2013 Plans...

Here it is, folks.  (And I warn you that this is a long one)

My health/diet/fitness plans for 2013!!!!!!!!!!! 

You know me and long term health plans... It's not a good fit for me right now.  I tend to say things like "I'm going to do Weight Watchers for the entire year!" or "I'm going to exercise every day for a month!" or "I'm going to do 30 days of blogging!" or "I'm going to lose 50 pounds in 50 weeks!"

These types of goals used to work for me.  In 2010, I actually DID lose 50 pounds in 50 weeks, and had several exercise months.  However, these very rarely work for me NOW.  I think that I'm just not in a place mentally to handle such long term goals. 

However, I do have a couple of plans for my health in 2013.

Sure, weight loss would be ideal.  I am really jonesing to lose the 40 pounds that I gained with grief-related binges between May and July of 2012.

I have a couple of hard-core ideas on how to lose that weight relatively quickly.  But I'm not sure whether or not I will stick to them. 

Here's the diet plan that I think could help me to lose the 40 pounds fast:

1) Follow Eat to Live (first 6 weeks strict phase) Monday through Friday and practice intuitive eating on the weekends.

2) Exercise 5 to 6 days a week, three of them being running days.  Two cross-training days, and one strength training day (optional).



However...  I'm not sure if this is something that I can stick with for too long. 

I do definitely want to work on eating a more whole foods and vegan diet through the week and I want to give myself some more options on the weekend.  This will work nicely for the first 5 months of the year, during which I will be living away from my live-in boyfriend Stacey because of an internship.  We will be spending weekends together, but I will be on my own (well, with roommates!) through the work week.  So having a stricter diet through the week could work for me.

One thing that is for sure about my health plans for 2013 is that I am signing up for a half marathon in October.  And I want to run it, or most of it, if possible.  And at this point I can run for 5 minutes only, and I have no idea how much distance that is.  It's way less than 1 mile...

So the bulk of my health plans will be focused on EXERCISE, in the form of training for a half marathon.

As much as I'd love to lose these 40 pounds of grief wait as fast as possible, I also would love to KEEP them off this time.  So I may end up going for a less extreme route, as far as the dieting goes.

But I really believe that if I'm training for a big run, I will begin to prefer to eat healthier, because it will benefit my running.

I have also begun to read Health at Every Size by Dr. Linda Bacon.  So that may change EVERYTHING for me, we'll see.  For now, I still really want to lose these 40 pounds ASAP, but in a healthy and sustainable way.

I don't know if I will follow a strict ETL diet through the week, but I will definitely be cooking more, and will be a more whole foods vegan.  If I do ETL, I will stop counting calories.  If I don't, I will continue to track via My Fitness Pal.

So... in summation, I'm not sure what my 2013 plans are quite yet.  But what I've mentioned here (training for a 1/2 marathon plus going back to a healthy vegan diet 5/7 days) is the plan for now.

my cousin shared this pic with me on FB, and I love it!
2013 has to be better than 2012 was.