In which I spend a week on the Health Project and mostly FAIL

But at least I've learned. Let me begin.

SUCCESS:

1. Taking Lactase before I drink milk or eat milk-based foods. No-brainer, right? It helps. I take it every morning, before I eat the remainder of the kids' breakfast -- a little oatmeal, a bite of Cheerios, a banana. My own breakfast is usually yogurt with a banana and some dry oatmeal, all mixed together.

2. Going to bed at 9PM. Not as bad as I thought and the bonus is I spend time with My Chemical Romance who generally goes to bed pretty early.

3. Jumping on the tramp once a week. I would be a sucktastic mom if I couldn't find one day per week to spend bouncing around with my kids.  

FAIL

1. No sugar-based foods. 

Are you surprised? Not only that, I totally coveted sugar and actually made brownies from scratch last night -- and I'm a cook, not a baker. However, I will note that I felt better when I didn't eat sugar. I felt less bloated and my stomach felt better than usual. Sigh. Life is a series of trade-offs, no? 

2. Walking 5x per week. I'm kind of bummed that I failed this, because it made me realize that I do enjoy moving, that I am woefully out of shape, and that I would like to firm up a bit. 

3. If we're going to be technical, I did not go to bed at exactly 9:00PM every night. Tuesday night I went to bed at 11:00PM and this picture describes me on Wednesday 

What I've learned from this:

1. With regards to eating, less is definitely more. Again, another no-brainer. Michael Pollan sums up his book Food Rules in six words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I'm not sure how he feels about brownies. Calorie restriction has its benefits in the general population -- mostly that it is linked to reversing the aging process in primates and mice -- but for me, not over-eating reverses any stomach problems. And that makes life much more enjoyable!  

2. I can make myself go to bed early, and the world will not stop spinning on its axis, and if I get that "important" email at 8am instead of 1am, that's okay too. And I'll get to sleep next to the non-snoring My Chemical Romance! (Not snoring is one of his best qualities.)

3. Walking is boring, but I do want to exercise. I want to join the Fort Mill YMCA, which has an awesome outdoor pool area for kids with tons of slides and water fun. It also has step aerobics on Tuesday evenings, a kids' fitness class on Wednesdays, homeschool PE on Thursdays -- basically, I think I can make it work with the kids where they wouldn't hate going. 

I'm going to work on my Health Project for next week. I may change it to Weekly Health Goals.