Winter is here

I realized the other morning that I was a few days over due on getting my new month new goals post put up. Trying to find the right balance between work and relaxation and spending time with my family, it's been hectic to remember to write. However this morning I was motivated and I took my measurements, so here's a recap of my goals for November:

November Goals:

• Learn more at work so I can become a better employee. I have definitely done that, I usually work the closing shift and people like working with me because of how clean I keep the place. Guess being a clean freak pays off at work!
• Lose that stubborn inch off my waist so I can fit into the size 12 pants I've had my eye on. Well I've definitely lost the inches, but I have not purchased a size 12 just yet. The work pants that I bought recently are still a size 14 and I noticed last night that the waist is gapping open when I wear them. 
• Lose weight, yes I finally did that too!
• I have not yet invested the money to get my hair colored. Not sure I'm going to do this at this point because everyone at work keeps telling me how pretty my hair is. I think I might just leave it alone for now.
• I have not bought a pair of cute boots for winter yet. Hopefully I will do so soon, if not then I guess it's not the end of the world. 

December Stats:

Waist: 34.5 inches (loss of 2 1/2 inches)

Hips: 42 inches (loss of 2 inches)

Bust: 37 inches (loss of 1 inch)

Arms: Left bicep 13.5 inches (gain of 1/2 inch) Right bicep 13.5 inches (loss of 1/2 inch) *Both arms are the same size finally!*

Weight: 176 (loss of 6 1/2 pounds)

December Goals:

BE HAPPY! 

I have to say that I am so much happier with my results this time around. I have a total loss of 6 1/2 inches off my body and 6 1/2 pounds of fat gone. What did I do different you might be asking yourself. Well I work at Starbucks, so I'm always moving, cleaning, lifting gallons of milk to make drinks basically getting little mini workouts every time I work. I also stopped counting my calories and stopped tracking my food intake. I had done that for over 2 years religiously and I was sick and tired of my app telling me that if I continued on that healthy pattern I would weigh in the 160's in a few weeks. Well those weeks came and went and that scale never budged. I felt restricted, I felt judged every time I had to add food to my journal, I was no longer happy with being so organized and not seeing the results I felt I deserved. 

So now if I'm hungry I eat, I don't write it down. If I'm not hungry I don't force myself to eat just to meet my daily calorie goal. Some days I have a decent appetite some days I don't. I did start drinking more caffeine than I was, I drink chai tea lattes at work. They don't contain coffee at all but chai tea naturally has caffeine in it. I have it made with soy milk so the dairy doesn't kill my stomach. I have made time to destress and relax on my days off or after work. Whether it be playing on the computer, watching tv or reading a book, I do a little something for my mind to allow some calm into my life. 

I cannot allow myself to have my weight be my sole focus in life anymore. It was causing more problems than it was solving. Now that I have taken a much more relaxed approach to my health, look at my results! I am not doing additional workouts on my days off right now due to weather not being warm enough to go outside and work out. However, our spiffy new smart TV in our family room has a huge selection of fitness stuff on it and I may give some of it a go. Right now I'm enjoying leisure time and not having to constantly be focused on numbers and calories. I will admit I've eaten meat (other than seafood) in the past few weeks. I had turkey at Thanksgiving, I've eaten baked chicken at work during lunch, I've had orange chicken from my favorite Chinese food place. I don't eat it every day and when I do eat meat I realize how heavy it makes my stomach feel. I let myself go on a meat eating binge for awhile and last week I felt pretty horrible about it. I decided that I wasn't going to allow my extremist mentality win. I was going to tighten the reigns and reel myself back into a healthy reality that didn't include such regret. I took responsibility, I knew I ate bad, I knew I went overboard, so I acknowledged it and now I'm moving on. However, even with all that meat, I still managed to lose weight, which is always a plus in my book. 

Focusing on feeling healthy inside is making me much happier than focusing on my weight. When I start feeling down I go over my checklist in my mind, asking myself questions to figure out why I'm feeling that way. Most of the time it boils down to a hormonal imbalance, which in time will correct itself. If there are times when it's something I can control then I fix the issue at hand and move on. If it's something that I cannot control, then I let myself be sad about it briefly then move on. I can't dwell on my emotions anymore it makes me sick to be unhappy. Acknowledge the feelings then move forward. That seems to be working for me so far this past few weeks so I'm going to keep going with that and see where it takes me. Eat when I'm hungry, sleep when I'm tired, get out of bed if I can't sleep and find a way to engage my mind, keep drinking my fluids and smile more. 

What are your plans for December and are you looking forward to 2014?