Ah, Wednesdays. Happy hump day! Today is all about setting healthy goals…
I’ve mentioned briefly that I used to write a healthy living blog. It was about living my best life, being active, losing weight, and finding balance. Throughout my life, I’ve experienced ups and downs particularly when it comes to weight loss. I’ve gained and lost weight – multiple times. I’ve tried different approaches to combat this and have found different types of success.
Over the past six months or so, I’ve unfortunately gained weight. This is partly from personal struggles that have been incredibly stressful and partly because I haven’t cared as much as eating healthy or exercising as I should have. I’m at a point now where I feel ready to start focusing on losing weight and incorporating more healthy habits into my life.
Setting Healthy Goals
Over the next month, I’m setting healthy goals for myself. I want to begin to lose weight, but more I want make healthy decisions and feel better about myself. I keep reminding myself that what I do every day is more important than what I do once in awhile. This means that I want to make good decisions for my health most of the time.
Eat a serving of fruits or veggies at each meal.
I’m not sure when this happened but I’ve become a carb and sugar queen. I’ll sneak in fruits occassionally, but veggies have somehow become non-existent in my diet. My goal for June is to include a fruit or veggie at each meal. This is a small step, but I find that adding things to my diet, instead of restricting, seems to help. Plus, fruits and veggies make me feel good!
Cut down on sugar.
Ok, I just said I don’t like to restrict. That being said, my sweet tooth is out of control. I’ve become accustomed to each sugar regularly, not to mention all the added sugar that I eat in my daily food. I’m not saying I cannot have any treats, but I want to be more intentional with the types of food I put in my body. This means enjoying french vanilla cream in my coffee but not having 2-3 little sweets throughout the day.
“Exercise” 4 times per week.
I like to exercise. Somehow, I’ve stopped exercising – less dog walking, less resistance training, less overall movement. To me, exercise doesn’t mean go to the gym. It means be intentionally active. So, my goal is to exercise 4 times each week. Whether it’s a long dog walk or a quick 30 minute HIIT workout, I want to move more to feel better.
Stay positive.
This seems silly, but I am the queen of negative self-talk. I could make good decisions all day, make one bad choice, and use that as a reason to destroy myself and all the progress I’ve made. So, I want to stop that – or try to! When I feel self-talk coming on, I want to focus on the progress I have made. I know this is going to be a journey, but I won’t be successful if I am constantly putting myself down. This will be tough for me, but I am going to give it my 100% effort.
This is where I’m starting. I am weighing myself to track progress, but want to keep track of other accomplishments too. As I continue on my journey, I’ll update you on how I’m going!