Well, it's been just over two weeks since I completed my plan of action for 2011, and I've taken to opportunity to look back at how I've done so far this year. The answer to that question is plain and simple: crap. While the year started out promising, a personal crisis swiftly led to things falling apart in a big way.
My Fiancé and myself had some big issues to face, and it turns out it was far too easy for healthy living to take a back seat. To be fair, at the time neither of us were in a fit state to even think about cooking, let alone cooking healthy food, and we survived on pizza and fish and chips for a week. In hindsight, I've learned a few valuable lessons from the experience.
First and foremost, having gone back to old eating habits, it really hit home just how crappy I feel eating crap food. No big surprise there, but I couldn't understand how I'd lived for years, thinking that was the normal way to feel. The realisation that it's possible to feel a lot healthier, and the contrast between how I feel eating well and eating crap has made me determined to eat better from now on.
The next major lesson to be learnt is how easy it is for things to fall to pieces. Now while I'm not beating myself up for the lapse, I do think that I need to learn from this. There is always the chance that something bad will happen, and that eating healthy will again be the least important thing I'm worrying about.
So, the thing I need to do is come up with some way of making sure that eating healthy is as easy as possible. My current thinking is to be better prepared, by preparing a week's food in advance, so that preparation time later is greatly reduced. It's a hell of a lot easier to grab a packet of vegetables from the freezer and defrost them than it is to cut them up when you're stressed out and worrying.
The idea could even be extended to preparing entire meals and freezing them, so that all we need to do is re-heat them. The lure of pizza and the like will be greatly reduced if it's even easier to prepare a healthy meal. I guess it all comes down to preparation, and as they say, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Now's the time to make sure I prepare for success instead.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
The Plan For 2011...
Following on from yesterday's post on Marks Daily Apple, today's post is all about planning for 2011. The first part of the planning process is to identify three specific goals for the year. The next step is to plan how to achieve these goals from the short term, through longer times (today, this week and this quarter).
As I sat down to think about my goals for this year, I found that I had trouble picking just 3. There is so much that I want to achieve, so clearly, my best plan of attack will be to pick 3 goals that will make achieving my other goals easier in future. To start with, what I want to achieve this year, in broad terms:
1) Switch to eating almost 100% primal.
2) Get my weight below 80kg, as a long term goal. In the short term, I'd be happy with 2kg a month.
3) Get fit again. This is such a broad goal that I really need to determine more specific goals:
3.1) Reach Level 4 on each of the Primal Fitness "Lift Heavy Things" exercises.
3.2) Be able to run at least 1km without struggling.
3.3) Improve my race times for MTB racing.
So, having listed what I want to achieve for the year, I need to pick the three goals that will be the most beneficial. it's been said that body composition is 80% determined by diet, so my number 1 goal for the year is to try and eat primal as close 100% of the time as possible. I'll still allow myself some slack, although rather than the 20% leeway allowed normally, I'll restrict this to 10%, and only when I'm in a situation that doesn't allow for primal eating (i.e. eating at someone else's house).
My other two goals will be fitness related, and both tie into the Primal Blueprint Fitness plan. My overall aim for the year is to improve my fitness for MTB racing. I'm going to give myself two goals to achieve for this. The first is to achieve level 4 on each of the "Lift Heavy Things" exercises. My second goal will be to ensure I do a sprint workout every week.
So, now comes the hard part. How will I achieve each of these three goals? What will I do today, this week and this quarter to achieve the things that I want to achieve?
Goal 1 - Cut out non-primal foods from my diet:
Today: I will say no to the left over deserts and junk food from Christmas and New Years.
This Week: I will make sure that I eat a salad of some description each day.
This Quarter: I will say no to sugary snacks at work, and will say no to chips and soft drink during RPG sessions.
Goal 2 - Achieve Level 4 on each "Lift Heavy Things" exercise in the Primal Fitness guide:
Today: I will plan out my workout schedule for the next quarter, so that I am able to commit to doing the workouts I need.
This Week: I will make sure that I am up early enough to perform my Lift Heavy Things workout before I go to work.
This Quarter: I will commit to doing two Lift Heavy Things workouts each week.
Goal 3 - One sprint workout each week:
Today: As for Goal 2, today I will make a schedule, to ensure that I can commit to one sprint a week.
This Week: I will do the first of my weekly sprints.
This Quarter: I will sprint each week, trying to increase the level of sprint slightly each week.
Having done all of that, there's now one step left, probably the hardest step of all. I now need to act on what I've written down here, and make sure I achieve my three goals. Looking back, it seems strange that I've not included weight loss as a goal, but perhaps that's for the best. I've struggled in the past trying to keep to weight loss goals, as it's far too easy for me to be discouraged, and give up. Hopefully, with the 3 goals that I've chosen, the weight loss will happen any way, and I don't have to worry about it.
As I sat down to think about my goals for this year, I found that I had trouble picking just 3. There is so much that I want to achieve, so clearly, my best plan of attack will be to pick 3 goals that will make achieving my other goals easier in future. To start with, what I want to achieve this year, in broad terms:
1) Switch to eating almost 100% primal.
2) Get my weight below 80kg, as a long term goal. In the short term, I'd be happy with 2kg a month.
3) Get fit again. This is such a broad goal that I really need to determine more specific goals:
3.1) Reach Level 4 on each of the Primal Fitness "Lift Heavy Things" exercises.
3.2) Be able to run at least 1km without struggling.
3.3) Improve my race times for MTB racing.
So, having listed what I want to achieve for the year, I need to pick the three goals that will be the most beneficial. it's been said that body composition is 80% determined by diet, so my number 1 goal for the year is to try and eat primal as close 100% of the time as possible. I'll still allow myself some slack, although rather than the 20% leeway allowed normally, I'll restrict this to 10%, and only when I'm in a situation that doesn't allow for primal eating (i.e. eating at someone else's house).
My other two goals will be fitness related, and both tie into the Primal Blueprint Fitness plan. My overall aim for the year is to improve my fitness for MTB racing. I'm going to give myself two goals to achieve for this. The first is to achieve level 4 on each of the "Lift Heavy Things" exercises. My second goal will be to ensure I do a sprint workout every week.
So, now comes the hard part. How will I achieve each of these three goals? What will I do today, this week and this quarter to achieve the things that I want to achieve?
Goal 1 - Cut out non-primal foods from my diet:
Today: I will say no to the left over deserts and junk food from Christmas and New Years.
This Week: I will make sure that I eat a salad of some description each day.
This Quarter: I will say no to sugary snacks at work, and will say no to chips and soft drink during RPG sessions.
Goal 2 - Achieve Level 4 on each "Lift Heavy Things" exercise in the Primal Fitness guide:
Today: I will plan out my workout schedule for the next quarter, so that I am able to commit to doing the workouts I need.
This Week: I will make sure that I am up early enough to perform my Lift Heavy Things workout before I go to work.
This Quarter: I will commit to doing two Lift Heavy Things workouts each week.
Goal 3 - One sprint workout each week:
Today: As for Goal 2, today I will make a schedule, to ensure that I can commit to one sprint a week.
This Week: I will do the first of my weekly sprints.
This Quarter: I will sprint each week, trying to increase the level of sprint slightly each week.
Having done all of that, there's now one step left, probably the hardest step of all. I now need to act on what I've written down here, and make sure I achieve my three goals. Looking back, it seems strange that I've not included weight loss as a goal, but perhaps that's for the best. I've struggled in the past trying to keep to weight loss goals, as it's far too easy for me to be discouraged, and give up. Hopefully, with the 3 goals that I've chosen, the weight loss will happen any way, and I don't have to worry about it.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Time for Reflection.
It's been a while since I've posted here. To be honest, over the last couple of months, I've been slipping in following the Primal Blueprint. I've still been trying to be good, but I've not been exercising, and have been taking the easy way out when it comes to food.
Today's post at Mark's Daily Apple, got me thinking about what I've achieved since discovering the Primal Blueprint, and what I had hoped to achieve. As Mark suggested, I've decided to sit down, and write down exactly what went right for me, what didn't go right, and ways of building from what I've achieved so far.
So, to start off, my achievements since May:
- The realisation that my previous diet was not working, and needed to change for me to become healthier
- Obtaining the knowledge I needed about food and diet to allow me to eat healthier.
- Finding a fitness plan that I can fit into my lifestyle, which would not leave me dreading the thought of working out.
- Losing weight, without any of the struggles that I would normally go through.
All of these achievements come down to one thing: having a ready source of information and support, courtesy of Mark's Daily Apple, and the forums there.
Now, it's time to look at what didn't go so well. Last year certainly had its share of ups and downs. My initial success following the Primal Blueprint was tempered by slipping back into old, bad habits. So, here's what went wrong:
- Not eating according to the Primal Blueprint
- Not persevering with exercising.
Several things went wrong last year to cause both of those problems. My slip back to bad eating habits started innocently enough at work, one day, when I decided that after months of avoiding all chocolate, except for dark chocolate with 70% cocoa or greater, to have one of the fund raising chocolates at work. It was like one little pebble rolling down a hill had started a land slide.
After that, I found it near impossible to continue to avoid the bad stuff. The worst bit is, I knew I should be able to do it, after all, I'd been doing it for several months. But, I found the second attempt so much harder than the first.
The one other reason I can see for slipping back into bad habits comes down to one thing: taking the easy way out. There were plenty of times, after a crappy day at work, that we chose not to cook something healthy, and instead we got take away food. The worst part was, each time we did this, I found it harder to go back to healthier eating choices.
I also did myself no favours by putting myself in situations where it was easy to eat the wrong kinds of food. I play RPGs two or three times a month, and it's normal for these sessions to be fuelled by soft drink and junk food. I've always tried to ensure I had plenty of healthy snacks available, but after 4 or 5 hours sat staring at the bag of M&Ms, it gets very hard to refuse them.
I guess one thing to bear in mind is that, all things considered, last year wasn't actually a bad year for me. I found a healthier way of living, one which makes it easier for me to lose weight and get fit again. So, the challenge now is to take all of this into consideration, and find a way to be more successful in the coming year.
Today's post at Mark's Daily Apple, got me thinking about what I've achieved since discovering the Primal Blueprint, and what I had hoped to achieve. As Mark suggested, I've decided to sit down, and write down exactly what went right for me, what didn't go right, and ways of building from what I've achieved so far.
So, to start off, my achievements since May:
- The realisation that my previous diet was not working, and needed to change for me to become healthier
- Obtaining the knowledge I needed about food and diet to allow me to eat healthier.
- Finding a fitness plan that I can fit into my lifestyle, which would not leave me dreading the thought of working out.
- Losing weight, without any of the struggles that I would normally go through.
All of these achievements come down to one thing: having a ready source of information and support, courtesy of Mark's Daily Apple, and the forums there.
Now, it's time to look at what didn't go so well. Last year certainly had its share of ups and downs. My initial success following the Primal Blueprint was tempered by slipping back into old, bad habits. So, here's what went wrong:
- Not eating according to the Primal Blueprint
- Not persevering with exercising.
Several things went wrong last year to cause both of those problems. My slip back to bad eating habits started innocently enough at work, one day, when I decided that after months of avoiding all chocolate, except for dark chocolate with 70% cocoa or greater, to have one of the fund raising chocolates at work. It was like one little pebble rolling down a hill had started a land slide.
After that, I found it near impossible to continue to avoid the bad stuff. The worst bit is, I knew I should be able to do it, after all, I'd been doing it for several months. But, I found the second attempt so much harder than the first.
The one other reason I can see for slipping back into bad habits comes down to one thing: taking the easy way out. There were plenty of times, after a crappy day at work, that we chose not to cook something healthy, and instead we got take away food. The worst part was, each time we did this, I found it harder to go back to healthier eating choices.
I also did myself no favours by putting myself in situations where it was easy to eat the wrong kinds of food. I play RPGs two or three times a month, and it's normal for these sessions to be fuelled by soft drink and junk food. I've always tried to ensure I had plenty of healthy snacks available, but after 4 or 5 hours sat staring at the bag of M&Ms, it gets very hard to refuse them.
I guess one thing to bear in mind is that, all things considered, last year wasn't actually a bad year for me. I found a healthier way of living, one which makes it easier for me to lose weight and get fit again. So, the challenge now is to take all of this into consideration, and find a way to be more successful in the coming year.
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