Well here it is, the last full week of January and you have yet to make any changes to your diet, exercise or other goals. Next week I will be asking you to make your first change so enjoy this week. Really use this week to cement the steps we've put in place for January.
1. Make sure your original goals are attainable by the year's end and are really goals you want to achieve.
2. Have your support person in place and ready to go.
3. Keep daily track of your food, liquid and exercise with calories written beside the food and calories expended written beside the exercise.
4. Make sure you've okayed yourself with your doctor.
This week you have just a few things to put into place. This week is again about intention as it was in week one. Spend this week getting yourself psyched about the new you that is about to start revealing itself through the coming months. Sit down and read your goals again. Then take it a step further. Visualize it. Imagine in your mind's eye what you will look like, feel like, act like when those goals are attained. What would a typical day look like from that perspective. Meditate on it, pray about it, whatever works best for you. If you are a person of faith, ask God to help you to achieve your goals and prompt you when you aren't doing what is best for your body.
I would also like you to either sit down with or phone your support person. Have a semi-serious conversation with them. Reveal your end goals to them and at the same time ask them to please check up on you atleast twice weekly. Just a quick call or text to make sure you are doing what you are supposed to for that week. Make sure they are aware that you need them to be firm with you, not extra kind or allowing you slack since you're just starting. They need to be your conscience when your own is trying to lead you astray with old habits.
The last thing for this week is sorting out what you are eating into food groups. Somewhere you need to be keeping track of how many grains, vegetables, fruits, milks, and meat & alternatives you are eating. To make things relatively simple this is what we are considering a serving:
Grains: 1 piece of bread or 1/2 cup cereal/pasta or 1/2 muffin/bagel/pita
Vegetables or fruit: 1 medium size fruit/veg or 1/2 cup cut up fruit/veg or 1 cup salad or 1/2 cup juice
Milk products: 3inch x 1inch x 1inch piece of cheese or 3/4 cup yogurt or 1 cup milk or 2 cup cottage cheese
Meat and alternatives: 4 oz meat (size of your palm) or 3/4 cup beans or 75g (1/2 can) fish or 1 large egg or 1/3 cup tofu or 2 tbsp nut butter
Hopefully that makes it not too hard to sort out. Feel free to ask if you're unsure of something you are eating. You may want to even go back through your past couple of weeks and see what you tend to eat on a regular basis to find which categories you eat more of and which you eat less of.
So enjoy your week. Get ready to make some changes. Slow ones. Small ones. The results will be slow but steady and something you can really look forward to living with. Since really, nothing will last unless you make lasting changes.
I'm looking forward to working with you. I know you can do it. I have. At my heaviest I was 60 pounds more than I am now. And since having a baby 5 months ago I still have 15 pounds to go to get back to my pre-baby weight. So I can definitely tell you that it is a process but one that I have been able to live by for the past 4 years without returning to my previous sedentary, unhealthy self even through a pregnancy. The one thing I can definitely say is that it starts in the mind. So start your day with your intentions firmly planted in your head. Then let's go!
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