Monday, July 19, 2010

obligatory sidekick post

I'm the first co-pilot on this little adventure, so I thought it best to introduce myself. I don't have the same sort of motivation of a looming deadline like Jennifer, my motivation began in a much more negative way. About two months ago, I got a bad case of bronchitis. One thing that's not really good for your waistline is lying on the couch for 14 hours a day and eating nothing but hot dogs.

Since I was already hovering near my normal "I really need to get my weight back under control" line before I got sick, the hotdogs and the exhaustion took it up to the "time to buy fat pants" line.

So I got serious.... for a while. I dropped 8 pounds really quickly, and had all the good intentions in the world to ride that momentum until I lost the 10 pounds I've been meaning to lose for years. Buuuuuuttt.... I was back to my normal weight, my clothes were loose on me, and all of my good intentions were lost and my bad habits began to reassert themselves.

When Jennifer told me she was doing this, I thought it was a great idea. The very act of declaring it in public, having a public record of my intentions in front of people who can hold me accountable if I falter will shame me into staying on the straight and narrow.

My big challenges on this undertaking will be giving up coffee and getting enough sleep. I have been coffee's bitch for a very long time now, and it is a cruel mistress. I have given it up for long periods in the past, and the first week has always been very unpleasant for both me and anyone within my blast radius. And 8 hours' sleep? The last time I got that much was during the aforementioned bronchitis.

I will be structuring my diet plan around recommendations from a nutritionist. If you've ever watched "The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp", the diet that Nadine puts together for the people on that show are very similar to this one. Three small meals and two snacks per day, fruits and/or veggies with every meal, and low on the starches.

Oh, and I will be mining this list of 101 simple salads extensively.

I'm using an iPhone app called "Lose It", to track my food and exercise. It looks like a closed system, and you need an iPhone or iTouch to use it, and create an account on the website to add me as a friend and see the progress. It's great if you've got one of those, though.

As for exercise, between the gym at my work, the seawall only blocks away, and a stack of exercise videos gathering dust on my bookshelf, I'm hoping I have enough variety to keep me moving. If I start to get lazy again, I may have to pull out the big guns and get a personal trainer to kick my ass.

Wish me luck!

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful to have you on board. While our lives may get a little boring for a while, the rockin bods you are going to have will not be!

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