Accountable August was an idea that Curvy Cass from Instagram had – and I jumped right on in. Old habits sneak in easier than you want them to, or even anticipate, so a month of being truly accountable came at the right time. And it’s not that I am being slack, or complacent, just not AS FOCUSSED as I want to be, as I know I can be.
And it’s also about getting back to basics, concentrating on the three main areas that will get me closer to my goals – eating, drinking and exercising.
So I set myself some goals;
- Have three meals each day and avoid snacking
– Snacking for me, it happens when I turn my brain off and everything slides in and onto auto pilot. Usually when I am in the car, in the supermarket, or later at night. I forget to listen to my body or to query it at least as to whether or not it is hungry. My snacking is mindless and it is pretty much unnecessary. - Do thirty minutes of activity each day – move every hour (when my Fitbit tells me to!)
– My new job is based at my desk. I don’t go to meetings, I don’t need to get up to go and talk to people, they are all around the country and I reach them via my computer. So as my wrist has shrunk, I’ve donated my large fitbit Surge to him and got myself an Alta – which has reminders to move. 250 steps every hour – that is the goal. - Finish two drink bottles of water each day
– Because let’s be honest, my fluids consumption has not been up around the 2L mark each day. - Journal it.
– To be accountable. To track my month. To have something to (hopefully) be proud of at the end of August.
And how did it go?
Firstly, I have to say that if I didn’t have my journal, I probably would have given up by about week 2.
I can’t rave about Food and Exercise Diaries enough. I’m currently using one that I bought from kikki. K and I’m sure it helps keep me honest. Almost honest. Why the hell can’t I be honest with myself? We will explore that one a little later in another blog. Big big big mind a-ha’s and moments happened this month but they deserve their own post.
The snacking decreased a little but shit, I have to be on to it.
I don’t know where I disappear to sometimes in my mind but when I’m in there, my fingers pick up all sorts of yummy wee morsels. The Weight Loss Surgery Retreat that I attended in the middle of August came at just the right time and taught me more about mindfulness which is how I am going to beat this wee beast. But it ain’t going to be beaten in a month – no matter how hard I try to tell myself that I’m a good girl. This is a To Be Continued situation.
Getting my butt moving. Bloody hell, this is so much easier with the Fitbit Alta!! Every hour, at ten minutes to the hour, I get a wee buzz on my wrist if I haven’t done at least 250 steps. And I’m sure it helps my concentration and my focus on my work too. If I go really really hard out, I can get 12 hours a day with activity and then the little man on my Fitbit app screen goes green. I like it when he’s green.
As a result, I only missed by 10,000 steps per day a few times during the whole month and quite honestly, I’m fucking stoked with that.
Water – I’m drinking! I’m drinking!
I don’t know what it is about me and water at the moment, I just forget. We were given good sized drink bottles at the August retreat, and it fits nicely in my car (stupid BMW cupholders, most bottles don’t fit) so again, this is in the To Be Continued pile.
And I journalled, I did!! I’ve even started thinking about how i could make my journal better – yes, you can read into that, yes I have started designing my own. Aside from accountability, using my journal has given me a wake up about not just what I was eating but when and from where. I can see I’ve started relying on some packet foods, those damn crack protein bars (Nothing Naughty – you are truly the devil!) and my coffee intake had started to sneak back up.
I don’t normally log my foods into My Fitness Pal, partly because it freaks out when I try and submit my diary, but also because it’s too bloody hard to add in the recipes and then calculate them and honestly, I don’t have time for the minimal amount of information it gives me back. But I did. Just for shits and giggles. First up, my breakfast. WOAH!
See, this is what I learned. That little ‘dash’ of Puhoi half and half milk I had been enjoying. I don’t need that – or it’s extra sugar and fat. Especially combined with yoghurt. And that banana – WTF, I don’t even like bananas. So I trimmed that back and gained not just 80 calories back but 5.4g fat and 5.8g sugar – that is about 1.5 teaspoons of sugar.
I’m well aware that this might sound a little freaking anal and a wee bit kookoo to some people, but what I chose to put in my mouth matters to me.
Food and fluids need to have nutritional or physiological value and should be ideally getting my closer to goal. When I noticed that some old [snacking] habits were trying to make themselves at home and I was quite happy opening a packet and heating that up, we decided that a Whole 30 was in order. If you are not familiar with the Whole 30, click here to look back through some of my previous posts that talk about the whole food eating resets him and I have done in the past.
August was about accountability – and I enjoyed that. I’m going to keep up my journalling and after a bit of work with Dr Google, I’ve found an easier site to calculate the nutritional values of my recipes on.
September is about keeping food simple, getting some sleep, and preparing my body to smash out the 12km Tauranga City to Surf Fun Run/Walk at the end of the month.
What are you doing to take care of you?
t X
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