Gettin' With It

**WARNING ** Long post ahead...

I've had a fear of weight loss challenges in the past, even though I made myself participate in a few. I think it's the fear of failure that I've always battled and was very strong when I started this weight loss journey. Each challenge that I attempted got a little better, but I've still not had great success with reaching the weight loss portions of the challenges.

However, finishing the Couch to 5K program has taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to. I may not be easy, but I am capable.

I've also learned that there was something about knowing I was not only following a program, but doing it as part of a challenge. This made me accountable for my C25K progress and made me press on each week. This same feeling came over me over the weekend when I did the "jumping in" challenge. I knew I had committed to something, so I needed to do my best to stick with it.

You may be wondering why I didn't feel this way when I started my weight loss journey, and I'm kind of asking myself the same thing. Yet, I think I had to learn to believe in myself and see that I'm not a failure before going on any further.

So, now that I know I'm capable of accomplishing great things *grin* I'm starting a new challenge for myself. This will last eight weeks, which is countdown to the anniversary of when I "officially" began my weight loss journey.

To commemorate my new challenge I created a badge for it and titled it "Gettin With It", because I am getting with the program to see myself lose more weight. I got the idea from something I remember reading over at Endurance Isn't Only Physical.


Basically she said that she started her weight loss journey with 21 days - if she could stick with her program for 21 days then she would allow herself to quit after that. Well, it got her well on her way to losing the 100+ pounds she's lost this past year or so. (You can read about that here.)


I decided to give this idea a try in my own weight loss journey as I want to have more weight loss shown for this last year than 25 pounds.


I've learned a lot about myself this last year, I've worked hard on some emotional issues and I am proud of that loss and all the work that came with losing it and maintaining. However, I know it's time to kick it back into weight loss gear and see that scale move again.


I've been thinking on this for about a week now, so when 266 mentioned the three-day challenge we did over the weekend it gave me a good idea of what goals I would put up.


My goals:

• First off ... I want to see at least 10 pounds lost. Seeing my weight loss history will tell you that this will be a great accomplishment for me. It will also lead me past my first goal of reaching 199, which is something I desperately want to do.
• Take my mutli-vitamin and calcium daily. I have not been doing this at all and I know I need to get into the habit of it.
• Drink 64 oz. of water daily. Six to eight glasses a day is good, but I want to start the habit of at least 8.
• One sweet treat a day. This will be a treat in weight loss portions - small. It may be 2 Tbsp. of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 20 M&Ms or a small serving of ice cream. And if I don't feel like I really don't want it, then I won't. I won't eat it just because I'm "allowed".
• Eat one fruit or veggie with each meal. I will be careful to not always have juice in place of fruit, but it might be that a few times. I'm shooting for having a fruit with breakfast, a fruit and veggie with lunch and a veggie with dinner. That's 4 a day and a BIG deal for me. :)
• No snacking if I'm not truly hungry. Eating only when hungry really signifies to me that I don't snack if I'm not hungry. I'm getting better at eating decent portions with meals, but I struggle with eating out of boredom.
• Exercise at least 4 days a week. This is a pretty regular habit now, but I thought I'd add it in for good measure. :) I will keep working on my running pace and get faster.

So I'm already in the middle of week one and I will update on my goals with each weigh in.

Now, I will finish up by saying that I created this challenge with the intention of making myself accountable to something. If you are so inclined to join me for the next eight weeks, then feel free to make your own goals and take my badge to use on your blog. I'd love it if you'd check back here every Friday with a link to your update.

If no one joins me, then that's fine. I feel better with my little check-list and the accountability to you all. :)

Oh, and thanks for reading this horrendously long post. I just couldn't make myself break it up into smaller posts....