Week 8 of 15 Review

I hit a slump. Week eight is finished but only because time has passed not because I've been overly successful or productive.

There have been times when this would have sent me into a downward spiral of negative feelings and gloom. This week I'm feeling like Nine is a fresh start and another chance to keep going. I also am not beating myself up for "failing" the self imposed challenge. I know why I didn't make my goals and where I can work on improving in the coming weeks, I will.

What I Am Doing?

• Drink 4 "little mermaid" cups worth of water (about a half gallon)
• Do an XBX workout
• NEW 9,000 Steps
• Meet the Noom food budget without going over the red foods
• NEW read the daily Noom articles
• Read two pages from a physical book
• NEW reflect on victories at the end of each day
• On Mondays take a progress photo and post an update on this blog.

Week Eight Review:

I use a simple habit tracker in my bullet journal to monitor the weekly goals. Colouring the little blocks has been a powerful tool in a few ways. First, I get the little jolt of accomplishment in the act of filling in the block. Even small rewards can boost the happy brain chemicals and we all like positive reinforcement. Second, I am excited to do another task. I quickly can see which tasks I could complete to add to the good feelings of completion. And third, I see what tasks I might have forgotten about. This is often the lesson, reading, or daily reflection. They each take about ten minutes and aren't hard. I just need reminding to do them. 

To truly understand how far this week got away from me you need to see it.

Most of the pervious weeks have days with every task filled in and only a few gaps. The last two weeks drinking the water and walking have consistently been missed. But as you can see from Thursday (the 9th) on it was down hill to nothing. Let's look at each goal individually because the reasons for the funk is similar but different:

The water is always a struggle. I have no trouble drinking three glasses of water. It is the fourth that seems like too much unless I start early and am doing more physical tasks. Another thing I've found helps is eating sweets or salty foods but that makes the Noom food goals a challenge.

Missing the XBX was a choice. Thursday, Dec 9th was our dance class and then our dance exam. We passed and it was great. But it was double our normal dancing and I found that extra time really strained my hips. I took the remainder of the week off to recover. I think it was not a failure but a wise choice of listening to my body and avoiding pushing that could lead to an injury.

The step goal has been another going struggle. In November it was still warm enough to walk late (10-11pm). With the ice on the roads and the temperature dropping outdoor walking at that time has been unappealing. We have an indoor walking solution, setting up a treadmill but....there are pieces missing and that hasn't been possible. Alex has tried, even looked up the missing screws online only to discover when he got them from the hardware store the listed size was incorrect. Another option might be to walk earlier in the day but our schedules have not allowed for that yet.

I still feel good about the Noom food goals. The first day I missed because I was over on red foods. Someone else had made supper and thought they got the yellow version of the dish. When I scanned the product after supper I learned it was actually a red food. It wasn't their fault, they made the effort, and it was beyond my control. Thursday we celebrated our dance success at Milestones, I ordered a meal I knew was yellow and set half aside for the next days lunch (all good choices). I ordered a soup for a starter, because soups are normally yellow. This one was not...meaning another other day. 

Friday I baked, with sampling, we went to a Christmas party that evening, and we were celebrating BIG NEWS (I'll share in the looking ahead section). I ate beyond my reds and my food budget. And I knew I was doing it. I did make choices, but I also was aware of how much I was eating. In my over eating, it was less compared to what I would have consumed a year ago or even in the summer. In fact my "too much" now is what my average daily calories were four months ago. I'm also starting to recognize internally when enough is enough vs over eating. I also want good eating choice to be a part of my life but there are special times where celebration means eating for the joy of the time. I want to enjoy Christmas cookies and peanut butter balls without being worried what that means for my waistline when I am out with friends. It does mean some care at other times. 

I couldn't remember what I ate on Saturday. When I looked it up on Noom the day was actually a success, so maybe I just didn't try to fill out the chart or I ate things and forgot to record them. The remaining challenges are all goals I find fairly easy to complete most days. The reasons they didn't happen those days was because other commitments, late night activities and focus on important tasks. When there is too much going on something else has to be paused. Sometimes I just can't do it all.

Looking Ahead:

As I said in the intro, this coming week feels like a fresh start. I don't feel like a restart (going back to week one) is necessary or beneficial. Week Nine is a mental reset. I was doing my Noom lessons this week, one of the tasks was too write down three barriers standing in my way. Of those I chose two that would improve my chances of meeting my goals, and finally settled on "negative self talk" as the one I want to remove. It was a very helpful exercise. I am feeling optimistic, or at least motivated moving forward.

I made an adjustment to this week's habit tracker. I've added lines for each of the four glasses of water I want to drink. I am hoping by seeing the progress I'll be motivated and it will show me how close I got of days I almost made it.

Now for the BIG NEWS: I have been accepted to the Masters of Divinity program at Tyndale University. I'll be starting in January through their online portal. I'm excited and intimidated and mostly joyful. This is going to change how I plan phase three of the 15 Weeks.