The Plan!

My Team:
Since I am not currently on the Biggest Loser ranch, I do not have expert nutritionists and chefs at my beck and call.  Nor do I have a hard-nosed Jillian or a sweet encouraging Bob to help me.  I also don't have the chance to win a hundred grand which would be really nice right about now!  I'm kinda on my own.  However, I have turned to a couple of my fabulous, beautiful, talented sisters who do such things as run marathons in Hawaii, etc, for help.  They will be guest bloggers on my blog.  Although they are foodies like myself, they have somehow figured out how to balance healthy eating habits, exercise, AND food that tastes good!  So they are my experts!  And yours too if you want to follow their tips.  Oh and by the way, they are NOT in the obese or even overweight category.  (sigh)  I am very grateful for their help. love and support as they "fix" me!  :)


My plan has had to start kinda SLOW since I haven't exercised other than housework in YEARS.  So this is how I'm starting:


The dreaded sweating:
I do have an exercise bike that has been serving as an extra clothes hangar for years.  I am riding it for 10 minutes first thing in the morning to jump start my metabolism.  Then on to uncomplicated strength training exercises using my whopping 3 lb weights that I bought at the local Walmart for under 10 dollars.  I am starting with about 10 reps per exercise and I go S-L-O-W.  Turtle speed actually.  Takes me about 10 minutes.  Steph has suggested some exercises and I will eventually start those ones. For now though, I'm remembering some very old exercises from a Cindy Crawford videotape my roommates and I used to do in college (AHA!  I knew I exercised sometime in the last couple of decades!).


My goal is to also do 30 minutes of a variety of exercises on our Wii Fit (we bought it a few years ago when I SWORE to my hubby I'd use it every day!) 3 nights a week.  I'm hoping that by doing them at 8 pm at night, it will keep my body in conscious metabolism phase for a little longer at night. 


AS FOR FOOD -


There is really no way right now that I can/will eliminate anything that I LOVE from my diet with the exception of fast food (which I will address in another post). So I have to learn to change things without full on eliminating them.  I have discovered a wonderful tool http://mypyramidtracker.gov   I enter in what I ate during the day and it tells me how close I am to eating the daily recommended allowances for each food group!  It is great!  I can enter in chili, 1 cup and it tells me the calories, cholesterol, fat grams (all types), carbs and even vitamins!  And then it gives you a smiley face if you get all your servings from the various food groups!  Positive reinforcement!  Wahoo! 
       And I am in the process of going through all one hundred plus of my family's favorite meals and trying to increase the whole grains and vegetables while decreasing the fat and cholesterol.  As I get the recipes adjusted and tested, I will pass them on to you all! 


Oh and water!  The good ol H2O.  Every morning I fill up a insulated 32 oz mug with ice and water and leave it on my counter.  My goal is to drink it dry throughout the day.  However! I can't drink out of it at meals!  That is seperate water!  I'm not a soda drinker so that is helping in this process.  I figure if I drink an 8 oz glass of milk for breakfast, then 16 oz of water for lunch and at least another 16 oz for dinner PLUS my mug, I should be doing at least okay with water. 


So there is the basics of my plan.  Nothing earth shattering.  Its bound to be tweaked or maybe even changed completely but its a start!