Let's do this thing!

After weeks of cheating my little heart out, I am ready to start over.  I feel extra focused this time, and even excited.  I am tired of wallowing in my own self pity, and blubber.  I am tired of always trying to think of more excuses not to do something, when the real reason is I am just LAZY.  So here I go, AGAIN, tomorrow is the day.

Here is the plan;

Monday- Friday

6:30am Wake-up for stretching, workout, and healthy breakfast. I have recorded a lot of different workouts from the Fit-tv channel...a lot of variety.  My Dad also taught me how to make a delicious and healthy veggie omelet.  As a reward for getting up WAY too early, plenty of reading and quiet tv time before the boys wake up (hopefully).

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 

Jogging on the treadmill for 20-60 minutes after Jason gets home.  I have been saving up tons of tv shows on my dvr to keep me going.  Running is the thing I want to work on the most, so I can run the 10k in February.

Saturday or Sunday

Hiking with the family, or long run by myself.  

My diet for the next two to three weeks will be a detox diet (that my Dad recommend, and he has even tried it, with great success).  It is not over the top crazy like some of the other detox diets I have tried (like my lemonade, maple syrup, all juice diet).  Mostly it is a lot of lean meats, and fresh fruit and veggies.  The goal is to rid your body of all the toxins and SUGARS that build up in your body, and make you crave more sugary and fatty food.  (Totally something I need.)  I am actually really looking forward to doing this, and my Dad, little sister and Mom are even starting with me!  Strength in numbers right :)

The First 2 weeks (or 3 weeks, depending on how much I cheat):

Meats: Chicken, Turkey, and Fish. Eggs are OK.  No red meat or pork.

Vegetables: You can eat as many green vegetables as you want, but no peas or beans. Red potatoes and avocados are ok.  (Red potatoes!!!  Sounds like a treat to me!)

Nuts: All nuts but no peanuts.

Do not use bottled salad dressing. Make your own with lemon, garlic, olive oil, tarragon, vinegar, and pepper.

No salt. No dairy. No grains.  (OUCH! I love salt, especially when I am eating a lot of veggies, this will be one of the hardest parts for me.)

Drinks: Drink lots of water. You can add a lemon or lime to your water. V8 juice, carrot, celery or any other vegetable juice is fine. Almond milk and unsweetened tea are ok too. No soda of any kind.  (Already 4 weeks soda and caffeine free, yay me!)

Snacks: Carrots, sardines, or Quaker Rice Cakes (Unsalted or Butter Popcorn flavored only.) 

And there you go, not too hard.  For a detox diet it still has a lot of options.  It is only a couple weeks, and then I can add on other foods and fruits!  The hardest part for me will be no salt, making my own salad dressings, and no cheese. 

Also, starting today I am starting weekly weigh-ins again (I am never good at this part, I loathe the scale).  Every Sunday I will weigh in, and report on the previous week's workouts.  

I am really excited about this, and I hope I can find some of this enthusiasm tomorrow morning when my alarm goes off at 6:30am telling me it is time to START. 

Mind Set

One week soda and caffeine free!!!  The headaches aren't so bad anymore, and I have been fine drinking water and crystal light.  I miss it, my life is so sad without diet coke.  It was the one treat I always allowed myself...but I am sticking to it.

I am going to, once again, renew my efforts to get up in the morning before the kiddos.  There is just no time, or energy to do it in the evening when Jason gets home.  Even if the first couple days all I do it get up to read or eat breakfast, at least I will be getting up, then I can work on convincing myself to workout.

I am also planning on starting a detox diet.  It seems pretty straight forward, and not too strict...lots of lean protein and veggies.  I am putting off starting it until after my parents come to visit, and Harry's birthday...because I don't want any excuses to cheat.  I have been following it loosely now, slowly preparing myself.  But in a couple weeks I will be going hard core.

I have this mind set that I can do my work and diets, and then  go back to all the food and junk the my heart loves so much.  I know that is wrong.  I know it is about a total life style makeover.  Which I guess is why it is so hard to get started, and stay focused (especially when you are the only one in your life trying to do the changing).  I wish I could get Jay to do things with me.  He is like that naughty little red devil sitting on my shoulder, saying lets go get some food at Wendy's or how about steaks and homemade fries for dinner.  He is always about food, and lots of it.  He always SAYS that he supports me, but it is hard to get him to do the things I really need, like being excited for chicken salads for dinner and passing the ice cream isle (no matter how good the sale on Breyer's is).  Mind over matter...I just need to remind myself what I really want, lots and lots of reminding.  

I am also shopping around for my first race.  I think there is the Great Aloha Run in February.  It is a 10k, and I am pretty sure that if I don't procrastinate any longer I can be ready in time!!!

Go, fight, win!!!

Ya, never gonna happen.

So, I am going to have to revise my getting up at 6:30 am plan.  Its not gonna happen.  I just loathe getting up that early, I can't do it.  It is like pulling teeth...my head is screaming for more sleep, I can't even open my eyes all the way.  All I do is walk around like a zombie half asleep, and wish I was back in bed.  I need the sleep, for my sanity.  Anyway, the treadmill is too loud and is wakes up the boys, and they need their sleep too!  So, back to trying to go workout when Jason gets home from work...

5 Days

It's been 5 days so far NO caffeine or soda!  I even managed to survive and hold fast to my goals while eating out twice, and during a grocery store trip from hell (all three of the boys were whiny and complaining).

I have also been working on cutting down my portion sizes, eating smaller more frequent meals.  I am not making the most healthiest choices right now (baby steps, remember) but I am doing surprising well.  Slowly, but surely.  It is just a small start, but 5 days is the longest I have been able to last (consecutively) since I started this whole transformation.

Starting tomorrow, I am going to be getting up when Jason leaves for work 6:30AM!!!  I am NOT and have NEVER been a morning person.  Ever.  I just can't do it.  I hated getting up early for school, and would only work afternoon swing shifts at my jobs to make sure I could sleep in.  In fact, I have only ever held one job in my life that made me get up early, and only cause watching little B was more than worth it.  I have trained my children to sleep until 8:30 or later, so that I don't have to get up too early with them...and for the most part they keep a good schedule.  So, to say this will be difficult is a gross understatement!  However, I am going to get up anyway, 6:30am, work out on our treadmill, read my scriptures, and make a healthy breakfast (one thing I never seem to have enough time to do once the boys are up).  I know the first couple days (or weeks) are gonna be rough, until I adjust...and I hope I am not too grouchy of a Mom.  I think accomplishing these things at the beginning of the day, instead of putting it off all day (and then not doing it at all) will set me up for greater success with ALL my goals.  Wish me luck!

Where to start?

I feel like I am standing at the bottom of an incredibly tall and rocky mountain.  It is a little cloudy and dark so I can't even see the top, but I know it is high and steep.  It's one of those mountains that takes your breath away with just thought of having to climb it.  I can see a couple trails, but they look too daunting, long and curvy, steep and just impossible.  I don't know where to start, where to put that first step.  I know it is NOT going to be a short journey, it is gonna take me forever and I know I am going to have to start over a million times (just like I already did this morning, when I had Pepsi and Cheetos for breakfast).  But where do I start?

I need to start small, little goals.  Something not too impossible for me to keep.  Day by day seems too tedious...and besides I don't have enough time to log on everyday and chart my progress (and not even I want to read about everything I ate for the day-blah).  A friend once told me that losing weight is 80% what you eat and only 20% exercise.  Which is kinda good news, cause I loathe to exercise...but I am really gonna need to work on what and HOW MUCH I eat.

So, I think my first two goals will be:

First, to limit the amount of food I eat.  Smaller meals, six times a day (unlike my smaller meals 10-12 times a day that I manage to eat now).  I am not going to worry too much about what I do eat (for now) but will try to keep it all fresh and the least amount of sugar as possible.  My biggest problem when it comes to food is I like to eat too much.  I love to cook these huge meals, huge, and I pile my plate.  Nothing makes me happier and content than a warm full stomach.  I need to find someway to be content with less, smaller portions.  So for the next couple weeks, I will work on having smaller portions.  I will also do some research on calorie counting.  I know how to count calories if I get my food from the box, but not really if I make my food from scratch (which I like to do).  I will also figure out how many calories I am going to eat a day.  I am not sure if I am gonna try a certain diet or what.  I have never really had any luck with diets...but certain things will have to go.

Second, walking.  I hate to exercise, I HATE it.  I never feel better when I do, I only feel tired and hot and sweaty.  I can think of a million other things I would rather be doing.  But nothing is ever going to be accomplished (least of all my dream to run a marathon) if I don't get off my butt sooner or later.   I am gonna start with 3-5 miles, 4 days a week, and only walking for now (later I will add running...I actually have a routine worked out -for the marathon- but it is gonna take a while to get there).  One of the hard things in my house is WHEN can I even find the time to exercise.  Jason gets home so late, right when it is time to start cooking dinner an winding down for the night.  I would love to be able to go out during the day, but we live in a dangerous traffic neighborhood, with no sidewalks, and I can't imagine a worse place to try walking with a double stroller.  So evenings it must be, and I am going to start today.

Well, those are my little goals, my baby steps.  Just for the next couple weeks, until (hopefully) they become habits.  Habits I can slowly build upon, until I reach the top of this impossible mountain.