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General Weight Loss Tips

Self Plan

self april 2012 carrie underwood Self Plan

I do love magazines, I’m not gonna lie. I know the models are airbrushed and unrealistic, the information is regurgitated, but that doesn’t stop me from picking them up on occasion as a treat. I haven’t read Self in a really long time, and in a fit of needing inspiration I bought this, Health and Fitness when I was in WV the weekend before last.

I do find inspiration in them, just having them around the house, in the bathroom (haha I know) or the coffee table, it’s like a reminder of what I’m doing. Where I want to be.

Anyhow, the point of this is to share with you that the April issue of Self has (in my opinion) a really good and realistic weight loss plan.  I’ve tried a lot of diets in my pre and post blog. Some that require counting calories or restricting carbs and they all work, it’s just about consistency and for me, the more down to earth it is, the more likely I am to stick with it. As soon as I decide I can’t have something for the sake of weight loss, that’s all I want. Even if I don’t really want it.

The Drop 10 (and more, they talk about losing more weight) is pretty straightforward: 1,600 calories a day, with a 200 calorie treat a day that can be carried over to other days when you may need them more (like plus points with weight watchers), the only catch is that you can only stack 800 together at a time. So say, you are planning to go out for a celebration this coming weekend you can use up to 2,400 at one time and still lose weight.

They also provide a daily exercise plan, recipes and a check off list to keep track of your progress. And for those wondering, I wasn’t paid or asked to promote this magazine or plan, I just really liked how simple and doable it is. I think having structure with the principles of Brain Over Binge (breaking bad habits) will be a winning combination.

I’m traveling to WV again this weekend for a baby shower and plan to save some of my extra calories this week for that.

Today’s breakfast:

One Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin with less than 1 T butter, 1 T cacao (cacao!) bliss and a cup of strawberries: 367 calories

4 16 12breakfast Self Plan

 

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29 Resolutions

stockfresh 346539 birthday cupcake sizeXS 29 Resolutions

 

Good Morning! I took the past couple of days off of blogging to sort of regroup before my 29th birthday. This year (to sound like my old hokey boss in nyc) is going to be transformative. I’ve created a list of goals and resolutions that I want to follow and remind myself of often over the next year.

1. Leave Obesity Behind. I’m determined that 29 is my last year of being an obese person. I’m fine with being chubby at 30, but not obese. These past few weeks have been really good for weight loss and I know what it looks like, I always have. I know what it takes. I don’t just want to be thin, I want to be strong and able-bodied. I want to be able to climb a rock wall, go kayaking, run, swim, and play sports. I want to find a new identity as a smaller person who leads a bigger life. I want to stop killing myself with food.

I’ve created a little more details and action lists as to how this goal will come to be, but for now this is my main goal this year. If I accomplish nothing else this year but this one goal, I will be satisfied. The main thing that I do is keep a food journal, this is number one and most helpful. The second thing is establishing and maintaining a regular exercise routine. The third thing will be creating time for daily meditation and inspiration for my goal.

I’m working on an inspiration scrapbook that I will work out of over the next year. I’m a visual person and I want this scrapbook to be a place where my goals are laid out. A book that I can turn to every day as a reminder of where I’m headed.

I will also spend the year sharing here, but also keeping a private daily journal.

I keep thinking how nice summers will be when I’m not sweltering in layers. How wonderful it would be to wear a tank top and Bermuda shorts and not feel self-conscious. How amazing it would be to wear a sleeveless dress and not have to wear a cardigan.

2. Lowered Expectations. My biggest struggle for as long as I can remember is having high expectations (if not unrealistic at times) of other people. I tend to wear my heart of my sleeve and find myself tore up over everything people do or don’t do (or say and don’t say). I can hear my mom saying “you need to develop thicker skin”, and I never knew what that looked like. This year I want to let that go. Instead of worrying about and wondering if and why other people don’t like me, I’m going to take that energy and put it back into liking myself.

I expect people to be better than I am, and give more than I can, and it’s just not fair. I expect kindness, generosity and thoughtfulness from those who are friends, but I don’t always get it. I expect those around me to care about what I’m doing, to be interested, to say something, anything to let me know that they care. And there are people who do and there are people who don’t and I have to stop waiting for people to get me, to validate me, especially when I haven’t let them in. So when I find myself going down the familiar path of wanting more from someone else I will simply whisper to myself “lower your expectations, it’s not about you” and move on. I realize that my high expectations keep me a victim of other people, they keep me negative and things begin to fester. The act of nothing from someone else, turns into something and I want to be better than that.

3. Embrace Humor. I love having a sense of humor and I like when mine comes out. I love laughing with other people and being silly. I have a pretty good (if not crass at times) sense of humor, and I want to embrace it and bring it out more. I want to be fearless in that regard and trust that I can laugh at life and be less serious. It’s in me and I want to bring it out more.

4. Work Harder, Be Focused. Here’s the thing. I keep myself busy, but for the most part it’s just me being busy. I’m actively trying to figure out who I want to be when I grow up. I want to figure out my life’s work. I waste a lot, a lot of time being overwhelmed and worrying. It’s not productive, it’s not moving forward, it’s not growing, it’s not anything at all, but wasted time. I get excited about ideas, I have more ideas to fill up a warehouse. And I don’t know what they mean. I wait until the last-minute to do things, and often I find that they are half-assed. I want to stop doing that to myself.

I want to work harder in confident, focused ways. I’m not 100% what they even means, but I want to get closer to whatever that is. I want to  improve my writing, design, illustration and photography skills. I want to do more work that I’m proud of.

5. Have Blind Faith. I don’t put a lot of faith in the notion that things will just work out. I don’t trust the process. I don’t trust that things will just happen on their own, or naturally, or in “god’s will”. I have deep-rooted fear it not growing so much so that I become stagnant from the fear, how’s that for irony? I believe we have to make things happen, and actively seek out what makes our hearts sing, but… I want more blind faith this year.

As I write this I can feel my chest tighten and my breath shorten. I see flashes of all of those episodes of Oprah that I watched growing up where women got lost and they are crying on her stage at the age of forty or fifty because they stopped seeking out what they wanted long ago. They let kids, marriage, and careers take hold and forgot to seek their dreams and maybe those are/were their dreams, but an essence was lost in the day-to-day.

This year, I want to stop fearing my journey. I feel as though this worrying is mostly misguided and I want to trust my unplanned process this year. I want to believe more that just by doing, I will get where ever I need to go. I want to change my perspective.

6. Less TV. I’m setting a two hours a week rule for TV, unless I earn time as a reward for extra exercise or meeting a deadline.

7. Eat Less Factory Food. I’m not looking for perfection, just being more mindful and better about this.

8. Let Go of Perfection. Perfection is the root of my procrastination and I need for that to go away this year. Before starting  a project I get so wrapped up in wanting it to be perfect, that I never start. I need to just start, work hard, be focused and have blind faith that it will work out.

9. Let Go of Validation. I need to stop waiting on other people in my life to cheer me on, to get what I do, to support my goals. In all honesty, I don’t do this very well for others and I should stop expecting (those pesky expectations again!) for it in return. I want to stop waiting on others to define who I am.

10. Spent More Time Outside. Lets be honest here, nature is scary. There are bugs, spiders, snakes, bears, and poisonous plants all ready to jump out and get us! Living in Floyd leaves little room for admitting to such fears, but mine is alive and well. I want to spend more time in my garden, but what is a spider crawls on me? I want to sit on the porch at night, but what if somethings flies out and attacks me? I want to go camping, but what if a bear tries to eat our food and eats us instead? I want to go hiking, but what if I fall off of a rock? I could keep this up for days.

I’m taking baby steps in our own yard and deck. I bought a little bistro table for daily outside dining, I’m going to decorate the porch with potted plants (that I will have to go outside and water!) and twinkle lights. I want to walk around our (small, yet adequate) property. Walk up the steep hill, mow the lawn, get my hands dirty, pull the weeds, trim the hedges, have a picnic… you name it, I want more of that.

11. Take More Risks. I’ve toyed with a couple of moderately life changing ideas, like going back to school or getting a job outside of the house. And while I’m not convinced either of these are good ideas right now, one would bring more debt and the other would require significant car time. I want to be a little more open to these ideas. There is a part of me that believes I’m not qualified for either, and I want to get over that and get better either way.

12. If I Get Stuck, Seek Pen and Paper (or a blank word document). Write it out, let it go.

13. Create a Beautiful (uncluttered) Living Environment. 

14. Go on More Adventures.

15. Get Dressed Every Day.

16. Move More.

17. Limit Social Networking to 30 Minutes a Day.

18. Make My Health and Wellness a Top Priority.

19. Smile More Often.

20. Let People In.

21. Get Over Embarrassing Things From My Past.

22. Act With Love.

23. Challenge My Fears. 

24. Be More Spontaneous and Flexible.

25. Cook At Least Five Times a Week.

26. Make Everything From One Cookbook.

27. Visit a New State. 

28. Develop My Blogs. 

29. Have A Lot More Fun!

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January Wrap-Up and Looking Ahead

I was reading Caroline’s blog this morning and cracking up over her “it will be christmas again soon” sentiment. January is coming to a close and well, here comes February.

So far this year I find myself every week checking in with my goals. The goals I set at the beginning of the year, and the new goals that develop as the year progresses. I use Sundays as my goal gathering and planning day and find that it helps keep me in check for the following week.

As I look back over the month I see a list of stuff on my calendar that I did do and didn’t do. The first couple of weeks of the year I didn’t exercise much mainly because I was cramming all of my time with extra projects. Each of those days I had on my to do list “do insanity workout” and then finally the last two weeks of the month I did it. I did Insanity every day (with Sundays off). I write this, along with all of my posts, as a reminder to myself that I’m not giving up.

What if I let those first two weeks set the tone for the year? What if I was determined to be perfect, a new person on January 1st? Would I have given up completely on the idea that eventually I’d get into it. And I did.

I’ve said this before, but when I think about why I blog. Why I share my struggles, why after 4.5 years I still come to this place to share where I’m at even if it is sometimes painful and slightly embarrassing…it’s because of my potential. It’s because deep down I trust that each time I try something new, I’m getting closer. Sticking to this one thing, even if at times I truly wasn’t here, or struggling to be here- I knew somehow there was some important growing going on even if it didn’t always feel like.

With that said, I’m just two weeks in. It’s not over, it’s not even close from over. And I have to realize that. That I need more weeks like I’ve had, adding up on each other. There isn’t a stopping point. This is my life now, if I choose to accept it. My life as someone who has to exercise, who has to consider what she is eating. This isn’t a temporary blip, a chapter of my life that ends when I see a reasonable number on the scale. I’m making this my life now.

I’ve gotten to the point where I can honestly say that the desire to be healthy is much stronger than the desire to overeat or not exercise. I’m not saying I’m cured, or perfect, or won’t even overeat again but I’ve never felt that before. I’ve always wanted the easy path. I wanted to still eat everything I wanted, I didn’t want to sacrifice my time. I didn’t want to push myself. Sure I came here, and logged exercise and points or calories. I’ve done that, but I did it in the mindset of “this is temporary, this won’t be my life forever”.

I’ve accepted that this is who I am. Someone who has to watch what she eats, and someone who has to push hard during exercise. This is my life now. I can push myself harder than I thought. I can realistically exercise everyday without getting burned out. I can take time to prepare meals. This isn’t punishment, this is investment.

So as I look ahead to February I see more solid weeks of exercise. More calorie counting. It looks fun and promising. I will eat delicious and whole foods. I will cook as much as possible. I will try new recipes. I will not go to bed without exercising. I will take Sundays off to rest.

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