Five Sweet Things

My apologies in advance for the rambling nature of this post, but I've been thinking about accountability a lot lately. I am accountable to no one. I am writing this blog for myself. I am working on being healthier for myself. And yet, I feel this strange need to "report" on what I ate or what exercise I did. Why is this? I know what I ate, good or bad. I know when I did or did not exercise. What is it about telling others that feels so...necessary?

The last time I was really working on being fit, before I got pregnant, I was on a great website called SparkPeople. It's a free website where you can log everything you eat, your workouts, and other healthy living goals. They help you set goals based on your current and desired weight, time frame and exercise abilities. They customize it for you, so they tell you how many calories you should be eating, how much exercise, etc. There is lots of content and some great articles and tips, as well as message boards, contests, everything (I promise, this is not an ad, but if you are interested, click the link below).



I really liked it a lot and got a lot out of it, and lost some weight. The one thing that really seemed to work was logging my food and activities. I don't know what it is about writing it down, but it really helps you stick to it. It's private, though you can make parts of it viewable if you want to. I haven't started back with SparkPeople again, though I'm realizing more and more that I probably need to and will re-start my program there. So I think it's that kind of accountability I've been thinking of. If you write it down, it's there forever.

So thinking about all of this, I wondered, how could I incorporate some aspect of this into my blog? I absolutely don't want it to be any sort of a log--boring! I know I want to share healthy recipes that I find (and the occasional amazing but fattening ones too!). But I want to keep it positive and honest, but without feeling like anyone out there might be thinking...."Ooooh...she ate banana pudding today...bad girl." I don't want judgment, that's a hard one for me. I kind of want this to be my little place of encouragement and peace.

So, in light of keeping things positive and optimistic, I've decided to do a daily "Five Sweet Things." They will be five things from the previous day or so that I am proud of myself for, or did right, or a challenge I overcame...you get the idea. Because even if it's been a hard, bad day, there is always something good in it. Kind of a gratitude journal, but focused more on my journey with healthy living. Though I'll include some things about being a stay-at-home-mom too, because there are some hard days when I need to focus on what's great about it. I'll still blog as planned, but at the very least, every day I'll do those 5 things. I chose to call it "Five Sweet Things" because I'm having to give up a lot of sugars for my meal plan, and this way I still have something sweet in my life everyday. bit a healthy sweet. Just because I'm doing this, it doesn't mean I won't talk about my failures too. But this way, I can focus on the successes, so that maybe I'll have more of them!

So, let's see, Five Sweet Things from the last day:

1. Even though it was wicked humid today, not only did Oliver & I go walking in the park, but we went up the big hill and kept up a good pace, and got 50 minutes of good walking done.
   
2. Dinner was a healthy chicken, veggies, and rice.
   
3. I stopped at one glass of wine....ok, maybe it was one and a half.
   
4. Oliver napped for 3 hours! This was amazing given his sleep patterns the last week or two.
5. Because Oliver napped for 3 hours, I got some housework done in addition to some "me time" on the computer.

And now, a confession for the record: I totally made homemade banana pudding on Sunday. I'll blame Marty....Vanilla Wafers were on sale at the grocery store! It was really yummy. Hey, I used sugar free pudding and 2% milk...that had to help!!