Hello, my peeps!
True to my word, I’m starting another 7 Days of Sanity Challenge today.
Since December 15th, I’ve been building healthier habits and kicking a little ass…and I’ve dropped 30 pounds in 3 months with just old fashioned common sense. I’ve been losing about 10 pounds a month. Not bad for a fat girl, eh?
As you know, I missed my goal of hitting 349 by March 31st…by a dinky 2 pounds. My inner perfectionist is still cringing about it. However, the only way out is through for me…so onward I go, because I ultimately have faith that if I keep going forward I will hit my goal – and I’ll hit it faster if I increase my physical activity level, yes? Yes!!
That being said, those of you who are regular readers (and I love you for that!) know how I feel about the fitness gurus out there and all their ridiculous “fitspeak.”
Obviously, obese people aren’t avid exercisers…or we wouldn’t be obese, would we? No. Honestly, I think anyone who wants to develop a real healthy habit of exercising regularly should approach the task methodically. I don’t believe in jumping into something with the “no pain, no gain” mentality – especially if you can use any of the following words to describe it: brutal, shred, turbo, or…you guessed it…insanity.
I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who will disagree with me, but I know myself better than any of those people…and this I know for sure: I will not be successful starting a real habit if I cause myself so much pain that I’m waddling around like a truck stop hooker after a convoy rolls through town. I want to encourage myself to get more cardio and live a healthier lifestyle – and if I can’t lift my legs out of bed in the morning without screaming, well…that’s not going to give me any incentive to do it again.
Pain like that is going to do is send me straight for the couch, never to bend at the waist again. (Understand, I’m not talking about the normal discomfort that can come from using muscles you’re not used to working…I’m talking about going from completely sedentary to 90 minutes of extreme cardio insanity tap dance Zumba ninja moves and then limping in to work on crutches Monday morning.)
Enough with the extreme turbo insanity shred…BULLSHIT.
7 Days of Sanity is about starting a good, solid, healthy habit (or reinforcing something you’ve already started). Let’s be normal. I don’t want to be insane (some of my friends would argue that that ship has already sailed). I was used to no exercise in the beginning. Lately, I’ve exercised sporadically. Now it’s time to really dig in and make this a consistent habit. Here are my goals for this challenge:
Starting today, I will walk on my treadmill every day for at least 30 minutes. I will rest on the 8th day.
That’s it.
It’s so much simpler when there aren’t all kinds of rules, stipulations, and other crap to remember isn’t it? 7 days, 30 minutes a day…that’s it. I’m hoping to repeat this pattern twice more before the 7 Dwarfs of the Apocalypse come back and get me all bloated and crampy again.
What healthy habit would you like to start or reinforce? It doesn’t have to be exercise. Are you ready to join me for 7 Days of Sanity? It’s enough to help build a habit, but it’s not so daunting that it seems impossible. We can do 7 days, right? I know I can. Who’s with me?
Post a comment here if you’re joining the 7 Days of Sanity Challenge. Tell us what you’re going to focus on and how you’re going to do it. We’ll cheer each other on right here.
7 Days. We got this. Who’s with me?
I’m in! And I’m going to jump on your bandwagon. 30 minutes of exercise for 7 days. It will most likely be the treadmill, but in the event I can get to the gym, I might throw in the elliptical too 🙂
Alright, Lauren! Let’s do this!!! 🙂
Okay, Lauren, we got this…let’s go!
I currently have an injury (not do to exercising) and am unable to exercise…but when i was, i was doing 6 days a week..1.5 hrs of cardio a day and the lbs shredded off. I LOVE the arc trainer…it def is a good workout and works all the right parts for me and burned a ton of calories. So since i cant exercise my main focus is watching what i eat and thats harder than it sounds
Karen, I’m so sorry to hear about your injury…I hope you’re all healed up soon. 🙂 Good for you for getting your food in line then…I know my brother has issues more with the food than exercising…and I’m exactly opposite. LOL
Okay, Karen, we can do this! Good job on picking something to work on…and I hope that your injury heals up super quick. Sorry to hear you’re hurt. 🙁
I’m in. Following the plan that goes with my diet. 🙂 And we know that right now, mum’s the word on my diet.. 🙂
Christy – Yay!!! Yes, mum’s the word on that for now – but just think of how fun it’ll be to tell everyone it’s working and how much ass you’re kicking. Woohoo!
I have no idea where the comment went that I posted yesterday! LOL. Glad to see you’re in Christy!!!
I’m in! I like the 7 days on, 1 day of rest plan. And , I am with you, the insanity plans are not easy to stick to or even start as far as I am concerned!
Alright Shirley!! 🙂
Alright, Shirley, let’s roll!
I’m with you!! I am going to go for at least 1/2 hr. of exercise a day. Perhaps walking on the treadmill, might throw in some “Just Dance Kids” with my daughter. Maybe dust off the Wii Fit and get the family going.
I do have an off topic question though….how do you handle stress? (If you have stress) I am going through some really crappy stressful things right now and my habit is to just not give a crap what I eat. I would like to change that cause I’m only hurting myself, not that which is stressing me out!
Hi Susan – Alright, let’s do this, girl! 🙂 Stress, huh? That’s almost a whole blog post to itself. LOL. Well, for the past 20+ years I’ve been handling stress by cramming pizza, wings, and those damn Little Debbie cakes down my throat. I have noticed a HUGE difference since I gave all that up. It’s most obvious to me around my “ladies days” (stupid ovaries!) because now I actually know what PMS is. Before, I would just eat it away and now I’m faced with grumpy, bitch (but still absolutely charming) mood swings that I don’t know how to handle.
The thing that helps me handle stress the most is this blog…and all my readers. I know you’re watching. 🙂 And it’s not just that…it’s the many, many wonderful public comments and private emails I get from all of you who read my blog. I think of you and I realize that I would not only be letting myself down, I’d be letting all of you down. It’s like we’re linked together in some sort of fat cell sisterhood and I don’t want to lose that.
I would love to tell you that when I’m stressed I get on the treadmill. I don’t. Yet. And I no longer reach for the Little Debbies, because that bitch is banned from my house. Now when I’m stressed…I write. I pull up the laptop and just start writing. It doesn’t have to be perfect or even blog-worthy…it just has to come out. If it stays in, I’ll eat over it.
I totally get you when you say your habit is just not to give a crap about what you eat…I have been on that road many, many, many times. I think the key is to find something else that works for you…and once you lose a few pounds and have put some hard work into it, just keep focusing on THAT…and remind yourself that it’s not worth re-doing all that hard work just so you can eat some crap that’s not good for you.
Retraining yourself is a real bitch…but it can be done. I won’t be out of the woods for a long time, but I feel like I’m at least standing on the right path and headed in the right direction. 🙂
Thirty pounds in three months is AMAZING! I’m so proud of you!
Thanks, dar’lin! 🙂
Count me in…I’m also going to try eating only veggies and protein for dinner(no carbs)….Good luck everyone…Let’s do this!!
Tamra