Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday has rolled around again.

Last week whilst lamenting my lack of energy and enthusiasm for a sensible diet regime I made the decision that this week my emphasis was not going to be on diet or on exercise but instead I was going to put my efforts into going to bed at a reasonable time. I made 10pm my goal. My reasoning was that I tend to fall off the wagon and make bad food decisions later in the afternoon and in the evening, usually because I am tired.

So... I have been much better at going to bed. There have been two occasions when it has been 11 or later but 5 nights I at least turned the tv and machine off by 10 and headed upstairs. That is better than it has been. I am going to keep that challenge going this week as well to try to get 10 pm more ingrained. My friend Maree has asked us to walk with her again this past week and she has to go at 6AM since she is a working woman and heads to work at 8. That is another incentive 3 times a week to go to bed early since we have to get up early those days. Its lovely walking at that time of the day. We have been missing our afternoon walks frequently this last month as it is so hot and also its our storm season and late afternoon is a common time for it to rain. It has looked very threatening a good few afternoons of late and we have refrained from walking... only to  have it not storm after all.

Choosing to go to bed early has meant that I don't crank my steps up as much either. A couple of nights this week I realised that my step count was down but if I had taken the time to run on the spot I would have been later to bed and so I have forced myself to just go to bed.

I don't use the sleep monitor on my fitbit but this week I am going to record the time I go to bed and report it here in an attempt to be more accountable.

Steps for the past week
Friday            10 063
Saturday          9 413  (this was one day it was really hard to just go to bed)
Sunday            3 981  (stinking hot day - church, sewing and then a wedding... )
Monday          7 366   (no excuses - another day I wanted to jog on the spot for a bit but made myself just                                 go to bed)
Tuesday        10 021   (had enough time before hopping into bed to jog myself over the line)
Wednesday   10 060   (same as above)
Thursday       13 247  (Yay. Managed to claw back a few steps on those low days. Only one walk but                                     we also walked up to help out at the Avalon Aged Care Home

I have slipped right down the stepping list amongst my friends. I had regularly been in the top 4 but recently I have been in the 15-20 the position. I am trying not to let it bug me. Its great to have it as a spur to increase my position but not if it means going to bed half an hour later than I should.

Dietwise I have avoided snacking in the evenings which is a good start. Did enjoy a few treats at morning tea on Wednesday at Patchwork. 3 ladies bought home made goodies and would be rude not to try them all. I also made scones for Avalon and enjoyed eating the left overs. Then went to a meeting where there was lots of snacks to get us through the meeting. I mostly ate grapes so that was a good choice.

Fixit Guy has been diagnosed with high cholesterol and has been put onto medication. We both have it now although I don't need medication so we are going to be really watching what we eat and trying to make good choices. We have a reasonably low cholesterol diet anyway but we have let a few bad habits creep in so are going to make better choices from now on. (watch this space. LOL)

I got on the scales this morning and I weighted 91.2 kgs so that is a 2 kgs down on what I was a few weeks ago so it is starting to chip off. Long way to go though.

How have you gone with your fitness challenges this week?