"On Plan OCTOBER" Challenge! :)

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."

Tony Robbins (Author, speaker, peak performance expert, coach)

Let's DO this!! I mean are we serious about our health and fitness and weightloss or aren't we?  All it takes is a real DECISION!  We have to DECIDE (and mean it!) that we are worth the effort it takes to get healthy and stay healthy!  We are worth it, you know... so believe it in your heart and get ready to put some effort into this month's challenge where the challenge is to log your food and your exercise for 24 of the 31 days of the month.  Ideally, you would log every single day and if you want to go for that challenge, please do! :) 

So what do you need to log and how do you keep track?  I learned through my classes with Vtrim that in order to lose weight and be successful long-term, I needed accountability to myself and to log my food and journal my exercise and moods. 

I try to eat somewhere between 1200-1400 calories daily and not more than 25 percent of that in fat grams.  And I try to lose somewhere between 1-2 lbs weekly so my exercise has to equal (for me) about 15 miles walked and about 3-5 hours in the gym.  This has worked for me because I keep track of it every single day - every single bite - every single sip.  At first all this logging and counting seemed excessive and it took a bit of time to look up calories and fat grams and how many calories I was burning and then write it all down, but then - as the pounds started shedding and my body started getting stronger - it became routine and easier and I was invested in the process.  I realized that only I was in charge of getting myself fit and trim.  I was "on plan" and "accountable".

So here is the challenge, my friends.  Figure out what you eat now in calories and try to cut back 500 calories a day if you're trying to lose weight because 500 calories daily x 7 days in a week = 3500 calories which equals one pound gone from your body weekly.  One thing though:  don't go below 1200 calories a day - it just isn't healthy.  And if you're into working out... try to lose 500 calories a day for 5-7 days and you're going to lose another 1/2 lb to pound a week.  I do this by walking 3-5 miles and working out at the Boston area YMCA in Waltham, Massachusetts. : )

Now about logging...  Make a plan for yourself to follow during October and then:
  • Write down your beginning weight. Take your measurements.
  • Log everything you eat.  Look at nutritional labels and be careful with portion sizes. Eat your calories rather than drink them.  Drink at least 64 ounces of water daily... substitute water for soda and drink water all day long.
  • Write down your exercise and approximate calories burned. Push yourself a little further than you have in the past - you can do it and will feel great accomplishing new goals!
  • Make notes about how you're feeling.  Are you stressed out from work?  Are you feeling great because you're working out and feel strong?  Do you have family visiting you and coaxing you to eat high-fat or high-cal foods?  Write it all down because you may be able to look back and see patterns to your emotional eating or to your lack of exercise. 
Logging is very eye-opening and sometimes unlocks keys to why folks haven't been able to lose weight or break an exercise plateau.  It sure worked that way for me!

So the October challenge is this in simple terms:
Write down an exercise and food plan for yourself for this month.  For example you could write down: "I'll walk or exercise for 24 days and will not eat over 9800 calories this week (that is 7x 1400 cals) and I'll LOG everything I do for food and exercise." That is your plan.  Now stay ON it!
Look for #OctOnPlan on Twitter and encourage friends as we stay On Plan during the month!  With Halloween candy everywhere, I know I'll need all the encouragement and support I can get... and I'll be giving it right back to you all! :)

One last thing that will help with this month's challenge:  if you don't know of a good place online to journal, I can suggest two sites that I really like which are fitday.com and calorieking.com.  I know alot of friends use livestrong.com/tools, too.

Here we go into October friends... who's "in" to be ON PLAN with me? : )

Jan / HealthyLoserGal


NOTE:  Everything I am writing here is my own weightloss and fitness plan, I am not a doctor or a nutritionist or a diet specialist.  This is what has worked for ME... I cannot recommend it to you or you should not follow my plan for yourself without checking in with a doctor or having someone with an honest to God real degree consult with you! :)  In other words, please don't hold me accountable if this doesn't work for you! ; )

2 comments:

Anonymous October 5, 2010 at 1:30 AM  

Hmmm. It was good to see what your plan consists of--helps me to judge what I'm doing.

My plan is also to eat between 1200-1400 a day. (SparkPeople puts my range to 1550, but that's just too high.) And I'm walking, too. My goal has just moved from 12 miles a week to 15 miles, so it was kind of cool to see that's what you're doing.

Uh-hmm. It's my plan... I'm not quite getting those miles in, tho.

But seeing your progress has really motivated me! It's good to know that my cal/walking are in the ballpark.

Gym? I've been considering it. We'll see. Right now, it's DVDs.

Deb

Anonymous October 5, 2010 at 1:30 AM  

Hmmm. It was good to see what your plan consists of--helps me to judge what I'm doing.

My plan is also to eat between 1200-1400 a day. (SparkPeople puts my range to 1550, but that's just too high.) And I'm walking, too. My goal has just moved from 12 miles a week to 15 miles, so it was kind of cool to see that's what you're doing.

Uh-hmm. It's my plan... I'm not quite getting those miles in, tho.

But seeing your progress has really motivated me! It's good to know that my cal/walking are in the ballpark.

Gym? I've been considering it. We'll see. Right now, it's DVDs.

Deb