Bad Day

Yesterday, I was having a bad day. I'm not really sure why. I just woke up feeling sleepy and ready to crawl back in bed. I couldn't of course because my three sons (ha, wasn't that the name of a tv show?) were awake and needed me. I also felt like eating everything I could get my hands on. For some reason, I couldn't decide to eat things I knew I shouldn't, but I did lounge around on the couch for most of the morning. When my husband got home early in the afternoon, I decided to get out and go for a walk and that seemed to boost my mood. It's amazing how excercise can turn my day around, and that I let excercise be my go-to thing instead of frozen dairy products or choclate. Fortunately, I had salvaged enough of my attitude for the day that when my husband suggested pizza for dinner, I was able to make a smart choice. A fellow bacon lover told me that when her family gets pizza, she always orders a small thin crust veggie pizza for herself and so I remembered that and fought every urge I had to give in to soft, doughy crusted meat pizza and went for the veggies. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my little pizza. From Dominos, the small veggie pizza is only 6 WW point plus for 1/4 of the pizza. I ate a little more than I probably should have because I was exceptionaly hungry, but I made the best choice given the circumstances. I also knew that it was best if I got full at dinner time rather than be hungry again an hour later and give in to something less healthy or end up eating after my cutoff at 7 pm. Funny thing is that if you check out the nutritional information on Dominos website, they give you suggestions on how to lighten up your choice, and they had no suggestions for me. I guess that's because I made some pretty good choices. I feel that even though I was in a crumy mood at the beginning of the day, I stuck with the good habbits that I have formed and didn't cave to old habbits. I'd say, all in all, that was a pretty good day.

Excercise

I mentioned in an earlier post that when I started losing weight that I started very simple and worked my way up to where I am now, so I just thought I would share a bit of where I am now. I began in February with no excercise. I knew I needed it, but just didn't want to. So, I found a couple of excercise videos to do at home because I really didn't know how else to fit excercise into my day with my three little guys. I didn't enjoy doing them all that much and it was aggrivating to see all those fit little girls doing the same excercise as me, but I kept doing it because it was getting easier. When I started the Biggest Loser competition with the church in May, my team (Crystal and Chrisy) decided we should train throughout the competition to walk a half marathon by the time we were done. These two have ran half marathons before, so they had room to talk about getting us to walk one. I, along with a few other members of our team, thought they were crazy. But, I figured even if I don't get to the marathon part, training with some friends and getting excercise with them would be worth it.

We began walking a couple of miles at a time and I must tell you that our first long walk as a group was way too fast for me. My side hurt and I struggled to keep up til the end. But, as with everything else in this journey, I had to keep plugging along even if it was hard, because I knew it was the right thing to do. Since my husband is gone all week, it has been a challenge to walk with the group. We started walking in the middle of the day, but June, in the mid-west, is just a little HOT. And, I was pushing a double stroller with two little ones with my oldest tagging along and it just wasn't working. The girls started walking early in the morning to avoid the heat and I decided to find a wonderful girl to get up very early for me and sit at the house while I walked and my children slept (ha). My kids have been getting up early, so the sitter has to get them out of bed, but I get up around 5:30 to walk by 6:00. We typically walk about 4 or 5 miles and since I am not wealthy, I can only afford a sitter two mornings a week. I generally get out Saturday mornings because my husband is here and we are starting to walk more like 6 or 7 miles then.

I have never been a morning person, but getting up early to walk really energizes me for my day and I have really come to look forward to those early morning walks and get really bummed if I have to miss them. I must admit that I do feel sorry for myself sometimes and want to throw a little pitty party because it is such a challenge for me to get out to walk in the mornings, but I get over it pretty quick and have learned to just make the best of my situation. One morning my sitter forgot and didn't make it (I totally understand and I don't blame her one bit), but I wanted to throw my little pity party again, but instead I buckled down. Since I was already up and dressed to my shoes, I just decided to put in an excercise video and make the best of my morning.

I am starting to make better decisions for myself. I am amazed. Never in a million years would I think that I would be getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 to excercise and not go crawl back in bed if things didn't go the way I wanted them to. I also got stressed to my max the other day and instead of vegging out in front of the tv with a giant bowl of ice cream, I made a way to get out after the kids went to bed and walk off my stress. It really is a lifestyle change for me now. It's not just a temporary fix. I hope this is inspiring you in some way to find a way to make your situation better and not sit at your pity party feeling sorry for yourself.

Oh, and one more thing about the picture of me. I am still working on getting a current picture and as soon as I do, I will post a before and current one, but our church directories finally came in. My family posed for pictures for this in November (?). I took one look at my picture and couldn't believe my eyes. A good friend of mine said she wondered who that girl was that ate Angie and she is so right. I am so happy that I am making changes to live a healthier lifestyle.