Goals

I have many long-term goals in life - for example: owning a home, becoming a mother, living a healthy lifestyle, having a uncluttered living space, just to name a few. I've begun to realize, however, that I tend to see the big picture and not the baby steps that I need to take to reach my goals. I have always known that I am a "I want to see immediate results!" type of person (which is why my art is never finished), and I think that is my biggest weakness. I also tend to be my own worse enemy and am so critical of myself when I fail that I just give up altogether.

Since the first step to accomplishing ANY of my goals is to first change this destructive frame of mind, for the month of September, I am going to keep track of the positive things I've done each day. Even if it's just something little like, "Hey, I took out the recycling today!" I'm going to focus on the things that I DID do, not the things I didn't do.

Over-due post

So, over Easter, my friend Rachel came to visit for her Spring Break, and lots of fun times were had! I knitted, she crocheted. We each made our way through The Hunger Games series. We had Tuttie Fruttie for lunch on two different occasions, as well as several meals of Panera Bread - not altogether healthy, but very delicious. The Chipotle Chicken Panini I got was AMAZING! The best meal, though, was at Medieval Times... mostly because Dayne upgraded us without us knowing, and we were in THE FRONT ROW! Rae even got a carnation from it! <.< I think the two of us were cheering and booing the loudest of our section. AND OUR KNIGHT WON!

We also spent a day in DC while she was here - the first time I went into DC without Dayne! I was so proud of myself. We just got on the Lightrail to Penn Station, took a train to Union Station, and then took the Metro from there. Nevermind that it would have been quicker to drive to Greenbelt Metro station, I didn't want to deal with the traffic and parking. >.> We spent at least two hours alone in the Museum of Natural History, touching everything we could, and some things we were supposed to (I'M LOOKING AT YOU RACHEL). By this point our feet were sore, so we walked to the WW2 Memorial and sat for awhile, and I soaked my feet. Oh! And we found out that the Washington Monument was closed off because it had gotten damaged during the earthquake that happened awhile ago. The Reflection Pool was closed off, too, because they're finally repairing it as well. We walked past it on our way to see Lincoln, and once we did that, we headed back to the Metro because we were TIRED.

Another day we took the Lightrail to the Inner Harbor, with the intention of possible going to the Aquarium, but it was PACKED, so we ate Potbelly for lunch and then wandered around the big Barnes and Nobel for awhile, and then headed home. But we didn't care that we didn't do much, because we got Potbelly, and that was worth it. Aaaaaand, I guess those are the big things we did! We also watched a bunch of Marvel movies. Captain America, Thor, First Class, Wolverine, X-Men 1 and 2... it was fun.

Through all this, I ate HORRIBLY, and the week after she left was bad, too, with trying to get back into the swing of things. I am proud to say that I didn't GAIN any weight during her stay, but I didn't lose any either. BTW, it won't be official until tomorrow when I do my weigh in, but I've lost 14 lbs since I started in February!

It'll be awhile before I can watch A Bug's Life again

So the past few weeks, we've had a major ant problem in our apartment. For instance, while cleaning the kitchen, I easily killed 20 in the hour or so I spent scrubbing counters and whatnot. And they were the big carpenter ants, too. So anyway. Last Thursday, I got some ant traps and put one under one side of the microwave, and another under one side of the toaster (so there was no chance the cats could get at them). By the time Dayne got home, it. was. CRAZY! They just went back and forth from the nest to the traps, carrying the poison. We even saw the queen out! It was actually pretty cool to watch, in all honesty. In the morning, each trap had around 20 ants in it, but all the poison was gone.

It's safe to say, after the ant genocide that just took place, I won't be able to watch A Bug's Life in awhile without feeling guilty about the amount of ants I killed.

Insert Clever Title Here

Despite going crazy with my weekly points this last week, I somehow managed to drop 2 full pounds. Clearly, I need to be more liberal with my weeklys and activity points, because this is the biggest drop I've had since beginning. Now, it's not that I feel guilty using my weekly points, because I know that's what they're there for, but I always feel as though I'll lose more weight if I don't use them. Lesson learned!

I didn't exactly make good on my goal last week, so I don't have a new one this week. I'm just going to continue working on last week's... only maybe focusing on just the fruits and veggies for this week. I think my problem was that I was trying to accomplish two different but similar goals at the same time. So this week, I going to continue to work at getting more vegetables and fruits.

I didn't make the decision until after Zumbaing this morning, or else I would have started today, but tomorrow I'm going to step it up a bit, and start doing the 45 minutes "classes" in the game. After three weeks of the 20 minutes classes, I think I'll be able to handle it. I hope. :|

Lastly, I'm going to try to choke down green tea more often. I'm not much a fan of it, but I know it aids in weight loss, and it's just healthy in general. I found some that has a slight blue-berry flavor, and it wasn't awful... still not my cup of tea (get it?)... but bearable. Maybe if I drink enough of it, I'll develop a taste for it.

Why, hello again :|

Yeaaaaaah... it's been awhile. :| Especially since an actual update and not just a Blogging for Books review. Anyway.

I'm on my fourth week of Weight Watchers since starting it again. I've been somewhat disappointed each week when I step on the scale for my weigh-in, but I managed to keep from getting discouraged, since I also started doing my measurements. I didn't do them last Monday, since I started in the middle of the week. But as of this Monday, I've lost an inch from my arms, 2 from my hips, and 2.5 from my waist. So I can at least take comfort in the fact that, while I've not lost many pounds, that at least they're coming from fat and not just water weight.

I think my success is at least partly coming from the mini-goals I've been setting for myself.

Week 2, I made my goal to exercise and to drink more water. Both were a success, and have carried over into each subsequent week. I've been doing at least 20 minutes of Zumba every morning, Monday through Friday. I take the weekends off. :|

Week 3, I made it a goal to take vitamins. I'm taking a multivitamin, a Calcium + Vitamin D supplement, and an Omega-3 supplement. And I've been remembering to take them, because I keep them by my coffee maker.

And this week, I made my goal to get the recommended amounts of dairy and of fruits and veggies at least three days a week. I decided not to set it at every day, since I knew this would be something I needed to take baby steps on. Yesterday I didn't do as well on the veggies, and today I haven't done so well on the dairy, so far. I may have to keep working at this one. I also maybe should have only done one or the other. :| But oh well.

I'm thinking that by setting Wellness Goals in addition to following WW, I'll be better equipped to maintain my weight, once I reach my goal, because I'll have established healthy habits.

I'm also hoping I'll catch the Spring Cleaning Bug, and manage to get this place under control. Right now it is a hot mess. I thought that by giving up video games for Lent, I'd be more inclined to clean, but I still sit on the computer more than I should. :|