It's Time!

Well, my dear friend Leah and her husband started back at the 30 Day Shred last week, committing to doing it every day for the full 30 days and seeing what results they come up with. Leah has inspired alot of people to join her, which I think it AMAZING. One of my favorite shows is The Biggest Loser because I respect those people so much. They don't sit around whining about needing to lose weight-well, maybe they did at one time, but then they decide to do the work. I know that weight loss is a sensitive subject for many people. I realize that it is simply harder for some to take off the pounds than others. But I don't really look at eating healthy and exercising as a weight loss plan. It's called taking care of your body. And that definitely is not just for yourself, but for your family and friends, too. I know we can't be in total control of our health, but we can be in control of a huge part of it, and that's eating the right foods and the right amounts and exercising. This in turn is proven to lower our stress, which is a BIG factor in some of our health issues (I believe). Anyway, all that to say, I don't think that being healthy means being skinny and vice versa. I think that as long as you do the work, you're doing great. But it IS work. No doubt. Okay, enough of my soapbox.

Anyway, I began the 30 day shred quite a while ago, and completed the 30 days in about 8 weeks, and then started again and did around 15 days. I saw some results, mainly in my abs and I was able to fit into my old jeans again. But, I still didn't feel like I was where I wanted to be physically, and I realized that I haven't changed my eating habits enough. Long story short, I eat too many sweets at night when the kids go to bed. It's my down time and I have somehow managed to convince myself that "I deserve it". Well, yeah, a treat is great, but it's not a treat when you have it every dang night! So, here's my new plan. I started today.

(This will be very boring to some of you, but if you're initials are J.L.M., then I know you live for this stuff. :-)

Today is Day One of 30 Day Shred. (AGAIN!) I will do it 3 times a week (at the advice of a personal trainer I know so that my muscles will have a break). I will do 2 days at Level 1 and 1 day at Level 2 (also the advice of the trainer to switch it up for your muscles). This will take me approximately 10 weeks. I will be finished mid March.

Mid March it will be nice outside again and I will begin the Couch to 5K program. I will slowly learn to run and plan on working at this pace until I feel comfortable with running a 5K. I have walked quite a few, and will do another one next month. But one of my 5 goals for 2010 is to RUN my very first 5K. I can't believe I'm writing that on here, because now I HAVE to do it. I've told a couple of my closest people, but that's all. So yeah, I'm thinking maybe a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving? I don't know. We'll have to see how I do. I've never run before. At least not enough to count. :-)

As for food, I am allowing my self two sweet treats a week for this month, then beginning in March, I'll go to one. I'm replacing the cookies, cupcakes, etc. with yogurt (even some that has chocolate in it!), fruit, etc. Other than that, my eating habits are pretty good, I think. As for soda, I have been drinking 2-3 cokes per week and I am reducing it to 1 per week. I could totally cut them out, but I'm not going to. Ya gotta live a little. :-) So this is where I'm starting. Oh, I'm reducing my family's bread intake. We love our carbs.

So that's my plan. We'll see how it goes.