Getting After It

Oooohhhh.  *BIG SIGH*

You guys.  Do you know what happens in the winter?  Heather eats whatever she wants and stops running as much as she should and gains a few pounds and gets soft.  I know I'm not the only one that lets this happen.

And this year I am truly committing myself to getting in shape before bathing suit season.  I am serious. So today I'm sitting down and crafting a healthy eating plan to keep myself on track and to have a plan to fall back on so I'm not scrambling to find things to eat each day.  And when I'm done with my eating plan/menu I am crafting an exercise schedule because I don't follow through when I have to think about what I'm doing- it just has to be a "plug and play" situation where I know exactly what I'm doing on exactly what days or else I waffle between what I should do and what I want to do and end up sitting on the couch in my running stuff looking at Pinterest and not actually exercising.

My food guidelines aren't going to be super strict because I find that when I totally deprive myself I end up hating everything, being grumpy all of the time and not sticking with it after about a month and a half.  Instead here is what I was thinking- eating more lean proteins and vegetables.  Cutting down on the carbs and grains I eat and trying to stick mostly with brown rice and sweet potatoes vs breads and pastas, but the occasional whole wheat bread or pasta is fine.  Keep the dairy to a minimum- I've already cut out dairy yogurt and dairy creamer in my coffee to coconut yogurt and coconut creamer but ensuring that I'm using olive oil instead of butter (which I mostly already do) and keep the cheese to a minimum... which is the hard part because I love cheese.  Cut down on the processed/packaged foods- we already keep it pretty minimum, but sometimes I find it easier to grab a prepackaged bag of snack crackers rather than preparing fruit and nuts for a snack.  If I want a small piece of chocolate or a small serving of a goody, I can have it.  If I want a beer or glass of wine, I can have it- just make sure I'm not having sugar-loaded cocktails.  Sometimes it's the little indulgences that make a difference between feeling like you hate life and feeling like you are healthy and happy.

I have decided to keep a food journal using an App on my phone to make sure I am conscious of what I am putting in my body each day, and also keeping a regular daily journal to log how I am feeling- not just about food and exercise but in general.

My exercise guideline is to just move more. I am a fairly active person (not always in the traditional "Take a jog" way, but I work up a sweat deep cleaning and rearranging my house on a weekly basis) so mostly I just want to ensure that I am more consistent with my exercise and that I plan out what I'm going to do.  I want to do some sort of resistance work 2 times a week and then cardio at least 3 times a week.  Mr also wants to start taking long hikes on the weekends since the weather is starting to improve and he has made a goal of climbing a mountain soon.

I know I can do this, I just need to remind myself to make the healthy and better decisions on a daily basis and that the occasional goody or extra is not bad.

So here we go.