Thursday, September 19, 2013

Baby Step Milestones DAY 4


So this week we’ve seen some pretty big goals from Molly, Eileen and Maureen. Don’t know what Ripley (aka Sinead) has in store for us tomorrow.

But for me I’ve learned I can be a pretty spectacular failure at the big goals. I’ve spent almost my whole life (I’m not kidding either probably since age 12) battling my weight. I’ve had success but mostly it’s been failure and I’ve come to a point where I have to stop saying I’m GOING TO DO THIS… because the reality is I don’t. Need to lose 8-10 pounds – I’m your girl. Need to lose 20+ 30+, so far I haven’t found myself in it for the long haul.
 
For milestones, I’m trying another approach. I’m not going to get in shape to run a 10K. I’m not going to lose 20% of my weight (which I absolutely should). I’m not going to go vegan. Or commit to writing 2000K words a day (which I absolutely should).

For me in the next few months it’s all about baby steps. My favorite saying is “you can’t fight the war on all fronts.” In times of stress I tell myself I can’t do everything. I can’t work my butt off at my day job, and lose weight, and exercise, and write, and eat healthy. It’s too much. So I pick the one thing I want to focus on, and that does usually get done, but sometimes at the cost of other things.
 
This time I’m not going to fight the war. Instead I’m going to engage in minor skirmishes. My baby step milestone list:

1. Drink less wine. I don’t want to stop altogether (I like it too much) but I’m cutting back.

2. Go to bed no later than 11:00 during the week. There is no reason on work nights to be up later than this.

3. Get up a little earlier in the morning. (see above) The key to getting up earlier is to fit in a few more tasks.

4. Run 20 minutes a day a few times a week. Again – nothing crazy here. Baby steps. Easy things I know I can accomplish that are going to help get me in better shape.

5. Cook more.  I’m the opposite of most people. As a single person I cook on Saturdays and Sunday’s when I have time, but tend to eat out during the week. This leads to the wine and extra calories – so if I can find the energy to cook 1 more night a week at home this will help. 

And that’s it for now. If I continually meet these goals, I may up my game. But right now it’s all about getting started. I’m like a big slow train that needs to be pulled/pushed and manhandled out of the station to break some ingrained habits. The hope is that once the train gets rolling, I’ll be able to pick up some steam.

Wish us luck. For our readers… you know you want to join in. Give us your goals and come along for the ride with us!

9 comments:

Eileen said...

I like the baby steps approach. I'm a little sad about the "drink less wine" idea, but if I were to be totally honest, I'd have to admit that I don't drink during the week except on special occasions (like book group).

Unknown said...

Small steps are perfect. Huge changes are so oppressive, but a small thing, much easier to think about.

It's a good plan, Steph.

Karen Whiddon said...

I like this. And I do exactly what you do - tell myself I can't do it all.

Best of luck!

Stephanie Doyle said...

I know Eileen... I'm just coming to understand that's it's not exactly "normal" to have cocktails every night when you get home from work.

My 1950/1960 Madmen type parents set a very bad precedent for me!

It's why I never thought I was doing anything wrong until people started to say things like...

"OH MY GOD... YOU DRINK ON MONDAY???"

Maureen McGowan said...

I'm all about baby steps and while my goal is big, I'm planning on using the baby steps approach this time. And also not cutting *anything* out of my diet completely. Yes, Sinead, when we go out, I might still have a few nachos.

Cutting out things completely just leads to my feeling deprived (even if it's sometimes an empowered-I-am-awesome deprived feeling. I want to avoid the feeling of this-is-unusual, this-is-only-until-I-drop-the-weight -- which I know only works in the short term.

For me it's about the long term. I don't want to try to do anything I can't see myself doing for the rest of my life.

For me, less eating out is a big part of the equation too. Which is so doable. So much of this is just habits...

Maureen McGowan said...

And we all know habits are easy to change. (Maureen laughs at her own sarcasm.)

Maureen McGowan said...

And we all know habits are easy to change. (Maureen laughs at her own sarcasm.)

Eileen said...

I had a set of in-laws once that were totally of the cocktails every night set. It was fun to visit, but I often felt like I needed to do some kind of cleanse once we got home.

And, oh yes, habits are so easy to change! And we never get tired or sad or any of the other things that make us succumb to old routines even if we know they are as destructive as they are comforting.

Eileen said...

Although can I just tell you the shock I just had when I realized that the lovely yogurt parfait I just ate at Starbucks was SEVEN WIEGHT WATCHER'S POINTS!!!!!! Dear God, I could have had a slice of pizza!

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