And four weeks in the books

I have officially made it four weeks on my path towards a healthier lifestyle. I am not going to lie it has been hard. I have spent every day of the last three weeks sore and thinking about what to eat for my next meal. I have also spent the last three weeks happy with my effort and proud of my accomplishments.

I have met my personal health goals every single day for three of the four weeks! That first week was difficult in a different way. Even though I wanted to make the changes I found myself struggling with my motivation to do so. I was quite comfortable on the couch eating pizza thank you very much. Getting up and going for a 5 mile hike and then eating a salad did not sound nearly as appealing. I however was physically miserable so I had to do something drastic to change my behavior. Enter my weekly healthy habits updates! While my scale is not feeling the love I am happy to say that I am feeling much stronger physically and my shorts are getting quite baggy.

My goals for my fourth week included reaching my newly raised goal of 12,000 steps per day while eating "clean" and sleeping on a strict schedule. Even with our extremely busy schedule this week with school work, house work, and a weekend at the Special Olympic Games I managed to meet each of my goals!

I have to say three days and two nights at the local college for the Special Olympic Games would have been the perfect excuse to stop working towards my goals and "fall off the wagon" again. I however was determined to meet my goals even while traveling and chaperoning the girls on the team.

Before leaving on Friday I made sure to get in my 5 mile hike to a local lake. I was regretting this just a bit when I fell into bed after moving into the dorm room and then attending the opening ceremony. The sore legs and aching feet at the end of the day were worth it however.

Also before leaving I made sure to pack myself a "go bag" of healthy snacks. I do not normally eat processed foods but we did not have access to a refrigerator or a kitchen while we were at the games.  I needed shelf stable options that could withstand heat and jostling in my bag for days. After much reading of labels I went for organic items with ingredients I could pronounce and understand. I found a few types of organic rice crackers, organic breakfast and snack bars, and pretzels. I also packaged up some pistachios, homemade trail mix, carrots, apples, and bananas.

I would have to say that this week was a big success! I am quite proud of myself even if my scale did not move very much. I could have gone off the deep end and reverted back to my former unhealthy ways but I held strong. I managed to rack up 94,024 steps! That is a new weekly record for me!

 Speaking of racking up records our daughter did amazing at the games! She earned 3 metals! A gold in the 50m breastroke, a silver in the 50m freestyle, and a silver in the 50m freestyle relay! We could not be prouder of her!

My goals for week 5 are the same as the previous week:

1. Maintain my sleep schedule
2. Eating "clean" healthy foods and tracking on myfitnesspal
3. Reaching my 12,000 step goal each day

This week should be much simpler in terms of exercise and diet. The majority of our activities are finished and we will be staying home to do school work each day. I am looking forward to having time to exercise and cook without having to run from one activity to another.

How did you week go? Any healthy successes you would like to share?