The Biggest Loser League

I have recently discovered that a smaller plate leads to smaller serving sizes when you eat. This will reduce your portions when you eat, causing you to eat less and still feel full (depending on how much smaller the plate is).

 Summary: Smaller Plate = Smaller you!

Yesterday, I bought a 64 oz. jug for water at Walmart. It was $3. 

Hydration works for me in the following ways:

- My body generally feels better

- It helps curb hunger, thus making me snack less

By having the water jug, I can track my progress each day. 

So, here is what I am changing this week:

eating - no fast food
exercise - 30 minute workout every day

I've been struggling trying to figure out what I wanted this week's exercise goal to be, but eventually decided it's best to jump right in. I made the decision last week that I am going to run in a 5K at the end of April. My company is sponsoring the OKC Memorial walk/run, so I figured this was a great goal for me.  I will start training at the end of this month.

By the end of February, I will be able to run 1 mile a day.

By the end of March, I will be able to run 2 miles a day.

By the end of April, I will be able to run 3 miles a day.

I'm not sure if this is aggressive or not, but I'm going to try. I wish I had a buddy that wanted to train with me, but I don't think that's possible. Anyway, I need to realize that I'm in this all on my own, so I'm going to give it all the strength I have.

As far as this goes, I have even bigger long-term goals. In 2010, I will run a half marathon. In 2011, I will run a full marathon.

I absolutely CAN NOT stand New Year's Resolutions.  I always thought that if someone wanted to make a change in their life, more power to them.  Resolutions are empty things that people pretend are real life goals.

Anyway, with that said, I watched a Biggest Loser marathon New Year's Day and was absolutely amazed by their results.  Though, I think if everyone could afford personal trainers and cooks and had the time to work out 6 hours every day, we could all lose in excess of 100 pounds in six months or so.

I know that on my own I can't make agressive changes to my eating and physical activity, so I decided that there is a more reasonable way to make permanent healthy changes to my super unhealthy lifestyle.

What's the solution?  Every week I will make one healthy change in my eating habits and one healthy change in my physical activity.  There are so many things to change this year and I think it's safer for me to ease into them slowly.  I currently weight 295 pounds - not my highest, but close to it - and I know that weight loss is going to be slow by making these small changes, but eventually I will get to where I want to be.  I think impatience leads to huge failure, so I am giving myself until the age of 36 to hit my long-term goal of 150 pounds.  I am currently 33 and will be 34 in June.  I wanted to give myself at least a full two years.

I also decided to only weigh myself once a month.  This will help me ease into the attitude that immediate loss is not important.  I'm currently just trying to make healthy changes so that in the near future I can be prepared for a long weight loss journey.

I have other personal goals that go along with this.  I am also giving myself until the age of 36 to have a successful home business.  This one is probably going to be much harder.  We'll see.

Things I am changing in week 1:

eating - replace soda with water
activity - no more elevators

I have always drank diet soda anyway, so I won't be seeing a calorie decrease, but I think the change will help clear a few pounds because I rarely drink water.

Sure, I don't have an elevator in the house, but I work 5 or 6 days a week on the third floor and NEVER take the stairs.  This will require me going up and down four times a day.  It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I'm coming off a hard pregnancy where I had bad blood clots in my lungs, so I couldn't do stairs all that time.  Even when I just go up one flight of stairs, I feel pretty winded.  I hope to see a change in this within two weeks.