Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!!  I can't believe 2016 is over.  I feel like the year went super fast!!!

I've been away on vacation for the last few weeks (hence the lack of updates).  I started feeling a bit crappy on the way home; I'm hoping a few days of doing very little will make me feel a lot better (so to that end I didn't go out last night).  I've also been drinking way too much while on vacation; now is a good time to sit around drinking tea instead!  :)

Having been away for the last few weeks, I decided to weigh myself today to see how bad I've been doing (I say bad because I put a pair of pants on and they felt tight).  So here are my numbers for today:

weight: 211.4 lbs
fat percentage: 46.6%
hydration: 36.7%
muscle: 26.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2353

So not terrible, but this is the highest my weight has been since I got this scale.  Now that I'm back home, it's definitely time to be healthier.

Although I have to say, at the beginning of my trip I did a lot of walking!  I actually took over 20,000 steps one day!  In fact, looking back over the 17 days I was away, I took over 10,000 steps on seven of those days!  I didn't track my steps on 5 of those days (I either forgot my Fitbit or was spending the day swimming and didn't want to worry about losing it).

So I just realized I have had my Fitbit for over a year now and have tracked the majority of the year.  Check out these stats:

Jan 2016 - 131,975 steps, 28 days tracked, 4713 steps in average
Feb 2016 - 111,783 steps, 23 days tracked, 4860 average
Mar 2016 - 119,954 steps. 28 days tracked, 4284 average

Apr 2016 - 116,885 steps, 27 days tracked, 4329 average
May 2016 - 165,550 steps, 28 days tracked, 5913 average
June 2016 - 171,997 steps, 29 days tracked, 5931 average
July 2016 - 232,834 steps, 29 days tracked, 8029 average
Aug 2016 - 225,527 steps, 29 days tracked, 7777 average
Sept 2016 - 184,492 steps, 28 days tracked, 6589 average
Oct 2016 - 154,932 steps, 29 days tracked, 5343 average
Nov 2016 - 152,230 steps, 28 days tracked, 5437 average
Dec 2016 - 188,960 steps, 24 days tracked, 7837 average

2016 as a Year - 1,957,119 steps, 330 days tracked, 5931 average

December is probably a bit skewed, but that's okay.  I wasn't trying to hit a certain number of steps per day so these stats are an excellent baseline for me to use for the future!  :)

So at the beginning of 2016, I had three main goals for the year:

1. Eat healthier
2. Be more active
3. Take better care of my diabetes

I can quite honestly say I failed miserably at the first two.  I didn't use the G.I Diet at all (and really I'm not at all interested in doing so).  On the activity front, I did try to walk to work whenever I could, but wasn't really going out of my way to be more active than that (with the exception of November, when I had my Month of Swimming).  So this year once again ended up a good baseline for my activity levels.

The only goal I would say I've had some success with is the third one, taking better care of my diabetes.  That's thanks to me doing a crap load of testing (over the last two months, it looks like I average SIX tests per day!!!) and getting that box of sensors to try to help me smooth out my basal.

So with all of this in mind, here are my goals for 2017:

1. Walk 5000+ steps on five days of every week
2. Swim twice a week every week
3. Control my food portions.

Why these ones?

1. Walk 5000+ steps on five days of every week

I don't know if 10,000 steps per day is a reasonable goal for me right now.  But I do know there are many days where I don't even crack 5,000, especially in the winter months.  I'm hoping that by paying a bit more attention to my Fitbit, I can motivate myself to go a little further this year.  But there are days where I forget my Fitbit or am not feeling well, so I don't want to be beating myself up for those days.  With this goal, I realistically need to walk 5000+ steps 20 days out of every 28, which I should be able to accomplish.  Accomplishing this goal will also mean my averages should go up a bit per month and for the year!

A problem area seems to be the winter months, but that's okay, I've already planned for this: I bought myself a longer, heavier jacket for winter walking!  I should be able to walk to work even when it's really cold out now! 

2. Swim twice a week every week

Let's be honest: I love swimming.  I also loved going every week to the pool this November, even without company.  So I am going to buy myself a year's membership at the same gym I've been going to.  I've thought about doing this for the last few years, but keep getting dissuaded with the thought of the membership not being worth it during the summer months.  But the pool is walking distance; how nice would that be to walk there in the summer months?  I've already braved a few colder days in November, so I should be able to walk almost all the time (it'll depend on my work schedule though). 

3. Control my food portions

I remember a dietitian telling me that portion control trumps low GI.  So this year I am going to make a big effort to control my portions.  I've been using my dietary scale a lot more over the last few months, so I'll keep using it as much as I can (I actually missed having it while on vacation; I'm going to invest in a travel scale before I go on any other big trips!) Going hand in hand with this, I am also going to make an effort to not eat things because they are sitting there in front of me.  I know this is a huge problem area for me - I'll have to come up with a strategy to start combating it.  Finally, I need to stop being guilted into taking food.  This isn't normally a problem, but I ran into it a few times over the last few weeks while on vacation.  I am going to make a concerted effort to only eat things I genuinely want when I am genuinely hungry.

So those are my goals for 2017.  I didn't make any specifically for my diabetes because I feel like I'm doing okay on that front right now (basically I want to keep doing what I'm doing).  Plus the portion control will definitely help me on that front, too.

I have to say, I'm quite excited for 2017.  2016 was a sort of baseline year for me as I gathered facts.  This year I hope to act on those facts, making my life healthier as a result!