Christmas Wish list

I am putting up my Christmas tree today. As I was busy moving the branches about, and getting the decorations ready, I started to think about Christmas and what do I really want for Christmas (as family and friends have been asking for weeks now). I really and truly do not want anything. I have never been big on the commercial aspect of Christmas. I get the most pleasure out of socializing and re-connecting with friends and family that we rarely get to see during the busy year.

The only thing that I want is to succeed in becoming fit and healthy. Then an idea began to form in my head. I am not one to set any goals for myself because I tend to feel horrible when I fail, but I thought it might work wonders for me if I actually set a goal and rather than assume I will fail, push myself harder than ever in order to succeed, hmmmm now there is a thought that is foreign to me- lol.

So my goal is to lose 10 lbs by December 31, 2010. My starting weight is 237.2 so I need to see my weight get down to 227.2 by the end of this year and will put me in a good position to get to start off my new block of personal training sessions in January. I will be on vacation from the middle of December until the end of the year, so I should have a lot of time to spend at the gym and planning healthy meals. I will continue to remind myself that the holidays is about catching up with friends and family, and is NOT about overeating.

Has anyone else set any challenges to keep you on track over the holidays? Have you in the past? Has it worked? Post a comment and let me know.

Sunday cookoff

Well I was up early this morning preparing some meals for the week. Some are just sides, like plain old brown rice, some are breakfasts like steel cut oats. I want to document this more for myself going forward to get some ideas for easy things to make, and also to remind myself that I always do much better when I prepare for the week on Sundays :)

1. Brown rice and steel cut oats. I will be eating each of these in very small quantitites.



2. Mini Quich cups with red pepper, mushroom, spinach, onion, cheddar cheese a bit of centre cut bacon..... 2 cups = 1.5 w.w. points






3. roasted sweet potato and chicken, with bacon, rosemary and onions and garlic. Serves 4 at 6 points per serving

Back to Basics

I have been hit with many financial burdens in the last month. Helping my niece out with college, paying for 2011 full year gym membership, Christmas, and all the normal struggles that we all face financially. Then this week, I found out that there is a Dr. in my general area who fits patients with a hearing aid to stop people from stuttering. My 25 year old Nephew stutters and has since he was about 5. He is not in a financial position to pay the 5k required for this hearing aid type device but I know if it could stop him from stuttering it would change his life. I told him in the New Year we will put together a plan to get him this device. And finally, my personal fitness sessions are almost done. For a week now, I have seriously considered not continuing with my trainer, but finally decided that I need to finish this journey. I am signing up for 100 hrs of training which will start in January and end in October of 2011. Financially, I will have no money to do much else in the next year but decided that's ok, cause it will give me more time to spend in the gym.

This has got to be it for me though. I have to give this next 11 mos everything I have got. In the two years I have been on this journey, I have changed so much. I am so much more confident in myself. I now walk with my head held high, and know that I am fantastic. I am beautiful, and I deserve nothing but the best out of life. Now, the only thing I want to prove to myself is that I am an athlete. I gave up on athletics when I was about 9 because I felt I was too fat to be an athlete. Now in my 40's I am going to prove that I am an athlete.

In January I am going to sign up to do a Sprint Triathlon in September of next year. That consists of a 750m open water swim, a 20k bike ride and a 5k run. This is double the distance I did in June of this year. My goal is to put everything into training for this which means I will probably focus a lot of my blog towards my training in order to keep me motivated. I am not too worried about the 20k bike (although the course is up will most of the first 10k) and although the swim portion almost stopped me dead in my tracks last June, I think I can manage it. It is the 5k run that scares me the most, so that is what I will need to focus on the most.

I am hoping that in the process of getting to the tri, I will be able to get to my goal weight, or at least pretty close to it.

So here I go again.