabetic and we're both overweight. This is not good for anyone.

Last week, he had what ended up being the flu but a few trips to the doctor and the diabetic clinic for some pretty extensive tests was a bit of a wake up call for both of us.

Over the weekend, we talked about it a lot and crafted a plan I think will work for us. It's pretty simple, we both eat very reasonable and healthy breakfasts and lunches - I eat breakfast at home and always take my lunch to work, he eats both meals at home because his work schedule permits that. Dinner and the evenings in general is where we get into trouble. Our food is not necessarily high in fat but our portions have been way too big. We also both are snack addicts in the evening while watching tv. Dangerous combo.

This week, we've been having smaller dinner portions and not been snacking in the evenings. So far (and it's only been two days) it's going very well. He is noticing a difference in his morning blood glucose reading already.

The other part of this is exercise. We have really not been doing anything remotely resembling intentional exercise. We have a perfectly good recumbent bike sitting in the basement which we hadn't used for ages. The second part of our deal is this: when we get home from work, I do my ride while he makes dinner (I don't like to ride on a full stomach). When dinner is over, he rides (which is what he should be doing as a diabetic so we've been told). Riding the bike and eating smaller meals is what helped me lose 75 pounds a few years ago and I know it'll work again. Already today, I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike when I get home tonight.

I think we are off to a great start and because we are doing it together, we can help keep each other on track. I have some short term and long term goals that I'll talk about later. The one I will mention is posting here more often. I realize I miss writing and do like to share my small victories and challenges as I do this.

If anyone is still out there reading this, I plan to be back for the long haul!!