Making Healthy A Habit: Six Weeks In...

Hey folks!

So I am six weeks in as of 9/7/12 and I am  feeling pretty good. Some of my accomplishments during these six weeks are:

• Walking 1.5 miles in Van Cortlandt Park
• Walking nearly the entire outer walkway of Pelham Bay Park (1.3 miles)
• Increasing all of my sets during the cardio portion of my workout
• Finally stepped my workouts up to FIVE a week (Sunday & Wednesday are my off days)
• I'm getting better with tracking my workouts and food on SparkPeople.com [GREAT TOOL...more on this later]
• Fitting into a pair of smaller stretch jeans (in actuality, they were too big in certain spots, and fit juuuuuust right in others--woot!)

So, I have the workout portion pretty much down pact. As I mentioned, I am being diligent in tracking my workouts, as well as my food. It is in doing so that I really understand how it all works together. Eat less and move more is more than just a clever little slogan, it is the TRUTH if you are trying to get healthy.  When you are honest with yourself in tracking everything that you put in your mouth, as well as every exercise that you do, it becomes pretty clear why you might be losing weight, but you COULD be losing more.

Case in point: based on my personal goals that I have set on SparkPeople, it gives me an estimate of how many calories I should be eating a day and how many fitness minutes I need to be putting in a week in order to get there. The first day that I truly tracked all of my meals and every food that entered my mouth, I was pretty taken back. I love cashews, but my cashew packs that I thought were good for me were NOT doing anything positive for me. They were eating up 220 calories per little pack, but not really curbing my feelings of "snackiness". Which would only make me reach for something else. That 220 calories could have been much better utilized on something that would have truly curbed my appetite. I also need to get into a better habit of eating regularly. I am *not* an eat first thing in the morning kind of girl, but I am seeing that I am going to have to eat before I leave the house to keep myself on track throughout the day.

[Sidebar: I am also stopping more to ask myself "Are you hungry? Or are you just bored, tired, etc." Sometimes, I was hungry. More often than not, I was really just bored and very used to eating when there was seemingly nothing else to do (note: there's almost ALWAYS something else you COULD be doing rather than eating).]

I told y'all that this was way more than just losing weight. It's not a diet. It's a complete kick in the tail lifestyle change and it is getting easier, but is also getting more and more difficult as I start to work on even more of my bad habits and try hard to establish new ones. The best part is that I am still determined. I think this is the longest I have stuck with any lifestyle change before. September will be six months (I officially started in April). I don't think I've ever gone past 3 months before. To be closing in on six? Even more than that, to be excited to see what the next six months will bring? As much as I love walking in the Bronx's lovely parks, I'm even more excited to bring the workouts indoors (Planet Fitness anyone?)

In the meantime, my next step is to also write more of my goals down--short term and long term. Put them in black and white. Post them on my fridge, even here on the blog (talk about instant accountability!) And EAT BETTER! My relationship with food is getting better, but it still needs to improve. Cooking more, making sure there are healthy snacks in the house and at the job awaiting me--all of these are keys to this journey.

Are you on your own personal journey? I'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, or feel free to email me: aja [at] belle - noir [dot] com.