How to get there?

So how do you find the end of your comfort zone and being to change?  Well, since I decided to start with being healthy I figured no better time then now to sit down and come up with a my game plan to to healthy living...I am a project manger by trade, did you think I would wing it?  I figured an hour or so and I would have something, how hard could it be.  HA ... I was shocked when I sat down and realized I had NO clue where to start.  Start with exercise, or food?  The more I thought about it the more I realized that healthy living can have many different focal points.  So, remembering that I tried this a few years ago with a nutritionist, I pulled all that material back out and started to read.

Back in 2009 when I decided to pay someone to teach me nutrition I had no clue what I was getting myself into, but this wonderful woman Lynne showed up and started to educate me.  The program was http://www.integrativenutrition.com/.  It started off by having me add things into my daily eating and not take anything out with the goal being if you try to eat more of the good you will not be hungry for the bad.  Worked for the most part, so I kept going.  Slowly I started to learn more about whole foods and the benefit of eating from the farm instead of the grocery store, although I never shopped off the farm.  I had sessions with Lynne every other week for about 6 months.  It was a great learning experience for me but I was not losing weight.  So I decided to stop and figure out a new direction to lose the weight. 

Now I have never been one for "fad" diets or anything like that, so the worst diet idea I ever did was Weight Watchers (see the trend of not changing much yet?).  That seemed to work but only for about 1 - 2 months.  I hated counting points and writing things down.  So after a while I gave that up as well and just stayed the course of being over 200 pounds.  I just could not figure out how to lose the weight, or did I really have the desire to lose the weight?

Last year, my sisters and I decided to put money in a pot and biggest loser would take the pot.  We tired this before, but this time felt different.  My little sister took this to heart and went to town.  She opened her wallet up and joined WW and lost over 30 pounds in those 4 months.  Seeing her changes I could not let her win, nor could I be the only fat person in the family, so I gave up snacking and crappy foods and just ate 3 good meals a day and I started dropping pounds too.  After 5 months of trying I lost over 30 pounds myself (not enough to beat her though).  I felt great about myself, but then slowly went back to my original life style and started to gain again. 

So...as the reading continued and the memories of the last 12 months of losing 30 pounds and starting to put it back on where occurring, I realized that healthy living is not just about food and exercise.  It is about so much more then that and I need to start by recognizing all categories of healthy living and over time finding the end of my comfort zone in everyone of those areas. 

I decided my categories would be:

• Health/Food
• Physical Activity
• Relationships
• Social Life
• Career
• Finance
• Confidence

I realized doing this exercise that each of those categories impacts the others.  When my career is "off", other parts of my life are "off" as well.  There might not be a direct relationship between any of the categories, but indirectly they all affect each other and my ability to live a healthy life. 

So, my game plan you ask:

1. Tackle something in each category before Christmas, whether it pushes me to the end of the comfort zone, or sets me up to take another step towards that end.
2. When something happens in life that has a negative impact in my life, don't just let it take me down; acknowledge it and try to not let it negatively affect me.
3. Re-evaluate the game plan in January

Short term:

1. Eliminate the snacking and junk and go back to 3 good meals a day. 
2. Move more. 

Both simple, yet difficult tasks.  The change in food will definitely bring me to the end of my comfort zone and probably push me over to my "bitchy" side, but a necessary evil.  The exercise will not get me there yet, but it is a good start.  Question will be...how bitchy do I become before accepting that I am living a more healthy life?