Power of One -- New Challenge Week 1

It's time for the next challenge at the Sisterhood of Shrinking Jeans and it is perfect for this time in my life!! I'm glad that they read my mind and set this up!!


Here we are at the end of 2010 and nearly ready for 2011...I don't know about anyone else but I'm glad this year is almost over! This has been a difficult year for me and my family. One that I never thought we would have to go through. The beginning of the year found my husband without any kind of income...or clients to make that income through. He's an architect and little did we know at the time but architects had (and in some areas still do) an unemployment rate of somewhere around 50%!! That's just craziness!

Thank God he has been able to find some good clients now so he is once again working and "bringing home the bacon". During the first couple of months of 2010 he just couldn't find ANY work (oh wait, yes he did he made $600 in January and $600 in February!!) Because it's kind of impossible for a family of 4 to live on $600 a month I went to work overnights at Walmart just so we could have some steady income....and let me tell you that was difficult!! I went to work right after putting That Other Kid to bed and got home about the time he woke up. I then took a shower and went to bed for a few hours and then I took care of things around the house. I tried to homeschool, cook, clean, and take care of the mom kind of things...I wasn't very good at any of them either! I was just too exhausted to do anything well.

During this time (7 months and 5 days to be exact) I slept when I could and did what I could to stay on my healthy living journey. The one bonus to this job was that it was VERY physical so although I didn't lose weight during this time I did continue getting stronger and I basically maintained. In July I moved to 2nd shift and it wasn't as physically demanding and I started gaining some weight...but only about 10 pounds...it could have been sooooo much worse!! During the 2nd week in September my hubby told me he was busy enough that I could quit working! That was a happy day...I gave my 2 week notice and looked forward to the last day of September. It was at that point that I started getting focused on me again and started trying to lose the weight again.

And so here we are at the end of 2010 where I am looking forward to the new year of 2011 with a new Challenge that will focus on me! I think it's about time to focus on me. During this year I have focused on me more than I ever have in the past but I need to really concentrate on taking care of what is important so that my family will have the best ME they can! Because ultimately if I'm not healthy and fit, neither will my family be that way...This year will bring on some new challenges for me (that I don't want to discuss with everyone yet) and in order to get through this year stronger, healthier and in top physical condition I'm going to need to concentrate on ME.

So...my stats:

March 2009 (which is when I started getting serious about this journey): 226.8




Today, December 29, 2010: 196.0 (which is ALOT better than I thought it would be based on all my indulgences of the past 7 days!)



My long term goal weight: 150 -- which according to the personal trainer at the gym would put me at a REALLY LOW BMI

Short term goal (for this 8 week challenge): 184 (which is what I weighed the day I found out I was pregnant with That Other Kid back in the spring of 2003 and I haven't seen it since)

Some of my healthy living goals:

EXERCISE DAILY -- it doesn't really matter what; running, walking, playing with the numerous Wii games I have...just something to get my body moving. I am happier and less stressed if I do some kind of exercise! I really want to do something for 30 minutes a day...but I know some days I'm not really going to commit to that length of time so I'm just going to say any time as long as I'm EXERCISING - meaning heart rate is elevated!

DRINK MY WATER -- cuz I've found if I'm drinking water, I'm not drinking soda!! Studies show if you drink half your body weight in water daily you will lose weight, so right now that means I need to drink a minimum of 98 ounces of water!

My next goal (and this one will make my hubby happy) is to CLEAN/ORGANIZE something in my apartment everyday for 30 minutes. We live in a 3 bdrm apartment and it is cluttered and disorganized. It is also full of STUFF that needs to find either a new home or be thrown away. Since I homeschool That Other Kid and hubby works at home we are usually all home, which means the place is easily cluttered!! This needs to be changed...We are all tired of clutter!!

My final goal for this challenge and this is strictly for ME (cuz this challenge is for ME, right?) -- READ MY BIBLE and something for FUN (either fiction or non-fiction) EVERY DAY!! I love to read but find I rarely take time to do it unless I specifically set aside time to do so, so I am going to do that during this challenge. It will be good for me and it will get me into some great habits for the new year! It will also help me through some challenges that I will be facing this year that I already know about but can't really talk about right now.

We all need to find some way to treat ourselves good and I can't think of a better way to treat ourselves good taking care of myself; body, soul and spirit!

So what are your goals for the new year?? Are you focusing on you?? You should...My motto for the new year is gonna be:

Take Care of yourself, cuz who else is going to?!!