Monday: The only day you can start a diet

Now you and I both know this is totally true.  When you want to recommit, when you need to hop back on the BANDwagon, when you need to kick your bad habits to the curb...the only day you can embark on this new process is on a Monday.

And Monday it is my friends.

My little timehop app alerted me that a year ago I was just wrapping up a little weight loss competition at work..and by the grace of God (and 2 weeks of Atkins), I had touched 158 on the scale.

Now clearly, I wasn't going to MAINTAIN 158, but I had intended on staying in the 160's for the foreseeable future.  But I think what happened was, I went batshit crazy and never came back to the land of healthy eating and "lifestyle changes".  I mean, there was that brief stint in November of last year that I said I would lose 10 pounds that month, and I did...

but when mama falls off the wagon. She falls hard.

The truth is simple.

Healthy food choices are boring.  Healthy food choices are not as delicious as things covered in melty cheese, stuffed with hot greasy meat, or bubbling with carbonation.  THEY JUST AREN'T.  And I can cook people.  So I know about seasonings and this and that and blah blah.  Health food just won't ever be yummy to Amy.

In addition to that fact...

Another simple truth is...

I may not be able to do the "everything in moderation" game.  You know the one I am talking about.  I have often spouted," It's not about saying I'm never drinking [insert something high calorie and wonderful] again, or eating [insert something that is so very bad for you that you want to be alone when you eat it, not so no one will witness it, but because you want to make sweet love to it]. "  I don't want to have to make outlaws of the occasional Pepsi or candy bar.  But I am just not good at moderation.  I am a feast or famine kind of girl....usually more feast than famine.

But swimsuit season is coming up and I happen to look a little better around a small size 10 than I do at a large size 12.

I am still not weighing myself, almost 4 months without the death numerator.  Which, another truth be told, DOES make it hard to start a slim-down routine.  I can't really call it a weight loss routine because I don't know what I weigh and won't be using that measurement to determine success.   But there is something perversely thrilling about seeing that "high" number when you decide to recommit and trying to get as far away from it as you can.

So my goal is to trim down the old bod by Memorial weekend...which starts May 22nd.  That give me 7ish weeks?  Perfect.

So what does this mean for me.  For this week, I am not going to drink ANY soda.  Instead, I will focus on my water.  For this WORK week, I am not going to drink any beer or alcohol...I may still allow light drinking on the weekends.  For this week I am not going to visit any fast food places.  This habit has gotten a little out of control.  And while my band still prohibits me from eating tons at any such place, it still isn't a healthy choice.  I am going to make sure I have my meals planned . I am going to work on having healthy snacks to graze upon.

And that's my plan.

I am not changing anything fitness wise.  I am working out at least 6 days a week...so we will stay with that.

I'm not calorie counting because I really want to replace one unhealthy relationship with food with another one.

So there we go.  So how will I know I am succeeding?  Well, I have jeans that only fit when I am on track.  My work slacks fit different in the thighs when I am making better choices.  And I can tell in pictures as well.

I will leave you with some pictures...as pictures always make a blog post more interesting.

 I convinced the Vending Machine Man at work to stock our machine on the 2nd floor with crunchy cheetos.  It only took me 4 months, but I make things happen.  I do have to go down two flights of stairs to get the cheetos, so while I was snacking on them last Friday, I did an additional 9 flights to counteract at least a few of those delicious morsels. I made sure to take a selfie while doing it.

 Pictured below is me and my back doing some assisted pullups.  I can only do about 3 sans help.

 Heather ran a 10-mile trail run on Saturday.  Here she is with our friend D.J.  I ran it last year. This year I napped in the truck and ate a snickers.

 After the run I inflated our inflatable mattress and we sunned outside.  Genius.

 Today was leg day at the gym.  I can get my heartrate up higher than when I am doing cardio.  I love lower body workouts.  I was dropping sweat like a grey cloud drops rain.  It was awesome.  And disgusting.

 And timehop reminded me of how far I have come. There's some motivation for me.

Happy Monday friends!