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| A reader sent me this shirt and the cat looks a lot like a duck – I love it! |
Happy Leap Day! Since I’m not a big vacation person, I love Leap Day. Maybe it’s the numbers, and I’m definitely a numbers guy.
OMG, I just realized it’s been three weeks since my last weigh-in…? I know I skipped Valentine’s Day, but I can’t remember why I skipped it last week. I don’t shy away from scale, so maybe I just don’t feel like writing. As I get further and further away from blogging, it actually becomes harder and harder to allow myself to write. I like the accountability of weighing in, though, so I really want to try re-doing it every week.
I’ve been hovering around 140 for a while. Today, I weigh 143.6, I don’t remember what I weighed three weeks ago, but I think it was similar.
However, I’ve recently come across a problem in my weight loss journey that I’ve never really faced before, and it’s been a challenge…
I never had a “fixed” schedule – Jerry’s work schedule was always all over the place, and because I was a “housewife” (it sounds a little weird to say “stay-at-home parent” since Eli was a Senior students) in high school! ), my schedule was built around Jerry. Working shifts does have its benefits, but it sucks if you thrive on a fixed schedule.
I’ve never been able to plan meals at the same time every day, have set appointments with friends, or have an available time slot every week (I chose to be a stay at home mom, but if I wanted to) work outside the home with my free time Seen everywhere – nothing consistent).
All of this is to say, every day is pretty much the same – not like, “Yeah, it’s the weekend!” because sometimes Wednesday and Thursday feel like the weekend to us. Or Monday and Tuesday. who cares. So, I never had that “weekend mentality” – eat well during the week, splurge on the weekend, etc. In that sense, such an inconsistent schedule actually seems to work.
Now that Jerry has a regular schedule, everything changes. We are still getting used to it and we definitely need to work on our diet. We have fallen into a “weekend mentality” cycle. And it’s hard to get rid of!
I make dinner at the same time every day which is really, really good for planning and also makes our workdays very consistent. However, in our daily lives, we have come to treat weekends as a free-for-all. Mainly about diet.
This started with us eating super clean in January. I want to make a lot of vegan “junk food,” but it doesn’t fit into a whole food diet. So, I suggested that we make Friday a “junk food” dinner night: vegan burgers, pizza, fried tofu, etc. This way, we can eat (mostly) clean six days a week and still enjoy our favorite junk foods. Sounds like a good idea, right?
[I want to note that this is NOT something I call a “cheat day”–we aren’t on a diet. We’ve just been trying to eat much healthier and, in general, I think that having one junk meal a week fits just fine into a healthy diet. Honestly, the junk meals aren’t even horrible–just far less nutrition, while still being vegan. I don’t like the phrase “cheat day” because it implies bingeing or overeating just to squeeze it all into one day.]
Anyway, what started out as a great idea quickly turned around – from one meal to what to eat all day on Friday, then Friday and Saturday, and then pretty much the entire weekend. On Monday, everything was back to normal. This is a problem we have never encountered before!
My weight fluctuates much more than usual and certainly more than it should. I’m talking about a 10 pound weight difference over the weekend! Apparently, it’s not all fat, because after a few days of healthy eating, it disappears in no time. But I wasn’t satisfied with the entire cycle – especially considering I was trying to get my weight back below 135.
This weekend will be a big test. Jerry and I have been talking all week about how we were going to handle it, haha. With a plan in place and acknowledgment of how “weekend mentality” can disrupt our weight loss goals, we resolve to stop the cycle this weekend. However, I still like the idea of making a “junk food” style dinner on a Friday night. When the kids were little we used to plan “Pizza Friday” because Jerry had Friday off – the only reason I chose Friday. If I left it up in the air, we’d probably be back in the loop.
Here’s an update on the weight loss/diet aspect of the past three weeks. I still run with Joey first thing every morning. A few weeks ago I mentioned that for a week I was going to add a block (just a tenth of a mile) a day – and I did it! I allowed myself to do this for a week to see if I could get used to it (and gradually increase the distance).
However, I find this makes me absolutely terrified of running, which is stupid! It’s only a tenth of a mile longer (60 seconds on a good day), but it feels easy knowing I’ve only done one block since I can see almost the entire block of my house. Way. So, after that week, I decided a neighborhood would be nice if it would allow me to get out and run. A few times a week, if the weather is nice, I’ll do it twice or even three times – no plan, but once I’m out, sometimes I choose to do more.
Much to my delight, I missed about four or five runs; it sounds weird to be happy about that, but I was very worried that if I broke the streak that started on September 1st, I would quit altogether. The first time I missed it, I was so pissed off—I got dressed for winter running, put Joey on a leash, and started walking down the driveway. There was almost no exposed concrete floor that wasn’t covered in ice. It’s ice that doesn’t have any traction – think of an ice rink – and is melting slightly, so there’s a thin layer of water on top.
I soon realized that running was impossible. Then I realized I might not even be able to get it back into the driveway! Hahaha, our driveway has a slight slope and my feet kept sliding towards the street. Sure, I could just run on the treadmill; but the reason I develop my morning running habit is to get outside, get some fresh air, feel good, and start my day right.
There were a few times where I missed a run, but I was okay with that because I would just keep running the next morning – once I got used to it, it felt weird not running every morning, and I could say I was successful. I’m really glad I didn’t treat it like any kind of streak – quit once the streak is broken.
Well, this post is really long, so that needs to be weighed in! My plan for next week is to stick to my diet. I love eating vegetables and I eat very healthy throughout the week. It’s just a weekend mentality that I need to stop before it becomes a habit.