Workout Wednesday: Fitness Confessions

Fitness. I'm going to be honest, I love working out. I love the feeling of pride mixed with exhaustion you get after a hard workout. I have been working out regularly 3-6 days a week since my senior year of college in 2009. 

However, something has changed in my viewpoint of workouts these past few months. It is something that I have been fighting admitting for a while. Workouts for me now are punishment for eating sweets or something I have to do to "get skinny." I know that I am not overweight and do not have to workout daily. But what I have is around 20 pounds to lose to get back to my “happy weight.” One of my New Year's Resolutions. These pounds are not due to my lack of workouts but have been gained due to overeating. 

Please hear me out. Here is the cycle: Snack on candy at work, enjoy one to many rolls at dinner and then have extra slice of pie for dessert. This leaves me lethargic and not looking forward to my workout the next morning. Instead of hitting the gym the next morning I sleep in vowing to hit the gym after work. After a long day at work going to the gym is the last thing on my mind and I rarely go. Another bad habit that has added extra pounds is that I have a tendency to snack mindlessly. I always have the urge to munch on something almost all the time, while watching tv, when I get home for work and after dinner.  

In trying to break this cycle we are minimizing the amount of snack food in the house and I have made a plan for my meals including snacks. I am beyond ready to start 2014 on the right foot! 

In addition to planning out my meals I have started to include more gym classes into my workouts. The energy of the instructor and class always gets me excited to break a sweat. 

New Year= New Goals

A new year is a chance to turn a new leaf and start afresh. I enjoy the the new year as a chance to take a breath from the holiday indulgences and start on a clean slate. 2013 was a great year and I have no doubt that 2014 will be even greater! I wanted to share these before New Year's Eve to help give ideas to anyone who may be struggling with their New Year's resolution.

• Find a new home church and start a daily devotional. Since we moved we have not found a church that feels like home. I want to make connections with couples our age and continue to grow in the faith. I am hoping to start a book on tape or podcast as my daily devotional and make it part of my drive to work every morning. 

• Lose these pesky 20lbs for good! In keeping myself accountable, I am going to start posting weekly on my fitness progress.  I will also continue to share my weekly workout plan. I use My Fitness Pal to track my food and workouts to make sure I am on track. I have an entire post later this week on how these pounds creeped on and my plan to get them off! 

 

• Try to eliminate one vice each month. I got this idea from Lauren Conrad's Shape Up plan. I am going to switch things up and start with gluten for the month of January. I will probably switch out something for fried food and soda since I rarely have them. Joe is gluten sensitive and I have been begging him to try to eliminate it from his diet for the past year. He is on board with trying it as a New Year Resolution and I am excited to see how it changes both of our bodies. I love the idea of trying this plan as part of my New Years Resolution.  lt is a great way to flex your willpower and break bad habits. It’s been said time and time again that that it takes 21 days to break or create a habit. Through giving up one vice each month will help work toward getting rid of the negative habit. I have a well known sweet tooth that I would love to break during this plan. Here is the best part behind the plan that ties in easily to my New Year Resolution by the time summer rolls around, I will have lost those pesky 20 lbs and be amazing shape.

• Create inspiring posts on the blog 3-4 times a week. I want the blog to being to reflect what is going on in my life at the same time I also want it to inspire others through sharing my struggles. My hope is that this year I will become more real in my posts. 

What are your New Years Resolutions for 2014?