Fitness Friday: Snacks, Setbacks, and Goals

This week has been an up and down kind of week. You may remember that I workout at 7 AM every weekday morning, and that I don't do well when my schedule is thrown off. Well this was my week to drive the carpool for my kids and a couple of other neighborhood kids to school, which starts at 7:20. This meant that I couldn't exercise at 7:00. By the time I get back, my little ones are starting to rise so there's no time to workout until late afternoon, NOT my best time of day. Nonetheless, I did manage to muster up the energy to workout twice. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

On the eating front, I am having a hard time staying focused on the weekends. Although I actually like water and drink plenty of it, I always overindulge in the sweet tea with my Sunday dinner. Bright Eyes, my 14 year old, decided to try a new cookie recipe, white chocolate something or other, and I ate two of those. So my "no sweets" declaration lasted 16 days. Still, I normally would have eaten two or three every day until they were all gone so all is not lost. I got back on the bandwagon and haven't eaten any other sweets.

Edited to add: I definitely need to pray and get a handle on eating when I'm frustrated emotionally. I'm discovering that it's more of a problem for me than I originally thought. More on the source of my recent frustration sometime next week.

Brenda has asked this week that we post about what we snack on, you know, now that candy bars and potato chips are not an option. My favorite snacks are grapes, popcorn, and apple wedges, in that order. I make a point of washing grapes and putting them in little snack bags so they are easy to grab and go. I do the same with the apple wedges. I sprinkle a fruit freshener on them so they won't turn brown. For popcorn, I sprinkle a little Parmesan or sometimes butter to add flavor and it tastes great. We pop our popcorn on the stove rather than using microwave pop corn so I have to be careful with that, too. Occasionally I eat a few whole grain crackers, but not often as I'm trying to get a grip on my carb intake. I love my breads, pasta, and potatoes so that's always an uphill battle. Oh, and I recently discovered these for when I really need some chocolate. Can you say 50 calories?!

My ticker didn't move this week and that tells me something important: for me, vigorous, consistent exercise is as important as watching what I eat. This means I need to work hard on adapting during the weeks when I can't workout at 7 AM sharp, so that I can exercise whenever the opportunity presents itself. I'll simply view this as another area to cultivate the virtue of flexibility.

My goal for the coming week: workout at least 4 times, drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water everyday, and increase my fiber intake-alot. I'm hoping this translates into a weight loss of 2.5-3 pounds. I'd like to lose this every week, in fact. It will require dedication and discipline. My overall goal is to lose this weight by adopting changes and healthy practices that last a lifetime. It would be shame to lose all the weight only to find myself back here in a year or two. Moderation, moderation, moderation. That's my motto. Certainly I could cut out carbs or make some equally extreme changes I won't stick with, but the success won't last. So I'm coming to terms with the fact that this may take a little longer than I'd initially hoped. And I'm okay with that.

Visit Brenda at The Family Revised for more Fitness Friday encouragement.