Blah, Blah, Blah! (or something like that)

So I guess I should say that since I haven't posted in over a year, that I'm still in need of losing weight and getting healthier. Can I just say that I wish I was someplace better by this point but I accept where I'm at at the same time. So just to give a (hopefully) quick rundown of what's been happening the past year plus, here goes.

So, I had my third child in the fall of 2012. She was healthy, but she definitely was not an easy baby. The only person she was easy for was my husband, and he had to work all day. She was a horrible feeder. Breastfeeding and bottle feeding. She was a complete and utter pain in the rear to get her to eat. She was fairly cranky (but not because something was wrong, she just wasn't content with me. She was the happiest baby for my husband though. I literally watched the clock in the afternoons to see how long it would be under my husband would be home from work and I could hand her over. She was like this up until she learned how to walk just before she turned 1 year old. Since then she has been a much happier child, but she is into everything! She is very inquisitive and very quick to catch on to things that I wish she would be oblivious to at only one year old. Between her and my four year old son, they keep me busy playing referee or doing damage control around the house.

My husband is in the military and will be retiring next year and then joining the civilian workforce. He transferred to his final command last year (2013) and it has been a nightmare of confusion practically since the day his orders were issued to his new command. What we thought would be perfect orders (local military base with maybe one deployment before retirement) turned into orders that no one could tell you what was going to happen to the command, but that they were going to be moving to another base that is 700 miles away from where we are currently at. Due to the short time until my husband's retirement, it wouldn't have been realistic for the whole family to relocate to the command's new location (when they move) and then move back to where we are currently located within a year's time. So we were looking at over a year's separation even though he would still have been stateside. And on top of that, it would add a financial strain because we would have been responsible for paying for two places to live (one for the family, and one for the husband because we would be choosing not to move with him). And we were constantly being told different things about what and when all of this was going to happen. To say that we were stressed is and understatement. Big time.

I'm a stress eater. I crave sweets and soda when stressed. So when you add the whole stress of not knowing what life held for us until my husband's retirement, along with the fact that our youngest child was a cranky mess for mommy, I dealt with the stress in the wrong way.

So we still don't know what exactly is going on with my husband's command, but the good news is that they have delayed things so long that if he does have to relocate, the military will pay for his place to stay because he'll be too close to retirement now to make it a permanent change of duty station and has to be a "temporary" duty station. so that's the good news. Also as a family, we've now had two chances to acclimate ourselves to living apart due to the husband having short orders overseas. The first time he left for a month and a half the day before our daughter's first birthday. Talk about sucky timing. I did better with that than my husband did with him missing that milestone. While he was gone that time, I joined the gym, signed my son up for fall soccer, and started a six week healthy habits meeting group at the gym. I did really well until my husband came back home and then there were so many things going on that it just became too crazy around here. I still went to the gym and took morning walks with the kids up until October.

So in October I started watching a friend's newborn when the mom went back to work to help them out. Such a sweet and easy baby. Made me jealous that my last one has been an interesting experience, to say the least. Since I was now watching our friend's baby, I couldn't go to the gym or run errands during the day. This sucked big time. Was frustrating, but I was okay with it to help them out. I tried going to the gym in the evenings, and it just doesn't work for me at all. Starting the week of Christmas I was no longer needed to watch their baby so that freed up my days again. But due to the holidays, I have put off starting back to the gym until next Monday (Jan 6th). This has given me time to get through Christmas and adjust to my husband leaving again for another short stint overseas.

I have also had a nasty flare up with my hip problems. I sleep poorly at times because of it (on top of my normal insomnia and when you're tired you really just don't want to do anything that you don't absolutely have to. The flare up has finally seemed to be subsiding after several months. Tylenol and a heating pad have been my only chance at relief and sleep.

So here's the good and the bad with my weight and healthy habits over the past 14 months. I stress ate a lot and turned to sweets, sodas and fast food/eating out quite a lot. I stopped doing my freezer cooking, which is part of what led to the eating out too often. I have done okay weight wise. I bounced up and down slightly - up to 205 lbs. and down to 198 lbs. I have down three DietBets and both times I lost my required 4% (barely!) but then it would come back up some. Seems like each time I chose to do one (I did one the first time and the second time I did two at the same time), I was pretty much the same starting and ending weights. Goes to show that I changed enough to not lose my money, but didn't keep lasting habits.

So here it is the start of a new year and I'm recommitting myself to bettering my health. I am actually not doing it because of the new year, but I feel like people will assume that I am because of the timing, and that bothers me. I guess that stems from the fact that you always hear about how faithful gym goers get annoyed with the influx of people that have set losing weight as a resolution. I don't want people to look at me and think that even though that's not the case with me. I can't really explain why it bothers me other than that though.

Bottom line is this - I still need to lose weight and become healthier. I've learned a few things along the way that I'm going to implement again.

1. Use a organization binder/folder to keep logs and checklists handy. If it's staring you in the face, it's harder to ignore.
2. Drink more water. I found a water bottle that I really love that I bought back in the fall and I still use it daily. I just need to use it more than I have been. You can ask my husband about how many water bottles I have bought over the years in search of the right one for me. My only complaint about the one I use now is that it's not a double walled bottle, and therefore doesn't keep cold as long and "sweats" but I can live with that. It does not leak!!! It has a straw!!! It's not "fragile." And no funky aftertaste!!! (They do have a double walled and a stainless steel one but I get a metallic taste from stainless steel water bottles, and the regular double walled one is only 18 ounces. I have the 32 ounce bottle for me and the 24 ounce bottles for my kids now too.)
3. Grab and go meals are essential for me. With my youngest daughter I've had to be able grab, heat and eat quickly most days. I lived off of frozen Lean Pockets for lunch for a few weeks because of this. I'm in the process of looking up some things to make that I can cook and freeze and then heat to eat quickly.
4. I don't have to eat when you're "supposed to eat" if I'm not hungry.
5. Gym first thing in the morning. If I don't go then, I won't go. Plain and simple.

I'm sure that there are a few more that I should add on to that list but I'm drawing a blank currently.

So my game plan is this:

I don't have a weight loss goal. I'm going to set a fitness goal. I'm currently undecided, but I think I'm going to aim for doing a 5K with my family in the spring. We'll see though.

I'm taking the six week healthy habits class through the gym again starting next week. If it's the same leader as in the fall (I've taken it twice so far and I really liked one leader better than the other because I felt like I got more out of it), we'll probably also work out twice a week as a group or in a fitness class also.

I'm using an app on my phone that you make a "pact" to work out for a minimum of 30 minutes 1 to 7 times per week. Any days that you committed to but did not complete (If you said you would workout 4 days but only did 3), you are charged $5. The money from the people that didn't work out is then split among the people who completed their pact and is paid out according to how many days you committed to work out (the more you commit to, the higher the payout each week). I've used this app before and have only had to pay out once and that was because we had some issues come up one week and I missed one day. It doesn't pay out a lot each week, but the threat of losing $5 per day missed is often a good incentive for me.

I'm seriously thinking about doing DietBet's 6 month and 10% group that starts next week. It's a lot of money - $25/month for six months, but again, it might be an added incentive. I'm undecided though if I can commit to losing essentially 20 pounds in six months. It's definitely feasible. Just not sure if I'm that committed yet. I still have a few days to decide, and if I do join it, I will be using my past winnings to pay for most of it.

So that's about it in a nutshell for me. Wish me strength and commitment this time around!