Spring Shed: Week Four

Welcome to the fourth check-in for the Spring Shed!

Here is the back story about this support group/blog hop for those trying to be accountable for the positive changes we are making in our lives in 2013. After ten weeks of doing the Winter Shed, we moved on to this Spring Shed. Whether you are trying to shed weight, find more balance or let go of something else that is dragging you down in this second season of the New Year… We can do this — together!

Now to report on how I did during week four of the Spring Shed and week fourteen in 2013:

1) Healthy Eating
A. Try to follow the U.S. government’s “Eat My Plate” recommendations (with emphasis on 3 servings of veggies & 2 fruit)

I did well with this overall this week.

B. Continue to practice portion control and count calories.

I did very well with this.

C. Limit my intake of sweets, soda, alcohol and other pelvic floor flare up triggers.

I also did well with this and experienced very few food related flare ups.

2) Keeping Fit (Physically/Emotionally/Spiritually) & Shedding Weight

A. Get 7 – 8 hours of sleep every night

I did much better with this. I only had one or two night when I got less than 7 – 8 hours of sleep, as opposed to last week when most nights I didn’t get that much sleep.

B. Drink enough water

I did fine with this.

C. Exercise 5 – 7 days each week

I exercised 5 out of 7 days this week, that was one more day than last week. Last Friday I took a Yoga `n Pilates class at Beverly Bodyworks. On Sunday I ran with Sean, Bob & Abby (who Bob pushed in her jogging stroller) a 5K route in our neighborhood. It was the fastest Sean has ever done the route in and he broke 40 minutes for the first time! On Monday I ran a 5K neighborhood route on my own. On Wednesday I taught my Step `n Sculpt class at Beverly Bodyworks and On Thursday I ran another 5K neighborhood route.

D. Train for a few Spring 5K races

I ran 5K/3.1 miles three times this week, which is my weekly goal when I am training for races.

E. Shed 1 – 2 lbs. per week

I held steady this week, for a total loss of 7.5 lbs. in 14 weeks (since Friday, December 28, 2012). This is one of those weeks where I thought I was really “good” with what I ate and my physical activity. So I was a bit frustrated to not see that reflected on the scale. I don’t know if I have hit another plateau or am building more muscle, but hope to see more loss in the weeks to come.

F. Meditate & pray daily

I did not formally meditate much, but I did remember to focus on my breathing some when I was stressed and I did pray some.

3) Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
A.  Go to my physical therapy sessions as scheduled

I returned to PT this week, after a two-week break. The session went well.

B. Watch my dietary triggers

I did well with this.

C. Do my “homework” (i.e. PT exercises, stretches and such)

Still slacking here and need to work on this.

4) Housekeeping
A. Basics Daily (dishes, laundry & straightening)

I did okay with this.

B. Weekly Cleaning (dusting, sweeping, scrubbing & mopping)

I did not do very well with this.

C. Organizing & Purging (sorting, filing, selling &/or donating)

I did not make much progress with this.

5) Family & Faith Focus
A. Bob: Hanging out together with my husband at home, on date nights and spending quality time and have fun together with our family (including family meals, game nights, movie nights, day trips and vacations).

It was another crazy busy week for our family and at times Bob and I felt like passing ships in the night. He would arrive home later than usual from work and then I would leave for a meeting. But we did have some special times over the weekend when we got to go out with family and friends for dinners and to the theatre.

B. Sean: Spending quality time and have fun together when he not in school, activities or doing homework. Helping him to learn to manage his time well, take care of his belongings and keep his room and the basement play area clean and organized.

Last Friday Sean took and passed his high brown belt test in Tae Kwon Do which was exciting! We celebrated afterwards by going out to dinner as a family! As I mentioned in 2C, he also ran 5K last Sunday the fastest he has ever done, during our family neighborhood run, which was an exciting milestone!

C. Abby: Spending quality time and have fun together when she is not at preschool, playdates or other activities.

Abby enjoyed her second week in a seasonal sports class at a neighborhood park. She has some of the same instructors as Sean had years ago and I forgot how great they are!  Abby has been really into pretend play this week, especially pretending that our family and friends are royalty! She is usually “the Queen” and the rest of us are everything from King to servants.

D. Molly & Babies Benson: Honoring their lives and memories, as well as trying to minister to other bereaved families and friends who have lost loved ones.

I have continued to work on the project in honor and memory of Molly’s 5th Heavenly Birthday this Wednesday. If you haven’t already read my post about Team Caring Connection, click here to check it out. I am proud to share that the t-shirts we are having made in honor and memory of our babies (with their names listed on the back) now represent 35 families and over 50 babies.

D. Extended Family: Appreciate the roles they play in my family and my life, be patient with the areas in which we don’t always see eye to eye and prioritize spending quality time and having fun together when possible.

A highlight this week was when Bob and I got to go to out dinner and to see the musical The Book of Mormon with just the adults on my side of our family! We are also grateful to another loved one who watched our kids so we could go and do those things without having to pay a babysitter. I also won our family’s NCAA Tourney Pool with Louisville’s win on Monday evening, which was a nice bonus!

E. Friends: Keep in touch, check in and show them I care. Get together when possible to spend quality time and have fun together.

On Saturday night Bob and I went on another double date with some friends on. We went out to a local restaurant for dinner, followed by seeing a play called “Tour Guides” at our local Beverly Arts Center. On Wednesday evening I went to hear a speaker, Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, author of The Whole-Brain Child, at our local St. Xavier University and ended up seeing friends there whom I enjoyed discussing some of what we learned with afterwards.

F. Faith Community (Parish, RE, MOPS & CRHP): Stay actively involved in our parish church community. Fulfill my responsibilities and enjoy the last two months of my involvement with the second grade religious education program, as a catechist, and the MOPS group I am a part of, before I transition out of both to focus more of my time and energy as C0-Spiritual Director for the Women’s CRHP retreat program at our parish.

On Thursday night my friend and CRHP Co-Spiritual Director and I led our first official team formation meeting. We began the process of “History Giving and Faith Sharing” with our team and felt the meeting went really well. I am really excited to be working with my friend and this awesome group of women over the next year, as we prepare to give the next Women’s CRHP Retreat at our parish in February 2014.

6) Writing & Reading
A. My Blog: Aim to write at least two – three posts each week.

I shared four blog posts this week.

The first was my Time Warp Tuesday: April post about the month of April and what it has meant to me over the years, especially as it relates to being the month when our baby girl Molly was born and died five years ago on the 17th and the month of my blogoversary.

Last on Tuesday I shared another, very short, blog entry called Five-Year Olds about an experience I had that afternoon encountering a little girl who just turned five, which was bittersweet in light of Molly’s upcoming 5th Heavenly birthday.

On Wednesday, I celebrated my 6th Blogoversary with a short post in which I attempted to sum up Six Years in Six Words.

On Thursday, I shared my notes from  The Whole-Brain Child Presentation by Dr. Tina Panye Bryson which I attended on Wednesday evening at our local university.

B. The Today Voice: Fulfill my weekly writing responsibilities through the end of June, which I have committed to and enjoy the process of writing about the weekly prompts.

This week, week 41, I wrote about five people I’d like to meet.

C. Exhale: Continue to serve as a Contributing Editor helping when I can with the publishing our website, as well as also writing reviews and/or essays each season.

I did not do anything with Exhale this week, but I did learn from my Editor that the website is being redesigned, mostly to address page loading speed issues. So it will be down for a few days before the new version goes live.

D. Special Projects (First draft of my book & other freelance writing): Aim for 15 minutes a day, as when I have done that in the past I have been amazed at the incremental progress I am able to make.

I did not do much here and in the midst of another pretty crazy busy week, I day dreamed about getting back to my at least 15 minutes a day plan that has worked so well for me in the past.

E. Read (books, blogs, magazines & other online news/articles of interest): This always seems to be at the bottom of my list of priorities, but is something I get so much out of when I find/make time to do.

Though I have thumbed through Lori Lavender Luz’s new book The Open Hearted Way to Open Adoption and Melissa Ford’s new novel Measure of Love (the sequel to her first novel Life from Scratch), I am anxious to really start reading them.  I am looking forward to participating in Jill Savage’s Facebook study on her new book No More Perfect Moms, which begins on Tuesday. I have started her book and am really enjoying it. I also picked up Dr. Tina Payne Bryson’s book The Whole-Brain Child, at the presentation I attended on Wednesday, and am excited to read sometime soon, as well.

F. Comment on others’ blogs: Prioritize this, with emphasis on return comments and then trying to check in and keep up with other blogs that I follow.

I did better with this, than I did last week, at least when it came to returning comments. But this is always an area I would like to focus more on.

As I shared in the intro to my Winter Shed Series…

When I reflect on what has helped me to shed weight, get/stay in shape in the past, prioritize housekeeping tasks and find more balance in my life, accountability is huge!

I have kept myself accountable various ways in the past, but this time I am finding doing so publicly here on my blog have been effective.

Once a week, on Fridays, from now until at least mid-June/Summer, I will continue to check in and share how my week has gone in the key areas I am working on. My hope and intention is that knowing I have this self-imposed report card to file will continue to motivate me to stay focused on my goals.

For those who want to join me in this “Spring Shed,” I will add a Linky Tool to my weekly Friday posts and you are welcome to link up to your Spring Shed blog entries, and/or you can comment here on how you are doing from week to week, so we can support and encourage each other, as well as share what works and what doesn’t for each of us when it comes to striving towards our goals.

Please join me and we can cheer each other on as we kick off the second season of 2013 strong (and stay the course long past February 16th)!

We can do this — TOGETHER!

You are welcome to grab the code for the Spring Shed button by clicking here and put it on your blog. The link will take you to a Google Doc where you can copy the code. If your browser does not allow access to your computer’s clipboard, you can use Ctrl-C for Copy and Ctrl-V for Paste, or use your browser’s Edit menu.

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