TGIF

6 p.m. on Friday evening.  Thank God this week is finally over! For some reason I've felt somewhat out of sorts for the past couple of days. Perhaps it's a combination of the recent news (Robin Williams passing away, violence in Iraq, racial tensions in Missouri, etc., etc.,) and feeling overdue for a real vacation.

Luckily, my new Wii dance games arrived today. I ended up ordering both Just Dance 2014 and ABBA You Can Dance and I'm dying to try them out. I will, as soon as I finish this quick post.

Expect a review next week. ;)

I'm hoping that a little aerobic fun, followed by a simple home-cooked meal (roasted chicken, rice, and roasted asparagus--very French, non?) will lift my mood. If that doesn't work, I may have to do something drastic like book a weekend getaway or go for a mani/pedi or buy some shoes! :)

Anyway, I've noticed that I've been snacking a lot today. Seems to happen more when I'm feeling a bit low. Deep down I know that I won't actually feel better, but there's an autonomous part of me that reaches for a bit of chocolate. At least I also ate some fruit, so it wasn't all bad.

Wishing everyone a relaxing weekend.

Taking Care of Yourself & Re-focusing

For the past couple of days I really haven't been feeling all that terrific. My stomach hasn't been that happy, but I'm not sure why. I'm not aware of having eaten anything that could be responsible for the recent malaise. Then, this morning, I woke up and I was really dizzy. That seems to have passed (mostly) but there's a lingering not feeling 100% normal feeling. Sigh.

This got me thinking that probably I am starting to feel the effects from the past couple of years' stresses. As I may have mentioned (or alluded to) in previous posts, my papa's health has not been great for some time now, and in the last year and a half, especially, he's required a lot of extra care. My maman has shouldered the bulk of the burden, but I have also been very involved and sort-of "on call" every day. In fact, with the exception of some very quick family-related trips (visiting monsieur's family at Thanksgiving, or going to see his maman for her birthday), I haven't had an actual vacation in almost 2 years. What's even more challenging has been keeping my spirits up in the face of papa's occasional, "I'm ready to die and just want to get this over with" attitude. Double Sigh.

Perhaps the time has come to re-evaluate everything I'm doing and see if I need to focus some more on rest and relaxation...

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'm also wondering if I should limit the content on this blog to things that are strictly related to the French diet, or if I should branch out to other areas that interest me, like fashion or home or just whatever!

My original intention for the blog was to have a place where I could keep track of my progress and also just hold myself accountable. But the truth is that sometimes I feel like I'm struggling to come up with something, anything that is weight or health related, and it starts to feel contrived. I really don't want this blog to turn into an online food or exercise journal:

I had a grilled chicken breast with some sauteed vegetables today!

Today I walked for 30 minutes and then I had a turkey sandwich!

I mean, honestly. I don't want to read that, and why would anyone else? At the same time, the world (and the Internet) if definitely full of somewhat generic "lifestyle" blogs and maybe I'd just be adding to the noise if I started writing about general life things.

Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?

 

So far, so good

Well, this week has been decidedly better than last week! I've been waking up early, exercising almost every day (just missed Wednesday), and generally taking a bit more time to take care of myself and enjoy the summer. I've also felt a bit less stressed out than usual because my papa is back home after his stint in the hospital, and we have had 24h care, so I haven't had to worry about him or my maman hurting themselves.

Starting today, however, our 24h care schedule is changing and we will instead have someone there for most of the day (9-5) and most of the night (9-7). This leaves the early evening hours 'uncovered'. We are going to see if that will work or not, and adjust accordingly. Thank God, though, that papa has taken all of this with the best possible attitude and he seems to be committed to doing his part for his rehabilitation. So, I am hoping that he will continue to get stronger and we will need to rely less on outside help.

Anyway, I was curious about whether anything had changed, weight-wise, since I was so (pleasantly) surprised at my last check in. I wasn't sure if it had been some sort of water weight fluke or some such thing. And I was wondering if the increased exercise had had any measurable effect. So, I decided to step on the scale, even though my general rule it to not weigh myself more than once per week.

164.5

No change since Monday. Actually, this is quite good news since (as I already mentioned) I thought Monday's results might not have reflected my true situation. Or perhaps, Monday's results really didn't, but the increase in discipline this week (both in terms of the French diet and the uptake in exercise) has led me to the same result. Either way, I'll take it.

Have a great weekend!

R.E.P.O.R.T. card

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was a doozy. My papa was in the hospital for four days and most days my maman and I were running around just trying to take care of everything.  As a result, my eating was anything but typical. In some ways, this was actually positive because since I wasn't at home, I couldn't just walk over to the pantry to forage for a snack. And, to some extent, stress functions as an appetite suppressant. But, obviously, stress, poor sleep, erratic eating, and no exercise doesn't exactly lead to glowing health.

In any case, papa is back home now and I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I will be able to recuperate this week from last week's stress.

In terms of grades, here we go:

• Real, natural foods: 50% pass, 50% fail. Some days, take out was the only option. 
• Enjoy the dining experience: n/a. It's not easy to enjoy dining when you are exhausted and stressed out from other things that are going on.
• Portion control: Pass. 
• Only at mealtimes--no snacking: Pass. See intro.
• Run around--incorporate exercise naturally: 50% pass, 50% fail. Did okay up until my dad hurt himself.
• Treat yourself: Fail. Not because I over-indulged, but because I didn't treat myself well at all. :( Perhaps I'll have to make up for that this week with a little pampering? ;)

Oh, one more thing. Yesterday's lunch really didn't sit well so for the entire rest of the day I didn't eat much at all. Dinner was some herbal tea and a slice of toast with a little peach jam. 

Weekly weigh-in: 164.5 (-1.5 lbs versus last week and -2.5 to-date)

Final Grade: Obviously, I'm thrilled with the number on the scale and I plan on fully enjoying its memory for about half of the day. However, I also realize that it is probably somewhat misleading since my stomach was upset and I didn't eat much at all yesterday. Since I hadn't planned on using fasting as a means of weight control, I don't expect that weight loss trend to continue! 

Now I think I just need to focus on sticking with the plan and really taking care of myself. Hopefully that will not result in a weight gain next week, if I'm careful about how I go about things this week.