Monday: Goal Day

My original short term goal was to START. That’s all. Just start. Starting is the hardest part. Let me tell you, on Day 1 (September 2, 2010) I had a hard time. Old habits are part of me. It took enormous effort to stop my car from driving to a fast food joint on my lunch break. The fat chick in the photo was saying, “Go have a burger. You can start tomorrow.” Right. “Tomorrow.” Is that not our favourite word? I almost gave in. I came really close. But then I said “NO” to the fat chick and instead, I drove to a great, new little local market where I picked up a really nice salad and bottle of orange juice. And guess what? Afterwards I felt fantastic. I felt proud. I felt healthy. I felt empowered. I felt sexy. Yeah, that’s right. One little salad and I felt sexy!

Day 2 was a piece of cake. No, no, not a REAL piece of cake. The metaphor! Day 2 was 10x easier than Day 1. And by Day 4, yesterday, I already had more energy. So the hard part is over. I started.

September 2010, Day 1: Side view

As you can see by my Day 1 photo (side view this time), I have a long, long, long weight-loss road ahead of me. It’s more like a weight-loss interstate. This will have to be bigger than a one year plan. Mine is more like a THREE year plan (I’m hoping for 2.5 but planning for 3.) I believe I will have the best success if I set small, achievable goals each week and month in addition to the bigger goals.

Here’s the first official goal list:

       The BIG Goal: Weigh less than Eddy

       1st Year Goals (I have five):

            1. Lose 10 lbs per month

            2. Join a Gym and GO

            3. Get enough sleep

            4. Declutter my house (more about this another day)

            5. Remember that I don’t have to be perfect (more about THIS
                another day, too)

       September Goal: Study Canada's Food Guide, know it well and live it.

       This Week’s Goal: Start writing down everything I eat.

I don’t expect to keep a food journal forever. I’ll do it for a while until eating properly becomes a new habit. I googled how long it takes to form a new habit and found several different opinions - 21 days, 30, 66 and 100 days. I expect to need closer to 100 or more days before eating the proper foods in the proper amounts becomes a new habit.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Every Monday I will review my week and post my new goals.