Happy April Fool’s Day!
stargrace 
Whether you jump in and celebrate, or avoid the internet for the remainder of it, I hope you’re all safe and happy.
Weight loss Update
February has been a really difficult month for a LOT of different reasons. The health challenge that was supposed to take place, was no candy, pop, or chips – as well as getting out twice a week with the family.
I managed to stay away from pop and candy, but failed once with the chips. We also failed to get out twice a week as a family, and there’s no real good excuse except that it was between -40C and -50C for most of the month. I’m reluctant to bring the children out in anything colder than -30C, especially the newborn. Then we all got really sick, and that has been the last week or so here at home. Not. Fun.
So this month I actually gained 7 lbs. I burst into tears when I saw that. It turned out that making simple challenges wasn’t going to work for me this time. I am absolutely determined to get back down below 200 pounds this year. Basically I decided enough was enough.
I’ve started a 90 day challenge with friends who want to participate. What each person does is completely up to them, but we weigh in on Fridays and motivate one another. My goal is to get from 227 to 215 in 90 days. That’s a pound a week. I’ve started calorie counting again over on myfitnesspal just because I needed reminders as to what proper portions of food look like.
Binge eating and stress eating are huge issues I deal with but again, I’ve hit that magical place where enough is enough and I’m tired of being this weight. 7 months postpartum or not, I need to feel better about myself.
Lets see how it goes.
February Challenge
January is over, and the 31 days of no fast food completed! As I mentioned in previous posts there were days I wanted to dive into a big mac, and others where it didn’t even bother me.
Now it’s on to the challenge for February, which includes no chips, no pop, and no candy – plus whatever naturally transitions over from January. Fast food is no longer automatically off the menu, but I’m hoping by abstaining all of January and breaking that habit I’ll choose to make healthier choices.
The hardest part of the challenge for February is going to be no pop. I typically drink one 350ml can a day, sometimes two. I’m hoping to replace that with tea or water, though I already drink an enormous amount of water daily so I’m not too concerned if it doesn’t get replaced at all.
The rest of the goal for February includes getting out twice a week as a family. The temperatures have been -30 to -50 Celsius lately, so this is not an easy task. It’s also made all the more difficult by our location. This challenge is just as important as the main one and I hope we can accomplish it, but even if we don’t I’m hoping for at least a tiny bit of improvement.
Last month I managed to lose 5lbs from 225 to 220 – the overall year goal is to get below 200lbs. I am not sure how much weight I’ll lose this month on the new goal, but hopefully it continues downwards or at least I don’t gain any more.
Day 27
The goal my husband and I set for January was no take out for the whole month, and we’re almost there. I’m down 5lbs, from 225 to 220 just from that single change. I didn’t change groceries or eating habits or exercise. Those are challenges coming up. February’s goal is no pop no chips no candy – and fast food is allowed, but I’m hoping by abstaining all of January the healthier habit will carry over. Another part of that goal is out 2x a week with the family which is hard to do where we live because it’s -50c some days, but I’m sure we can find things to do.
There are days I REALLY wanted fast food. Rough days when cooking was absolutely unappealing and I wanted something easy – but I reminded myself about the challenge, and I knew we could do it.
I’m confident we can handle the rest of the challenges, too. Here’s hoping I make it below 200lbs this year and to just being healthier overall.
Health Challenge Update
I was expecting to do a weigh in this week, but then lady stuff happened and as all ladies know this causes massive bloating and water retention so I decided instead of getting depressed at the scale, I’d check another time. There’s just no use in beating myself up.
The challenge for January has been no fast food (no take out). I’m on day 16 (doing this with my husband) and so far we haven’t had any. On bad days it’s especially difficult because we both crave the comfort and ease that fast food brings. I don’t exactly have a lot of spare energy and meal planing isn’t high up on my list of must-do’s. Last I checked I was down 4lbs, and that’s a good start (all water weight I’m sure). Next month the challenge is no pop/chips/candy and hopefully also carrying over the no take out food habits that I learned from this month. It just won’t be a steady rule.
I also started wearing my fitbit again. I have a Charge HR (though I’d like to save up for one of the newer models) and I’ll admit that I’m less curious about my daily steps and more curious about my heart rate and sleep habits. I get on average 5-6 hours of sleep a night, problem is none of those hours is more than 1h long because I’m constantly waking up to nurse, deal with kids, or just insomnia. Not fun. My heart rate is pretty good, resting at 72 (spikes at 74 on some stressful days) which is above average for my age group. It used to be much higher when I weighed more.
My steps average 2500 a day, some days are over and some are under. I don’t really care about how many steps I take because fitbit can’t see that 90% of those steps are with me carrying my 6 month old, or hauling the 2 year old around or playing with both of them, cleaning, carrying laundry, doing dishes, that sort of stuff. It’s just a good approximation. Sure, I’d love to get in the 10,000 steps a day that is recommended – but it’s -35C outside and I’m not keen on taking my children out in that, so we do what we can.
Do I feel healthier? Not yet. Not especially. I feel pretty tired and worn out, but that seems to be my new norm. I guess we’ll just have to see the scale next week.