12-Week Sprint to the Finish: Week 1
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On your marks! Get set! Go! It’s your 12-Week Sprint to the Finish, so make it count for you! It doesn’t matter if you, like me, are trying to get those last few pounds off to reach your goal weight, if you’re just getting started and you’re trying to reach your first mini-goal, or if you’re at any point in between.
We’re taking the next twelve weeks to set and reach some personal goals. You set the goal and share it, and we’ll hold you accountable.
You’ve had a week to think about your first week’s goals, so what are they?
My goals are going to be three-fold: mental, physical, and nutritional. All three are key to staying focused and on-track so that I can reach my weight-loss goals.
Mental: In order to stay motivated, I will read things that inspire me to stay true to my goals. I received a book in the mail last week that I’ll be reviewing here on Eclipsed in a few weeks – Reshaping It All, by Candace Cameron Bure of Full House fame. From the back cover,
More than a biography, Reshaping It All is a motivational tool putting you on the right track toward a better physical and spiritual fitness regimen that really lasts.
Sounds like a good place to start.
Physical: I plan to continue running every other day, following my half-marathon training plan. In addition, on the days I don’t run, I plan to follow this weight-training plan (modified for the equipment I have), along with 30 minutes of cardio, some abdominal work, and learning to do a pull-up.
Nutritional: I will write down everything that I eat and I will post it here the following Monday. How’s that for accountability?
I thought that posting my food log here might serve two purposes. One, it might give those of you just starting out some ideas on some healthy changes you can make and it might also help you see that a healthy diet doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Moderation is key for me. If I couldn’t eat the foods I enjoy, occasionally and in moderation, I would never stick with this weight-loss thing long-term.
Two, accountability. Writing down everything you eat knowing you’re the only one who’s going to see that log is one thing. Writing it down and posting it on your blog is something else entirely. Ouch. Also, keeping track of everything I eat will help me to see where I’m doing well and where I may be getting off track.
I will also continue drinking lots of water. It’s great for flushing your system of impurities and keeping you feeling full and it gives me something to sip on all day that doesn’t hurt my nutritional goals in any way.
Now, for full disclosure. I was ready to get started! I thought I’d give myself a week to get acclimated to our summer schedule, but I couldn’t stand it! Last Monday, I jumped right into my 12-Week Sprint! My goals last week were just diet and exercise. Here’s how I did:
Physical: I ran a total of 15.66 miles. Included in that is my fourth 5K that I ran on Saturday and my second 5 mile long run that I ran on Sunday. I also did the weight-training workout 3 days, though I didn’t do all of the lower body workout on Friday because I was running out of time.
I also burned a lot of extra calories on Monday and Tuesday cleaning house – a fringe benefit of housework.
Nutritional: Okay, are you ready? Here’s my food log for last week:
5/23/11
Breakfast: fruit salad w/vanilla yogurt and granola
Lunch: Grilled chicken salad w/light Italian dressing
Snack: Fiber Plus Bar
Dinner: Grilled chicken w/spinach, spaghetti squash w/sauce, sautéed mushrooms, roasted broccoli, garlic bread (2 slices Sarah Lee wheat)
Snack: 1/2 Frosty
5/24/11
Breakfast: Luna bar
Lunch: Mushroom & onion pizza (2); salad w/fruit, veggies, walnuts, Italian dressing; sweet tea
Snack: Fiber Plus bar
Dinner: Sandwich – ham, turkey, roast, Swiss on Sarah Lee wheat w/light mayo and mustard; pita chips and roasted red pepper hummus, sweet tea
Snack: Fruit salad w/yogurt and granola
5/25/11
Breakfast: Flax Plus cereal with granola and blueberries
Lunch: Ham, turkey, roast, Swiss on Sarah Lee wheat w/light mayo and mustard, Doritos, light dip, sweet tea
Dinner: Mexican pizza (1.5), sweet tea
Snack: Fiber Plus bar
5/26/11
Breakfast: Luna Bar
Lunch: Olive Garden salad, breadstick (1), Chicken & Gnocchi soup
Snack: Chick-Fil-A sweet tea (I drank water at Olive Garden, so I could have my CFA tea when we went to the mall.)
Dinner: Tacos, Coke, birthday cake
5/27/11
Breakfast: Flax Plus w/granola and strawberries
Lunch: Turkey burger w/Swiss and grilled onions, roasted broccoli, sweet tea
Dinner: Chick-Fil-A Chargrilled chicken sandwich; side salad with 1/2 package ranch dressing, 1/2 package of sunflower kernels, 1/2 package of tortilla strips; sweet tea
5/28/11
Breakfast: Flax Plus w/granola and strawberries
Snack (after race): Banana, 1/2 Nature Valley pecan crunch bar
Lunch: Chinese restaurant – salad bar (romaine lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, 1/2 boiled egg, 1/2 oz. shredded cheddar, fat-free ranch dressing), boiled shrimp (6), fried rice (approx. 1/2 cup), garlic shrimp (6), orange slices (3), watermelon wedge, Chinese donut (1). 32 oz. sweet tea from McDonald’s after we left
Dinner: Steak ‘n Shake single w/bacon and cheese, fries (1/2), sweet tea
Snack: peanuts (1 oz), dark chocolate (0.4 oz), the other half of the Nature Valley pecan crunch bar
5/29/11
Brunch: Ham, turkey, roast, Swiss on Sarah Lee wheat w/light mayo and mustard, pita chips and hummus, sweet tea
Dinner: Chicken salad sandwich (my mother-in-law’s recipe, not your typical fat-filled chicken salad) with 1 oz. Cool Ranch Doritos.
Post-run snack: McDonald’s sweet tea (yeah, I don’t usually have 2 in one week) and fruit salad w/yogurt and granola.
As you can see, there were quite a few meals eaten out. That’s pretty unusual, but Brianna’s birthday was Thursday and she wanted to go to Olive Garden. My father-in-law’s birthday was Sunday, so we had lunch out with them on Saturday.
Then, Brianna was invited to spend the night with a friend Saturday and Josh and Megan were invited to spend the night with my in-laws. Brian and I were not going to pass up the opportunity for an impromptu date, so we wound up eating out Saturday night.
Even so, I still think you can successfully lose weight, even with eating out, if you make good choices and eat in moderation.
I think.
We’ll see when I get on the scale tomorrow morning.
Your turn! What are your goals for next week?
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
WOW WOW and WOW! You ARE motivated! What a great week you had! Here are my goals for the week. 1) I will continue following the 17 Day Diet. 2) I will do 1 form of exercise each day as my injury allows (biking, swimming and/or walking) 3) I will make time at least 3 times to meditate. 4) I will cook at least 2 new healthy recipes for my family.
Thank you again for this Sprint to the Finish. It was the motivation I needed!!!! I can't wait to hear how you do this week!!!!!
Great goals, Jill! I love that you're trying new, healthy recipes. That was a big factor in my weight loss — finding new family favorites and go-to meals that were healthier. Gina's Skinny Taste (a.k.a. Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes) was wonderful for me because she posts fabulous recipes that are things real people, including kids, eat. We still have a few of our old favorites from time to time, but it's nice to be able to balance them with healthier options.
Have a great week and stay motivated!
I forgot about this until reading this tonight, so I totally bombed on today. But tomorrow's another day right! I normally link with you through your homeschool blog to mine, but for here, I'm joining you through my general/weight loss blog http://www.mykidsmydietmylife.blogspot.com
Just getting a chance to post my goals for this week. I was really ready to get going on this today! I did great with my eating although I didn't exercise. I've been thinking hard about what my goals should be, but am uncertain about exactly what to do since I've been on this plateau for so long now and hadn't felt like I'd been doing much differently than when I'd lost the first 30 pounds. But I do think that the keys are to increase/change my exercise (my body is too used to the amount/type of exercise I'm doing now) and to really get back to watching my calories much more closely than I have been. So my goals are 1) Exercise all remaining mornings this week and try to put more activity into the rest of my days 2) Log my food intake as best as I can. I'm really bad at figuring out calories for things like casseroles and recipes that I've always made, but I will write everything down and add up calories for what I can find online and figure out the rest as well as I can so that I can be more accountable for what is going in my mouth. I started this up again today and did a good job. Makes you really consider those little tastes of things before you just pop them in your mouth! 3) Remind myself (hourly if necessary!) what my goal is and of the saying "Do or do not. There is no try." to hopefully keep me motivated! Also look for other inspiration to put around the house to motivate me. 4) Stay off the scale until Friday (my usual weigh-in day)!! I get obsessed with the number and it goes up and down way too much for me to really take anything from it. So back to once-a-week weigh-ins!
Thanks again for including others in this, Kris. And I have to add that I'm enjoying getting to know some new-to-me blogers in the same boat. (I don't blog or I'd share mine.) Have a great week!
Thanks for sharing the "Ginas Skinny Taste" site. I really struggle with breakfast and lunch- I went through some of her recipes and they look so good. This week was a $20.00 grocery week so I wasn't able to buy much but hopefully next week, I can pick a fecipe or two and try them out. Part of the sturggle with eating is the cost of eating healthy – it is a really struggle. !!
I won't send the diet police to get you. 😉 You're right — tomorrow is a new day, a new start. What goals will you set for this week? Are they on your weight-loss blog? Off to check and see…
Have you tried Spark People for logging your calories? It's free and you can put in your own recipes, so if you make a casserole, you can put in all the ingredients and divide it by number of servings to get an approximation on the calories. It takes awhile, but once you get some of your favorites saved, putting in your foods for the day and figuring out your calories goes a little quicker. Just a thought that might help.
I so hear you on the plateau. I'm afraid that's a problem I'm going to have with running. I love it and I don't mind doing it, so that's my main source of activity. It doesn't take your body long to adjust. I'm hoping that continuing to up my mileage as I train for this half marathon will help, but I know I can only go so far with that — I mean, you can only run so many miles a day. I need to be more conscious of changing my running course more often.
Good luck on your goals this week! I know you can do it if you just stay focused. (I'm saying that for my benefit, too.)
I agree that it can be a struggle to eat healthy without breaking the bank. One thing that helps a little is trying to stick with seasonal fruits and veggies. They're usually cheaper when they're in season.
I tend to have my stand-bys for breakfast and lunch. It makes shopping and meal planning easier. I tend to stick with oatmeal or cereal with fruit or fruit salad with yogurt for breakfast. Lunches are usually salads, sandwiches, or a turkey burger. I *love* my weekly turkey burger.
Hope you can find some new favorites!
I love that you are posting your meals. It helps me with new ideas and healthy choices.
I decided mid week last week that even though I have been careful (lately) to eat more healthy, I need to start counting W.W. POINTS. I know it will help me keep track of what I am eating. I haven't joined, just using what I have learned in the past.
I also started getting up earlier to walk. I found out that it's a great way to start my day!
My goals for this week:
1. Keep track of every bite!
2. Walk at least 5 days
3. Stay motivated!!
Christine mentioned weighing herself only once a week. Do you recommend that as well?
It sounds like a good idea! I can get discouraged if I am not seeing the numbers moving!
I think I am addicted to getting on in the morning. I might have to hide it during the week or something : )
Great goals! I think tracking your food intake is huge. I think that was probably a downfall for me last week. Even thought I wrote down everything I ate, I wasn't really tracking calories like I should have been. I'll have to do better with that this week.
As far as weighing goes, I typically weigh once a week as my official weigh-in and I may weigh once mid-week just to see how I'm doing. I try not to weigh more than that because my weight fluctuates throughout the day and the week. Hope that helps!
Hi Kris! I just found out about your 12 week challenge, and I think I would like to join in. I'm also on the get-healthy train, and can use all the motivation/accountability I can get! 🙂 I love that you're running every other day. I feel like I WANT/NEED to do that but haven't made that commitment yet.
Goals for this upcoming week: Run at least 3 times (I'm doing C25K) this week. Log my foods (WW points+). I think for now those are my two biggest goals. I would like to see a loss when I weigh myself next week too. Since I've stepped up the running this past month I haven't lost anything, but rather than a plateau I am pretty sure it's because I've been eating wrong and not logging my intake, so this is key for me! I wrote about some long-term goals in a post this past Monday too, here https://bit.ly/m6tDU6.
Yeah, I've got a post coming tomorrow about plateaus and not logging food. It's not going to be nice. 😉
I'm glad you'll be joining the challenge! And, you're just in time because it just officially started on Monday.
woo hoo – way to go Kris! I started Weight Watchers yesterday – and am tracking my progress online. But so love reading motivational posts !!
Good luck with your weight-loss efforts!
this is a great idea, i just found out about it now (came over from your homeschool blog). I would love to participate! I will go read your previous posts and figure it out how.
My plan for this coming week is get back to my half-marathon training. I had completed 10 days ago my couch to 10k program and just haven't been motivated since!!
I'm happy to have you join in. We're just finishing up the first week, so you've got plenty of time to see great results. I'm training for a half-marathon, too. I've got my first 10K coming up two weeks from today. I'm really excited about it — except for the thought of how HOT it's going to be running a 10K in the middle of June.
What is our actual end date? I want to write it and my goal on my calendar.
Our final week will start Aug. 15, then, I'll do a "grand finale" post on Aug. 22 where everyone can share their final results.