By now you should have completed Week 1! If so, give yourself a huge pat on the back! Week 1 was really about starting to build good habits that lay the foundation for a healthier lifestyle. As I siad at hte start of all this, when I started losing weight I was lazy, fat, completely unfit and had built a lot of bad habits.
Over the last year I dropped a lot of those, but I was still far from living a healthy life. When I got onto my newest health kick 4 months ago (give or take), I realized that the core thing I had to do was to build healthy habits. If I didn’t build habits, and didn’t diversify my “portfolio” of good eating, healthy living and exercise, I’d only have 2 options: I’d either be “on” the bandwagon or “off” it – and for me that’s a recipe for disaster.
Week 1 was, at its core, about building 3 core habits: drink more water, eat better breakfasts and sleep better. If you were able to do those 3 things consistently, you succeeded!
In addition, I made some minor suggestions to help you improve your quality of life. I’ll put these in a list format so you can check off how much better you’re doing on each of those. Your goal here is to have hit at least 7 of them. If you do, you’ve rocked the house. If you hit 5 you’re doing great and if you hit 3 you’re doing better than you were a week ago and still deserve to celebrate!
So here are some milestones you may have accomplished:
- Did 2-3 ab workouts via good form half-crunches
- Completed 1-2 light walks (where you broke a sweat but didn’t kill yourself)
- Cut your junk food / fast food intake
- Stopped eating when you were no longer hungry instead of going back until you were full (not everytime, but you started to build the habit)
- If you drink pop, you switched to diet
- Began thinking about what you were eating in terms of calories or “cost” (of working it off) instead of how much you liked the food
- Told somebody you were trying to lose weight. The shame of starting can be intense. The support of others knowing is significant. Personally, I use Twitter and this blog to communicate how well I”m doing. Others setup dedicated blogs to share successes, failures, tips, dreams, realizations, etc. No matter how you do it, sharing the experience creates a support network, which is critical for success.
- Set goals for yourself, set milestones and realized that it’s possible for you to hit them. The sense of hopelessness that accompanies trying to lose weight can be incredibly significant. Hope is your biggest weapon against depression. And the easiest ways to build hope are through your support network but also through setting goals that you can achieve. Everytime you feel like giving up, set a goal you can hit in the next week (or less!) and hit it! Show yourself how wrong you are that it’s hopeless!
- Took your measurements at least once, building the habit of taking it every week to show yourself your progress.
- Started taking this program (yes it’s a freebie, but it’s a milestone and deserves to be celebrated)!
For tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll have the notes up for Week 2’s program. Week 2 will start to build in some significant milestones and tools, so hopefully you’re ready to start working!