Next Up: The Diet Challenge

While I still work on decluttering all of the collections in my life, I figure it's also time to get the next aspect of "The Quest for Happy" underway and that is to tackle my health.

Generally speaking, I am a healthy person.  I don't have any communicable diseases, any major illnesses that I worry about (although a slight hypochondriac so there's that) and I don't live a very stressful life, I do need to start living a healthier lifestyle.

For the majority of my adult life I have been overweight... okay, I have been 'obese' but I hate that word so we will just stick with saying overweight.  Do I enjoy this fact?  No.  However, it's just something I have learned to deal with and I am ready to not make that part of my life anymore.

Last Friday, my good friend Tracy, who lives in Newfoundland (a half a country away) and I decided that we are going to lose 50 lbs by the end of the year.  Here's my plan for how I hope to do that:

1. Menu Plan - I always find that if I can sit down and plan an healthy menu for the week and use that to create a grocery list, it makes eating much easier.  We have a heavy baseball life so most weeknights we are on the diamond through the dinner hour.  Making easy meals, like salad or chicken, that you can pre-make is key!
2. Food Tracking - It's proven that if you write down every morsel of food that you put in your mouth, that you will be better about what you eat.  Who wants to look back at a food journal and see that they had crap for all three meals and crammed snacks in whenever possible?  Definitely not me!  So I am going to use the FitBit app to track all of my food.
3. Use My Fitbit - I mentioned it above but I have a Fitbit HR+ that I need to make sure I am wearing so I can track my activity.  I am not an exerciser nor do I want to be but even just making sure I log in some steps (and my food) everyday is more than I am going now.
4. Support - Tracy and I will be a great support for each other and being accountable to someone else is key.  Knowing you have to check in and report a weekly loss makes you try just a little bit harder to stay on track.

Whoa... look at the awesome prep-work!

So, here we go!  I will be starting today with the new healthy menu that is planned and will report in each Monday to see how I did!  Here's to being a new, healthier me at Christmas!