It's been a crazy, great summer, though. And even with not staying on plan - or anywhere near it, really! - I've maintained the weight loss I had at the end of March.
Some highlights -
April, of course, we got married. He left one job and then went back but on our terms. No more opening shifts and 2 set days off per week, cross-training and raises, and supervisor training. Which lasted not so long, of course. While they never scheduled him opening again, his hours were all over the place between 7am and 5pm, and anywhere from 15-40 hours. He was one of the few that were supposed to get no less than 30 hours per week period. And those 2 set days off? Happened maybe 4 weeks total.
May - we got the Nutri Ninja and I love it for my shakes. I add a handful of spinach, a touch of vanilla extract, and then if it's the strawberry shake I add some sugar-free strawberry syrup because otherwise I can't really drink it - it's not my favorite. If I have the vanilla shake then I'll add caramel syrup (sugar-free) and powdered peanut butter. I haven't used it nearly as much as I should be, though.
June was rough for me - I had to realize that I just couldn't do my coaching sessions over the phone on my lunch breaks anymore. There have been changes at work and they're not being quite as flexible about schedule changes - holding the non-phone people to the phone scheduling system (which can literally change your break time during your shift!). But I do have the local branch now and I started going there and I really like my new coach.
July - 2 birthdays (including a 40th!) and still with the hot weather. I can't walk outside in the heat hardly at all so I spent my breaks sitting. I can tell, too. I'm stiff and achy again. I did go see a personal trainer twice and realized I am definitely stronger than I think! I'm right around average to above average (except in sit-ups, ha!). He had me use a TRX system the first time and I loved it. The second session was a punching bag and medicine ball - and I loved that too! (I think I like aggressive outlets....haha)
August - yeah, more heat. Oh, and the Farmer's Market? On the one day we can go, they have almost no actual produce but a few vendors with things like jams, kettlecorn, and a few other things I don't remember. It was super disappointing for us. I'm sure they probably had more things on the other days/hours they were open - but we couldn't get there so it didn't help us much. We've been hitting Safeway, though, and their produce is pretty good in general.
September flew by. I'd go on and off plan - and finally just took the month. I cancelled my coaching sessions and did some digging around and thinking and I feel like I've sorted some things out. The biggest thing is that I'm not beating myself up over "falling off the wagon." It happened, but I still had learned some things and am listening to my body a lot more. I bit the bullet and ordered "DDPYoga" - because this video is so inspiring:
I also made the decision to start walking 1 mile twice a day - when I wake up and before I go to bed. So I got the okay from Dad to move the coffee table into the back room. I'll use my WATP dvds for the walking - I'll alternate days with DDPYoga with resistance band strength training.
I also disabled my Facebook account - and a month later I'm not missing it one bit. AND my husband finally left that other job for good. He got an offer at a wooden toy manufacturer, tried to talk to his manager to give her two weeks' notice and she kept blowing him off, so after 2 days (the amount of time he told the new employer he would get back to him with a start date) - he finished out that week's schedule and quit. And it felt so good....for all of us! He's now working M-F 8-430, what a blessing!
So October - we're 8 days in and where am I? Well, October first we did this:
It was definitely a challenge and towards the end of the uphill climb I think I was stopping every 50 feet or so. The level part coming back wasn't much better - my feet HURT. But I DID IT. And I used the exercise tracking option on my FitBit and it said I did it in 4 hours. I had a feeling it would take that long - and I'm not at all disappointed. It's a HIKE.
So - I will try to get back to weekly posts - there's some Skoolie updates, too - slow progress but progress! He's framing now and once that is all figured out the rest should go fairly quickly. And I have to go find the clearance lights!
Until next time!
