Monthly and Annual Goals

Although I prefer to call them challenges rather than goals... so then my goal is to succeed at my challenges.

Words are funny.

So I am attempting (again) to meditate daily for a full calendar year and/or 365 days in a row.

I have completed January successfully!  So I want to celebrate that win.

There was a big routine change in the middle of the month with kittens entering my life, so my habit of meditating 8 minutes downstairs while my coffee brewed stopped working on work days. Kittens are very distracting.  This week I switched to meditating upstairs first thing upon waking. So far so good.

Onto month #2!

I also have short term monthly challenges, so more on February's challenge later.

closing out 2019

It's been the greatest year full of growth. Sometimes painful as life can be but still so precious.  My word for 2019 was accomplish and wow that word really suited the year.  So much has been accomplished.

I am still losing weight (slowly) and gaining in strength. My awareness of how mood and food interact is growing. My meditation practice is strengthening.  I am constantly finding new non-food activities to enjoy. My thought models are useful. I can do a plank much longer than I realized, LOL. 

I have several other private writing groups which leaves less time for blogging here, but that is just where I am at... and that's ok.

Wishing the world a lovely and peaceful 2020. 

Nanowrimo 2019

Everything is well here.  I have been focusing on uncoupling food from my mood and it's going well. Maintaining my weight loss. Sometimes it seems slow but still it's happening.

Now that every single bit of graduate school is completely behind me I have been slowly bringing back fun stuff that I love.  One of those things is Nanowrimo. 

I am so excited to be able to really commit to it this year. I can't wait to visit the characters and world I have been building over the past 10 years.  I am at 1700 words so I am off to a slow start. I am not sure of my plot or anything else.  But I am writing and it is wonderful .

Summer end check in -Autumn is almost here.

Last day of summer here and time for a check in.

The two issues from my last post:
-Leak proof container for on the go dressings and sauces. This has been purchased but I have not had a good chance to use it.  Tomorrow night may be the time as we are eating out for autumnal equinox.
-Food waste. It's going better. I am slowly transitioning to buying less, cooking less, shopping for less -- Still a work in progress but that is ok. One thing I decided was, since I am not cooking Thanksgiving this year I will not be buying my own turkey for those of here at home. It is simply too much food for us. This by itself is a major change. It will be weird to not be ordering my turkey during my birthday week.

Since my last update I have had 4 trips (3 by plane),  one dying dog and completely finished my masters degree. It's been a lot the past 6 weeks.

I have maintained my weight loss but have had no new lows. However I am still very committed and have been keeping up all my new habits. Now that I have room for new projects in my life I am going to be very thoughtful this year about continuing to build on my habits, continue to lose weight and get to goal (no matter how long it takes me). Some of my new projects include an online support group, NANOWRIMO and artsy community classes.

The support group will need a lot of online time from me but I will still be reporting here as I consider this more of a personal journal.

It's been (over) a year!

Well today is a year, plus a few days, of my re-commitment to low carb/carnivore/keto eating. 

My pie in the sky goal was to lose 100# in a year. I am down 63 pounds and feeling great. I knew back in June that I was not going to meet my bigger goal within the year so I did some research on how to handle it. 

This led me to the gap vs. the gain. I choose to focus on how I started 63 pounds heavier a year ago. I have made huge, huge strides. I have even figured out how to eat when I am up at the lake! I am capable of losing weight when I am on vacation and feel great about it.

I also set a July goal of getting below 170# and I made that goal, now I am working on my August goal. It's doable but challenging - we will see.

I have also set my long term goal of losing 100+ and getting into the 120s by the end of the year. This is quite the stretch goal. But no matter where I end up on December 31 I will be better off than where I am today. I will have learned more, problem-solved and be healthier in a hopefully smaller body.

Currently I am working on a couple of things. I need a small leak proof bottle so that I can take a vinaigrette with me when I eat out. I love salads at this time of the year, but restaurants seem to have the nastiest dressings. I am also tired of food waste at home. I am brain-storming how I can get my food purchases to line up with how much food is going to be eaten in my house. I hate wasting food!

Hopefully by the time I check in here next I will have both of these solved! peace out.

Turning down the volume

I have been working on eating the correct amount of food for a person who weighs 58 pounds less. I have been somewhat successful.

I have noticed that I tend to cook too much.
I tend to put too much on my plate.
It was harder up at the lake as I was out of my routines.
I tend to want to finish off what it on my plate because I am lazy about putting food away.
I am noticing that my brain still thinks I need to eat more when my body feels full, stuffed even.
I can tell I need to keep doing thought work and stop blunting my feelings with food.
I am still trying to re-define the parts of my life that revolved around food.
I have been peering at naturally thin people's serving sizes to get used to new amounts I am shooting for.
I don't expect everyday to be the same.

Headed back for the lake and determined to make this weekend more successful than my last trip. I will figure this out! For sure.

A bit over 4 months

Within a week of my previously complaining post I got a new low on the scale. Only a half a pound but I still celebrated. My measurements never seem to actually change much even when my clothing gets looser. I need me some scale love. It's really helpful to my mental outlook.

So yay. Now I am ready to head up north on a working vacation and do my best to get a new low while there. This is a step on the path to my monthly goal.

I would really like to move into a lower range of weight this month. That range is 3.5 pounds away.

I feel pretty determined to do all that I can do. I am working very hard with the emotional component of eating and trying to adjust the volume of food I take in while paying more attention to how full I am actually feeling. If I am successful I will blog about it afterwards.  Well, I guess I will blog about it either way!