I'm determined to live the SWEET Life today. I've been keeping track, all day, on my SWEET Life Plan and will see every letter highlighted on my SWEET Life Cycle. Why the big push today? First, I went camping last weekend where two things happened: We ate a lot! Everyone brought so much food to share with everyone (there were 22 of us), and we were snacking all the time. Also, the shorts I brought in anticipation of the hot weather were uncomfortably tight in the waist, which they didn't use to be! Tight shorts on a hot day is a bad combination! In addition, it's the last week of the month and I'm not near my goal, which was the same goal as last month, which I didn't achieve either. I need to stop the negative cycle, now! I have to focus and live the SWEET Life fully and consistently to see the results I want to see. It's that simple.
Sleep: Despite a midnight interruption and two kids coming in to join us, I slept well. It was nice to be in my own bed again after two nights in a tent.
Water: I've been keeping track of each beverage I've drunk on my SWEET Life Plan, and I've drunk plenty.
Eating: After three days of camp food (i.e., too much and of varying nutritional value), I was ready to eat healthy and make sure I was eating balanced nutrition, marking off each portion on my SWEET Life Plan.
Exercise: I laid in bed this morning, awakened by my "exercise" alarm, asking myself if I needed more sleep. Eventually, I realized I was wasting my time laying in bed, awake! Either sleep, or get up! So I got up and exercised, using my new adjust-a-weight dumbbells. I'm now trying to do toning exercises on Mondays & Wednesdays and cardio on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Tranquility: There was a surprise knock on the door at 8:30 a.m. It was our babysitter! I'd forgotten that I was starting to use her every Monday morning. What a pleasant surprise! That meant I got some Tranquility this morning, not doing anything in particular, just getting organized post-camping.
How did I do, and how do I feel?
Today, I lived the SWEET Life.
Showing posts with label weekend trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend trip. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, December 17, 2007
Post-Weekend Trip
Sleep
Well, I guess it's been at least 4 nights since I had a good night's sleep. :-( I did not sleep well on our trip. The hotel pillows were too big and firm, believe it or not. Usually they are too small and squishy. Besides that, we played a lot of "musical beds" with the girls. I slept a lot on the drive home, which meant that I couldn't fall asleep once we got home! Aargh! Gotta focus on getting better sleep this week.
Water
I feel very dehydrated from the trip, so I made sure to fill my pitcher of water today and am happy to be drinking it. My lips are peeling, and the skin on my face feels rough. I'd say that the hardest thing about drinking a lot of water consistently is that my body adjusts to having a lot of water, so I feel dehydrated easily if I cut out the water for a few days. Fortunately, it's easy to make up for it too and get back on track.
Eating
Surprisingly, we hardly ate any fast food on the trip. We stopped at Subway for lunch on the way down, which is pretty healthy, as far as fast food goes. We did make an emergency pit stop at a Del Taco in L.A. where I ate a chicken burrito, but that was the only fast food we ate! Otherwise, Saturday breaky was at the hotel, which had a pretty extensive continental breaky. I ate a hard-boiled egg, banana, waffle dipped in yogurt (instead of syrup), juice, and coffee. For lunch, at a nice food court, I ate a chicken breast and salad, which, incidentally, Maya selected! I did eat some Christmas cookies as a snack at an afternoon party, which certainly was not healthy. Then, dinner was a simple party spread with sandwiches, veggie platter, fruit, cheeses, mini-quiches, wine, and a variety of desserts. So, I'd say I ate too many sweets, but they were party-sweets, rather than sitting-around-the-house-sweets.
Exercise
I generally haven't been exercising as much in the past few weeks as I had been previously. I had actually gotten to the point where I felt I was over-exercising, even though I wasn't exercising all that much (30-60 min, 5x/wk). However, now, after a few weeks of inconsistent exercise, I've started feeling like a blob. I miss the lean, healthy feeling I had when I exercised consistently. I haven't gained weight, but I think I've lost some tone. I wasn't really planning to exercise on our trip although I had expected to take some walks to see Christmas decorations in various places. Well, that didn't happen. Saturday morning, after so much sitting in the car the day before, I had to do something, so I did my "hotel" exercise routine in the hotel room. I hadn't brought a resistance band with me, but I could improvise exercises for every major muscle group, except my biceps, without any equipment. It felt good to use my body. With young kids with us, we ended up watching them run around a lot, rather than us adults doing any running around. Little kids just don't make much distance when they run around.
Tranquility
I certainly had a lot of tranquility this past weekend. The purpose of the trip was to visit my family for Christmas because I'll be with my in-laws for Christmas & Christmas Eve this year. We also went to see the Boat Parade. We did all of that and had a great time. We went with our friends, in their car, all 8 of us! Nick didn't like being dependent on others for transportation, but I enjoyed having extra time with people because they were giving us rides.
How do I feel?
I need to get more sleep, drink more water, and exercise more consistently. I mostly feel I need to be more serious again about getting consistent exercise. I just feel better about myself when I do. Also, I'm remembering one great benefit of exercising first thing in the morning: I don't have to think about it again the rest of the day. If I plan to exercise when the girls nap, and one of them doesn't nap, then it gets more complicated to exercise. Also, cardio in the house while my girls nap definitely feels like exercise just for the sake of exercise, whereas I used to run on the beach, which I enjoy much more. It's also a bit time-consuming to shower in the morning, then again in the middle of the afternoon. Right now is the middle of the day and my girls just went down for their naps, so now is the time for me to do it!
Well, I guess it's been at least 4 nights since I had a good night's sleep. :-( I did not sleep well on our trip. The hotel pillows were too big and firm, believe it or not. Usually they are too small and squishy. Besides that, we played a lot of "musical beds" with the girls. I slept a lot on the drive home, which meant that I couldn't fall asleep once we got home! Aargh! Gotta focus on getting better sleep this week.
Water
I feel very dehydrated from the trip, so I made sure to fill my pitcher of water today and am happy to be drinking it. My lips are peeling, and the skin on my face feels rough. I'd say that the hardest thing about drinking a lot of water consistently is that my body adjusts to having a lot of water, so I feel dehydrated easily if I cut out the water for a few days. Fortunately, it's easy to make up for it too and get back on track.
Eating
Surprisingly, we hardly ate any fast food on the trip. We stopped at Subway for lunch on the way down, which is pretty healthy, as far as fast food goes. We did make an emergency pit stop at a Del Taco in L.A. where I ate a chicken burrito, but that was the only fast food we ate! Otherwise, Saturday breaky was at the hotel, which had a pretty extensive continental breaky. I ate a hard-boiled egg, banana, waffle dipped in yogurt (instead of syrup), juice, and coffee. For lunch, at a nice food court, I ate a chicken breast and salad, which, incidentally, Maya selected! I did eat some Christmas cookies as a snack at an afternoon party, which certainly was not healthy. Then, dinner was a simple party spread with sandwiches, veggie platter, fruit, cheeses, mini-quiches, wine, and a variety of desserts. So, I'd say I ate too many sweets, but they were party-sweets, rather than sitting-around-the-house-sweets.
Exercise
I generally haven't been exercising as much in the past few weeks as I had been previously. I had actually gotten to the point where I felt I was over-exercising, even though I wasn't exercising all that much (30-60 min, 5x/wk). However, now, after a few weeks of inconsistent exercise, I've started feeling like a blob. I miss the lean, healthy feeling I had when I exercised consistently. I haven't gained weight, but I think I've lost some tone. I wasn't really planning to exercise on our trip although I had expected to take some walks to see Christmas decorations in various places. Well, that didn't happen. Saturday morning, after so much sitting in the car the day before, I had to do something, so I did my "hotel" exercise routine in the hotel room. I hadn't brought a resistance band with me, but I could improvise exercises for every major muscle group, except my biceps, without any equipment. It felt good to use my body. With young kids with us, we ended up watching them run around a lot, rather than us adults doing any running around. Little kids just don't make much distance when they run around.
Tranquility
I certainly had a lot of tranquility this past weekend. The purpose of the trip was to visit my family for Christmas because I'll be with my in-laws for Christmas & Christmas Eve this year. We also went to see the Boat Parade. We did all of that and had a great time. We went with our friends, in their car, all 8 of us! Nick didn't like being dependent on others for transportation, but I enjoyed having extra time with people because they were giving us rides.
How do I feel?
I need to get more sleep, drink more water, and exercise more consistently. I mostly feel I need to be more serious again about getting consistent exercise. I just feel better about myself when I do. Also, I'm remembering one great benefit of exercising first thing in the morning: I don't have to think about it again the rest of the day. If I plan to exercise when the girls nap, and one of them doesn't nap, then it gets more complicated to exercise. Also, cardio in the house while my girls nap definitely feels like exercise just for the sake of exercise, whereas I used to run on the beach, which I enjoy much more. It's also a bit time-consuming to shower in the morning, then again in the middle of the afternoon. Right now is the middle of the day and my girls just went down for their naps, so now is the time for me to do it!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Pre-Weekend Trip
Sleep
I think I've generally been sleeping better since I stopped trying to get myself up early to exercise. That's important because I'd consistently been cutting myself a bit short on sleep. Last night, however, I didn't get quite enough sleep because I had to get up early to finish preparing for a weekend trip. We'll see what happens this weekend on our trip; we'll be sleeping in a hotel, so who knows how well the girls will sleep. . .
Water
Today starts a weekend road trip, and I typically don't drink enough when I travel. In the car I get thirsty but don't want to drink in order to avoid too many pit stops. In So. Cal. the weather is always dry, so I tend to feel dried out.
Eating
All I can say is that I haven't been keeping very good track of my eating lately. I generally eat healthy, but I don't know if I've eaten well-balanced meals. On road trips we go to fast food; it's just about the only time I eat it, so that makes a few times a year. Because it's so rare, I look forward to it, even though afterward, it feels like a rock sitting in my stomach for the rest of the drive.
Exercise
I have not yet been very consistent about exercising while the girls are napping; I did it once this week. However, I did manage to exercise Tues. (toning), Wed. (cardio), Thurs. (stroller walk). The plan for this evening is to take a walk after our long drive down south. That always feels good after so much sitting.
Tranquility
In the past couple days I didn't get enough relaxation time because Wed. Maya didn't nap, and yesterday I was so busy preparing for the trip, that it wasn't very relaxing. I'm looking forward to our trip with family and friends. I should get a lot of tranquility this weekend.
How do I feel?
I feel ready for this trip. I've been experimenting with different ways of keeping track of my SWEET Life Cycle (i.e., success in each category over time), and I haven't been happy with the ways I've been trying, which is part of the reason why I haven't kept good track of my SWEET Life.
I think I've generally been sleeping better since I stopped trying to get myself up early to exercise. That's important because I'd consistently been cutting myself a bit short on sleep. Last night, however, I didn't get quite enough sleep because I had to get up early to finish preparing for a weekend trip. We'll see what happens this weekend on our trip; we'll be sleeping in a hotel, so who knows how well the girls will sleep. . .
Water
Today starts a weekend road trip, and I typically don't drink enough when I travel. In the car I get thirsty but don't want to drink in order to avoid too many pit stops. In So. Cal. the weather is always dry, so I tend to feel dried out.
Eating
All I can say is that I haven't been keeping very good track of my eating lately. I generally eat healthy, but I don't know if I've eaten well-balanced meals. On road trips we go to fast food; it's just about the only time I eat it, so that makes a few times a year. Because it's so rare, I look forward to it, even though afterward, it feels like a rock sitting in my stomach for the rest of the drive.
Exercise
I have not yet been very consistent about exercising while the girls are napping; I did it once this week. However, I did manage to exercise Tues. (toning), Wed. (cardio), Thurs. (stroller walk). The plan for this evening is to take a walk after our long drive down south. That always feels good after so much sitting.
Tranquility
In the past couple days I didn't get enough relaxation time because Wed. Maya didn't nap, and yesterday I was so busy preparing for the trip, that it wasn't very relaxing. I'm looking forward to our trip with family and friends. I should get a lot of tranquility this weekend.
How do I feel?
I feel ready for this trip. I've been experimenting with different ways of keeping track of my SWEET Life Cycle (i.e., success in each category over time), and I haven't been happy with the ways I've been trying, which is part of the reason why I haven't kept good track of my SWEET Life.
Monday, November 5, 2007
After a Weekend Away
I decided to start a blog as an example of one person living the SWEET Life and to keep me honest about practicing what I preach. I'll cover each aspect of the SWEET Life and any conclusions I come to about living the SWEET Life each day.
Sleep
I went to bed at 10:30 but didn't go to sleep until 11:30. My alarm went off at 6:00 but I didn't get up until 6:15. So that makes 7 1/2 hr. attempted sleep, but only 6 3/4 hr. actual sleep. Bummer, I didn't quite make my sleep goal of 7-8 hr.
Water
I had been filling a pitcher with 2 quarts water and drinking from it all day, but I haven't been consistent. So this month, I decided tdo try drinking a tall glass of water with each meal, plus a couple others throughout the day. So far, so good. I reached my goal of 8-10 cups today.
Eating
After a wonderful weekend away, filled with restaurant and party foods and drinks, it was nice to be home and eat basic foods from my fridge and pantry. Unfortunately, because we were away, the fridge is looking pretty bare. For breaky I mustered up a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and Nutella (I know, not so healthy, but boy is it good!), grapes and coffee.
By lunch I was really hungry. I ate a whole wheat tortilla wrap with turkey and corned beef, cheese and hummus; some fiesta bean salad; baby carrots & broccoli florets dipped in hummus; and yogurt. My daughters and I had Halloween candy for dessert as a reward for eating a good lunch. Again, not healthy but I'd rather my girls eat 3 baby carrots and one piece of Halloween andy than 0 carrots and 0 candy. As for my candy-eating, read about my Exercise below.
Before work, I ate a handful or two of peanuts. I work 5-9:00 p.m. as a Personal Trainer at a health club, so I always snack beforehand and bring an energy bar. I always make sure to eat it so that I'm not ravenously hungry when I get home. When I got home at 9:15, I could smell a delicious dinner, so I was really disappointed to find out it had all been eaten! Bummer! I was hungry and just wanted to eat and do the fifteen things I needed to do before bed. I already mentioned that our fridge was empty, so what to do? . . . Unfortunately, in this situation I succumbed to the temptation of the 5-minute, frozen mac & cheese. Mmm, it's good, but a lot of calories, fat and sodium! I sort of made up for that by eating some more baby carrots and broccoli florets. Overall, I actually ate pretty well today, although it would have been better to have traded in the candy for vegetables. Gotta go to the store first; that's the key to eating well!
Exercise
I typically run down Alameda beach and back on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Today was a bit different because I felt "polluted" after my vacation/party weekend. I also happened to read this great article on post-party exercising, so I took the article's advice: I did interval training. I ran about 10 min. as a warm up; then I ran as hard as possible for one min., then jogged slowly to recover for one min., repeating that 8 times. I'd never done interval training before, and it was hard! After a few intervals, I could feel that my legs were moving much slower (during the fast intervals) but my heart was racing! What a way to burn extra calories and challenge my cardio. system! The last 10 min. I ran my regular pace home, where I did a little stretching and some new ab exercises. I've come to realize that I always need to do abs, and I like to change exercises every month for interest and a challenge.
Tranquility
This basically always depends on whether my toddlers nap. They did, so I got some alone time. It's not that I did anything very interesting: email, web surfing, organizing my day, but I really need some time to relax and think.
How do I feel?
I felt back on track after my intense run to burn off the weekend's "pollutants" and getting back to my usual eating/drinking/kid-rearing schedule. However, the late night mac & cheese is sitting in a mass in my stomach.
Overall, this was a pretty SWEET day. I was a bit shy on sleep, and probably consumed more fat than I should have, but it's a pretty good example of how the SWEET Life can work in real life.
Sleep
I went to bed at 10:30 but didn't go to sleep until 11:30. My alarm went off at 6:00 but I didn't get up until 6:15. So that makes 7 1/2 hr. attempted sleep, but only 6 3/4 hr. actual sleep. Bummer, I didn't quite make my sleep goal of 7-8 hr.
Water
I had been filling a pitcher with 2 quarts water and drinking from it all day, but I haven't been consistent. So this month, I decided tdo try drinking a tall glass of water with each meal, plus a couple others throughout the day. So far, so good. I reached my goal of 8-10 cups today.
Eating
After a wonderful weekend away, filled with restaurant and party foods and drinks, it was nice to be home and eat basic foods from my fridge and pantry. Unfortunately, because we were away, the fridge is looking pretty bare. For breaky I mustered up a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and Nutella (I know, not so healthy, but boy is it good!), grapes and coffee.
By lunch I was really hungry. I ate a whole wheat tortilla wrap with turkey and corned beef, cheese and hummus; some fiesta bean salad; baby carrots & broccoli florets dipped in hummus; and yogurt. My daughters and I had Halloween candy for dessert as a reward for eating a good lunch. Again, not healthy but I'd rather my girls eat 3 baby carrots and one piece of Halloween andy than 0 carrots and 0 candy. As for my candy-eating, read about my Exercise below.
Before work, I ate a handful or two of peanuts. I work 5-9:00 p.m. as a Personal Trainer at a health club, so I always snack beforehand and bring an energy bar. I always make sure to eat it so that I'm not ravenously hungry when I get home. When I got home at 9:15, I could smell a delicious dinner, so I was really disappointed to find out it had all been eaten! Bummer! I was hungry and just wanted to eat and do the fifteen things I needed to do before bed. I already mentioned that our fridge was empty, so what to do? . . . Unfortunately, in this situation I succumbed to the temptation of the 5-minute, frozen mac & cheese. Mmm, it's good, but a lot of calories, fat and sodium! I sort of made up for that by eating some more baby carrots and broccoli florets. Overall, I actually ate pretty well today, although it would have been better to have traded in the candy for vegetables. Gotta go to the store first; that's the key to eating well!
Exercise
I typically run down Alameda beach and back on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Today was a bit different because I felt "polluted" after my vacation/party weekend. I also happened to read this great article on post-party exercising, so I took the article's advice: I did interval training. I ran about 10 min. as a warm up; then I ran as hard as possible for one min., then jogged slowly to recover for one min., repeating that 8 times. I'd never done interval training before, and it was hard! After a few intervals, I could feel that my legs were moving much slower (during the fast intervals) but my heart was racing! What a way to burn extra calories and challenge my cardio. system! The last 10 min. I ran my regular pace home, where I did a little stretching and some new ab exercises. I've come to realize that I always need to do abs, and I like to change exercises every month for interest and a challenge.
Tranquility
This basically always depends on whether my toddlers nap. They did, so I got some alone time. It's not that I did anything very interesting: email, web surfing, organizing my day, but I really need some time to relax and think.
How do I feel?
I felt back on track after my intense run to burn off the weekend's "pollutants" and getting back to my usual eating/drinking/kid-rearing schedule. However, the late night mac & cheese is sitting in a mass in my stomach.
Overall, this was a pretty SWEET day. I was a bit shy on sleep, and probably consumed more fat than I should have, but it's a pretty good example of how the SWEET Life can work in real life.
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