Breaking through barriers...

Week six of the Better U Challenge was about breaking through barriers. I had several barriers this week as my schedule kicked into high gear and I had to rely on doing much of my exercise at home. Yuck! I definitely enjoy getting to the gym more than exercising at home. There are too many distractions at home and too many things to get me off track. It’s hard to exercise when I see all the things around me that need to be done. At least when I get to the gym, it’s out of sight while I truly focus on me for the short amount of time that I’m there.

That being said, there were a lot of highs for me this week. The highs consisted of being able to wear a ring that I hadn’t worn in over 5 years and wearing a pair of jeans that hadn’t fit for over a year! It’s nice to know that these changes are happening to my body, even though I can’t always see them just from looking in the mirror. I also managed to finish a full hour of cycling without having to sit down to take a break. That was probably my biggest accomplishment of the week. I’m so proud of myself for pushing through the difficulty of the class and for making progress each time. I also completed the 4^th week of the C25K training program. I really hate running but this program has made it possible for me to gradually work towards the team goal of running a 5K in April.

The Better U Challenge participants met with Maribel Alchin, Meijer Dietitian and Healthy Living Advisor, this week. That was a great experience! Did you know that Meijer using the NuVal system? Check it out at http://www.nuval.com/. The NuVal system scores food on a scale of 1-100 and the higher the score, the better the nutrition. The score is located on the shelf tag that lists the price. It’s really simple and you don’t have to read nutrition labels! I showed this to my family this week and they were able to pick more nutritious snacks and foods based on the scoring system. My youngest even passed up a few of her favorite snacks because they were rated too low! Wow!!

Meijer also has provides weekly healthy meal options and recipes each week. I haven’t had time to check it out completely, but I was excited about what I was hearing. If you are looking for simple, easy, healthy meal options for your family, check out http://www.meijermealbox.com/healthy-living. I had no idea Meijer offered so many healthy living options for my family. We shop there frequently so this was exciting information to learn!

As for the lows…I really don’t want to spend much time talking about them but they do lead to frustration so maybe putting them in writing will help. I gave up candy and desserts this week…and I was crabby because of it! I love my candy so this was a hard one for me. I’m hoping this gets easier.

The weekends are my downfall…every week. I work hard all week to eat healthy and push myself and the weekends derail me every time. I need to figure out a way to overcome the weekend barriers or I won’t make my goals. Uggh!

This week I didn’t lose any weight. I know the number on the scale shouldn’t matter…but for me, it does. Before the weekend it looked like I was on track to lose 1-2 pounds. After the weekend, I was back to the weight where I started at the beginning of the week. It’s frustrating and I know it’s my own doing. The positives are that I dropped another 1.5% body fat from last week so I know I’m building muscle. I also lost another ½ inch off my waist and hips. So I’m definitely happy to see the progress in those areas and I’m proud of myself for continuing to push through the barriers. If only that one number on the scale didn’t mean so much to me…but, the fact of the matter is…it does matter and I have to figure out a way to have a greater impact on that number so I feel more successful. So, for next week…I will continue to try to beat my weekend barriers so I don’t lose all the progress I’ve worked for during the week. I'm halfway through the challenge, so this is the final stretch! Wish me luck!