Sunday, November 16, 2008

If you fail to plan, you plan to gain 50 or 60 pounds


I promised the world a plan by tomorrow night. For once I'm true to my word. In fact, I'm early. I'm never early. I live across the street from my church and yet I'm consistently 2-3 minutes late for services. But I digress. I have a diet and exercise plan. Or, rather, I will be making one up as I compose this post. But by the time you read this (all 3 of you), I will have a plan. Confused yet? I am.


Plan, the:

Exercise:

I don't exercise much nowadays. That's not good. My joints ache, I don't sleep well, and things are lumpy. I feel that exercise may change these things.
(Always go with your feelings--just ask teenage girls.)
Fortunately, I also know that exercise will change those things (aches, bad sleep, and lumps--not teenage girls and their feelings).

  • Exercise 6 times/week (Monday-Saturday) for at least 20 minutes.
  • Plan type and time of exercise the night before.
  • Keep track of it all on a chart. I love charts. So does Sara.
  • Buy stickers for chart, preferably scratch and sniff (Bubble gum and green apple, please)
That's a pretty basic plan. For now, I'm not going to focus on what type of exercise--just doing something that benefits my body cardiovascularly or gives me muscles and/or less lumpiness. As I see it, developing the exercise habit is much more important right now than fine-tuning a fitness program. That'll come later, I'm sure, when I'm all skinny and decide I need abs of steel.

Food:

Mmmm...food.

  • Make sure I eat breakfast before 9am. I used to be really good at this, but lately I forget to eat until 11 or so.
  • Track my food and Weight Watchers points. Joel found a great app for my iPhone, so I don't even need to use a pen and paper like some crazy Luddite! (Joel can't believe I still read actual books made of paper.)
  • AND (this is crucial), track everything I eat. Everything. Even on days when everything I eat is coated in cheese powder.
Again, I'm starting with the basics. I'm not setting calorie or point goals yet (though that should come soon.) I just want to raise awareness...of consumption of cheese powder.

Sleep:
  • Get more of it
  • Go to bed before midnight
Again with the baby steps and manageable goals.

Tomorrow night I'll post a wee analysis of my first day on the plan.


EDIT: I just noticed something on my "plan" picture. Under "exercise" I thought I wrote "boogie down." But it appears I wrote "boggie down" instead. Even better.
(See why I need more sleep?)

2 comments:

Wendi said...

I love your plan. I'm all about the baby steps. Good luck with the follow through! :)

Anne N said...

Okay, first of all, great plan. You've definitely inspired me to create my own plan and set goals.

Secondly, I laughed all the way through your post and I especially like your chart at the top.

Thirdly (is that a word?), I LOVE your new banner. Those cupcakes look scrumptious, veggies and all. :)