Get Healthy Challenge Week One

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  Here we go, Christina!  It’s the first week of our Get Healthy Challenge.  I’m excited to have others joining us.  Selfishly, it’s awesome motivation to keep going.  Here’s what we’re doing:

Emily:  My family is supportive of this plan, and my husband is taking the challenge with me.  I’m pretty psyched!  Our goals:

1. I read somewhere that you should drink half your weight in water every day.  This is our goal.  Some people don’t enjoy plain water.  Herbal tea or adding lemon or lime or both may help you get to your goal.
2. Walking is something we already do, but the goal is to get in 14 miles per week (preferably a walk every day).
3. Focus on salads as meals.  This will be a big one for my meat-and-potatoes hubby!  He may add some chicken or salmon to his salads, but I’ll be going all green (and maybe red and white, a.k.a. tomatoes and onions)!
4. No processed foods.  Again, if it’s in a box or a bag, it’s not for us!  Even healthy, natural bagged or boxed snacks are out.
5. I’m adopting a reader’s idea of no snacking after 6 p.m.  However, we sometimes don’t eat our evening meal until after that.  So no snacking after dinner.
6. After the evening meal, we won’t eat for 12 hours.   This will give our bodies time to digest and cleanse before adding more.
7. I will make time to do gentle yoga stretching.  Even if I only do 15 minutes, I know I feel better when I do yoga.
8. Going right along with yoga is meditation.  It’s important to take at least 10 minutes a day and rest the mind.  I’m new to this, but studies show it’s important for mental health.
9. Less caffeine.  There.  I said it. We’ll be drinking chaga tea and roasted dandelion tea to curb our coffee intake.  I’m not a soda drinker, but coffee – oh, lovely, dark coffee…  Yup.  Less caffeine!

Christina: I am not good at setting goals and then sticking to them. I feel like the second I put them out there as a “this is what I’m doing”, my mind starts to work against me and I end up doing exactly what I said I wasn’t going to. I feel starting out strict is not going to keep me motivated for the long term either. So, below are the overall things I’ve been thinking about.

1. Time. I need to make time for my health. So often we get busy with our schedules and if I don’t have a meal planned or purchased, we do the simple thing. We order delivery or go out to a restaurant. Not only is it more expensive but it’s in no way as healthy for my family as when we prepare it.
2. Groceries. I always have a list of items and for the most part we stay away from the easy buys like pre-made meals and processed foods. However, I breeze through the vegetables and fruits. I might pick up a couple of normal ingredients like green pepper, onion, bananas; but it doesn’t give our bodies what we need. AND when I reach for a snack, if I don’t have fruits I’m definitely going for ice cream or candy.
3. Fluids. I find myself in a rut. Like Emily, I like coffee. I don’t drink as much as her but I do have a couple cups a day. I try to drink water during the day but it ends up falling short most days. And then after work we usually unwind with an alcoholic beverage. I am going to start with adding more drink options to our household. Juices, soda, milk…

My first week, like most of the time, is going to start out slow. I’ll work on preparing myself for better choices. I don’t want to take the drill Sargent approach where we are up at 0400 hours doing boot camp. I want to succeed in my health goals.

As always, we sisters have different concerns, goals and approaches. What is your approach… your goals… concerns as we begin our Get Healthy New Year Challenge?

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