Mrs. G's Journey to Better Health

Hello World! Looks like I have been gone for nearly two years! I’m back to continue my journey to losing weight and better health all around. That is not to say I have not been making progress. I did slow down while I made other things in my life a higher priority. But, let me toot my own horn for a second. From. August 2024 to September 2025 I managed to shed 40 lbs., 2 pant sizes and finished up my college degree. Yay me. There is still a lot going on in my world but my health is important. The more weight I shed, the easier it is for me to move around. It keeps getting easier and easier to sit on the floor and get back up. I’m not jumping up off the ground, but I can get up with no assistance. I am seeing and feeling improvement.  Why start blogging and tweeting again now? What works for me to help me focused, stay motivated, and make progress is blogging and tweeting. Blogging is a way to talk to myself, document my journey, reflect on my choices (both good and bad ones), and s...

Happy New Year! Every year many of us make New Year Resolutions. Shortly after, we adjustment them, maybe put them off for one more day, week or month. Eventually most of us abandon them altogether.  Why we do this is not so important to me. Face it, we will find lots of excuses/reasons why we did not succeed. For me, it feels like 2019 was filled with lots of set backs, a few losses which left holes in my heart, I made bad choices, and a slew of frustrations when things did not go as planned/desired. Some of my goals were always on the forefront of my mind, but they slipped away through my fingers. Is it just me that feels so many things are out of my control and preventing me from succeeding? I seriously doubt that is true. Sometimes I hear other people complain about how they can't do this or that and I think to myself, "Yes they can. They just have to... ." I hear some say they can't afford to buy an item and I think to myself, "Well, you could s...

Three out of four FitBits are setup and charged. We all have different goals. It's a BIG deal and it feels a little scary... but I'm kicking fear in the face and not worrying about "what if I/we fail?" Instead I am embracing, "It'll be awesome when we succeed *together*." It's not too late. I'd love to team up with you too. On walks, FitBit, LoseIt, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... other venues? Let me know. MrsG.Journey@gmail.com

It's getting close to calling it a day as I sit here reflecting on today's activities.  I want to share not with the intent to get a pity party, but with the intent to help others who might be having a stressful day.  In a few days my husband will be leaving out of town for work. He will not be gone too long but it is long enough for me to be a little stressed. I do consider myself an independent person, but having him around is what helps me be independent. Knowing I have an extra pair of hands, an extra pair of eyes, another parent to help, well, knowing he is there is sometimes all the help I really need. My stress comes from knowing that during the time he is on travel for work, I will not have him as my safety net. This is not the first time he is traveling for work and so it is not the first time I feel this type of stress. The first time he was out of town, I was worried because my kids were 4 and 7. Some things on our daily to-do list were not done. Some thi...

Deciding to be selfish and putting my health first has been the BEST decision I have made in a long time. October 2nd will conclude my 30 Day commitment. I am looking forward to the morning of October 3rd. On that morning, I will weigh myself and measure my waist. I am excited to find out how much I've lost and how much I've gained. I already know I've lost inches from my waist because I had to punch new holes in belt. I must be looking different too because a couple of my friends asked if I had lost weight. One of my friends asked me if I'm on a diet. I told her I am NOT on a diet, I'm on a path to a healthier life style, making healthy habits a part of my life, and I have stopped living in fear. *inhaling a deep breath* I feel so much better than I did a year ago, 1/2 a year ago, 8 weeks ago, ... and I am still a work in progress. I used to think I was too busy to loose weight, but now I'm seeing first hand I am loosing weight and still do everything I h...

  Losing weight is not something that happens overnight. I gained my weight day by day, one bad habit at a time. Slowly these bad habits became my way of life and gradually I accepted my new limitations. I tried many things half-hardheartedly. A few things I really tried but have endless reasons why I failed in the past. I had to stop and really think about, me, what I want and don't want. After years of piling on the pounds my body can no longer keep up with a normal way of life. My body is always aching. I wake up in the morning and my back, my knees, my ankles all seem to be in constant discomfort, AKA, pain. I get winded climbing up a flight of stairs. By early afternoon, I am ready for a nap, a 2-3 hour nap. Sometimes I do get to nap, other times, I  need to press on. Either way I feel sluggish for the rest of the day, not much energy in me. The desire to do things is there but it quickly dissipates when the reality of my body's limitations sinks...

A quick and easy dinner tonight. Nothing fancy. It was plain and simple. 2.1 oz - Near East Roasted Garlic and Olive Couscous. It was prepared per the instructions on the box. 3.5 oz skinless chicken thigh pan fried with lemon juice and seasoned with Mrs. Dash Table Blend. 2+ cups of boiled broccoli. Of course my meal was plated on a genuine Weight Watchers portion controlled plate. All this and it was only 11 Smart Points. One day at a time, one pound at a time.

Get my 10,000 steps in a day is tough. Some days I do well, and then I have long streaks of not being able to hit 5,000 steps. I tend to do a lot of work on my computer or drive around town doing errands. In other words, most days I end up sitting on my bottom for long periods of time. By the end of the day, I'm tired and have no real desire to get up and go exercise intentionally.  Sometimes I make it to the gym, sometimes I don't. My kids are still on winter break so taking a trip to gym or going for a long walk is not feasible. We do have a treadmill and I could get on it and sneak a walk in here and there. I start and get 10 minutes in, then I get distracted with laundry, endless super-important-must-ask-now questions from my kids, or the dog trying to walk on the treadmill with me, or let me just pull this out of the freezer for dinner tonight and then, and then, ... *sigh* It's a new year and I am going to *sketch* out my week and *plan* out one day at a time...

"What's for dinner?" I hear that question almost every day from my kids. Running errands, driving the kids around from one activity to another, homework and housework, sometimes I forget to take something out of the freezer for dinner. Yet I do manage to get food on the table, it may not be what I had planned, but it's food. The next challenge is trying to eat at a regular time. It is tough because our daily evening schedule is not consistent. So I have a window of when we can expect to eat dinner. (That window is sometimes broken too.) I am determined to loose weight and I do try very hard to eat at a regular time, or in my case a regular window of time. For the most part, I have been successful in this respect. Now I'm supposed to eat health too? Oh man. I guess homemade chili dogs and corn chips is not going to cut it. More veggies, fruit and water, less pastries, chips and soda. While I do know what to make for dinner that is healthy and tasty, I do not al...

It has been eighty some days since my last post. I was all ready to get back on track. My plan was to hit the gym 3 times a week, eat healthier, be more active, ... Well, here we are at the end of our summer. Kids go back to school next week and I am heavier than I was on June 9th. I did not set foot in the gym once! Very disappointed in myself. I am heavier than I have ever been, heavier than when I was pregnant. All my good intentions were derailed by "summer fun" of bad choices. Too many BBQs, food based play-dates, trying new eateries, kicking it on the couch catching up on shows, summer movies while stuffing my face with movie theater popcorn soaked in butter, etc. I can not do this by myself. I need help and I feel embarrassed to say it. I know I should not feel this way, but I do. I know what I need to do, I know what I need to eat and not eat. I know many things but apparently I need something else, help. Last week I woke up in the middle of the night and could n...

The busier my day gets, the more I sacrifice my diet and exercise. As usual I got busy with my kid's stuff. While these busy days did not sneak up on me, I couldn't seem to manage my time wisely and I could eat healthy meals. I ended up eating out more than we should. That always hurts my wallet and my waistline. *sigh* My first thought was, "Well, it'll get better next week." Normally, it would. This time I too many unexpected events took place and one week became two, which then slipped into three weeks. I did try to make good choices when eating out. For example, I chose El Pollo Loco over Carl Jr.'s Double Western Burger. Little things like this helped with the calorie intake but it was not enough. I also started sneaking in 10 minute walks any where and any where. If you follow my Facebook page, you probably saw a few of those posts. A couple of walks were not recorded by my FitBit because I forgot to charge it. Bummed they did not recorded, but feel...

There are a lot of apps out there that can help keep track of calories I consume. My personal choice has been and still is Lose It. I'm not going to claim one app is better than another. But if I must, I will honestly say the best app for weight loss is the one you actually use. Yes, various apps have various features that appeal to one type of person or another, lend themselves for certain activities, lifestyles, visual preferences, etc. But it always comes down to one very important thing. NONE of them actually work if you don't actually use them. For me to actually lose weight I have found I need to actually use my Lose It app. I need to log, log it all, and log it everyday. By logging, I am forced to be honest with myself, I end up making better choices. It gives me time to think before I eat that package of cookies in one sitting. If I really want to eat all those cookies, how am I going to burn them off so as not to gain weight. What do I need to do to loose weigh...