Big hurdles...small steps.

I overcame a big hurdle yesterday and today, and I did it by taking one small step. It's just one day. But it's the first day of many to come. Last night while I was playing around on the computer I started getting the urge again. The urge to snack. I do great with my food during meals. I really do. It's the snacking that does me in. Most days I snack in the mornings when I get out of bed instead of having breakfast. I have a late lunch and then snack after that. I snack at work while on break. I come home from work and have dinner at 9 or 10 pm and then around midnight I snack again. the past few days I have been doing alot of thinking about that and decided yesterday that enough was enough. It's time to change. It's time to break old habits and form new ones.

Last night when I started feeling like snacking, I turned of the computer and went to bed. It's just a tiny step and as much as that one commercial annoys me, it really is true. One good choice leads to another. This morning I was RUDELY awoken by a horrible storm this morning. It was so bad that the storm blew a branch out of the tree in my front yard and it got stuck on the power line. The power was arcing because of it and I could here it sizzling and popping. I called the power company as I dressed. They recommended that I switch of my main breaker (which I had already done because the power was surging and flashing on and off. I didn't want it to ruin any electronics) and leave the house. I let her know that it was still storming and I had no where to go (the entire family was camping over the weekend and not coming home until this afternoon so no one was home!) and asked how soon someone would be in the area. She told me it was being marked as a priority and sent right out. The guy had to come from a town normally 30 minutes away. He was pulling in 15 minutes after the call went out. Ended up the small stick knocked out power for 8 MILES! Once they cleared me to turn the main back on and they reset power for the area I decided I was awake, I may as well stay up. I was kind of hungry, but instead of snacking on chips or soda or the junk that I normally would have...... I had BREAKFAST!  I had a bagel with honey on one half and peanut butter on the other and a bottle of water.

The changes continued throughout the day. I had lunch before heading to work. I ate a tv dinner. I know that processed foods aren't great and I do want to get away from them, but with nursing school and still working as much as possible AND a possible promotion (more about that in another post) I just don't know how soon I can feasibly get rid of processed foods. That is in the works though! Normally I would drink 2 sodas with lunch, and probably have a bunch of chips too. Maybe some candy or something after. Top all that off with a bowl of ice cream before heading out the door. Today I didn't do that. I had my tv dinner and a 16.9 ounce bottle of water and that was the end. On my way out the door for work instead of having ice cream, I grabbed another bottle of water! I think I ended up drinking 5 of them today. Definitely 4... likely 5. Which is GREAT! My goal is to get to a point where I am drinking 80 - 100 ounces of water daily. Today I got somewhere 67 - 84!

For dinner I had another tv dinner with two slices of bread and butter and another bottle of water. I have made it through an entire 24 hour period with no snacking! WHOO HOO! I know it's small, but it is just the first step. The first day with many more days to come! For now... it's time to get some sleep. First because I am starting to feel like snacking again, and I don't want to do that. Second, because tomorrow is my last day off before the kids come home from their dad's. They have been gone since June 2nd. They come home on Saturday and I have ALOT that I need to do before they get home. I have to get upstairs and sort their toys and get rid of old worn out stuff. I have to set up their new beds, dust their bedrooms and tv room. Put their new TV upstairs (the old one from my bedroom) and get it hooked up and vaccum. The upstairs is their "world" I don't go up there when they are gone (have no reason to) and so it hasn't been cleaned that whole time. For now.... time for bed. Morning will come early and while it might be a day off... there is ALOT to do tomorrow!