so it has been a really loooong while...

Thursday Feb 27th 2014 (205.9)

I guess the month of February has blown by, and I have not written in my blog, nor have I paid any attention to my healthy eating, exercise, and weight loss efforts. (boooo)
Well, nothing like TODAY to get back on the band wagon :)

Tracey my personal trainer has a competition starting for the Month of March, I have to journal all my food intake, eat clean (she says paleo... but I dont think paleo is good for me) and exercise regularly to be entered into her contest... (I could win 3x personal training sessions donated by her!) pretty sweet deal considering she only has a few clients (perhaps 30-40?) so the odds are in anyone's favour to win! This is a contest that I like, where there are less than a million people entered :)

So I will begin today (Feb 27), but keep in mind I want to do this for the month of March!

What do I want to do:

1. track everything I eat
2. stay within my WW points
3. drink minimum 2L of water per day
4. sleep minimum 7 hours per day
5. get a minimum of 6000 steps per day
6. gym 3x per week or in basement gym
7. blog about it
8. oatmeal for breakfast 
9. eat 'out' only 2x per week (1x subway or pita pit & 1x at a restaurant)

#1 & #2 are my 2 biggest challenges. So if I do these 2 things and nothing else = ALL IS GOOD.
the other items on the list are the things I currently *mostly* do... I'd say about 80% of the time (e.g. I would say the sleeping thing is 98%! and the water thing is about 90%, so my overall healthy habits are where I want them to be)
Again, #1&2 are a challenge, so I really want to focus on these 2 things.

What do I need to do to prepare?
- plan some easy 'go to' dinners (e.g. 2x poached eggs + ww eng muffin + salsa and side salad or veggies or chicken breast + stirfry veggies etc...)
- plan around my schedule: gym, Bridget's activities, weekends etc...
- Plan activity on the weekends! enough of being a hermit!!!
- focus on my goals - i want to prove to myself that I can lose some weight, I have all the tools, i know what I need to do, i just need to DO IT.

One day at a time, or as Roni says "What you Can When You Can" #WYCWYC.
Just continuously make the effort to do the best that you can do!

Judgement

Wednesday Feb 5, 2014
(204.6)

Why do women judge each other so harshly?
Why do we care what others do or say?
Why is what others are doing more important than what we are doing ourselves?
I too am very guilty of this... but why?
I watch other women judge each other and catch myself thinking "why does she do it?" and then I think "why do I do it?" I need to be more concerned with changing my own judgmental behaviour than trying to change other's behaviour.
Who cares what others are doing... care what I am doing, and how I am trying not to judge.
"He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
This is really hard to do.

example:
This lady at work said to me: (paraphrased)
"Oh, you're eating aspartame? I would never eat that stuff,  no wonder you don't care about eating from plastic containers..." referring to a conversation we had a few weeks back about how 'evil' using plastic glad ware containers were for re-heating food... (why does she even care)
I felt like screaming back at her... "I'm doing what I can, this is better than eating a chocolate bar!!!"
btw, I was eating an Fat Free Activia yogurt (it does have aspartame in it).

This is a far cry from the judgy "look at her hair, or look at what she is wearing etc..."  but this subtle "you don't do things my way" and "I'm so much better than you, cause I don't do THAT".
Why do women care so much about other people's choices?
I'm trying to teach Bridget that we all have our own rules, and we all have our own likes and dislikes.... and those differences are what make people interesting

Years ago, my sister in law said something to me that made me think "wouldn't the world be such a boring place if we all thought the same thing"... she was talking about her own creationist beliefs :) (??? of which I was judging her harshly asking why she believed in that crap:) ) and she called me on my judgments! and good for her. She said this and now I constantly think about this statement whenever I feel I am being judgmental.
I really dont want to be critical of others... I know I am with myself, and I am working on that too.

So I think I will embrace a new word and mantra:

Acceptance

of myself and others. I want to be the best me that I can possibly be. To do this, I have to accept that I am not perfect and that I try hard everyday. Somedays will be easier than others, but I will persevere and work toward being the best me possible. I need to accept that I can not change others, nor do I want to. We all have our own struggles in life and the day to day grind is not easy, so why worry about others, accept that they will do what they will do. I might struggle with eating less and consuming less packaged food. Others might struggle with not feeling loved, and still others might struggle with something far worse like addiction or self hatred. In the big grand scheme of life, I have it pretty easy... I just have to keep on moving forward and accepting myself for who and what I am capable of right now!