Author: girlryan
Week 5 Recap – Small Failures vs. Big Successes
Today marks 5 completed weeks of steady focus on getting healthier. Happily, I saw another 2.8 pounds down on the scale this morning!
This week was one full of ups and downs in my progress. I had a couple of days during the week where I ended up about 250-300 calories short for the day (not really planned, it just happened). Then the weekend hit and we had 3 holiday get-togethers with friends and family in a row on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I did count calories through everything, but ended up being about 300 calories over on those days.
I wish I could say that I planned it that way and carefully rationed calories to allow for a splurge, but that wouldn’t be true. My calories overages on the weekend were not in the plan. I had plenty of calories in the budget for eating dinner and even some small treats, but I impulsively ate more than I planned on those days. In some cases, it was more like late night munching on the holiday treats that are sitting around the house, so I can’t even blame it on being around others and having a good time. I knew the snacks where there and I pretty much binge-ate them.
Also need to be honest about my exercise this week. I had planned on starting a strength training program this past week, but I never did. I thought about it a lot, but never got downstairs for some structured workout time. In addition to that, after giving myself a little rest from all the walking on vacation, I didn’t get back in the habit of wearing my fitness tracker. When that’s not on, the push to get more and more steps falls away.
But, I am going to pause right now. Literally–hang on–be right back.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
OK- back! Got my fitness tracker on and ready to move more today!
On the plus side, I continued to count the calories of what I was eating, which helped me to not get too out of control. Plus, I didn’t use those slip-ups as an excuse to quit altogether or to go off plan for a whole day. That is the real success here–changing the way I react to my own imperfections.
I’m learning that small failures and big successes don’t contradict each other. This journey of weight loss, health, and fitness can (and likely will) be filled with times that I don’t eat perfectly or days when I miss a workout. But, as long as I keep moving forward, I’ll reach my huge goals in spite of the tiny missteps along the way.
I was looking for a picture to illustrate my point and found this–I love it!
So true 🙂 I’m going to print this out right now and post it in my office where I’ll see it all the time.
Another sticky point I’ve been trying to figure out is my weekday vs. weekend routine. During the week I get up, take supplements, drink water, eat properly, etc. I have a routine and a structure that works. On the weekend, I wake up late, go visit with the hubby, relax…and more than likely miss out on completing a good size handfuls of my daily to-dos. That certainly doesn’t help when I already have a harder time staying on plan during the more social weekends.
For now, I am just putting that problem in my awareness to try and think of a solution. I don’t really want to give up the freedom of my weekends, I just want to regain a little bit of control. This weekend is Christmas and the next New Year’s, so it’ll be even more out of whack that usual, but I’ll see what I can come up with!
Other plans for the week?
- Get in 1 strength workout
- Don’t overdo food intake during Christmas celebrations
Let’s do this!
Culture Clash
Getting to know myself better through “Morning Pages”
Sometime earlier this year I read about the daily practice of “morning pages.” I’m not sure where I saw it.
Basically it means to start off the day by opening up a journal and just writing whatever comes to mind until you fill three pages. You don’t pay attention to spelling, handwriting, grammar, etc–you just write anything and everything as it comes up. This is different from a typical journal. It’s not about chronicling the events of the day or writing a story of any kind. The purpose is to just get your thoughts flowing.
I toyed with this idea for a few weeks and really liked it. I had just previously revamped my basement into a more functional room for all my hobbies and loved heading down there in the morning to write and meditate. Shortly after that, we had a flood in the basement that we didn’t catch for a couple of days–it made a huge mess and required a lot of cleaning to get the place back in shape. I didn’t go back to the habit.
A few weeks ago, I started the practice again and am finding it really useful. A big issue I have is being caught up in thoughts–they spiral around my mind in a series of flashes of brilliance or bouts of worry but never get pulled out into anything concrete. Taking the time to do this different type of brain dump has done two things for me:
1. It clears up my mind. I’ve already written about how I’ve started to write down all tasks, plans, lists, etc in my planner and my version of a bullet journal which has made me much more productive since I don’t spend all my time thinking about and trying to remember things. But now that the “to-do’s” are cleared out, instead it is concepts, ideas, and philosophies that are causing some brain blockage. The morning pages habit give me an outlet to spew out some of that mind clutter and makes me more efficient.
2. It takes small thoughts and develops them into something more complete. It starts with a quick sentence–just something that comes up. Normally it would just stop there, but now this process allows me to dig a little deeper.
I find it funny–you don’t even realize how much is there until you get past the top layer. I’ll start to write about a topic and think that it will be short, but once things get flowing so much more comes out. Journaling in an informal format like morning pages makes it easy to just let things naturally come out of my brain and onto paper. It really works as a tool to get to know yourself better.
I’m looking forward to seeing what else I discover as time goes on.
Weeks 3 & 4 Recap – 10 Days, 61 Miles, & 1 Pound
This will be a short post. Just returned late Monday night from our 10-day Disney World adventure (which was amazing, BTW!) and have so many things to do here before returning to work and prepping for for the holidays.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I knew losing weight was going to be a challenge on vacation. But when I first got back and stood on the scale I wanted to cry because I was up about 5 pounds. However, I also woke up feeling so puffy and swollen, as I tend to retain a lot of water when traveling. So I decided to give it one day to flush out the access water. So yesterday I just went right back to counting calories, staying on plan, and drinking quite a bit of water. Must have gone to the bathroom every 30 minutes! By the end of the day I was feeling much better and WAY less puffy.
Did another weigh-in this morning to find that I went down 6 pounds. Whew! I knew it had to be all water. That’s the number I’m going to stick with for my combined weeks 3-4 post-vacay weigh-in.
The goal was to just lose something while on vacation and dining out every single day, and that’s what I did. I was hoping for a little more since according to my app I walked a whopping 61.09 miles over those 10 days (my poor sore feet!), but it’s all good.
And I really can’t complain. If you’ve ever vacationed in Disney World on the dining plan, you know that everything comes in HUGE portions and dessert with every meal! So, if I can lose a pound eating things like this, I’ll take it:
For this coming week? Back to counting calories and also feeling like it’s a good time to start incorporating some weight training. Nothing major, but I am going to put together a basic head-to-toe routine to do 2x a week and get started on that.
The Rescue
The Island
Week 2 Recap – Building habits that can survive the Disney Dining Plan!
Wrapped up my first two weeks of staying on track to get fit and healthy. Weighed in this morning to be down 2.6 pounds, for a total of 9.8 so far.
I know it’s the beginning and just a couple of pounds, but I am not going to undercut any successes. I’m thrilled to say that I stuck within my calorie counts every day this week. Yes- even on Thanksgiving! I planned out my day in advance to plan what I could eat that day. It meant having way smaller meals earlier in the day followed by a big dinner with family, but that’s just fine with me. I did end up making a few small tweaks from the plan, but still in under the calorie cap.
One thing I am noticing already is that my appetite and cravings have gone WAY down even after just two weeks. There have been a few times that I took something to eat (within my limits) and then ended up either not finishing it or not eating it at all because when I actually went to eat it I realized I didn’t really want it. Love that listening to my body is helping to stop eating out of habit instead of for nourishment.
This week has also marked the beginning of moving more. I didn’t go ahead and jump right into a hardcore working program, but rather started fitting in some movement to my normally sedentary day.
How sedentary? I work from my home office for 60+ hours a week. That’s a lot of sitting time. I do take breaks often to do chores around the house, but still the majority of my day is spent in my office chair. So this week I took my under-desk cycle out of retirement and put it back where I can use it. I’ve been pedaling away during work meetings and for short breaks throughout the day.
Here’s the cycle I’m using–the DeskCycle. I did a lot of looking for something like this last year after I hurt my knee and needed something cheap and low impact to replace the cardio I was doing then. It’s really low profile so you can easily pedal while sitting at your desk without hitting your knees. It’s also super quiet. There is a display to keep track of time, distance, speed, etc. if you want. (I actually just clip my Up Move fitness tracker on my foot and track the activity that way.)
Results? I went from an average of about 1500-2000 steps a day while stuck in the house all the way up to 6500-7000 “steps.” That’s a big improvement! Right now I am working it at resistance level 2 and plan on upping that slowly over time. Eventually I’m hoping to get in a full 10K+ “steps” at at least 5-7 resistance every single day…PLUS regular strength training and other formal exercise.
This type of cycle is also great because I can move it wherever. It’s usually been under my desk, but I took it into the family room so I could pedal while I binge-watched “Search Party” this weekend. Felt so much less guilt since I kept moving instead of vegging out on the couch.
Now onto the plan for next week…
Things are going to be a little different. I am heading from chilly Chicago to sunny Orlando on Saturday for 10 days of Disney Holiday Magic, so my routine will be going kaput. We will be eating a all WDW restaurants and snack booths since we have the Disney Dining Plan covering all our meals. Disney doesn’t offer nutritional information on their food, so I am going to have to do some guesswork. Thankfully as a serial dieter I can usually get pretty close to what things weigh in at. The plan isn’t to strictly track while I am there, but rather to just eat mindfully, enjoy small tastes rather than huge binges, and only splurge on occasion. Movement won’t be a problem since we’ll be walking, walking, walking!
I’ll be missing my weigh-in next Tuesday, so instead I’ll do it the week after for 2 weeks combined.
The official plan for Disney is easy: Lose weight.
Basically as long as I go on vacation and come back weighing less than when I left, I’ll consider it a success–whether it’s a single pound or five pounds.
(hoping to squeeze in a blog post or two while I am away as well, but I know it’ll be tricky.)
Be back with an update in 2 weeks on 12/13!
Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit Birthday Party Ideas
Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE putting on a theme party.
So, when my daughter asked for a Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit theme for 11th birthday party (just like Bilbo’s 111th!) I was super excited.
Not only am I a big fan myself, but there were so many possibilities. I took to Pinterest and the web to search for ideas, plus came up with some more of our own. The party was a huge success, and she still talks about how much she loved all the details 🙂
Since I know what it’s like to spend weeks planning a party, I decided to put together everything from my searches and planning into one place to help the next person putting on a Middle Earth Party. Wherever possible, I’ll be including product links and downloads to the printables we used to save you some time.
(click on any of the images below to view them larger)
Bilbo’s House & Banner
Turn your fireplace into a hobbit house for just a few dollars! All you need is brown craft paper, a piece of green poster board, some green and brown construction paper, glue, and a black Sharpie. Add some faux foliage for an extra touch.
Don’t forget to draw Gandalf’s sign on the door!
For the banner, we just downloaded a hobbit-themed font and printed the letters on an off-white paper, than glued onto some scrapbooking paper that was trimmed to a point at the bottom. String them up on twine and you’ve got a festive birthday banner straight out of the Shire.
Download the “Hobbiton Brush Hand” font that we used here.
We used this area for opening up gifts, with the birthday girl sitting right in the front of the house and it made for the cutest photos.
My favorite accessory to the hobbit house? The hobbit!
The birthday girl dressed up as Frodo (and later used the costume for Halloween, too, so it wasn’t only used for one day).
She’s wearing:
- Frodo costume
- Elvish Clasp
- And, yes, even the one ring.
Bilbo’s House Cake
This cake was actually really easy to make.
- Bake 2 9×11 cake layers, stack with frosting or filling of your choice in between the layers, and cover in chocolate buttercream frosting
- Bake a single 8″ or 9″ round cake layer, split in two, then stack/fill/frost on top of the 9×11 cake
- Use colored fondant to create the front facade of the hobbit house
- Press chocolate rocks into the frosting to make stone accents and a path
- Grow a garden of fondant veggies in a plot of chocolate frosting
- Cover the rest of the cake with green buttercream using a Wilton #233 Grass Tip
- Add LOTR/Hobbit character figurines
Voila! An impressive and delicious Bilbo’s House cake ready to go for the celebration!
Table Centerpiece/Display
You can get creative and use what you have handy plus a few inexpensive items to create your own display. Here’s what we used:
-Fabric remnant to cover table
-Stacked LOTR trilogy
-Dollar store candles and holders
-Map of Middle Earth
Download here: middle-earth-map-lotr-party-printable-wellroundedryan-com
-Deed of Contract (hiring Bilbo as the burglar!)
Print (preferably on distressed-looking paper), fold, and tie with twine.
Download here: deed-of-contract-lotr-party-printable-wellroundedryan-com
“Your Share of the Misty Mountain Treasure” Treat Boxes
Let your guests bring home some of the magic with personalized treasure boxes filled with loot.
LOTR Goody Bag Fillers
Hobbits love potatoes! Get these fun potato stress balls. These were a really unexpected hit at our party. The kids (and adults) couldn’t quit talking about them.
Also, “Gollum’s Goodies” (Swedish Fish and gummy worms) for a fun treat.
Other ideas are chocolate gold treasure coins, plastic swords, stickers, and faux gold rings
“Eye of Sauron” Treat Tower
Use a black plastic table cloth on the back of a shelf to make it black. Add cut-out poster board on the top (we drew on it with chalk markers for detail). Then, the “eye” drawn on a balloon with colored Sharpies.
We happened to have this particular shelf handy, but you could apply the same concept to any bookshelf, kitchen rack, etc for the same effect.
For some extra fun we put out some LOTR Lego sets that my daughter already had built to fill the other shelf.
No Admittance!
Welcome your guests with this easy sign that any fan will instantly recognize.
Here’s the “Hobbiton Brush Hand” font again–download here.
Help Defeat Smaug the Dragon
Let the kids take turns attempting to banish the dragon Smaug.
It’s the perfect pinata for a Hobbit birthday party.
Snacks Straight Out of Middle Earth
–Hobbit Door Cookies
Just press green fondant and a yellow Sixlet candy into Keebler Fudge Stripes Cookies.
–Counsel of Elrond Cookies
–Ring Buffet
Include anything ring shaped! Funyuns, peach rings, mini donuts, pretzels, etc.
Print out the story of the ring to explain the buffet to those who don’t get it right away.
Map of Middle Earth
To make the map we just used the same brown craft paper from the hobbit house, copied a map we found online in pencil, filled in with colors, and trimmed around it so it wasn’t’ a perfect square.
This was hung right above the cake table, adding some extra “Wow!” factor to party central.
We also had some of these Hobbit balloons on either side of the table.
Speak Friend and Enter
Invite your guests with the riddle from the entrance to the Mines of Moria.
Get the elvish “Aniron” font used for this sign here.
And this is the image used in the center of the display –
Download: moria-entrance-lotr-party-printable-wellroundedryan-com
Over the Misty Mountains Cold
I know not everyone has a piano for this. My daughter plays, and she used to listen to this song over and over again when The Hobbit movie first came out, so it was a no-brainer.
Here’s the printable sheet music –
Download: misty-mountains-sheet-music-lotr-party-printable-wellroundedryan-com
And with that, I’ll leave you with that awesome scene.
Good luck with your Hobbit or Lord of the Rings party. Have questions about anything? Just ask.
I’d love to see pics of what you do for yours. Comment below!
Camera-Shy
