I'm going to lose it! My weight loss journey

It's been one week since I made my decision to eat healthier and lose weight. 

I  made that decision after seeing the "How To" Homemaker's Healthy Living blog carnival. 

Soon after "signing up", I received some very nice and supportive comments from other participants and other bloggers.  Thanks, ladies, for your kind words and support!  They are very much needed and appreciated! 

As we move into our second week, I thought I'd share my experiences from this past week: 

• I managed to cut out a lot of my daily snacking.  Not all, but a lot.  Normally, I would snack all day long.  Really, just nibble all day on crackers or chips or whatever.  All. Day.  

• I increased my dairy servings.  I'm not big on dairy.  Never was.  But I do want to start drinking more milk, eat more yogurt and include some cheese to my diet.  It's usually very difficult for me to get one dairy serving in a day, but I eventually want to include 3 dairy servings each day.  I made the mistake of buying 2 half gallons of chocolate milk from the dairy this week.  This stuff is good.  Thick like a milk shake.  Oh, sure, it was easy to get 3 servings of dairy each day with that stuff in the house.  Mmmmmm!  Problem?  I went from drinking skim milk to full fat chocolate milk!  I drank both of those half gallons myself!  Moooo!  Light yogurt is a dairy option that I like and not feel guilty about. 

• I cut out the sugary drinks.  Other than the chocolate milk, I cut out the sugary drinks.  I didn't drink any soda this week and drank more some water.  I've been drinking Propel as an alternative to plain water.  It's low calorie, but I really should be trying to drink more plain water. 

• I snuck vegetables into our meal.  Last week, we had Sloppy Joe sandwiches, I added lots of fresh vegetables (celery, onions, carrots, zucchini and bell pepper).  You can check out the recipe here. 

• I climbed a mountain walked up a hill and it kicked my butt.  We took Grace to the park over the weekend and had to walk up a big hill to get to the spot we wanted.  Joe dealt with Grace and the stroller while I carried a tray of french fries (skipped breakfast and it was past lunch time) and Grace's diaper bag.  I got about half way there and was struggling with the bag.  It was pretty heavy.  Our friend carried that up the rest of the way for me.  Almost at the top, I had to stop.  My sneakers were sliding off of my feet.  I wear mule type sneakers most of the time because I have trouble with the backs of sneakers rubbing my ankel the wrong way after an accident years ago.  Anyway, just as I was getting to the top, they were really feeling like they were about to fall off.  I had to grab onto a tree to get myself up to the flat trail.  Grace wasn't happy with the situation either, so when we got to the top, I had to carry her.  Huffing and puffing the rest of the walk.  I kept trying to make excuses to myself:  the hill was huge, if I didn't have that diaper bag I would have been fine, those stupid sneakers almost fell off.  Later, when we got home, I was tired.  I was beat.  I was worn out.  That hill kicked my butt.  I feel defeated. 

• I lost!  I lost 1.8 lbs.  As of last night, I still showed no loss at all.  So, this morning when I weighed in, I was pleasantly surprised to see this small loss.  Sure, I'd have liked to see a larger loss this past week.  But I'm pleased with this number.  Makes me feel slightly better about my encounter with that mountain hill over the weekend.   Only 18.2 lbs. to go to reach my first mini goal!  :) 

This is what I would like to accomplish this week: 

• I want to keep up with the increased dairy this week.  I'll be switching from the full fat, chocolate milk to white, fat free milk.  Sigh.  Maybe with the occasional chocolate milk treat. 

• I want to drink more water.  I'd love to be able to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day.  But that's not something I really see happening.  I'd be thrilled to be able to drink at least 6 glasses a day.  That's my goal for this week.  More water. 

• Exercise.  For this, I'll probably hook up the Wii Fit.  I'd like to start off slow and commit to 10 minutes a day.  I need to clear a space in the guest room in order to have enough room to move, so that will be my distraction from snacking project for the day. 

• Check out your progress.  I'm looking forward to getting a few minutes to sit down and read about your progress this week! 

Have a great week, everyone! 

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