Success is the sum of small efforts

Guess Who fits back into their size 8 pants!  Well, mostly.  They are still pretty tight but not so tight that I have to unbutton the top to wear them, or that they are so uncomfortable that I can't sit down in them.  I have decreased in size a smidgen.  I need to decrease another smidgen and then they will fit comfortably.  I wore my size 8 shorts today because my others were dirty and I didn't do the laundry before I left for the gym.  So I grabbed my size 8s because it has finally decided that it isn't winter anymore and the temperatures were in the 70s today.  I even stayed well within my calorie goal and only ate about 10 of my exercise calories today.  Nothing like a tight fitting pair of pants to give you motivation to eat less.  I was busier than usual at home today, catching up with cleaning and weeding and menu planning.  All the things I haven't been able to do either because of the rain or because the kids have been sick. 

Yesterday I woke up and my back felt a whole lot better.  I was shocked at how well it felt.  It always seems that my prayers are answered faster when I'm about to give up hope.  I took yesterday as a rest day and pretty much just lied around the house.  I took a nap with the kids again and made it a point to get as much rest and relaxation as possible.  I didn't eat very much because I didn't feel very well.  I didn't track my dinner because I didn't make it, but I hardly ate anything for dinner.  About 1/4 chicken breast, some sugar free jello, some potatoes with olive oil and dill, baby carrots, and that's about it.  Before dinner I had 604 calories remaining for the day, so I'm not worried about going over.  I probably only ate about 350 calories depending on the potatoes. 

We went down to my grandparent's in the evening and when we came home around 8pm and we just went to bed.  The kids were harder to get down since they both took naps but everyone was asleep by 9:30ish.  This morning is definitely the best I've felt in a while.  I went to drop the kids off at the gym and it was a mad house!  School is out now and I've never seen so many kids there.  They have summer camps that run all through the summer.  After going through the mad house I did my first ever brick workout and I thought it was fairly easy, so I will have to push myself harder next time on the bike.  A brick workout is where you bike first and then run.  I did a 30 minute bike on the spin and then a 10 minute run at 6mph.  I burned about 450 calories in 40 minutes.  After that I went to Zumba toning and I had enough energy to make it all the way through.  After my gym workout I was feeling pretty tired.  I made a green smoothie for lunch, weeded the rocks for the first time in a month because of all the rain and cold weather we've been having, did all the laundry, swept and mopped the kitchen floors, made dinner, cleaned the kitchen and by the time I was done I was pretty tired.  I snapped this photo of me and Chloe on the couch around 5pm.

Have you ever heard the quote "Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out?"  I realized today the truth behind that.  Change happens over time through your the efforts you make every day.  Just learning a new way of life is just that, changing your way of life.  There is no going back, just because you hit a bump in the road you don't give up, you keep working, you keep moving forward, keep trying.  Every Day.