Following Through

I think I've mentioned before that I have major problems with follow-through. I can plan and plan and plan to my heart's content but then never take action on it. It's not just with exercising or eating right. It's with organization, cleaning...you name it. Or I start something (like a book, for instance) and then just quit halfway through if I get tired of it.

I would love to shout "NO MORE. FROM THIS MOMENT ON, I WILL FOLLOW THROUGH!!!" but I can't make that promise. But I will TRY to do better. I have a few things I want to do to slowly change how I eat and exercise and hopefully, one of them will stick. No quick and fast changes here because in my experience, those usually flop.

Exercise. The bane of my existence. I loathe working out. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people who immediately feel better once they start walking on the treadmill. I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being. It's not that I'm lazy, I just don't like to get sweaty and huffy and puffy and I honestly just don't feel better afterward. Some people love working out; I don't. Plain and simple. But it's a necessity if I want to get back down to my pre-baby weight and then some. And I want to be healthier and have more energy. I know that exercise contributes to that. I have a very, very energetic little 8-month-old and I can already tell he's going to continue being rambunctious. I need to be able to keep up with him.

There are Zumba classes in my town three nights a week. I would love to attend but I have a dilemma--the classes begin at 7:00 p.m. That is a little late for me, as that's around the time we start the baby's bedtime routine. He usually gets a bath in between 7:15 and 7:30 and then goes to bed around 8:00. This would really mess up that schedule and my dear husband could just do the routine for me, but he's recently had hip surgery and is on a walker. Therefore, he can't kneel at the bathtub, pick the baby up and get him dressed for bed (and the boy is REALLY squirmy) until he is able to put weight on that leg. That may be a month or more. However, when he's able to do these things, I do want to go because for $5 a class, who wouldn't? My mom is even considering going so I would have an accountability partner. She's trying to get healthier as well. In the meantime, I bought a $6 Gold's Gym "Lose the Baby Weight Fast" DVD but I have a hard time doing workout DVDs in our house because I like to have privacy and the only TVs we have are in the living room (where my husband hangs out and is always watching TV) or the baby's room (don't worry, my baby doesn't watch cartoons all the time...it was already mounted to the wall in that room before we turned it into a nursery and it hardly gets turned on). So, I can't really work out after the baby's in bed because the extra TV is in his room...I guess I could get up earlier and do it while Hubby is showering. Ugh. I have an accessible gym at work and I just need to suck it up and use it.

Food. I need to make healthier substitutions and cut out most of my sugar. I've been doing fairly well on the no sodas goal I have except for the past few days. I need to buy a stainless steel water bottle so I can utilize the cold spring water we have here at work. We have disposable cups but they are so tiny that I have to go back and get refills every 5 minutes. Good for my legs, not so good for my productivity.

I've cut out sugar before with pretty good success. Just starting the detox process is the hardest. I will go grocery shopping this weekend and the sweets that I do purchase for Hubby will be stuff I don't like. And I'll be mindful of my bread and grains so that I get whole grain. I found a website called Eat Better America that gives you recipes but includes the healthy substitution. It's even got healthy appetizers and snacks. So, you can still make chicken enchiladas, but they are less fattening because you have subsituted it with healthier options. And "healthified gravy"? Sign me up! I'm going to try out some recipes and may report back here.

Substitutions will be the easiest thing for me to do. I don't do well with a diet if I stay hungry constantly. And I need something acceptable for Hubby because we can't afford to buy two different sets of food and he's kind of picky about diet stuff. He wants to lose some weight too and I've seen his portion sizes get smaller since his surgery (and before, probably due to the pain medication). He's already lost some weight without meaning to. I know that I need to cut down my portions but I want to stay satisfied. I have a really hard time with that. And I'm not a big snacker, but maybe I should snack more with healthy options so I'm not constantly hungry.

Anyway, this is my plan. Time will tell if I follow through or not...