A Plan – Not to Fail

As I continue to make small changes to Praise Away Pounds, I find myself getting frustrated at the pace of the process.  My plan was to make diet and workout changes that I would be more likely to stick with on a daily basis.  Last week I focused on attempting to greatly reduce the amount of sweets that I ate.  This went fairly well last week, however this week I found myself slipping back into my old habits of eating sweets to relieve stress, celebrate victories, and comfort defeats.

I’m becoming a broken record to myself.  I started this journey out of desperation; however, it’s amazing how at times this does not seem to be enough to push me to stick with the necessary changes.  As I write this, I remind myself that this is a lifestyle change, and will take some time, so I need to quit expecting things to dramatically change overnight.  At the same time, I know that I have to become more committed to these changes, and continue to add new ones. 

Since I did not have the best week as far as eating sweets, I am coming up with a more strategic plan of attack.  One of my favorite quotes is “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail”.  I’m not sure of the originator of this quote, however, this concept is so true.   It simply means, that if you don’t have a good plan in place, then the alternative of not having a plan is just setting yourself up for failure by default.  I could come up with the plan to completely cut sweets out of my diet, which is a route that I know many have chosen.  I know myself enough to know that I am not at the point to take such drastic measures, nor do I feel that this is even necessary for me.  It’s all about the big “D” word, discipline.  If I am to continue to be with honest with myself, and everyone else, discipline is something that I can definitely use in so many aspects of my life.  I often times feel like I am living in organized chaos.  It’s probably really more like disorganized chaos, since organized would imply that I have some type of method to the madness.  The best way that I know how to attack the chaos is to come up with a plan.  I must not only come up with a plan, it must be a plan that I can realistically stick with.

As a woman, who happens to be a wife, and a mother, holding down a full time job, I like many others find very little time to get all of the tasks accomplished that I need to complete on any given day.   I realize now, that my diet and workout plans often got pushed to the bottom of the list, because clearly I had not made them a high enough priority.   I do know that while I wear all of these many hats, that I like many others have to continually remind myself to take care of me, so that I can have the strength to take care of my love ones.

I know from my many attempts at planning, that it is best to have a big picture broken down into smaller attainable goals.     I will briefly lay out the plan, and look forward to my many supporters continuing to hold me accountable to stick with it.

Big Picture: To ultimately lose weight by changing my eating habits and increasing my workouts

Goal #1: Plan all meals and snacks for the week and write/type them down.  I like www.myfitnesspal.com as a great app to accomplish this.

Goal #2: Make time to workout at least 5 days out of the week.  I have been walking about 3 miles 2-3 times a week on my lunch hour, and will plan to wake up earlier and get at least a 30 minute workout in as well.

Giving up is not an option, so with the help of the Lord, I will persevere and Praise Away Pounds.  Enjoy the praise song of the week.

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