The Beginning

As a new year present (or punishment) I signed myself up for our hometown's Wellness Challenge 2012. Now that's a first. And it would be nice for me to start saying that yes, as a new year resolution it was time to put myself first for once and you'd all be invited to my pity party, but that's not the case. I basically signed myself up, because I needed something to keep me in check and hold me accountable. There, I said it.

I need to lose about 20 lbs to reach my pre-pregnancy size , but I lack motivation to get up and start moving. See, I gained 50 lbs with on my second pregnancy and I lost 30 in the first 6 months...not bad at all. It was easy to do it though and it didn't take much work on my part. I guess breastfeeding does help a bit too. I feel like the last 20 lbs are the worst though.

The kick off of this program was last night.  It lasts 18 weeks, they have by-weekly weigh ins and different monthly challenges. The gala ceremony will be May 14, marking the end of this challenge. They will add up all the pounds lost per challenge, the man and woman with most % body fat lost as well as the people with most pounds lost will be crowned the winners. There were a lot of people there last night and what shocked me was that most of them looked pretty good, some overweight, but mostly everyone was in it for the wellness of it and not necessarily the weight loss.

My official first weigh in is 168.9lbs (around 76.8kg). I will have to go for future weigh ins every two weeks. I had a chance to meet a bunch of great people representing all kinds of businesses around town that sponsor this program. I got a calendar with all the events that are offered, different workout opportunities, dance, challenges, seminars...they all look amazing! I unfortunately will not be able to participate in most of the things offered during the week but will try work things out during the weekends. I will go into more details about this later on.

My plan is simple. I want to change my diet and start working out again. To keep things in check I will try to write down at the end of the day what I ate and what kind of exercise I put in.

I am not going to follow any kind of specific diet, my goal is to improve my eating habits and not just to lose weight. Our eating habits as a family are pretty healthy in general. I ,on the other hand, love sweets ( I think I have a sugar addiction and they are offering a seminar on this subject that I plan to attend ;) ) If the food is good I usually like seconds. I can't stop myself when I am full and I usually end up bloated and feeling like crap, but heck it was a lovely dinner!

So this is what I am planning to do:

-eat every few hours, don't skip any meals.
-eat a healthy breakfast within 45 min of waking up
-drink 2 L of water
-no sugary things (the only sweet I am using is organic agave nectar in my coffee in the morning), if I should feel like killing someone for a piece of desert I am going to snack on a piece of dark chocolate.
-We cook pretty healthy around here so I guess the only change I need is to use a rice bowl (size is fairly small) for all the pasta or rice dishes that we usually make for dinner and no seconds allowed.
-No eating dinner past 6:30 pm. If I should get hungry for a snack later on, I will have either a piece of fruit or a cup of hot tea.
-Have healthy snacks around such as raw almonds and lots of fresh fruits, frozen fruit for smoothies etc.
-I would also like to mention that these are general rules and if we attend any special event or I crave something in particular I will allow myself to taste a bit of this and that. Everything has to be in moderation!

Workout plan:
-daily cardio (6 days a week) either running or other aerobics exercises provided by my WiiFit Plus
-abs, legs, arms and butt exercises alternating 2 of each every other day.

Since I haven't worked out in so long I will start small. Plus, since I have a baby and an almost 5 year old my days are all about taking care of them, so my workouts will have to happen during nap times and probably broken up in pieces squeezing in 10 mins here and there. I want to keep it short and fun so that I wake up eager and happy to play (work out) again. I also have to mention that I do have a little assistant my wellness challenge buddy, he's my very precious almost 5 year old little man. He reminds me every day how lucky I am and how fun it is to wake up and play with him on the wii.

I hope I didn't miss anything and I will be back tonight with another post about how my first day was.