New Beginnings: New Job Location, New Challenges

First of all this happened today: A 2 mile run (I usually never just 2 too miles, but when you are at 198 miles for the year and you ran 6 miles just 2 days ago, 2 miles is what you get!)

The 200 mile goal was a goal I made when I restarted C25K in January. I don't think I thought it would take me until mid-November, but here I am. My next goal is 275. 300 will never happen and that is okay.

But back to my topic. So, today, lots of starts. No, I didn't start a new job, but as of today I am officially Work From Home all the time! I no longer have a desk at my job location. They are consolidating floors at my location and some people are moving into the Boston office. In order to have an actual desk I had to commit to 3+ days in the office. I don't want to commit to any so I am Work From Home, which feels a little weird because work is only about 13 miles away. So 25 minutes in the morning, 18 minutes in the afternoon (not rush hour) but it was such a waste of time to be doing any commuting when there are many things I could be doing that would be better use of my time and I am way more productive when I work from home.

The highlights of WFH:
1) I no longer have to get up at 5:30 to work out - I can fit in work outs between dropping kid #1 at school and either bringing kid #2 to the bus or driving him to school (driving him gives us an extra 30-45 minutes and school is 2.5 miles away)
2) I can eat real food. Today I had a breakfast sandwich - I toasted an english muffin, I microwaved the turkey sausage, I panfried the fried egg. I've gotten so bored of the foods I've been bringing to the office - I have been a "same thing every day" type of person for years and I am sick of it!
3) I can spread out my "home chores" and errands - typically I've been trying to squeeze them all in on Fridays and sometimes Wednesdays making Friday not as productive as it should be, which results in needing to do work over the weekend.

What I am most worried about:
1) Lack of steps - I sat and did not move today from 9-1 because I was in meetings. I did invest in wireless headphones for that reason, but my husband and kids are off school/work because of the holiday so I sat on the couch in the office. So I am going to make sure I get my steps in. It is 475 steps to the end of the driveway and back, but I am used to 1,000 step walk breaks. And I do have a treadmill in the basement
2) Eating too much - I need to be disciplined. We don't keep a ton of junk in the house, but junk food isn't  necessarily my downfall, portion sizes is.
3) Loneliness, but this is the least of my worries. I've been working with people all over the world for a while, so I haven't relied on the persons in my physical office for human interaction for a while. That is part of the reason I was okay with moving to WFH full time. Yes I met my husband and best friends at work, but really since I've had kids in grade school and thus I am not in the office 40 hours a week, I have not relied on the office for socialization.

And more reasons for New Beginnings:
7 years ago yesterday my MIL passed away. We had just gotten back from vacation/seeing her and I was horrified with my weight and stepped on the scale. 236.6. It took my 3 weeks to rejoin WW at which point I was 231.2 (232.6 at WW). Over 18 months I lost 50 lbs and maintained for a few months and then regained it all back in 2 very large chunks. The "good news" is I've only fluctuated 10-15 lbs over almost 4 years. The "bad news" is I haven't seen under 220 in that time. I got close back in March or April of this year, but not actually there.

So while I am training for a 1/2 Marathon on January 11, I need to concentrate on losing some weight in that time (and being the holidays as well, oh my!). In order to do so, my plan is to :

1) No soda/ No buying my lunch - should be easier WFH
2) Drink 100 oz of water
3) Strength train 2x a week, run 2x a week, cycle 1x a week
4) Go to sleep between 9:30 and 10:00 and wake up at 6:15
5) Weigh myself every day, no matter what ----this will be VERY hard but it is the biggest factor of me being successful or not
6) Tracking --something else I need to do to be successful - not even necessarily WW points, but writing down what I eat
7) Don't drink my calories --I can't go through the holidays with zero alcohol, egg nog, and peppermint coffee/hot chocolate, but I am going to greatly reduce it
8) Walk breaks --get in 5000 conscious steps plus whatever is "normal" - I am not going to try to kill myself to get to 10,000 at this point
9) Pre-plan my breakfast, lunch and 2 snacks
10) Smaller portion dinners


We will see how it goes!!!!!