Beautiful Behaviors - February 2017

jessiquoi

This thread will be for people who are focusing on creating a set of gorgeous habits that support a healthy lifestyle.

Weight loss is a byproduct, and not the focus. We will practice self-care by eating healthy foods, moving our bodies, drinking enough water, and other activities that make us FEEL GOOD without harmful effects.

For example, taking an hour with your current book on your favorite lounge chair is a great way to take care of yourself. Get a massage or facial, spend time with a friend, crafting… all good ways to make us feel good without the harmful effects of immediate gratification activities like overeating or indulging in other unhealthy activities. It’s all about taking care of ourselves and loving ourselves and making ourselves happy EVEN IF we are not at a weight we love right now.

Yes, we want to lose weight, but there’s more to life than that. Sometimes giving yourself a foot massage will keep you from the donut. Sometimes it won’t but you will still feel better.

This is a judgment free zone. Let’s support each other and leave the negativity offline. I’m tired of beating myself up about my size. I want to plan to do the best I can and not feel guilty about life getting in the way.

I’m a big believer in baby steps, and setting realistic goals, and celebrating every little success! No reason we can’t enjoy the journey to a healthier lifestyle, no reason we have to feel “wrong” because we are where we are.

If you like the way this sounds, please introduce yourself in this thread. Share whatever you like and come back often! I look forward to meeting people with similar attitudes towards life.

jasmarie24

Hello my name is Jasmine and I love everything you said! I spent last few weeks facing the fact that I have bad habits that stem from me not doing things that make me happy and being to harsh( and at time to light) on myself. I just want to be happy with who I am and where I am in life. I'm tired of beating myself up for being human. That post is so inspiring and. I will definitely be back to share and grow with you!

jessiquoi

Good morning, all, and happy february!

Let's take a moment and celebrate our accomplishments for the month of January. Did you lose weight? Did you gain a new healthy and gorgeous habit? Did you up the game on self-care?

January for me was a month of increased awareness. I tracked my food almost every day, which is amazing for me. That's always the hardest thing for me to do. I didn't lose weight, and I didn't gain weight, as most days I went over my calorie allotment. I cleaned up the food I'm eating a bit, starting to cook more and order in less. I wore my Fitbit daily, and am appalled at how inactive I am! I started working out with the dailyburn.com, and although I'm not doing it daily, I have begun and that's a great thing. And I crocheted every night which kept the mindless munchies at bay.

This month, I want to set two goals. One is to only go over my calorie allotment 3x/week. This will be a huge improvement. I plan on doing this by increasing my activity and eating my exercise extra calories. I found that the dailyburn videos are a bit much for me right now, but yesterday I decided to take them and make them work for me. I'm doing 10 minutes of a video twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. That's the plan, anyway!

My second goal is to raise my average daily steps from the abysmal 2396 it is now to 3000. That's still pitifully low, but BABY STEPS work! If a goal seems too hard, I just keep breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces until it seems manageable. I find the Fitbit so motivating to wear, and I want the numbers it gives me at the end of the day to be motivating too. My plan is to walk MORE than the average number each day, so today I will walk MORE than 2396, which will raise the average tomorrow, and then I'll walk more than that, yada yada, until I reach 3000.

Each of these two goals make me work a little harder than I have been. I'm ready for it!

Have a beautiful day,
jess

DarkSinestra

@jasmarie24 It seems like so many of us do beat ourselves up just for being human. Awareness of the habit and a desire to change it are a great start! I'm glad you'll be taking this journey here and look forward to hearing more.

@jessiquoi You really did accomplish a lot in January. Observing our own behavior and taking visible measure is a hard thing to do. Thankfully, technology is making it a lot easier than it used to be on the tracking side, but we're still the ones who have to put in the effort. As you said, baby steps, and one positive change leads to the next, and so on. I'm hoping your February goes well.

January was the beginning of returning to calorie counting after many years of not doing so for various reasons and excuses. It went far better than I expected, although balancing macros is still a bit of a challenge. I learned that my portion control was way out of whack. I also learned that I was sabotaging my appetite (as in driving it out of control) by eating certain trigger foods and that when I avoid those foods, I have a much easier time of eating within my calorie limit. I started PT and a sensible walking program that wouldn't hurt my joints or back while I'm working on strengthening and dropping excess pounds causing alignment issues and pain.

My goal for February is to get more organized and finish up a few projects that languished last year due to settling in from a cross-country move. I find that unfinished things drag on me, like they're always at the back of my mind demanding attention and energy even when I'm not consciously focused on them, so it's time to roll up the sleeves and clear those away to start new things in March. Nutrition wise, I plan to continue recording everything that I eat or drink and trying to balance those macros. I am not obsessing over either the scale or how my clothing fits, although I am regularly weighing myself and taking measurements to be sure I'm on track. For me a downward trend is more important than daily fluctuations, and if there is no downward trend, then at this point in the game, I'm doing something wrong. I haven't been at this nearly long enough to be hitting plateaus.

I just got a fitbit. I'm looking forward to what it can do for me and learning all the ins and outs. Beyond that, I want to enjoy community support and give in return, and let's see where this Great Grey Beast of February, as Clive Barker termed it in one of his novels, takes us all!

aleahurst

Good morning, all!

Jess, you really had a very productive January! Good for you. I like what you said in your opening two posts and may go back to read them again. Also, I've been finding some great articles on the daily burn web site on how to get hunger under control. I like the site, just unsure about joining.

@DarkSinestra - logging each food we eat can be revealing. Like you, I've discovered much that I thought was an okay portion. The calories reveal much, as do the macro nutrients. This process of self discovery is amazing. I hope we always love the journey.

@hzl22! Welcome! Be sure to reply to this thread.

@jasmarie24 , Jasmine, welcome!

January was okay here. It was more of a month of discovery than a month of progress, but I have yet to step on a scale, so the result remains to be seen. My biggest struggle is that when I give up sugar, depressive symptoms begin. So much of February will be spent finding my happy place in sugar consumption.

Good ooga mooga! I am carrying on!

Have a Wonder filled day.

Lea

Mithridites

@aleahurst - much like your discovery, what I thought was an okay portion was usually 2. Packaging is often misleading.
@jessiquoi - One of my new gorgeous habits (that I very much hope I can continue for life) is reading and absorbing portion information on packaged foods. If a package is more than one portion, I make a conscious effort to put the rest away for later - even if later is 2 hours hence. In this way, I'm making my body adjust its expectations. I lost 4 pounds in January, so this habit is a keeper!

Hang in there, Beautiful ones. Only 27.5 days left to the end of the month. We got this

aleahurst

4 pounds! Wooooo. @Mithridites. Yeah my portions are consistently larger.

Here is a link that I want to keep. http://www.whfoods.com/index.php
It's for "world's healthiest foods". They let you look up and compare nutrients.

Yeah. We got this

MerryMari3

Love this post! Always helps to look for the positive. We are human so no need to fret a whole lot over our mistakes, learn from it and move on. Baby steps are awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this! I look forward to my journey, the good days & bad days.

jessiquoi

I have been struggling with food all day long. it's dinner time, and I'm not even hungry because I've eaten so much, and yet I still want to eat something. i'm still within my calories, but i don't know how long that's going to last. i'm trying to resist ordering in. off to find some veggies to eat!

aleahurst

Hello to @MerryMari3

I went over on calories, but all in all, my average is to stay at the allotment. I look at the 30-day report frequently, just to keep things in perspective. I also noted that I was going over, so I chose high fiber foods for supper. The World's Healthiest Foods website told me to eat more swiss chard. hmmm.. I don't believe I've eaten chard for decades!

577 calories over is not bad, considering I got to this weight by stressful eating of 5 king sized chocolate bars a day. It's good!

My son announced that I will need to get back to work on building wooden boxes soon. I know he is right. We have to have them ready by the first day of warm weather. I'm building boxes to be apartment complexes for bugs. I have about 120,000 honeybees as pets in my backyard. My winter rest is nearly over. The bees don't care that I'm not done with KonMarie-ing the house. I'm slow, but my boss (my son) let's me go slowly.

Stay calm and eat nutritious food!

Love to all

Lea

KimF0715

Will have to post tomorrow. For some reason the message board is not working with my phone.

jessiquoi

Lea, how fascinating that you keep bees! john and i are talking about doing that after we finish working on the house, maybe NEXT year. how long have you been doing it? do you sell honey?

hi, @MerryMari3

aleahurst

Jess - my son took this up a couple of years ago. I was delighted to have five hives in the yard. Yes, he sells honey. My grandfather raised bees in a old fashioned willow branch hive and filtered honey through cheesecloth, or ate honey and comb together. My son uses a friend's honey house, with all the extractor gadgets he loves to use. Since I have been home, he puts me to work on the simple stuff. We actually live in town. I would love a small lot in the country.

They are actually pretty easy to keep.

Today, I am grazing on carrots and celery! I ate some trigger foods Tuesday. It will take about four days to get it out of my system.

Love you all.

Lea

happysherri

My volleyball season started back up. Every Saturday we play 6 competitive games. This past Saturday we were short a person and still won all 6 games! Looking forward to February --- except for that my baby girl turns 20 years old and makes me feel old LOL

KimF0715

January was a pretty good month for me. I never thought I'd ever say or type those words.

For me...I have always had the mindset that January, February and March were the worst months....just awful...I hate them. Etc., etc. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Best thing I ever did was get OFF of Facebook. Second best thing was a commitment to self care for my 2017 Resolution.

Next thing I did which was awesome, was get back on MFP and join this group.

Creating a "Winter Happiness" board on Pinterest was great too, saving things that I like about winter, and then reminding myself of some things I always loved but let go.

So....I'm feeling very positive. And all of these things have led to improvement in my relationships and my outlook.

Weigh in tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed for some sort of loss.

Keep at it, girls!
Kim

jessiquoi

today is the second day in a row that i stayed within 100 of my calories. i'm excited about that! it's the hardest thing for me to do.

fruitydelicious

This is awesome!!

My Jan accomplishments:
*completed a whole30 in January and currently in the reintroduction process
*I lost 9.5 lbs
*increased my water intake

Feb goals:
*keep consistent in eating whole foods after reintroduction process is over (which will be mid Feb)
* increase steps slowly and begin to add some body weight exersices.

dlm4mom

Hello everyone!
My accomplishments for January were- i did not lose or gain, I learned what normal portions of breakfast cereals are- i was way way off on this one, I had 5000 steps about 25% of the time, I painted my laundry room, I became more aware of my calories and my lack of energy expenditures, I logged on to MFP almost every day.
My goals for February are to get 5000 steps 50% of the time, to stay within calorie allowance 50% of the time, to complete one project requiring physical activity every week
I have learned that most of the days when i am way over on calories are days when i run errands after work and am worn out when I get home and do not control my eating very well. Does this happen to anyone else and does anyone have ideas?

aleahurst

@dlm4mom - I agree that maintaining your weight while you learn about your dietary needs is an accomplishment! Good for you!

I read an article that suggested high fiber when you cannot get past craving out-of-bounds foods. So, I ate celery and carrots and sunflower seeds. Today, I got sick of celery and considered buying a king sized Hershey's with almonds (my favorite). I put a scoop of baking cocoa, a dab of cream, and a scoop of sugar in my coffee. Wow. It helped. It was almost like eating a chocolate bar. So, I recommend increasing fiber and supplementing that with a lower calorie form of what you crave.

@fruitydelicious , hello!

Goodnight all. Sweet dreams.

Lea

SpicyGorilla

I didn't log yesterday but I did something good. I went skating for the first time in ages. I'd forgotten how fun it is and really enjoyed the fresh air.
My goal for Feb is to work on the participation 150 playlist and to force myself to go to my taekwondo 2xs a week. I want to be more consistent.I want to earn a colored belt.

jessiquoi

welcome, @jasmarie24! we're all about not beating ourselves up here!

@DarkSinestra you had a great January! congrats!

@Mithridites 4 lbs in a month is awesome! you must be doing a happy dance.

hi, @happysherri. i played volleyball in hs and college, and think it's the best sport in the world.

@KimF0715 you are ready to kick February's butt! good luck in the weigh in

@fruitydelicious my daughter does whole30. i give you loads of credit, i don't think i could handle that.

@dlm4mom yes, when i'm tired i go off program. i have gotten a little better at keeping only good foods in the house and plenty of them so that i can go off only in quantity and not in quality. it's helping a little.

@SpicyGorilla skating sounds fun! good for you. i grew up in brooklyn and lived on my skates. now i live in the country with no sidewalks. not that i could balance on skates at this weight, but it would be nice to try!

jasmarie24

January was a month of awareness for me too. I finally decided to take a look in the mirror and face my problems head on and learn how to change them. I started wearing my fitbit more and I started to log my food intake again. I also came up with an exercise regimen that works for me.the one big difference for me in January is that I made all of these changes on my own, I didn't take anyone's opinions of thoughts into consideration, I did it for me. I also started to journal more, which has been awesome! I bottle all of my feelings up then I eat my feelings away. Writing my thoughts and feelings out rather good or bad has been great and has definitely made me more aware of who I am as a person.

My goal for february is to kee p these food habits going! There were a few times in January when I broke these habits due to stress and it set me back. This month I want to work through whatever problems come my way and stay on track while I do it !

KimF0715

Good morning and happy Friday!

Kids aren't in the classroom yet, so I am pumping out the rock n roll tunes. Every teacher passing my room is cracking up.

Weighed in. I lost 0.2 - I think I'll wet my pants. LOL!

Oh well, time to kick up the workout game. I definitely have the food down. Afraid of what superbowl goodies may bring, but I've resolved to log ALL of it!!!! That should be interesting.

Have an awesome weekend.

Kim

jessiquoi

Good morning, all!

i got on the scale today and it was good. i lost the weight i had put on after starting this up in mid-december.

i ALWAYS go through a period of gaining weight after i start trying to lose weight. it's as if my body and mind say to me, "oh yeah? we'll see about that!" my body is a rebellious creature, and i am the parent it rebels against. does anyone else have this issue?

i seem to have passed the point of inner rebellion... i can't believe i've been logging on every day for over a month! i usually get in trouble around week 3, and i did, and i stuck it out this time and passed it by! yay me!

i've been within 100 calories of my goal for three whole days now, which is amazing and very very motivating. i'm ready for my midmorning snack, and i'm going for an orange instead of a large bag of microwave popcorn. that's an upgrade.

i'm so grateful for all of you. i'm motivated every time i read your posts. thank you for sticking it out with me and sharing the journey!

later,
jess

fruitydelicious

Happy Friday everyone!! a few thought are rushing through my mind

After abstaining from weighing for a month while on my Jan whole30, I have a new found appreciation for the scale.

It is a tool that tells me how my progress is going. I have weighed myself everyday for three days : loss on Wed, loss on Thurs, and a 1/2 lb gain today.

This is not upsetting me, and this is not depressing. It is not a failure or from an unwise eating choice. It's just a number that reflects my current situtation for the moment. I can now choose to act upon this information. So what am I going to do...... the same thing I did yesterday, and everyday in January. I'm not going to let a number have power over my emotions anymore! I have wasted too much of my life stressing over "the numbers".

I'm going to continue to make the absolute best eating choices for the situtation I am in. That does not mean perfect, because that just doesn't exist. Right now, for me, that means eating whole foods and avoiding sugar. It means being kind to myself. It means loving and embracing the journey I'm on instead of lamenting and complaining about anything and everything......

I'm going to continue to weigh frequently each week ( always the same time of day and under same conditions). So WHEN I get to my goal weight (IF no longer exisits), I will be in the habit of tracking my weight and taking in the information and treating it as a positive no matter the number. I will use the scale as a tool and no longer let it define my journey.....

My journey is to better health, to be physically, mentally, and spiritual stronger then I was the day before. I am accomplishing that right now! I am successful right now!

I don't have to wait for the scale to say the "perfect" number for me to feel joy in the journey.....

and neither do you!!

fruitydelicious

jessiquoi wrote: »

Good morning, all!

i got on the scale today and it was good. i lost the weight i had put on after starting this up in mid-december.

i ALWAYS go through a period of gaining weight after i start trying to lose weight. it's as if my body and mind say to me, "oh yeah? we'll see about that!" my body is a rebellious creature, and i am the parent it rebels against. does anyone else have this issue?

i seem to have passed the point of inner rebellion... i can't believe i've been logging on every day for over a month! i usually get in trouble around week 3, and i did, and i stuck it out this time and passed it by! yay me!

i've been within 100 calories of my goal for three whole days now, which is amazing and very very motivating. i'm ready for my midmorning snack, and i'm going for an orange instead of a large bag of microwave popcorn. that's an upgrade.

i'm so grateful for all of you. i'm motivated every time i read your posts. thank you for sticking it out with me and sharing the journey!

later,
jess

This is fantastic!!! You're a great inspiration to stay focused and positive.

aleahurst

Jess - you did stick it out. Yay! Good for you!

happysherri

So excited - my "splurge" meal is tonight! Yay. this is worked into my plan so that my body doesn't adapt too much to constantly eating at a deficit, it's a refeed day.

*Last night I crushed my workout (lifted as much weight as the guys)
-Shoulders, chest and triceps heavy weights
-HIIT cardio - jump training
Happy Friday, ya'll

woznube7

Happy Friday, all!!

DarkSinestra

@SpicyGorilla Skating is awesome! I used to be on a roller derby team, and it was some of the most fun in sports I ever had. Outdoor training was always nice when the weather was cooperative. I'm glad you had fun.

@dlm4mom Yes, my decision making powers suffer when I am tired and stressed. Around once per month I dedicate a day to freezing and putting away foods that can be thawed and put together easily for a healthy meal. On busy days, I rely on those freezer foods. I always make sure they're high in fiber and something that will fill me up. It really helps! I have also stopped keeping junk food in the house, so I am forced to healthier snack options since there's not anything else here to tempt me. If I want a candy bar, a cookie, ice cream, or whatever, I can have one when I'm out and about if it's in my calorie allowance.

@jasmarie24 Journaling is wonderful, isn't it? A helpful tool not just for weight loss but mindfulness and going back later and seeing you've made more progress than you realize, or outlining areas that need more attention. Good for you making these changes for you!

@jessiquoi Yes. lol My mind and body are both rebels who like to yell. Slowly over time, I've been convincing myself that making a choice for something doesn't equal depriving myself of something else, that it's not about control. It's merely about choices, with each choice either supporting or working at odds with the next choice. I think it's working, since this time around I've had fewer, "Don't wanna!" moments and more, "Yeah, OK, that makes sense."

@fruitydelicious I feel like I could frame your whole post about the scale and progress on my wall. That was lovely and inspiring.

@KimF0715 Congrats on the loss. Every little bit adds up! I also log over-indulgences when they happen. I want the accountability and the knowledge of what's going into my body every day. It also helps later in the week figuring out how to balance that one day and realizing that one day is just that. One day. It's not gonna make or break your weight loss journey.

@aleahurst That's such a creative solution to a craving. I love it! Congratulations on figuring out a way to manage that in a healthier way.

@happysherri Congratulations! Sounds like you're killing it, both in the gym and on your team. Way to go!

@woznube7 Happy Friday to you, too!

Today I hit 4.75 miles on my walk. Hills all the way. For the first time my calves weren't absolutely killing me by the time I got back, and I didn't get winded on "Ol' Man Hill," the highest, steepest *kitten* of a hill on the walk. I miiiight have been able to stretch it all the way to five, but this time I decided not to push it since the last hill before I turned around had my bad knee acting like it might decide to go out if I got too sassy with it. Considering bad knee used to complain by the first hill, I'll call it progress!

jessiquoi

i did it again! 4 nights in a row within 100 calories. i feel triumphant!