Last month was the official start of the Movin’ with Mickey Movement. In case you missed it, let me refresh your memory. My friend Katie over at The Most Delightful Place recently kicked off her new feature Movin’ with Mickey! She’s going to be sharing lots of great health tips and success stories twice a month as she works towards her personal goal of walking the amount of steps equal to the distance from her home in Iowa to Walt Disney World. Of course, she’ll be updating us on her progress along the way. I loved her idea and decided I would join in to improve my health before my fall Disney World vacation.
The Plan
I have many things to work on to improve my health. As Katie walks her way to Disney World, I’m going to make healthy changes too, and I’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing.
Every two weeks, Katie will be doing a post over on The Most Delightful Place giving us an update and sharing helpful information. I’ll post a link here at Disney World Enthusiast each time she publishes a Movin’ with Mickey article so we can keep up with her progress.
In between posts, you can catch up with Katie and I over on Facebook at Disney World Enthusiast or The Most Delightful Place, where you can let us know how you’re doing on journey as well.
Update 3
So now that we are a few weeks in, am I making any progress? Well….let’s take a look at each of my changes individually.
Get at least 6 hours of sleep each night.
This is one change where I can say I have made major improvements. Yay, me! I have gone from four hours of sleep a night to about 7. Now that my kids are back in school, I’m on a good schedule of being in bed by 10pm and up at 5am. Here’s what is strange though…I find myself waking up around 3:30am feeling wide awake and ready to get up for the day, but it is way too early. I sleep restlessly for the next hour and a half until the alarm goes off at 5am and then I get up exhausted. Is this a case of too much sleep? Anyone know?
Eat three meals each day.
So this change is definitely still a work in progress. I am doing better; eating at least twice a day and sometimes three times. What I have discovered is that I just don’t like breakfast foods. Eggs? Yuck! Bagels? Gross! Oatmeal? No way! But then I thought, I’m a grown-up; no one says I have to eat breakfast food for breakfast. This has been really helpful. Once I get my kids dropped off at both of their schools, I’ve been coming home and having a half of a sandwich. Hopefully, I can keep this up!
Eat at least one fruit/vegetable at every meal.
I’ve made a little bit of progress here. Although, I’m not a huge veggie fan, I have been adding them to my sandwiches so at least I’m getting a few. More work to do!
Take all of my medications each day.
Another success! I’m finally taking all of the medications and supplements each day. I’m not noticing any improvements by doing this, but it will probably take some time.
Drink eight glasses of water each day.
I haven’t even tried this one yet. It’s going to be tough. At least I have plenty to work on!
Reduce soda intake to once a week or less.
So you might remember from Update 2 that trying to cut out soda cold turkey left me with a nasty migraine for several days. Well, guess what? So did dropping to just one can a day. Once I really started to look at it and add up the ounces, I’m embarrassed to admit, I was drinking 3 to 4 sodas per DAY! Outrageous, I know! Well, in the last two weeks, I’ve been able to cut the amount in half to 2 sodas per day without any headaches. Hopefully, by the time I write Update 4, I’m down to just 1 per day!
Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week.
No progress in this department yet, but I have read several articles recently that diet makes a more noticeable difference in the way you feel than exercise. I’m not sure that I agree with that, but I’m interested to see if I notice any changes in my fatigue by adjusting my diet first before adding in the exercise. Could be interesting!
As you can see, I still have a lot of work to do. But this about the journey not the destination, right?
Katie’s Updates
Click here to read Katie’s first update that includes a great interview and some fantastic training tips!
Click here to read Katie’s second update that includes her progress report. It is so exciting to see how far she has come already!
Click here to read Katie’s third update that includes some great tips for staying on track while cruising. That lucky girl is getting ready to set sail on a Disney Cruise to Hawaii!
Disney World Enthusiast 