Goals Within Goals

One of my goals for 2011 is to eat healthier and exercise. Mostly to shed the post-baby flab. I know it sounds shallow, but I want to be skinny again. Like this:





These are from my senior year of high school. Um, yeah, let's not talk about how long ago that was, mkay? I wish I was that skinny now. Ironically, at the time, I thought I was fat. Ha. I was like a size 3 or 5. What did I know?

I do look better now than I did when Emma was a baby. I just saw some of those pictures and they will never see the light of the internet. Just ew. I can't really take much of the credit for the post-Hyrum weight loss, however. My failing gallbladder got all the glory. But hey, it put me below my pre-pregnancy weight from Emma, so I'll take it! I wish I'd lost more and that I didn't have an unsightly tummy pouch. That's why I have a goal to lose it in the first place.

My husband, of course, thinks I'm beautiful the way I am...

I think he's crazy.

In order to meet my fitness/weight loss/healthier goal, I had to set more goals within that goal. These include:

1. Exercise everyday but Sunday. So far, so good. I do crunches, push ups, and I jog around my living room for 10 minutes. I'll increase the jogging time as my stamina increases. The jogging typically turns into a game of tag with Emma. She loves it. I'd like to try some exercise videos, but I don't know which ones to try.

2. Make healthier food choices. Not doing quite as well as I'd like on this one yet. I'm going grocery shopping tonight and will buy healthy things like lettuce. I want to eat salad for lunch everyday. I'm going to put healthier dinners on my weekly meal plans.

3. Portion control. Stop eating before I feel full. It's so easy to keep eating something yummy, even when you start to feel full. I will still allow myself to eat some junk food, but in smaller amounts and less frequently. If I try to cut it out completely, I end up craving it...and then majorly binge. So, no eliminating. Just limiting. I need more restraint, in more aspects than my eating habits.

4. Track my calories online. This really is an eye opener. It's amazing how many calories some foods have - especially when you have more than one serving! And one serving is smaller than you might think. I've only been tracking for a couple of days. Today's been the best so far.

5. Go to bed earlier. Staying up too late is bad for me for two main reasons: 1. it makes for an overtired and grumpy mommy and 2. I eat more late night snacks the later I stay up. Going to bed earlier will help me with my other goals for the year as well.

I would love to be able to lose enough that I'd need to buy a whole new wardrobe. I want to wear some of the really cute styles that are out now. But if I were to try them at this point, I'd look awful in them. I don't want to buy more clothes in the size I'm in anyway. I want to be smaller! I want clothing to flatter me again. I don't want to have flab that needs hiding anymore. I want to be cute, and pretty, and stylish. I do what I can, but...I'm not where I want to be.

But I will get there.