Back to basics….

I, like millions of Americans will be getting back to basics when it comes to weight loss! The Holidays are over, and even though I wanted to do better, I didn’t always make the best choices.

Kudos go to my sister Biz who lost weight over the Holidays as well as Roz, who lost over 3 pounds the week of Christmas AND is down a total of 34 pounds since the summer, keep up the great work! Shelley has still been working in her runs during the Holidays too. Tricia has maintained her 122 pound weight loss. Even through injury this year, she finished her first marathon and moved to a different state with a toddler! Tonyne is revving up her toolbox to start the New Year out right, with a great meal plan and grocery shop! And Tyler is still maintaining his 150 weight loss. Check out his most recent post about how he lost the weight just counting calories!

And, my friend Keith is still maintaining his 200 pound weight loss. For those of you who don’t know Keith, at 400 pounds he suffered a heart attack, yet his doctors said they couldn’t do the surgery until he got some of the weight off. Can you imagine the pressure of that??

So as we begin 2011, here is my game plan:

1). Plan ahead

That means, make my lunch for work the next day, bring some snacks and that way I am less tempted to go out for lunch, or eat food that people bring into work.

2). Exercise

It’s no secret, I am not a fan of exercise! I know that sounds funny after finishing 2 marathons, you’d think I would LOVE to see how far I can push my body, but sadly, that isn’t. I want to burn calories by doing things I love so it won’t seem so bad. If that means going sledding, walking up and down the hill at the park, or ice skating, or dancing to loud music, that’s what I am going to do. Roni lost 70 pounds by just doing that. Putting on fun music and just getting moving!

*I may ask some of my co-workers if they are interested in a walking club at work during lunch! 🙂

3). Break out the food scale.

If you don’t have one, you can purchase them at Target or Walmart for less than $20.00. So worth it!

My portions need to be put in check ASAP. Sometimes just seeing how much a baked potato weighs, or bagel is the difference between hundreds of calories!

4). Write it down

When I lost 60 pounds in 6 months in 2000, I wrote every.single.thing.down that I ate! I still have all my journals from weight watchers during that time. If it went in my mouth, I wrote it down.

Click on this link to read about The National Weight Control Registry’s typical characteristics of a person who has lost weight and kept it off. This agency has tracked over 5,000 people who have lost a lot of weight and kept it off for years. I think picking up some of their habits could be a good thing!

So, that’s it so far.

Today is day 1.

I’ll keep you posted of my progress 🙂