New Year's Plans and Promises for Accountability

Ladies, 

Post away. I am still writing mine and will post it later tonight. Remember, if you don't get your plan and promise posted today, do so as soon as you can...we are all in this together and will all pull to make sure we all succeed.  

Improving my emotional state goals:

Stress Related

• In order to relieve some of the stress in my life, I have decided to follow through on the decision that I made regarding my daughter:

1. I will not walk on egg shells;
2. I will not allow her to manipulate me;
3. I will not allow her to blame me for her mistakes.

Implementing the Plan: When we go pick up the kids, I will continue to wait in the car. If I'm in the car, she will not have an opportunity to verbally and emotionally abuse me. 

• In order to handle the other stresses, I am going to increase the yoga and meditation on a daily basis:

1. In order to achieve growth in yoga goal, I am going to sign up for Yoga classes. I've found a studio where the teacher has a class for people with physical limitations. There are four instructors, and they promise to make sure that each person advances at his or her own pace. I visited the studio, and it is close to my apartment, and I attended the class that is perfect for me and found that the majority of the members are around my age or older. There are men and women and couples, so I think this will be perfect for me and over time I hope I can get Kenny involved.
2. In the same studio, they have a meditation class and while Yoga is all about mediation too, I want a class that is devoted to resting my mind.

• Coloring books are another stress reliever, so I bought a couple of adult coloring books and a set of fine point markers and colored pencils.

Implementing the plan: My insurance pays for the Yoga classes because it is considered preventative for people who have RA, MS, and other types of diseases that attack mobility. My insurance will not pay for the meditation class, but I talked to the instructor and turns out, she needs some help editing a business plan for expansion and some brochures, so we are doing a trade...one year free of meditation classes and I do the editing for her.

Improving my food and fluid intake

• I am going to continue to improve my eating and drinking habits

1. Becoming a vegetarian has been one of the best changes that I could have possibly made for improving my food intake, but I am going to spend 2016 moving completely away from all animal protein which means I will give up fish and shrimp and also cheese and eggs.
2. I am going to eat foods that have been scientifically proven to increase metabolism such as whole grains (brown rice, oatmeal, rye, etc.), lentils, beans, avocados, nuts, berries, green vegetables, and soy.
3. Wean off of caffeine. It's true, I have to cut down on caffeine so the diet cokes and coffee have to go...I hate this but I have no choice.
4. Drink more water. Water does several things for our bodies, as you all know. It's good for our digestion, our metabolism, our skin, and our hearts...so I am going to measure out the daily water intake and make sure I drink every last drop.

Implementing the plan: I am going to give up cheese and butter first. By March, I hope I can start removing the fish and eggs and shrimp from my diet. I only eat fish once or twice a week and we rarely use cheese but that isn't enough. I have to eliminate it completely. Giving up the caffeine has been a goal of mine every year forever, and I have cut down on the diet cokes. I drink coffee starting as soon as I wake up until 11 or 12 so I am now going to limit the length of time that I have the coffee pot on, which means I will cut down on the coffee I brew. I'm going to start drinking green tea so that I will have something warm in my cup and maybe that will help too. And drinking water will help me cut out those last few diet cokes that I drink. One six pack of diet cokes last me six days so I'm hoping I can go from one diet coke a day to maybe ½ and then after a couple of weeks just stop them all together.

• Exercise--I have to do more for my heart

1. I am going to recommit to walking every evening.
2. I am also going to start lifting weights to increase my strength.

Implementing the plan: I've already talked to a physical trainer and he has faxed my doctor to get some guidelines for lifting. The walking we will continue to do outside until it turns too cold and we will go back on the treadmill. I might even use the stationary bike.  

I cannot wait until we all start working toward our goals.  

Jeannie,

I loved reading your resolutions...they are all about self-care!

These are mine:

1) I plan to avoid 'trigger' situations in 2016 by writing down the consequences I have suffered from the short-term release of my pent-up anger or frustration. I promise myself I will do my written list this weekend, and review it before allowing myself to react thus becoming 'the bad guy.'

2) I plan to be kinder and more patient with my husband. Despite his flaws...he has been a phenomenal husband and friend for almost 20 years. I will spoil him the ways he has spoiled me!

3) I plan on continuing to educate myself on food and exercise. I will learn to eat in an even healthier fashion than the past year, and continue using MFP. I will walk on a regular basis, swim during the summer, and begin body building with weights. I will respect my body and my sleeve.

4) I will spend less time in 2016 doing things I HAVE to do vs. things I WANT to do. I will not worry so much about the house being clean and organized, the lawn cut or gardens weeded...I will plan on having FUN. I will plan at least one fun activity each week and do it.

5) I plan on taking the steps necessary to be a better person..wife, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, neighbor, etc. I will do my best to be the first one to reach out rather than allowing any personal issues or insecurities get in the way of my doing so.

Kathy,

Those are wonderful goals and those trigger situations are definitely good to assess and good to avoid. I love that you identify everything and address them...Good for you.

Thank you, Jeannie!

Question: you are far more knowledgeable about food than I am and I mean that. This time last year when I started my food lifestyle changes I truly didn't know a good carb from a bad carb what 'dense' protein was, and alot of other stuff.

You mentioned eating oatmeal. I was taught that was good for you, but it is pretty high in carbs...especially for a early post op.

I have not stayed around the recommended 40-60 carbs daily...unfortunately have been closer to 100, but I have tried to eliminate oatmeal bc of the high carbs.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks!

I think 1/2 cup of oatmeal is okay.  I wouldn't do the instant because they are usually filled with other things...It's hard to make five minute cooking oats for one so instead of eating oatmeal, for a long time, I ate cream of wheat...it was one of the foods my doctor told me to eat as I transitioned from full liquid to soft foods. I never ate much at one time...I think oatmeal is one of those carbs that can work for you because it has a lot of fiber so you actually can cancel out some of the carbs and it is a metabolic booster because it makes your colon work a lot to digest it and that increases your metabolic waste whi*****reases your metabolism for digestion.  Plus, you can throw a prune or two or some raisins or nuts in it and really increase the value of the oatmeal. If you must eat carbs, make sure to look at the fiber content and deduct those grams of fiber from the carbs and you lower the carb count. Good carbs are those with a lot of fiber because they go through fast and they boost metabolism...green vegetables, some yellow ones, orange vegetables and all peppers, cucumbers, carrots and of course cauliflower is good but look at all the fiber in it.  Avoid white potatoes except if you use them to flavor a dish...maybe on small potato. 

Filling up on protein is always *******ways eat the fish first then whatever is left on my plate and I still use a baby plate.  Protein that is low in fat is best because it's harder to digest in the small intestine and it has less fat to get absorbed This morning, I ate 1/3 of my DH's omelet, which was about 1/3 of an egg, mushrooms, and a little cheese.  I filled up so I wasn't able to eat the toast that I really wanted.  Filling up on dense protein first, then good carbs second will keep you out of the bad carbs such as bread, potatoes, desserts. etc. 

Mine is not as well done as yours but it is perfect for me. I don't do short term or long term objectives since I retired! 

1. Learn how to meditate and practice every day.
2. Color in my color book for ten minutes a day before bed.
3. Limit diet soda to one a day.
4. No food after 7:00 PM- brush teeth at 7:00.
5. No candy can be stored in the kitchen. If I want it badly enough I will have to dig for it in the back of a closet.

I want to start with these. 

Those are perfect goals. I like the meditation and the coloring book.  I just started coloring and love it. I sent DH out for more markers because I needed some metallic ones too. LOL.  I'm addicted. 

Hello sistas,

My plan is going to be a work in progress, just like I am a work in progress.  I expect it will evolve and change over the next few weeks.  But here are my initial goals:

1. No more Coke
2. No more chocolate
3. No more cookies, candies, sweets, or empty carbs
4. Increase consumption of REAL food: veggies, fruits, & whole grains, organic when possible
5. Decrease consumption of animal protein
6. Drink more water daily
7. Begin walking 10-15 minutes daily, increasing to 30 minutes daily
8. Pray for acceptance of and peace with my own special bodily needs when temptations occur.  I commit myself and my plan to God.  I will say "I trust You, Jesus" instead of moaning about feeling deprived

I got on the scale this morning and I weigh 202.  Today is Jan 5th.  I will weigh again on Feb 5th and see how well I've done.  My goal is to lose 40 pounds this year.  That's less than a pound a week!

Want to share a website recommended to my by my WLSurgeon:  http://www.pcrm.org/  Click on "Health and Nutrition".  Dr. Davis recommends this information on vegetarian and vegan diets as a good place to begin.  I signed up for the 21 day Kickstart Diet plan.  

I appreciate this group and I am thankful for a safe place to discuss WL without feeling judged.  I am glad for a safe place to be held accountable for my choices. I am thankful for the friends I have made here.  

May God bless each of us in our endeavors! 

P.S.  Oh! And I joined myfitnesspal.com so that I can start journaling my food.

I like this thread and wanted to get here earlier. I have started on my goals already. 

1. Get to the Y on a regular basis, at least twice a week and hopefully more. 
2. Log in MyFitnessPal at least twice a week and hopefully more. 
3. Cut back on the dark chocolate. I was eating way too much. To say I'm going to not eat any is a fantasy, so I'm cutting back to 15 dark chocolate kisses a day, and hopefully less. Yesterday I only had 10.
4. I too want to start coloring. I felt it lowered my stress. I have to find my coloring book first. I didn't really like the sharpie pens, too thick. I'll get some colored pencils. 

So far, I've been to the Y twice and logged on MyFitnessPal every day. I've lost two pounds. I've also started going back to a therapist; that helped tremendously yesterday, just to get things off my chest. I've found I'm not totally over my attack from last summer. Talking about it again gets my heart racing and I feel uncomfortable again, like I'm going through it all over. So while I've forgiven youknowwho, because he is mentally ill, I can't get over what happened.