Thursday, January 7, 2010

A goal for the New Year...

As a rule, I don't make New Year's resolutions. I find that I rarely stick to them and they feel like something I HAVE to do and I have discovered that when I HAVE to do something I rarely put forth a lot of effort into it. This year, however, I have decided to tackle a problem that I have been staring at in the mirror for 15 years. My weight.

Yes, like millions of other people on the planet I want to lose weight this year. I would love to lose ALL of my excess weight but I will be pleased if I can lose half of what I want to lose.

Right now my plan for losing this weight is still loosely formed. I don't want to diet. Just the word DIET creates anxiety and weight gain. In fact, I think I just gained a few pounds just by typing the dreaded D word. Along with the D word, I really don't want to have to worry about counting the calories of everything I stuff into my face. I know what you are thinking "No diet and no counting calories? Good luck with that." It is not that I am 100% against either one of these, what I am worried about is going through all of the hard work to diet and count calories only to have the weight come back when I start eating like a real person again.

So instead of the D word and the calorie counting my loosely formed plan is:
- Always eat breakfast
- Reduce the amount of Coke I drink (Did I mention I am an addict?)
- Drink more water
- Watch my portion sizes (Do I really need TWO bowls of taco soup?)
- Snack responsibly
- Replace white with brown when possible (rice, pasta, bread, etc)
- Exercise at least 30 minutes everyday (I have a dog. He needs at least a 30 minute walk each day.)
- Don't eat after 7 PM
- Get a full 8 hours of sleep
- Don't beat myself up if I have an off day

I may be living in a dream world but I think I can lose at least some of my weight by doing these things and I am open to ideas. Does anyone have any weight loss secrets they would like to share?

2 comments:

Pam said...

Those are good goals. I am a diet mountain dew addict. I need to quit drinking so many of them too!

Cynthia said...

I think you are going about this the right way. Focusing on small, long term changes always brings more success. I lost 35 lbs. last year by setting a simple goal of just losing SOMETHING each week, no matter how small the loss. The goal was to do the MINIMUM I could do and STILL lose. I've never in my life lost that much weight before.

Now, I have regained some over the holidays but I know exactly what changes to make to fix it and I'm down a couple of lbs.

I'm sure you can make the small changes you need to create the big change you want. Nicki is going to start an Eat2GetFit support group on Facebook. You're welcome to join us when she does. We'll even meet face-to-face once a month or so. Join in!