MONDAY!!! It's here! Get excited!!

So are you pumped up now?!? I bet you are! Yes, it's Monday. Time to start again, reach for new goals, live and enjoy life to its fullest. Yep, it's THAT time! So do you have your weekly goals? Do you have a strategy and do you know what you need to do to make yourself feel good about YOU this week?

Okay, I'm owning it. I finally got on the scale this morning. I know it's just a number but it's definitely NOT the number I wanted to see. Even though I threw away the scale for the past month, I knew I was gaining weight. Some things you just can't lie to yourself about. You know it, right? Now this is where age plays a role. And what I used to be able to do to my body 20 years ago and then just straighten up slightly and fix I certainly can't do anymore. With that being said, I now know I'm going to have to make a concerted effort to lose some weight/fat. With age comes a change in hormones and a decline in muscle mass and bone mass. These are proven facts and not just my opinion. So with this knowledge you MUST have a plan of attack for getting older while still feeling good about yourself. For me this is a shift in thinking. I have the areas of nutrition, workouts, and lifestyle factors listed below and the changes I know I need to make there to reach my goal of losing a good 10-15 pounds.

So nutritionally what changes did I make to probably help contribute to this weight gain? I can think of two things that I probably need to reconsider. I have been eating dried fruit in my cereal and also I have been having some form of bread on mostly a daily basis. I think that's a bad combination for me. So new and refocused goals for food will be to eat raw (not dried) fruits and stick to one serving per day max. I love fruit and it has many benefits. Even dried fruits have benefits but I am not safe with dried fruits. We have too much of a love affair. And then there's bread....OH BREAD, HOW I LOVE THEE! But we also have way too much of a love affair. I'm not going to drop bread entirely nor dried fruits but I am going to limit them to 1-2 slices of bread per week and 1/4 cup dried fruit per week. That should be enough. And of course it's back to logging/accountability. So you'll be seeing what I'm eating as the weeks continue. Lucky you!

As for working out, one thing I don't want to do is feel like I have to work out twice a day. I think once a day 5-6 times a week is fine. So that is the plan. What exactly I'll be doing those days I have yet to determine. But I'll figure that out within the day and let you all know my plan. I'm seriously thinking about taking a week off of cardio and then bringing it back in HIIT style next week. I'll let you know. The more I read about steady state cardio the more I think it's not worth it and hard on your body. I'll keep you posted on that though. More resistance training and less but more intense cardio. I'm ready for a change in my cardio and I think my body is too.

And then there's lifestyle. Where to begin? Okay, I need more sleep, less TV, less computer and much less Words With Friends!!! LOL! What is my deal with sleep?!? I always try to get in bed early. I tell myself I am but I really don't. So once again that is a goal of mine. I need to lessen my TV watching again. Just been watching too much. Same with the computer and WWF. So limit all those and do more reading and studying. Hmmm...let's see...I have to put a time limit on these things. I can watch 5 hours of TV a week and 30 minutes of computer at night as well as 30 minutes of WWF. That's it. Yep, those are going to be my new limits. I just printed up a log sheet so I can actually track this. I know...I'm RIDICULOUS! Hey! Whatever helps, ya know!Hmmm...I should print up a sleep log too. I think I'll do that. Okay, that's done! Hahaha!

So that about sums up my small goals and changes I know I need to make to see and feel the changes I want. I need to feel better about myself and this is how it's got to get done. Boy reality is sometimes hard to take and hard to accept. It's also challenging to implement change but if you don't like where you are or how you feel, only YOU can make those things happen. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Oh boy! REALITY!! Gotta love it and embrace it I guess! Have a great week everyone!!!

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. ~Henri Bergson