New Year - New Plan

A a year ago my doctor told me that I need to shed 30lbs.  He didn't care that I was busy, that I'd started a masters.  He said - "I don't want to hear excuses - lose the weight and come back when you have."  As many of my friends have told me - that's like losing a small toddler.  This seemed so daunting at the time and my doctor had no advice other than to eat smaller portions - so not useful. Luckily enough to have been fairly healthy and have learned tonnes about eating healthy, and being healthy so I decided to follow that advice and do more research as opposed to just eating smaller portions.  30lbs is a lot - eating smaller portions when I don't eat large portions is not going to do anything.  Last year I tried to do this, I tried to go back to being paleo as I had previously and lost a lot of weight, I tried to increase my activity but really I just failed.  I maintained my weight but wasn't able to shake the toddler.  This year there is a new plan. This year I get back to the weight that I was at when I was 20 the weight my doctor wants me to be...or try as hard as I can and simply just take better care of myself.

They say that your body is like a car engine - feed your Maserati 87 gas and you'll probably not be going very far, (why you really shouldn't buy a previously leased Mercedes), yet if you feed it the best gas out there, clean and wax it everyday then you may actually have a chance!  So...let's get at it.

Step 1: Set a goal
Goal setting is something which I do constantly.  I set a goal and then rank myself on my overall performance - can you tell I have a Human Resource background?  The definition of success for me will be

1) I feel more healthy and not like the blob that I feel like today as I've been doing nothing but eat junk food over the holidays and be sedentary due to the increase in studying.

2) Not necessarily lose weight, but tone the weight that is here so that I have more muscle than fat

3) Sticking to the plan - something which I hope that this blog will keep me to.


Step 2: Make a plan to hit my goal
Another passion of mine is project planning.  I love putting tasks in a spreadsheet and then ticking things off as each milestone is achieved!  It makes me so happy :-) So part of the plan will be to create a basic project plan on what I need to do to be successful.  Here it is at a high level:

1) Food - look at what you're eating and make it better.  I've chosen to try the Whole30 program just to help me restart and get away from eating fried food and cookies everyday as seemed to have happened over Christmas.

2) Fitness
           - change it up!  I am normally a half marathon runner.  I do all of my half marathon training
             (well most of the time) but I've been doing this for years. My body knows how to adapt to me              taking it out for a jog.  I need to mix-it-up.  To do this I've signed up for
                           - Vancity OCR (obstacle race training)
                           - Switching to the 10k running clinic at ladysport - shorter bursts of energy instead                                   of long runs
                           - Go to the gym! I personally prefer to get my training from other places but I need
                              to try harder to go to the gym more often.
                           - start cross country skiing again

3) Time management
          - fit it in!  Figure out how you're going to fit all of these elements into your hectic life and how
            you will be committed and not make excuses.

Step 3: Follow the plan
Now that the plan is setup.  Just do it!

Getting Started

So that day comes when you get the phone call "We're engaged!" Wow!  Feelings of giddyness wash over you and you are so happy to hear that your little sister is getting married! Finally!  Forget the fact that up until this point in your lives you've done pretty much everything before her.  Rode a bike, learned to read, drove a car, kissed a boy, came home drunk (ok well maybe not me but theoretically every other human being).  Your little sister has won the lottery and found Prince Charming, or at least Prince Pun who makes her laugh, smile and feel like the half of a whole.  Your little sister is getting married and from this point forward - she may do everything before you.

When it comes to your relationships, or failure of your relationships your family is like the skeletons pictured in this gif

Thank-goodness for little sisters!  Now all the eyes can temporarily be taken off of you and why you aren't in a relationship and why aren't you married with two kids and a dog yet and be placed on her.  Hahaha!  Temporary relief from the failure that is the so called non-real life.  

So what do you do with this freedom?  You start a blog!  This is just not any blog.  It's a blog with a purpose!  A blog that is going to cover the next year of your life (not just hers) and what you are going to do to get ready for her big day.  It will cover everything from the wedding diet you've decided to go on, the insane workouts you will be doing and maybe even include the prep you're doing as a brides made for mysisterswedding!