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I had to start a new journal for the new year, because my old journal was titled "Thin Again in 2010" and now it's 2011! If anyone is interested in seeing my journal from last year, you can find it here:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15461

I feel like my "New Year" just started...a bit slow starting, but now I'm back and ready to make this the year I FINISH. Last year, I made a great START on my road to health, but it's time to get it done! I know I have a long road ahead of me, but I also know that this is the place to do it. The support here from all of you is key to my success!

I heard the Switchfoot song on the radio this morning that always inspires me:
This is Your Life
Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you’ve broken
Don’t close your eyes, don’t close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you’ve got now
Yeah, and today is all you’ll ever have
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes
Don’t close your eyes

This is your life are you who you want to be
This is your life are you who you want to be

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

And you had everything to lose

So, as a reminder to myself and in the name of starting with a clean slate, I'm posting the MWL guidelines that I will be following exclusively...NO EXCEPTIONS! I am working, one day at a time, toward 100% compliance and adherence over time. A bit of good planning, determination, and a big dose of BELIEF that this is possible will get me to my goal this year.

This is what I am committing to. I am printing this out and posting it on my refrigerator as a daily reminder of what I've promised myself:

Maximum Weight Loss for Maximum Health
Program outlined in the MWL book, page 60.
1. Eliminate All Animal Foods
2. Eliminate All Oils
3. Eliminate All High Fat Plant Foods: Nuts, Nut Butters, Seeds, Seed Butters, Avocados, Coconut, & Olives.
4. Eliminate All Flour Products
5. Eat Whole Grains and Potatoes
6. Eat Legumes
7. Make Green & Yellow Vegetables One-Half to One-Third of your meal
8. Eat Uncooked Foods
9. Restrict Fresh Fruit to No More Than Two Servings a Day, and Avoid Dried Fruit, Fruit Puree, and Fruit Juice
10. Use Simple Sugar Sparingly

Guidelines for Healthy Eating in MWL book, page 67.
1. Eat until you’re satisfied
2. Graze
3. Allow time for digestion
4. Chew foods thoroughly
5. Restrict variety

Weight-Losing Reasons to Exercise. MWL book, page 100.
1. Exercise burns calories
2. Calories continue to burn after exercise
3. Exercise counteracts plateaus
4. Exercise suppresses appetite
5. Exercise reduces insulin
6. Exercise protects and increases muscle mass

Exercise you can live with. MWL book, page 106-107
Aerobics:
The best kind of exercise. Walking, running, cycling, & swimming are not only enjoyable but highly efficient ways to lose weight.

Benefits of weight training:
Build a stronger body
Build a shapelier body
Strengthen ligaments
Improve bone density
Help prevent musculoskeletal injury
Elevate metabolism
Increase stamina
Elevate blood levels of HDL cholesterol

Your New Daily Exercise Plan: MWL Book Page 109
1. Get up half an hour earlier each day, or skip a TV program to do a specific exercise.
2. Make exercise a part of each day.
3. Choose an activity that you have always enjoyed and do it at least four times per week
4. Sometimes purchasing equipment helps to motivate…
5. Invest in a membership in a YMCA, YWCA, or health and fitness club
6. Ask a friend to become your exercise partner
7. Go dancing, a great aerobic (and romantic) exercise
8. Join a walking or hiking club.
9. Check with your local adult-education program for exercise programs.
10. Keep an exercise journal.

Establishing a healthy way of life from page 127 of the MWL book.
Step 1. Be Goal-Oriented
Step 2. Acknowledge Your Willingness to Pay the Price
Step 3. Educate Yourself, Become an Expert
Step 4. Visualize Yourself as Healthy
Step 5. Make a Commitment: It’s Magic
Step 6. Ensure That Your Environment Supports Your Goals
Step 7. Alter Your Coping Mechanisms
Step 8. Join A Support Group
Step 9. Reward Yourself
Step 10. Keep It Simple

I'm excited to be continuing on this journey with all of you. Thanks for the support, the community, and the nice kick in the pants when that's what I need! Here's to a great New year becoming who we want to be!

I think maybe I'll race you or shadow you to 180. given where I am and where you are, I'll need to lose 4 lbs on a plainish McDougall diet to each 7 lbs you lose on a MWL diet.

Kirsty, yay!! You're gonna do great this year!!! You go, girl!

Thanks Dave and Jenni! I appreciate the support!

DAY 1

Food Today:
Bkfs:oatmeal with bananas and cherries, almond milk
Snack:clementine
Lunch:Great Northern Bean soup
Snack: left-over oatmeal from bkfs
Dinner (plan): Chickpea spinach burgers & sweet Potato "fries", green salad
Snack: ?

Exercise:
20 minutes elliptical
60 minute strength class

It feels really good to be eating healthy today and saying "NO" to all my cravings. I've been really hungry today, so I'm feeding my body when it wants me to. I know my hunger will level off after awhile, as will the cravings. I haven't checked my blood sugar in a few days, but I will log it each morning starting tomorrow. Also, I plan on weighing in on Fridays...makes a nice way to go into the weekend. So far, so good with my first day back.

Good luck on your new year and new life! I'll keep up with your posts, love to hear how you are doing.

Barbara

Hey Kirsty,

Love the new journal! I'm with you. I just noticed we have the same goal. Let's do it this year!!!

Great to hear from you Barbara, Vibrant, and Kelly-Let's do it! Thanks for stopping by.

Today proved a bit challenging, but still a good day. My "feast beast" is rearing it's ugly head, as is to be expected since it's used to being fed and is in the process of dying a slow, painful death. It died a little today, as I ignored it...not easy, but I know the benefit of living without ANY of the cravings, so I'm holding on to the memory of that...and the promise of living that way again.

I'm going to begin my thankfulness journal again. I did this last year and somehow got away from it, and I'm sorry I did. Focusing on all I have to be grateful for in life helps me put things in proper perspective (like feeling sorry for myself when I don't get what I want, etc....) Anyway, it's a nice practice that I want to incorporate into my daily life.

DAY 2

Food Today:
B:Baked Oatmeal
S:Banana
L:Salad with corn, rice, beans and salsa (REALLY YUMMY and FILLING! )
S:Soy latte (working on it )
D:Bean soup, mixed green & veggie salad, fruit salad

Exercise:None-Wednesdays are my rest day

Gratitude:
My grandma (94yrs old) is moving back home! We weren't sure she'd be able to. Went over to her place with my mom today to get it ready for her to come home. She's been in the hospital/rehab for over 2 months! She's excited to be moving back home. Grateful to still have her here with us and that her mind is as sharp as a tac! Hope she's around for a long, long time. I didn't know her very well growing up, so it's been really nice having her close by in her later years and developing a relationship with her. I feel thankful to still have a grandparent.

That's great news about your grandma!! Mine will be 83 in May, and her mind is still all there - it's so nice!!!

I love it - the feast beast is dying a slow painful death...mine didn't get fed today either!

Let's keep it up

Yes, Jenni, it is such a blessing, as you know!

I'm doing well, just haven't been posting. Still working hard to slay the feast beast. I'm mostly winning, but not completely with every choice. I'm working toward 100% compliance.

DAY 6

I need to post every day. I have been busy, but that's no excuse. It helps keep me honest with myself, so I will work on that this week.

Food Today:
oatmeal with bananas and cherries
16 bean chili with brown rice (while watching the Bears get one step closer to SUPER BOWL VICTORY!!!!!! GO BEARS!!!!!)
Creamy Tomato Pasta Primavera (very yummy!)
air popped popcorn
apple crisp (I made this-legal except for some chopped walnuts)

I will exercise in the morning tomorrow and weigh in. Hopefully, I'll be down from last week.

Jim, you posted this in another journal, but I find it really helpful, and I want it as a reminder in my journal because you hit it on the head! There is something that just "clicks" and makes it possible to do this all the time, no exceptions or excuses. I have had it. I'm struggling to find it again. I feel like I have it, and then, it's gone. It's mental/emotional/psychological, I don't know...and you're right. No one can tell you how to make the switch flip on, it just has to be something that each one of us finds within ourselves. A line we will no longer cross. It is somewhat elusive, but attainable. It's written about in every success story. (like ETeSelle's story viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20469)

She wasn't doing it and then, bam, she decided enough was enough, and she JUST DID IT! I want that...that ability to JUST DO IT...one day, one choice, one meal at a time, but consistently, and for the long haul. I am ready. This battle is 95% in our heads, and 5% in our actions...

"As a man thinketh, so is he." (proverbs23:7)

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass. ~James Allen

So, is it a belief issue? Is it a matter of believing that EACH choice I make means something? Is it a matter of knowing/experiencing?What IS it????????? Please, anyone who has any insight, please respond! How do you MAKE this a way of life?

Thanks KK for bringing this to mind. I am waiting or trying to make it click..the feast beast won't leave..Had coffee for the 1st time in awhile,& it was really good..can't lie...but thats it for awhile..Yes lets all do it this year. RAS

I have to agree with your post kristy-kay, It is a mind set. I felt like I had it before Christmas and was doing wonderfully and felt like this was now a lifestlye for me. But then I went and ate stuff off plan during Christmas and New Years and am still trying to get that back again. It takes a short time to get off track and a lot longer for me to get back on track.
I like your new Journal. Keep up the good work.
Kathy

This is a really GREAT point, Debbie! I believe you are right. We can just keep "fakin' it till we make it!" It's dangerous to wait for some "magical" switch to happen in my brain...I can easily use that as my next big excuse!


mtns, and RAS, thanks for your thoughts as well. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this, and that I'm not crazy!

I do believe this is possible. I've been thinking alot about belief and the power of my own thoughts. I can get lost there, or I can CHOOSE to use my thoughts to propel me forward. I'll try that today!

My blood sugar was 124 today!! Yay! I'm excited to see it down. It was up as high as 145, so this is an improvement.

I've already done my cardio today (30 min elliptical), and I plan to go back to the gym for my strength training as soon as I'm done helping with childcare at church this morning. Hopefully my friend will come with me, but if not, I'm going anyway. I'm wearing my workout clothes to church, just to be sure I make myself go.

I can do this today. That's all I have to worry about. I can do this today.

I've made cabbage soup, and that's what I plan to eat today for lunch and snacks. I had a bagel for breakfast , but that's then, this is now...Cabbage soup...lunch, dinner, snacks...

My quotable quote for today:

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. ~Thomas Jefferson

I'd still love to hear from anyone who has any more thoughts on making this "click."...maybe some of you success stories could weigh in here and enlighten us all...and help us believe we can get where you are.

Okay, I'm counting this day a victory because I turned it around and kept my promise to myself. Tomorrow will be 100% compliant. One day at a time is my motto. I can do this.

gratitude: I'm grateful that mercy is new every morning.

That is a victory!!!! Thanks for reminding me how good it can feel when you don't let the whole day go bad. Turning it around is exactly what we're trying to learn here. Kudos!!