Our Lifestyle Change
Laurie & Kevin
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March 15, 2009 - No Cokes, No Chips, No Ice Cream For our New Years resolution we decided to try something new in order to lose weight & get healthy. We've tried the typical diet routines which work well for the first 3 months then fizzle out. Too often it was easier to go out for dinner than figure out what we would eat at home. Or we were too exhausted that day, didn't have anything planned to eat and decided to order out. It happened all the time... This time we decided to go a little extreme. I remember when we started our friends thought we were crazy and going way too extreme. Maybe, but it was nothing compared to John Stone. If you need a little motivation, check out is page and more important the transformation pictures and what it took to get there. That's extreme! And it was exactly what I had in mind. To start we threw all of the bad stuff in our kitchen out. All of it! Chips, anything in a bag or a box, ice cream, sweets and Cokes. We even hung a sign on our frig that says, "No Cokes, Co Chips, No Ice Cream". Nothing like a little reminder. We replaced everything chicken, turkey, fish, eye of round, brown rice and lots of fruits and vegetables. Bananas, apples, squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes and salad. That's the usual. We drink coffee, water and ice tea and that's it. So the first part of many was done. We had the food we needed to eat clean. Now we needed to make meal plans. We started out by creating them each weekend but nowadays we just talk about it a few days in advance. This would keep us from breaking down and just going out to eat. Each month though we allow ourselves a "Cheat Meal". Another idea borrowed from John Stone. At this meal and this meal only we could have anything we wanted. For one meal...not one day. The first one was for my birthday and we went to Brooklyn's Pizza. We went to Red Robin for our second Cheat Meal. We also weigh ourselves each Monday morning. These are our official weigh ins. So if you watch the Biggest loser, you would expect Sundays to be our "last chance workout". But that never seemed to work out. ;) Our goal when we started was that we would do this for 14 weeks. Sounds arbitrary but little I do is. ;) This was one of the "cut" schedules by guess who? Yep, John Stone. So I figured it would give us a good reference and about 3 months to see how things go. Our goal is to lose 2lbs each week, or ~30lbs by the end of 14 weeks. Exercise is part of the lifestyle change too. Yep, lifestyle change. We remain adamant that it's not a diet. By default, diet implies you are going to fail at some point and go back to gaining weight and eating like crap. This, we were not going to do! So we decided to turn our game room into a home gym. Like most people we already had a lot of the equipment...we just never used it. Now being in the game room, we have walk by every single day from our bedroom to the girls' room or the stairs. Nothing like a little guilt to help motivate.
This workout is split between home and Texans Activity Center. The trick for both of us, which has always been the problem, is finding time. We do much better now making time to workout but it is still not like brushing our teeth,, taking a shower, eating...it is not routine, something we MUST do. When that happens, then we made a significant change. So this was/is the plan. Not everything has been perfect but the idea of this being a lifestyle change certainly has. Eating clean and controlling our portions is almost second nature. You'd be surprised how well we eat. ;) I'll have to share a few recipes. The workouts are going well too. Finding time like I mentioned is still a challenge...
Pants don't fit, extra holes in the belts...It's working!!! ;) |
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