GHD Resolutions #1 and #2: Why? (Part I)

GHD Resolutions #1 and #2 are fitness and enjoy the outdoors. I grouped them together because for me, they are interdependent and I think that by achieving one, the other will come easily.

To really talk about my resolutions, I need to be brutally honest; otherwise, I’m not really going to be able to analyze the reasoning behind them and create an adequate framework for success. That’s also one of the reasons why I’m posting these and my progress on my blog; making your goals and progress public helps keep you accountable.

Let’s start with my fitness goal:

I’m fat. To be more accurate, I’m overweight. Saying that isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. If I would have had to say that 6 months ago, I would have had to say I was obese (basing this on BMI) (http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/). So to begin with, I’m already in a better place.

My fitness goal extends beyond exercise. Although exercise is a huge part of my overall plan, that is not enough. When I refer to fitness, I’m talking about an overall lifestyle change which includes diet.

As with exercise, I’ve already begun a process of changing my diet. Let me preface by saying that I’m not on a diet, in the traditional sense. Instead, I’m trying to be more aware of what I eat, what benefits/damage foods cause me, and basically incorporating that information into a balanced and healthful diet. Some basic changes I’ve already made over the last few months include: cutting sodas (pop for all the Midwesterners) out completely, limiting caffeine (I rarely drink coffee; maybe some tea occasionally), injection of fresh fruits and vegetables into my diet, reduction in intake of processed foods, etc.

All of these changes have happened over time; it would have been too hard to do these all at once, and I still struggle with some of them. I think the worst thing is not what I eat, but habits that I have formed over time related to eating. The worst habit I have/had is the way I approach meals and snacking. Before I really started to change things, I ate two meals a day (skipped breakfast most of the time) and snacked a lot in between, especially late a night. While the food that I was eating weren’t great, I learned that the scheduling of my meals and snacks was even worse.

Now I try to stick to a six meal plan. I eat breakfast every day (except on weekends when I tend to sleep in), have a hearty lunch, a lighter dinner, and then 3 snacks interspersed in between. For the most part, I think I’ve been good at incorporating this into my daily routine and I’ve seen some tremendous changes the biggest of which is that I get less cravings for food; this was always the killer for me.

Next post I'll talk more about my diet changes and exercise.

To see my original GHD Resolutions post, click here.