It is Tuesday October 9th. I know that seems like a weird day for starting a month of improvement, but I’ve always thought the idea of ‘the diet starting Monday’ was dumb. When you decide you want to make a change, why wait? So, here I am on a random Tuesday making a commitment to the world. Ha, world. Yeah right. More like a commitment to the 75 people that may read this post.
Lately I have felt like a ‘light’ version of myself. And, let me tell you, I do not mean ‘light’ as in ‘skinny’. I mean like I am not living my full life to all it’s potential. I am here to break the cycle!
The point of all this is to try and do 30 days of the ‘best me’ that I can be. I will lay out my goals and ideas below. But first I want to lay down the ground rules/details. The end of my 30 days will be on Thursday November 8th. At that point I can go back to my old ways of procrastination, binge drinking, and stuffing my face with bread! I also committ to full-disclosure. I cannot promise I will perfect during this time- that is just crazy. But I can promise to be honest.
Full-Disclosure– I am eating a fun-size Snicker candy bar as I am writing this. 🙂
Here are my improvements for myself:
1. Diet: My diet has been a night-mare lately. Football season and a little extra stress has really taken a toll on my eating. I am getting back on the wagon (or is it off the wagon, I can never remember).
- One soda per week- tops!
- Big time decrease in carbs. I don’t support a no-carb diet, but I support everyone eating less of them than I do.
- No bingeing on Sundays during football. Now this doesn’t mean I will not eat wings or spinach dip, it just means I’ll eat a helluva-lot less.
- Stop eating when full. This will need to be something I remind myself of every night at dinner. I love to cook and I love to eat what I cook. I need to somehow convince myself that I will be satisfied with the dinner even if I don’t make myself sick by eating too much.
2. No drinking: Yes, you heard me correctly. No drinking. This will be very hard for me! Now normally I don’t think there is a problem with drinking a glass of wine every night, or having a couple drinks on the weeked. The reason I decided to do this is…
- I am trying to lose weight and booze is full of empty calories
- I am more likely to eat junk when I am drinking (i.e. the cheese puffs that disappeared on Saturday night; and again back to football Sundays)
- I am less likely to work out if I drink. Hangovers really put a damper on my work out plans
3. Exercise: I will work out 3X per week! I had a little anxiety while I typed that. This will be very hard for me; I am pretty good at getting in 2 but 3 will be tough. I don’t have a gym membership, I have a full-time job, I have 2 kids, and it is getting cold outside. These are not excuses, these I hope will help prove the point that anyone can find time to workout. Or, I’ll crash and burn and give every woman in America the excuse they are looking for.
- I want to try to run a 5k in the next 30 days, but haven’t figured out the logistics. Also, I really hate being cold.
4. Organization: I did not want to say something vague here like, “I will become more organized” because that literally means jack shit. I wanted to make it a measurable, actionable goal. So, I decided that I will organize 1 thing per week. Here is my schedule:
- Week 1- Bedroom (My room is so crazy right now, I would literally not let my mother in there)
- Week 2- Mail/papers/newspaper/coupon clutter. This is kind of spread out every where and will suck!
Full-disclosure: I started typing ‘furnace room’ which is our catch-all room, it’s like a big closet but it sounded way too hard and I don’t want to do it so I deleted it. Don’t judge, baby steps.
- Week 3-Junk drawers (puke!)
- Week 4- Kids rooms
5. Reading: I don’t know why I always fall of the horse when it comes to reading. I LOVE to read and I usually have a couple books waiting on my Kindle for me. I guess I get lazy and it’s easier to fall asleep to a re-run of Big Bang Theory than to pick up a book and use my brain. In the next 30 days I will finish the 2 books I am currently reading, and finish 1 more. I haven’t picked it yet but it will be a non-fiction based on my rotation system (I do Novel- Personal/Professional Development- Nonfiction).
6. Giving Back: This is really important to me and it makes me feel so good when I do it, but I lose track of it all the time. I want to really try to make a difference in other peoples lives over the next month. I don’t know what I am going to do yet for follow up weeks, but this week I am going to go through all of our shoes and pick some to donate. My work is doing a shoe drive right now and I want to get involved. I figure a household with 4 people should be able to easily donate 6 pairs of shoes.
Wom, I’m getting tired just thinking about that list! My goal is to post weekly on this topic. It will be like the format below.
Date: October 9th
Weight: 150 (I said full-disclosure, I still can’t believe I am sharing that but that’s how you make a change)
Thoughts/Opinions: I am half pumped to get moving and get improving, and I am half terrified I am going to fail miserably. I am half excited to share this with those of you who read this blog regularly and I am half worried that this topic will bore you.
Successes/Challenges: The challenges at this point are obvious. The success right now is that I am willing to address my weaknesses and that I am brave enough to share them with all of you. Yikes.
This is exactly how I have been feeling lately! I need to do ALL of those things. I can’t bring myself to do them all at once, but I’ve started with diet and drinking. I’m sure you’ll do great since you have all of us to answer to. Good luck!!
You should update us every week when I post in order to hold you accountable! Good luck (I know I’m going to need it)
Will do. Won’t be nearly as drastic or interesting, but I will keep you posted so I will be on the hook too.
Good luck, thank you for sharing! It is easy to fall into a rut in your life and tough to get out of it. You will do great and be fabulous! I’ll be cheering for you!
Thanks Linnea! I’m feeling pretty motivated today.
Good for you! I think you look great now, but it is good to think about overall health and improvement. As always, I will be cheering for you. You will probably help me to get more motivated.
Mom
Saw ya on the treadmill last night after work and thought to myself, “Wow, wish I could get myself motivated to do that.” I barely can make myself do my stretches and strengthening exercises prescribed to me! 🙂 Good for you and good luck!
Thanks! That was the fastest I have ever run (well not I was a skinny HS girl, but since being a grown up). It felt good. You can do it too, you just have to decide!
I don’t think it’ll be boring more like daunting!! We all sound like the three Musketeers …on a mission…..all for one!! Now back to the depths of that closet……….
Good luck! Since it’s been a few days, I hope you’re project is going well and off to a good start.
I’ve thought about doing something very similar. It’s very courageous to take an honest look in the mirror and tackle the things that need work. It’s even MORE courageous to share those things with the world (or, y’know, just you’re readers.) You’re inspiring me!
“your project,” not you’re. I hate it when I do that!
I’m about to write my follow up now. Some good, some not so good. Thanks for the support!
I have a treadmill too…you are more then welcome to it. Kids could come play….just putting it out there.