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. ;)