An Introduction

We are just three days in to the new year. And like most people, I welcome the opportunity for a do over. EVERY year, the one resolution I struggle with most...is to improve my overall health - which involves making better eating choices and becoming more active by exercising consistently, so that I can LOSE WEIGHT!

At the end of each year, I thoroughly enjoy the Holidays...and of course...the Holiday food like my mom's baked macaroni and cheese, her sausage stuffing, my sisters baked ham, the sweet potato pies, the cheesecakes, the cookies...EVERYTHING! While my bad eating picks up, my exercising slows to a halt. SO, at the beginning of the year, I am always more than eager to get on the exercise bandwagon.

I work out for about a month...maybe two. Eventually I get frustrated and impatient because the results are NOT happening quick enough. Instead of working out harder...I usually quit. That makes absolutely no sense, but it's what almost always happens.

This year, I need to be a realist. Some things I have to keep telling myself:

1. I am not going to be a size 8 over night (I'm currently a size 18), if ever. Slow and steady wins the weightloss race. I am going to have to have patience. It took me a life time to get my body to this state, it's going to take a while to reverse that.
2. I have to have a consistent workout routine. This means making a workout day/time schedule and sticking to it - no excuses. This will be the hardest. I'm the queen of talking myself out of working out.
3. I can not lose weight by going about this HALF-ASSED, so I need to combine the exercise with a non-diet (a diet, but not really). I know myself well enough to know that those drastic low calorie, low fat, no carb, no taste diets are not going to work. Sure they work for the first couple of weeks, then you smell some REAL food and wild out. Yeah, I'm going to pass on that. In keeping with the theme of being a realist, I will work on cutting back. The amount of crap I eat is ridiculous...I think I can cut down on quite a few things, add healthier choices and not feel like I'm denying myself, but this will involve planning.
4. I need to plan my meals and eat out less. Planning my meals and cooking them myself, will allow me to control the proportion as well as the ingredients. I found a great site called Meals Matter. You select the meals (or you can add your own) from a list of recipes and add them to a meal plan for the week. From the plan, you can create your grocery list. You can't get any easier than this. If you've found something even easier, please let me know.
5. Get off the couch. Every day I rush home, turn on the tv, log on to the lap top and do absolutely nothing but sit on my azz. So lazy am I, that I will get PISSED if I forget to put my remote control and cell phone within arms reach...because I do not want to move from my spot of course. I end up vegging out late in to the night, which makes it hard to get up in the morning. This has to stop. I found this website called Volunteer Match and I'm seriously considering volunteering for a worthy cause.

This is just a list of what I want for myself and what I need to stop doing. I think next I'll post a more specific plan (exercise routine along with meal plans) as well as specific long and short-term goals. Saying I want to lose weight and eat healthier means nothing if I don't have a specific goal in mind and a specific plan to achieve these goals.

Wednesday starts DAY 1 of the journey to A NEW ME.