I think Harvey MacKay said it best. Going about the business of obtaining a goal without a plan for how you are going to accomplish said goal is just plain silly. I have been mulling over my plan for the last week. I am now down a total of 16 pounds as of my last weigh in. This is about the point where I would normally beat myself up. When I realized that it had taken me 6 months to remove 16 pounds of fat from my body, my first reaction was disappointment. Then I thought about it for a few days. Here's what it boils down to: I lost 16 pounds in 6 months without a clear plan. That's actually impressive. Actually, you can kind of think of it as weight loss by accident because it certainly was not by design! That's roughly 2.67 pounds per month without a strategy. Imagine what would happen if I put to use the wealth of information I have acquired over the past 5 years of yo-yoing. Over the next few posts I will be going over, in great detail, my strategy for the next few months leading up to the deadline for a contest I recently entered.
Today I want to talk about changing eating habits. I have done far to many diets to count. Some were more effective than others, but bottom line, none addressed the reasons I was overweight. As a result, I regained the weight every time. What I realize now is that lifestyle change is more important than how quickly the pounds can be shed. As a result, I have been more focused on learning how to schedule my exercise and eat for effective training. I have gone over a ton of material in recent weeks in a concentrated effort to learn how to fuel my body properly. The most helpful have been the Eat Clean Diet Recharged by Tosca Reno, and my new subscriptions - Clean Eating Magazine and Oxygen Magazine.
My taste buds are changing as time goes by. I am still not quite where I know I will need to be in that final push. I am still enjoying things like a daily serving of daily, a whole egg in my omelet and the occasional piece of dark chocolate. I recognize that those choices will hold me back, but I also know the pitfalls of too much too soon. I am treating this journey like the marathon it is. As eating clean becomes more natural for me, I will be able to fine tune my foods even more for optimal results. For right now, I am exactly where I need to be.
So what does this look like in practice? I am preparing healthy meals 2-3 times per week. Most of the recipes come from Tosca Reno's book or one of the magazines mentioned. We have a ton of tupperware in the fridge ready to grab and go. I realized that one of my major oversights was on how to be properly prepared in the shortest amount of time. I am a pretty busy person so if I'm running behind schedule and I'm starving, chances are I will hit the drive through if there is not a meal ready to go at home. Now I don't have to worry about that because I am better prepared. Next, I need to hunt around for clean protein bars and a to go shaker cup for those on the road emergencies.
Look out for my post on effective training regimens later this week!
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