Saturday, July 16, 2011

News and Goals

News
For those of you who do not watch the news, Michelle Obama went out for a burger, fries and a chocolate shake!! (Story here) The media was not happy with this as M. Obama is very active in promoting a healthy lifestyle for our nation's youth - but wait! She did get a diet coke!! Phew...

Seriously though the fact that she ate this went through the news like wildfire. For me, two things come to mind, 1. People can splurge once and a while. There are some diets out there that actually tell you to have a cheat meal once a week or a cheat day. The fact of the matter is that no body is perfect. Even if you are trying to never have a cheat meal, you're bound to slip up every once in a while. Big deal! 2. Doesn't the news have anything more important to report on? Something more doom and gloomish, maybe like the nation's debt or something? Virginia Sole-Smith also spoke about the news story of M. Obama's junk food binge. She wrote an interesting article on iVillage.com in response.



GoalsThe story on the First Lady comes down to myself and to you as well. We all are on the journey to live a healthy life. We can set out to eat healthy food and work out every day, but it's not practical to think you are going to meet these goals 100% of the time. We're human and we make mistakes.

As it turns out the story on the first lady couldn't have come at a better time for me. While I'm sitting there saying, "Give her a break!" I'm coming down hard on myself for not meeting my own goals. Now where Michelle Obama may have just made on slip up. I'm falling short in a few areas. The following is a list of my goals and where I'm at in them.
GOAL #1: Walk 10,000 steps a day.
This goal coincides with the health and wellness program at my work called, Summer Time Steps. The program requires participants to wear a pedometer to keep track of their steps. My own personal goal was to beat the number of steps I took last year, which was 700,000. Last year my game plan was just to see how many steps I took. I did incorporate more walks into my breaks at work, but other than that I did not do much. This year I had plans to work in more walking, but sadly have fell into the same trap of just getting whatever steps I get. I decided to start writing down how many steps I get each day and I've found in the past week and a half I have not met my goal once!

GOAL #2: Eat healthier
I would like to try to kick most of the junky sweets and eating out food, out of my diet and focus on foods that benefit my body, rather than just my taste buds. I haven't been doing too great on this, but I'm trying to not get discouraged and remember no one's perfect! I also need to step up my vegetable eating. During a Fruits and Veggie challenge at work, I discovered I am not getting the amount of veggies I need each day.

GOAL #3: Exercise
This is so hard for me. I have a very busy schedule, so trying to find the time to fit exercise in is difficult. I realized that I really need to do the exercise in the morning, but waking up early is not my favorite thing to do. I'm hoping that if I get into a habit of it, maybe it'll come more easily.

PAST TWO WEEKS:
~Tues., 7/12 - 7,124 steps
~Wed., 7/13 - 7,239 steps
~Thurs., 7/14 - 4,365 steps
~Fri., 7/15 - 5,689 steps
~Sat., 7/16 - 6,945 steps
~Sun., 7/17 - 3,608 steps + 2 miles jogging/walking (4375 steps*) = 7,983 steps
~Mon., 7/18 - 2,418 steps + 30 mins of weight lifting (2222 steps*) = 4,640 steps
~Tues., 7/19 - 9,593 steps, including three 15-20 minute walks
~Wed., 7/20 - 5,739 steps

Tues, 7/19 I was the closest, but to get to that number I took three 15-20 minute walks throughout the day. 10,000 is a hard number to reach! After Wed., 7/20 I forgot to keep track, but starting tomorrow, I'll be back to tracking my steps!

*Step conversions provided by Davis County Government (Utah)

How about you?
What tricks do you use to get your steps in? How do you exercise? How do you incorporate veggies into your diet?

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