A Few Steps Forward, and Some Steps Back

I FINALLY got my new pedometer in the mail today. I just spent the last half an hour setting it up.I now have the sudden, uncontrollable urge to go for a walk. Isn't it funny the things we can get so excited about? I almost felt like I was opening a present on Christmas. Just ask my mom, Jumbled Sunshine, who was sitting right next to me when I pulled out the package. I think I even let out a little maniacal laugh.

The pedometer I got is a SW-651 Yamax Digi-Walker Pedometer which, according to my research, is one of the most accurate pedometers out there. It'll be nice to finally be able to keep track of how many steps I take in a day so I can make sure I'm improving.

Speaking of keeping track of steps, have you ever felt like you're taking a step forward and about three backward when you're trying to accomplish a goal? I have. In fact, just this morning I was feeling a little upset because I felt like I'd had a very unhealthy night last night. It made me feel like I was failing in my quest to find better health. I started thinking about all of the times that I haven't exactly followed my plan (last week being a perfect example). If I can't follow what I plan with 100% accuracy, then I'll fail right? I was starting to think so.

However, when i shared my dismayed feelings with my mom this morning, she pointed out something. She said that she read somewhere that when working to improve your health, you should plan to be 90-80% healthy and 10-20% unhealthy. If you expect yourself to be healthy all of the time, every single day, you're going to be disappointed. It reminded me of a song I used to listen to when I was little: 

"Take two steps forward and one step back, and you've made a little progress.

Take two steps forward and one step back, and you've started on your way.

Take two steps forward and one step back, and one great leap ahead.

Now look around, see how far you've come! 

It's hard to remember where you've begun.

Take two more steps plus and extra one,

You've come a long, long way!"

I thought about that for a little while. Was yesterday a complete failure? Or had I taken a few steps forward too? I applied it to yesterday and, after looking over my "excessively unhealthy" activities, they didn't seem nearly as bad as I'd originally thought. Here, I'll show you. First, I'll give you the quick overview of my day that I came up with. 

My morning was spent doing some exercise, then sorting through games to help my mom with her "30 day power purge". Then I went over to a friend's house and we made some absolutely, positively delicious cinnamon rolls. By the time they were done, it was 6:30pm. Time to head off, pick up some other friends, and go to an ice-skating activity (which was SUPER fun!). After a few hours of ice-skating (around 9:30pm), we all went out and had hot chocolate floats (similar to root beer floats except with hot chocolate instead of root beer). They were super delicious, especially because we used mint chocolate chip ice-cream which is my favorite ice-cream of all time. We even brought out the cinnamon rolls made earlier that day and had those to the side. I didn't end up getting home and to bed until around 12:30am. 

My 20% unhealthy (okay, more like "60%")

Though the evening was very fun, I couldn't stop thinking about all the unhealthy choices I had made. When I thought about my day, all I could think of was things like...
-Eating after 9pm, something I try to never ever do because I often feel sick the next morning. Not to mention eating anything after 9pm is bad for you because it's harder for the body to digest food because it's slowing down. At least that's what I've heard. 
-Not only eating late, but eating junk food that late! 

-Not sleeping until really late which caused me to sleep in and still feel tired when I woke up this morning.

-Not doing as much physical activity earlier in the day as I would have liked.

-Unable to "check off" as many of my goals and lose the chance to get pennies. 

-Spending a lot of my day watching tv while sorting through the games when I could have been up doing something active

My 80% 40% healthy 

Because I was focusing on all of these "steps back", I had trouble remembering how much fun I really had. I also couldn't think of any of the good things I had done for both my physical and mental health. But after writing down my day and evaluating it, I realized that I'd done much better than I'd thought. This isn't to say that I'm overjoyed with my entire performance yesterday, but there were still little healthy things that I did that made sure the day wasn't a complete failure. For example...

-I moderated my intake of sweets naturally, and still didn't feel like I was depriving myself. A few months ago, I would have had two or three cups of hot cocoa floats with three cinnamon rolls. But because I was paying attention to what I was eating, I only had one cup and one cinnamon roll. (Though I must admit that I had eaten two earlier as we were driving.)

-I went ice-skating and exercised earlier that morning, one of the hardest goals for me to accomplish. (Don't know why I hate exercising so much, I just do. :P) 

-Before eating the sweets, I had a late dinner so I wouldn't be only filling my stomach with fluff. (Okay, maybe a pizza pocket and an apple aren't the best choice, but it's better than pigging out on the sweets!)

Two Steps Forward and One Step Back

So basically, just because I didn't have an ideal day didn't mean it was a failure. So I took two steps forward and three steps back, at least I'm farther along than I would have been had I not taken any steps forward at all! Besides, if I can continue learning how to moderate without feeling like I'm depriving myself, I'll just get better and better until, who knows, I might be out and want a salad instead of that cinnamon bun. Not because I'm worried about my waistline, but because it's what my body and taste buds actually want! Although, with how good I can make them, I think the farthest I'll ever get is having that salad before having a cinnamon roll. ;)

Prep Week 1- Feb. 10th-16th

My Super Healthy self sure got beat up this week!

I'm sorry to say that Prep Week 1 was less successful in helping me prepare for the "hike" than it was filling up my negative points penny jar. I guess I just didn't really think that the goals I set were as important as watching tv, checking facebook, or spinning wool among other things. But I sure got the message at the end of the week.
It was so sad on Saturday when I looked at my chart of to-dos and goals for the week and saw how many "x"s there were. Especially because for each "x" I had to give away my precious shiny pennies! And the goals weren't really that hard! How could I have let something as pathetically easy as "eat one serving of fruit" stop me from earning my reward? All I had to do was go out to the store, make sure I had fruits and veggies for the week, and eat them! So simple!

Side note: I've recently re-noticed how little fruits and vegetables there are around our house. It's probably because I live in a large family so when we do buy anything, we have to buy a LOT of it or else it's gone by the end of the day. But the lack of some of those healthy foods is probably a big reason that I'm not as healthy as I'd like to be. It's nice when you figure those things out so you can change them isn't it? Now, back to the post...

I have a picture of the chart I used below. I printed out a blank one but also had one on Google Drive so that if I was gone but had my computer, I could still mark it off.

The concept is really quite simple. Throughout the day I comple the "to-do"s and put a checkmark (or smiley face) on them. At the end of the day, anything I didn't do gets an "x" and I put the positive penny points that I earned into my "good" penny jar. The "x"s won't effect me until the end of the week when I saw whether I'd accomplished my goals or not.

At the end of the week, for any goal that I didn't accomplish I had to take away that many pennies. As you can see, I lost far more pennies than I earned! But in it's own way, that was good because Prep Week 2 has been going much better because I don't want the same results as Prep Week 1.  

Planning my Power Hike

If you read my last post, you'll know that I am currently planning a "30 Day Power Hike" to get myself back on the right track as far as health is concerned. If you didn't read my last post, now you know, 'cause I just told you! ;) So what is this "Power hike"? What does it mean? What will I do? Well, let me tell ya:

This idea came to me while I was braiding wool at work and watching tv. (That's right, wool. Yeah, my job rocks.) A bunch of people were going on about a 30 day program that they used to lose weight and how happy they were that they did it. My first reaction: Good for you guys! Becoming healthy isn't easy. Second reaction, of course, was a little irritated twitch of my always present "anti-weight-for-health" sensor. But you know what, for a lot of people, when they loose weight they feel healthier, so just because I don't like using it doesn't mean it isn't good for others. I shouldn't judge. :P

Anyway, the people were talking about what a great initial push it was to get them into shape. The wheels in my brain began turning. I really need an initial momentum push...what better way than to have a freak-out, over the top 30 days? If I can get my momentum back up, I think I'll have much more luck in all of the healthy aspects of my life, physical, mental, and spiritual. (All subjects which have really been suffering, especially this past month.)

I call it the "Power hike" because, this is my life's journey right? So, maybe there's a mountain in my way. Sure I could ignore and walk around it, but that's lazy! Besides, I could discover something really cool at the top of that mountain. Yeah, it's a little steep, but it's a power hike. It's supposed to be a little hard. Here's the thing, I don't know if any of you have suddenly decided "Hey, I'm gonna go and do something really strenuous like a giant hike!" What happens if you don't prepare for that hike? You die halfway through and don't enjoy yourself at all. All you want is to go home and go to sleep and rest those aching muscles. I don't want that to happen to me, so before I go on the "hike" starting March 2nd, I'm going to use this month as a sort of "preparation period". That way I'll sort of build up my strength so hopefully the hike won't be too difficult. Now it's time to PLAN! If you want to do your own power hike, you're welcome to use my system to create your own! (Copying someone else's plan completely doesn't seem very successful to me because everyone is different, so different things work better for different people.)

Plan of Attack for February:

First off, I'm going to have a "plan and review" day (Sunday) at the beginning of each week to - you guessed it! - review how the previous week went and plan what should be my focus in the coming week. I'll decide on a few goals for the week based on what I think would be best to work on. A lot (if not all) of these will probably be my penny jar goals.

Next, I'll create a chart with the goals for every day that I can mark off during the week, complete with the "points" (or pennies) that I'll earn if when I accomplish them. If I don't accomplish the weekly goal, then on my plan and access day when I give myself the pennies, I'll also have to take as many pennies as I would have earned and put them into my "bad penny" jar.

Final step: Do it! If I don't...man I'm gonna die in March! Because no matter what, I'm doing the power hike. To paraphrase a favorite quote of mine, When the time for action arrives, the time for preparation is past.

Wish me luck! Off I go!

Follow Up, and a New Plan of Attack

Hey everyone! Look who's actually back when she said she'd be! I know, shocking.

As promised, I'm checking in on my progress with the Penny Jar Experiment. Well, in all honesty it could have gone better. The good news is that I figured out the problem. Problems really. See, I started using the penny jar in January. It went great! Every day I was dumping in shiny pennies. Why didn't it work so well in February?

Problem 1: I moved the jar. Previously I've kept it on a shelf above the cups in my kitchen. So, every time I got a drink, I would remember to do my daily tasks and get my pennies. When I moved it, I didn't think it would be a big deal, I could still see it most of the time. The results should still be the same right? Wrong. I forgot about the penny jar completely some days. The new spot wasn't nearly as convenient as I'd thought it was.

Problem 2: I ran out of shiny pennies. I still have some, but their old and gross looking. I didn't think that it would make that big of a difference. A penny is just a penny after all. But it really took down how many pennies I put in the jar. It almost felt wrong to put such gross pennies in my shiny jar. Strange how the mind works isn't it?

Problem 3: I lost momentum. Because of previous problems including a couple of other problems including a suddenly busy life, I lost interest in the game I was playing. Even now that I've moved the jar back, I forget about my goals. Well, I think I have a solution for that problem too. I call it, my "30 Day Power Hike!" I'll tell you a bit more about this in my next blog post.

Anyway, I haven't given up on the penny jar, but I do think I'll have to alter things a little bit or find a different place for it that doesn't drive my family nuts. It's all about establishing the habit. Well, I'll see you tomorrow for more information about the hike!

The Penny Jar Experiment

Hello out there again!

It's been several, well, months since my last post as you've probably seen. This doesn't mean that I've given up on my journey. Far from it! I've just been busy with a ton of other stuff and have a bit of a tendency to jump from one random subject to another so fast that I can barely keep up with myself. If you're interested in hearing what I'm basically like, you should go and check out my mom's blog: "Jumbled Sunshine". It basically sums up what kind of jumbled personalities my entire family has.

But enough about me, let's talk about . . . me. In the past few months I have tried and failed to create a new system to help myself be motivated to live healthier. I've searched the internet and myself to try and discover what I really think will help me be happier and fitter. Like Thomas Edison, I didn't take every setback as a failure, I just realized that I've found tons and tons of ways that don't work for me. I'll go into everything in another post (maybe). Right now, all of the ideas are stowed away in a journal that's sitting in an unknown location. When I find it, I'll be sure to let you know! But the important thing is, that after jumping this way and that, I found little bits and pieces that do work out of all of the don't work experiments so that I now have a vague idea of what I think my system will be!

Important Note: Just because I am doing this system does not necessarily mean that it is "the best" or even "the correct" way to get to that perfect you. It's just what I found worked best for me through trial and error. In order to discover what works best for you personally, I'm afraid that you're going to have to make the entire thing an experiment, with you as the subject, just like I've done and am still doing.

1st: 
I've broken up with my weight. Though we are still on speaking terms, I don't depend on it like I used to, and like a lot of people do. Why? Because I really don't think that weight is a good indication of how healthy you really are. For example: If I say "I know this group of people who are all over 200 lbs, some even over 300!", I'll bet that some of you out there just imagined a bunch of people who look something like this.

 But did any of you stop to think that just because these people obviously aren't 90-pound-sticks doesn't mean they could not only be in good shape, but great shape? So great that they could be in the Olympics? Yep. That's right, I'm talking about members of the USA Olympic Track and Field team. All of those who compete in the throwing competitions weigh close to if not over 200 lbs. And when I look at them, yes they seem a bit more muscular than I'd like to be, but they still look in better shape than I am and I'm not even close to as heavy as most of them are! (If you want to check them out for yourself, go to this link, then under "Athlete Filter" to the left of your screen select "Event" and choose "Throws".)

There are tons of similar examples out there, but we've been force fed the idea that only computerized 6 ft, size 0 models are "beautiful". Well no more for me! I say down with the system man! ;) Back to the point: I will be weighing myself because I'm going to keep track of my progress by using our Wii Fit Plus, but I'm not believing the whole "You are very overweight because you're BMI says so" advice. BMI and I are worse enemies than my weight and I are.

2nd:
I've made a list of what things are important daily "Dos" and "Don'ts" for myself if I want to "fitten up". They've already changed a few times and are likely to change again, but for now, they're staying as they are. This list includes things like "eat a balanced breakfast, lunch, or dinner", "Drink 12 cups of water a day", etc.


3rd:
This was the toughest part. How could I make myself actually want to follow all of the "Dos" and "Don'ts". I know, "wanting to be fit" should be enough to motivate me right? Wrong. According to the research I have conducted (which is not necessarily very extensive so might not be the full truth), in order to succeed in a long term goal, you need to have short term rewards and punishments. At least, I need some sort of short term reward and punishment.

So, after a ton of attempts and fails, I finally discovered something. I have a giant change jar, and I think I have almost a bit of an obsession with the little "chink" sound that coins make when they collide, as well as with filling up the jar to the extent that I used to go trade in dollars for quarters just so I could put them in my jar. Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. But, this nutty quirk of mine has helped me create the only system so far that has worked for more than a few days. Here's how it works. I assigned each "Do" and "Don't" on my list with a certain number of pennies. Then I made two jars. One is for all of my positive points and the other is for all of my negative points. As soon as that was settled, I went to the bank and got some shiny new pennies. (I love shiny things just as much as "chink"ing coins.)

Now, every day I use my list to determine how many pennies I get to put in each jar. To take away the "thrill" of putting pennies in the negative jar, I stuffed a bunch of cotton balls in the bottom. That way, when I put pennies in the negative jar, I don't hear that nice "chink" sound that I love so much.

My Positive Points Jar (complete with a little superhero me), Negative Points Jar (complete with a sneaky evil me) and my container of shiny new pennies. :)

4th:
Every Saturday, using the Wii Fit Plus, I will record my waist measurement. I might also start to keep a measurement of my hips, thighs, calves, and arms to see if they go down. I feel like inches off is a much better indicator of health anyway. I'll also take note of how I'm feeling and if/how much I think I've improved.

5th:
Last but not least, I'm not only applying my plan, but watching for parts of it that don't work very well so that I can twist and change it to perfection. In the future I might deem it necessary to work in portion sizes for myself or something like that, but honestly, I've never given much credit to the whole "watch your calories" thing. Nor do I believe that sugar and fat and such are bad thing. To me, too much of anything is, well, too much. I'll try and eat all the food groups, listen to my stomach, and actually pay close attention to the taste. If I don't think it tastes good, then it isn't worth eating. And if I think it'll be good for my body if I eat it, then I'll learn to like the taste.

I don't know exactly when I'll post next. Who knows, you may see me again sooner than you think, I might decide to rant about different "healthy" or "unhealthy" myths and truths. But for sure I'll report my progress of this "Penny Jar Experiment" next month. I'll also report how much I've improved. Until then, I'll see you all later!