Old habits die hard...

Although I am still motivated, I really need to stay consistent enough in this journey to form HABITS. If you are in the habit of doing something, it is hard to deter from it when "stuff" happens.



Last week was crazy. Last Wednesday my Love had some medical tests done, and things are kind of up in the air as far as a diagnoses. When you love someone and their health is at stake, it's stressful. I fully believe that everything will be okay, though. It might just be a process.



But Wednesday was definitely thrown off track. Which led to Thursday being off track. And on Friday I had a mid-day luncheon, as well as a "date night" with my BFF, so no focus, then, either. Saturday I drove 6 hrs to Mississippi to take Love's mom back home, then came back last night.



I fully intended for today to be back on track all the way around, but NOPE. My son accidentally peed on his pants this morning as he was trying to rush to pee before the bus came, so I had to hurry out the door to take him to school before I went to work. I had just pulled out of the driveway when I looked to my left to see our cat - DEAD - in the neighbor's yard. Uggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Just ruined my morning.



Around 10 a.m. the school nurse came in with my Kindergartener, who had diarrea and needed to go home. So I asked for a sub to come relieve me, and about 30 minutes after I got home, I got a call from the high school... my oldest daughter had a 102.7 fever so I had to come get her, too. I took both of them to the doctor... no flu or strep, but probably a virus for both of them. A lot of viruses going around, apparently.



I got home, made dinner, went back to the high-school to pick up my nephew from practice. It's 7 p.m. and my day is done. No workout for me, even though I had full intentions of going after work today.



I struggle HARD on days like today. But I keep on going, because I believe that it will get easier to stay focused the longer I do this. I am still extra motivated, but I have not made diet and exercise a HABIT yet. I'm still working on that. So on days (or weeks) like I've been having, it is so hard to make good choices. The only great thing right now is that I have plenty of Slim-Fast on hand, which makes eating SOMETHING healthy easy because it's grab and go.



I got a good book in the mail the other day, and got to read a lot of it during the two hours I waited in the doctor's office.





I actually had two books that I was supposed to read and review first. But this title was so catchy I had to look at it before the other two. I really like it so far. It really brings up some good points as to why we NEED to take care of ourselves and stop making up EXCUSES as to why we can't. Or won't. I will give a better review after I've read the whole book.



Between reading this book, and REALLY EVALUATING things that I need to change in order for this to not be another failed attempt at weight loss just because my life is crazy, I have decided that I really NEED to count calories. I know "about" how many calories I am eating, but I need to really know exact numbers. I corresponded with the Slim-Fast nutritionist, Ali Auerbach, last week, and it seems like 1800 calories is the magic number I need to be eating right now, based on my weight. So I've come up with this eating schedule:



7 a.m. - 400 cal breakfast (perfect for a Slim-Fast smoothie)

10 a.m. - 100 cal snack

12 p.m. - 500 calorie lunch (maybe 1/2 sand or cup of soup with my Slim-Fast shake/bar?)

3 p.m. - 100 cal snack

5 p.m. - 600 cal dinner

8 p.m. - 100 cal snack

= 1800 calories, and in the past, eating on a schedule like this keeps me from getting too hungry throughout the day. So again, it's about making this a habit. With this many calories, I won't be hungry. I just have to stick with it. And exercise!



I have started actually scheduling my exercise in my daily plan book, lol. Hey... it works for all my other appointments! So I am making my gym time an appointment now so I won't have an excuse not to go, and I know exactly WHEN it is convenient for me to go ahead of time.



OK... I'm about to watch the Voice and get my menu for tomorrow ready to go. Later!