Project 10 {Week 1}

Last week I introduced you all to Project 10. Real women looking to get serious about our health and wellness over the next 10 weeks (and, of course, continue that journey beyond the 10 weeks).

Here's a list of my goals, and my progress to date. I hope to update the progress every (or every other week). It's not entirely riveting reading material for you all, but it helps show where I'm doing well and where I'm lacking. Maybe you all even have some ideas on how to help me achieve my goals? 

• Get back to juicing more - Tonight SH made me a lovely juice of spinach, carrots, apple and peach for dinner. I had it three hours ago and am still full (never mind I took three bites of his macaroni and cheese)

  

• Drink more water, drink less everything else - I did really well on this for the most part. The first two days were great. On the 3rd day SH gave me a Sprite for dinner and I couldn't drink it! It was much too sweet for me!! Unfortunately at some point over the next couple of days I gave in and had a sweet tea. I also had a small iced coffee, but it was a small! Not a medium like I'd usually get. Annnnnddddd.. I had some orange juice at breakfast two days this week. Otherwise it was all water. Mostly seltzer. I have realized I'm still not drinking enough fluids and need to step this up. 
• Plan meals better, so I eat out less (especially at lunch!) - Week one was a success! We ordered pizza on Thursday night, but it was our anniversary and we were too tired to go out and didn't want to cook! Otherwise we cooked every night and I brought lunch with me to work every day. One great recipe from this week was for Shredded Buffalo Chicken.  
• Incorporate more organic foods into our diet - This is also going well. All the chicken we bought was organic, as well as 90% of the vegetables we ate during the week. 
• Get more sleep - Yes again! Go me! I haven't been getting a full 8 hours, but have been in bed prior to midnight every night (except Saturday night, but that was right at midnight). To be honest, I've been taking some Tylenol PM a few nights, but my mind will.not.stop.racing. I've had insomnia troubles in the past and have been prescribed some pretty heavy sleep medication. I don't feel I'm at that point yet, so a few Tylenol PM's here and there have been helping me get some much needed sleep. Don't worry, it's not a long-term solution. 
• Stretch more - especially my back and legs - I stretched my back using a foam roller, and used a band to stretch my legs at least three times this week. 
• Come up with some sort of core exercise that works for me - Not yet, however Samantha has been providing some great ideas to our group and Megan posted an ab workout from a magazine article I want to try. 
• Walk more, maybe follow a 'Couch to 5k' program (if my asthma allows) - Meh. Not really. I did take the dog for a walk one day. 
• Focus on mental, as well as physical health. That means less stress - I'm trying. Sleeping more was a big part of this. I also didn't bring my laptop home from work until Friday night (which I needed for a work trip on Monday am). 
• Lose 10 or more pounds - I need to do my official stats and such, but I am down 1.4 lbs this week! That puts me on track for the 10 lbs I hope to lose. 

My biggest struggle this week has been work. Let me first say that I have an amazing job and I love what I do. For some reason it's just causing a lot of unnecessary stress right now (from the commute that has doubled in time from 30 min to an hour or more for seemingly no reason, to the back-to-back-to-back meetings that barely allow me to breathe, never mind go to the bathroom or refill my water, to having an 18.5 hour work-day followed by a 10 hour work-day, to interactions with some really stressed out people, to the really nice colleague appreciate week they are having for us...no really. They are throwing us parties every day this week. While that's nice, I did not have willpower to resist the pizza, Cheetos and ice cream provided as their appreciation today!)

In my head I know there is NO reason to stress as much as I am about work. My job does not save lives. Unfortunately it's not that easy for me to just turn off the stress, so getting home and leaving my laptop at work last week was HUGE for me. I cannot control many of the hours when it comes to things like having to travel for early-morning-all-day meetings and I have a hard time leaving things unfinished for the day (because they just pile up and make my next day more stressful). But I can control working from home. Sometimes it's necessary. Most of the time, it can wait.

All of this has had me thinking about a post Melissa wrote about our workaholic culture. And it's true. Perhaps this is something I'll want to talk about more in the future. For now, I know it's something I need to work on and fix. Thankfully I have an amazing boss who realizes work is important, but so is living your life! I know I'll get there, it will just take time.

However it hasn't all been a struggle. My biggest win this week was seeing my friend Heather link up to Project 10. She has been on an incredible weight-loss journey over the past year. She has lost an amazing 47 lbs and is still going strong! I'm so excited she's joining us on this journey. I know her posts will inspire me and I hope they inspire others as well. I also hope that she can find inspiration from posts from everyone else taking part in Project 10 because, really, that was Stephanie's goal for setting this all up!

Speaking of - interested in joining us? Make sure to link up to Stephanie's blog. I'd love to hear what you did this week for healthy living!

Previous Project 10 Posts: 

• Project 10 Overview and Participants