Transforming a Couch Potato

I have always loved food. I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually skipped a meal. My husband is among the other group of people who “forget” to eat…and that just seems so weird and wrong to me. I look forward to food so much I think I’d just be terribly sad if I forgot to eat. As a result of my overambitious palette, I have always leaned more toward the…shall we say “curvier” side of the spectrum. My primary vices are chocolate and Diet Coke. And Salt. And, basically, all comfort foods.

My mom drank Diet Coke for as long as I can remember and I naturally grew up drinking it, too. As an adult I’d have several a day. In my early twenties, I tried the “Body for Life” challenge (anyone remember that?), which included eating six meals per day consisting of equal portions of protein and carbohydrates and a lot of water. I kept a food journal and exercised 7 days a week. I even gave up Diet Coke cold turkey for a year just to be sure I could do it. I lost twelve pounds in four months and I think that was the healthiest I’ve ever been.

Fast-forward nearly twenty years and here I am. I would like to be in healthier and have more energy (and, yes, be thinner, too). I still have hamburgers and French fries, but I don’t eat fast food very often. I drink Diet Coke daily, although usually only two…but they are 32 oz fountain drinks (the stuff in the cans and bottles just don’t taste the same anymore). Believe it or not, this is not the most I’ve ever consumed regularly – during one of my more stressful jobs, I’d drink three or even four of the 32 ouncers a day. Since moving to the Phoenix area a few years ago, I have definitely increased my water intake, but I haven’t reached the recommended quote of 8 glasses a day.

So, in an effort to be healthy – you know, especially after the last few months of baking new recipes with my offspring – I’m incorporating some healthier habits that I will try to get to “stick.” The trick for me is to aim for something that I don’t feel like I am going to completely fail at.

#1 Drink More Water

I do not want to give up my Diet Coke. So, my unofficial rule is that I can have no more than two 32-ounce sodas per day, but I MUST drink two 32 ounce cups of water (not counting any water I drink at the gym, which should be in addition to the bare minimum of 64 ounces).

#2 Strive for Five

I’m sure you’ve heard the “Strive for Five” where you eat at least five fruits/veggies each day. I’ve always struggled with this because fruits and veggies seem to go bad so fast, fruit is messy to eat, and I’m STILL HUNGRY after I eat fruit. My modified goal is to eat five fruits and veggies AND/OR oatmeal or yogurt (because they’re healthy and they have high fiber content).

#3 Move

Most days I go to the gym in the mornings with my husband. We usually do weights of one major muscle group (legs, back/bi, or chest/tri) and twenty or thirty minutes of cardio. Some days I take the puppers for walks in addition to or in lieu of the gym. My new goal is to keep moving every day. Some days I hit my 10,000 steps and some days I don’t, but I’m not going to stress about it too much. I do want to tone up a bit, which includes losing a few vanity pounds. I’ve never been particularly athletic, but a few years ago, I was “training” (and I use that word very loosely) for a Spartan race and I was able to walk/jog (or, as I call it, “wog”) three miles. In fact, someone told me that anything over 5mph counts as a “run” (so, a 12-minute mile still counts as a “run”). Because I’m the kind of person who has to have some way to measure progress, I clocked my first mile earlier this week at 11 minutes and 48 seconds… so technically, I’m a “runner.” Okay, so I’m nowhere near Olympic material, but that’s not too shabby for a couch potato. In case you were curious, my very best time is 9 minutes and 7 seconds. Although, the longer I’m on the treadmill, I tend to get progressively slower, but this week I was able to do my three miles in just under 36 minutes. I was going to take a picture of the treadmill readout, but as I was opening the camera on my phone, I accidentally hit the red STOP button, so I didn’t get the exact time because I’m a dork. But, I know it was under 36 minutes so that gives me a baseline to beat. A few days later I got my three miles in at 35:20, so I know it wasn’t a total fluke.

Here’s something new. I also incorporated pushups into my goals. I remember seeing a challenge to do 100 pushups for 100 days and the girl who completed it got really toned arms. Since my upper body strength could seriously benefit from, improvement, I also started doing 100 pushups, though not every day (roughly every other day because my arms were really sore). I am happy to report that I can do 100 “real” (i.e. not modified) pushups. They aren’t pretty and after the first twenty, I need to take breaks every 10 or 15, but I can do them usually in two or three songs. This week’s time was 8 minutes and 25 seconds, so that’s the time to beat.

What’s your favorite healthy habit?