The Ground Rules

Blog everyday.
Even if its just a one liner to say I'm doing it, I'm good. Starting Sunday, February 6th I will post something every. single. day.

30-90 minutes of exercise a day.
I can already hear my husband warning me about injury and burning out, but if I need a rest then that day will be a 30 minute walk or 30 minute kitchen dance session with my boys. The point is some sort of activity every day. Sloth be gone.

Stay within my calorie range.
I've done a lot of research considering my height, age, gender, general activity level and come up with a number that will be my target. There will be instances when I work out longer, say I go for a long bike ride, that I will need more but I will pre-meditate these instances and plan accordingly.

No cheat days/meals.
In previous efforts to get back in shape I've always allowed myself cheat days/meals that are more for my mental health. While wonderful, I've found they start to take the edge off. I'll laugh as I'm getting into something I shouldn't and say, "Oh, its a cheat day." Umm, no its not. Case in point as to why I'm stagnating.

I will, however, allow myself to eat anything I want so long as I maintain my target. In general my meals will be healthy but if I need to work in a couple pieces of pizza, I'll allow myself to do this - again, so long as I maintain my target calorie intake.

Lose the weekly weigh ins.
Deciding this was kind of my ah-ha moment. Like I already wrote I have somewhat of an abusive relationship with my scale in that if things are looking good I sabotage myself and allow myself to indulge a bit. If things are not looking good I get frustrated with it all and allow myself to indulge a bit. This way, you see, I'm never getting to where I want.

So the thought is to take away the scale's persuasive power over me. On more than a few occasions I had *thought* I was having a good week, eating and exercising and just feeling really good in general, only to undo it with what I felt was an unsatisfactory number on the scale. It could have been anything - lactic acid, water retention, the wrong time of day to step on the scale but seeing that number totally permeated my mood and negatively affected my choices.

What I would really like to do is go all Office Space destruction on our scale, but I don't want to scare the kids.

Be okay with whatever it will be.
I do recognize that the scale aka "the thing that measures us" is in fact just that, a measure. Not an evil instrument of psychological warfare. I also appreciate its place determining health, to a degree. So I will start this experiment weighing in and also recording my measurements. I will, however, before even starting on this journey try to look ahead to the end of this experiment and be okay with whatever results result, so long as I gave it my all. No regrets.

And that's it. Them's the rules. The tricky part will be sticking to them, but I'm excited to see what's possible to accomplish and how much I can change.

If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth it.