The new year is upon us and it is barely two weeks old. This is the time of year where people's best intentions (also known as New Year's Resolutions) start to waver. By the end of January, a large amount of folks won't even remember what they resolved to do in the first place.
A common resolution is to get in shape and lose weight. The popularity of this resolution is apparent by the astounding increase of advertisements offering weight-loss pills, deeply discounted gym memberships, and diet or food programs. I have nothing in particular against any of the companies pushing their products, but the bottom line is the same: you have to WANT to lose weight and/or get in shape.
I've not lost a single pound since I last wrote about this topic. Not one. In fact, I think I might have gained about three pounds. I was certainly exercising more before I went back to a full time job last summer. Since then I have all but stopped working out. Sure, I get some minimal exertion walking around the building I work in, but that is hardly enough to qualify as "exercise". I figured things might get better when my desk was converted to a stand-up desk. While it has minimized my back and neck issues, it hasn't done anything to help me shed any pounds. I still have to do the hard work associated with that.
Why haven't I made any progress? That is a question I ask myself every day. Yes, I have to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, but shouldn't I have plenty of time leftover for hitting the gym? I don't have any excuses. I have no children, I don't have a dog to walk (perhaps I should invest in one so I DO walk), and I don't have any activities that take up all my spare time (well, other than trying to devote more time to the art and craft of writing). I have no reason for avoiding exercise. Well, other than that whole....exercise thing. It's hard. Apparently too hard for me.
I've decided on a new path. I will make a conscious effort to watch what I eat and the amount I eat. I've taken to writing down on little sticky notes EVERY bit of food I put in my mouth. This gives me a visual for how much I'm consuming. It makes me much more aware of times I'm eating because I'm hungry, or just eating because I'm bored. I'm trying to make a habit of eating smarter, but I don't beat myself up when I have a snack or eat a bite of fast food now and then. I'm not a big fan of the "deprive yourself of fill-in-the-blank" type of diets. For me, I do much better by slowly shifting my diet toward smarter eating.
On the exercise front, I'm also taking a slow, steady approach. I started wearing a pedometer every day (which gets uploaded to tracking software). I'm working up the courage to wake up 10 minutes earlier each morning so I can work out on my elliptical (which has been idle so long it has cobwebs on it....sigh). I'm also considering buying some leg weights and climbing the stairs in my house for 10 minutes every day. It may not be much, but it is a small step (no pun intended) toward working the habit of exercise back into my daily life.
My diet and exercise plans aren't going to put me in the TV spotlight or win me any awards, but they work for me. The bottom line for any sort of life-change: you have to WANT the rewards in order to stick to the WORK required. Now all I need to do is get off this couch and climb some stairs. I'll let you know how it goes.
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