Jan 5, 2010

Habit a Week Challenge


Thanks to Lyn over at Escape from Obesity for the Habit A Week Challenge.  This is my kind of challenge! Not directly related to the scale, but will certainly help that scale move in the right direction!

I am committing to drinking at least 2L of water every day.  I always did until winter hit full force. I work in a construction trailer and lots of water = lots of pee breaks = lots of going out into the cold to the washroom trailer = cold and miserable me!  But I am missing the water, I feel tired mid afternoon and my skin is so dry, so I need to drink it. I will consider the 200 m each way to the trailer to be exercise, if I go 5 x a day, that's 1 km!

I am fighting a full blown cold; runny nose, runny eyes, sore throat, earrache.....I came home and wanted to curl up with a book, a blanket and a pot of tea until The Biggest Loser starts at 8:00...but I decided to hop on the treadmill and see what I could do. I managed 20 minutes before I was stopping to blow my nose every 90 seconds...but I'm good with that.   At first I told myself, "I'm sick, I shouldn't have to exercise when I'm sick!" (That's the unfairness syndrome starting - right there - my friends!) but I told myself to shut up, that I should be grateful that I COULD exercise, that I wasn't bedridden or weak or worse! And so I changed my clothes and just did it.  I was really pushing to get to the 30 minutes but I was getting on and off so many times it was silly...at 25 minutes I packed it in.  If I can learn to walk and blow my nose at the same time......

Dinner was some Lipton Chicken Noodle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Perfect comfort food for a cold night while enduring a cold.

I've been using Spark People to track my daily calories. I love that it has an app for my iPod touch as well so the info is always with me.  My doctor recommended an average of 1200 calories a day/week.  I've been struggling to stay at 1200 and am finding it easier and more comfortable at between 1200 and 1300.  I'm not sure what this will do to my weight loss efforts, but I'm going to do it for another week or two and see where I end up and reassess if I have to.  Some days I'm really close to 1200 but alot of days I'm over 1250.  Funnily enough, counting calories seems oddly freeing after counting Weight Watcher points for so long, I'm not sure why - when I first started, it did seem more difficult and cumbersome but I was trying to do both for comparison and it just seemed silly.

So that's my news for today. 

New Beck post and a Biggest Loser post on tap for tomorrow.  Have a great night!

6 comments:

  1. Hope you feel better soon!

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  2. Hope you feel better!

    You want a challenge? I dare you, starting NEXT Tuesday, to get up during commercial breaks of the first 1.5 hours of Biggest Loser, and DANCE. That's right, dance through the commercial breaks. Don't need music. Just get up and boogey for all of those 3-4 minute breaks. I do it, you can do it too!

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  3. I drink a gallon of water every day , and one thing I have found to help manage the bathroom situation is to drink a lot when it is convenient for bathroom breaks and lay off when it is not. I homeschool and potty breaks mean chaos, so I drink 1 quart first thing in the morning, nothing till noon, then 16 oz, dry till school finishes and then drink the rest before 7 pm, or I am up all night running potty. It makes that habit manageable for me.

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  4. Hi - Great job getting on the treadmill when every cell in your body was saying no!

    The water goal is great! Very doable, and will get all things flowing quickly. That would be annoying to have to go out in the cold - you'll be bundling up a lot.

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  5. I can't even workout right now, my body is so sore and I'm coughing like crazy, so mad props to you for doing it while you're sick!
    I think 1,200 is a bit low and hard to stick to...I'm not a doctor, though. I find I lose just fine eating around 1,600 a day - and I'm not hungry...
    I would say try to eat a LOT of veggies - they fill you up and don't add calories.

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  6. Great attitude with the treadmill Enz! Good for you for getting on there. I'm a total wuss when I'm sick so that makes me extra proud of you.

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