Holiday Hoedown! + Weekly Update, 11/17/10

Hi Everybody!

It's been awhile since I've done the "Weekly Update" posts.  Here are the past month's goings-on:

4*(5*(work, eat, supervise homework, ooo candy! squeeze in workout) + 2*(birthday party, supervise kids' school projects, eat, workout)) + Halloween events + company over + cookie baking + helping @ school +  date night + date breakfast + appointments for ankle problems + work lunches out + Diwali work event + sporadic half-marathon training + >1 week of new windows getting installed = crazy month for Opposite Family. (And I probably even missed some stuff)

And that's JUST THE START of the holidays!

Feeling Fall-Challenged

Most of you know that I log my food over on "Pubsgal Eats" (usually), taking pictures and showing what I've been eating, with sometimes the odd recipe or commentary, although I've been a bit sporadic about that lately.  I feel like I've really been...I don't know if "struggling" to take good care of myself is the right word. Maybe a feeble kick or two in my mind, but not in my actions, if that makes any sense.

I think this is a pretty common occurrence in the fall. I was dealing with the *same stuff* with respect to daily feeding last year:

"I'm not doing so hot with my eating at home...I've pin-pointed it to stress-feeding, and I need to figure out a better outlet than grabbing salty, high-calorie snackage." - Pubsgal, November 2009

So the scale is only up a couple of pounds and in my "maintenance" range (I claim a 5 pound range, and am usually at the lower end of it); big deal, huh?  But what worries me is my fasting blood glucose trend is off.  My post-meal numbers are generally pretty good, but my fasting ones are a good indicator to me of when everything is truly on track.  Last week, I had 2 readings over 110 and 3 of 120 or greater - a trend that worries me, but I think I can rein it in with better food habits, especially in the evening.

What did I do then...and need to do now?  Probably just kept returning to what I'd trained myself to do:

• Space small meals through the day, balancing carbs and proteins.  
• Aim for my 30 grams of fiber per day.  
• Grab "free foods" instead of the nuts or "meat doggies."  (That still makes me chuckle, Debby!)
• Weigh and measure portions.
• Bring healthy lunches to work 4 days per week.  
• Move the problem foods out of sight/reach/mind:  Put the nuts up on the higher shelf in the food closet and perhaps get my husband to hide the rest of the kids' Halloween candy (rather than put it in a place that's not the kitchen but that I still know about).

On the other hand, I still feel this:

"I'm not too freaked out about the holidays, oddly enough. Sometimes it feels like a precarious balance, getting all the healthy stuff I need in my diet and allowing for enough of the stuff I love to eat (that doesn't fit into the first category), so that I don't feel deprived and like this living healthy stuff is not worth it all. Not to mention getting in enough exercise to keep me content! But I'd say that's the biggest difference between last year and this one. Last year, I was so afraid that taking a rest day unscheduled or making an "active rest" day out of a workout day would totally switch my track for a return trip to Couchville. This year, I feel (paradoxically) more free to change up my schedule as needed, because the need to workout is now a part of me. I trust it like I didn't before." - Pubsgal, November 2009

Other than some fine tuning - which I've done before and will need to do over & over again - things are still good overall.

Enter...The Challenge!

So even though I usually don't do challenges, I could not resist the latest team-based on over on Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans:  The Holiday Hoedown!

The team I'm on, the "Tinsel Vixens," are a group of gals who want to focus more on healthy habits than number on the scale.  That's my kind of challenge!

Our goals will build over the weeks, and there are challenges for all the teams.  For week 1, our group's goals are:

• 30 minutes of exercise 3 days per week; track time in Daily Mile (Will definitely meet or exceed with half-marathon training and my "prescribed" type 2 diabetes regimen of at least 30 minutes x 5 days, and I already track on Daily Mile - I'm there as "Pubsgal," if you want to connect there.)
• 3 servings of fruits or vegetables per day (Since veggies are my main carb source, no problemo there.)
• No negative self-talk ("Damn straight there ain't gonna be negative self-talk, Pubsgal!  Now drop and give me 20, ya crunchy granola California freak!"  <- Er, that last part is actually an endearment from my Inner Boot Camp Instructor.  I'm rather proud to be a crunchy granola California freak. ;-)  

My personal goals for next week are:

• 7-day blood glucose average goal and fasting numbers: Post meal average less than 120, all fasting numbers 110 or less. 
• Weight goal: Maintain or lower.
• Food goals:  Lighter eating if dinner is after 7 p.m.; it's perfectly okay to not clean a measured-portion plate.  Reach for "free food" snacks instead of the high fat/salt/calorie snacks. Pass by some of the "just a taste of this" and "I'll have a dab of that".  Oh, and aim for bringing healthy lunches rather than eating out. 
• Make 2 of my workouts strength workouts.  (I'm good about going to CardioSculpt class, can improve on doing something on my own, which might help me from getting too sore at class.)
• Get in a long walk/run this weekend.
• Misc. goals: 7 or more hours sleep/night (which means being in bed before 10 p.m.)