Health

About two months ago, Adam and I journeyed to become more active and healthier. We had a loose plan in motion, but were winging it for the most part. We ate clean and healthy, while exercising several times a week. We felt wonderful, were drinking plenty of water and both enjoyed it! My skin became more clear and I truly noticed that I was more alert and upbeat. We also had so much fun cooking with fresh vegetables and experimenting with new ingredients! That lasted about three weeks. As someone who never pays much mind to what I eat, that was a huge success. Although it didn't last, it did teach me that I have the will power to overcome sudden cravings and beat bad habits. This weekend we decide that we needed a change and would give it another shot, but doing so in a more purposeful manner this time. Last time, I believe it didn't stick because 1. We didn't have enough positive encouragement or challenging feedback if we veered off track 2. We weren't as diligent as we should have been on weekends 3. We didn't have any structured goals in place. Yes, I know motivation should come from within, but if that cookie is staring at me, I need a good kick in the butt to remind me of what my goals are. Although our short-lived healthy spree was only a few weeks long, there were far too many cheat days sprinkled in. I would be very on track all week, bringing healthy and filling lunches, working out most nights (and enjoying it). When the weekend would come, we would go out with friends or family and heck, what's one piece of pizza matter? Well, that one piece would turn into three pieces and two breadsticks. That one bad lunch would turn into an unhealthy dinner because hey, I already scratched today off as a bad food day. One bad day turned into a bad weekend and add being low on healthy groceries. You get the picture. My big issue is that I have a weak spot for salty, cheesy things- especially bread. My name is Courtni and I'm a carboholic (Hi, Courtni...).  

We now have a white board calendar hanging in our bathroom and will be writing down every few weeks what our weight is, but more importantly writing down goals we have. We hung it in the bathroom so we would see our goals every morning and remind ourselves that we can make today count. Adam had a great idea of making it our first goal to run around the lake my cabin is on. It is roughly 12 miles around and seems to be a challenging, yet obtainable, goal. It's also a specific goal of mine to stretch every night and give up soda. We will make it a point to check in with each other before bed to see how we're doing with it. This will hopefully give us both the encouragement needed to make being healthy a long-term habit. That's the main reason I decided to blog about it. It is a very personal journey, but the more people that know you're on it, the more accountable and supported you will feel. Neither of us are obsessed with the scale and both agree that it's not the main thing that will determine our success. Will the number go down as the weeks go by? Of course they will. More importantly though is that we feel better, stronger and overall healthier. Last time, I used an app called MyFitnessPal. It's a calorie counting app/website and yes, I know that can easily lead to someone getting overly obsessed and crazy. I assure you, this did not happen last time and it will not happen this time. It's so helpful, informative and was one of the things that helped me make it as far as I did last time! Like I said, I have never been one to watch what I eat. This app taught me so much about the nutritional value (or lack thereof) of the food I was consuming. It prompts you put in your starting weight, goals and several other factors. It calculates how many calories, grams of protein, carbs, sugar, sodium and fat are recommended to reach those goals. You log everything you consume and how much/what type of exercise you do. I usually logged every morning for the precious day's activity. It only took about two minutes to enter everything in and I found it became a wonderful accountability tool as well. The app even gives you encouragement if you've exercised or log a certain number of days in a row. Thanks, MyFitnessPal! (pretend high five to my phone). I may not need this in the future, as I become more aware of food content. But for now, it is my buddy. I've encouraged Adam to try it, but I know it's not everyone's up of tea.

This is not a diet and this is not something that will go perfectly smooth. I will have bad days where I cheat, choose to watch Netflix instead of workout or briefly indulge my bread cravings. That's life though. The goal is to make healthy our normal, and the other stuff an oddity. I need to stop thinking that I deserve a cheat day or that I deserve a treat because I had a healthy lunch. My body deserves to be given healthy foods. My body deserves to be ran, walked, moved and stretched. We only have one body and it's my goal to start taking better care of it. I will post updates on the blog (again, working on the accountability thing) for us to look back on. Hopefully we look back and smile, knowing that our unhealthy selves are a thing of the past.