Commitments & Competition

Happy Monday, everyone! I had a really fun weekend and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Friday was a really busy day at work for me, so that evening my husband and I went out to dinner with some friends to blow off some steam. We ended up going to Il Gatto in Uptown. I had the scallops, which were phenomenal. It was just a really nice dinner out.

After dinner we couldn’t really decide what should be done, so we tried out a couple of the patios in Uptown. First we went to Stella’s Fish Café, which is great fun, but the patio was packed with lots of young girls and there was just no great place for the five of us to sit and talk. So, we decided to head over to Moto-I and try out their patio instead – it was perfect. Not too crowded, we got some great drinks and had a really nice time.

Saturday was our lazy day. We slept in, watched movies, and relaxed. I did a treadmill workout in the afternoon. It was a really nice day. On Saturday morning, we got an invitation to go to a beer festival over at the Saints Stadium on Sunday afternoon. I am so glad we went. We met a couple of friends there and had 4 hours of beer tasting fun. The weather was beautiful, but I was very unprepared and had no sunscreen with me, so I am lobster red today as a result. Will I ever learn?

We didn’t get home from the beer fest until around 6, and still hadn’t done our weekly grocery shopping. So, I sent my husband to the store and I took an ice cold shower for relief after being in the sun all day. When he got home, I made some waffles for dinner and we went to bed very early.

But, there was one really bad thing that happened this weekend. I had done pretty well on my 5 days of workouts goal, but I needed to work out both Saturday and Sunday in order to meet my 5 days. On Sunday, I thought, “Oh, we won’t be out too late at the beer fest, so I’ll work out when we get home.” Well, by the time we were home and had eaten dinner, working out was so far from my mind, I just totally forgot about it and now I’ll fall 1 day short of my goal. I’m really bummed about this. I don’t want to give up my $20 to that awful “charity” this week. But, that is what I committed that I would do. So, I guess I need to take my lumps and learn from my mistake.

I will say that this commitment has been a big motivator for me to get in my activity. I worked out last Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and today (Monday) will be my fourth day this week. I doubt Tuesday or Wednesday’s workouts would have happened if I hadn’t made my contract with StickK.

I have one more, big thing I want to share with you all: I have joined a weight loss challenge group on SparkPeople! A friend told me about it and I’m so excited to get started. It starts this Wednesday. Basically, I will earn points for doing healthy stuff (like drinking all my water, staying within my calories, working out, etc). There is a $10 buy-in, and then at the end of the challenge, the top three finishers split the pot. And, I’m pretty competitive, so I’m excited to see how the competition helps motivate me.