What is Realistic?

I'm not meeting my own goals and I'm very disappointed in myself. The slugdom continues, exacerbated by a furious pace at work between meetings confined in narrow areas.  As witness, I have my little armband limpet friend who keeps me honest on the activity side. Except for running on the treadmill Saturday, I have not made all three goals for steps, activity time, or total calories burned in over a week. I'm close on my sleep, however, though there is often a period of tossing and turning.

I'm not tracking my food, but that is partly because it is such a sad picture. I'm not wigging out on sweets, it's just too much of everything, and bread more often than I should. For example, yesterday I got a lovely chicken caesar salad for lunch during the break in my all day (window-less) meeting.  Not my usual spot, so while I wasn't surprised by croutons in the salad, I was surprised by the big hunk of tasty french bread served on the side.  And I ate it all.  It wasn't just that it was good, but also it made me crave more carbs for the rest of the day. This is a real effect based on blood sugar responses to carbs, but even if it was just in my head, it comes to the same thing, doesn't it?  I spent the afternoon nibbling until dinner, then restless and mouthy all evening. I had herb tea, and a flavored water, and more herb tea, and remained discontented until morning.

In the past, I have increased my satisfaction by lowering my expectations. Maybe I should just change my goals? What is reasonable to expect of myself?

I'm going to the gym three times a week for strength and fitness and balance training. I was thinking of cutting it back to twice, and substituting running on the treadmill at work. But that is contingent on actually running on the treadmill at work, which I haven't done, so I've kept the third appointment. I have run for short periods on Saturdays. I have not been walking between my two houses in the evenings because I have hated the cold weather. However, I'm trying to get into a winter wonderland mood, and I did just buy myself a fabulous new down jacket that arrived last night. I walked tonight, because I had my peachy new tiffany-blue jacket to wear.  Warm and toasty for those parts of me it covers, at least.

I would like to maintain walking between the houses. I would like to get to the gym at work at least once for a run. I would like to take advantage of breaks in my schedule to climb stairs at the office on days I don't want to venture outside. But I haven't had a good track record this past week (or somewhat longer, truthfully) on meeting those expectations. But I don't want to lower my expectations. I don't think I'm shooting too high, with just those modest additional steps, activities, calories burned.  It is what will make a difference in my losing versus gaining weight.

So I'll start with credit for my little walk this evening, and omit beating myself up for staying close to my desk and focused at work all day.  I'll give myself credit for having brought my lunch to work and eating just that.  We'll just pull a curtain over everything else, and move on to 6 am in the gym tomorrow.