Hello Lovelies,

For those who missed my last wellness check-in, you can check out my 4/10 check-in here.  I am kinda sad I didn’t share last week’s weigh-in. I got excited to get down to 359 as it’s been a hot minute. Alas, this weigh-in I am back up to 365. This is my cycle. In the past, I would dig into the data and try to figure out why I gained weight and usually would not be able to find a clear reason (increased calories, lowered activities, etc) so then I would write it off as muscle gain. If you look at my pics for this week compared to the 10th, I do look more tone. Or it could just be the different lighting. IDK.

But I think it actually has to do with stress. Not stress-eating. Just stress. Between my husband losing his job, my webstore being broken, trying to get everything in place for the bariatric surgery, and then some chaos at my day job that is making me feel a ton of pressure about my current goals and strategies the last two weeks has been pretty high stress, with the highest stress hitting me Friday and Saturday.

Looking Back

Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out the best way to share my tracking information, but bouncing between myfitnesspal tracking, my Samsung health app, and my notes, I *should* have lost 3-5 lbs. I have been consistently getting 5 days a week hitting over 40 min of physical activity.

In addition, I have consistently been using my 1-hour timer to get up and move on average 8 times a day/ tracking it 4 days a week. During my 4 ten-hour days it is really easy to track that. But I am also pretty good about staying moving on my 3 days off as I am doing chores in between working on my side hustles. I expect that is reflected in my over 40 min of activities.

Two weeks ago I had the psych evaluation needed before surgery. This week I had a nutritional consult. Based on both of those I feel like I am on track for getting the surgery approved by insurance. Based on the information from the nutritional consult, I feel in a better position to tweak and adapt my current menu planning to prepare for surgery. We went through all of our Tupperware and I have enough to plan 3-5 oz meals for 3 days. We plan to get enough to do 7 days of meal prep.

 

Moving Forward

I need to add stress management to my self-care routine. I also need to be more agile in my planning. I will continue to work on food prep (look forward to some new recipes on the site!) and meal planning. I will also continue to grow my activity levels. I am currently aiming for 2,500 steps a day (I know, so low) and I consistently hit it 4 days a week, but I’m not hitting it most days I am working my 10-hour shifts. I think that is in large part because the lunges, squats, weights, bands, and stretching I am doing every hour are not enough to trigger “steps” in my small office. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can add in more walking during those 4/10s with my time being really tight trying to bring in money to offset the loss of my husband’s income and ramping up my efforts for completing my PMP quickly. I don’t think I will change my step goals at this time. I think I will strive to find a better tracking system that will allow me to compare all my data side by side. If you have a suggestion for a tool that works with Samsung health, please let me know.

If you’d like to look back on my journey, you can see other posts for my Health and Wellness journey here.

 

Until next time,

Keep Growing!