There are a few really short articles for you all to check out. This one is all about how to stick to the great goals that you've set for yourselves. Scheduling in workouts and treating them as a high priority in my day has helped me a lot. I love how it suggests to focus not on what you have left to accomplish but focus on your mini-successes. This one is about the importance of surrounding yourself with positive people, a network of friends and family who are dedicated to you achieving your goal. Share what you're undertaking with your spouse, boyfriend, best friend. Tell them why you're doing what you're doing. Try to spend more time with those friends or family members who are positive and less time with those who are negative. This one talks about motivation for beginning exercisers. Check out the fourth tip. It's exactly what yesterday's post was about! When you're feeling low, go back to yesterday's post and read why you're doing what you're doing. Remind yourself this is a lifestyle change and not some little fad or race. Your reasons for why are passionate, important, and worthy of you giving it your all. You can do it!
Today, comment and tell us all how your first day went, what are your initial thoughts, what in any of the 3 articles struck home with you for your particular situation, and what you're going to do this week to challenge your excuses!!!!!!
First day went great :) My most impactful takeaway from the articles was to lay out my running clothes the night before and pack my little gym bag of work clothes & shower stuff so that I'll actually get to the fitness center at work and run on their treadmill before work starts instead of falling victim to my own excuses and rationalizations. It would make my life so much easier to get my workout in early in the morning! I'm going to challenge my excuse that I'm not a morning person this week :)
ReplyDeleteGood Morning Ladies!! The first day went okay. I think my focus for this challenge is going to be a little different. I have a handle on my workout part of this lifestyle change now I need to dig deeper into my food issues and the emotional part of it. I hope that makes sense. I am on a journey of really discovering my excuses and facing them. Any suggestions on really yummy healthy food would be greatly appreciated!
ReplyDeleteit went surprisingly easy yesterday! i worked out when i could and didn't get stressed out about it. plus, it was a lot easier then i was expecting and pushed myself just a little. i really enjoy the my fitness pal. it helped me out with my eating habit. i wasn't sure i was going to tell my husband the way i was going about this. especially the myfitnesspal.com, he tends to be too competitive without realizing it and that would be way too much pressure for me. but i told him and he's very supportive and doesn't seem interested in myfitnesspal for the time being.:) i've also to take the stress of working out off by just getting it done when i can. sometimes the days are unpredictable and as long as i get done before my daughter and husband come home from school then i will be happy. my daughter did decide to catch the stomach bug going around last night. we got maybe 3 hours of sleep. so i am going to try to get the workout in earlier then later today. wish me luck!! :D
ReplyDeleteTo lose weight, I've been concentrating on how I eat and less on exercise. My workouts are still just 15 minutes of walking, 20 minutes of yoga & strength builders. I did really well with my workout yesterday and I also ate very healthfully.
ReplyDeleteThis is off topic, but I've been analyzing how in the world I've been able to stick to my healthy eating plan for this long (10 weeks now, minus some Christmas snacking). I decided it's because
1. I stay calm with the stress reduction/yoga,
2. I keep my foods varied, introducing new stuff each week (and I have some good recipes to share tomorrow!)
3. I eat a small (200-300 cals) high protein meal every 2-3 hours, which prevents me from getting too hungry and the protein keeps me full and keeps my blood sugar from spiking.
4. I eat very few carbs after 4 p.m. I stop eating altogether by 7 p.m. so I can burn off everything I ate during the day (and then burn some fat as well, hopefully).
Keep up the great work, everyone!
Hi, ladies! Please be patient today w/ the notification emails. I'm getting all the kinks worked out w/ the external forwarding email address I created. You MAY not get the comments everyone posts on here today, but you will in a little bit :)
ReplyDeleteOk, the emails are all worked out! ALL of you are now entered into receiving an email when I make a new daily post AND when a challenger comments on a post. Yay! Cheryl & Laura, let me know if you would prefer I use a personal email account instead of your work email account. Anyone, let me know if you want to be off the email lists altogether; I won't be offended, promise. I find it a big help to have reminders and tips constantly popping into my email :)
ReplyDeletePhew- I'm proud of getting that set up! It's unfortunately not unlimited, but at least we're now limited to 29 instead of 10!
Yesterday went really well. I actually started changing my eating habits *last* Monday, but hadn't restarted my exercise habit until yesterday. I wrote "gym" on my list of must things to do yesterday and I did it! I just got back from the gym this morning as well. Out of the articles above, I liked the part about writing your goals down and putting them on the fridge. We set some goals as a family a couple weeks ago and they are up on the fridge. I also like the idea of making exercise a priority. If you put it on your list and schedule it, it's easier to get it done. (The 2nd article didn't load for me, but I enjoyed the other two!) I also think that writing down my food intake and exercise in My Fitness Pal is very helpful. To know that you are accountable for something makes you work harder to accomplish it.
ReplyDeleteI rocked my first day!! I kept track of all I ate on my fitness pal and only went over my calories by 10 AND I got in 5 glasses of water, something I rarely do. I also ran a stellar 2.5 miles. I feel like I am on a great start and I actually felt so good yesturday!
ReplyDeleteYesterday was not too bad, I was actually pretty proud of myself because I ate healthier. I really relate to Abrey and do better with the workouts but not so much with the eating healthy part. I too would love any suggestions on what to eat for breakfast and lunch mainly. I've enjoyed all of the dinner ideas but just need more of the other two meals.
ReplyDeleteI have written down all my goals that I want to accomplish and have posted them in plain sight so that I can see them and so that my family can see them too so they can hold me accountable as well. I am keeping track of the food I eat and this time I am recording it in myfitnesspal.com since I lost my notebook last time :) I am working on not skipping any meals and eating every 2-3 hours and drinking more water!
Off to a great start! Keep up the good work ladies!
Things are going pretty well so far. I really like having to keep track of what I eat. I think this will be effective because it makes me accountable for it. It's really easy to just eat something bad and then forget about it. But, this way I'm reminded about what was a bad choice and also, what my good choices for food intake are. I also really like having a blog and friends to check in with each day-- it keeps my goals and motivation at the forefront of my mind.
ReplyDeleteOne of my concerns is making sure that I don't diet or exercise too much, because I am breastfeeding. And I don't want to lose my milk supply. Any thoughts? Jen? How many calories should I be consuming? MFP thinks that I should aim for 1300, but that's not taking into account breastfeeding and I feel like that's too few calories. I feel like there's got to be a happy medium between eating everything and strict dieting. Any ideas?
Leslie, everything I've read from various sources online says nursing mothers should consume an extra 500-800 calories per day. Jen, does that sound about right? And Gail, the measurements are all confidential :) Nobody can access your MFP profile except you!
ReplyDeleteI had a great first day! Unlike Abrey and Kim, I'm usually pretty good with my caloric intake and am having to challenge those excuses more when it comes to workouts. HOWEVER, I've got a fire lit under me to get my running back up to snuff for my 1/4 marathon Jan. 23rd. It really helps to have a race coming up to keep me movin'.
ReplyDeleteI loved the articles! My favorite parts were from the first: finding solutions to our usual excuses. I think it's a GREAT idea to brainstorm strategies to deal with these re-occuring excuses! From the second article: "walking your pooch will shrink your paunch", "volunteers who got 30 min of leash time 5x/week droppped 14 lbs/yr average" --> AWESOME!! I have a dog myself and I just started a training and exercising program with two other dogs!
Breakfast and lunch ideas: I choose a low-fat, high fiber cereal for breakfast like Multigrain Cheerios or Special K. If one bowl isn't enough, I'll also eat a banana. For lunch, I love to eat ham or turkey sandwich made on Arnold Select Multi-grain Sandwich Thins. I put lots of lettuce and some mustard on it and it's almost no calories at all! -only 2 points for weight watchers. I usually couple this with a low-fat, high fiber yogurt. Drinking lots of water, I'm good to go until afternoon snack. Hope this helps!
I'm thinking I'm grateful to be involved in such a positive motivating blog! :) Today went well. I caught myself MANY times reaching for that "not so good choice" and grabbed something better! I spent my day yesterday and today cleaning for the pictures of our house to put on the market. There really IS a difference in cleaning and "power cleaning" :) Haven't had a chance to read the articles yet, but I'll get there! :) OH, and yesterday's "why" for me is, BECAUSE IT'S TIME!!!!!!! :) I've procrastinated way too long......
ReplyDeleteI've been feeling pretty special here! :-) My three daughters at home all want to do this with me. We have already been going to the Y to work out on a regular basis (minus the holidays), but I've had the most horrible time changing our eating patterns...I LOVE the food tracker thing...so far, it has made me feel pretty good about the things I've chosen to eat--even a naughty soda moment today didn't push me over my daily calorie goal. I feel like I'm doing well and just need to make small adjustments at a time and those will turn into a completely new lifestyle for me. Already, the first thing that comes to mind for 'family time' is going to work out or going to Zumba! It's used to be where are we gonna eat? Now it's are we gonna work out on the machines or go to a class....this after about three months of consistent exercising. Now, I hope to have the same change in our eating habits!! :-) It's SO TRUE that having 'partners' helps a lot! Days that I don't feel like going, my girls push me to do it or get mad if we don't....it's great!
ReplyDeleteThis comment is for Leslie from Red Hot (she was having computer difficulties & couldn't post):
ReplyDelete"RE: Nursing and Dieting: 500-800 calories is a little high. I met with a nutricianist and she said you only need an additional 300. Just drink plenty of water. Of course, if you find it's affecting you, and you want to keep nursing, then STOP dieting altogether. Feeding babies is more important! But I am doing my 1200 +300 and I'm still nursing without problems."