New Year and New You

Fair warning as this one will be a long one, but it is in response to a weekly challenge through the Spark Team I belong to. You might want to use the items listed to think about your up coming goals. Hope you can use it as your own motivation. Once I got started I was enjoying the challenge.

The challenge for this week like other weeks was broken down into two parts and using the acronyms " NEW YEAR" and "New You" ... here is it with my personal goals set in as well...



Fitness ITC - NEW YEAR... NEW YOU

N - Your nutrition is vital. Set a Nutritional goal for each week of January.

-Week 1:Work out every day. No matter what. Do something even if for just 10 min.
- Week 2: Try to extend treadmill distance to 2.5 miles.
- Week 3: Extend strength training time to 45 min each session
- Week 4: Search for 2 new healthy recipes to try each week
- Week 5: By the end of January be down 10 lbs from December 31st.

E - Evaluate these goals. Are they obtainable? Could these by lifetime goals? Did you plan your goals to include life events? Example: Weddings, birthdays, lunches with friends?

- With focus, planning and determination all goals set above are do able

W - Wellness, look beyond food and exercise and set some emotional wellness goals. Example: I will meditate 10 minutes every morning; I will do deep breathing once a day, etc. Be attentive to your thoughts feelings and behaviors.

- Be intentional about reaching out to friends to check on them and see how they are
doing. Allowing me to focus not just on my job and my son , but also on me and my
own relationships.

Y - You are amazing. Set one goal that will help you remember that.

- This one is a bit hard. All I can think of is to do self affirmation talk each morning when
I get up and am getting ready for work. I think I will feel quite silly doing this, but
maybe if some of you complete this list and post I can see how you would complete
this item....share your ideas with me.

E- Evaluate your eating habits. Do they lead to good health? If the habits are not healthy, make adjustments to your goals.

- Eating habits of late (since October 25th 2017) have been really good. This is when I
truly started focusing on my health and trying really hard to get healthy. I have been
focusing on low carb eating and up until this week it has been going very well.
Appetite has been less and little to no cravings for sugar or carbs. However, for some
reason this week has been more of a struggle and I have not figured out why as of yet.

A - Analyze you past years eating habits. Once again adjust your goals if needed to include your favorite foods. Try not to eliminate your favorite foods, but to adjust your consumption of them. Make changes to your goals if needed.

- My past eating habits have been awful. Huge amounts of food, and mostly carb
based. Sodas, chips, pasta, potatoes, fries, pizza, biscuits... I mean you name a
carb it was probably on my menu for the week. Now like I said above, I am trying to
go low carb (leaning toward Keto) and am trying to find healthy substitutes for those
items that I might start craving so that I can have a modified version and not make
any particular food off limits.

R - Recognize that you have worked hard on your nutrition goals last year and give yourself a goodie!


********************** Part 2 *******************

Nutrition ITC - NEW YEAR.... NEW YOU

N - Never give up! Develop a fitness plan.

- Treadmill in the morning before work minimum of 5 days a week (2.0 miles - 2.5 miles)
- Strength training in the evening minimum of 5 days a week (45 min - 1 hour)
** Once this gets easy increase distance, reps and/or weights

E - Evaluate what has worked for you and what has not. Do you need to adjust your plan?

- So far exercise is working and allowing me to continue to lose, but not as fast as I was
at first. Maybe building muscle, but with exercise I am feeling a bit more hungry than
before so will definitely need to watch out on food consumption as fitness regularity
improves

W - Weigh in! What is your goal weight for December 31, 2018? Is it achievable? Put this goal weight somewhere you will see it every day.

- Goal is to be at 190 by December 31st, 2018. Not sure if I can reach this goal, because that would mean a 113 lb weight loss from today but we will see.

Y - You are in charge! Only you can make the changes! Visualize yourself using your new fitness plan to help renew your commitment.

- I can definitely visualize myself hitting these goals for January and improving as I get
stronger and leaner. I just have to not procrastinate when I first wake up in the
morning.

O - Organize! Clean up your work out area. Check out exercise options available to you. Plan and adjust your plan! It is a new year, be ready!

- In preparation for the new year, I completed this task last week when I was off from
work. Cleaned up my room and reorganized to make room for the new treadmill and
reorganized our fitness room as well.

U - Utilize your support system. Post your plans in the chat or blog. Let people know how to support you!

- So, there it is in black and white for all to see. Now that it is out there and beyond just
my own ideas for myself, I feel more compelled to complete the tasks set because now
I feel like I have told someone that I would do something and I don't want to be a liar.
Probably the whole point of having us post these goals and thoughts out there for all to
see.

- How can Sparkers help? Lift me up when I hit a wall, remind me that it is worth it to feel
and be healthier, and just keep being you which is what makes Spark People so great.

If you hung on to the end... thank you for taking your time. Hope these topics get you to thinking about your journey into the new year.

Best of luck to us all as we continue.