Tracking, Tracking, Tracking

I know that intrinsic motivations should be enough to keep me accountable to myself and my goals. But, my tracking spreadsheet has become a vital piece of my personal accountability puzzle. The last week I didn't track at all, and I must admit that while I was pretty okay with my Thanksgiving decisions, the rest of this week doesn't quite get the same nod of approval.

I feel like there is an avalanche of "stuff" going on right now. Honestly, I am not sure I have ever experienced such a combination of work stress and personal stress at any other time of my life. It makes the retreat into mindless eating and thoughtless food choices much too easy. It also makes it far too easy to skip over activity that my body needs. This is where tracking becomes vital for me. It puts those choices in front of me, forces me to look at them - they can't be thoughtless when I have to track them.

One thing I had noticed is that a few of my tracking activities had dropped off long before this week. The one that probably has the most impact is tracking my water and activity. So, on opening up my tracker I devised a nice way to make my tracking even easier for those things - AND, more importantly, more readily visible (that is what you see up at the top of this post). I intend to put this new technique to the test and see how much it helps in my continuing efforts.

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for a great many things. I lead an extraordinarily lucky and privileged life. The accident of my birth has given me wonderful advantages. Sometimes, I think it is when we forget to be thankful for those things is when it is easiest for us to slip into a mindset that is not grateful. And, I firmly believe that mindset, for me at least, is one that is often accompanied by thoughtless eating in a hope to fill the space of some perceived shortcoming in our life.

Surrounded by family I enjoyed myself a lot. Chatted with the family I don't see nearly often enough. Laughing with them about any manner of things. That is the type of blessing that is not easily replaced (not even by cream cheese pumpkin rolls).

I am also blessed to have a body that was able to get up this morning and do a morning dance party and my  8 mins workout without any significant aches and pains.

Now as I sit here, a bit drowsy from overdoing it at the table. I don't feel any particular need to comment on my choices except that I could have stopped when I was full - and waited to have a bit more later. I am content and will go to bed tonight knowing I am blessed.

Contemplation on Inner Dialog and Judgement

I have been thinking about this a LOT lately. Maybe it is because I have been feeling so judgmental lately. It is not a trait I cherish in myself, but it is one I have a really hard time fighting off.

This has made me wonder if our worst thoughts about others are just a reflection of our worst thoughts about ourself. Are they simply a reflection of our own fears and insecurities. Last night I posted about how I am feeling less confident in myself to overcome some new challenges. One of those things is about my memory and learning ability - and that it doesn't feel as strong as it once was. And I realize that I have had such a low tolerance for others in that regard lately. Probably because it has been bothering me a lot about myself.

So, recognizing this is one thing. Doing something about it is another altogether. I came across an article that hit on three points that I knew, but really needed a refresher on (I am labelling them here with my own names so I can try to weld them into my brain).

1. Pause! when you catch yourself mid-judgement just stop. Acknowledge what you are doing - awareness and breaking into that pattern is the first step.

2. Alter! change that judgement into some type of praise (I honestly am not sure I know how I would do this when I am judging the guy or girl in their ultra souped up noise machine of a vehicle - but I will try to think of something!). Maybe the times this is very hard will be the times I will get the most out of it.

3. Reflect! Look at yourself and see if the behaviour or trait you have a problem with is one you possess yourself. I already know and have acknowledged that this is the case for me a LOT of the time. Maybe accepting those things in myself is the key to accepting them in others? I am not sure, but again I think awareness is an important part of this.

And I will add one more that is an amalgam of various other things I have read

4. Release! Once you have acknowledged it and taken the time to examine it, don't let it linger with you. Let go of your judgement of the other person, of yourself.  Forgive yourself for it so you can move past it and grow from the experience.

Success on Steps from Last Post - AND New Horizons

Sometimes it is easy to notice and write about the challenges and struggles and hard to celebrate the victories (big and small). Other times it is the opposite. For this post, I want to celebrate a win and acknowledge a challenge.

The win - I did just what I said I was going to do in my last blog post. I did my morning dance party the other day, and I walked to the grocery store during my lunch break. This boost isn't a new start, but it is a "refresher" as it helps to renew my energy for this overhaul I am going through. Oh, and I did clean out my fridge freezer too!

The challenge is a bit more personal. I am living alone for the first time in my life. It is a real adjustment. And, I am not sure how I will do with it. There are a lot of things I need to do on my own now - some of which I am looking forward to, others of which I am not. The snow on my sidewalks is a mixed feelings item. I don't mind shovelling snow, but I don't actually know where the shovel is :S.

I think one of the scariest things about this new adventure is the number of things I am going to need to learn. A couple years ago I think I would have felt more confident in my ability to learn all these things. Now, I feel less secure in that. Get ready for a TMI - I think in large part my concern is coming out of another new horizon (perimenopause).

So, why am I pointing the finger at perimenopause? Mostly because of sleep. It doesn't seem to matter if I go to bed at a good regular time (and decently early), I either take forever to fall asleep, or I wake up feeling like I barely slept at all or both.

The lack of rest has me feeling the impact in so many different areas. I feel like it is playing havoc with my memory. That makes work harder for sure. But it also makes me feel less confident in my ability to learn some of the new things that would make solo living easier. Or, even remembering what things need to be done (changing furnace filters, cleaning out eavestroughs, getting trees trimmed etc).

As an end note, I will hope that if anyone actually reads this that they can send a few positive thoughts my way. Wish me luck in working through these new horizons and finding lots of cause to celebrate victories along the way. And, mostly, wish me a good night's sleep!

Valley Girl - Running in Circles (not really running though)

I don't mind admitting that I am still struggling. This is definitely a valley when it comes to making healthy choices. The reasons are that nasty cyclical thing --> bad sleep --> no energy to move and exercise --> bad sleep --> no exercise --> you get the picture. Plus, tired makes it soooo very easy to cut corners on food choices. Ordering food in (and not even remotely healthy food) becomes more common than I would like.

I have been hitting bed early pretty regularly. So, I don't think that is what I need to fix. That leaves me thinking that I really need to get moving more. If I get and keep moving my hope is that the better quality sleep will come.

The Plan! It is simple and it is easy. Tomorrow morning I am going to do my morning dance party and my 8 minutes in the morning workout. Even when I am tired I can manage this, so manage it I will. I will follow that with a healthy breakfast. A walk to the grocery store at lunch so I can have a nice green smoothie lunch will help to raise my step count and make healthy food choices easier.

The next part of the plan??? I keep thinking that better start with cleaning out my fridge and freezer so I can do some good healthy meal prep. It is always a help to have something healthy in the freezer you can just heat up for supper when you are tired after work. But I think the fridge clean out will wait for the weekend. 

Struggles - And My Plans to Escape Them

The last little while has been a bit of a slog. I have been making some unhealthy food choices – which is okay in moderation, but moderation hasn't really been the description I would use. But in fairness to myself it hasn't been an all-out no holds barred eating and lazing about fest either.

I can blame it on a whole series of things but ultimately it comes down to choice. I have made choices that don't support my desire to get into better shape and to feel better – to put less of a strain on my feet and knees (the knee is top of mind today because it was giving me a lot of grief after a tiny bit of hyperextension got it worked up).

Choices that I feel would better support my goal:

1. Preparing some pre-made and ready to heat up meals for days when work has sucked the energy out of me.
2. Keep moving – it energizes me and is absolutely vital to the process. Working at the office instead of home is a good first step – although that has been hard lately because of the ultra cold office temperature. But I am just going to have to come up with some keep warm clothing layering strategies.
3. Set an alarm clock for bed time – almost every time I slip into a pattern of making unhealthy choices it stems from a very tired starting point. Going to set the alarm right now on my fitbit – and DONE.

Newtonian Physics and Fitness

The writing podcast that I have been thoroughly enjoying has certainly been helping me with my fiction writing – at least I hope. I admit most of it hasn't had much impact on what I write on here, I tend to be fairly stream of consciousness when I write my posts. But now it is time for them to collide.

It only looks like one of Saturn's moons is colliding with it. Not like the actual connection between writing excuses and this blog that is about to happen. There is one of their podcasts  http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/01/24/11-04-newtons-laws-of-writing/ that put the three laws into terms of writing. The first is a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body at rest tends to stay at rest. The second one is the formula force = mass times acceleration. The third is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So I want to translate those to this journey, this challenge of getting fit – and keeping fit.

Body in motion – to me this one speaks to how much easier it is to keep going than it is to start in the first place. But it also explains to me why it can be so easy to come to a dead stop and give up – because sometimes something that should just feel like a bump (say a day or a couple days of unhealthy food choices or lack of activity) can feel like a dead stop. Requiring all that force to restart the motion.

All I can really say is that if we can really try to keep in mind that those are just speed bumps not stop signs we can probably get through them.

The second one – the formula - I will ignore the obvious part of this that applies to the actual motion of exercises. I liked the writing excuses version which basically is results = motivation times focus. This is all about knowing what you want and driving yourself towards it. But this doesn't sit alone – there are 3 of these babies.

Third – action and reaction. This is the one that I think people get completely hung up on. When they have a specific reaction they are looking for, and that is the only reaction they consider or care about. But in the human body (which is a complex system and where each of us has our own idiosyncrasies of how our body responds) it is so important to remember that not all the reactions will be visible on the surface. This is why I have relegated the scale to once a month. It is why I am hoping to add in other things, other measures that are meaningful to me. I don't want to fall into the trap of needing a particular reaction to keep number one in motion, I don't want the lack of some expected reaction to be a stop sign.

So that is my application of the laws to this journey I am on. Now I am going to use this to note that my word count in my writing goal is currently in motion!

Movement and Intention

I think I mentioned that I am back at doing my 8 minutes in the morning exercises. Although I won't do them every day – for example on days when I have aquacize I will allow myself the choice of whether to do dance party and 8 minutes or not. Sometimes I probably will, sometimes not.

The reason I mention it today is that today was hamstrings and quads. Hamstrings is a prone pelvic lift (but with your feet on a chair).

By the way I can't take credit for drawing this. I found a picture online then just did a bit of playing with picture effects to make it purple and looking like it was hand drawn.

So as I started them I could feel right away that my low back was feeling it. I know from having heard it many times at pilates classes that if you don't have intention with this – if you don't properly engage your glutes you will dump into your low back – and sure enough that is what I was doing.

I quickly adjusted my intention, engaging my rear end as I should have been from the beginning – and lo and behold what do you think happened??? That's right – it is no real surprise but the issue with my low back evaporated.

So here is my reminder to you and to myself – proper form and conscious intention in movement will help keep you safe in your activities so you are able to continue enjoying them for a long, long time!

Love Songs --> Self Lovin'

So a while ago I wrote about how a particular song by Dido was for me, at that moment seeming to be a song about freeing yourself. Not necessarily about the obvious story of meeting someone on vacation.

Tonight I am again immersed in my Dido song list and Chantal Kreviazuk song list and realizing that practically any "love song" if you look at it as the other person being yourself – they can be full of great advice on how to love yourself. I am kind of enjoying that thought process of how we can look to ourselves as the loves in these songs. Some really resonate for me that way – others well maybe not so much.

I will continue to work on this front - to accept and love myself the way I would if I was the star of a love song from me, to me. I have a way to go, but I feel closer to that goal than I remember being before. I know I have done a lot less negative self talk about the shape I have currently and the look of my body currently. It isn't that my acceptance and appreciation of how I look now means that I don't want to get fitter or healthier - just that I am feeling more okay in my skin as it is now so the fitness is more about the other things not just the look of it. 

But even on that front I still have a way to go - as I do still need to wrap my head around the idea of how to deal with someone else who might not be as accepting of me as I am now. As I think about re-entering the world of dating for the first time in a very long time that part of things dwells in my mind a bit. And that is when some of that acceptance crashes down and I wonder will I need to justify or explain or something. But then I think to heck with that - if all they see is my few extra pounds they aren't the right person for me. 

Even when I am fitter, the marks of my weight will still be with me so that too I will need to deal with. I know before when I lost my weight (notice that wording - I know my mindset then wasn't as good as it could be - and it is still hard to break those thought patterns that revolve around the scale). I think there was a part of me that hated my body more then in some ways, the excess skin and stretch marks. I know I wasn't in love with my body then because I even thought about whether surgical options might be a good idea. Yet I am adamantly opposed to taking that kind of risk on something purely cosmetic in nature. I am still working on that - because the idea continues to float through my mind occasionally. I admit it is mostly because of the overhanging bit on my belly that creates a sweaty uncomfortable area on my body. Probably because it is uncomfortable (and I admit I still can't quite come to peace with the appearance of it) it will continue to float in my mind to some degree. 

Wish me luck on quest : finding that self love and keeping that self love in place as I work my way to a fitter body.

On to the fitness front, and how I did a bit of self love through fitness this morning. It was morning dance party for a few songs. Then I thought it was a good idea to revisit the 8 minutes in the morning workouts I used to do. I like it because it is two exercises – strength exercises that shouldn't take much longer than 8 or 10 minutes to do the 4 sets of 12 of each of them. Although in my experience with it in the past is that there are a few where it is something that is one arm at a time or one leg at a time that take a little longer. But even those ones are probably only 15 minutes or so.

So, amidst the other things I am working on, I am going to try to keep up my 8 minutes in the morning exercises at least 3 times a week. It feels like a good mix with the other stuff I am hoping to keep going. None of it feels like "too much" right now. I think the blend and variety of things will keep it interesting enough to keep me engaged.

Deep Water Fitness

Deep water aquacize class was fantastic. Where has this been all my life? Why haven't I tried it before? The workout is surprisingly good, it had me feeling the burn in various muscle groups, and it even got me breathing heavy. LOL I can think of other things I would rather be breathing heavy over but I suspect that Jeffrey Dean Morgan isn't going to be in Saskatoon any time soon.

So the workout did highlight once again that my hamstrings are in a weird place. While they are pretty flexible – they are tight as heck, and I don't think they are very strong. So that is definitely something for me to think about.

The great bit is that I can do this a couple times a week at lunch. I had worried about doing a pool based class at lunch time. But it wasn't hard to keep my head out of the water – so I don't need to worry about having to wash my hair afterwards if I don't want to. Which also means I don't need to wear my skull crushing swim cap. Heck I could probably even be fine with wearing my makeup (eye makeup is all I really wear – but with a "runny" non-waterproof mascara). 

** On the RANT side of things – since I said sometimes I would rant on here **

I wish my city would get its act together with the transit system. If I didn't know better I would think someone responsible for planning route changes has been sitting there for the last few years and going – hmmmmm let's see, how can we make the bus service for czing just incrementally worse. Not bad enough that she gives up on the bus completely, but just a smidge worse. Of course the rational side of me doesn't believe that is the case – I am not nearly so important as that ;)

I NEED to Move it Move it

I have a serious issue. I am able to see it quite clearly right now, I need some kind of activity that will really spur me on. Get and keep me moving. Something that excites me, something I can really enjoy, enjoy in the way that it makes me want to make the effort to go out and do it.

The catch is that I am currently also putting myself on a rather tight budget  for now – so I know it won't be a return to the pilates studio. Although I do think that next year's flex spending will all go towards personal spending account so that if I want to get back to a bit of pilates studio stuff I can hopefully at least cover a few packs of classes with that PSA money.

In the meantime I really need to get myself going to the yoga classes. Either that or I need to start trying some of the other ones they offer at the PAC (since at least that isn't out of pocket money for me).

AND BOOM – Ask and you shall receive. I just checked the schedule and they have started the deep water aquacize class that I wanted to try out. I signed up for Wednesday (lunch time class so we will see how I like pool time in the middle of the day).

I also see that on Thursdays they have added a 7am yoga class. That sounds very appealing to me. It might be a bit of a challenge to get there on time for it. But I think I will have to give it a try. I really do enjoy starting my day with something – I find it so much easier to stick with than something that is later in the day. Although I do think the noon classes should be okay once I get into the swing of them.

The other class I might have to try out once or twice is the Zumba class. I think it just seems like it would be a lot of fun.

So, see that wasn't that hard actually. Glad I started to write this or else I might not have gone to look at the fitness centre calendar and then I wouldn't have noticed what was coming up and the opportunities I would have to try some new things I have been considering!

LOL I was going to put in a link for the video for "I like to move it move it" but I have opted for the one from Madagascar instead. Whichever one it is - I need something that helps me to remember that I do LIKE to move it move it.

Excellence and Not so much

Well I had this fantastic day for steps on Sunday - hit a new record at over 20K steps. Thanks in large part to hunting Pokemon with my nephew. It was good but I was definitely foot sore by the end of it.

Then we roll on to Monday (my lowest step count since I started back to tracking these things) followed by Tuesday which wasn't much better. I really need to make sure I get more sleep - that was the big problem those two days. Pair that with working at home and you have a recipe for SEDENTARY. And for me it is also a recipe for unhealthy food choices. Still working through the tired and the food choices. In the end I just need to pay the price for it - the price being that for the rest of the week I have a lot less flexibility for how many points I can eat in a day. So really, not that bad.

And now I am going to get myself ready for bed so I can try and catch up and get back into the routine.

Just about a month

I am now nearing the month mark of working on a change in my lifestyle. So I thought today would be a great day to do a video (see it below if I manage to get it to work).

But I also wanted to do a bit of a recap of how things are going.

Activity

This borrowed image is exactly how I feel.

• Morning Dance Party 12/22 days I have done it. 
• Walking 10K steps - 198523/210000 - 13 days I hit the mark, 8 I didn't.
• Yoga - Only got out to it 2 times since I started tracking. It is hard, I find every time my shoulder gives me some grief, each time we do triangle and my shoulder is on the edge of pain I want to retreat from it. But I will work through it, I know the downward dog etc we do there is good for it, it was part of my physio. I will just have to be very cognizant of shoulder position since the instructor has a big class and can't provide much correction.
• Standing - I have to add a column to my tracker, but I would say I hit the 2 hour mark 2/3 of the days I worked at the office.
• Sleep - this has been a very serious challenge and is a big part of the reason I haven't done as well as I would like on many of the other markers. It can be hard to motivate and spur myself on when I feel like I have barely slept or I wake up with a headache.

Eating

• Home cooked - doing fairly well on this, again I don't have a column for it, so I will need to add one. I have eaten meals out a bit more than I wanted to, I think this is where some prep work will come in handy. If I have lots of stuff prepared and frozen, or at least set up to be easy the appeal for getting food out will be smaller. 
• Fruit and Veg - I may have missed the odd tracking on this but about 8 days I hit the 5 servings mark, several others I was at 4, so still room for improvement here
• Water - usually this is one of my easiest things. BUT, this leads us back to sleep up above, and perhaps a too much information moment. I was getting up SO many times in the night to go to the bathroom that I scaled back my water intake in the hopes of getting a decent night's sleep
• Tracking - I have done it consistently although I did bundle an estimate a couple of times instead of details.

LOL and now I see that it is really only 3 weeks in. But I was looking at the start of September falling in this week and thinking it was a good time to do the recap. So here it is regardless of whether it is at the "month" mark or not.

Now for the video. Here is me doing some wall pushups because I know I would not be working with good and safe form if I tried them on the ground. I will always choose form first with any exercise. This is inspired by the people doing the 22 pushups for 22 days in support of first responders and veterans with PTSD. While I won't promise to do them every day, I like pushups as one of the video docs of my progress. Please try to ignore my clicking wrist (that is what I was trying to do).

Finding Yourself

So I keep playing the song "Sand in my Shoes" by Dido. I love this song. On the face of it, it seems it is about a woman who perhaps met someone while on holidays and is now home.

BUT, here is my take on this song. The interpretation I am feeling right now.

First the YOU, is ME. It is that me that is my best and happiest me. It is the me that is unafraid and open and everything else. It is the me that I unfortunately also regularly stifle. Why do I do that, why do I stifle that me? Fear is likely a part of it. Some ill conceived notion I have of who I should be, of the labels I and others have applied to me.

We start with the idea of "I don't have time" right at the start of the song. Guess I will have to start making time to grow that me, nurture her so she feels safe being out.

"I've still got sand in my shoes. And I can't shake the thought of you. I should get on, forget you. But why would I want to." I love this line so much - this idea of moving on because we should. How many things have I done in the name of should that in hindsight really were shouldn'ts.

"I know we said goodbye, anything else would have been confused but IIIIIIIII wanna see you again". Well let us hope it isn't too confused. That brighter me is still me, and I do, I wanna see that me again!

And then again maybe that you I want to see again is also some sandy beach somewhere that can provide the sand for my shoes. A beach where I can let that ME out to play. But I am not going to wait for that beach - today is as good a day as any to start opening the door for her.

Tiredness thou art my enemy

... well tiredness and arrogance :). I kind of expected my "effortless" comment last blog to come back to bite me. I only wish I hadn't taken such a big bite of comeuppance, and pizza, and donuts. So I knew the birthday gathering was going to be a big point affair. And it was. But the plan had been to get back on track with lower point choices the next day.

Unfortunately I was so very tired that not only was it almost impossible for me to muster up the energy for the short walk I took with my nephews (didn't even hit my steps for the day). But it left me so tired that I just couldn't even think of making supper for me and the boys. The other thing is that I do find my cravings for unhealthy junk always goes through the roof when I am tired. So I ate more pizza and donuts than I should have.

Today feels much more back on track though. And I am just about at my 10K steps (thanks to my sister's treadmill which I really enjoyed) and then a walk once I was home. I think I might need to do a bit of looking for a treadmill. I could see myself using it regularly. But for right now I will just feel happy to be back on track and ready for a new week.

Other insights:
I have found myself dwelling on the scale results way too much. So I have decided that I will only weigh in once a month when I do my photos. If I need to do a bunch of analysis I can always look through my tracking file and look for trends in behaviours etc.

New Hair!

So maybe this is normally about fitness things, and food/health things, but part of that is about feeling good. And I have to say my new "do" was making me feel good last night when I got it. Here is the picture from last night - I kind think I look almost elvish in it, and I love that about the way the picture turned out.

On the topic of fitness and eating etc. I am very happy with things so far. I have been making great choices. Healthy home made foods most of the times. Small portions when one of those two things isn't the case (not healthy or not home made). It feels pretty good, and surprisingly effortless. I am pretty sure the harder bit will be tomorrow when celebrating with family and the potential for cake - it will be point heavy so I will need to work around the knowledge of it and try to keep it in moderation (I do love cake so the moderation might be a challenge especially if it is my sister's home made chocolate cake)

I am also happy to report my step count has been consistently above 10K. My morning dancing has been going well (only missed it on Wednesday when I had to leave extra extra early to get to an appointment).

Now I better go to bed since I need to be up so I can find and pack up stuff for yoga tomorrow. Which I better go book right now before I forget :)

Yoga!

Yoga at lunch time today was great. Although my feet felt like they were getting the workout of a lifetime. I don't know if it is the extra weight I am carrying these days or if something fundamental has changed in the musculature of my feet but they get sore and tired and almost crampy whenever I do a significant amount of exercise that requires them to be working.

Outside of that, the workout was a great one. I know it is probably completely mental but I can already feel my body working its way back to easier movement. It was easier today than it was Friday and I hope for that trend to continue (although as it gets easier I will try to push myself so that it doesn't truly become easier).

I found it so good in fact that I am planning to add in the lunch time yoga class on Monday into my routine as well. Here's hoping it is a great one (it is a different yoga class but I really like the sound of it - Dragon Flow - apparently it is lots of big movements followed by lots of deep stretching poses).

Food wise today has been great so far. Although the experimental concoction I have cooking right now might change my mind about that :)

Challenging Second Day

The big challenge yesterday was the massive headache I had for most of the day that got really bad in the early evening. Likely a result of the terrible sleep I had the night before. But despite that I did still manage to start my day with my morning dance party (did so again this morning).

The big problem was that when I feel that way I often crave foods I know aren't healthy. And I didn't really have anything in the house to satisfy that in a reasonable way (at least nothing that was more work than my headache was going to allow). So I did end up tacking on the giant 6 points half a twix bar costs. But I did try to take my time with it at least.

Today is yoga at lunch time so I better get going so I can get showered and get my stuff all packed for it. 

Starting Again

It is sad to me that I have to say I am almost back at the beginning. I have let myself be way too sedentary. I have started eating piles of the foods (well food like substances) that I know have little or no redeeming characteristics. The end result is that my body feels achy and full of little reminders that not moving enough is not a recipe for a fit feeling body. All this is not to mention that the other obvious result is that I am again carrying around a lot of excess body fat. That is not the healthy me I want to be. So today I start back down the road of returning to a healthy lifestyle. My plan is as follows:

Activity

• Steps – 10K/day - I dusted off the fitbit and slapped it on my wrist.
• Standing – 2hrs/workday – I have the sit stand desk it is time to use it with a goal in mind.
• Dancing – 15 minutes/morning – I love doing it, it is a great way to start the day.
• Yoga – 2 sessions/week – I need to get back to moving my body and stretching it. I will swap in other activities as desired – and once I get going I plan to up this goal to more times a week.
• Sleep – 7 hours/night – so important, so easy to neglect

Eating

• Food Tracking – I wish I could say I don't need something like this. But the simple truth is, for me it is very helpful to track my eating, as it helps to remind me about portions and keeps me reminded about yet another reason why the foods that aren't healthy aren't healthy.
• Cooking at home – this is a huge key. It is so easy to grab foods on the go. Problem is those are too often food-like substances that have little resemblance to real healthy food.
• Fruit and Vegetables – 5 servings a day (minimum)
• Water – 8 glasses/day (minimum)

Measurables/Accountability

• Pictures – I believe these are a valuable way of documenting the journey.
  
• Videos – because it isn't primarily about what your body looks like, it is about what it can do. I will be setting myself a couple of goals and then doing regular videos of my progress towards those goals.
• Scale – body fat % is the one I will primarily be concerned with (although I doubt my scale actually does a good job on this). I might drop this measurable as generally I don't consider it a healthy thing to worry about.
• Community – I will blog about this, and I will look for a community to connect with, that was a really important part of the process last time. And I hope to find something like that again.