Goals Reached, Missed, and Planned

Funny thing about goals. You generally only reach them if you try, consistently, to do so. So how did I do with my five goals for 2011? In June, I had accomplished only one. By the end of the summer, I had accomplished two, leaving three goals left for autumn, none of which I thought about more than in passing. Here's the rundown:

1. Finish my bed quilt: DONE

2. Draft an original dress pattern: FAIL (because I never did #3)

3. Lose 25 pounds: FAIL (partially because I didn't keep up #4)

4. Do C25K: Partial fail. I did start exercising and I did build up the ability to run for 20 minutes straight without dying. But I never made it to 5K.

5. Create my kitchen garden: DONE

So, where does that leave me? I did not accomplish everything I had hoped to accomplish, but that's largely because I stopped trying. I managed the creative things that were not dependent on the more odious, non-creative things. And, truthfully, the time it took to finish that quilt and create the kitchen garden ate into a lot of time I could have spent exercising. But we each only have 24 hours in a day, and very few of those are reserved for personal projects.

On to 2012. I'm not done making goals just because I didn't accomplish some of them.  So here's what I hope to accomplish in 2012.

1. Lose 20 pounds. I'm really not so tied to the number on the scale as I am interested in getting inches off my waist, mostly so that I don't have to do as much pattern adjusting when I sew! Plus, I have to get my cholesterol down a bit. Good eating (which I've been doing lately) and exercise (which I've started) will be essential to reach this goal. I have to be consistent with both. I'm remembering how awesome I felt (and how I combated the winter blahs) last year when I was exercising regularly and I'd like that good feeling again this winter.

2. Finish my novel. I started a new story in July and now have nearly 60,000 words written. My goal is to finish the book by the end of winter, do revisions in spring, and start looking for an agent in the summer. I feel this is a very worthy goal that I can accomplish, again through consistency.

3. Sew from my stash only. I've already talked about this (twice, I realized) so I won't belabor the point. But this is, I think, the easiest goal to reach on my list.

4. Draft an original dress pattern. Yes, I still want to do this. But I will wait until I've accomplished goal #1 before I do it, because I don't want to have to re-do it later.

That's it. Four doable goals. What are you hoping to accomplish in 2012?

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Checking Up On My Goals

Way back when in December I set some goals for myself. Now that we're halfway through the year, I thought I should revisit those goals and see how I was doing.

1. Finish that quilt!
I am much, much closer to finishing my bed quilt. I have about 3 1/2 rows left and I am fairly sure I can finish by fall.

2. Draft an original dress pattern.
I haven't done this yet (mostly because I haven't reached goal number 3). However, I was just looking at some great websites that sell new clothes with a vintage feel (like Ruche and ModCloth) and I feel inspired. I'm also going to start wearing dark lipstick again (remember in the 1990s when everyone did?) more regularly.



I've compiled a collection of dresses from ModCloth that I really like as inspiration.


3. Lose 25 pounds.
I'm down ten pounds since I started the Dukan diet a little less than a month ago, and actually my goal for the year is now bigger than the 25 lbs. My goal has become to reach my ideal and most healthy weight of 155 lbs by the end of the year (which would mean the total would be 35 lbs, not 25). I cut some inches off my dress form today (which felt so wonderful) and I'm feeling fairly positive, though this diet is a little tedious when one has a family that doesn't want to be so restricted (which I totally understand). But looking at the long term, in January of 2010 I weighed 210 lbs, I'm now 180 lbs. This is most certainly a step in the right direction.

4. Do C25k.
I was doing great on this until I took a week off due to illness. I do need to start exercising again to make this weight loss happen a bit faster. Don't think my goal will continue to be a 5k, but if I could manage to run a mile each day, that would be fabulous. Easier said than done.

5. Create and tend my new kitchen garden.
This is DONE and it's awesome! I'm very happy with how things turned out and our vegetables are all growing. We need some serious heat around here for everything to get a kick in the pants (it's almost July and today it was only in the 60s). I've even harvested a little rhubarb for my strawberry rhubarb jam!

So I guess 1 out of 5 doesn't seem like a really great accomplishment, but that one was a lot of work and had to be tackled first if I wanted anything to harvest come fall. The rest have generally seen progress (except the original dress design). And, after all, I still have 6 more months left in 2011 to accomplish these goals.

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Diet

For the first time in my life, I'm trying a "diet" that restricts certain foods for a certain period of time rather than one that simply restricts calories. I started the Dukan diet Sunday. If everything goes well, I should reach my weight loss goal by late September. I'm not going to go into lots of detail about it (you can read up on it more if you're interested) and I don't plan on posting diet-related stuff all the time. But since I'm embarking on a new adventure and I'm going to be posting some before and after photos in the fall, I thought I'd mention it to my readers.

It's a four phase diet and on my last day of the first phase (my 6-day Attack Phase) I have lost 6 pounds. In this phase you eat only proteins found in lean meats, fat-free dairy, fish, tofu, eggs, etc. This may make it sound like Atkins, but I think the big difference is that you can't eat just any meat you want (so no sausage, bacon, fatty steaks, ribs, etc.) so you're not going to clog your arteries and invite a stroke or heart attack while you're trying to drop unwanted pounds. Also, it is far more strict as far as foods you can't eat (the first phase has essentially zero sugar beyond lactose found in skim milk), but it does not restrict the quantities of the allowed foods. There is no measuring, no counting carbs or calories. Which is great for me because I hate having to do that.

So for the past week I've been eating Greek yogurt, chicken, fish, shrimp, some tofu, eggs and egg beaters (have to keep an eye on cholesterol), lean ham, lean steak, etc. and drinking skim milk, diet pop, black coffee, and lots and lots of water. I've also eaten a certain amount of oat bran each day, which continues (and increases) throughout the diet. I won't lie. I'm glad the first phase is over. I like meat, eggs, fish, and skim milk, but a protein-only diet is boring. It's fairly monochromatic and even though spices make chicken and fish and steak more interesting, I miss condiments like steak sauce, barbecue sauce, and marinades with oil in them. And I really miss vegetables, so I'm happy I can add them back into my repertoire tomorrow.

The weekly weight loss will taper down as I go through the second phase (the Cruise Phase) where I add in non-startchy vegetables every other day, but if I keep on the program, I should lose a couple pounds a week. Once I reach my goal weight (scheduled for late September) I enter the Consolidation Phase where I start adding in portions of all the foods I've been avoiding. This third phase last 5 days for every pound lost, after which I'm in the Stabilization Phase where I should be able to maintain my weight while eating normally (with the good habits I've aquired during the previous three phases), but also continuing a few specific habits from the program, like a daily 20 minute walk, daily oat bran, and one day out of the week set aside as a pure protein day. Not sure if I'll keep it up for life like the diet requires (I mean, that will hopefully be a long time) but I will know how to get back on track quickly if I start to gain a little weight.

Okay, looking back over what I've written, this all sounds very boring (unless you are interested in losing weight as well, that is). So for those of you still with me at this point, I promise that the only further diet talk in this blog will be to update you on pounds lost once in a while and clothes that finally fit. :-)

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An Eventful Weekend

Where to start . . .

I was going to do a series of blog posts on my Friday visit to Greenfield Village, but Saturday I was watching my son most of the day and didn't feel like blogging. The sun was shining and we wanted to get outside. Then Sunday we had a most eventful day. In a bad way.

It started when my son threw up all over himself and the pew we were sitting in at church. Luckily Grandma and Grandpa were there and I rushed off to get towels while Grandma took Calvin to get him cleaned up. His clothes were soaked. Miraculously, Grandma's clothes were unscathed despite the fact that Calvin had been on her lap when it happened.

I had no change of clothes for him, so I was just going to call it a morning and take him and Grandma back to the house to get him changed. We were about to pull out of the parking lot when Grandpa and a friend of mine ran up to the car and said that Zach had just collapsed at the pulpit while he was preaching. We rushed back in and were followed by firemen from the station across the street. We moved Zach (well, he moved himself with help as he was again conscious) away from the congregation's eyes and the medics gave him oxygen and questioned him. From what we can figure out, he was simply ill and should have been home in bed.

So, once everyone was fairly stable and another friend had returned from my house with new clothes for poor Calvin (who was sitting in his pull-up this entire time) I drove off with Zach and Calvin while Grandma and Grandpa followed. We had gotten about a third of the way home when Calvin projectile vomited and we had to pull over and clean him and the car up. We managed to get home without further incident, but Calvin remained sick, throwing up about every 20-30 minutes for the next five hours. His stomach finally settled down enough to have some Pedialyte and go to bed.

Zach also seemed to improve during the day, though even today he still feels foggy. Today the boy was back to normal and I guess whatever he had, he's over it. If Dad is suffering from the same thing, I think I can officially say that we have entered that phase of life where we just don't bounce back like we used to when we were kids.

I don't know how I would have held up on Sunday if it was just me and both my boys were in such dire straits. I'm so very thankful that Zach's parents happened to be visiting that day (though, it was a less than stellar visit, as you can imagine). They cleaned up puke, emptied buckets, gathered dirty towels, offered good medical advice (Zach's mother is an RN), and kept a cheerful attitude durng the whole ordeal.

So, later this week I'll post about Greenfield Village and how the kitchen garden project is coming (hint: it's going to be awesome!) and someday I'll get around to some sewing posts again. It's just gotten to that busy outdoor time of year and sewing is sort of on the back burner. Oh, plus Calvin's 3rd birthday party is Saturday and the next day I'm starting a pretty intense diet. So lots going on and lots to share in the next couple weeks.

Sorry no photos for this post. But trust me. You wouldn't have wanted to see what I saw.

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Thinspiration

I was at my thinnest in November 2005 when we bought our house.

See how the seat of my pants are sagging here?
Yeah . . . They don't sag on me right now.

Not that you can really tell with the baggy painting clothes, but I looked great. And I felt great.

At this point these baggy sweat pants are more like leggings around my thighs.

Over the next couple years I put on 20 or 25 pounds. Then I got pregnant. And gained about 45 more. Yeah.

I managed last year to drop quite a bit of weight that had kept hanging around after the boy was born. I even got back to my pre-pregnancy weight. But not most of my pre-pregnancy clothes. Because, of course, after you carry and deliver a baby, you are just not the same shape. Now you are shaped like a mom. Ugh.



The dress I'm wearing here in November 2005 is my prom dress from my senior year of high school
seven years earlier. I just shortened it and added a cute shawl.


Then since I wasn't watching what I ate, I gained a bit of that weight back. About 10 pounds. It's pretty apparent that if I'm not constantly diligent I will end up quite overweight and unhealthy as I enter middle age in a few years.

But some mothers obviously manage to get trim and fit. Which means I can. Right?

Right.

It just takes making the right decision about food each time I'm presented with the opportunity to choose to either eat a reasonable amount of healthy food or to gorge myself on comfort food. It means I need to find time to get back to exercising. It means I need to be smart about the grocery shopping and not buy things for the boy that I also like but shouldn't eat (because while "everything in moderation" is a nice philosophy, sometimes you have to admit your weaknesses and not sabotage yourself).

Because if I ever want to look like this again (and I do) . . .

I can't begin to imagine the depression that would ensue if I tried on that blue dress right now.

. . . it's not going to just happen by itself. It's going to take discipline and hard work.

The previous two photos are from the weddings of two of my cousins. My third cousin (yes, I only have three) is getting married at the end of August. I want the photos from Andy's wedding to look just as good as the ones from Mac's and Nick's weddings. And for that to happen, I have to make it happen.

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Those "Someday" Clothes

Here's my lunch today.

Yep, I'm trying to lose weight again.

Last weekend my husband and I bought a wardrobe from Ikea (it was a steal) so he could empty out the closet in our son's room. After we put it together last night, Zach tried on every shirt he owns (which, because he doesn't typically get rid of anything of his own free will, was a lot) and parted with about 3 trash bags full. Some were too big. Some were too small (one comically so). And frankly some were just too early '90s, despite the fact that they were well-loved. I was very proud of him.

And now it's my turn. I've been keeping a lot of clothing that hasn't fit me in about four years. You know, because I'm going to lose weight. Someday. But I figure at this point one of the surest ways to be successful losing the weight is to get rid of most of those "someday" clothes. And I'm going to get rid of things that fit me that I never wear because I don't really like them. There is just no point in taking up closet space with stuff that doesn't fit or stuff you don't like. Especially since I could replace almost all of it with homemade items that are unique and fun to create. I will keep a few things in classic styles that I know I looked great in before I gained weight. But most things will go on to other people who hopefully need them more than I do.

Zach and I are ready to get serious again about our weight and our health. So we'll be grilling and biking and working our way back to the healthy territory we occupied when we first moved in to our house in the middle of the Mitten. And praying for success!

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5 Personal Goals for 2011

Some people think it's silly to make New Year's resolutions because they almost never take. I for one do think it's worth looking in the mirror once in awhile and assessing what you see. I'm not talking just about physically (though in my case I do see some room for improvement) but about the intangible things in your life. Are you a procrastinator? Are you a slob? Are you too often unintentional about life? I can answer yes to all of these questions. So, shall I just drift through the next year without working on those personal qualities about myself that annoy me? Or should I try to improve?

Well, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions for 2011, but I am making a few goals for the next year. No, goals and resolutions are not the same thing. I can resolve to stop procrastinating, or I can make one concrete goal to finish something that has been languishing undone because of my procrastination. I can resolve to be healthier, or I can make one concrete goal about exercise.

See the difference? And while I'm at it, I'm going to throw in a couple goals that have nothing to do with self-improvement but that I will just enjoy because of the challenge and the reward. So here are my top five goals for 2011, in no particular order.

1. Finish that quilt! Yes, I really must finish quilting my Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt by the time it's warm enough to paint the bedroom and have the windows open. Seriously. I mean, I started it about this time last year.

2. Draft an original dress pattern. I have a great book I got for Christmas that shows how to draft original patterns. My goal is to do so (and make the dress) by the end of the year. But before I can do that I need to . . .

3. Lose 25 pounds. I did it last year from January to April, so I think I can get rid of the next 25 by Easter. Part of my exercise strategy will be to . . .

4. Do C25k. Go from Couch Potato to 5k runner in 9 weeks. I have the running plan. I just have to execute it!

5. Create and tend my new kitchen garden. The areas are mostly cleared out. Just need lumber, seeds, and thawed ground. So I'm thinking I can start working on the hardscaping in March if it's not too cold and snowy. (By that time I should be able to run a 5k too!)

That's enough for yearly goals for now. Of course there are many other things I intend to do during the year (more clothes sewing, making Roman shades for the dining room, start making my own fresh bread, etc.), but these are my priorities as far as health, home, and crafting.

What are you going to do in 2011?

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One. Freaking. Long. Mile.

Yesterday I accomplished a personal goal for 2010. I ran a mile. Just one mile. It took 12 minutes (going 5mph). And right afterward I felt like my heart had been replaced by a heaving bag of rocks. I felt like death. It took at least 20 minutes to recover from that 12-minute run. But I did it. And now I know it can be done.

The last time I ran a mile was probably in 8th grade when I was forced to by the federal government. I did it in 8:31. I think my goal for 2011 will be to be able to run a mile and not feel like I am teetering on the edge of a heart attack. If I slowly add laps, I bet by summer I'll be able to do 2 miles. Maybe by the end of the year I could even do a 5K. Stranger things have happened.

On a totally unrelated note, check out my latest post for Potter Park Zoo. You can't beat Christmas lights, owls, and . . . regurgitation.

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You've Got to Want It

When you have a goal, you've got to want it. It's so easy to make goals and then forget about them. Frighteningly easy. I say I want to lose more weight so I can fit back into the clothes I'm storing in the attic. I say I want to eat healthier to avoid preventable illnesses later in life. I say I want to exercise (well, maybe not that I want to exercise so much as I want what results from exercise).

But what do I do about it?

I'm about 25-30 pounds away from my ideal weight (the weight I was when we moved here, before we got lazy about tracking what we were eating, before I gained 40 pounds during pregnancy). At my ideal weight my BMI will be well within the healthy range for my height. I'll fit into those awesome clothes. I'll look great and feel even better about myself.

I lost about 20-25 pounds this past spring while the contest with my husband was running, but I really did want to get to my ideal weight during 2010 (which I deemed my year of being selfish and focusing on myself and my family). Well, I have six weeks before Christmas (yep, it's coming on fast, folks). Six weeks is plenty of time to make a real difference if I work hard, don't cheat, and want it. I'm tracking what I eat. I'm tracking exercise. I'm tracking pounds and inches lost. I finally got new, supportive running shoes. I'm going to kick these last 25 pounds in the rear.

I want it.

And I want you to hold me to it.

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