Today is dedicated to my nephew, Zachary, who graduated college and is a bonafide Mechanical Engineer! Not only is he a gifted mathematician but he also has a work ethic to admire. When I think about him, and what he accomplished, I am truly blown away. He is proof that when we combine our natural talents with hard work anything is possible.
Mechanical engineering is defined as a discipline that applies engineering, physics, mathematics, and materials science principles to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. It is also one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering disciplines. This sounds very impressive indeed! Way to go Zach!
I weighed in today, and sometimes I get lucky – I lost 1.2 pounds even though I think I should have gone up. I’m not complaining, quite the contrary, “Thank you to the WW gods for this unexpected gift.” However, sometimes these “gifts” can be the start of a problem. For me, I find it’s easy to fool myself into believing this lifestyle doesn’t take some effort on my part. It really does, and lately I need to tighten up some of my healthy habits.
So, I’m working out a plan of action, and it’s going to begin with re-examining my why. Then I’ll figure out the rest.
Every September teachers working in the north east know it’s time to open up classrooms to the community. Tonight was our Open School Night and it went really well:
I had a good day on plan; however, dinnertime didn’t go so well for everyone at home. I brought a salad with some chicken for dinner, and everyone at home was supposed to eat the flank steak that was marinading overnight. I did all the prep work for that on Sunday, and unfortunately it was a bust. It was a little too rare and a little too spicy for my husband and son so I came home to some gripes and complaints. Well… everyone just has to get over it. I can’t do everything.
I’m a little discouraged, but I’m going to keep at this. Tomorrow is another chance to try again.
I’ve noticed a pattern, now that I’m back at work. I am doing great with breakfast and lunch. I’ve made some time changes, I eat breakfast at home and I am careful to be attentive to eating in a quiet space. I usually eat in the dinning room and do my best to keep my mind quiet. Then at lunch, I am enjoying a nice variety of foods. I lean into zero SmartPoints foods, but I also eat foods that range from 1 to 3 to 5 SmartPoints. By dinnertime I usually have around 12 SmartPoints left. The problem is that I’m tired and hungry, and those conditions make it difficult to make good choices.
If I’m going to conquer dinnertime I have to have a plan in place.
This week is going to be different because I have a plan. I have planned out each day’s meal, and I made a deal with my daughter to help me prep foods so that it’s easier to get dinner going after a long day at work. Tonight’s dinner was big success…
10 SmartPoints
I’ve got a goal this week – to plan ahead for dinner. Let’s see how I do. I wonder, do you have a goal? What is it? How will you make it happen? Goals are so important, so if you don’t have one yet – think about what you really want and set a goal. More tomorrow.
I don’t know what happened today, other than to say, I had a hungry day. It didn’t start out that way, I had a good breakfast and lunch. By the time I was on my way home, at 3:30 pm I was starving and tired. I got home, immediately ate a bowl of corn flakes with skim milk and took a nap. Now I’m over points and a little discouraged.
It’s ok, tomorrow is another day. I’m drinking some water, and am planning on an early bedtime. I hope you had a good day on plan, more tomorrow. Let’s keep at this.
I left the gym early this morning to a hidden treasure. The early morning sky is hidden treasure in plain sight because it sneaks up on the world when we are all busy inside. Today, felt special because I got to be a witness to it and I thought,”I want to remember this feeling.” I breathed in cool morning air as if I were drinking water into a parched mouth. My body was slick with sweat, and my muscles had that warm burn that comes with a challenging workout. Everything looked and felt new again.
What would it be to live your life driven by your passions? My husband and I saw a fabulous documentary, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, I encourage you to see this film. It’s a given that she had this incredible immense talent, but she also has this rich, uniquely American, story to tell. I think her life may be a perfect example of a growth mindset. She didn’t play it safe with her career. Instead, she challenged herself to keep pushing her potential. It’s just very inspiring.
I was brought back to listening and signing along to her music with my mom, driving back from Queens after a day of visiting with Nanny Manzella.
Breakfast, lunch, and snacks were planned out, smart, and satisfying. So why was dinner so hard? Through no fault of my own, dinner was took a while to prepare, and by the time I sat down to eat I was both tired and hungry. Woof… that not a good combo for me. I did measure out 1/2 cup of pasta, and I had two chicken meatballs, and half of an eggplant boat. That was all within my SmartPoints balances, however then I ate a crust of bread, and a raspberry/vanilla bar for dessert. The bread and the bar pushed me over my SmartPoints balance for the day. I’m a little disappointed but I was so tired and I let down my guard. I’m going to spin tomorrow morning, and I’m hoping for a stronger day.
You took Sadie for an evening walk when things got stressful.
You went food shopping and bought good choices.
You are taking some time to write this post.
My new containers holding my egg muffins.
These are all things I did to help myself be successful this week. If you decided to write your own list, what would say? Sometimes we have to be the ones who give ourselves a pep talk. The inner voice has a lot of power, and we get to decide how to wield that power. Put your inner voice to good use, lift yourself up with appreciation and awe. You are worthy at least that much.
You know how it feels when you pull everything together and it actually works out? Sometimes all the work you put into something pays off, and that feeling is like riding a wave. Hang five baby, I went down on the scale this week! Now, I’m planning on building on that momentum.
Here are my goals for the week:
Get more high quality sleep. After reviewing my checklists over the past few weeks I see that this is an area for improvement.
Plan on integrating three new meal ideas for the week.
Work on my mediation practices.
What are your goals for the week? If you can’t answer that question, you may want to set some goals. Write them down, and you’re 80% more likely to achieve them. That is pretty amazing, in my book anyway.
It’s late, this is going to be a brief post because it’s been a busy day. Here are some things I can celebrate:
A pretty sky after spin class. It felt great to know I had a good workout this morning.I weighed and measured 1/2 serving of these for breakfast at 3 SmartPointsI ate breakfast at home. I was mindful.We have PD tomorrow and I made these cute little bags and didn’t eat any candy.
Tomorrow ends the first full week back at school. I am getting used to my new routine. I am rolling over 4 SmartPoints and that feels pretty great.
At my last WW workshop my leader, Bonnie, said that we make over 200 food related decisions per day. No wonder yesterday’s post was “Tried & Tired”. A weight loss / wellness journey takes quite a bit of effort. I think you have to really want it to make it stick. I can say that because I am living the life of someone who has lost a significant amount of weight so I know from experience.
Having more energy, feeling more confident, and actually appreciating and enjoying my food more provide big motivations for me to keep at this. In this case, more is more. These are all compelling reasons to keep at it. Ironically, the very habits that grant me the freedom to live this way every day are the same habits that can feel obligatory and oppressive at times. Like tonight I struggled a little with weighing and measuring my portions at dinner. I measured out my 1/2 cup of linguini to mix in with my zucchini noodles. Then I really should have weighed my pork tenderloin (I made pork sauce I cooked the tenderloin in the crock pot and then just added it to tomato sauce). I tracked it at 2 SmartPoints for the pork and 3 SmartPoints for the jarred sauce (shortcut because I’m cooking after work). Then I added a dollop of ricotta cheese, which I should have measured. I eyeballed it and and counted it as 3 SmartPoints. Then when I was filling out my checklist, I really wanted to check off that I weighed and measured everything but I really can’t because I didn’t. This isn’t a gotcha, and I don’t feel bad about it, it just is what happened.
I’m not writing all of this as a confession, I’m writing to be objective. It’s worse to convince myself that I’ve done everything “right” and then weigh in on Saturday and not understand why I didn’t get the results I want on the scale. I am writing all this down to keep me honest with myself. My goal is to want to get back to Lifetime.
As always, thank you readers. You help, and I hope that as you read my posts, you get something that helps you in return. We are all powerful beings who can achieve our goals. Believe it.
Getting to Goal 