Meal Plan: Jan 1-6

My meal plan for this week isn't exactly healthy. I'll improve on that :)

Sunday	Ribs
Monday	Fondue using this dip minus the peppers
Tuesday	Deep Dish Pizza
Wednesday	Leftover Pork
Thursday	Drunken Noodles
Friday	Sloppy Joes
Saturday	Undecided

Most of the time I will have frozen veggies with the meals. I usually let one of my daughters pick out what we're going to have and go get it from the freezer while I'm cooking.  We tend to choose the ones that you can microwave in the bag.

For lunches, I'll be doing leftovers and I have a few of the healthier frozen burritos.  For breakfasts I will have a protein shake.

It's not fair

Yesterday's entry in Made to Crave talked about "It's not fair".  A very timely entry seeing how my husband has lost more weight than I have, despite us doing similar amounts of exercise and my eating a salad every day in place of his sandwich and chips.

I've known for a while now that we have significantly different metabolisms.  It just makes loosing weight together really difficult.  Not to say though that I don't want to do it with him, it makes it easier when there's an accountability partner there.  It just makes it a bit frustrating.  I really need to find a way to channel that frustration into my exercise.

How do you cope with the difference in your husband's eating and your own?

Fitness Goal: Made to Crave

Have you read the book Made to Crave?

I picked up a copy last year and it has sat on the shelf unread for a long time. But with my Fitness Goal this year, I knew I would need more than just trying to stick to a diet and exercising.  Don't get me wrong, those are both important and helpful, I've already started to loose weight. However, I think it's important to think about WHY you eat.

In looking at how I eat, I realize, I rarely eat out of hunger.  Instead, stress and my brain get in the way. For example last night, I opened a box of cookies.  I cannot get those cookies out of my head, now that the box is open and I know it, I'm probably going to finish it.  I'm craving them. Made to crave talks about how to use God to overcome those cravings.  It's divided into 21 days and is designed as something you can do with a group, since there are discussion questions at the end of each day's reading.  But I'm reading it on my own.

Stress is another trigger that I have for eating.  The other day, I ate 3-4 pieces of candy before I realized what I was doing!  It's really more mindless eating.  So I need to start being more intentional with what I am doing and watch so that I don't get to those 4 pieces of candy without realizing it.  So, going forward, I'm going to try to stop and think about what I eat.  Am I eating for the right reasons?  Am I really hungry? or is it just that the food is on my mind?  If it's not for the right reason, I'm going to try to not eat it.  If I can't get it out of my mind, I'm going to turn to God for help.

I love Lysa's book because she's really upfront about it.  She starts out by saying that she still doesn't crave carrots.  The realism helps me realize just how much I DO need God's help.

Now I realize that some people are wired differently and they need to eat even when they're not hungry, just so that their bodies have the necessary nutrition.  I'm NOT one of those people.

Why do you eat? Any other tips to get past the cravings? Have you read Lysa's book?  Check out their website.

Two down, 22 to go!

If you read my side bar, you might notice that I adjusted my weight loss goal a bit.  I'd really like to be 200 lbs or less by the end of the year.  Since when I weighed myself I was 224 lbs, I decided to adjust my goal to loose 24 lbs this year, which makes it an even 2 lbs a month.  Still reasonable.  Will I be done after that? No, I'll still have more to loose, but I don't want to over aim nor do I want to loose it in an unhealthy way.  So, I'll stick with the 24 lbs this year.

I've got an interview today in a few hours.  Please pray that God will make it clear if this is the job He wants me to have or if He's got something else in mind.  I really would like to do what He wants but, I'm struggling with knowing what exactly that is.

Five Goals

At church on Sunday pastor suggested setting five types of goals for the year.

1. personal goals
2. family goals
3. financial goals
4. fitness goals
5. spiritual goals

I think that part of what makes us meet the goals that we set is accountability.  So in that spirit, I'm going to set five goals (one of each type) and then blog (hopefully the whole year) on my progress of meeting those goals.

I'm starting this as a new blog so that those who are interested in my progress can follow that separate from my craft blog.  The concept of a blog that's got a defined end to it is a bit odd to me and I'm always sad when the end comes for the blogs like that that I read.  So, I'm uncertain if I'll continue this beyond the end of the year, I'll revisit that when the time comes.

So, for today, I'm going to introduce you to my Fitness Goal.  My goal for the year is to loose 20 pounds.  That's less than two pounds a month, but I REALLY love food!  It will also mean more exercise.  Right now, since it's cold in my neck of the woods, that will probably mean Wii Fit. Have you tried it?  I've used it before and it did help me to get moving.  What other types of exercise do you like to do inside?

Stay tuned for more on the rest of my goals!