After weeks of floundering & half-hearted discussion of getting my butt in gear, I finally have a plan in place... one that started today... and my plan is to send 2010 "Out with a Bang!" Something about there being less than eight weeks left of deployment and well under 90 days left in the calendar year signals to me that I must take action now.
Do I feel ready to take on a challenging regimen? Not in the slightest! Is my heart fully in it? It wants to be, but if I'm being honest... no its not! Does that set me up for failure before I even fully begin? I hope not. My shrink told me a year ago when I was so depressed I couldn't do anything more productive than play Facebook games that sometimes you just have to start doing to feel better. So that's what I'm gonna do... the plan is made and I'm just gonna do it... whether I feel like it or not. Because it is for me and it will be good for me... and because I deserve to put myself first. That putting myself first thing is still a foreign concept in my mind. I feel guilty for doing it, guilty for shutting myself down... but I think I would end up feeling more guilty if i didn't do it and do it NOW!
Here's the "Out with a Bang!" plan:
- Drink buckets of water daily (maybe not buckets, but at least 64oz.)
- Blog daily
- Track food daily
- Try three new healthy recipes each week
- Exercise daily - to include completing "Around the World" gym requirements
You will notice in there that there is nothing about eating "healthy" or limiting calories. While I will be monitoring both, I will not be obsessing over it or chastising myself if I end up in restaurants frequently. Over the last several months, I am certain it has been my lack of exercise that has hurt me... so that will be my primary focus.
Doing "Around the World" gym requirements will force me back into a solid fitness routine. Granted I will have an extra forty days beyond what the gym allots during the challenge... but considering what an infrequent gym visitor I have become & the two weeks I will likely be gone around the holidays, I'm pretty sure it will be challenging enough as is. :)
For the sake of being able to measure results, I did a Thursday morning scale visit and measurements:
- 198 pounds (ugh... but still down a tiny bit from the start of deployment)
- Waist - 38 1/2"
- Hips - 47"
- Chest - 42"
- Thigh - 26 1/4"
- Calf - 19"
- Arm - 16 1/2"
Scale day is going to remain Tuesday. I plan to check measurements for progress at about the middle of November and then again at the end of the year.
The only thing I haven't figured out fully is rewards... and its no secret I thrive on rewards. They will be figured out & posted by the end of the weekend... and chances are they will include jewelry and/or handbags, lol.
So that's it... my plan to send 2010 "Out with a Bang!"
What are you going to do to finish 2010 strong???
Look at that... you can actually see a fair amount of white plate there! Everything in this picture was pretty tasty; I ate all of the mac & cheese, the roll, the chicken & half of the brisket. That chicken is Hawaiian BBQ with pineapple....so unbelievably good. Its probably best not to ask how much of it I consumed. My second plate had more chicken (lots more), mashed potatoes with gravy (which I took two bites of and decided they were gross) and a little corn. Plate number three (yes there was a third plate and yikes) had more chicken (seriously the chicken was amazing) and way too much corn bread. My only defense is that they had just put that corn bread out and its soooo tasty when its fresh. So yeah... I confess the buffet was carb & protein heavy... with not much to call a veggie or fruit in sight... except a few tidbits of pineapple. I do have to say it was a bit amusing walking out of the restaurant... everyone else in the family was groaning about how much they ate and how full they were while I was thinking to myself "I'm on the well satisfied side of things... but definitely not overstuffed."
