Baby steps

Thank goodness this has been a short week. Though travelingand road trips are fun, they are tiring and leave much laundry and *mess* to betaken care of afterwards, plus you lose a weekend of productivity. It’s worthit to get away, but since becoming a full-fledged adult, I now totally understand “needing a vacation from your vacation,” no matter how short said vacation is.

Sticking to my training plan has been a flop as of recently (which is becoming a horrible trend…). I ran Tuesday night {4 miles, 43:33},but so far that is it. I plan on running 4.5 miles after work today as long as the rain holds off. Tomorrow I hope to either attend 5:45am spin class or hop on my bike after work for a session on the hills. Saturday morning will be my long run for the week – 7 miles, which will be the longest I’ve ever run. I’m actually really excited about reaching that milestone!

With May just days away, I’m feeling the “summer’s coming” pressure. I’m not losing weight and I’ve really begun to accept the fact that I need to make some major changes, starting in the food department. I am a classic “boredom eater,” – when I’m bored, my mind immediately tricks me into thinking I need to occupy my mouth. Having a sedentary job, this happens often, and even though I snack on “healthy” foods, they’re all calories in the end.

I saw this last night on pinterest and I was really inspired:

If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.

{For me, I want a firmer body – something I’ve never had – so I need to do things – exercise more/better and eat less/better – I’ve never done}

Even though, for me, that quote would apply more for the exercise portion of my life, it’s sparking me to make some eating changes {I’ll cover the exercise portion in another post – I have an exciting, but scary, plan!}.

First, I’m trying to really scale back what and how often I eat. So far:

·        I’ve moved my morning yogurt from 10am to lunchtime. I’m not sure that when I eat the yogurt is that important, but I’m trying to train myself to not NEED something between breakfast and lunch.

·        I’ve been chewing a lot more gum, especially when the munchies hit.

Initially, I want to:

·        Give up eating after dinnertime too – no evening snacks while watching TV NO MATTER WHAT. {no popcorn!} Up until the past couple years, this wasn’t an issue – I never ate in front of the TV. I blame Vic for getting me addicted to popcorn!

·        Quit carbonated drinks {particularly soda}altogether. Yes, they are delicious, but on top of empty calories or artificial sweeteners, they make me feel bloated and gassy. No thanks!

·        Quit coffee. I didn’t start regularly drinkingcoffee until I started working at my current job. Once I was working full time (and taking care of a young child after work on my own), I needed something toget me through the day – coffee was it! Now, it’s a daily habit that costs $$ (such a waste!) and isn’t all that great for my body, even though I get NF/SF lattes. I only drink ~1 “cup”/day, so it’s not a constant thing, but I don’t want to do it anymore. I have some packets of Starbucks VIA iced coffee at home. Once those are gone, I really want to be done w/coffee for good.

·        Brush my teeth right after dinner, to hopefully ward off after-dinner snacking.

On a long-term basis, my plan is to:

·        Eat more “cleanly” by eliminating a lot of processed foods and sugar from my {and my family’s} diet.

·        Incorporate more vegetables into my diet. I struggle with this a lot because I literally gag on many raw vegetables, and there are few cooked vegetables that I will tolerate.

·        Reduce the amount of meat my family consumes.This will be a challenge, as chicken is typically the center of all our meals. Personally,I would love to be meat-free. I don’t especially care for it {I already don’t eat beef – so I’d have to eliminate poultry and pork}.

·        Cook dinner at home at least 5 days/week. I purchased a wipe-off calendar yesterday to aid me in meal planning. I’m already psyched to plan and pre-prepare our meals for this coming week!

On the non-weightloss/exercise-related front, while skimming livingsocial and groupon for deals on a family photographer {anyone have some affordable photojournalistic-style suggestions?}, I came across a deal for mypublisher.com - $19 for a DeluxePhoto Book. I've nixed the idea of having prints made of all our photos, then stuffing them into albums - they're so bulky, and in the end - expensive! Ever since hearing about mypublisher on YHL, I've decided that creating yearly "yearbooks" of our family pictures is the best idea. Now I just have to get on that for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011!!