It's the 4 Week Countdown!

I’m leaving in 4 weeks for my honeymoon. We’ll be spending 2 weeks in Cabo. It’s going to be amazeballs. When we get back we will be heading out again to spend the rest of the holiday with E’s family so we will pretty much be gone for three weeks. I can’t believe it, it is going to be the absolute best way to close out the most amazing year!

But I am nervous, though. Not gonna lie. I am worried that I am sliding into the vacation mindset already and I still have a month before it is here. I need to switch back into weight loss mode. I need to keep paying attention to my choices, I need to bring back mindfulness into my life.

So I decided I needed a challenge – something to help keep me motivated and moving these next four weeks. I really wanted to do Brooke’s Skinny Snowman Challenge but since I will be out of the country for a big chunk of it (during which I will be completely disconnected from social media) I thought it better to come up with something I can start right now. Even if it is just me participating.

However, I am still using Brooke as my inspiration for this challenge since I am going to steal use her Goal Digger chart to track my goals. You can download your own copy here of the free printable. The way Brooke set it up is you have daily, weekly, and monthly goals. This is perfect for me to help bring back that focus to weight loss during the holiday/end of semester/about to vacation madness.

My month (well, four weeks actually) will start tomorrow, Saturday, November 14^th and run through Friday, December 11^th- the day before we leave for Cabo. Perfect timing, right?

My goals for these next four weeks are:

Daily

Track every day- WW and MFP

Hit step goal – determined by Garmin, based on average movement

At least 7 hours sleep a night

Follow meal plan for the day

Weekly

Workout 5 times/week (minimum 30 minutes)

Drinkend ONLY (no beer except on the weekend- exception being Thanksgiving)

80/20 with meals (limited to 4 meals out a week)

Write weekly WW post for accountability

Monthly

Lose 5 pounds

Follow HM training plan (starts 11/23)

Attend 2 yoga and/or fitness classes

Ok, so now I am all set with my goals. I know I can bring back some focus and mindfulness if I just make the choices that will help me to achieve these goals. I think this is exactly what I need for the next four weeks- recommitting to myself; my journey and my health.

Want to join me? Let me know in the comments if you will be participating too. J

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxoxox

Serendipity...Sort Of

I’ve been getting hit in the face lately with a lot of truth bombs. It’s that whole serendipity thing, but not in a fortuitous way. The universe is speaking to me and it is telling me I’m not fooling anyone.

The other night I read (in the most random crime short story from the 90’s) a passage where the author, talking about drug addiction, wrote:

"Sometimes a man quits trusting his strengths and starts trusting his weaknesses. His weaknesses are more apt to be dependable"

Yeah, that blew my mind.

Then I was reading this post from Andie Mitchell over at CanYou Stay for Dinner and she was talking about goals and making big changes that are impactful and when I got to this part:

"Sometimes when we feel stuck, any movement feels good. And while it’s true that doing something is better than nothing, we can trick ourselves into thinking we’re making progress when we aren’t doing anything meaningful. When we’re just doing the minimum and checking the small projects off of our To Do lists every day, at a certain point we have to stop and ask ourselves, Am I growing? Am I moving toward my goals…or am I just getting by?"

I was floored.

TRUTH! 

SO. MUCH. TRUTH.

And it felt like a roundhouse kick to the head.

I always am talking about small changes, something being better than nothing. Heck, I love the whole idea of #wycwyc (what you can, when you can) because it works into my self-proclaimed crazy, busy life. But is it helping me?

I mean it has to be. Something is always better than nothing, right? 

But...

Am I growing?

Am I progressing?

Am I moving towards my goals?  

Jeez, some days I don’t know.

I know that on any given day I can look over the choices I have made and find those that could have been better and those that could have been worse. I mean, hell I preach constantly about balance and 80/20 and never engaging in extreme behaviors. But it’s a fine line, right, between balance and complacency? And I have to stop for a minute and ask myself - am I coasting?

Am I trying to fool myself into believing I am doing enough?

Or worse yet…

Am I starting to trust my weaknesses more so than my strengths?

That’s so easy to do.

So how do I know? I mean seriously though, how can I honestly know I am taking meaningful actions in my life that are helping me reach my goals? 

Am I just following the path of least resistance?

Maybe it shouldn’t be this easy

Or should it?

I wish I knew. 

Love and hugs,

Dacia

xoxoxox

My New Year's 'Resolutions'...

This year, I am choosing to stray from the standard fare resolution. No more big, year long goals or proclamations for me. Not for 2014 at least.

I mean, yes, I am sure there will be some things that will continue to be a resolution for me; year in and year out, like staying active and focused on a healthy me. Those won't ever go away.

But this year, thanks to friends who turned me onto this idea, I wanted to try something different.

This year is all about actions. This year is all about making the life I want. A good, happy, fun life. A life that allows me to grow and become a better person. A life that allows me to be active and adventurous. A life that knows no limits.

So instead of resolutions I will be doing 52 individual weekly challenges/actions. I created a list of things I want to do this year; all of which can be done with little or no advanced planning.  I will write them each on a notecard, place them in a bowl/jar (apparatus TBD) and then each week I will select one and complete it at some point over the following seven days, then a week later pick another.

Sounds easy enough, right?

My hopes are that it will help keep me focused throughout the year on what I really want from 2014; excitement, adventure, love, happiness, and fun. And of course, lots of laughter- once I am able to laugh again.

So, without further ado here is my list for 2014

1.     Cook a new Indian dish

2.     Take a long walk on the beach

3.     Watch Life is Beautiful (or other favorite movie) again

4.     Ride my bike

5.     Dance under the stars

6.     Cut my hair

7.     Try a new activity

8.     Donate unused clothes/household goods

9.     Buy someone a coffee

10. Go to a comedy club

11.  Play Italian cards

12.  Write a thank you note

13.  Tell someone I love them

14.   Go to a sporting event

15.  Create something

16.  Donate to charity

17.  Spend a day inside, relaxing

18.  Spend a day outside, being active

19.  Go on an adventure

20.  Go someplace new

21.  Get dirty

22.  Bake cookies to bring to work

23.  Buy something just for me

24.  Buy something for someone else, just because

25.  Climb the rock wall at UWF

26.  See how many numbers of Pi I can memorize

27.  Watch a documentary

28.  Send my mom flowers

29.  Take a friend out for dinner/drinks/a show

30.  Go to the Pensacola Art Museum

31.  Try a new food/restaurant

32.  Make soup in the Vitamix

33.  Go to a brewery/pub crawl

34.  Listen to live music

35.  Send someone a postcard

36.  Meditate

37.  Create a new recipe

38.  Jump rope

39.  Wash my car

40.  Leave someone a love note

41.  Go ice skating

42.  Take the dogs to the park

43.  Read a magazine

44.  Take a bubble bath

45.  Get a massage

46.  Spend a day with loved ones

47.  Watch a scary movie

48.  Plan a night out (date night, girls night, etc) and dress up

49.  Go out dancing/take a dance lesson

50.  Watch the first Lord of the Rings movie

51.  Spend a day electronics-free

52.  Call a friend

There it is folks, my to-do list for 2014! Sounds like a lot of fun to me. I am pretty excited to get started!

What about you? Will you be making any resolutions, goals or plans for the New Year?

Love and big celebratory hugs,

Dacia 

Challenge NOT Accepted...

I’ve come to the recent realization that I can’t do fitness challenges anymore…

Ok, I mean I am sure that physically I can but mentally, spiritually, whatever, I just can’t commit.

And now, when the interwebs are all a glow with piles of miles and skinny snowmen (which are awesome challenges); I am just over here in my corner hoping to make it to tonight’s boot camp class. There’s no run streak, 30 day shred (well at least not 30 days continuously, lol!) or any of that end of year push through the holidays with some sort of daily challenge for me.

I just can’t (yeah, yeah I get it…won’t) do it.

Why? Well that’s a good question.

I think what has happened is that working with a nutritionist who has told me to do less and eat more and somehow I weigh less now than I have all year in over a decade (even with gaining back 2 pounds from what I lost during the super stressful parts of the divorce) and I am having fun living a ‘normal’ life has made me not want to do anything extreme. Not if I don’t have to.

I’ll be honest with you…I still love being active (that is something that is very important to me)...and I try to get in two boot camp classes plus some additional cardio (running or cycling) every week…BUT I am really enjoying not waking up at 430a-5a every day. Not working out before AND after work. Not planning my life around a training plan.  That life caused me to be too focused, too committed. I had tunnel vision. All I could see was that one path, with only one option.

Now…

I love my classes and runs on the track after work.

I love being able to stay out late on a Friday or Saturday without worry of how it will mess up my training schedule.

I love not having to stress about not doing enough or not eating everything just right or worrying I will gain 500 pounds if I have one little beer.

I was so focused for so long on losing and training and I was so scared that if I slowed down even the slightest I would immediately revert to a 286 pound couch potato that I stopped living my life and just lived the life I thought I needed to in order to stay on the ‘right path’.

Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an extreme recap of what parts of my journey were like but those of you who know me from the very beginning you may recall I was a bit uptight about everything.

Luckily, that behavior did get better over time as I realized I needed balance in my life. My focus started to shift to include all of the fun stuff I wanted to do as well. Dinners out, beers with friends, hockey games, movies, girl’s night at the skating rink, etc., all the social things I had been skipping out on -in addition to being active.

But even more recently, just a few months ago, I was still being a little bit extreme with the activity levels. Somewhere in my subconscious I must be very afraid of gaining back weight. Either that or I became so used to working out all the time that it became second nature…not sure. But either way, my behavior needed to change.

And change it did.

My nutritionist told me less cardio (meaning fewer workouts per week at a shorter duration than I had been- no more 5-6+ hours a week of straight cardio) and work towards a balance of strength training (1-2 times a week) with a little bit of cardio thrown into the mix (like 1-2, 30 min sessions of intervals) and to up my calorie intake to 1800/day regardless of if I work out or not.  Plus we switched up the foods I was eating as well and voila- that was the magic mix.

At first I felt scared to move less and eat more…it went against everything that helped me lose weight in the first place. But I listened to the expert and was able to comfortably and happily lose weight AND I didn’t stress about it either which made/makes life a whole lot easier. AND for the first time I am officially at what I would call my goal weight…156 lbs. That’s where my nutritionist wanted me and that is where I have been at or below for almost all of November. Yay!

But I digress…

My point, and there is one I swear, is this…

Over the last couple years I had needed the focus and drive and push from these type of challenges (or training plans) and they helped keep me going on this journey even when it got hard. And for that I am eternally grateful.

But this year….well, this year I am opting for something a bit different.

Something less stressful.

Something less involved.

Something less intense.

For me, for the next month or so, I am just committing myself to being happy, taking care of myself, having fun, celebrating life and making sure I don’t take any of it for granted.  Yes, I will still be active. Yes, I will still plan and grocery shop and bring my meals to work. Yes, I will still put my health first.

Of course I will.

But I will do so while drinking a beer, or spending the afternoon at the movies, or going out with friends to dinner, or even curled up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and some dark chocolate (watching movie previews) and I will make sure to say to myself…damn, this life is good!

Because damn, this life really is good!

Love and kisses-

Dacia

Oh and since I forgot to say it yesterday with my Thanksgiving wishes…Happy Hanukkah!