Bad Month

I don't know about you, but it's been a bad month for eating. And exercising. Just dieting in general. Which is perhaps why I haven't posted. My apologies.

The first part of the holiday season is over. I left for home on Friday afternoon with the resolve to limit my eating. Finals week was brutal on my diet. Since we didn't have classes and I only had a few meetings, my goal was to at least get back to the gym. My hope was to work out every day for at least 15 or 20 minutes, thinking it was a start.

It didn't happen.

Then the holidays were here. Between the Christmas cookies, pie, turkey dinner, apple cider, hot chocolate and pasta salad (which I'm currently munching on, even though I don't think I'm that hungry) I just feel gross. There's no reason for me to consume all those calories. Yet I always pass it off with, "It's the holiday season...."

Thankfully, though, the new year is right around the corner. And we all know what that means - the resolution to lose weight.

What is sometimes tough is that you can get so excited for the new year. It's a time to turn over a new leaf and really start changing your eating habits. But the tough part is that you almost expect the changes occur. It didn't take me a week or month to put on this weight, and it surely won't take that short amount of time to take it off.

One thing I'm hoping to do differently is set better, and more realistic, resolutions and goals for myself. I kid you not, in the past I had goals like, "Work out 5-7 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Train to run a mile. Lose 50 pounds."

You could say I was a little more than lofty with my goals. While their fine things to work toward, I had the mentality that I could accomplish them by the end of January, and that isn't the case at all.

So, I'm taking what I learned through my GRE studying. When I was reading tips, one suggestion was to set a goal a day and make it specific. Saying "study for the GRE" was much too overwhelming and it prevents you from finding success. Instead it said you should set a goal of just conquering fractions or exponents. Much, much more manageable and you're less intimidated by the task at hand.

To make a long story short, I'm changing my resolution. Each week I think I'll try a new lifestyle change (I'm going to stop saying diet). One week my goal will be to work out three days for 30 minutes. I'll focus on trying to make one healthy change at a time so it's less overwhelming and will hopefully lead to success.

Feel free to share your new years resolutions. We're still all in this together!