DietBet Week 2 Done - Busy Week!

I've made it to my goal for the DietBet! I've lost 7.6 pounds, which is 4.1% of my original weight for the January Jumpstart DietBet. That means that I can sit tight, not lose any more weight for the month, and still be declared one of the winners. It's great to have made it this far and know I won't be losing that $35. But, now that I have started to develop better habits and am seeing some results, I don't want to stop. I hope to lose two more pounds by the end of the month.

I don't think you win any more money by losing more, but I'll be that much healthier if I do.

One of my goals for this week was to get more movement in. Considering my husband was out of town all week, I'm pretty happy with what I did. Monday I was able to get out of the office at lunchtime and go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, and I found a park that goes along the canal and frontage road. The office is in Naples, with is a bit fancier than Fort Myers, so there were even some statues along the way. It was just a 20 minute break, but it felt great to get outside and really increased my step count for the day.

Lion statue in the waterfront park

Eagle statue under a huge shade tree

The rest of the week I didn't get as many steps in. For one thing, I realized that my evening commute is about 2 hours 30 minutes. Yep, you read that right. I leave the office in Naples at 4:10, drive 30 miles north to pick up Gabriel and his carpool partner, drive across town to pick up Grayson, drop off our carpooler, and finally get home at 6:40 p.m.  By then it's dark out and we're all starving. I make a quick dinner, put them in the bath, finish homework, practice piano and then it's bedtime.

Bedtime, hey, exercise after that, right? Yeah, that didn't really happen. For one thing, since we got home so late, their bedtime was pushed back an hour or so. And, after they were asleep, I still had chores - laundry, prepping lunches, HANDWASHING the dishes, etc. (Yes, the dishwasher broke, and no one will come install a new one after regular office hours. Leaving a key under the mat for the installer didn't seem like a viable option, so we used a fair amount of paper plates this week.)

Typically I didn't sit down until around 10 p.m. I have a renewed respect for single parents who do this all the time. One week was enough for me for a while.

Anyway, here's my graph of steps for the week:

While I wasn't super successful in getting in a lot of exercise, I was pretty good on calories all week. I tried to be honest logging my calories on My Fitness Pal, and since that app syncs with the FitBit app, I automatically got credit for my activity level. What's really nice is that little bit of encouragement and peak into the future you get at the end of the day when you close out your log.

 

By Thursday I was feeling pretty hungry. It wasn't that I wasn't eating enough calories, it's just that I was craving more filling, "cheat" kind of foods. I tried a bite of a friend's cheeseburger that was FABULOUS and that got me through the day. But, it was back again on Friday. After work that night I took the boys out to dinner to celebrate making it through the week on our own. They chose Moe's Southwestern Grill. I had a chicken quesadilla, which was about 700 calories. I didn't even count the chips and queso, yum yum yum! And, yes, I know none of that is diet food, but I think that's OK. Splurging every once in a while is fine, as long as you make good choices more often than not.

Saturday I got in a lot of steps between going for a walk with Gabriel and cleaning the house. I did make up for it with a glass of wine with a friend and a small piece of Publix birthday cake. (And yes, it is important to note that it's a Publix cake. Those of you who have had one know why!)

Sunday we ate out again. After really watching calories and investigating what's in each meal, I can see why it's easy to put on weight when you eat out a lot. Navigating the menus to find something healthy that you want to eat, instead of choosing the unhealthy things that you know are good, is very difficult. Yes, I typically cook and enjoy healthy meals at home, but I love to eat fried foods, grilled sandwiches, rich sauces and desserts when we go out. For me, it's going to be a balance of limiting the number of restaurant meals and choosing places where there are good options too.

This week I'm going to try to balance healthy eating and increased activity throughout the week. I'm going to work to get 30 "active" minutes on my FitBit every day. What's your goal for the week?