Before I get to my weigh-in post today, I have to take a moment to congratulate the San Francisco 49ers for making it to the Superbowl! My brother has been a faithful fan since he saw them win the Superbowl in 1994 – when he was 8 years old. He’s followed them through all their losing seasons until now – NFC Champions heading to the Superbowl. It feels surreal, but they earned their place there.
I decided something last weekend. I decided that I’m not in this healthy lifestyle for a specified period of time. I’m not doing this to see a particular number on the scale and my journey doesn’t end when I reach my goal weight. I am doing this for overall health. I want to treat my body better by listening to its internal cues. I want to move more, eat less junk, and fill my body with good, wholesome foods.
I know. Duh. But I think I’ve had this dieting mindset for so long. I just have to be good ’til cheat day, I would always think to myself. I didn’t focus on overall health. I can really feel this shift in my thinking as I approach a new way to look at my health and fitness.
But it’s a process. It’s an up-and-down battle with my cravings and understanding change. It’s about discovering what parts of my life aren’t fitting into my ultimate goals of health and wellness. Changing your entire mindset on how you eat and what you eat is really, really hard. (Duh.) It’s not an overnight process, or will even happen over the course of a few months – especially not with me, with how stubborn I can be about food.
I want to slowly chip away at these unhealthy behaviors I have in my life until I have rid myself of them.
Right now, I am focused on two things: exercising consistently and quitting soda cold turkey.
Exercising consistently has been rather easy. I have Best Body Bootcamp to thank for that, as I have three built-in strength-training workouts a week (my favorite way to exercise) and then I just have to come up with my own workouts two to three times a week for myself. Once I get into a pattern of working out, I’m in it for good. My alarm wakes me up at 5:30 four times a week and as long as I go to bed early, it’s really not hard for me to drag myself out of bed to work out. I feel good about the progress I am making and I can feel my body getting stronger and my endurance levels increasing.
The second habit is one I have struggled with for years, well documented on this blog. I love soda. A lot. While some people reach for wine or beer at the end of a difficult day, I reach for soda. The combination of sweetness and carbonation calms me. But I know it’s incredibly bad for me and I am addicted to it. I’m emotionally attached to the stuff. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to quit it before, sometimes trying cold turkey and sometimes by gradually working it out of my life. But I think I needed all those failed attempts to bring me to where I am now. It’s been over a week since I last had a soda. I’ve never gone this long. Either the headaches or the constant fatigue or the cravings hit me too hard and I give in.
I think all of my unsuccessful attempts have helped me to ease off the addiction as towards the latter part of last year, I wasn’t drinking it as much so my body isn’t as addicted to it as it has been previously. Friday night was the first time I had a real craving for it but I held strong and got over it.
I feel so ready this time. I finally feel as if I am strong enough to resist the temptations. I have never felt like this in my past attempts. I am not constantly thinking about the next time I’ll get to have a soda and luckily, it’s not readily available at work (and almost every coworker drinks water constantly) so my only battles come when I’m at restaurants. I think the hardest part of this has been the constant tiredness. I’m getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep a night (and I take a daily iron pill) but I’m still so tired every day. I don’t want to use this time to get addicted to coffee and caffeine so I’m just going to keep getting lots of sleep, keep exercising, and pray my body gets used to no caffeine SOON.
While I’m acing every test when it comes to those two habits, I’m not as focused on eating perfectly. But honestly? I’m not worried about that right now. I am not going to put pressure on myself to heal every unhealthy habit right now. I have my entire life to do that and I think these two areas are necessary to get me on the right track.
The next goal I want to work on is meal planning for healthy dinners every week. I can get so lazy with this and then I have a week (like last week…) where I ate out all but once because I didn’t have anything planned for dinner.
In any event, with my eyes focused on exercising and not drinking soda, and not eating healthy all the time, I was a bit worried about weigh-in but I told myself it’s not about the number on the scale and even if it shows a gain, I still made incredible strides in cutting out soda. (Luckily, the scale didn’t disappoint!)
Starting Weight: 166.6 lbs
Current Weight: 163.8 lbs
Weight Lost This Week: 1.0 lbs
Weight Lost Total: 2.8 lbs
What is one unhealthy habit you’re trying to kick this year?
Great! I … well, I was disappointed in the scale. But this is another week! You need to get me more motivated to work out. I think I’m going to do the stationary bike at lunch today so I can catch up on my book club book at the same time.
I gave up soda in high school& never looked back. I found that the flavored seltzer and bubbly water was really helpful in making the switch. Now, I’m trying to give up the sweet snacking I do far too much at work! For me, I’ve been trying to substitute nuts and cinnamon graham crackers with peanut butter to try to get that sweet fix that is lower and calories& better for me.
I think you’re in a really great mind set about the whole thing & as long as you continue to make healthy eating a LIFESTYLE rather than just a “be good til cheat day” you’ll not only see amazing results, but feel great for a long time to come. And yay for decreasing numbers on the scale! You’re doing great!
I’m so proud of you for working on kicking your soda habit! I’ve read so much lately about how bad it is, and I really think it will make a difference.
Right now, we’re doing the Paleo diet which is working really well for us. I’m hoping to keep it done once our 30-day challenge is over. Basically my unhealthy habits are all the carbohydrates that I tend to overeat when I get my hands on them. Also: food as rewards. Ugh. No good!
Congrats! I didn’t make any big changes in my weight loss this week but I did amp up my exercise significantly in terms of duration and what I’m doing, so I’m hoping for some number changes this week (I weigh on Saturdays) and next. As for me, I would like to not snack when I’m bored!
I think starting small is the best way to go when trying to change unhealthy eating habits. I know from my experience that trying to change everything at once is overwhelming, and it becomes so much easier to slip back into unhealthiness because it’s so familiar. I started a few years ago by just eating [mostly] whole foods, and staying away from processed food. Once I got the hang of that, I was able to start consistently meal-planning to further solidify that habit. This year, I gave up refined sugar (inspired in part by when you gave up sugar last year!). So far, it’s going pretty great and I’ve lost 6 pounds. It’s nice to only think about sugar, and not ALL the junk food ever. Once no sugar becomes a habit, I’ll move on to something else.
I think no soda is a GREAT place to start! Eventually, your cravings will subside and no having soda will become a habit. You won’t even think about it anymore. Then you can move on to the next step in healthy changes. You will do great!
Congrats on the loss this week! I’m so happy for you! 🙂
Nice work on seeing another loss on the scale! And for tackling your goals of cutting out soda and exercising consistently! I used to be a soda drinker in my 20s. Then I switched to diet when I joined WW and then I kicked the habit completely – which resulted in me pushing through a weight loss plateau which in my opinion goes to show that just because it doesn’t have calories doesn’t mean it’s not bad for you as it seemed like my body reacted really well to removing it!
This year for health related goals, I have been trying to consistently cook big meals on the weekends so I have healthy lunches to bring to work. Everyone around me eats out EVERY SINGLE DAY so it’s super tempting to join them – but if I have yummy leftovers, I don’t feel like I am missing out!
Congrats and good for you! You’re doing so great for yourself.