Tackle It Tuesday: Summer Game Plan

Slowly but surely making more TOPS progress. This week I only lost .8 of a lb. but it's a LOSS! I've been realizing that my kids only have a few weeks till school is out and last summer I gained weight. For people in different climates that may seem odd. Wouldn't you be out doing more in the summer? Aren't you MORE active? Well, we can be till about mid June. Our summer may as well be the North Pole because being snowed in would be similar. With temps that get up to 110* and one year even 115* (that was CRAZY hot), you don't go out much. So, we stayed home and were too sedentary and the kids were constantly hungry which put me in front of food more and more. We did not have money to run around doing activities or even jotting out to the ocean enough to cool off. So, it was movies in the afternoon to wait for the heat to pass and play out late into the night. I was always too tired to exercise in the evenings though.

So, this year I'm thinking ahead to have a game plan to keep my weight loss on a roll. Tomorrow I have an OB appointment and will be finding out exactly what she thinks my healthy weight goal should be. I'm pretty sure I'm getting close. So, I HAVE to keep at it. Here are some of my mental strategies so far:

• "Everybody say Wiiiiiii!" Seriously though, the summer is when we use the game systems more. Last year we only had the kids old V-Smile and my VERY old retro Nintendo original. That broke by the end of the summer and the kids were getting too old for the V-Smile. So, at Christmas we took gift money from my grandma and got the Wii. I don't think we could have done better, we love that thing. We use it for exercise, entertainment, and streaming in our Netflix online options which is awesome. You can even do the Internet on it but without a keyboard, it's too time consuming. So, I plan on making sure we do the active stuff a lot. Even getting out the dance mat and dancing with the girls on their "Dance Dance Revolution" game. I'm determined to learn that this summer. It's good for them too to be doing the active ones and not just Mario.


• Biggest Looser DVD's. I've only got one, but these are great. I have the sculpting one. I hope to do this with Princess also through the summer and am hoping she will enjoy joining me. They are 8 bucks at Walmart and easy to follow.


• Veggies and Fruits. I plan to NOT buy a great deal of the carb snacks we use during the school year. If it's here for them or me, it's not good for us. I plan to buy, wash and chop produce to have in bags on hand for snacks with peanut butter, almond butter and hummus for dipping. In the heat you don't usually feel like eating meals, you tend to want to snack but what you snack on is the key.


• I'm planning a bible time with the kids when we first come in or close up the house. I really have enjoyed reading the bible chronologically and though I don't want to hit them with the law stuff right now or some of the tough reading, I'd like to find a kid friendly plan to go through. I may just do a precept for kids study. I'm looking for something interactive. With kids in public school, it's hard to get that time in on school days. I'm hoping the summer will clear the academics for us to do this.


• Plan one beach outing a paycheck. If I can do two, even better. That would be one a week.


• Mama, get up early! This is my HARDEST part. I love sleeping in and staying up late. I'm very determined this year though to get up and enjoy the quiet and cool before the day. It's important because it's going to be my only time without the kids. I'm hoping to get out and do a morning walk outside to combat being in all day. I also want to have my quiet time out on the deck if I can.


• Last but not least, the evening family outing. I know we won't make this every night but I really want to walk as a family, or bike ride as a family in the evening. It's going to be important for the kids too because they can pudgy up just like me from vegging all summer.

That's what I've come up with so far. We usually have to come in and shut up the house by 10am and don't reopen it until about 7pm. If you have any other ideas for me, I'm listening.