healthy you.

My dad's recent heart attack really struck a chord with me.  It made me realize that I need to get healthy.  No more excuses... I need to lose the baby weight and get healthy.  I know it will make me feel better about myself... give me more energy... and be nothing but a positive outcome if I truly buckle down and just do it.

My extended family has a website and we all committed to working together to get through this.  We all want to lose weight, have a lot of the same goals and we all want to support each other.  Each week we weigh in, post our goals, how we are doing and ask for advice on different things.  It has been such an answer to prayers. 

I'm only a week in, but I'm already seeing results.  I'm happier, I have more energy, and I feel better physically than I have in a long time. (the numbers going down on the scale seem to help quite a bit too.)  My goals are to exercise 6 days a week, eat healthier and drink more water.  So far, so good. 

I try to drink a green smoothie every morning.  This has been really easy because I can't get enough of them.  I won a little personal blender at bunko a few months ago and it has been a dream ($10 at Wal*Mart).  I have found that I love the antioxidant blend of berries from Costco with orange juice, flax seed and spinach.  I've been putting greek yogurt in, but as soon as I'm done with the container, I'm switching to regular yogurt.  I really don't love the taste of greek yogurt.

For lunch I've tried to eat a salad every day.  I'm not a salad girl, so this has been really hard for me.  I found that if I put everything in tupperware, it was a whole lot easier to eat a salad every day.  It's all ready to go.  Convenience is a huge issue for me in the food department.  I think I might switch to wraps next week just to change it up a little bit.

For snacks, I try to eat fruits and veggies or a Kashi granola bar.  I'm almost off of sweets except for these beauties.  ($10 for a ginormous bag at Costco.) They give me the chocolate that I need after dinner.  Just three or four and I'm good.  (I can't go completely sugar-less.  I would hate life.) 

I'm using my Biggest Loser Family Cookbook a lot more and finding healthier ways to cook our favorite meals.  A trip to the gym has been re-added to our morning routine and while Peter is still getting used to it... I am loving it!  I'm so glad they added Zumba to the morning schedule.  It is my favorite!

My end goal is to be at my ideal weight by the time Jeremy graduates.  I want to look my finest when we have our big openhouse after he takes over the practice in July!  I might even get brave and post before/after shots when I'm all done. 

I think I'm really going to do it this time.  It's exciting...