Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Plan

I have come up with a 'diet' plan.  My focus this time around is to work on lifestyle and long term changes rather than a diet that has an end.  I want to have an active and healthy lifestyle.  I had gone hard on my marathon but once it was over I stopped exercising.  I want to make exercise a part of my life and not something that just fades away when I get busy.  The exercise piece will be the hardest because I find it really hard to fit it in with everything that needs to be done and I am tired at the end of the day.  Mike is going to do his best to help me out.

My food plan is to eat less carbs and eat small meals more often.  My go-to food is breads and I love to bake but I realized that I have gone a day or more without eating more than one serving of vegetables or protein.  I think I need a bit more structure all that bread is not healthy. 

Now the crazy thing that I am going to do and I think it may be the hardest is, I am not going to weigh myself.  The reason that this is hard is because I have gotten into the habit of weighing myself every day.  I decided this because I want my measure of success to be eating well and exercising and not the weight lost.  I find that when I focus on the weight that when it goes up that I get upset and let the gain sabotage my eating for the day or even longer.  I also find that focusing on weight is stressful and I don't need that right now, I just had a baby! 

I want to enter into this diet thing as relaxed as possible and to trust that if I am eating well and exercising that changes will come when they are ready.  I also want to focus more on  my self esteem.  I hate to say it but even though my body has done some amazing things, I have a really hard time celebrating it and not focusing on the flaws.  I know that my self-esteem and attitudes are important for shaping how the girls see themselves.  I want to set a good example for them.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Melynda!

    Good luck with the changes...they do say that the best way to be successful is to make a lifestyle change! We've had some good success since we started planning our meals for the whole week - then if one day is heavy or light in something, we can adjust the next day (it's also a good way for me to track what I'm doing so we don't eat almost the same thing for five days straight before I realize it...)

    I don't weigh myself very often - I know there are all kinds of pros and cons to weighing yourself daily, weekly, monthly, or not at all, but close to not at all works best for me. I can tell if I need to refocus based on how my clothes fit and for me that's a healthy way to track it - I know my weight goes up and down a pound or two throughout the week, but if I don't weigh myself, I don't get stressed when I see the number go up and I don't "take a break" when the number goes down...

    Good luck...it'll happen...you've got a great attitude about it and that's great!

    You're awesome Melynda and I know you've got lots of people to support you...let me know if you need anything!

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  2. After I commented, something was bugging me about your comments about the scale...not the comments, but a nagging thought that I'd read something about that recently...and then I decided I was crazy and forgot about it.

    But then I remembered!

    http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/step-away-from-scale.html

    This guy is amazing...if you want to read more and don't have time to read everything in the archives, the three posts listed at the top of the blog are a great place to start! I found him by accident and I really look forward to reading him every morning.

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