... 365 days to change my bad habits ...

Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 07:59 in interesting links

Well, today REALLY begins my quest to be "fit by 40." I turned 39 today and enjoyed being very naughty ... chocolate, ice cream and a Frappucino that my kids got me as part of my presents. I read an interesting entry recent over at The Morning Ramble about high fructose corn syrup. The one thing that REALLY struck me was this comment, "It is believed that this high consumption of corn syrup is undermining appetite control." So, I spent some time today looking through items in my home ... yowzers!! I better get a dumpster and begin purging. It was absolutely totally amazing to me how many items had high fructose corn syrup in them.

My biggest problem is appetite control and feeling hungry and I can see that one of my problems is some of the low-calorie, low-fat food that I have chosen for snacks and such. Now, to be honest, I have no intention of just throwing all of this food away. So, what I will do is make a list of items that I need to replace with different items or try to find a way to make some things on my own to use as substitutions. If I can get that constantly hungry feeling under control, that is half the battle for me. Actually, is probably more than half the battle!

I have gotten on my treadmill this week, but didn't make it to the gym for weight-training. It was just too darn cold for me and I felt like a slug all week. I know it's probably due to a bit of dehydration as I'm not drinking my water like I should be. It is said that it takes 21 days to make a habit. So, on that note, I've put together a list of goals for myself for the next 3 weeks.

1. Drink a minimum of 48 oz. water daily, working up to 64 oz. daily by the end of the 21 days

2. Read all food labels looking for high fructose corn syrup and make a list of items to replace with better choices.

3. Treadmill 6 mornings a week (2-3 miles), weight training 2 evenings and try out ONE new class each week at the Fitness center each week (BodyPump, 20-20-20 and yoga) to see what I do and don't like.

4. Begin Food Journal, writing down all that I am eating so that I can count calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc. I know I'm eating more than I should be eating each day.

I won't move on to the next set of goals until I have accomplished these. If at the end of 21 days, I am still not into a good habit of doing these things, I'll stretch it out another week at a time until I'm ready to move on.

I'll let you know how I'm doing in another week or so!