MDHLC- Week 6

This challenge has been a real eye-opener for me. 

Some days, most days it seems, I feel like I can't hit the goals I have set for myself, even if they are 'small'. And it can be discouraging.

This past week I did really great with my first two goals; whole foods and hydration. I only ate out twice; once for lunch and the dinner out last night for a date with E. I made all our other meals at home. We had super yummy, very healthy dinners every night and I started each day with a big green smoothie and had a Hugh Jass salad for lunch. Lots of fruits and veggies, most of them raw. I was very happy about that.

I stuck to my water and tea only during the week. No beer (until Friday night) and no coffee- but I will have some this morning. This goal was hit 100% so I am happy about that.

However, I sucked at activity this week. I only made it to the gym twice. And with only two days remaining I am just past halfway of my step goal. What happened? Well, I worked late Monday and Wednesday so no gym those days. And by late I mean I stayed a couple hours after, left to go eat dinner, then worked for a few hours more after that. 

It's been a long week. And super crazy as we implemented a big portion of a new ERP system Monday. I was pretty much attached to my desk all day long. Very little walking unless I had to walk to a meeting. It sucked. Every night my entire body was stuff and sore from sitting for so long. Ugh! Thankfully the two workouts I did get in kicked my ass... I made sure of it. I knew activity was going to be my biggest challenge this week and it was.

Mindfulness was also somewhat of a bust this week, too. I was really mindful when it came to eating so that's a win but when it came to taking care of myself; movement, relaxing, thoughtful actions- well I was all over the place on this one too.

So I got to thinking- ok, so maybe this week wasn't perfect. I was great on two goals and so-so on the other two. Does this mean that I need to change my goals? Lower my expectations?

NO!

It means I need to just try a bit harder. And yes, some times that's not possible. Some weeks doing that absolute best I can will still have me falling short but you know what? I'll take 75% successful over 0% successful any day!

I am almost 100% certain that I have not had a week so far where I reached 100% of the goals I set. BUT I can say with 100% certainty that I TRIED every single week. And that is what really is important. 

I don't know what I was thinking creating a challenge during the most hectic time at work, ever, and weeks of traveling BUT I am so glad I did because without this I would have no focus, no attention to what was happening in my life. So for me, I can honestly say, that even though I 'failed' every week I am still 'winning'.

So for week 6 my challenge is this: 

Don't lower the bar- set the bar where you truly challenge yourself and push a bit harder to reach it. 

For me this is WHAM 2.0

I need to keep my focus on whole foods and hydration while increasing my activity and mindfulness. I need more movement and less stress.

This week all goals are the same except I am switching gym workouts from 4 to 3 because I know that is all I can get in based off my schedule - and that will still be a challenge. 

Week 6 is going to be awesome, no matter what!

Are you with me???

Love and hugs,

Dacia

Xoxoxo

MDHLC: Week Five

So…week four, our re-do week, is almost over. I was in such a desperate state that I had to call a mulligan. My life was so chaotic and out of whack that I didn’t even post this idea of having a re-do week to the blog. Ha! Yeah, it’s definitely not a good thing when you are hosting a healthy living challenge and you basically go on the lam for a week. Sorry.  Won’t happen again.

And because I was pretty much off the grid last week (aka California) I will give anyone a free pass that did not check in with me. I hope you all were able to take the last week and use it to revisit a goal or goals you have struggled with and hopefully had a bit more luck this time around. 

For me, I had to set a realistic goal giving the constraints of my schedule. I had aimed for a walking goal of 75,000 steps in week three and fell short. So, for  week four I aimed to hit this goal. The week is not over yet but I am confident I will reach this goal, even with a day filled with air travel and a long road trip this weekend.

That being said…I am sooooo ready for week 5.

Week five, for me, is all about pushing myself to get back to the basics and focus on the four things that are most meaningful to me…whole foods (particularly the plant-based whole foods diet I thrive on), hydration (less beer and coffee, lots more water), activity (yay! Back to the gym, finally) and mindfulness (in both my eating habits and how I treat myself- I need lots of self-care this week).

I call it the WHAM (whole foods, hydration, activity, mindfulness) challenge.

For week five set your goals around one or more or all of these ideals.  Try to set attainable goals while at the same time trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

Mine  goals are:

·        Make my own meals, based off of whole foods, 80% of the time. This means if I eat 21 meals a week at least 17 should be home-cooked and whole-foods based.

·        Hydration- water and tea are my drinks of choice this week. I will allow myself one cup of coffee three times(Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and beer only on the weekend

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·        Activity- gym/track at least three days and hit 80,000 steps for the week

·        Mindfulness- follow my hunger scale, make mindful choices regarding food, relax, rest and recover from a crazy travel week. Do something just for me. Maybe a massage or sleeping in on the weekend.

I am already so pumped for week five. Having this post written and my goals laid out make me excited and super hopeful. Hope you are all having a great week – I look forward to hearing all about it.

Love and hugs-

Dacia

xoxoxox

MDHLC: Week Three

I am super pressed for time this week.

Work has been non-stop busy. I feel like each evening is jam-packed until I pass out at bedtime so this weekend I plan on relaxing, traveling/adventuring, turning off the phone/internet (except for HW) and unwinding.

That being said, I really wanted to get a post together outlining week three of the Mother's Day Healthy Living Challenge goal.

It's just one.

It's really simple.

But at the same time it will be very challenging...

Just MOVE!

That's it my friends. This week make your goals focused around and committed to moving more.

I am going out of town Saturday and Sunday (which means all day in a car) and then out to LA/Anaheim Thursday (which means all day in a plane) and then attending a conference from Friday-Wednesday (which means all day sitting) so I need to figure out how to MOVE!

My goals for week three are as follows:

75K steps for the week. I plan on walking EVERYWHERE I can.

Don't go crazy with the takeout/road trip/hotel foods. Make the best choices possible and bring lots of good snacks/meal options.

Hit the gym at least 3 times. I know I have one guaranteed- my last appointment with my personal trainer. She is leaving the university so I will be starting with someone new hopefully when I get back from Cali. It will be sad to say goodbye to my trainer. I have spent the past 7 months with her first through boot camp and now through rehab. It's an understatement to say I feel very connected to her and will be sad to see her go.

That's what I have going on and my plans for week 3.

What about you? How will you plan on moving this week?

Love and hugs-
Dacia

MDHLC: Week Two

Hello everyone!

How was your first week of the Mother's Day Healthy Living Challenge?

My week was a bit up and down. So far I have been doing really great with my 30 minutes a day of self care. On Tuesday, I even read a book. True, it was for my grad class but still staying on top of my reading keeps me calm and de-stressed so I call that a win.

For the gratitude portion of my goals I think I have been doing well but I know I could do better. Thursday I was feeling really crappy (fighting off a spring cold) and I am pretty sure I spent the day being miserable, not taking a moment to be grateful. But other than that day I have been actively trying to show gratitude more and more each day. On a side note: have I told you how grateful I am for this challenge and the amazing FORTY-SIX people participating in it??? That number is pretty mind-blowing. I am definitely humbled….and thankful for sure.

My last goal was to log 8,000 steps a day. So far, since Monday, I am only 3 for 5 on that goal. I still have two more days and know I will reach my step goal throughout this weekend. So, I am going to call it a tentative win ;)

If you remember, last week for the initial week's challenge, I gave us a theme to follow when setting our goals: Do something each day that represents what healthy living means to you.

Now, I may not have been perfect every day when it came to hitting my goals but I can say with absolute certainty that I did something every day that represented what healthy living means to me. So I will call week one a success. Of course there is room for improvement but isn't there always?

For week two I challenge you with this:

*Do something different*

And when I say do something different it can be anything; a new exercise/activity, trying a new food, or changing up your schedule. Shake things up. Our bodies get used to routines. We need to change things up every now and then. 

And I don't know about you but I can certainly use a change to get me out of this rut. 

So, with that being said, my week two goals are as follows:

1. 70,000 steps for the week. Monday-Wednesday my step count will be lower but once the stitches come out I plan on stepping it up, sorry for the bad pun, a notch
2. Three morning workouts. This is a big change for me, incorporating morning workouts again, but it is a change I desperately need- especially for this next week when I have a lot going on after work.
3. No eating out or drinking during the week with the exception of Thursday night work social. Sunday night -Friday afternoon (aside from the aforementioned exception) I will prepare all my own meals and will not drink any beer/alcohol. This is me trying to get back to my norm but I will be doing it a bit differently because I am going to play around with some new foods and meal ideas. 

Your job for this week

1. Check in with me (via email, FB, text, whatever) and let me know how you did for week 1. Did you meet your goals? Did you struggle? You can be as brief or thorough as you like. You checking in with me is really you just checking in with you, and then telling me :)
2. Set your goal(s) for week two and include them with your check-in. Please contact me by Monday morning, 3/24/14, with your update of week one and week two goals 

I hope you all enjoyed the first week of the challenge. I know it was certainly eye-opening for me, especially in terms of my eating patterns, and I plan on using what I learned last week and incorporating it into this week's behaviors.

Image from Pinterest

Love, hugs and lots of high fives,

Dacia 

xoxoxox55555

P.S. Feel free to use the hashtag #daciaschallenge on IG or Twitter if you want to share outside of the FB group :)

The Mother's Day Healthy Living Challenge

I mentioned to E the other day that I wanted to lose weight.

I try to cut myself some slack and give myself a bit of recovery time after traveling since I always expect to see a gain when I spend days at a time eating out. It happens. I try not to beat myself up over it.

And so after a few weeks of traveling, I was really not surprised to see my weight had crept up-sadly though it was up higher than it was before the first surgery back in December. Yikes.

I am thankful that I was able to maintain my weight after the first surgery for about two months but over the last month it started to creep up and I am ready to put it to an end. I know there are lots of factors contributing to the gain; traveling/eating out, drinking more, exercising more (yes, this plays a role on a few levels), and changing up my diet. Now that I am restricted from activity again (just for a couple weeks, thankfully) I thought this would be the perfect time to switch my focus over to weight loss mode and spend the next couple months working to get back to where I started (~ 156) pounds and focusing on leading a healthy and (soon) active lifestyle.

Two years ago, right around this time, I hosted a weight loss challenge on my blog and it was awesome. Each week we had different challenges and each week the leader (based off of weight loss percentage) was named. At the end of the challenge the person with the largest percentage of weight loss won the grand prize- I don’t remember all the details but I think the final prize was some stuff from Lush. I picked it out myself since you know; I am a small time non-sponsored blogger. The prize was really just whatever I felt like buying for that particular person  ;)

BUT for this challenge I want it to be a bit different.

Because we are all so different. We have different goals, we live different lifestyles and have different limitations and barriers.

Yes! If you want to make it a weight loss challenge go right ahead. And yes! If you want to make this a healthy eating challenge that’s cool too. Maybe your goal is to meditate and de-stress your life- that’s awesome! I want this challenge to be based on your individual needs and with that being said, it is going to be for you to decide what your goals are for the 8 week (3/17 to 5/11- Mother’s Day) and each individual week’s challenges.

I am here to set some guidelines, throw out some ideas, post lots of inspirational memes, and of course my main roll- facilitate. You will need to check in with me each week in order to qualify for the final prize. And because I am not really an ‘adhere to the norm’ kind of girl, there may be more than one winner. You never know J

From Pinterest

So here is what I need from you, if you so wish to participate:

First- leave me a comment (or email me at MyRootsToGrow [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know you want to join in. I have created a private group on Facebook for this challenge which will be used for communications (in addition to this blog), general discussions and, of course, motivation.

Second- email, message on FB or leave a comment here your goal for what you want to achieve over the next 8 weeks. If you are making this a weight loss challenge- feel free to email me your starting weight and goal weight. I will track this, privately of course, for anyone in the group who chooses to log their weight.

                *One of my 8 week goals is weight loss related so I, too, will be tracking and posting my weights

Third- email, message on FB or leave a comment here with your goal for this first week of the challenge. Since this is week one I want us to take a bit of an introspective look and see what we can change to help us achieve our goals and enact some small changes that can get us there.  It is so important that we take time for ourselves and make our health/wellness our top priority so this week your challenge is:

*Do something each day that represents what healthy living means to you*

Four- check in with me at the start of each week(by Monday)  with your weekly goal (and this week include your eight week goal, too) and then at the end of each week (by Sunday) to let me know how you did. This is the accountability portion of the challenge. Even though you are the one to set all the goals and decide whether or not you met them I still need you to check in with me weekly. This is how a winner will be decided.

The winner- I am sure you are interested to know how that will be decided. Well, the plan is to randomly choose a winner (or winners) from the group of participants whom set their goals and check in every week. That’s it. Easy, right?

And since I am in this with you I thought I would start this challenge off with showing you my goals not only so you can help keep me accountable but also so you can see what I need from you so I can start our group log.

8 Week Overall Challenge Goals (yes, you can have one or multiples- this is totally up to you)

-          Back to goal weight of 156 (I haven’t weighed myself in awhile so I may come back and update this is if this is not a realistic number- I will weigh in ‘officially’ Sunday and update this if need be)

-          Find a healthy (and maintainable) balance between foods I prepare myself and convenience (processed/takeout) foods. Back to maintaining my 80/20 rule

-          Earn an 'A' in my current grad school class (yep,  I am totally putting my educational goal in here because I view it as a big part of what I deem a healthy lifestyle- knowledge is power, people!)

Week One Challenge Goals:

-          30 minutes devoted to self-care every day. This can be reading, taking a long walk around the city, writing a letter, meditating- anything that will bring me some peace, happiness, and is purely for ME

-          8,000 steps a day. I have very limited activity until 3/26 but I can walk. So each day I will challenge myself to walk 8K steps. This is my constraint so I have to make it work for me, right?

-          Be grateful every day. Take time each day to express gratitude for friends, family, this life and the fact that I made it another day J

So, here it is. The Mother’s Day Healthy Living Challenge. I hope you will join in. Please email me (MyRootsToGrow [at] gmail [dot] com) or leave a message here in the comments or on FB or wherever if you have any questions or if you want to join in!

Here’s to a happier and healthier US!

Love,

Dacia

xoxoxox