11th Sunday

Weight = 142lbs! I lost 2 more pounds!

Boooo-ya!

So I woke up early, read for homework, then in the afternoons did workouts. I noticed my back/hips started hurting on Wednesday so I eased off my workout and was able to still do well overall - no injuries! I do one minute jogging/running, and 2 mins walking, and do intervals until I can start running for longer periods of time. That works really well.

Food, well, not eating breakfast as much and not as healthy, but still seeing results.

I think that trying to fit in an appropriate workout or study session in the one hour in the morning, doesn't work as it's not enough time. I need the evenings/afternoon to work on things. So I thought, maybe alternate my morning/evening activities.

I can spend 2 days of the week waking up early to do homework, then workout in the evenings. Then spend the other 2 days waking up early to workout, then afternoons studying. Wednesday will be my break/sleep in day where I can choose whatever I feel I need, homework or workout in the evening or just rest/relax. That will work :)

Gotta keep up the workouts! Feeling tired overall but awesome that I'm making progress :)

10th Sunday

One pound! I lost one pound!

So the exercise does make a big difference. I decided to wake up early every morning to exercise. That worked, but it made me really really tired after work, so I wasn't really able to get any homework done. Plus this was a very very long, complicated and sticky work week, so I was worn out from work anyway, and physically tired. Most days I napped after work and ate out because I was too tired to cook. Wasn't the best for eating week, but the giant breakfasts were good for overall days.

In order to get some better balance with homework and workouts, I decided to wake up early and do homework while my brain was awake and fresh. Then after work, inevitably I'll be tired, but I can go for a walk or go to the gym when I'm tired. I can't necessarily do homework or think when I'm tired. I want to try that and see if I can have some weekend to myself. This weekend I spent most of it doing homework which, I'd like to avoid.

So the workouts are key. The diet is key also but not as much. I think the eating a huge breakfast will help my hunger throughout the day. Waking up early to study and eat breakfast is probably sustainable. Going to try that.

One pound :) One silly pound. Back to 144lbs for me, and overall in better shape. Gotta keep it up!

Exercise Fortunes

It's a little sad when the fortune cookie is also telling me I need to exercise.

I've been struggling with losing weight with various diet tracking and attempts at exercise. Although I'm proud to say I've woken up early Monday & Tuesday to do quick morning workouts. Monday did a 40 min walk & today some stairs & weights. It's not exactly running yet, but at least it's something.

I got the fortune while eating only half if my veggie/tofu lunch from Pick Up Stix. Pretty tasty. Go me!

Will keep the fortune taped up somewhere as a regular reminder.

Sad realization

So I just realized I've been "living healthy" for 8 weeks. If I was successful and more aggressive in losing weight, one pound a week, I'd be 8 lbs lighter weighing in at 136 lbs.

More motivation to keep me in check. Today I woke up early to do some light exercises before work, but I felt pain & strain on my right calf - former injury. I stretched it as much as i could & changed my workout because of it. I was more strength training vs cardio.

Must remember to take it easy & not go too hard, otherwise prone to injury & halting of exercise.

Anyway this slow & steady turtle pace is frustrating but probably better in the long run. I hope the diet tracker myfitnesspal is really helping. If anything it's making me uber conscious of what I eat.

Anyway, back to work.

8th Sunday

So, review of the past 2 months, wow already?

So I think I've stayed the same with my weight, but my overall habits are improving I believe. I am making healthier choices overall. With menus I choose the healthier options. In shopping and eating I am consistently being "good". I don't eat as much crap, although I still do eat junk food I can't help it. The "crap" food isn't satisfying as usual, but at least I realize it and work towards healthier snacks and sides.

Bad news is my exercise is probably remiss. It's just been too busy with everything. I haven't done any gym time and we haven't gone biking or done anything active in the past 2 weeks. So now that my diet is under some control with the myfitnesspal and overall healthier mindset, I really need to focus on workouts. Although with school starting and life in the way, I'm at a loss for realistic options.

I think it might be good to start off small with the workout frequency. TWO times a week at the gym will be a good start. How i'm going to fit that in I don't know. I was debating doing early morning workouts, so I might do Tues/Thurs mornings at the gym. Maybe one morning workout and one weekend workout? That's probably a realistic reasonable and achievable goal. I'll also work on 15 mins a day walking on work breaks or lunch, and around the neighborhood.

Weekend activity? I love being lazy and I literally spent all day Sunday in my PJs on the couch. Part of my Sunday laziness was also due to a headache, but still it didn't last all day. I thought about adding a weekend workout but will try to keep goals achievable and keep it to the two above for now. That's all I'm going to try for and will recap next week. The exercise is the thing that needs work. The food has been good so far, despite the occasional fried food binges. The workouts are ambitious but a bit realistic and I'll give it a shot.

Overall I believe I've been progressing well, but I haven't weighed myself in awhile in fear of discouragement. Oh well. I've got plenty of stuff to work on and balance. Next week for sure - weight check-in.

7th Sunday

Actually, this past week we spent most of it on vacation with family on a reunion, so lots of food, lots of sitting and chatting, and not a whole lot of exercise. I did manage to take as many walks around the neighborhood as possible, so we did accomplish a lot with that.

One major thing I think I needed was a way to track my exercise. I was looking up apps on my iPhone and found this, the MyFitnessPal app. It is pretty fantastic. It helps you track your food intake and exercise and helps you calculate total calories. Most importantly it breaks down the nutrition of the food you've eaten and tells you if you've reached your limit on vitamins, minerals, cholesterol, etc. I really love using this and it really helps you realize how much you eat even if you don't realize it. At the end of the day it also tracks your progress and lists what your weight would be if you continued on the same path. It's helpful, very helpful and I love it and am using it in my daily trackings.

Back from vacation now and resting, but just bought a bunch of healthy groceries so hoping this week will be a success. Til then :) Tah tah!

5th Sunday

So, another Sunday checking-in.

First off, am feeling good, almost great. I ate pretty well this week. The 5 servings a day had me focused on eating more healthy stuff. Although I wasn't always healthy, it's an easier focus for me to eat more good than to cut out bad. Naturally by eating more good we naturally margin out the bad.

I weighed myself on Sunday morning and was a bit sad I was 144lbs. Then I thought about it and said "eh, F it". I was doing really well for myself despite the weight. It was nice to not have the weight be the final issue, even in my heart/mind. I still felt really good about myself for all the good work I was doing. I have really been eating healthier and really been more active, even if marginally. I've been feeling better too overall, and for the first time I feel like the journey is more important than the destination so I'm sticking happily to it.

This week, nothing new to try. I'll give myself a week to continue my good eating habits, exercise when I can, slowly and stretching lots, and we'll reassess next week. I find planning helps me in my eating well and exercise, in order to have time for it or be mentally prepared to do things. I also think that since we have family gatherings coming up, and I survived mother's day eating healthy, I can do it with the family stuff too. Gotta keep the "more healthy" stuff in mind, and just keep at it and not give up.

More things regarding a healthy lifestyle. Been reading a lot and I find this exercises my brain and makes me a more interesting and lively person. Read 3 books this week which I will rate and comment on later. We've also been fixing up the house which feels really good in taking care of things that need taking care of. Been weeding stuff out too, which is also healthy in not hanging on to things we don't use. Put some pictures in frames, replaced light bulbs, have other home projects in mind and am feeling very healthy these days. Another weird thing is we wake up naturally early at like 7am on weekends, so it feels like we have more time and longer weekends which is fabulous. We get started on home projects and personal stuff earlier in the day, and it's nice. All this free time off school has helped me re balance and get working on things I didn't have time for before.

Til next time, cheerio!

4th Sunday

Start of week 4. Ok so the whole "strengthening exercises" daily and eating slowly, didn't really work. I definitely failed doing that for week 3. I ended up just eating more and the "strength" exercise didn't really motivate me. I also ended up overthinking the gaining weight thing, and ended up eating more. This week was a wash.

Inevitably I eat more when I start worrying about health and I end up gaining weight. Instead of focusing on NOT eating things, I'm going to refocus on eating good stuff. Forget the 70/30 rule. I'm going for 5 servings of fruits or veggies a day.

I almost thought of adding an exercise program, but I think my diet needs focus first. Also it will help if I only do one thing at a time. We'll see how it goes. I'll do as much "exercise" as possible but no goal.

Also I came up with a rewards system. It won't be based on weight since that has never worked. It'll be based on what I do. IF I am able to eat 5 days of 5 servings of fruits/veggies daily, I'll buy myself some clothes/accessories. Part of my motivation for living healthier is fitting into clothes I currently don't fit into. If I buy something fun for myself every time I achieve something, it's like reinforcing the goal.

Good news is - I've been drinking my water regularly and I am very comfortable with my standing desk. I still get tired and rest, but I am more fidgety and want to stand if I sit too long.

Cheers!

3rd Sunday

Hello again Sunday. New day to rethink and restart a healthier lifestyle. Overall the past 2 weeks I think I've been about 20% healthier. It's not much, but at least it's a start.

Goals

This week, I want to actively try eating slower. I did it a few times this week and it seemed to work, so I want to try it as my new thing of the week. I eat fast in general. Sometimes I'm starving and I eat too fast and feel sick afterwards. When I actively tried to slow down eating, I found I felt full and wanted to leave the rest for leftovers, no matter how yummy it was. The crazy hunger thing only lasts a little while and if I can hold out, I can avoid all the extra calories. So will actively try savoring every bite, chewing more to get all the nutrients and eating slower.

My finals are this week and thank goodness because I cannot wait to be done! It will give me more free time to work on my exercises. I don't want to force myself to the gym with a rigid schedule because it never works. I also want the option to do little exercises at home, outside for walks, or other types of workouts, not just at the gym. I want to give myself flexibility yet a specific exercise goal. I also want to work on my perspective about workouts. I don't like calling it exercise or gym time because that's limiting as well. It implies work. I think I'll call my workouts "strengthening exercises" for now. This is true. I'm working on strengthening my body's muscles and flexibility.

So now to set the goal. I think I'll work on doing 20 minutes a day of "strengthening exercises". This can be gym time. This can also be taking two 10 minute breaks throughout the day to walk during work. It might be at home stretching or going on a quick after work walk. It could be bouncing on my trampoline. 20 minutes daily is do-able, no matter what with school or not.

In order to avoid overload, I think every 4th week, no new change or updates to my healthy lifestyle. It'll be a break and a way to reflect on my current lifestyle, see what's working, so I know what to tweak and what to keep or do new. So this will be all for now.

Motivators

One other thing that got me motivated. My mom has been dieting and doing really well. She is now 122 lbs, and her goal is 115. I'm a bit competitive so I want to reduce and eat healthy so I can beat her :) Although I must NOT focus on the weight, because I have NEVER taken off weight by focusing on the weight. I've got to focus on other parts of the healthy lifestyle.

As I'm writing this looking out my window, I see our neighbors who like to smoke on their balcony a lot. Probably at least 6 or 7 times a day. The girl is gigantic. She's the loud one who likes to talk about her gynecology appointments on her cellphone on the balcony so everyone can hear. She says she has trouble quitting smoking and she just keeps gaining weight. Such an inspiration. What could happen if you don't change your ways.

Also - I started wearing a piece of jewelry to remind me to live healthier. It's like my own version of a kabbalah red string bracelet or a WWJD plastic bracelet. It's a little ornamental ring that's all viney and pretty. I suppose if you want to get sentimental or metaphorical about it, you could say it's a way to remind that living healthy will make me well rooted, help me grow and blossom beautifully. So whenever the urge to indulge in french fries or eat an entire family size bag of chips, I may just get the smaller size or opt for the healthier snack when I reach out and see my ring. It might also help me keep everything else in perspective, to avoid the overwork or the over indulgences. Finding the middle way. The goal is to get the ring to fit comfortably on my middle finger, for the middle way.

Wk 1 - Eat 70/30

Wk 2 - Standing Desk + Water

Wk 3 - Savour food and eat slowly + daily 20 minute strengthening exercises.

Weight today = 143 lbs! :) 2 lbs less than week 1.

WHEN I reach 140, I will give myself a present. Not sure what yet, but I will :)

Bandwidth

Long time no post. Freaked out earlier today. It was more a culmination of events. Basically I was stressed and overwhelmed at the amount of work I've been doing lately. It wasn't life work, just school work. Getting a Master's while working full time isn't easy. I did well with one class last semester Fall 2010. This semester I took 2 classes, and found that, I'm having a lot of trouble, stress, and not a lot or enough time to do it all. I didn't really admit I was having problems, but I suppose, the first step is realizing there's a problem.

Let's see, I suppose it boils down to bandwidth. Some of us just have more than others. Me, a perfectionist and overachiever, I overwhelm fairly easily trying to do it all and over-thinking it. I was thinking today about how much I over-think things and my husband started laughing at me.

Anyway with the quality of life I want, I don't think I can fit the 2 classes a semester in there. I did really well with one, and just pushing yourself doesn't always produce the best results. Sometimes you just get hurt and it sets you back. I think that's the case with school. I tried to do too much at once and the rest of my life went out of balance. I had less friend time, fun time, social time, family time, blogging time, cleaning time, exercise workout time, cooking and eating right time, and self-growth time. All this, it's a careful balance and I've lost it. My plants have suffered, and the house is dirtier, I feel fat and unhealthy, I don't hang out with friends, and it's just too much/a lot.

Anyway, I sort of made a weird New Year's Resolution this year, to fail. Yes, and so far I've been fulfilling it. I've failed at multiple things, but it's given me the freedom to try and to be ok with the results no matter what. I've been more open and adventurous and good with failures. Learning to be not so perfectionist and living a more buddhist middle road life rather than an attempt at a perfect one.

So balance is key and sometimes we just don't have the bandwidth. I think I've decided, one less class per semester, just one - and I'll have time, room and patience for all the other stuff in my life that deserves attention. Just gotta get through April and May.

Growing

All my life, I traveled a lot. I switched between parents and they both moved and lived in different places quite frequently. For a long time now, I've sort of felt like a nomad. But, I could easily say that the past 2 years have been the most tumultuous, crazy, stressful and bumpy of my life. I left a prestigious, well paying, highly stressful job for a personal sabbatical of traveling and reflection in 2007. 2007 and 2008 were filled with adventures and mis-adventures throughout California, Asia and Europe. Reconnected with family and tried to re-prioritize what was really important. 2008-2009 There were job/career issues (still are), and a move back home with relatives because of the economy. In 2009 there was a sickness, a death and my own major medical emergency and surgery - the worst moment of my life so far. Along with this, we had an engagement and a wedding to plan and execute. Early 2010 we were focusing on buying a home, a small condo, but a place to finally call our own.

Now, mid 2010, moved into our new home and somewhat recovering from 2009, slowly feeling more like myself again, I finally feel like I can get back to normal - pre-2007 - but with all the wisdom and experience. I'm feeling more like myself day by day. We're out of our parents' homes, we're on our own, we're not making much money, but we're learning to live with less and slowly trying to build our own lives.

All of this made me think of, how important it was to have a place to grow. People, like plants, need a place to establish themselves. Somewhere rooted from which to climb toward the light. I've been feeling more rooted lately, a nice change. The beginnings were rough. Oh, but this could be the start of something good, don't you agree?

Follow Through - Gavin DeGraw
Oh, this is the start of something good
Don't you agree?
I haven't felt like this in so many moons
You know what I mean?
And we can build through this destruction
As we are standing on our feet

Unplugged and Feeling Better

So, lately I've been feeling much better about myself, and I think it's directly related to not regularly checking Facebook. There are a number of things that may be improving my mood I understand. Lately I've been trying to eat better, we've been taking walks after work, we've been not obsessing over our new home and actually had friend/fun time outside the house. Although these things probably contribute to my better mood, I think Facebook may be the biggest factor and largest culprit.

Let me explain. So, in Facebook, you are literally connected to way more people than you ever really talk to or know all that well. You're connected to everyone you went to high school or college with. You see posts from every family member on there. You're connected to coworkers and friends you are well acquainted with or hardly know very much at all. The only connection you need for Facebook, is to know a person's first and last name. The majority of your Facebook family are people who aren't in your regular circle of friends/family.

That being said, the majority of posts consist of the following:
- bragging about something awesome that someone just experienced
- unimportant details about what someone just did
- flattering photos of things that matter to that person
- topics or news articles that range from very to mildly interesting that someone could find if they surfed online for about 30 minutes.
- a funny or clever thought
- bad news or good news

There are other topics out there I'm sure, but I'll just state these ones for now.

I think my depression last week started when, I think it must have been a Monday morning or at least felt like one, where I read the news feed and 4 people posted something fantastic or wonderful that happened in their life. Got a promotion, got a surprise trip to Europe, pictures of us at Ascott and just had something amazing happen. It's like getting that annoying Christmas letter from that uncle who spends an entire letter bragging about his kids - my cousins - who all went to Ivy league schools and who are all ridiculously rich and successful. Except it's not once a year, it's pretty much a few times a week. I'm not an envious person, but I had nothing really fantastic happen to me in the past 72 hours. Life was normal/good, but not in a "post it on Facebook for everyone to read" kind of way. It made me very depressed for the rest of the week, because I felt so small, inconsequential and unimportant in my day to day life. I felt like a failure because someone else was a high powered lawyer or someone else made a small fortune gambling in Vegas or another person who I went to school with was suddenly incredibly successful. Who was I, living day to day with this not so extraordinary existence.

So I stopped reading Facebook posts after that, and slowly, my mood and general unhappiness in my life started to lift. I started taking joy in the little things in my life that made me happy. I stopped looking at what other people were doing and started doing my own thing, and shock, was finding myself fulfilled and happy and satisfied with what I was doing. Then I started to think, why all of a sudden, was I ok with my lot in life. It's because I stopped looking at what everyone else was doing.

Facebook is tough to beat, because you find out about event plans and friend updates that are important. People automatically assume if you're on Facebook and they post it - you'll know what's going on with them. What ever happened to the art of conversation or an email saying - hey how are you, this message is just for you?

But the more I haven't been checking it, the more I don't know what i'm missing. I'm not seeing the giant network of people's "this is why my life is so much better than yours" posts. I'm very competitive, and the fact is, it makes me feel bad in comparison to see other people doing so much better in life. Then again, if you look at mine, I'm sure people are jealous and I really do have it pretty good compared to a lot of other people. The thing is, I don't post every awesome thing that happens to me, for everyone to see.

Anyway, I think I officially am not a fan of Facebook. I think i'll check it irregularly. I might avoid the news feed and just go on people's pages and see what they're up to. The people I really care about, not the person I went to high school with that I hardly know who is going on an amazing ski vacation in the Alps. I'll check on my good friend from college who is a mom with 2 kids and just wants to pay her bills on time and raise her kids right. Plus I might start really appreciating all the stuff around me, instead of wishing I was someone else.

Motivation

Why do I want to be healthy? It's important to know this when you start, so you can think of it on those days you really want to sleep in, be lazy and don't want to be motivated.

I once wrote down the pros and cons of working out and eating healthy, and found the pros far outweighed the cons, and so were important in my daily routine and thinking about health. Below are a few.

Cons
Bad food tastes great.
I'm lazy, tired and not in the mood to workout.
My tv show is on.
I don't want to spend the time doing it.

Pros
Better health against heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Sexier feeling and looking.
Builds strength and energy for myself.
Feeling better.
Compliments from friends and fewer criticisms from family.
Being athletically superior.

They also say "imagine yourself" at your goal. I want to be sexy :) No matter what with kids, or grandkids, I always wanted to be a sultry and sexy older woman. Not necessarily a Cougar, but one of those women you meet, where you're like "wow she takes good care of herself". A woman full of charisma, emotionally balanced, smart and sassy. So my inspiration may have to be Lucille (Carla Gugino) in Sin City. In fact any woman from Sin City is pretty much an awesome badass that I'd like to emulate one day. Just oozing with an inner toughness yet gentleness. Or possibly Angelina Jolie, but that's too easy and too common. Maybe a character like Catherine Zeta Jones in Zorro. I also love the classic elegance of Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe.

Anyway, just a few photos and women that are inspirational below.

Tough & Sassy - Carla Gugino in Sin City

Classy & Quirky - Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face

The one below being my favorite photo of Sophia Lauren by Alfred Eisenstaedt, during a break from filming.

I hope one day to be that beautiful.

Below, a little something by Audrey Hepburn. Ciao Bella!

I Am An Excel Wizard!

So I just created an amazing spreadsheet that calculates and tracks our expenses in an easy to read and enter manner. It took awhile, but after fixing some excel mac formatting issues, and customizing with color and style, I have a working and usable spreadsheet. Now, we just need the discipline to enter all the information regularly.

It feels really good to know where your money is going and keeping our financial status in good health.

Tea

In my quest to be healthier, I've decided to switch out my daily coffee for tea. My usual coffee drink was a packet of hot cocoa, half a cup of coffee, a creamer of hazelnut and a creamer of french vanilla, and half a cup of warm water to cool off the concoction. No doubt there are tons of unnecessary calories in that, but it was my warm comfort drink at work in the mornings. Now I switch to tea, knowing tea has just as much caffeine, is overall proven to be healthier, and as a loyal iced tea drinker, should be a manageable change.

I think the thing I miss most about coffee is the flavor and the texture. Mind you I had mostly hot cocoa and sweet stuff in there. But I also enjoyed the thickness and warmth it gave me first thing in the morning. Tea is so watery. I still drink coffee occasionally, but it's a good switch for the calories, the sugar and the health. I drink straight tea, no sugar or cream, and have 1-2 cups a day, alternating between black and green teas.

Anyway I found this cute product while searching for a tea photo. It's a Penguin Tea Timer. Also here is an article on how tea is good for you - 33 Health Benefits of Drinking Tea

Drink up and cheers!

A day that will live in infamy

So Tuesday was a very wild roller coaster ride with my health.

The weekend left me feeling very sneezy, stuffed up, sneezy and sick on Monday. Overall it was a good weekend but tiring. We had stayed up late on Sunday night to watch LOST and the Jimmy Kimmel show. Had family over Sunday along with a day of bike riding and walking through downtown Ventura California on Saturday.

So Tuesday morning rolls around, and I feel tired and stuffed up, but overall ok so I decide to go into work. I carpool with the husband - and he drops me off and takes the car and house keys with him far far away. I get to work about 7:30am and slowly start to feel terrible, and I mean terrible! I was ready to clock out and sleep on the couch or walk to the Library next door and sleep off my sick until I could get picked up to go home. My wonderful department offered to take me home, and I almost did for lunch, but I had no house keys. By about 9:30-10am I was so nauseous I considered calling my sister-in-law to pick me up and let me sleep at her house. Last resort I decided to stand outside for a bit of fresh air to see if it helped, and it did.

Oh my goodness, how the fresh air helped. Not sure what it was, but I would feel very nauseous indoors, and go outside and slowly start to feel better. For a little while I was walking outside every few minutes, but that was drawing too much attention so I stuck my head out the window for a bit and turned on the fan in the office. This all seemed to help.

By the time lunch came around I felt better, and able to do work and manage, but still had a headache. A coworker said it looked like I had a sinus infection - why I had the headache and the sneeziness. He recommended a sinus flush - gross - and some nasel sprays. Later in the afternoon I thought to myself, since I was feeling so sick and taking all sorts of pills and trying to eat fruit to make it go away, I completely forgot my regular cup of tea or coffee. The headache might be from caffeine withdrawal. One cup of tea and an hour later, I'm feeling oh so much better. It's about 4pm, and I went from almost throwing up on people to jazzed and feeling great. The great feeling that comes after feeling like shit for most of the morning and some of the afternoon.

Oh how important it is to pay attention to your body and your health. I took sinus sudafed, multivitamin, vitamin c, got some fresh air and caffeine, and I think all that put together put me right again. Just wanted to share that. It really does feel great when your day ends so much nicer than it started. I actually feel better - really better. Now I will pay much more attention to my sinus issues, perhaps schedule an appointment to see a doctor finally, and also keep track of my caffeine intake. Overall I think my sinuses need attention, as I usually get weather headaches and they can definitely take over when it gets bad.

Naked

Recently I was looking in the mirror, and I weighed myself, and realized that I had gained about 5 lbs since the last time I checked. That was nearly a month ago, before all the fuss and stress of home stuff was in the works. But I've been out of shape and not very healthy for quite awhile now.

I got some perspective end of 2007/beginning of 2008. I decided to start taking care of myself, so I focused on body, mind and soul and started exercising and eating healthy. I was doing really really well. Started out at almost 150lbs, and after about a year I was eating tons of fruits and veggies, could run for up to 30-50 minutes and lost about 25 lbs, averaging 125lbs for my 5'4" body. Then real-life happened, some issues came up, and I started gaining the weight again, but more importantly, I started picking up my bad habits of eating badly and not exercising.

I'm all about "healthy", not about thin. So now that things have started settling down with the house, I've decided it's time to start getting back into my healthy habits. Now that we have our own home and our own kitchen, I can finally control the foods we eat and concentrate on getting the healthy stuff in our system. Also, this morning was the first morning in a long series to get back into shape. I woke up early and went for a walk. It wasn't a hard walk, it was rather easy, but it was a good step in the right direction. I was a bit tired/sleepy on the drive into work today, but I've had a morning workout routine before and if I can keep it up, it'll be a big help to my health and my sanity in the long run.

So, this is the beginning of my health diary. I kept one when I was unemployed and was very successful at being healthy. But now that I have a job, and all the work and stress that goes with it, a personal journal isn't cutting it. So now, I'm going to post it online. One factor they say to help with healthiness - is to be accountable. So if I post online, I know I'll be accountable for my actions and their results. Plus I can share some wisdom and success/failures of my health journey.

Some words on weight: It's a reflection of your lifestyle. Losing weight shouldn't be the goal, but it's an indication of how healthy your body is. That's my perspective, and although weight loss is not my goal, it's a perk of being healthy, getting muscle and being fit. It's also a good measurement for how well you're doing. When I was being very "good", I lost weight. When I wasn't being good - it tended to stick around or gain. So that is why I'm listing my weight on here. As a general indication of progress. I also plan on listing other aspects of physical well being, but we'll come to that when we get there.

Weight - 133lbs

Not bad, but not great. The goal is to be fit, healthy and well - awesome. More to come :)