Oh Look! Shiny Object!

It is the thought that counts, right?

'Cause I've been thinking about you guys a lot. And now here I am, a week since my last post about missing a measly hour and wondering where the heck the last seven days went! I'm pretty sure I can still blame that on Daylight Savings Time.

This week has brought about many demands on my time. And now that the honeymoon phase of this whole self-imposed challenge has worn off, I'm finding I have to work harder to carve time from my schedule for exercise, food prep, and calorie logging.

The trick is staying focused. Early on in the game I had laser-beam focus. Nothing could deter my attention from my goal. Hence, those first couple weeks were just easy peasy

Have any of you ever been to Filene's Basement? Its like a bargain hunter's utopia. You must go early in the morning when new shipments are brought in, and it helps to know the layout of the store. Once those doors are open you have to high-tail it to the purses - 'cause that's where the good stuff is! You might notice the other cute displays, but you breeze right past them because you don't want to miss out on a good deal. Sure, you may look at that stuff on your way out....but for now you just want to find yourself a new Coach bag for 70% off. Or, if all the planets align just right, there will be a pair of Louboutins in just your size.

That's the kind of focus I'm talking about. Eye-on-the-prize, run-over-granny-to-get-there, mommy-needs-a-new-pair-of-shoes, elbow-to-the-gut-if-you-don't-get-out-of-my-way, focus.

Things were a wee bit different this week. I was still focused on the goal - but maybe only with one eye. The other eye just caught a glimpse of a shiny object in a store window on my way to Filene's. So I just had to wander in, take a look around, and then get back to the matter at hand. Its not like I maxed out the credit cards or got stuck in a book store or anything....I just got distracted by all those blasted shiny objects vying for my attention.

While I'm sure ladies reading this know exactly what I went through last week, I imagine the guys might not have such a great handle on it.... Its kind of like when you first get to the football stadium. You need a beer, right? You go straight to the nearest vendor and hook yourself up. You don't really notice much else. The first beer is the most important of the game and tastes the best. Once you have your beer you are focused on getting to your seats to scope out the view, until one of the Hooters girls walks past. Focus momentarily redirected. Shiny object.

You'll get to your seats eventually.

And you get my point.

So I made a few changes to "the plan" to tweak what is and isn't working for me. First off - I found a different site to log my food diary. While I really love all the information that nutridiary has, I found myself manually entering nutrient counts for much of my food. It was time-consuming. I started with myFitnessPal today and it has an extraordinary database of foods. I haven't had to manually enter even one thing yet. It doesn't show as many stats as nutridiary, but maybe simpler is better for now. I need something that will take less time in order for me to keep up with it.

I've also decided to add more core work before I ramp up the running. My walking/jogging sessions are up to 4.5 miles, but when I push it to more of a running pace my back gets really sore. I believe this is because the "sitting muscle" I've built up around my abs is not doing much to help the poor back muscles out. So instead of pushing myself and being miserable, I'm gonna stick to a slower pace and take this week to work on more core-strengthening. I think this will benefit me more in the long run (pun totally intended).

Little successes include: smaller pants (yay!), my Wii Fit age is now 5 years younger than my actual age (I'm sure there is no actual science here - but it makes me feel good), and I found it is possible (and satisfying) to have just one bite of chocolate cake.

So this week I need to get just a little more selfish about things. I need to take more time to exercise and sleep. I have REALLY been lacking in the sleep department.

More sleep. More exercise. More focus. Less laundry. That's the plan. (Although some Coach bags strategically placed along my running route wouldn't hurt either!)