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Day 21, in whch I check in for week 3



Week 3 was a mixed bag.

The wins:

I worked out for an hour 6 days out of 7, EVEN THOUGH 2 of those days were taken up with things that would usually cause me to blow off exercise and meant that I had to work out at night, which is EXTREMELY unusual. I re-learned that when I make something non-optional, it happens.


I noticed in the middle of the week that my hour long “bootcamp” workouts, which had me so exhausted that I could barely make it through them at the start are a lot easier now. Not easy, but I don’t feel like I’m going to die.

I avoided simple carbs and alcohol all week, and am now 9 days away from the end of that particular 30 day challenge. Interestingly, I’m not especially looking forward to a binge on day 30, as I normally would at this point. I’m calling that progress, too.

I did a much better job of meditating this week: 4 days out of 7 vs. 1 or 2 in prior weeks. The result was pretty obvious; I wrote about it on day 20.

I set up a 7 day focus challenge that involves listening to focus music whenever I’m at the computer trying to work and sketching out my 3 must dos at the beginning of the day (and of course completing them). I did that more, but the thing with a 7 day challenge is that you have to start over if you miss one day. I’m starting over. But I do feel good about having gotten back on the wagon with this AND my morning routine.

I began to notice “fullness” this week, sort of on my own without thinking, “Am I full yet? Am I full yet?” On 2 different occasions, I left food on my plate at restaurants in situations where I could have (and in the past, would have) easily finished it despite not really being hungry anymore.

After talking about it for 6 months, I finally retrieved my bike, and plan to take it today to make sure it’s in a condition to be ridden. I’ve pseudo-planned a biking vacation with the smartboy and some of my friends. I’m going one way or another; I’m afraid the smartboy will NOT be ready and might actually injure himself, but I did promise I’d go on a snowboarding vacation with him if he’d go no this with me.

Oh, and guess what? I actually remembered to brush my teeth at night 4 times!

Overall, I feel more clear-headed and optimistic than I did 3 weeks ago.

The bad:

I didn’t lose weight this week. Well, I did; by day 3 of the week I was down nearly a pound, but I regained it + .2 lbs by day 7. Such small fluctuations in weight—we’re talking like a pound overall—shouldn’t concern or frustrate me, especially since a careful examination of what I ate toward the end of the week shows a lot of protein and an unusual amount of SALT, but it’s hard not to be down when after a week of daily exercise, the scale has gone entirely in the wrong direction.

My focus is nowhere near where I want it to be, and it’s my main source of stress at the moment.

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