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My Diet and Exercise Plan for 2010

By Todd on November 30, 2009 | 9 Responses

How I plan to lose 20 pounds over the next 4 1/2 months, by exercising six days a week, and finally paying attention to what kind of foods I choose to put in my body. In the process I hope to develop some “good” lifelong habits … while kicking a few not so desirable habits in the process.

fit hiker in the Alps For those who saw my message about rebranding, this particular post might not seem to have much to do with Home Business … and to some extent, you’re probably right … this is primarily one of those posts that is about me, and for me (ie, I want to be able to refer back to it).

However …

If you really think about it; isn’t it already hard enough to build a successful part-time business when you’ve got a busy family life, and a challenging full-time career (I would put stay-at-home mom in this category too), along with any other “important” hobbies and interests?

How much tougher do you think we make it on ourselves when we’re always tired, because we don’t exercise enough, and we eat entirely too much “junk” food?

So with that in mind, I decided that I am going to make my 2010 self-improvement plan “not another New Year’s resolution”, by starting a whole month early … on December 1st.

First a bit of background …

I have a bit of an advantage here, in that I already exercise on a pretty regular basis. But, since I’ve been here in Iraq, it’s no longer organized military pt, so I have to be more self-motivated … which can be a bit of a challenge for me at times. That being said, I do have easy access to a gym (3 minute walk from my room). And plenty of “free” time every afternoon/evening after work (since I’m away from my family).

On the eating front, it’s kind of a mixed bag. I do have access to healthy foods. But, I also have easy access to a ton of temptation. It’s funny, a Captain we were having dinner with last week actually described our dining facility as being “like eating at Golden Coral every meal of every day” … which is pretty much spot on. If you only go there as a treat, that might sound like a good thing. But it does get a bit old after a while. Not only that, but if you are at all susceptible to “all you can eat buffet syndrome”, it’s quite easy to put away a substantial number of calories every day.

Ok, with that out of the way, here is my plan …

Workout:

I will exercise 6 days a week … Sunday-Friday … no excuses! Saturday will be my day off.

  1. Running - Either on the treadmill, or outside … 2-4 miles per day.
  2. Strength - Nothing fancy (for now, may add weights later) … 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups … every M, W, F

Diet:

Almost signed up online for the Abs Diet site … but then I realized, I’ve already read that book, and have a reasonable idea of what I need to do. Like the exercise plan, this will be 6 days a week.

Saturday – my “Free” day, where I can continue to eat pretty much anything I want.

Sunday-Friday:

  • Breakfast - wheat toast or english muffin / 1-3 eggs / small portion lean meat (turkey bacon) / fresh fruit
  • Lunch - lean meat (chicken, turkey) / vegetables / salad / fruit
  • Afternoon Snack - cliff bar / nuts / fruit
  • Dinner - Sandwich / Salad / fruit

Caffeine:

This one will be tough, but I’m going to try to cut down to only having caffeine in the morning. For the rest of the time I’m here, this will be in the form of sugar-free citrus flavor Rip-It (which I can get from the dining hall). I will attempt to only have two a day.

Only so that’s my plan …

I have about 4 1/2 months left here. By the time I get home in April, I would like to have lost 20lbs, and be in habit of (and maybe even enjoy) running six days a week, without having to force myself.

I will be keeping a log of my progress, but I don’t plan to bore you with daily, or even weekly posts about it. However, I may throw up an occasional update from time to time … especially if it’s working. ;-)

Catch up with you again soon,
Todd

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  • http://heatherkephart.com Heather Kephart

    Good for you, Todd! We seem to be on the same wavelength here. I fell off my diet wagon this summer after our vacation and never climbed back on. I’m not going to start any new routines until after the move to Dallas in a month or so, though, because I know myself and don’t want to set myself up to fail. But new place, new year = new routine! I have been feeling tired all the time, and I know my brain is functioning about about half capacity. At least I need to get out for walks and eat a ton of fruit. Sometimes it works for me to add things to my diet rather than remove them at first, then if I’m still hungry I can have a bite of this or that.
    .-= Heather Kephart´s last blog ..My Cyber Cabin in the Woods =-.

    • Todd

      Hi Heather,

      Oh yea, you definitely have a good excuse not to start just yet. Moving is stressful, and whether you like it or not, will probably involve plenty of fast food over the next month or two. Me being the type of person who always tries to find a silver lining … I’d just embrace it; enjoy the opportunity to eat … with the realization that I’m just just propping up the “before” part of my diet story, so that the “after” will be that much more impressive ;-)

  • http://lissowerbutts.com Lis Sowerbutts

    Dancing does it for me – I hate running – but do walk in the cooler months -now its summer down under I am down the beach everyday – doing weight training against the surf – I try to swim- waves tries to drown me – I develop muscles heading for the air!

    • Todd

      Hi Lis,

      lol, I’m “not allowed” to dance. My wonderful Latina wife was for some reason attracted to my light-skinned self. But now, after we’re married, she complains (in a poking fun sort of way) that I “dance like a white guy” … well Duh ! :-D

      The beach does sound like a fun way to stay in shape though. I remember one time I was at the beach in Hawaii with the kids. Just playing around, I laid down in the water right at the edge, with my hands to my sides, and let the waves “roll” me forward and back … in hindsight, that was probably a pretty good workout in itself.

      When you move, will you still be close to the water?

  • http://hospitalera.com/oes-tsetnoc/ hospitalera

    One simple thing that helped me a lot in my weight loss adventure is to drink a lot of water and with a lot I mean between 4-6 liter / day. Now, you need to be absolutely healthy to do that and you have to take care that you also take enough salt / electrolytes in, to avoid problems. Apart of that, I simply go with “eat less calories then you burn” ;-) SY
    .-= hospitalera´s last blog ..Time is money, don’t waste it! =-.

  • http://hospitalera.com/oes-tsetnoc/ hospitalera

    Oh, and going to the gym and going for walks / hikes with hubby helps also ;-) SY
    .-= hospitalera´s last blog ..Pay it forward SEO =-.

  • http://wordvixen.com WordVixen

    Hubs and I go to Disney World almost every year, and every year I end up in excruciating pain (I have a desk job, second shift, so any exercising has to be done quietly and indoors so as not to make myself a target or annoy the neighbors). But, this trip I insisted to him that I wanted to take at least one long walk every weekend up till the trip to help build our stamina. We haven’t made it every weekend (2nd shift means the only time we can run errands or visit family is the weekend), but we’ve managed it most weekends. It’s funny, but for someone who always hated exercising, I’m loving it! And since I get bored with the same path every time, I’ve been discovering some beautiful places to walk nearby.

    As for dieting, well, I just found out how bad soy is for me (suppresses thyroid, reduces fertility- and we’re trying to get preggie) so I’m cutting it out of everything that I can, and since it’s in almost all processed food, well, that automatically eliminates almost all the junk that I eat! (gotta make my own salad dressing though- the only soy free dressings on the market are disgusting).
    .-= WordVixen´s last blog ..Lori’s 1 Day Diet =-.

  • http://www.signsreviewed.com/ Kirill

    I just wanted to check in and see how your diet and exercise plan for this year has gone. My personally has been extremely terrible. I usually have pretty good individual focus but when the people around me start to eat bad, it’s a snowball effect that negatively impacts me. Do you have any tips to combat this poor behavior of mine?

    • Todd

      It’s been kind of up and down for me too … since I’ve gotten back, fortunately I still have to do PT every weekday at work … but I also occasionally suffer in the bad eating department :-)