Do Life Challenge Week 2

Holla!  Another week down in the Do Life Challenge.  This week's theme was "Do Unto Others".

I'm finding my way in these posts.  I'm gonna do a list for my sake then expound on it.  Boring, even to me but I need to see point-by-point what I've done.

Brighten someone's day.  Twice (two different people).
-I went to the Naro Cinema on Monday night.  I had two tickets left in my ticket book and after I used one for my admission, I gave my last one to the ticket window attendant and asked that she give it to the next person in line.
-When leaving the play place (at Chik-fil-a, ahhhh!), I told another mom (whom I didn't know) how well her son and mine played together.  As a mom, I know how nice it is to hear that your kid is a good companion to others.  I made her smile.

Reassess Push-ups.
-Did I even mention push-ups last time? Well starting week 1, I did 14.5 modified push-ups.  Starting week 2, I did 16.  Small steps, right?

Reassess Goals.
1. I'm still doing awesome with my water.  I have only 1 soda a day (2 on rough days, which was 2x this week). Such a difference from 7-8 sodas a day with no water.  Also, not buying canned soda is so helpful now.  I LOVE an ice cold can of Cherry Coke Zero. It's helping to just avoid the temptation!
2. Still not stretching at night. Or day. Honestly though with more exercise, my back is not hurting near as much.
3. My sleeping habits are getting better. Slowly but surely.  It helps that Nate is consistently asleep between 8:15-8:45 p.m. these days.
4. I did my best to take advantage of Nate's school days to get my exercise in.  Tuesday he stayed home sick so I improvised.

Portion Sizes/No Seconds
-I'm more conscious of how much I'm eating.  When I eat healthier items, I'm still wanting and granting myself seconds.

Exercise 150 minutes 
-Fail. I got in 111 minutes.  It's much harder when Mike is on his "Hell Week" at work. Friday I spent cleaning the house which should count as exercise but I don't how to estimate that.

Homework
1. Think about how someone did something for me that changed my day and/or life.
The one thing that I thought about was when I was in the hospital 12 years ago and needed so much blood.  The good people who take the time to donate blood literally saved my life.
2. Where am I now physically and where do I want to be in 11 weeks?
Well right now I'm at my heaviest I've been with the exception of pregnancy. I don't have the energy or endurance I'd like to have. Even in the 2 weeks since the challenge started, I am noticing a change in that.  I'd like to shed at least 12 pounds by the end of this challenge.  I'd like to be in a consistent exercise routine. I'd like to be able to run 3.5 miles without stopping. I've got a Half Marathon Relay to get ready for, ya know! Oh, and the most important thing to me is to be out of maternity clothes for good.
3. Which area can I improve since Week 1?
Hands down, this one is food.

Okay, on to my week.  This week Nate stayed home from school on Tuesday so I wasn't able to get out in the neighborhood to walk since Mike was working.  I did what I could at home though.  I did 200 jumping jacks (not in a row - in sets of 50).  I accepted Ben's Plank Challenge and got on the floor and held a plank for 50 very painful seconds. Wednesday I got my jumping jacks in and took a good walk.  Thursday I rocked it by taking a 30 minute walk and added on Day 1 of the C25K. I got a total of 60 minutes in and I felt awesome! The jogging portions were better than I expected them to be.  I didn't let myself get ahead of myself by thinking about how many times I had to do the walk/run intervals. I just focused on each minute jog then each minute-and-a-half recovery walk.  It was awesome. It was doable. I felt strong. I didn't feel guilty for taking time for myself (Nate was at school and Claire fell asleep in the stroller 30 minutes into our outing, so that helped).

I'll get to some of my 4 good things a day list in a second but I have to say how thankful I am to be making that list.  Friday I cleaned my house in preparation for Bunco.  It was a lot of work and I had errands to run. I had a feeling that not getting my walk in was going to make me spiral down and I was right.  I haven't exercised now since Thursday and I haven't been  very mindful of my food intake.  That's not entirely true. I've been very mindful of EVERY little thing I've eaten and even though it was bad, I didn't stop.  Well, at least I know myself. Next time I need to make better decisions to break that cycle.

So, all of that to say I was happy to have my list to look back on and see that my whole week wasn't a wash.  I did good things! I exercised and felt great! I pushed myself! It's easy to forget those good things in just the few days I have been down.  It's a reminder that tomorrow is a new day, blah blah blah. This is suddenly feeling very cliche. Ups and downs are typical. I just need to focus on having more ups than downs. So here are some things I did this week that I was proud of:
-I was down 1.2 pounds from the beginning of Week 1.
-I did 200 jumping jacks twice this week
-I used sugar free syrup when I ate pancakes for dinner (baby steps)
-I didn't have seconds on Carvel ice cream that I really wanted
-I completed Day 1 of C25K and survived
-I tracked all my food for one day
-I resisted apple pie and vanilla ice cream. I wasn't hungry and I didn't have enough calories left to stay within my daily goal.
-I cleaned my house better than I have in *ahem* the past year.

So here's to Week 3! I'm ready for ya!