My own challenge

I am finally done moving, although I feel like the settling and nesting will go on forever! The more I do the more seems to need to be done. But it is so worth it because I can't even believe how great this place is!

Back to my challenge, one shared by so many, those last 10 pounds. Over the last year and a half, I have put on about 10 pounds. While I am in the healthy range, I just like how body looks and how my clothes fit at the lower end of the healthy range. So I have created a plan--the easy part--and now I have to get started and follow it--the hard part! I have really fallen off the wagon so serious work and change is necessary!

The Diet Part

While exercise will clearly play a part, I know that diet is what is really holding me back, so I have come up with 3 basic changes to start. Ideally there are about a million things in relation to what I eat and how I eat it that I should change, but first I need to master these and then add more as necessary. The funny thing is most people think I am such a health nut, but while I eat mainly health foods, I eat too many of them and plenty of unhealthy foods (mostly sweets and refined carbs) too.

Change #1-Eat only when hungry. So simple, if everyone did this, noone would be overweight! However, it is the habits: mindless grazing, dessert everynight before bed, the mini toblerone you can't resist whenever you are at that certain deli, the calorie bomb cosi bread that comes with the salad. There is also the emotional eating. I am not sure how much of an emotional eater I am. But when you can only eat when you are hungry, you tend to have to actually deal with the emotions that rise to the surface instead of being swallowed, so I will have to see how much work I have to do with that! I feel the mindless eating and habits are certainly more of a problem for me!

Change #2: No Diet Soda! My deep dark diet secret, is actually not a secret to anyone who has met me. I love diet coke with all of my heart. I always say that I should be a diet coke add because I am always so blissful when drinking it. However, my DC habit is out of control. I have been trying to quit for so long, and I can't seem to do it. It is like smoking for me, although my smoker friends refuse to believe this. Anyways, I have a list of 60 reasons not to drink diet soda and yet I do it every single day, several times a day. So that will actually be the hardest thing. It is not that I completely buy the recent studies claiming that artificial sweetners make you fat, but I definitely know that they leave me hungrier and craving more sugar.

I swear this photo is completely candid--it is a little old though! I had just biked ten miles from Oak Bluffs to South Beach on Martha's Vineyard. And all I wanted to refresh was my diet coke--this coke looks huge in the photo, but it is a 20 ounce not a liter!Why don't I love water? I also had a lovely Treehugger sandwich from the infamous Humphrey's in my bag.

Change #3: No eating after dinner. This will cut around 300 calories out of my day, so it's a no brainer. But it is a habit,so that will be the challenge. I ALWAYS have a snack or dessert after dinner. I'll let you know if I come up with any effective strategies!

The Exercise Part:

I find that getting in 5 workout sessions of at least 65 minutes of challenging cardio is what it takes for me to start dropping pounds, so that is the goal with 3 30 minute strength sessions a week as well. Yoga/pilates where ever I can fit it in!

Kick off workout:

Today I did the first workout I have been proud of in a long time.

I went downstairs to the gym and did 15 minutes on the treadmill walking at 5% incline at 4.2 mph. I was watching Everyday Italian. It's a little weird to watch the Food Network while working out, but I have to get my fill of Giada! I love that the gym in my building has TVs that get every channel, so I have no excuse to watch tv on the couch if I haven't been to the gym yet. After that I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. Then I ran to the Socrates Sculpture Park-- I love this place; they offer capeoria, yoga and pilates free in the mornings! It was about 2 miles to the park. I did fartleks: sprinting as hard as I could for a minute and halfish and walking just long enough to catch my breath. I had to walk most of the way back, jogging parts of the way when I had the energy. While I am clearly not in the best shape of my life, at least I ended my workout feeling like I had done my best.

Thanks for bearing with the long post. Hopefully I can drop the last ten! Send any suggestions my way! xoxo