Ten in 2010 – Week 5 Update (Does Spring cleaning count as exercise?)

This is my weekly post updating my progress in Ten in 2010 – the challenge with other bloggers to get healthy in the first ten weeks of the New Year.

I am almost upset enough to not post this week. I really had a tough week trying to stay with the new diet and exercise plan. It was a rather frustrating time midway through this 10 week challenge.

Last weekend ended with me getting on a major campaign to do some Spring cleaning! I know that Spring is nowhere in sight, but I have neglected the housekeeping as of late (could we possibly guess why????). So, I woke up on Sunday morning with all sorts of energy and decided to go for it! Well, things were so much in disarray that the cleaning went over to Monday and into Tuesday. That still left cleaning out closets and drawers and some other miscellaneous chores. (That would be the next week’s project!).

I must have done 20 loads of laundry washing all the little things that have piled up recently. I have a stack of ironing 2 feet high that I keep staring at. I was so exhausted after all of this strenuous “exercise” and high levels of stress from cleaning overload, I did not get on my treadmill for more than 2 days.

I was, however, sticking to my diet for the most part until I woke up one morning totally starving and then I went for the slice of whole wheat toast with my egg (oh, no!). It was over after that! I realized just how hungry I have been and how much I missed eating somewhat normal foods most days. So, I completely went off schedule that day and had pasta for dinner and ate some of my Meyer lemon sorbet for dessert (which by the way, is incredible and totally worth the calories!).

That was Wednesday and I have tried to get back on track since then, but I have certainly not gotten on the scale! I think I weigh about the same (jean check). After all, cleaning the house does burn a ton of calories. 😉 I just feel bad because I lost the focus. I believe part of this was due to our miserable, rainy and cold weather. It has been depressing and easy to stay inside and keep doing computer stuff, housekeeping and of course, cooking!

In addition to these somewhat self-inflicted situations, I have also had the neighbors bearing “bad” food (hot chocolate chip oatmeal cookies) at 9:30 pm Monday night. Thank goodness I had a hubby and son to munch on those (although I had to check them out to make sure they were good). I also had the neighborly invitation for wine at 5 pm (twice, no less, during the week) and the “I have to eat out because I am too tired to cook after cleaning all day” kind of night on no less than 2 occasions!

I am determined to get back at it next week. I cannot count on the weather, so I better get myself in gear to get moving (and that doesn’t mean just cleaning out the drawers) and find a way to balance foods so I do not get hungry enough to toss out the whole diet plan and eat my way to the back of the fridge. I just need to excuse myself until Monday am because this is Super Bowl weekend and we all know this weekend all bets are off (or on!). 😉

My plan going into Week 6 is to go forward with Phase 3 of the South Beach diet which will allow me to eat some of the things I want, in moderation. Then hopefully, I will not get so hungry! I am also going to commit to more regular exercise and hope desperately for sunshine and warm weather!

Good luck to all of you in your challenge to get and stay fit in the New Year!