What’s the plan?

As I alluded to (briefly) in my last post, this past weekend I mapped out a plan for myself. I’ve been in reactive mode these past weeks, and that never works for long. The hub & I had a talk about who is doing what which evenings, when we will each work out, and divided boy duty up. Here is what I came up with:

Exercise
I needed to up my cardio as it had gotten kinda slack. I am getting up earlier (4:30!) so that I can fit in 1 hour of cardio in the mornings every day except Monday. On Monday afternoon I will use the indoor track at the boy’s school while he is doing tae kwon do. That way I can sleep a little later on that day. I will continue to walk at lunch during the work week. Given the speed, this doesn’t really do a great deal other than give me a good stretch, but its something. I’ll walk some days, run others. That should give me a good amount of calorie-burning time.

As I said, we signed up with Triangle Fitness. It’s cheaper than the Y and gives us 24 hour access. Besides being tiny, the school fitness center has very limited hours. This works better since hub’s gym time is before work. He got up at 4 this morning, packed his lunch, and went to the gym. Early morning gym works for him, afternoon works for me, so that works out well. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are going to be my gym time. If we’re home, I can add a third workout in on the weekend, but 2 will be the minimum.

Food:
Chris has mentioned dividing up the plate and that is one technique I am using. For example, last night’s dinner was a big serving of green beans, a portabella/soy burger, and tuna casserole as a side dish. Everyone else was eating the casserole as the “main” thing, and it was fairly healthy, but I still elected to eat a smaller portion and use the burger to boost my protein. Breakfasts, lunches, & snacks will focus more on calories in conjunction with being unprocessed. My goal is in the 1300 calorie ballpark, but I’m not being so strict about counting at dinner – rather, I’m fixing healthy things, eating a lot of veggies, and using a lunch plate to help control portions. I am also planning my food for the day and committing to eating only what is on the plan. I have one item for post-dinner, with a max of 100 calories. I’ve been eating after dinner too much lately.

I built myself a nice excel spreadsheet with all my daily habits I want to encourage – flossing, face washing, exercise, etc. The first day always goes well, but I plan to hang with this for a while.