The Space Bewteen...Day 1 and Day 31

Since one of my resolutions was to "Do more 'me' things" and blogging was one that I named, I've decided to post weekly. My topics will range from parenting issues, work time and family life - but mostly be centered around my experience as a mother working outside of the home. That Space Between where parents can feel trapped.

But for today, an update on my progress toward resolution #1 (finish last year's resolution: loose 25 lbs by March 2012). I feel like posting my progress will help me to reach my goal by making me more accountable. But I do not want to make it a central theme of the blog.

So, at New Years I was at the 20 lbs mark (5lbs to goal). I decided to make my weigh in days Monday nights. What better way to start the week than by recounting last weeks failures right? (I'm kidding.) Once a week is perfectly adequate, weighing yourself everyday only serves to make you neurotic.

Week 1 (1/9) - lost 2 lbs
Week 2 (1/16) - no change
Week 3 (1/23) - gained 3 lbs
Week 4 (1/30) - lost 3 lbs

So with 5 weigh ins left, I'm 3 lbs from from my goal. I did moderate exercise and followed my "week day eating plan". So I can see that if I amped up the exercise I could probably loose a little more. But in general I feel good about the last month. I started on this journey by walking on my lunch hour. I walked 30 minutes a day 4 or 5 days a week. It's amazing how much that helped. When the weather gets nicer I hope to resume walking. I also use Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. I try to do it 3 days a week...honestly last month I only did it twice a week. So that's something I'll be working on.

My "week day eating plan" is not a diet. Mon-Fri I eat like this: 200 cal. breakfast, 200 cal. lunch and 2 100 cal. snacks. We try to eat balanced, reasonably healthy meals at dinner. I don't eat dessert very often. One of my biggest rules is that I try not to eat after the kids go to bed. Lunch and late night eating were my biggest problems in the past. Now, this plan works for me becuase - I only bring that much food to work and so I can't snack. On weekends, it is hard. But I try to just eat small portions throughout the day to spread the calories and make me feel full. Not scientific really - but it has been working for me.

Thanks for "listening" and I promise that I'll try to be more interesting next week!