January: The Month of New Diets and Resolutions

On the eve of my 51^st birthday I’ve become quite reflective. What have I done in life? Am I where I should be? Do I have unattained goals that need attention?  Yikes, I think this is where Mid-life crises begin! I’m not interested in spending money foolishly or destroying my family.  My mid-life crisis will result in a whole new me! (Well, I’m still Carol, just healthier and more active!)

Fortunately I can feel a metamorphosis happening. In September, through a sudden loss, I made the mental-physical connections needed to embark on a healthier lifestyle. Different from the 2,452 other times I began a diet, health regimen, exercise program, etc., this time took hold like none before. I’m doing things entirely out of character for me.  For example I used to wonder what the heck people did to stay at the gym for longer than an hour (and WHY?  Didn’t they have other things to do?) This morning an hour flew by and I had more I wanted to do at the gym!  I MADE myself leave though because, yes, I do have other things to do.  And I did all that on just one cup of coffee!  Some other changes:

•          I only baked one batch of cookies over the holidays
•          I allowed myself some sweets on Christmas Eve/Christmas and New Year’s Eve but didn’t gorge on them.  By Christmas night, my body was looking forward to NOT having sugar the next day.
•          I spent hours at ski lodges and did NOT buy anything but coffee from the heavily scented (fatty, sugary) concessions.  One day was particularly hard and I felt the $3 coffee that tasted like sludge was overpriced: until I realized it prevented me from buying a large chocolate chip cookie and decided that was the best $3 I spent.

While celebrating my successes, I will be honest also: I DID eat sweets on other days; particularly the first week of January was tough for me.  When everyone else was ultra-motivated to begin a health program, I had just made it through the holidays on a motivation high so just couldn’t jump any higher which resulted in some lapses.

Goals Review of December = Accomplishments:

•          Exercise 5x/week : elevating my heart rate to 120-150 for 30 minutes
•          Reduce sugar: I’ve worked sweets out of my daily routine
•          Completed that first 5K (which for me, was a tool to get me running)
•          Bought some more tools for success: Passion Planner, Arbonne Protein Shake Mix, work-out clothing
•         Recorded my workouts on FB – for inspiration to others, encouragement to me and accountability.
•          Tracked food 3 days/week
•          I went skiing twice: multiple runs on green and blue trails!  The funny thing is: this activity did NOT get my HR up to Target Zone.  It elevated to about 50% of max HR.

Goals for January:

•          Two exercise events on the same day  3x/week (Balance Board, Running, Gym)
•          30 mins. HR exercise 6x/week
•          Track food 5 days/week or more
•          Keep calorie count near target of 1850/day
•          Continue to forgive lapses and forge ahead, showing kindness to myself as I would to others.

Some books I’ve been reading for inspiration that you may find interesting:

The End of Overeating (click here)

This book puts into context ideas I’ve always known on the surface.  Basically that we (as a society) have become cunningly manipulated into eating more sugar and high fat foods.  It shows how far we have come from what our bodies were intended to eat. It aligns with the current trends of Paleo, Mediterranean Diet, etc. – but is more bare bones and succinct than a “trend.”

No Need for Speed (click here)

This author speaks to the runner that I am. Yes, he says I’m a runner even if I run the same way he began: Wogging = half waddling + half jogging.  His crutch was cigarettes, mine is that ½ tsp. of sugar that I need in my coffee.  We are not perfect, but we’re working hard and accomplishing goals.