Every Day Is A New Day

I spent the past 10 days away from work enjoying the last bits of summer in the Midwest. Unfortunately, that also meant 10 days away from watching my diet, 10 days away from regular exercise and 10 days further out from meeting my current health and wellness goals.

I can’t lie – the freedom of being spontaneous schedule-wise has been amazing. I ate famous deep dish pizza in Chicago, had macaroni & cheese on a stick at the State Fair and I even indulged in a real Coca-Cola. However, it was so sweet, I could only drink half of it. Ahhh….my healthy changes are working!

It has been wonderful the last 10 days: No planning meals, no feeling guilty and no getting up at 5:30 a.m. to run three plus miles. It would be quite easy for me to continue down this path. But, where would that get me?

Luckily, today is a new day and I have chosen to focus on my health and wellness goals again. And, just as lucky, the State Fair has ended for the year, so I have no choice but to avoid deep fried pickles until next August. Given this choice several years ago, I would have given up on the “diet” completely and kept on with the free-for-all right through the holidays.

I believe I have truly changed many habits over the past few years since I was actually looking forward to my turkey burger and salad for lunch. I’m looking forward to waking up early to get my adrenaline going for the day with a great workout. Mostly, I’m looking forward to seeing results of my hard work. I know they will come in time!

Here they are – my health and wellness goals for the remainder of 2011:

Reach my goal weight of 140 (again) by Christmas. I was about five pounds away from this before my vacation. I have not verified this, but I would guess this is no longer the case! I’m guessing I have more like 10 pounds to go…oops…

I will do this by…
--Journaling daily (food, workouts, etc.)
--Lifting weights twice per week, cardio 3-5 times per week and Pilates class once per week
--Keeping accountable with weekly weigh-ins
--Connecting with friends for support