Progress

Well I've been trying to live healthier for about a month now, and been using MFP for almost two weeks to track my calories. I've done a lot of . . . well, I wouldn't call it research, per se, since none of the information is from definitive sources . . . so we'll just call it "gathering ideas" from blogs, forums, etc. As well as paying attention to things I've been doing (and haven't been doing) and trying to come up with a plan that I can stick with.

Probably the biggest thing I've realized is that if I screw up, it's no reason to give up. Monday this week was a really bad day for me. One of my downfalls has always been that I'm an emotional eater, and Monday was the first time since I started these efforts that I just said "screw it" and ate like a pig. But so what? It doesn't mean I'm a failure, just that it'll take a little longer to reach my goals. So, no giving up, no saying "I can't do this," because even if I have a bad day, that's no reason to give up on the rest of my life.

Okay, all that inspirational crap out of the way. What I really wanted to write about today were the changes that I'm wanting to make, now that I've been at this a little while and am learning what will and won't work for me. In regards to food, I've made one minor change this week. Originally I had set my MFP profile to lose 2 lbs/week. And while I stayed within my calorie limits most days, there were some days when I went over, and I always felt discouraged by that. Then I realized that, even when I go over, I'm still on track to lose weight. I just won't be losing as quickly. So, I changed my goal to 1.5 lbs/week, which gives me a higher calorie allowance that is easier to stay within. And I know that the closer I can stay to my old goal, the better off I'll be, but it's just a mindset thing. Better to exceed this goal, than not meet the other one, even if the end result is the same.

I'm still sort of playing around with HOW to actually "spend" those calories throughout the day, and I know my nutritional choices could be better. But, again I say: baby steps. Every week when we go shopping, I add a couple new things to my arsenal of healthy choices.

As far as exercise . . . this whole time I've been trying to work out where and when I can, but I haven't really gotten into a groove yet. But I think I've finally come up with a plan that I can stick with:

~ I want to start every day with at least 10 minutes "free step" on the Wii. It's easy, takes minimal effort, but it will get my heart rate and metabolism going early in the day.

~ On days I go to the Y -- Monday, Wednesday, Saturday -- I want to take more advantage of it. When I first started I was doing about 10-15 minutes on the elliptical and then some circuit training. Last week I started adding the bike to get more cardio. This week I plan to add a C25K session on treadmill. But, I have to break up all the cardio with circuit training, because last Saturday I did 20 minutes on the bike and then tried to do elliptical immediately after, and only got 5 minutes in before I had to stop. Whereas if I break it up, I can do a good 35-40 minutes of cardio in one visit. Today I'm going to see if I can push that to an hour if I break it into three sessions, with weight training in between. I'm already way better off than I was when I started, but I really want to get the most out of my time there, since I don't burn nearly as many calories when I work out at home.

~ Speaking of home, I've started the 200 situps and 200 squats programs three days a week -- Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. I was also going to do the pushups program, but I really can't do more than a couple "real" pushups, and gave my knees really bad rug burn trying to do multiple sets of the "modified" ones (Wulfa yelled at me for calling them "girly"). So, my plan is to focus on upper body the days I go to the Y. Eventually I'd like to start doing pushups, but I figure by waiting a while it will help in two ways. First, working on the machines will increase my upper body strength so I can do more. And second, it will give me a chance to lose some weight so the pushups will be that much less of a strain.

~ I'm also doing Wii Fit on my non-Y days (more than just the 10 minutes I mentioned before) but unfortunately I'm starting to get bored with it. I'm toying with the idea of getting either another game for the Wii or just some workout DVDs, but then Pat reminded me that we have a DDR game for PS2 that we haven't used . . . well, pretty much since we first got it. So I may give that a try, and see if that can at least get me over this slump until nicer weather, when more outdoor options will open up. (We'll both be getting new bikes when that happens, so NOT spending money on an indoor game would probably be good, if I can avoid it.)

So, that's my plan. We'll see how it holds up.