Laura

If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time you know that I struggle with eating right and exercising regularly.  Every so often I’ll blog excitedly about a new eating plan or exercise routine, but pretty soon it’s been forgotten.  

I can make a lot of excuses: I’m a busy college student, I don’t have access to a lot of fitness equipment, I have knee pain that keeps me from running, I’m an emotional eater…. the list goes on and on.  But excuses aren’t bringing about any changes.

I am by no means overweight, but I weigh a bit more than I did in high school, and I am not anywhere close to being fit - my lifestyle probably qualifies as sedentary.  Combine that with poor eating choices and a family history of heart disease and high cholesterol and I’m a ticking time bomb.

So I’m trying something new.  Instead of setting lofty goals I’m trying to slowly integrate healthier eating and fitness practices into my life.  These aren’t supposed to just be short-term diets or fitness regimes - I’m going for lifestyle change.  The idea is that if I introduce things slowly, one element at a time, after a while they’ll become second nature and it won’t be so hard.  Because let’s face it, I have a whole lot of drive and will power in a lot of areas of my life, but somehow none of it translates into eating right or working out.

Since school’s started I’ve worked on eating smaller portions.  I haven’t really deprived myself of anything, I just don’t eat as much as I used to.  If I want Taco Bell, I get it, just a couple tacos instead of the whole Big Box Meal.  If I want chocolate cake in Gano, I get it, I jut grab the smallest slice on the tray.  I also try not to eat after about 9:00 or so.  The result?  I’ve dropped about 8 lbs since mid-August, all without really even thinking about losing weight.  But I’ve been hovering just under the 140 mark for a couple of weeks, and I’m not getting any fitter.

So this week I introduced a new phase of the lifestyle change:  drinking at least 64 oz of water a day.  I haven’t specifically cut out soft drinks, but to get in all that water I’ve found that I have to skip the soda at meals and opt for water instead, which is definitely cutting back my calorie intake.  I’ve also noticed that I haven’t had a headache at all this week (unusual for me) and I haven’t felt as hungry.

Next week I’ll be incorporating some form of exercise every day of the week.  It doesn’t have to be strenuous - I can count my intramural softball games or even just doing a few lunges and sit-ups before bed - but I’m trying to just get in the habit of doing some form of physical activity every day.  I’ll eventually make that activity higher intensity, but for now I just need to get used to actually doing something.

So here’s your chance to contribute - how have you gone about making lifestyle changes?  Did you just go cold turkey?  Or did you have to (like me) slowly trick yourself into being healthier?