Since breaking my blogging streak recently (blogging daily as of January 1, 2020), I’ve been blogging less and less frequently. I always said that would happen if I broke my streak! When I can’t think of what to write, I just choose not to instead of stressing about it. So, that led to spotty publishing. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; I just prefer to have a routine.
Speaking of routines, Jerry received confirmation that he will be moving to the day shift AND, something we never expected, he will be working a normal Monday-Friday shift! We have been together for 24 years and for the last 21 years, he has never had a straight turn. It was the night shift (alternating days and midnights) or simply the night shift; they are all 12-hour shifts; and usually 3-6 days a week (most often 4-5 days).
He’s always worked half the weekends of the year, and since people tend to do fun things on the weekends, he’s had to miss things over the years. Having a continuous shift like this, with weekends off, will be a HUGE adjustment (in a good way). I’m also excited to have a more routine schedule; I usually try to plan dinner (my day, really) around Jerry’s work schedule. Another advantage of your new schedule is that your shifts will be shorter, although I’m not sure of the details yet.
This all may not seem like a big deal, but we are very excited about it! I would like to try to have a regular sleep schedule and this will be helpful. The ideal would be to get up very early (approximately 4:00) and go to bed very early (approximately 10:00). But I’ve never been able to maintain a sleep routine, so I don’t know if it will happen.
Anyway, I had a really great week when it came to my diet! In fact, this is the best week I’ve had in probably a couple of months. I just realized that my last official Wednesday weigh-in was November 1st. I know I skipped one and last week I posted my “favorite things.”
November was NOT a good month for me: I ate too much, started eating sweets again, and ate a lot of high-calorie foods (mainly peanut butter). Anyway, a month ago it was at 137.8. A couple of weeks ago, I *knew* I had gained a few more pounds (I could see and feel it) but I was avoiding the scale.
Since I’ve been eating so well this week, today I finally decided to rip off the band-aid and see the damage. Honestly? It wasn’t as bad as I imagined.
I was at 141.0, so that’s 3 pounds more than last time, but that was a month ago. And I’m sure it was higher a week ago.
Jerry really wanted pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, although he said not to if it would tempt me to eat it. Well, the vegan pumpkin pie recipe I used is actually not that bad for you: it doesn’t even have refined sugar (it’s sweetened with maple syrup). Even though I’ve been trying to avoid sweets, I went ahead and had a piece. It was delicious! I had one more piece later that night.
That was Thursday and I haven’t had sweets since. It had been weeks since I had gone so many days in a row without sweets. It takes 4-5 days for crazy cravings to go away, so getting through those days is *super* hard. Since today is day 6, I feel confident that I can get back to the point of not craving any sweets. Now that I know how hard it is to get back to that point, no dessert is worth having non-stop sugar cravings.
I’ve been listening to the audiobook ‘Fiber Fueled’ and have been excited about the idea of eating more vegetables (for health, not weight loss). I’ve also been focusing a lot on fiber this past week, so I think that’s helped me overcome the cravings.
There’s a good chance we’ll go to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina at the end of January (my parents go there every year, and this year Jeanie and Shawn are going too). I’m not a “beach person,” but since it will be off season, I’ll be able to wear my beloved uniform of jeans and hoodies. Other than driving north to Jeanie and Shawn’s house, I haven’t traveled since 2019 (!) and I’m actually a little nervous about it. We are going to rent a van and go there because the children and their girlfriends will go with us. I think the road trip will be fun!
Anyway, the point of mentioning this is because it makes me feel like I’m working towards something right now: I want to look and feel my best when we go. That gives me 6-8 weeks to hopefully get my weight back into my “happy” range of 125-135. I can definitely do that!
