My Life's Biggest Project: Overwhelmed With Diet Plans?

My Life's Biggest Project: Overwhelmed With Diet Plans?: "If you go online and put in anything on your search engine about diet plans or dieting you are going to be overwhelmed by all of the things ..."

Overwhelmed With Diet Plans?

If you go online and put in anything on your search engine about diet plans or dieting you are going to be overwhelmed by all of the things that you find. There is seriously every kind of diet in the world right there at your fingertips, but the hard thing to know is which one is right for you and which one is going to work the best and give you the best results with your particular lifestyle.

This process can be a bit of a headache. I think initially when changing ones lifestyle plan the best thing to do is to just cut out the crap. Junk food, snack foods, fried foods, comfort foods,  all the stuff that we love to eat needs to go. Just start making better choices when you go to a restaurant anymore in our ridiculously obese nation (check out the stats at this link:  http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2009 most restaurants offer a smaller calorie option or "more fit" means of eating. No it's not going to taste as good, but that is simply a sacrifice that needs to be made. For example last night, me and a friend went to an OU men's basketball game (Boomer Sooner!) and then afterwards we were starving. Of course the only thing open at the time was IHOP so we go and I get a spinach and mushroom omelet and instead of having hash browns with it I substitute it for fruit. Not a huge sacrifice and I was plenty full when I left. I know that much larger changes are going to have to be made, but hey this is a start and as I said before, we have to start somewhere.

The problem with this time of year is the overabundance of left over halloween candy. I love me some chocolate and it is currently everywhere I look. I just have to keep myself out of the room behind me in my office because I know there is tons of tons of goodies inside. I love halloween, but it saddens me that I can't partake in any of the yummy leftovers. This too will be a pain come Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I know that now so I can try to mentally prepare.


You may be wondering how Day 1 of the P90X went. I'll tell you. I knew I was in trouble when I was already sweating like a man the first 10 minutes into the program. That thing really kicked my butt and even though I did not throw up, I came pretty close. My arms and legs felt like jello and I was drenched in sweat. The DVD that I did was called "Core Synergetics" and I can tell you that this morning everything hurt on my body. I've always kind of been a skeptic about things I find online or see in infomercials, but if the next 89 days are anything like the first one I better be in shape or dead...lol. More to come tomorrow and I'll do my best to stay away from the fun size bag of m&m's that are calling my name :)

I think I can, I think I can

Yesterday afternoon I decided I was going to do what I need to do to start the P90X challenge. I read the book and watched the "bring  it" video. It makes you go through and take measurements of yourself (chest, waist, hips, left thigh, right thigh, left arm and right arm). Then you take before pictures so that you can follow your success visually. This can be both inspiring to change and discouraging in that you let yourself look this way. I mean I live in my body everyday and I know where I have excess baggage, but to see it on a camera it puts things into a whole new perspective. 

After the picture portion there was then a fit test that the program asks you to do to ensure that you are fit enough to do the program. I took the fit test and found that I have absolutely no upper body strength. It's ridiculous. I was also kind of sad to see how winded I got from doing some minimal cardio, this was my sign that I needed to get into shape more than I even knew. I'm 23 not 103. Obviously it's an issue of health at this point and not just one of vanity. 

This afternoon when I'm done with work and class I am going to go home and start Day 1 of the P90X, I've heard that it's going to be insanely intense and that the first few days are going to kill me, but I think I got this! One of my friends told me that he knows a lot of guys who have done it and gotten physically sick from it. I had another friend who told me that she vomited every morning she did it. Even with all of these horror stories I believe I can push through.

There is a nutrition guide that comes with the program so it looks like I have some grocery shopping to do. The first thing it says to do is to clean all of the junk food out of your house, which should be easy enough for me to do because as a poor college kid there really just isn't any food in the house right now anyway lol. 

I know this isn't going to be easy and I know that there are days I'm going to want to quit, but I have to keep reminding myself it is the end result that I want. It's important to me and I just have to revert back to the childhood story that we are all aware of and the mantra it taught us... "I think I can, I think I can." Besides Tony Horton, my new at home personal trainer via my DVD player (sounds legit huh!) told me to go at my own pace, so I think I'll take his advice and only do what I can, which means pushing myself to the limits every day. 

No day like today

Today is the first day that I tackle this new lifestyle change. I want to get in shape for several reasons and the best time to start is now. It's one of those things that can be discouraging or something you say you're going to do later, but that later turns into a week, a month, next year. Pretty soon you realize you are more out of shape than before and still doing nothing about it (I have some personal experience in this area). So day one is important because that is when it all begins!

I am excited and nervous about this new part of my life and want nothing more than to succeed. I know that it is going to be hard, but so worth it in the end. For the next few months I am going to be changing up my eating habits, my work out habits and my sleeping habits (because I don't do this enough) all as a means of getting the maximum results. I want anyone to feel free to comment and be a part of this with me.

Everyone likes to know that they aren't the only one going through something alone. Statistically I know I'm not, but without hearing from other people you can get into a rut of feeling alone in the situation. So talk to me about what you're doing or feel free to give me some suggestions. What's worked for you? I'm always open to hear about other people's success stories. Another thing that I am going to do is post health and fitness stories and fads that I find that relate to what it is that I'm doing.

I get off work at 12:30 and will begin this change by hitting the gym for the first time in a while. Wish me luck :)