Swirly Watermelon in Week 4

This is a really swirly watermelon that we ate last week. I thought it was pretty cool looking so I took this picture.


Week 4 of BetterU has come and gone, so what are the results?


I am back up two pounds, for a net loss so far of three pounds over this past month. I didn't do too well on my eating goals, so I'm chalking it up to that. I think that my activity level pretty much stayed the same, so that was good. Not happy with myself for many of my eating choices, but I am pleased that I kept being fairly active.





Goals for the past week were:





Buy a new pedometer and use it. Yes, check, done! And I really have been using it too and keeping track of my activity level. One day I had 14,350, another day I had just over 5,000.


I like this new pedometer because it has a flip up cover so that the reset button doesn't get pushed accidentally. Oh and of course the day after I gave up looking for my old one and bought a new one, I found the old one. So now I have a back up. My idea of clipping the pedometer to my glasses at night so that I'll remember to put it on right away in the morning has pretty much worked out.





Walk the dog and garden and stretch and situps everyday.


Yes to all but the situps. Why? Not sure, I think I forgot I'd put it as one of my goals. But the stretching sure felt good after all the gardening.





Weights at least 2 times this week.


Pretty minimal, because I didn't want to overdo, but I at least did it. Bench presses even, boy oh boy were my arms sore the next day.





Eat more vegies than bread.


Looking back on the food diary that I started (wow is that ever a revealing exercise!) Yes, I think I achieved this. No waste of greens or vegies this week to the compost pile, hooray.





Buy no candy.


I bought some chocolate covered almonds, but didn't eat them. I like to keep them in my studio as a pick-me-up when I'm in the middle of working to keep me going. But I wasn't in the studio at all, so I didn't eat any. However, I was given a piece of chocolate from my son who had received it as a birthday gift. I did say no twice though when he offered.







Find someone to be on my BetterU team.


I ended up asking my boys, one of whom is almost always around during shopping and cooking times, to help me with making better food choices. They agreed because they're nice and caring and I am persuasive. I told them they could tell me if I was getting grouchy. I think I still need to find a grown-up person too, so I'll work on that this week.








I wrote down some obstacles, acknowledging up front what I thought would prevent me from achieving last weeks goals. This is a new idea for me, from the BetterU journal, never tried anything other than just writing down the basic goals. A planning ahead, figuring out where you go astray from achieving the goals you're setting for yourself. It is useful, and I'm glad that I learned this technique from BetterU.





Obstacles to overcome:


I haven't been sleeping well, it always happens around this time of year, too much staying up late since it is still light so late...Must make the attempt to go to bed at the first sign of sleepiness instead of staying up past then.


I was about 50/50 on this and I hope that this week I can get some more sleep. I notice that the more active I am during the day, the easier it is to get to bed earlier than 1 or 2am. And conversely, the later I stay up, the harder it is to BE active the following day.





Must find the pedometer or buy a new one and actually use it.


I knew I'd find my old pedometer as soon as I bought a new one, but that is ok, now I have a backup, and I like the pretty new pink one better anyways. It is easier to find in the grass when it falls off! I





Willpower at the store to not grab candy.


When I bought the chocolate covered almonds, I was really really hungry. Duh, don't go food shopping when you're hungry. But at least I didn't eat them. But now they are here in the house just in case...A home without chocolate isn't a home or something silly like that.





Feeling tired and hurting makes it hard to get out there and walk and garden, etc. The answer


always is: Do It Anyways.


Why did I put this down as one of my obstacles, when it seems so obvious? Maybe I just wanted to acknowledge it right up front, so that when I see that I AM being active and Doing It Anyways that I'm getting past that obstacle that is always right in front of me, just like I want to be able to.





Now to go do my check-in at the BetterU website.