Invest in Myself: Week 4

Welcome to the recap of Invest in Myself, Week 4!

I made good progress this week, but I struggled a bit with my perspective.

I was focused on what I thought I wasn't doing well enough (exercise) instead of recognizing everything that was great (consistent meal planning and resisting cupcakes).

Let's review my week...

Motivation & Accountability

It was a good week! I lost almost half a pound this week, bringing my total weight loss to 4.5 pounds. I took my monthly measurements and my waist size is down. I wore jeans that I hadn't been able to wear for a long time.

During this week's Real Appeal online session I signed the commitment contract for Week 4:

• Set a meal schedule and follow it as closely as possible
• Use the hunger scale to gauge when to eat and when to stop eating
• Eat more filling meals (protein, fat, high-fiber carbohydrates)
• Continue my other healthy habits to the best of my ability
• Take measurements for my monthly check in

Real Appeal Hunger Scale
Try to start eating at "2" and finish at "4"
Avoid the extremes - too hungry or too full

Nutrition

I planned well and stuck to my plan, even when curve balls were thrown at me. The Greek restaurant where I planned to have seared salmon turned out to be mezze, or small plate, style. So I actually had a little bit of salmon, meatballs, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, tzatziki, and baba ganoush. Tracking was complicated, but I made my best guesses and did it.

If I hadn't tracked that meal, I could have easily fallen into the mindset that I'd already messed up the day and might as well have a cupcake at the office celebration in the afternoon. But I stuck to my plan and resisted the cupcakes.

I had a bite of cake at my son's birthday party this weekend, and found that it didn't even taste that good to me. It was easy to stop after that small taste (which I logged in my meal tracker).

One change I'm going to make going forward is to only track food in MyFitnessPal. I'll add the MFP total for the day to my Real Appeal tracker for my coach's benefit (Hi Hannah!), but I'm not going to double track any longer. It takes too much extra time and creates a double-counting problem in Fitbit that I was correcting each day.

Exercise

I did yoga 6 times and I (only) walked once this week. I dealt with a lot of negative self talk about not exercising enough.

Thursday was especially tough. I had been getting up early to do my daily yoga practice before work, but on Thursday I was too exhausted and planned to do it after work. I unexpectedly had to work late, though, and ultimately didn't have time to fit it in. On Friday I was deep in all or nothing thinking - I'd broken the streak, maybe I should just stop the yoga and do more walking instead.

But I wanted to complete the 30-day Yoga With Adriene Dedicate Journey that I had committed to. I wasn't sure how, though.

• Should I skip the day 16 practice and just go to day 17? 
• Should I double up on practices one day to catch up? 
• Should I just keep doing them in the right order? 

I decided to keep doing the yoga practices in the right order, and I might double up one day if I have the time. Adriene said it is okay to take 45 days, 60 days, or even longer to finish the 30-day journey. I am committed to the entire journey, and it's okay if it takes more than 30 days.

Self-Care

I enrolled in a year-long "Happiness Project" with Gretchen Rubin to help me focus on being happier.

Over the year we will focus on a different theme each month:

• January | Self-Knowledge
• February | Energy
• March | Outer Order
• April | Friends
• May | Work
• June | Play
• July | Family
• August | Money
• September | Love
• October | Body
• November | Awe
• December | Onward

For January, one of the activities was a self-reflection questionnaire. One of the questions was what I liked to do in my free time when I was a child. Theoretically, these are things that I would still enjoy today and might want to incorporate to bring joy into my life. One of the things I enjoyed was creative writing. My resolution for January was to write on my blog weekly about my "Invest in Myself" project.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a typically busy week, but there aren't any unusual challenges like birthday parties or dining out. My goals are:

• Continue doing well with nutrition and yoga
• Walk at least once
• Be kind to myself, focusing on my successes

See you next week!