Tonight I went to a Valentine's Day potluck party and was so very lucky to have been assigned bringing the salads which meant that when leftovers were distributed, I brought home the healthiest meals to set me up for the week! I also declared my abstinence from alcohol and sugar until Easter (Lent is such a convenient time for renunciation!), which made it so much easier to not have those 2-3 glasses of wine I would've normally had at a party or those 2, 3, 4 truffles or cookies. Grazing still happened, guac and chips, cheese and crackers, but I feel good about this first step of detoxing my diet. I also didn't overstuff myself. I definitely ate beyond satiation (grazing does that to ya), but I did a great job of noticing, not berating myself, and slowly and gently backing away. I also met a new friend who lives a block away from me who's interested in being a yoga buddy!

I'm also very grateful to have this community supporting me, witnessing my declarations, and as a forum for reflection in a non-anonymous but still enclosed setting. I don't want to talk to everyone I meet about food and exercise (yawn!), but I do need a space to be able to pat myself on the back, to refine, achieve, and celebrate my goals, and to talk about my (our?) complex relationship with food and our bodies. So I really appreciate having this space to do that.

I also love that blogging allows me to type "out loud" as a way of planning for the future in addition to marking the recent past, so...

Tomorrow I'm takikng a barre class as a makeup class for the trapeze class I missed last week. I know it's going to be hard to make myself go to class in zero degree weather, but it will be a good lower body class, and if I can get there early, I can properly warm up and get some aerobic activity in, too. I'm really jonesing to get back to the Y, but that will have to wait until Tuesday.

Tomorrow is also a little challenging for eating, but the plan is to have breakfast at home, then lunch with a client. This is where it gets tricky - the restaurant has meals that are twice the size of what I need, and I can't fit more leftovers in the fridge. what to do?? In the past, I would blindly plan to just have a fresh veggie blend juice, but I know that I haven't detoxed far enough for that to be a good move. I also don't want to eat the whole thing simply because I abhor waste. So... I'm going to plan on taking half home with me, and if it fits in the fridge, then great, if not, then that's what's for dinner. One of the trickiest things about working all over town is that I'm always eating around town, too. This is something I'd like to start keeping in mind as I plan my days & work meetings.

My goals for this week:
1. one barre class, one trapeze class, and three times at the Y (maybe four??); strength training, cardio increase from 20 to 30 min, and work on splits
2. plan meals in advance, at least by the night before... tuesday lunch and dinner can be packed to go, for example
3. switch from coffee to tea and decrease to one cup per day
4. 2 litres of water per day (about 72 ounzes or 4.5 pints)
5. Thursday weigh in of 172.5 (a 1.4 lb loss)
6. At least 7 hours of sleep each night.

My goals for this weigh in period (March 9th):
1. no processed sugar (basically no sweets and no sweeteners)
2. no alcohol and think twice about invitations to events that revolve around lots of drinking & eating
3. get 1 inch closer to splits on all three sides
4. lose 1/2 inch from my belly/hip line
5. weigh in of 168 (5.9 lb loss)
6. build solid weight lifting & cardio routine and slowly build stamina and strength
7. continue to decrease the size of meals (remember - your stomach is the size of your fist) :-)
8. weed out white flour and buiid vegetables into two meals per day
9. Two dates that revolve around healthy activities

Okay - that's quite a list. Time to get some sleep and start fresh in the morning! Go team!