taytothelo

1) Save money
2) Buy a fiddle
3) Find a teacher
4) Take lessons

This means painting, refinishing furniture, creating music, writing, taking pictures. Anything, but do it often and be proud of it.

I’ve heard a big part of setting goals is having small rewards at each benchmark. Well, 45 lbs. is a BIG amount which I think deserves a BIG reward. I want to go to Costa Rica! Where better to show off the new bikini bod and use my brand new muscles to climb waterfalls, zip line, and kayak? That’s what I thought…

I have a break from school at the end of August, and I want to make the most of it. From March 24 to August 20 gives me exactly 21 weeks to achieve this goal, meaning I need to lose 2 pounds per week. Totally do-able.

...But I’ve said that before. Once I did a serious diet, with a nutririonist and weekly weigh-ins, and lost 20 pounds. Then I got a boyfriend who cooked for me all the time, and I didn’t have time for the weigh-ins. After all that hard work, I actually weigh more now than I did before I started that diet. Here’s where this site comes into play. Accountability is key. I’m going to need a place to track my progress. To express my frustrations. To share my achievements. To be told to kick my butt into gear! Essentially, a place to report my weekly weigh ins.

Your help is important, but it won’t make the pounds melt off. To do that, I am going to start small so I don’t get overwhelmed, ensuring that I don’t just give up.

1) Drink lots of water.
2) Eat sensibly.
3) Walk/run daily.

Then after about 2 weeks, I’ll get more disciplined.

1) Cut out all bad carbs and sweets.
2) Eat high fiber foods.
3) No soda and very little alcohol (you didn’t think I’d give it all up, did you?)
4) Take classes at a local gym (there’s no way I’ll lift weights the right way on my own)

In addition, this goal is going to help me with a lot of my other goals:
Someone’s gotta pay for this trip to Costa Rica. I am going to attempt to save $50 per week until the trip rolls around. I have a goal, and I have a reward. Once I get the big payoff of saving that money each week, it will be easier for me to keep doing it. I will see that I actually can live without that money and even after the trip, continue to set some aside. So maybe one day I can actually buy something that lasts longer than a 7 day vacation, like a house! But I’m getting ahead of myself…

1) Save money.

2) Run a 5k.
I have been told there is no better way to condition your whole body at one time than to run. To people who tell me that, I respond, “Who cares? You run because someone’s chasing you with a butcher knife, not because you want to.” But maybe they’re right. I mean, those people seem to all have the same high endurance, flat abs, and great legs that I so badly want. I am going to try the couch-to-5k program. Literally, that would be the jump I’m making, so it seems perfect. I literally get no exercise now besides day to day trekking all over the city. While my family is full of running afficionados who easily run 15k’s, maybe they will take a step back to run by my side. Hopefully I can keep up.

3) Cook more
Restaurant meals have an average of 1,200 calories. That’s just gross. And most of the time, they’re not even that good. For someone who doesn’t eat meat, I often end up eating a lot of bad carbs just because they don’t have anything vegetarian on the menu. To lose 45 lbs. as well as save money, I want to cook more at home. I want to learn more about both vegetarianism and nutrition, try new things, and impress my boyfriend. So, yeah….that’s that.

4) Everything else on my list!
With more energy and more confidence, I’ll find the time in my days to learn to play the fiddle, read the Bible, and do anything else I might think up!

Can’t wait to change my life…