March 25, 2013

making a plan

Good news, at my six week check-up my doctor said everything was all good.  I have full clearance to resume all activities.  Woot woot!  Which means I have no excuses not to squeeze in a workout.  Well, other than limited time and lack of sleep... but you know.

So now I'm just trying to come up with a plan.  A plan for how I'm going to squeeze in a workout, and a plan for how to adjust my diet.  Because that certainly hasn't happened yet.  As far as exercise is concerned, I really hope I can get in four good workouts a week.  I know that might be wishful thinking right now, but at the same time it seems like it shouldn't be that hard.  I just have to decide what my priorities are.  In my alone time I have to choose between chores, blogging, exercise and if he is around, spending time with my husband.  Plus any other random thing I might want to do, like crafting... or online shopping...  I think I could pull off a short workout while Elsie is awake.  Surely watching me do the 30 Day Shred would be highly entertaining for her, right?

Now the diet thing, that is a whole different ball game.  I want to eat healthier, I really do.  But right now I'm lacking the will power.  Thankfully Christopher is on board with trying to clean up our food choices, it is just a matter of implementing it, and deciding how strict we want to be.  I've browsed a bit about Whole 30 (eating whole foods for 30 days), looked a little at Paleo, and started exploring the 100 Days of Real Food website.  Initially I wanted to go all out and do the Whole 30 challenge, but ultimately I don't think that is going to work for me or my family.  There are too many times I'd want to cheat, and after a few cheat times I'm sure I'd just give up.  Focusing on eating real food, or less processed food seems like it will be much more promising.  I never see us giving up dairy, legumes or grains completely.  But we can be better about which ones we choose to eat.

I can't bring myself to immediately toss all of the current stuff in my home.  That just seems too wasteful.  But Chris and I have both agreed to stop bringing overly processed food into the home, and once what we have here is gone, it's gone.  Right now it sounds easy enough, but I know I am going to be SOOOO tempted to buy junk (I can already hear mini cadbury eggs and cookie butter whispering to me from the stores).  Thankfully after Easter there aren't any holidays that come with candy for a bit.  For some reason the holiday stuff really gets me, "But it is only going to be around for a little bit!!"

A huge reason I want to cut out the processed food from our diet is because lately Ryann has been eating way too much junk.  She won't eat meat or vegetables, but loves fruit snacks and chips.  She is a good fruit eater, but when she knows that crackers or something is in the house as a snack option, that is what she wants.  I want her choice to be between blueberries or carrots, not fruit snacks and cheddar bunnies.  Those things don't bother me in moderation, but the amount she consumes isn't great.  And I can't blame her, I can only blame myself (and Christopher, but hey).   Again I also know cleaning up my diet will probably be better for Elsie.  Good enough reasons to work on it.

This is looking like I'm going to start rambling and making no sense (I probably already have) so I'm just going to wrap it.  I've had a six week grace period, now it is time to start cracking down.  Time to get healthy and get fit and get back to loving my body and being confident in my skin.  I want to lose 12 pounds.  I want to run another half marathon.  I want my arms to look great in tank tops this summer.  I want to be a good role model for my daughters.  Let's do it.

 

Link up your health and fitness related posts below!

6 comments:

Brenna said...

Yay for getting back into it! We just started the Paleo diet... I have heard some awesome reviews of it. I will be stricter than the family will be- just because sometimes convenience does win with a toddler:)

JessF said...

Not sure what you're doing breast feeding wise but I would make sure to get enough calories. I think that was one of the reasons I didn't breast feed past 7 months (and even then we were supplementing), I lost too much weight too quickly. Not the worst problem but when you're trying to breast feed, it was.
It sounds like you're more trying to eat healthier rather than diet so I'm guessing you'll be fine -)

Meredith said...

Ha, I wish I had the problem the above poster did re:losing too much weight bfing!

I need to clean up my eating too, but both paleo and whole 30 arent a good, sustainable choice for our family either. Have you read Michael Pollan's book Food Rules? That's the food philosophy that I generally try to stick to when I'm making the effort to eat well!

Also, I am beyond frustrated trying to find times to
workout.

Caitlin MidAtlantic said...

You must be so excited for that green light to really start exercising again! Woohoo!

Tara Lin said...

thank you for this post. the part about ryan and her food choices hit home. we are having the same problem here. linking up for the first time! hope it works!

Lindsay said...

Good luck cleaning up your diet :) I'm on a sugar strike for April because the hot chocolate and baked goods were being eaten too often in my house. I've had success in the past with this technique and lost about 10lbs in November by banning sugar (still ate fruit) doing HIIT (I follow the free site dailyhiit.com which has daily 12min videos, and breast feeding. No dieting, just these three things. I even began to see my abs!