It just got serious

I'm watching "The Biggest Loser" and Jillian went off on someone for eating cupcakes. Wow, it just got serious.

Day One

So... day one was yesterday. It was ... okay. I stuck to my diet for the most part, but I waited too long to have dinner and I was starving. As for exercise, I didn't do the exercise I was supposed to because I felt exhausted yesterday. I'm feeling much better today so I will definitely be doing my exercise DVD. Day one and counting...

60 Day Challenge!!!!

So, I have lost a little, and I stress little, bit of weight. Really, I've lost an insignificant amount of weight and it is frustrating. As much as I hate restricting myself in any way, I have been far too lax the past few months. And so I have decided to go from one extreme to the other. Instead of no rules, I'm going to attempt to diet and exercise for the next 60 days, and possibly longer if I have the heart and conviction to stick with it, by following several rules. I know that I will go insane having to do very specific things to lose weight (i.e. limit caloric intake and exercise for certain number of days per week), but if in the end I reach my goal, I will be fine. Why 60 days? Well, I bought an infomercial from a website and the program is 60 days. I know it's crazy, but if I can't even do something for 60 days, then what hope do I have of ever reaching my goal? I am also committing to posting more blogs. Instead of the infrequent and random blogs I've been posting, I'm going to regularly post about my next 60 days. If I were to do this all on my own, I doubt that I would stick with it. But I am blogging about it in hopes that I'll feel more of an inclination to stand by my words, no matter what. I officially start tomorrow, which is a Monday. Wish me luck, and if any of you happen to see me on standing on a ledge, talk me out of it and remind me that it's not that bad.

Sometimes

Sometimes, moderation is just not possible. It's the desired outcome of dieting, but I can be unwilling. As I was enjoying my third glazed donut, and not the tiny Krispy Kreme donuts, but a real bona fide four-inch donut, I was trying to remind myself that moderation is important, my health is important. But that rational voice was overpowered by the soft dough as it seemed to dissolve in my mouth. One day of bad eating is forgivable, right?

A Belated "New Year's Resolutions"

Happy 2009! With that said, it's time to get down to it. So, I'm inching closer and closer to my mid-twenties, which means that my thirties are close by as well. I realized that I don't want to be thirty and overweight. I do have time, but time is something that goes by so fast. Also, I don't want another New Year where I have to make another resolution to lose weight. I want to lose weight now. And so, I've ditched ALL diets. After being on all of them, I've realized it's not the diet, it's me. Case in point: the Boston Celtics. For their season schedule, their coach, Doc Rivers, lists their opponents as "Boston Celtics." He argues that it's not the other team that affects the outcome of the game, it's themselves. I realized no matter what diet I pick, if I don't stick to it, it's worthless. I've also decided not to stick to any one diet because of the guilt that I feel when I don't follow it. However, I do still want to see results and too much flexibility will jeopardize that. Instead what I've opted to do is to write everything down. It's the one thing that I find works for me. Because I write everything I eat down, there is no whining or complaining. Why am I not seeing results? Oh, that cheeseburger. And ice cream. Why are my clothes tight? Oh, no exercise in two weeks. If there is a question regarding results, or lack thereof, it will be evident in my journal what the cause is. I think that accountability is a huge factor when attempting to lose weight. In the few weeks that I've been doing it, having to write down some of the food I want to eat turns me off to eating it. It makes me think about my food choices rather than mindlessly eating. Also, because I've been on so many diets and read so many diet books, I've learned a lot about nutrition. I can guage when I've had too many carbohydrates, or when I haven't had enough vegetables. I don't cut any food groups out, but I am making wiser choices. For instance, I love carbohydrates and no one can ever make me stop eating them. So what I've opted to do is to choose the better carbohydrates. (Just think brown over white) Of course, processed foods are never a good choice. So this year, I am making a resolution to cook more. Fast, easy, and healthy recipes can be found on the web. Cooking in time is also a life-saver on busy days.
Losing weight is extremely hard. That is why I've decided to take it one day at a time. Again, good luck.

First day carrying out my new mantra

So... I just exercised. Thirty minutes of intense activity. It was so exhilarating and it felt so good!! The thing about exercise is that I make it worse than it actually is. I think I've set the standard so high that I couldn't follow it, so I considered myself a failure. About two years ago, I was obsessed with the gym; I was consistent for a whole year. My plan was cardio for an hour six days a week and weight lifting for an hour three times a week. I was in the gym almost everyday. It was hard to maintain, and during my finals, I stopped going. When I tried going to the gym again that was the standard, and when I couldn't do it, it was so discouraging to me that I stopped altogether. Since then, I've had trouble getting back into the mix. So today when I exercised just now, I realized what I loved about the gym a couple of years ago. It was the idea of pushing myself and the feeling I had after a workout. I didn't do the whole hour of cardio, and I didn't do the exercises I used to do, but I had fun! So the tip I can share with everyone is make exercise work for you. Pick activities that you like, not what you think is good or what you've read about. For me, I don't like doing the same exercises for long periods of time. It's just boring. What I tried today is sprinting on the treadmill until I didn't feel like it anymore, until I was bored. Then I did jump ropes or jumping jacks to keep my heart rate up. Then I would go back and sprint on the treadmill again. Because I exerted so much effort, I finished in thirty minutes. I suggest doing cardio exercises until boredom sets in and switching to another one. It makes thirty minutes go by faster. Exercise is more manageable when it's fun, so the more you like something the more you'll do it. Good luck!!!

My new mantra

I was putting on my running shoes a few seconds ago and I realized that I really do need a new mantra. I've been told that the thing that holds me back is my mindset. For my whole life I've been so scared of failure that my mantra has been "why bother?" I tried to find what mantra will inspire me to action, and at first I thought it should be "Do or do not. There is no try." But then I realized that maybe I don't want a mantra that is supposed to inspire me to action when said words of inspiration are spoken by Yoda. These words are profound... but it actually backfired on me. I opted for "do not." So as I was lacing up my faded running sh0es, I heard a voice in my head and it said: "No excuses." This is me in a nutshell. I'll spend an hour in my head thinking of all the reasons I can't work out. I have a midterm. I have work. I have a paper. I have reading that needs done. In that hour that I've outlined all the reasons I can't, I've done absolutely nothing, not even one thing from the list of things that need to be done. So today when I was getting ready to do my exercises, I thought "I have no excuses." It's a lie I tell myself when I say I don't have time to exercises because the truth of the matter is, I waste so much time doing nothing, that this argument no longer holds up at the end of the day. I have all the excuses in the world and I need to rid my brain of all of them. So everyday when I wake up, I hold myself accountable. I'm reminded of what Bob Greene tells Oprah every new year, "Exercise is non-negotiable."