Weekly Goals

And here we are, at the end of another weekend. I had a productive day and also fit in a few mini naps (awesome), unfortunately I also had to drop Cody off at the airport so he could fly back to work (not awesome).

I've updated my goal board for this week and it looks like this: 

Blue Goal: create a bedtime routine 

This will entail winding down my day between 9 and 10. Things like shutting down the electronics, pouring a glass of water to bring to bed, putting cuticle cream on (must avoid gross winter hands!), washing face, brushing teeth, etc. My thought is that with time my body will recognize that all of this happens before I go to sleep, so it will know that it's time to be calm and relaxed and ultimately fall asleep faster rather than now when I'm just rushing around right before sleep time. 

Yellow Goal: daily activity

The key here is to not overdo it. I checked out the SweatADay challenge from Under Armour and am going to participate in it all week and hopefully continue to participate daily after that. Today's challenge - day 17, was a cow face pose. This is mine :)

Teal Goal: follow meals plan to avoid junk food 

I sat down today and planned my meals for the week and grocery shopped... No excuses, no need to stop for something unhealthy because I'm starving and didn't plan ahead. For me, the key to not binging is to not let myself become hungry, so healthy snacks are a must! I have fresh veg, hummus, edemame, apples, and sunflower seed butter ready to rock for this week and some baking plans to supplement my snack stash :) the sunflower seed butter I made fresh tonight!! 

I'm looking forward to a successful week and I hope you are too!!!

XO - Michelle

Water Intake And A Dream Board

A rushed start for me this morning!  Oh man, I can't seem to keep it together for a whole week straight.  A little later to bed + a little later to wake up = a whole lot of morning rush!  Looking on the bright side of things, at least this is happening less and less frequently!

One of Natasha's suggestions in my last plan, as a lifestyle recommendation, was to create a dream board!  Well, I love these kind of things so I've been compiling the things that I dream of over on pinterest.  I was going to print everything off and make a board to hang on the wall, and I still may, but for now it's great to just pin things on as I see them and am inspired.  If you would like to check out what I'm dreaming for click here, it's a work in progress but so far I'm having a lot of fun with it!

Another thing I'm noticing courtesy of Natasha is a huge change in my water intake!!  I was always under the impression that the more water a person drinks, the healthier they are.  Not so.  Too much water can actually flush nutrients away, and that was the case with me at over 14 cups per day.  She suggested that I try increasing my electrolyte levels and since doing so I am down to about 8-10 cups per day.  Possibly the biggest change I've noticed is NO MORE HEADACHES!  Okay, still a headache now and then but not as bad and not daily.

I find it helpful to keep track of my water intake to see where I'm at, and have taken to marking each cup drank on a sticky note that I keep right on my water bottle!  I just calculate how many cups of water my bottle holds and before each refill I tally the according amount of cups onto my sticky note!  That's what the pic above is but it's really blurry!  Apologies.

Featured food from today would be dinner.  It was a joint effort which always makes for the best meal.  We had bison meatballs (recipe from Tosca Reno's blog - must try!  these are amazing!) using ground bison that we picked up at Costco in a green sauce that Cody created (avocado, garlic, lemon juice, red onion, basil, parsley, olive oil, sea salt, pepper) and I had brown rice spaghetti noodles while Cody went for good ol' Smart Pasta.

I'm getting ready to get my craft on next week with my friend Alyssa and have been writing down ideas and lists of what I want to make!  Stay tuned for results on Tuesday!

XO - Michelle

A Moment of Reflection

I love Fridays for a multitude of reasons, one of them being that we get the East Kootenay Advertiser and I love to peruse it.  I look through the flyers and make lists according to where has the best sale on what, read what kind of local activities are going on in the foreseeable future, and shop for jobs.  No matter if I'm happy or unhappy in a job (the former as of late), it's something I feel I must do.

Imagine my surprise when I looked to see my old Fort Mac company advertising that they are hiring - they were always hiring - BUT right here in the Kootenays!  I certainly would have appreciated that job ad three or four years ago, it would have saved me a trip to Nisku (which I would never take back, so many laughs with my friends Marshall & Heather!)!

Since seeing it in the paper, I've been thinking about Fort McMurray and camp and all the pros and cons of being there.  The good outweighs the bad by a gazillion, as the chance to go work away led me to Cody, to figuring out who I am, and ultimately to a more confident me.  There were downsides too, like being away from home, missing out on important events, and feeling alone.  I think the thing I miss the most is feeling such a sense of accomplishment for meeting the first big goal I ever set my mind to.  I felt so proud of the fact that I got myself up there, attained ALL of my goals (financial, weight loss, happiness), had an important job, and was in control.  My job was created at the start of my employment, my files were set up how I wanted them to be, and people (for the most part) showed some respect for my position in the company.  I took pride in my work because it reflected on me and I cared.

Coming home was a really important thing to do also and was 100% the right decision, but it's taken me a while to realize that this past year has been me trying to recover from my crazy northern adventure.  Instead of taking time when I got home to assess how I was feeling and what I wanted to do next, I jumped into a full time job that is full of stress, frustration, and feeling like I'm coming up short.  Then came moving into our own house, so exciting, but a little removed from right where my family and friends live.  Would I have more company if we lived closer?  I created another dilemma for myself by choosing a place that puts me in a half way spot.  And then the wedding!  So much stress and busyness, followed by so much fun on the day and so much relief afterwards that we pulled it off. 

I guess my point is that this year has been crazy.  My fitness goals have been close to met, then far from met, then close to met again, and now are a little far away for my comfort. 

I feel like everything is hinging on the end of this month.  It's get your sh*t together time for my life.  I have all the ingredients for a well rounded and happy life and I'm not going to let anything get in my way of the positivity I've been chasing for what feels like forever.  My goal is to have a plan of action in place by the end of this week, with the action starting for October 1.  Great things are about to happen and I'll be damned if I'm not ready for them!  BRING ON THE GOAL SETTING!  BRING ON THE POSITIVITY!  I'm going shopping for some poster paper.

XO - Michelle