Today marks the end of week one, and overall I am proud of myself. I am doing my best to push myself whilst also going easy on myself. It’s an interesting balancing act, but I think I am doing a good job walking that tight-rope. I take some time each evening to reflect on the day, and what adjustments I need to make in order to do better the next.
The primary thing I need to work on is expectations; and I don’t mean expectations for weight-loss or fitness results. What I mean is expectations I have set for myself, and constantly reevaluating those expectations. For example, I set a goal to write a blog post every day, and very quickly decided there was no way that was realistic. Instead I decided that I would continue daily with my short, personal journal and only put the effort into a blog post once per week. I also scheduled myself to jump back into the marathon training, albiet at an extremely slow pace. That hasn’t been working out great, and for various reasons along with a couple of excuses I have been unable to walk every day. I will continue to strategize how to get myself on track with the walking plan. Next week I am going to adjust the time of day and see if that helps.
My major victory this week was sticking to my eating plan. I hit my water and food goals every day this week. Part of that plan did include some “cheating,” but as it was part of the plan, can it still be called cheating? I know in order to stick to eating right I need to be able to give myself a break sometimes. On Friday night I made a couple of batches of cookies for a friend’s birthday. Yes, I ate a couple of the cookies. No, I have no regrets at all. I knew I would be baking the cookies, and I knew it was completely unrealisitc to bake said cookies without trying them…call it quality control. I otherwise ate right the entire day, and met my fitness goals. Plus, oatmeal rasin cookies are practically health food.
On Saturday I met up with a couple of friends and we went to Farmstead Restaurant in St. Helena. It was a great experience. They have lots of outdoor seating and outdoor space to hang around in and drink wine while waiting for your table. We got there before our reservation, went to the General Store (cute little building onsite where it looks like they might have done wine tastings in the before-times), purchased a bottle of wine, and found a beautiful spot outside to sit and sip until our table was ready. We were sat at the table a little bit after our reservation time, but with the wine and the lovely weather we didn’t even notice.
Instead of each selecting our own meals, we decided to get a bunch of small plates and one entree so we could share everything. Yes, I could have pretty easily stuck to the keto plan, but I would have missed out on some excellent food. I had also already planned for this meal, and do not feel any of the guilt. More importantly, because I put no pressure on myself to eat with restrictions, I didn’t have a moment of “F it, I will order what I want,” which often leads to me quiting altogether. Because I gave myself a few hours off, I am still on track.
Today I got up and ate an on-plan breakfast. I then went on a long walk, roughly 4 miles. When I got home it was lunchtime and I had a salad. I’m now considering what to make for dinner, which may actually be another salad. I know myself. I know that had I not made the agreement with myself ahead of time for yesterday’s fun lunch, today would have been a guilt-ridden day of no walking and eating junk food.
In conclusion, I am very happy with how this week went. Overall it was a success. I do have things that could have gone better, but I know that is what I need to work on next week.
Journey to Fit 