Goals - 2017 in review

Hi folks.  I know I let the last few months slip away here on the blog - definitely been battling a big funk, and my weight loss is the unending struggle.  But here I am on January 1 to report on the last year overall.  Here we go.

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Utterly failed.  Gained 19 pounds last year.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   On average, I met this goal - 268 days total.  Three months under 20 (two because I hurt my back in November), three months over 25!  
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Smashed :)  I ended up with over 4 million steps for the year.  One month however, I did miss the 10k average - November, when I threw out my back.  Overall though, I'm proud of myself on this!
4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   I don't think I actually met this one, especially near the end of the year.  Not a huge goal though.
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   I always did an entry in my gratitude journal daily, but I definitely need to keep working on this always!

Though the scale didn't work in my favor this year, at least I kept on moving.

Goals - August report

August is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Fail - but hey, I DIDN'T GAIN any weight this month for the first time in aaaaages.  Shockingly, I gained a bunch of weight after a long weekend with a LOT of working out, but so happy to see a little green on this chart finally.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Smashed: 27 days, including several multiple workout days and three days several hours of workouts!
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Smashed!  Average 13.4k steps a day - including five days over 20k!  Insanity :)  I need to take an honest to goodness rest day more often though - my body is definitely showing its age.




Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
Met: Just one, but at least that's something.
Make gratitude a priority.
Met: continuing my nightly journaling on this.

I met my informal August goal of not gaining any weight, so that's awesome.  I need to do that again, but hopefully lose a pound or two.  I'm not sure what is causing this struggle, but with kiddo now in kindergarten, I have more time to focus on my nutrition and exercise.  Hopefully progress will be made!

Goals - July report

July is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Fail: up one pound.  Again this month, I didn't weigh myself every single day because I knew it wouldn't be pretty.  And again, my goal for the coming month is to stop gaining weight.  Sheesh.  
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Smashed: 28 days with workouts - including 5 days with back-to-back workouts (Les Mills BodyPump then U-JAM Fitness - strength then cardio!).  I know I need to work on my strength conditioning, and doing a cardio class right afterwards seems to help with the lovely delayed onset muscle soreness that used to 
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Smashed!  Average 11.7k steps a day - and only two days of not much going on (actually, one day was spent mostly in a pool so that didn't help the steps!).  Nice to be doing well with this goal at least! ;)

Through the first seven months of the year, I've got 2,354,824 steps!  That's over 11k steps a day average!  Yippee!


Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
Met: More zucchini, more new recipes ;)
Make gratitude a priority.
Met: I do this every night, but I need to take more time throughout the day for this too.

So, August is going to be yet another challenge, honestly.  I feel like I say that every month. ;)  A couple of special occasions in there, plus a 4 day U-JAM Fitness conference (which means lots of dancing - but also likely a lot of eating!).  However, kiddo will also start kindergarten later this month (omg time flies!), and that will allow me to have more time to myself and time to get into a consistent daytime gym routine as well I hope.  August simple goal: stop gaining weight!  :D

Goals - June report

June is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Fail: up a pound and a half.  As you can see, I'm not weighing myself every single day either - I know when things aren't going well and I just don't want to see it.  I'm frustrated, deeply, about this!
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Smashed: 26 days with workouts - some with two workouts!  But unfortunately, I keep proving that you can't out-exercise a bad diet...
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Smashed!  Averaged 12k steps a day - with 19k steps one day!  Woo!  Still had a couple of sick days in there, but overall got a lot more exercise in (thanks to kiddo being in a morning summer school session - but that's done now so who knows what July will hold for us...)



Through the first six months of the year, I've got 1,991,855 steps!  That's 11k steps a day average!  Nice!



Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
Met: Our garden is happily churning out zucchini, so I'm finding new ways to use it ;)
Make gratitude a priority.
Met: Can always improve on this!

Honestly, I'm not holding out much hope for July.  I really would love to STOP GAINING WEIGHT, but my schedule for this month is terrible.  I know just meeting the steps & workout goals will be a challenge, and frankly, we all know that meeting those goals isn't exactly taking weight off (but it must be keeping more from piling on at least?).

Goals - May report

May is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Fail: but on the bright side (?), I only gained one pound this month.  I am so tired of this struggle with the scale.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Met: despite getting sick twice this month, I still hit my 20 days of workouts.  Even did a couple of long (2 hour) walks too, like old times. ;)
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Met: so... yeah, I was sick twice this month, and one day felt so bad that I got only ~500 steps.  Cut it down to the wire yesterday to get that 310k total, and didn't feel up to a workout so it was really close but at least I met this goal again.  I switched to a different fitbit, so the floor count doesn't count any longer so maybe next month it won't display on this report again.



4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Met: I know I did one at the start of the month but right now I can't remember it.  Still clearly need to focus on this one!
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Met, even if some days were a challenge.  

Again with the broken record here, but hopefully June will be a better month overall.  

Goals - April report

April is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Yep, massive fail again.  The worst part is that I'm about 3 pounds heavier than I was a year ago.  Very disheartening.  
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Fail: 17 days with official workouts.  I injured both of my ankles at the same time, so I took it easy for awhile (but honestly not as easy I should have).  However, if I were to go back to counting individual workouts instead of days with workouts, I would've met the goal with 21.
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Success! 313,149 steps for the month - 10,438 steps average.  It was coming down to the end of the month, but with a monster 20k+ day and a few 15k days, it balanced out.  And yes, I was lazy yesterday. ;)



4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Failed: need to put more of a focus on healthy eating this month for sure.
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Met, even if some days were a challenge.

OK, well... here's where I try to be all positive and optimistic that this coming month will be the change!  And again, I really do hope that it turns around this month.  For me, I really think it's all about the calories in and less about the calories out, and I need to stop emotionally eating.  I think this month will have less temptations in it, so hopefully next month we'll see some green in that weight chart.  

Goals - March report

March is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   OK, well, clearly this was yet another fail.  I'm close to having regained all the weight I lost last year (but still down 70 pounds from my highest).  Deeply, deeply frustrating.  April goal: NO MORE GAIN.  This is going to be a huge challenge.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Success: 24 days, despite more challenges and repeated fails over the month.  Not that it's helping me lose weight, but maybe helping the weight gain not be as bad?  I don't know.  Very frustrating.
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Success! 355,393 steps for the month - 11,464 steps average.  You can see in the chart blow, some days were terrible.  But hey, those lowest days were still 5k step days.  Need more above 10k though.  Glad I made it out ahead this month.



4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Failed: yeah, surprise surprise.  Yet another hard month.
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Well, I'm still doing my daily gratitude entries, but frankly, some days have been a huge challenge.

I'm really hoping April will be better, but I do have to be realistic - it's going to be hard, with family visiting and staying with us for over a week and several parties and potlucks too.  Aie.  C'mon, I need to get in gear...

Goals - February report

February is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   This is absolutely terrible.  I am truly holding myself accountable here, but this is beyond ridiculous.  Up 4.6 pounds for the month.  We did have a death in the family, and I had to do all the funeral arrangements and it was all highly stressful, and my birthday was also this month, so add more eating things there... not good for the weight loss at all.  My informal goal for March is to not gain any more weight, damnit.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Success: 23 days, which is impressive given the issues this month.  Wish it was reflected in the scale, but I imagine the scale would've been much worse without it.  
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Success! 310,839 steps for the month - 11,101 steps average.  I am grateful that I was able to make up for those "off" days on other days (17k one day helped!), and hope to keep on this trend going forward.

4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Failed: hey, I barely remembered to cook most days, so I'm definitely cutting myself slack.
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Challenging, but I continue to do my daily happy and gratitude entries.

March is going to continue to be tough as we deal with estate issues and other things out of my control.  I know already of a large number of days when I won't be able to get to the gym, so this is definitely going to be a challenge.  If I can hit my 20 days of workouts, 10k steps a day, and not gaining any weight - I will be elated. ;)

Goals - January report

January is done! Let's review the goals:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   Such a massive fail, I don't even want to talk about it.  I'm posting the chart for accountability, but this sucked.  Been dealing with a family emergency and it definitely reflected in the scale.  Up 1.9 pounds for the month.
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   Success: 23 days, which isn't as many as I had honestly hoped for, and definitely not as many dance classes as I would've liked.  But at least I met this goal, and honestly, without it I'm sure the weight would've been worse.  
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Success: 335,155 steps for the month - 10,811 steps average.  But you can see from the chart, there were some really bad days in there - 3 days with less than 5k steps per day.  Hopefully next month I can not have so many 'off' days, but I won't beat myself up about it.
   
4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Met: just one, at the beginning of the month.  Gotta do this more.  
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Boy is this a challenge right now, with the family emergency and all - but I am definitely keeping up with my daily "happy" file, and also a separate gratitude journal.  Grateful that overall, my health is still better today than it was a year ago.

I'm going to be blunt here: February isn't likely to be better on the scale - but hopefully I can keep up on the rest of the goals.  There's a reason that I have non-scale-based goals too! :D

Review: Go Raw Choco Crunch Sprouted Cookies

I'm trying eat "clean" foods these days - foods with ingredients I can identify.  Today's review is the Go Raw Choco Crunch Sprouted Cookies.

I love the ingredients list - 4 ingredients, all organic: coconut, sprouted sesame seeds, dates, cacao.  That's it.

"Cookies" isn't a good title though - these are more like slightly sweetened crackers.  They're not at all a traditional cookie (no flour, no egg, etc), so if you're looking for something traditional, this will definitely disappoint.  (I wish they would call them something else!)

However, if you're looking for something a little sweet to much on, this is a good option.  The bag is 3 ounces and 1 ounce is a serving - I should've measured it out to get a more realistic scope on the serving instead of eating them straight from the bag. ;)  The chocolate flavor is not very pronounced, but it's subtly there.

They're a bit pricey, but I love the ingredients list and it's something different than my usual snacks so I will pick this up again (especially if it's on sale!)

Nutrition Facts 
Calories 160
Total Fat 9 g
Saturated Fat 5 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 10 mg
Carb 17 g
Fiber 4 g
Sugars 11 g
Protein 2 g

Review: RXBAR Chocolate Sea Salt

Let's kick 2017 off with a food review, shall we?  I need to start doing these more often!

RXBAR is a brand I came across when I was doing my detox last summer.  Very simple ingredients - and dairy free, soy free and gluten free.  These chocolate sea salt bars have only 7 ingredients: "Dates, Egg Whites, Almonds, Cashews, Cacao, Sea Salt, Natural Chocolate Flavor".  Gotta love that.  

Dates and the nuts aren't exactly low calorie/low fat, so you do see those reflected in the nutritional stats.  I'm trying to think positive because it's all natural ingredients, but it is still 200 calories for a small bar.

How's the taste?  I've tried other flavors in the past, but this was my first try of the chocolate sea salt flavor.  It wasn't overly chocolately - if you hadn't told me it was chocolate, I might not have picked that out.  I did enjoy the few grains of big sea salt crystals on top.  It's a dense bar, and a bit more sugar than I'm looking for traditionally when I'm looking to add some protein as a snack.  I'm torn right now as to if I should recommend it!  I like this company and their product line, I'm just not a raving fan of this particular flavor.  Blueberry was a bigger hit for me.  They're on the pricey side too - $2 per bar at Trader Joe's.  I do appreciate the natural ingredients though... ;)

Nutrition Facts 
Calories 200
Total Fat 9 g
Saturated Fat 2 g
Trans Fat 0
Cholesterol 0 mg
Sodium 240 mg
Carb 22 g
Fiber 4 g
Sugars 12 g
Protein 12 g

2017 Goals

Happy new year, everyone!  Let's get this party started, with my goals for the coming year:

1. Lose three pounds each month.
   This is a big one for me, and I'm scaling it back from last year's goal of a pound a week since I didn't even meet that one halfway. ;)  I should be able to do three pounds a month - it's 50% more than what I achieved last year, and I think it's attainable.  It will be a lot of work though, and I need to break through this year finally.  
2. Work out at least 20 days a month.
   I'm changing this up for 2017.  Last year, my goal was 20 workouts a month, and on 29 days, I did two or more workouts for a total of 316 workouts.  Awesome achievement, but I think I need to go for more consistency perhaps?  I'm still going to count the number of workouts though, because I'm a data dork. ;)
3. Hit my 10,000 steps a day average over the month.
   Now that I rejoined the land of the pedometer, I've been keeping track of my steps again.  Frustratingly though, it's not a perfect measurement of my activity, especially when dancing.  (I typically earn around 6k steps during a 60 minute dance class, but would walk more steps in 60 minutes usually.)  If I work out 20 days in the month, that will help but it will still require more activity on the rest of the days too!
4. Cook one new (and healthy!) recipe a month.
   Need to keep expanding my culinary horizons, and add more healthy options to my mental cookbook.  
5. Make gratitude a priority.
   Gratitude: "the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness."  The past two years, I've kept a "happy" file on my phone where I write something that made me happy each day.  I'm going to keep doing that, but overall I want to put more of an emphasis on sharing gratitude daily.  I'm very blessed and want to help share love and smiles and health to others. 

Here's to a happy and healthy 2017 for us all!