March Goals

I'm sticking with this. :) Last month was a struggle, but last week, things eased up. Somehow I felt guilty about wanting to weigh less. Yes, I know it's healthy for me, but somehow I had resistance to it. This week, that seemed to relax. It's ok to want my body to be healthy and be smaller. For some reason it also seems more realistic. Probably because I've stuck with it this long and continue to feel proud about the goals I've accomplished. So.....for March (yes, I know it's already started):

• Exercise 18-23 times in March for 45-50 minutes. I'd also like to get my cardio minutes up, but I think that will come with the weather getting better, I'll be more able to walk outside.
• I'll be doing the 30 day plan again for at least the first 2 weeks of the month to get my eating back on track. This seems to be the hardest part for me, but eating fish and veggie food was a step in the right direction for me.
• Since it's Lent, no meat on Fridays for me and I also gave up red meat. I'm actually enjoying it this year, it's caused me to be more creative about what I'm eating (I wish papa johns would stop running the 3 kinds of sausage pizza, it looks sooo good). I appreciate that it's asking me to be more flexible. It's also meant I found a great recipe for low fat mac n' cheese (with spinach and green onions).

yay march. I feel like I'm finally on my way!

February Goals

So, since I continue to feel pretty good and notice I feel icky when I don't stick with my good habits, my February goals will be as follows.

• Add an additional day to my days of exercise. Making that over 4 weeks 16-21 days of exercise.
• Add 10 minutes to my total time, so the workout time is 40 minutes. I'm very close to this already, but I definitely need to do more cardio. I also want to start tracking how I'm splitting my time cardio vs. strength training. Once I know where I'm at with that, I can set a goal for that in March.
• Continue eating healthy. Which means continuing to make healthy choices while eating out, and following the general healthy eating plan at home and during lunch (lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein, and whole grains when I eat carbs) and staying away from sugar in general (I definitely get the sugar sleepies anymore and it's almost too sweet for me as well).

I've actually gotten to the point where I may not enjoy all of this all the time, but I definitely feel better for making healthy choices. I just need to remind myself this when the devil plops itself on my shoulder and says "eat it, you know you want to" or "you don't *need* to exercise today." I did well with a Light Turkey sub today with a work lunch, it was the right amount and was still tasty and the pasta salad and cookie definitely made me sleepy.

January goals

So, here it is December 31. I said I'm going to make a set of goals for each month to reach my goal of being a healthier me by the end of 2007.

For me, the definition of healthy is participating in regular physical activity at least 30 minutes a day, but hopefully 60; eating healthfully by ditching the refined grains, refined sugars, and eating fruits and veggies and lean protein and making decisions about my body and health because they are the healthy decision not because they taste good or because I'll lose weight if I eat them.

So, to go toward those goals, my January goals are:

1. Exercise 30 minutes 3-4 times a week. To measure whether I've reached my goal, I'm going to take the total number of times I've worked out for January. That means 30 minutes for 12-17 times total and I will have reached my goal.
2. Follow the 30-day plan (www.betterlifeunlimited.com) to get my eating back on track. I know this isn't necessarily about weight loss, but at this point, I just need my regular pants to fit again. So I will be doing the 30-day plan to remind myself how to each proper portions and set me on my way toward eating healthy, and Oh, the ever important dropping of holiday weight.

There it is, I'll be stopping in to give updates about how I'm doing and probably moan a little when I'm having a bad day or need some motivation.

Rest of December

Because the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and you can't take those steps too soon, my goal for the rest of December (since I am currently recovering from a respiratory infection which makes breathing under normal circumstances rather difficult) is to attempt to make at least incrementally healthier choices. I'll be eating out a lot celebrating with my husband's family and with friends. So, I will choose chicken instead of beef when possible (or even, *gasp*vegetarian). I will choose vegetables instead of fries as a side and when I can stomach it, ordering a salad (I really hate being the girl that orders the salad. It's so cliche). I have to remember, that is not the last french fry in the world. If it looks like the world is ending, I really can stop at wendy's and order a last minute order of french fries.

Prologue

I, Alyssa, am a food-a-holic. I love food. I love to cook. I love to talk about food. And I especially love to eat. In a certain way, I'm lucky. I've been blessed so far that I've not had any major health problems because of this and I'm only overweight and not obese. But I've decided that this year, 2007, I need to change my attitude about how I live my life. I've always pretty much been a "life's short, have dessert" kind of girl. It's time for me to be a "life's short, let's do something" kind of girl. So in 2007 I'm resolving to stop dieting, stop eating dessert first and stop worrying about the number on the scale (so much). I'm making changes because my health depends on it.

I'll get to the changes in a minute, but I feel like I need to give some back story here. I'm 5' 6" and currently (during Christmas time) weigh 180 lbs. I'm usually at about 175. Which puts my current BMI somewhere between 28 and 29. Firmly in the overweight, but not obese category. I have asthma and eczema. I have weighed as much as 196lbs post-college. The least I can ever remember weighing was 135lbs and I was playing basketball (so running approximately 5-10 miles a day and biking 5-10 miles a day) and was 14 years old. I thought I was fat then. I've never really found a happy medium.

I was raised Polish Catholic. This means I grew up eating sausage, sausage and more sausage. Oh and potatoes. My mother is a great meat and potatoes cook and my father thinks noodles are a vegetable. My family loves to talk about food. This is what we do when we get together. "oh, this is a great piece of cheesecake, but it's not as good as the cheesecake you made last year." "these are some great cookies, but they could use more nuts." I spent a few hours as a kid helping my mother cook and bake. I love to cook and I especially love to bake. I actually love to spend 3 hours making a cake from scratch.

I say all of this not to over share, but really as a baseline of where I'm coming from and what my goals are. As a kid, I was an a bit of an athlete so I never worried about what I ate and my parents, while they limited sugar and pop, also served hearty meals with pasta as a consistent side (though I don't blame them for this, I was a picky eater and I've heard many a story about the great whole wheat pizza debacle of 1976, long before I was born). I lived on chicken nuggets and pizza in college. I like my food to taste good. I don't mind if it's healthy, but I'm still skeptical of most veggies. I did manage to lose about 20 lbs after college, so I have made strides toward being healthier, but I'm a long way from doing my best.

So, my point is this: in 2007 my new goal is to be a healthier person. Weight loss is not my goal, but I won't lie and say that I won't hope it's a pleasant side effect. I will eat balanced meals, exercise 6 days a week and treat sweets and fast food as a condiment or rarity. Since people who make radical changes all at once tend to fail, my goal is to make incremental changes, with a new plan each month so I don't get bored. I also hope to run a 5K in March. By the end of 2007, my goal to be exercising 6 days a week with at least 30 minutes of activity 7 days a week. This exercise will include 3 days of cardio and 3 days of strength training. Along with this, I will be eating better. This is a goal not just because I want to be healthier, but I hope along with dietary changes I can get the eczema and asthma to disappear or at least not be bothersome. Oh, and avoid the heart disease and high blood pressure that run in the family.

It's a big goal. I plan to accomplish it. This blog is to help me be accountable. And hopefully to keep me on track when I stumble.