Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

Last week I mentioned that my friend, L, and I were embarking on a 15 week better health and weight loss challenge.  Today marks the end of the first week, so here is a quick check-in.

Goals:
Eat 3 balanced meals and 2 snacks
No eating after 7:00 pm
Exercise 5 days per week
Only 1 sugary drink per day
Lose 10 pounds
Lose 4 inches off areas where I carry my weight (waist, abdomen, hips)

This weekend was a bit rough because I felt so bad, but overall I had a good pretty good week.  I owe $3 to the penalty jar for breaking my “rules”; I had more than one sugary drink on three days.  However, my weigh-in and measurement check today was encouraging.  I’ve lost two pounds and an inch off my measurements!  That’s enough to keep me motivated for a few more days.

After Little was born I dropped weight like crazy.  I was four pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight at my six-weeks check up and lost an additional 20 pounds by the time she weaned.  Not so with Boo.  I lost the first 20 pounds of my pregnancy weight quickly, but these last 8 or 10 are lingering longer than I would like.

So, my good friend L and I have decided to challenge ourselves to eat better, exercise more consistently, and hopefully drop a few pounds.  We’ve laid out some rules and set some goals and for the next 15 weeks we’re going to get down to the business of getting back in shape.  

Right now we’re pretty motivated, but as we get a few weeks in I suspect we’ll do a little back-sliding, feel a little unmotivated, and have a desire to just call the whole thing off.  That’s why we’re doing this together; we’ll have someone else to encourage, motivate, and hold us accountable when those temptations come along.  We’ve also set up a “punishment” fine of a dollar for rule breaking; if we can’t motivate ourselves, maybe the bank can.  And in the end, when goals are met, we’ll reward ourselves with a nice evening out.  With no kids!

Here are our rules: eat three balanced meals a day and allow for two healthy snacks (gotta have plenty of food for this nursing Momma), no eating after 7:00pm, increase water intake while decreasing sugary drinks, exercise at least 5 days per week, and a couple others that are specific to our personal goals.  I may throw in a couple of other non-health related goals as I go along as well.  

It should be an interesting 15 weeks (especially since our vacation falls in here).  I’ll keep you posted.

A few weeks ago our temperatures reached into the upper-80s and 90s and I ceased to view the season as Spring.  However, today is officially the last day of Spring, and, thus, the end of the Spring Reading Thing. All-in-all, I’m quite pleased with the reading I accomplished, especially since we added Boo to the mix about a month into the challenge.

These were the lists I started with:
Non-fiction:
John Adams by David McCullough
A Midwife’s Story by Penny Armstrong
The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
The Complete Book of Sewing by DK Publishing (won’t finish this one by June)

Fiction:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
Mater Biscuit by Julie Cannon
Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

Here are my answers to the wrap up questions Katrina posted.

Did you finish all the books you had planned to read?  If not, why?

I finished all of the books on my fiction list and most of the books on my non-fiction list.  The two I did not complete were John Adams, which I’ve begun reading, and The Complete Book of Sewing, which I haven’t picked up since the beginning of the challenge.  I just don’t have the time or mental capacity for sewing right now.

Do you think the challenge helped you read more? Or maybe helped you read books you otherwise wouldn’t have?

I’m a pretty avid reader, so I don’t think it necessarily helped me to read more.  However, having a set list of books enabled me to keep my reading focused and prevented me from “flailing around” unsure of what to read next.  These challenges do help me to read non-fiction as I’m generally unmotivated to pick up non-fiction books.

What was your favorite book you read this spring? Least favorite?

It’s tough to pick a favorite because I really enjoyed all of the books on my lists this Spring.  A Midwife’s Tale and A Thousand Splendid Suns probably stood out the most for their stories and style.  I really related to the sentiments portrayed in Stepping Heavenward and enjoyed reading it as well.

As for a least favorite, I would have to say Mater Biscuit.  It isn’t that I didn’t like the book, just not as much as the others.

What did you learn about your reading habits or interests?

I’ve always struggled reading non-fiction, but during this challenge I liked the non-fiction that I chose and got “into” the books just like I do with fiction.  I learned that I can read non-fiction easily and really enjoy it if it is a topic that I’m interested in.

Are you interested in another “Fall Into Reading” challenge this fall?

Definitely!

Visit Callapidder Days to see the other participant’s wrap up posts. Thanks, Katrina, for hosting another great reading challenge.  I’m looking forward to the next one!

I’ve been out of the Tackle It Tuesday loop the last several weeks as we welcomed Boo and have been adjusting to a new routine.  We are also out of the house a lot these days enjoying summer fun with friends.  However, looking at my to-do list for the week, I think it’s time to jump back in and start tackling.

My big tackle for the past week was getting Cha-ching, my financial software, updated.  I was only a month behind.  Not only does this help me fulfill my need to play with numbers, but it allows me to see a little better where our money is going and how we might make budget adjustments for the future.

So, not very exciting for my first week back, but something that definitely needed to be done.  

For the upcoming week – create a schedule, write thank you notes, do some cleaning

Happy tackling!

Two weeks into the Spring Reading Thing, and I’ve completed two of the books on my goal list. I know my pace will slow when Boo arrives, but so far I’m off to a good start.

The first book, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth, was quite informative but exclusively about childbirth and the technology associated with it. I won’t review it here because it probably isn’t of interest to anyone else.

Yesterday I finished reading A Midwife’s Tale. This book chronicles the training and career of co-author Penny Armstrong through a series of short stories (each one is a chapter) that come together to give the reader a picture of her life, her struggles, and her clients.

A Midwife’s Tale traces the situations and personal development of Mrs. Armstrong that transform her from a hospital midwife, with all of the technology and interventions associated with that setting, to a midwife with her own practice doing only home births. As someone with a science background (I was pre-med in college), I found this part of the story quite interesting.

However, the thing that made this book fascinating to me was Mrs. Armstrong’s clientele. Upon the completion of her midwifery training, she chose to move to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to serve the Amish community there. The book paints a picture of the Amish and their lifestyle from the perspective of an outsider who became intimately acquainted with these people.  It details her encounters with their customs and culture in ways that I haven’t read before.

Although the story teller is a midwife, the book is not laden with medical jargon and technical information about childbirth. Most of the stories are, obviously, about childbirth, but there is nothing presented that would be offensive or beyond the experience of anyone who has given birth (or even seen one of those birth videos they show in school). If you have any interest in midwifery or the Amish people and their lifestyle, I really think you would enjoy this book.