Small Bites

I just had a great phone coaching with Lois to end my first week of lifestyle changes. I'm feeling more positive about this journey today than I was just a day or two ago, and it drives home the fact that in order for me to be truly successful in making these changes, I need to lean on those around me for their support. I am the one ultimately responsible for my life, but I don't have to do this alone! That's exactly why I've chosen to share this journey with you ~ warts and all.

In our talk today, Lois ended by asking me about my goals. (She's pretty good at this coaching business.) It was hard at first to talk about, because I've started this journey so many times, but I know it's important to have these things written down somewhere. And I figured here is as good a place as any. So here goes:
My final goal is to get my weight down to under 200 pounds. That means I need to lose just over 150 pounds. (That's as close as I'm getting to putting down my actual weight.) It's a scary goal, but one I think I can accomplish. I tell my team members at work when I'm coaching them through a big challenge that they can't eat the elephant all in one bite. It means that although the end goal may seem daunting when you look at the big picture, to get there you need to break it up into manageable pieces. One bite at a time. So here's my first bite: 20 pounds. Just 20 pounds. That's all. It's not a huge amount. Really, it's not. And I will keep telling myself that every day. Just 20 small pounds. My reward will be (and I just decided this right now) the 5th book in the "Songs of Fire and Ice" series (Game of Thrones books). I really want to be reading it now, but I won't buy it for myself until I reach my first goal.

And speaking of goals, here are my two goals for this week:

1. Spend a minimum of 10 minutes per day stretching. I know it's not much, but with another back episode yesterday, it reminded me of how hugely important this is. By mid-week I want to be back doing the neural reboot from Tai Cheng, and by weeks end I want to have started the program again.
2. Plan my small meals ahead so I'm prepared to eat at work. This past week hasn't been too hard on the small and frequent meal front, but I've been home most of the time. Like I said to Lois, I can't just open the fridge at work and pick something. That food doesn't belong to me! That means I have to prepare in advance to be eating every 3 hours at work, and have everything ready to do that daily. It's a lot more work to prepare for than I realized, but I think it's what I need. It makes me much more aware of what I'm putting into my body. The more time I think about what I'm eating, the more aware I am and the less I want to spend all that time just to fill it with crap.

So there you go. Time for me to go drink some more water. After all, I haven't peed in nearly two hours! Thank you all for you great support!