90 Day Challenge

I have been MORE than lazy this summer. I haven't worked out since May, and I've been eating everything in sight. This is not a good combination. I've been trying to think of some ways to have better accountability in these areas, but I always came up with a reason to not follow through. The timing seemed right, then, when I got an email from my gym a few weeks ago about the 90 Day Challenge. I'm not really sure exactly what this all entails (since my official weigh in isn't until later today), but I do know that it is a fitness challenge to see who can trim the most weight/inches in the next 90 days. You are assisted by a trainer and you also get some nutrition guidance. There are some prizes on the line, too. A few friends of mine have also signed up, so between the trainer and my friends, I should have some good accountability.

A few months ago I took a nutrition course (which I failed to blog about). Of course people were there to learn how to eat better to lose and control weight, but the instructor also encouraged us to set two goals in changing our diet that didn't have to do with weight. My goals were to have more sustained energy throughout the day and to sleep better at night. I was really pleased with how I could see the results: when, what, and how much I ate was effecting my energy and sleeplessness. I have totally fallen away from any good habits I acquired in that class, but I hope to implement a few during the 90 Day Challenge.

When I do New Year's Resolutions or little personal challenges like this, I am tempted to try and change EVERYTHING in my life that I would like to be different: eating habits, sleeping habits, exercise habits, devotional habits, etc, etc, etc. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew this time because then I get discouraged and I don't change anything. So I wanted to have a small list to work off of for the next 90 days:

• only one cup of black coffee a day
• no soda
• work out in the morning as much as possible
• run a half marathon (Oct 17 Des Moines) - this will be the work out plan I will be following
• not cutting out snacks completely, but making better choices with the snacks I do choose
• drink more water (which should be easy since I drink about zero right now)
• have a more consistent bedtime (hard to do in the summer, so we'll see about this one...)
• have salad for lunch at least twice a week (I eat horrible at lunch everyday since I am bringing in all kinds of good (bad for you) food to clinics - like pizza, Boston Market chicken-meatloaf-sweet potatoes, pasta, LeAnn Chin, etc, etc, etc.....)

So....we'll see how it goes! I have to remind myself to take baby steps and not get discouraged. I feel a little crazy for signing up for a race that is only 10 weeks away, but if I'm not ready for it, I don't feel like I absolutely have to do it - it is just a nice goal for me to have.