Motivation Week (Just in Time)

Hey all!

Good news and bad news... bad news first. We had a rough week... all three of us! We were all a bit cranky when we showed up, but all left in a better mood (at least, I did). I think motivation week came at just the right time for our moods and for Thanksgiving. I'll be honest, I get a bit cranky when everyone around me is indulging all the time, and I'm trying hard not to... I'll get over it ;) Our numbers this week were as follows:

• Rebecca - Maintained (Yay!!!)
• Jerusha +1.6 (I'll do better this week)
• Clarissa +1.2

Because of the upcoming Holiday and the fact that Rebecca and I will both be out of town, we've moved our  reward week to Dec 1st. We'll all still weigh-in for the week, but at different times, so the only way to make it fair is to bump it by a week. Therefore, the only update on here will be our weigh-ins on Monday the 26th, so stay tuned for that.

Ironically, even though we all did well with our goals, none of us had losses... That's why it's so important to set goals based on performance and not outcome. Will we have to re-vamp goals to help us out? Yes, but I'm proud of us for doing well on our goals for the month!

This week, for motivation, we cut out strips of paper (I like colorful paper myself) and wrote different motivations for being healthier on each one. You can do however many you like (I did 45 to last through the end of the year), and you can even repeat yourself. If you're having health issues and want to eat healthier to fix them or if you really, really, really want to fit into last year's jeans, you can write those down a few times. Write down everything, no matter how petty you may think it would sound... yes, I said I wanted to feel hotter :) Then stick them in a container or a plastic baggie. Each morning as you roll out of bed, you're going to draw one of your motivations out and keep it with you throughout the day. Anytime you're feeling week, you're going to pull it out or think about it to help keep you on track.

This may sound juvenile or cheesy, but I've done it in the past and have been astonished how much it helps! When we feel left out or we really want that comfort food, it's really hard to remember that we WANT to be healthy... our motivations will be there to remind us WHY we want to be healthy. Hopefully this helps.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS -- WE HAVE A NEW MEMBER!!!

Meet Crystal :)

Crystal is more devoted to walking than any person I've ever met :) If you ever need a walking partner, she's your gal... just be prepared to walk fast. I only kept up with her when I was training for my marathon. Haha!

We're totally excited to have Crystal on board!

Be thinking of the goals you want to set for December :) Our next meeting will be a goal setting meeting, so be prepared...

Thanksgiving Recipe Exchange

I would say we had a pretty darn successful week! Each of us had the goal to lose 2 lbs a week, which is pretty lofty (especially for Clarissa who doesn't have a whole lot to lose), but here are the results for this week:

• Rebecca -3.4 lb
• Jerusha -2.8 lb
• Clarissa -1.8 lb

Yay for us!!! 2/3 of the way to our group goal for the month of -12 lb. Rebecca and I set goals to receive our 1st 5 lb sticker next week. We want this! (We have little cards that we get to add stickers/decorations to for each 5 lbs we lose. This month's sticker is a turkey... hehe. Wow I get excited easily!)

Clarissa was unable to stay for the meeting, but Rebecca and I talked about how our goals were panning out. Rebecca did really well this week and almost fully hit her goal of eating 5 servings of veggies per day. Last week she told me she wasn't going to eat candy in November, and I made the mistake of writing down "no sugar". That was my bad. She did do really well, except on Friday night she had a "fun size" Snickers bar, but by golly, it wasn't a full bag ;)

I'll be honest. I struggled hard-core this week, but I did come out on top. My poor little baby screamed non-stop from Sunday night to Friday and I pretty much cried about 5 times a day. I couldn't handle it! I was very proud of myself, though, and very grateful that I had set goals for myself. Had I not, I can guarantee that I would have bought Walgreen's out of their Halloween clearance and eaten it all. As far as my no sugar goal, I slipped once and had a Fiber One bar, which I am pretty proud of, given my week. As far as my goal to leave 2 bites on my plate? Haha! I have a serious problem... I'm not even joking. I COULDN'T do it!!! I seriously have such a habit of eating EVERYTHING on my plate, that I would remind myself 3 times during each meal to leave 2 bites, and the next thing I knew my plate was empty... What is wrong with me?! I'm going to continue to work on this goal because it's something I really need to overcome, but I'm going to taper it down to leaving 2 bites on my dinner plate, rather than at all meals.

One thing Rebecca and I talked about was how a change of perspective is so powerful. For instance, last month I was struggling to eat healthy and basically had some form of candy everyday. If I only ate one candy bar a day, I was proud of myself. In fact, I bought the Fiber One bars to give me some form of nutrition if I wanted a bit of chocolate. But the very fact that we made the goal to not eat sugar (or candy) made me feel like I was totally indulgent when I ate my Fiber One bar. (And Rebecca was totally satisfied with her one little Snickers bar). The other reason I'm proud of us is because neither of us freaked out and said, "Well, I've blown it, so I might as well eat anything I want." Sound ridiculous? We've all probably done it. My overall goal in my journey is to quit being an all-or-nothing person. Being a perfectionist, this is very hard, because if I don't feel successful I just quit. Well, no more! I'm proud of myself for not throwing in the towel when I indulged! Same for Rebecca!

Now on to the subject of the day -- Thanksgiving Recipe Exchange!!!

Sadly there were just two of us, so we only have 2 recipes, but please share your healthier versions of Thanksgiving dishes on here... We'd love to have as many as possible!

Rebecca brought some roasted sweet potatoes. I'll be honest, I am NOT a fan of sweet potatoes, but I did try them. I must say I really liked the seasoning on them and if I liked sweet potatoes, I would have really liked this recipe.

• 3 cubed sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp olive oil
• sea salt
• fresh rosemary

Soak the potatoes for 1/2 hour, then drain - add to bag with all ingredients and shake to coat. Bake at 375 for 30 min or until tender.

I brought some regular ol' mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes and I LOVE them with lots of butter! This is the only recipe I've come up with that I feel satisfies my love for buttery mashed potatoes, but is pretty healthy (minus sodium content). I'm sorry, but I rarely measure when I cook, so I'll do my best to give measurements :)

• 2 medium potatoes, diced (I like red potatoes because they're moister) I always leave the peel on.
• 1 1/2 c. chopped cauliflower
• enough water to cover
• 1 chicken boullion cube
• fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)
• green onions (enough) ;-)
• rosemary (Rebecca and I must think alike...mmm!)

Combine all ingredients in a pot. If you put potatoes in cold water to start and turn them down as soon as they come to a boil, you'll prevent them from boiling over. Cook until potatoes and cauliflower are really tender, drain liquid, then mash. Nothing extra will be needed. I sometimes leave a bit of the water in to maintain moisture, but if you use red potatoes you won't need any extra liquid. If you want some extra creaminess or "zing" add one or two laughing cow cheese wedges (each adds 25 calories) and stir in until melted. This gives 3 good size servings.

Have a great week! Tune in next week for our meeting on motivation :)

Meet Our Members and Goals

We are so excited to get going on this journey! Stay tuned for pictures of our 3 members in attendance today and follow along to see our progress throughout time. The three of us added a motivational strategy that we all decided to participate in. This strategy will be applied only to those wishing to participate. Sadly, money plays a huge role in our lives, and therefore in our motivation. Each weigh-in, we'll each be paying $3. At the end of the month, if the member has maintained their weight or lost weight, they'll get their money back. However, if they have a gain at the end of the month, that money goes towards future contest prizes. Our hope is that we can recycle the same $12 every month :)

Today's meeting was about goal setting. Most of the info here came from the site www.mindtools.com.
Goals give us direction in life and when achieved, they peak our motivation. We need to have a life-long goal that we divide into smaller more achievable goals. For instance, if our over all goal is to be healthy, we need to determine in our lives the things we need to change in order to get closer to that goal. For me, I need to give up sweets, exercise more, look on the bright side, and be careful about my portions. There are many more, but these are just some examples. I've even made food journals that have a section for daily goals at the bottom. We can achieve almost anything a day at a time.

Now, since this group is about overall health, I would encourage you to make goals in all areas of life. A well-rounded person is a happy person. Besides, if you're like me and struggle a lot in the weight-loss field, you need to have other goals you are achieving to empower you, so you feel you can accomplish your health goals. Some areas for goal setting include (but are not limited to)

• Artistic
• Attitude
• Career
• Education - not just school, but educating yourself in all areas
• Family - Do you want to be an example to your family? Do you want to be a good, active parent?
• Financial
• Physical
• Public Service - this group is one of my public service goals. I would like to help as many people as possible, as well as myself.

Make sure you prioritize these goals so you don't get bogged down. If you're struggling with one of your higher priority goals, go after a lower one, so you can feel successful. Remember, success is the best motivator. Also, make sure these are goals YOU want to achieve, not that OTHERS want you to. You have to learn to do things for yourself, with or without validation from others.

As you make progress towards your goals, make sure to go back and review what lessons you've learned in trying to obtain those goals. I would encourage you, as you write your goals down, to make a section for "lessons learned" so you can see you are progressing, even if your goals aren't always met.

Here are some goal setting tips:

• State each goal as a positive statement
• Be precise - not "I want to be healthy", but "I want to be healthier by..."
• Set priorities
• Write goals down - I would suggest sharing them with a friend (or on here) to help hold you more accountable
• Keep operational goals small - If you have 100 lbs to lose, break it down into smaller segments, like 5-10 lbs. That way you don't get swallowed up and overwhelmed.
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals - I can't stress this enough! Back when I was training for a marathon, all I could think about was losing my last 20 lbs. Well, my body rebelled and I couldn't lose weight to save my life. I got so frustrated that after I did my marathon, I gave into temptation more often, and you guessed it, I slowly started to gain my weight back. I couldn't control the outcome of my efforts, but I could control my efforts. I overlooked the fact that I was happier and healthier than I had ever been. If I was happy that I was eating the way I was supposed to and exercising the way I was supposed to and saw those two things as my goals (rather than trying to reach a certain outcome), I would be much closer to that healthy, happy place than I am now.
• Set realistic goals - I could never set the goal to be a size 0, because I'm just not made to be. You want your goals to be achievable... You also want them to push you so you feel accomplished when you achieve them :)

An easy way to remember how to set goals is to remember SMART:

• Specific
• Measureable - not "I'm going to eat more veggies", but "I'm going to eat 3 servings of veggies a day"
• Attainable
• Relevant - they must be important to you
• Time-bound - give yourself a timetable to keep you on track.

If you've achieved your short-term goals too easily, make them harder the next time. If you're having a hard time achieving them, make them a little easier. Don't forget that your goals can and need to be flexible.

I challenge you to come up with some goals for the month and break it down into weeks (or days). Let us know what they are and let us know at the end of the month how they worked out for you. Here are our weight-loss and health goals for the month. (Remember, everything posted on here is done with permission from each member. If you choose to join, it can be completely anonymous.) 

Meet me at my current weight (no, I'm not happy about posting these, but it will motivate me to get back to the way I looked a few years ago).

My goals this month (for health) are to lose 8 lbs, to not eat sugar (except ONE dessert on Thanksgiving Day), and to leave at least 2 bites on my plate every time I eat (to get rid of my mentality that I need to clean my plate).

Meet Rebecca

Rebecca's goals this month are to eat 5 servings of veggies per day in week one, she's also on the NO sugar NOvember bandwagon, and she too, would like to lose 8 lbs.

Meet Clarissa

Clarissa would like to lose 8 lbs this month and is also not eating sugar this month.

We've set a group goal for the month to lose 12 lbs. The group goal will always be 1 lb per week per member (only the members trying to lose weight).

Please join us on here!!! We want to hear your goals, comments, questions, encouragement, successes, discouragements, etc... Remember, we're all here for each other! Whether or not you can come to the actual meetings doesn't matter. Everyone who wants to participate is welcome!

Next week will be our "Healthy Thanksgiving Recipe Exchange" week. We are super excited!

If you would like me to send you goal worksheet ideas, I'd be happy to! You can email me at jerushka@hotmail.com. Just make sure you put Join Our Journey (or JOJ) in the subject heading so it won't get tossed out with the junk mail.