Trigger Identification

Happy New Year to everyone. I am looking forward to the successes of meeting the challenges I will lay out for myself in this coming year. Last year I did extremely well with managing myself, my behavior when it comes to food and exercise and working towards my goals. I lost 40 pounds in just over 3 1/2 months! I was excited to go and buy a couple new pairs of jeans and found that I had gone down 3 sizes from a 26 to a 20! Wow! I can't remember the last time I bought jeans in that size, seriously. It was an awesome treat!

My last week of 2006 didn't happen as I planned, and I did gain 3 pounds. But it's nothing I can't bounce back from. This wasn't a total disappointment though. Importantly, I learned some triggers for my poor eating and exercising habits. I am still building up the emotional maturity to be strong enough to overcome these triggers, but I'll get there. Here is what I learned:

Trigger 1: Sugar Cookies with frosting: These are made in our house every year for Santa and let me tell you, Santa enjoys eating them. Once these were made, I had one and then two and then a few. This was the segway into nibbing on other not-so-healthy foods and eventually eating entire snacks and extra snacks that were not-so-good. I think by next year I'll have to have built the emotional strength to control my response to this trigger or remove it from the equation and get something different for Santa. I'll work on this.

Trigger 2: Company: This may not be so much family as it is just company over in general. I have spent a large part of my time in the last 3 months in a cocoon of sorts with my homelife, exercise and work. I did this unintentionally at first, just adjusting to my new routines but then as time wore on, intentionally to protect myself, from myself. I realized that many of the relationships, gatherings and events in my life were centered around eating poorly and doing nothing in terms of physical activitiy. And the worst part is, I was orchestrating much of this. I really feel that right now, I am redefining who I am, which will redefine my relationships with the people I know and love and also redefine the types of events, gatherings and activities I choose to be a part of in coming times. Company has historically meant more food than normal, poorer food than I usually eat and less time for activity among many other things. Again, I do not have the emotional maturity to fully withstand the pressure of company at this time, so I need to work on this also.

Trigger 3: Being sick: On the 26th, I started coming down with a cold. I still have it today, but I feel I have managed it very well and it's on the way out. There are many things to say here. First, this is a success of my diet and exercise, I believe, because this is the first time this season I've been sick, this one is on the way out already and did not become a sinus infection. That is much improved over previous years, where I was sick more often, for longer and was seriously prone to sinus infections every time. So I am improving my health and my immune system. But, when I am sick, I am a wimp. I eat and drink to sooth the discomfort. I didn't do this with good foods, although more good foods than previous years. I have to figure out a better way to cope with the discomfort. I also want to do more to boost my immune system to keep myself from getting sick again. After researching working out while sick, I worked out on Saturday for the first time since the 26th, doing a 50% intensity workout. As I had read, it felt great to move, cleared my head for a while and didn't make me sicker due to exertion as I had feared. I'll be heading out to work out again shortly. So, while this is a trigger, it has also been a lesson and an accomplishment of sorts.

So, for the last week of the year, I had thoughts of losing beyond my goal of 40 pounds, but in reality, I gained back 3. I also registered for a 5K for last night, which I did not think it wise to attend while on the mend from this cold. And I rang in the new year on the couch, using Kleenex and drinking Zicam. But, it was only 1 week in a long line of many other successful weeks and as I said, I'll bounce back from it. And smarter now that I've discovered a few of my triggers that I can start to formulate plans of attack against. I am going to hammer out my goals for 2007 today and post them shortly.