2020 - Looking Back at the Year

Weight - Started at 187.7, ended at 177.9. High 202. Low 175.5.

2020 was quite the year. Mid-March, Covid was affecting everyone. Luckily, our family jobs weren't impacted (Hubs and the older boys). #4 had moved to online school the year before, and #5 is uber adaptable and was fine when his school moved online for the end of his 8th-grade year. 

Even before Covid complications, I had slipped in my eating and exercise. The end of 2019 had been hard (anxiety issues for #4, a death in the family, broken bones and a car crash). I slipped a little in my fitness and food tracking, and it showed on the scale. I came into the year higher than I'd ever been. But it didn't stop there. Covid canceled my Zumba classes, took away my motivation for counting calories or keeping track of my workouts (which impacted doing those workouts). There was some seeking of comfort foods, and sleeping in, as I didn't have to get boys to school or off to Zumba class.

When I hit 200, that was a bit of an eye-opener. I'd always (other than pregnancy) stopped at about 185 before. Tracking my sleep ... and some snoring, I finally decided to crack down on the eating and exercise. Mid-October I went back to counting calories with MFP, and limiting when I ate. I'd tried IMF (Intermittent Fasting) back mid-2019 with some success (low of 164 at the end of June), but then as mentioned, 2019 hit hard times and my motivation fled. I had just planned on resuming 16:8, as I had done last year, but I found myself doing 18:6, and even doing some 20+ fasts. I'd stop eating in the afternoon (around 3:00-5:00) and then wait to eat until 11:00 or later the next day. I'm not really a breakfast person anyway. 

As far as exercise, although I had slowed, I never stopped. I'm super spoiled with a complete home gym in the basement. Although the cancellation of Zumba affected me, the closing of the gyms didn't. I still had my treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike and full set of weights. I remember posting a picture of my weight set (I was repositioning things, which was a workout itself!) and got so many comments of "where did you get all those dumbbells!?!" as apparently in a Covid world, there was a huge shortage of home workout equipment. As the year went on, my elliptical broke (just as I was upping my exercise) but was able to be repaired. My Motiv ring stopped working. I replaced it with the Oura, and am trying out Amazon's new Halo tracker ... although Fitbit is still my main source for feedback.

When the weather warmed up, I reached out to a few ladies about resuming Zumba outside. Zumba is completely non-contact, very easy to social distance. So we did that. Tuesdays and Fridays in the church parking lot for Spring and Summer. Some days were hot. Some days it rained. Eventually, restrictions relaxed a bit, and we moved back into the church building. In the Fall, when the numbers started increasing again, the church limited building use to only the most essential meetings. Anything athletic was not allowed. In my building anyway. One of the other ladies had leadership that was being a bit more lenient, so we moved to Mon/Wed at that building. These ended up being MY classes. I was the instructor, but I did have a couple of helpers to add variety and energy. 

As far as family ... no one in our immediate family caught Covid, lost their job (#3's Nike store did close for a while, so he went back to work as an electrician with #2. #4 even got his first job) or was too adversely affected by everything. 

#3 finally got a new car, Hubs got a new truck. #1 got a work truck and he and his wife bought a house (early in the year, pre-pandemic). #2 broke his foot AGAIN, bought a house, and got married. Pandemic wedding! There were still trips to the lake, and Hubs had a few get-aways. Basketball was reduced, but not gone. No ducks this year, but the doggy next door had puppies, and that was a lot of fun. Some major renovations in the house (things switched up as #2 moved out). I actually went to TWO movies at the theater at the start of the year (I hadn't been in a long time! Ironic as then all the movie theaters had to shut down). Home haircuts, lots of family board/card games, pickleball and ping pong ... oh, and the earthquake. Can't forget about that! It was definitely a year to remember!

2019 ... Year In Review

... all my monthly collages in one. You can see the official Fitbit Intake/Burn graph ended in July. I went ahead and made my own in Excel for September/October, and then gave up on including that graphic ... which also included some stopping of counting calories all together. About that same time I gave up my weekly blog updates/number crunch/reviews and just went to a look at the whole month.

 ... and this was my Instagram Top 9

I don't particularly want to go over the annual numbers ... not a good year. Last year at this time, I had an uber up on the scale. I managed to dip down a little in the summer. But I fell in the fall. Back to the highest weight I've been outside of pregnancy.

 

 Weight started at 173.6. Ended at 188.5. High was 190.8. Low was 164.3. 

Here's the Stats. I gave up calorie counting at the end of the year.

Any correlation to the numbers on the scale jumping up? Coincidence? ;)

Here's a look at LifeCycle ... the  MORE section is showcased below (I wish we had the option to just include it! If you look back at 2017 it was ALL on the same one. I realize people who have more going on might not make it fit, but I'd like the option).  It's interesting to compare it from year to year. Zumba was my top activity ... dancing beat driving! More basketball this year than last, which surprised me. A little less time with family. Lawn mowing was exactly the same! Time at the dentist was almost identical to last year, time at the doctor's doubled (and unfortunately, I'm betting we beat it this coming year). More time on school stuff, and that doesn't even reflect the real story.

Added racquet sports ... that was either tennis, badminton or pickleball. Hope to have more of that next year. A bit of bowling. Looking at last year I didn't see bowling there. Less beach time. I only went once with the family. A bit more time on food runs, picking up pizza or Popeyes. Some snow shoveling. Auto stuff. Hubs and I went to see a monarch release, I wasn't sure how to categorize that! And of course, my ONE RUN of the year. A few minutes slower than last year.

One last look at 2019

(I made this collage for the family blog)

2018 ... the Year in Review

 A collage caught on camera of all the events of 2018 ... I still Zumba-ed throughout the year. Hubs had his derby daze. There were the ducks, and the kitties. Basketball was mainly #5, two teams and a couple of championships. Lots of trips to the lake. A family 5k. A wedding. Family games. A new Fitbit. A garden, lots of baking, and Gray goes gourmet.

My second year with LifeCycle ... GPS tracking my little life. Interesting to compare it with last year. Much the same. Driving, Zumba and elliptical top my activities. A little more treadmill this year, a little less basketball.  I'm sure there was a ton more time devoted to duckies and gardening, but I was logging that manually and only did so on days where I went above and beyond my normal daily duties. Some sunshine at the beach ... haircuts, dentists, school stuff. I liked last year's chart more ... without the "more" section, for those activities that just didn't have a lot of time to them (it's so small ... four hours with doctors, three hours grabbing food, generally pizza or donuts. A couple hours of walking and the 5k shows there as my only non-treadmill run of the year. I'd meant to break up my weight workouts into  a regular sessions, and smaller Abs ... but then there was only an hour w/abs. Some automotive ... getting a tire patched, gas runs, car washes. An hour at the bank, loan stuff. 

Here's a look at the month to month stats ...

 ... and scale stuff ...

I think it looks a little more extreme than it is.

Low 167.3, High 180.4 ... so it stuck within 13 pounds.

2017 in the Books

2017 is in the books ... #1 finished his Mexico mission and returned home. #2 had his senior season on the basketball team and graduated from high school. #3 got his braces off and got job. The boys had a fun summer vacation in Seattle/Canada and took the waverunners to the lake several times here at home. Hubs continued smoking and developed an ice obsession. Our two kitties are a constant, but we went to the birds this year with two sets of ducks and a couple geese. A family 5k and I Zumba-ed all year long ...

A started tracking with Life Cycle at the beginning of the year. Monitoring my sleep and my activities. 

I'm a total home-body, I know most people would have huge wedges for work and/or school. While my time in the car takes the top spot away from home, I know it's tiny compared to most (I despise driving and have anxiety issues even as a passenger ... I'd love to have it less! But I did start listening to audiobooks often, and that has helped). 

I track my exercise monthly, but it's fun to see how it adds up annually! The boy's basketball sure fills up a chunk of time too ... happily, I really love watching them play. 

 ... and it wouldn't be an annual review without a look at the scale shifts, right? I started the year pretty much at my high (I've been there a few times over the years). I had some small success in the late Spring, but got off schedule in the summer. I re-committed to food/fitness as school started up and saw the scale slide, but then slipped up again a bit with the end of year holidays ...

Weight: Start (180.7) End (169.9) High (184.4)  Low (163.5)

Here's a little look at some of the stats month to month ...

I know I really should shift up the routine, shake things up to see if I could get some better results. I am a creature of habit. I'm quite comfortable with my "hour of elliptical" in the morning as I get the boys off to school. Then Zumba ... which may be more for my social/emotional health than physical/weight loss. A walk on the treadmill while I watch a movie or series, a session on the bike while I read. I know I need to make weights more of a priority.  But overall ... I do realize it's the eating more than the exercise where I could find success on the scale.

... we'll see what 2018 brings!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Well, it's 2016! A new year. 2015 wasn't the best for me. I wasn't super satisfied with my weight when I started (around 155) and ended up the year 10 pounds over that. I'd actually been even higher in late Fall, which is weird, as Sep/Oct are usually good months for me (with the kids back in school, the return to routine). It's when I had my low in 2014. 

Here's a quick glance at the weight graph for 2015 ...

... and how 2015 compared to the last several years (starting in 2013)

I didn't do an official "annual" review post here (well, I guess THIS is it), but I did stick all my picture collages from each month on my family blog for an annual post there. It's fun to look back at the year. Now, this did require me to get all my monthly updates up to date (hanging head, I just barely did October and November.)  At least my  December  post was prompt.

Pictured up top is my cute little desk calendar for 2016. For me, it's a fitness calendar. I keep it in my gym. Each day I tear off that "day" and check out the inspirational quote, and then write my workout stats on the back, then transfer my numbers to my excel file upstairs. My son gave me a small desk calendar last year (Jan2015), and that replaced the plain notebook I had been using. I love that these are already printed with the date ... as sometimes I'd forget to write that down, and when I had a bunch of little papers around, I couldn't remember which one went with which day!

I haven't felt well for the past month or so. Not "sick" sick, but definitely not 100% and it has affected my exercise (unfortunately not my eating). My steps slipped, I fell on my Fitbit friend list. Instead of Zumba multiple times a week and an hour of elliptical, I just got a bit in here and there.

I'm still not feeling "back" ... but with school in session again, the return to the routine, I'm hoping to start the year strong and have a good 2016.

Looking Back on 2013

Here's a look back ... not only on 2013, but on several years preceding it. My "weight-loss" journey at a glance. In 2006, I lost the weight. A pretty drastic fall, but I did manage to maintain for a while. A little up in 2007, some fluctuation in both directions in 2008, getting back down at the end of the year, wasn't quite able to hold it in 2009. 2010 was higher than I like, but pretty even. Some ups and downs in 2011 ... then 2012 happened. It got away from me in 2012. There were some stresses at the end of the year (can you believe I actually blame Disneyland a bit for my downfall?). I almost gave up even trying to keep up my activity. I was down and discouraged. 

So that's how 2013 started ... pretty much back where I was before I lost the weight to begin with.  Being the "new year" I did TRY to up my activity again and had a tiny bit of a dip, but by April/May I was seeing big enough numbers that I knew I had to do something more. Activity alone wasn't cutting it. I joined MFP and started to keep a food diary and tried to control the calories coming in.

A closer look at weight during 2013

I saw pretty immediate success (thank heavens). I wanted to get back down to 135. I was about 180 starting, so I divided the 45 pounds to lose into three 15 pound goals. I was able to reach the first 15 pretty quick and easy. The second 15 ... well, that took a while (and while I DID hit 150, I didn't quite end the year there).  Still 15+ to go.

It's been in interesting year. As I started logging my food and adding up calories, it really opened my eyes to just how much I must have been eating. I don't know for sure of course, as I was NOT logging, but now, as I was keeping track and trying to control myself, I'd still easily hit 2000+ calories every day.  I know in my head I was thinking "but I'm quite active, I often burn 3000+ calories a day" ... which, while true on some days, didn't always average out to that, especially as my activity/motivation had dropped in those winter months.

I'm happy to say,

since starting MFP in May,

I haven't missed logging one day!

So I wasn't trying any specific diet or plan, I was just counting calories. Keeping track of what I was eating. Not necessarily even eating better (hanging my head in shame, I'm still a carb/sugar gal) but at least being accountable for recording what I was consuming and trying to keep the calories coming in under what was going out.

As for exercise, I did up my activity level. I know I need to switch things up ... I've been doing my "20minutes elliptical several times a day" for years and I'm sure it's not really challenging my body as much any more. This year I tried adding the stationary bike and some treadmill time (jogging an ENTIRE mile without stopping, also doing intervals).  I've done weights as part of my routine for years now and am keeping that up. I also added in some DVDs (Jillian's 30DS and Ripped in 30 along with others) for both cardio and strength. 

So, reflecting on 2013, and the years before ... where I am right now (the lower 150s) seems to be my "comfortable" weight. It's where I ended up several of those years. I really DO want to drop a few more (I'm still a little too close to "overweight" status, which is just 155 for me). 

I just started dailymile in August2013.

My mile count for 2014 will include the entire year :)

My goals for 2014 ... to achieve 150 and NOT cross above that line again. I'd love to hit 135, but really, I think I'll be fine if I stayed above that but maintained for the year. That being said, I'm NOT moving to maintenance at this point. I am still actively trying to lose a pound or so a week ... that is the continued goal. 

I'm not shaking up my exercise or eating too much ... I hope to get my exercise average back up to 3000+. It does really take quite a bit of activity on my part to do that. I want to keep my calories around 2000 ... I know so many women out there eat less (not sure how people sustain on 1200 though! I know, if it's all healthy food it goes much further) but I do enjoy eating and I figure that is reasonable IF I can keep up the activity level.

I'm excited to start the New Year and see what my graph for 2014 will look like ... *Ü*

How was 2013 for you? Any big changes for 2014?