Met my first milestone goal!

My 1 lb loss milestone reward

... Which was only to lose 1 lb, but nonetheless I had a reward set for that, so I walked out of Walmart yesterday with a new magazine.

I was actually surprised when I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and could post a 2 lb loss, since my overall week was a complete throw-away, in terms of following my meal plan, fitness plan, or even my daily checklist. I almost deliberately did nothing that just 14 days ago I finalized as being my ideal habit-forming plan.

As usual, I had a myriad of excuses - didn't track my go-to-bed time during week 1, so ended up completely exhausted by the end of the week, slept until noon on Saturday, and forgot to prep my planner, so didn't know what to shop for on Sunday, so did absolutely no prep... etc.

And then, to top it all off, I dropped my iPad on my face (nose) on Monday night, which resulted in a nosebleed, not getting to sleep until after midnight again, a good weight-lifting session on Tuesday morning, but a headache all day, and a secondary nose bleed on Wednesday night and migraine on Thursday. After which I basically threw in the towel and brought poutine home from New York Fries for supper on Thursday, and had pizza with extra cheese and pepperoni on Friday.

One of my friends suggested that perhaps the weight-loss was a delayed reaction by my body to my fairly successful week 1, which makes sense to me.

My next milestone reward is at 5 lbs. Not 100% sure what my reward will be; my tentative reward is a new computer game, but a new game is one of my weekly rewards, so I'm still considering what is a good 5 lb loss reward.

Week 1 Summary

So.

I love my new planner and plan and I'm very happy with my goals for this year.

This had to be said.

Week 1, which ended yesterday, started out very well and then I fell apart on the weekend.

This leads me to the idea that perhaps I should put more thought into my weekends. The standard format that worked so well for me during the week is not an option for Saturday and Sunday. First, I have a completely different structure to my weekends than to my work week, which is fairly standard, but I made an executive decision to ignore that in my planner, and so my weekend left me feeling like everything I'd done during the week was a complete waste of time. Which I'm not happy about.

I mean, I slept until noon, did almost nothing on my checklist, but still, my week was fantastic, and I feel like I'm ripping myself off because I'm not getting a reward for that effort.

Other lessons learned from the week.

• I need to get to bed earlier. My alarm goes off at 4:45 am, and I can push through about 4 days on very little sleep, but then my system crashes. Which is, I think, part of what happened this weekend - I stayed in bed until noon on Saturday.
• My journal for the next week needs to be prepped and printed by Friday night before I leave work. Or I need to set up my printer at home.
• My menu plan needs to be a bit more detailed. I found myself frequently having to log onto my computer to figure out which veggies to cook, or wondering if my smoothie should have protein in it or not.
• I need to set aside time on Sunday to prep for the next week. I didn't do that yesterday, and I'm feeling almost panicked about this week.

And now, off I go to prep myself for this week. Look for posts about my meal plans and fitness plans to follow.

Brand New Year, Brand New Goals, Brand New Planner

Last year was, to say the least, anti-climatic in terms of my weight loss and fitness journey. Strongish start, training for a 5K run that I completed in June, but then catastrophe struck mid-summer when I partially tore my Achilles tendon and basically stopped all forms of exercise. In retrospect, and after having completed my first swim of the year, I should have started swimming again when the pool opened in September, but at the time, my motivation to get out of bed in the morning was non-existent, and so here I am in January doing the walk of shame into the gym with all the other "back-atters" out there.

Not everything about last year was a write-off, if I sum it all up:

• Completed my New Year's Resolution to run a 5K race
• Lost 10lbs overall (first time I've had a net loss in a VERY long time, about 10 years!!) BIG WIN!!
• Found a real kick-boxing gym and re-discovered my love for hitting a heavy bag
• Found a portion guide that I really like
• Found a good milestone guide for weight loss
• Found several menu plans that are healthy and give me a variety of foods to eat

And probably my biggest accomplishment was the development of a program that lets me measure what I consider to be the most important habits I want to develop, and reward myself when I reach my goals. 

To start, here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2015:

1. Run a 10K (scariest goal)
2. Take a Krav Maga Beginner/Intro course (most exciting goal, see note about my love for hitting a heavy bag)
3. Unpack my boxes (have my house to myself for the first time since moving in; want to get it organized)
4. Do my taxes
5. Complete my PMI-PBA certification - left over from last year
6. Save $2500 towards Machu Picchu

Next up, the plan.

I first had to figure out what big timelines I had, and then what daily habits I wanted to develop or strengthen.

Not difficult, really, just getting detailed and required a calendar and a calculator. Still not weedy, though - that's up next.

High-level timelines (after a few adjustments) look like this:

• 10K planned for June 6
• Krav Maga probably in September
• Unpack 1 box per week, should finish in the fall
• Taxes are due April 15th, my target is end of February for this year, and some time in the summer for my back taxes
• Being audited for the PBA, so need to chase down the last of the paper work and then schedule the exam
• $105 scheduled to be moved into a savings account twice a month for the next 12 months

And now the weeds.

• What does going from sedentary injury recovery to running a 10K race in 6 months look like?
• How do I prep for Krav Maga so that I don't drop dead during my first warm-up session?
• What other daily habits do I want to develop?
• And how do I motivate myself to do all of this?

Because it's the shortest, I'll start with the details of the daily habits I want to develop/strengthen.

1. Healthy eating
2. Regular exercise
3. 8 glasses of water/day
4. Take daily vitamins
5. Brush and floss my teeth twice daily
6. Apply moisturizer twice daily
7. Apply hair product twice daily
8. Meditate twice daily
9. Get to work on time

Once I'd figured out what I wanted to focus on, I needed to figure out how to measure progress and motivate myself to stay on plan. This called for a daily tracker, and a two-tier rewards system. I scoured Pinterest for samples of planners and then I went into Publisher and started drawing boxes. What I've ended up with is this: 

• Water: 8 checks, 1 daily point
• Vitamins: 3 checks, 3 daily points
• Teeth: 4 checks, 2 daily points - must do one of each type for a point
• Skin: 2 checks, 2 daily points

• Hair: 2 checks, 2 daily points
• Spiritual: 2 checks, 2 daily points
• Food: 1 point for following a meal plan, 1 point for calculating calories eaten
• Exercise: 1 point each for: Morning, Evening, and Routine
• Timing: 1 point for getting to work on time.

This gives me a daily total of 18 possible points. If I get 110 points in a week, I get a reward.

In addition to daily point tracking, I am able to track my satisfaction after each meal, how I'm feeling overall during the day, how I feel about my workouts, jot down a note if needed, and track weekly stats.

The rewards for reaching 110 points in a week are one of the following, depending on my mood: new book, game or movie, flowers, manicure, pedicure, hair colour. 

The second tier of rewards are for when I lose weight, as follows: 

• 1lb: new magazine
• 5lbs: TBD
• 10lbs: Massage
• 10% loss: 3 new outfits (work, casual, workout)
• 25lbs: 50$ SDM GC from Sara 
• Next 10%: Massage
• 50lbs: 3 new outfits (work, casual, workout)
• Next 10% loss: Massage
• Next 10% loss: 3 new outfits (work, casual, workout)
• 75lbs: KitchenAid attachment
• Next 10% loss: 3 new outfits (work, casual, workout)
• Goal: Laser Hair Removal