New Game Plan

Okay, so here we go. Enough whining and crying and wallowing in frustration. Time to get serious up in here.

Full disclosure, I think I'm bloated right now but the sudden tightness of my jeans has spurred me into action. And the reason I say I'm bloated and not just gaining weight, is they fit fine last week. And a pair of sleep pants I wore Monday night were suddenly tight Tuesday night. You don't gain weight literally over night.

But whatever motivation works, right?

I've been researching (again) how to bust through this plateau and pull myself out of the darkness of stagnant weight loss. There were all the same old tips I'd read over the past several months but I did stumble across something slightly new. I didn't write down the website (d'oh!) but it gave some "food for thought" tips to help get my mind right and get back to those small step basics I've wandered away from.

1) Set a goal.

So my goal is two part: 1. Eat more whole foods, less processed foods. Looking back, eating more whole foods--mostly veggies and proteins--were more or less where I started. After giving up lattes and limiting Cokes, of course.  But I ate a lot of one pot meals that were full of lean protein and veggies. I've gotten lazy. I don't eat nearly as many veggies as I did and I put as little effort into my meals as I can. That stops now. Well, that stops after I finish off the deli sliced turkey in my fridge because I ain't wastin no monies, honey. So until that's gone, I'll be eating more veggies and fruits with it to add some true nutrition. Then once it's gone, it's back to fresh chicken breasts, ground turkey, brussell's sprouts, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, bananas, apples, onions, sweet potatoes, belle peppers, mushrooms, avocados...well, you get the idea. Those are just some of my faves.

Part 2 of this goal is to simply move more. When I said I'd gotten lazy, I wasn't just talking about my cooking. I sit at my desk at work for longer periods of time than I used to. I used to take the long way around to get from A to B but I've gotten to where I take the quickest route instead. Those little things I used to do to add movement to my day, I'm going to start there again and build my way back up to being fairly active instead of being a slug.

This tip also asks the question, "What does weight loss really mean to you and how will it benefit my life?" Weight loss means feeling good in my skin. I don't just want to look good, I want to FEEL good. This will benefit my life by making me healthier both physically and mentally so that I can live my life fully.

2.) Switch things up: Change your workouts. For me, this means actually working out consistently. Y'all, I have a set of dumbbells. I have some work out DVD's. I have YouTube. Do I do anything with any of those things consistently? NO. See above about me being lazy. So to switch things up I'm going to set another goal of lifting weights 4 times a week. 12 reps, 3 circuits of at least four moves.  And, I'm going to buy the 5 pound weights and upgrade from the 3 pound ones. I've been saying for MONTHS that I needed to do that but I never did. That's all on me.

3.) Set a short term activity goal. The website suggested an activity to work toward. So my short term activity goal is to consistently work my way back up to 10000 steps a day. This is going to be hard because it's hella hot outside and I hate the heat. And I hate being sweaty at work so I'm gonna hafta really work at it. Park a far distance from the building. Walk a short distance outside twice a day. And by short, I mean short. Take Libby out for a stroll in the yard after supper.

4.) Check your calories. This meant checking to make sure you were getting the right amount--not too few or too many, because did you know that too few calories and throw up a plateau road block? So I went through what I normally eat in a day and narrowed down some areas where I could stand to improve. Cut out the afternoon coffee I occasionally  have (2 tsp sugar, 4 tsp creamer) and replace it with water--which is what I had been doing back in those early days when I was losing weight consistently.  Also going to cut out the morning snack I've recently gotten into the habit of eating.

While I was checking my calories, though, I got a bit of a reality check. The chia seed pudding I thought was so harmless...when I broke it down to calorie level for the ingredients, I was eating over 600 calories! So, yeah. That portion size is getting cut in half.

So this is where I stand right now. Back to basics. Back to seeking out mental and physical health.

Wish me luck!