back in the game

I've done a pretty good job of maintaining my weight loss of 30 lbs, but I'd really like to lose 20-25 more before the wedding. That will be lighter than I've been since my growth spurt in 6th grade, believe it or not. I actually weigh what I weighed when I was in seventh grade.

However...

My eating habits have been atrocious the past few months. I'm probably exaggerating because this last week at work I ate pretty much every Christmas cookie and chocolate in sight. I will work hard to burn it off. While my lifestyle change has been pretty consistent for 2007 and I pretty much don't notice cutting out sugar, limiting my bread intake, and running for fun, I need to make my lifestyle intentional, if that makes sense. I need a little surge as a reminder.

Here's the plan:

For the next four months, I will:

1) Monitor portions and balance them between the food groups, even if it means starting a food journal again. I don't believe in deprivation diets. They don't work. But if someone gives me a cookie, I will eat it and be happy. I will not act like I've never had chocolate before and eat more.
2) Incorporate more white fish and lean meats, salad, fruits and vegetables into my life. Cook them myself.
3) Pick one meal a week and splurge on it (within reason, and only if I have been a good girl that week)
4) Eat one dessert a week. But only if I eat the whole thing and don't feel guilty about it afterward. (This is also if I have been a good girl.)
5) Develop an exercise program that will keep me interested and produce maximum results. Stick with it.
6) I joined a women-only gym that's the exact distance between my house and my workplace. I will go to it consistently and get my money's worth, even if I have to wake up at 600am to do it.
7) No matter how cold it is, I will get outside and enjoy nature and sunlight for at least a few hours a week.
8) Improve other aspects of my health, beauty, and well-being that do not have to do with weight or fitness.
9) Drink 5-8 glasses of water a day. It taste good and makes me feel better.
10) I will work on being as beautiful as I can be on the inside, too. That starts with being happy with myself for my effort, not for my appearance.

For the next four months, I will NOT:

1) Punish myself or get depressed for eating poorly. I simply won't be rewarded.
2) Indulge every craving I have.
3) Eat out more than twice a week.
4) Make excuses about why I can't work out a certain day.
5) Form diet/workout regimens that set me up to fail.
6) Obsess about numbers, the scale, or the way my clothes fit.
7) Consider this healthy conscientious movement something that defines me.
8) Consider this healthy conscientious movement a diet.
9) Allow myself to be less beautiful because of a bad attitude.
10) Give up.

I will do these things because I love myself and I am worth it. And because JT deserves to unwrap the hottest body I can give him (gross, sorry). I am also doing this for my future children. Slightly a stretch, but true.

The way I see it, I can look at this as the ultimate Christmas present to myself, or I can look at it as punishment for being imperfect.

I choose the former. I hope you do, too!