No.787: Better Me Diaries // Month 1 Recap

Welcome to a new series where I share all of my inadequacies and my attempts to fix them, ha!  Just kidding.  I’m a broken record at this point talking about my roller coaster year and the culmination of years of poor stress management.  (I’m annoyed at the constant reminders myself.)  Hopefully, this new challenge will set me on a better path.

I’ve spent the last five months reading and researching and dipping my toes into behaviors that may help me feel back at 100%.  And for whatever reason, Monday, November 13, 2023 was the day I decided to finally get to work.  My biggest goal is that I’m committing to six months of workouts.  It doesn’t matter if I lose a pound; I’m really hoping to make long-term positive changes.  The habit is the ultimate goal!

A little disclaimer: Before I started this new adventure, I watched a lot of Youtube videos and read a lot of blog posts, learning what worked for others.  I immediately rejected about 75% of the advice and jotted down the rest to try myself.  And that’s okay!  We’re all wonderfully, uniquely made and what works for one may not work for another.  The same goes for my notes below.

EXERCISE

Did you know that we start losing muscle mass after age 30?  As I prepare for my big 40th birthday next fall, I want to avoid frailty as I age and weight training is the best way to accomplish that.  So for Month One, I completed the four week Beginner Workout Plan from Nourish Move Love.  Heavy on the strength with just a little cardio, but completely doable and accessible for beginners.

Other wins:

• Lost 0 lbs, but I’m choosing to see this as a win that I didn’t gain anything new!  I remembered to take my body fat percentage about halfway through, so will have to retest sometime next month.
• Advanced from 5lb to 8lb dumbbells for all exercises
• Sleep! Regardless of the time I went to bed, I would always wake up between 4-4:30.  I’m finally sleeping in to around 5!  This is huge.

A TED talk that I found interesting and has helped me to keep going, even when weight training feels hard: The Midlife Muscle Crisis: why we’ve gotten obesity all wrong by Gabrielle Lyon

NUTRITION

Since I started this challenge right at the beginning of the holiday season, I knew that I didn’t want to create unrealistic expectations by completely eliminating sugar.  So a few sweet treats have been consumed, but my main focus has been making protein a key component to my daily diet.  This seemed really stressful for me at the beginning, because how?  My husband follows a carnivore diet, I have three teenage boys (and three littler ones with big appetites too) and protein sources are expensive!  I’m making good hearty dinners and finding workarounds for the rest: peanut butter protein balls, plain unsweetened Greek yogurt, collagen in my coffee, etc.  Not perfect, but a decent start.

Bummers:

• My dairy and egg intolerance/allergies have returned!  One step forward, two steps back.  Both came on suddenly after my later pregnancies in 2012-2016 and I had finally seemed to kick them early in 2023.  Not sure what’s going on (other than maybe hormonal changes?) but I keep pushing forward.

OTHER NEW THINGS

After a recommendation from a crunchy friend, I started trying a liver castor oil pack from Queen of Thrones.  I’m using it as a way to combat inflammation and support my hormones.  Is it snake oil and all in my head?  I guess time will tell.  This Youtube video provided a DIY option and I found her results interesting as well.