Moving forward

Okay, I promise this blog post won't be as whiny as the last one. I won't say I'm over the whiny-ness, but I'm trying to move on, think more positively, and come up with an action plan.  I don't think I ever actually wrote out my goals for the P90X3 challenge, which I'm 30 days into (out of 90). So let's start with that:

1. Target weight: 135 eventually, below 140 in this 90 days (I started at 146).
2. Work out 6 days a week; Sunday's are rest days.
3. Whole 30 for the first 30 days, and then very close to Whole 30 for the remaining 60.

So now that the first thirty days are over, I'm ready to make some extra changes. I went back and read through my blog from last fall, when I was successful in getting weight off and was at my lowest. What was working for me seemed to be 1) running a few times a week, 2) portion control, and 3) lots of green veggies (mostly salads then). Not rocket science. Not anything crazy. Pretty straight forward.  So I'm going to check in with my trainer on my goals and the changes I want to make to make sure he's okay with them, but here's my plan going forward:

1. Nutrition: Increase the green veggies and salads, decrease the amount of root veggies (typically higher starch/carb)

2. Portion control: I've been having appetite issues. Some days I'm just not hungry. So one of the things I want to really work on is eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm full. I don't have that bloated, stuffed, overeating feeling when I'm done eating, but I'm also not hungry at the next meal time, which suggests to me that I may be eating too much overall.

3. Running: I want to add running back in, both because I enjoy it, and because it has helped my body in the past. I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to do this - maybe 15 minutes before or after each workout? Or three 30 minute sessions in evenings/weekends throughout the week? I need to think about it a little more, but want to incorporate it. I also want to run a few more races this spring/summer, so don't want to lose all of my conditioning (although the cardio workouts in P90X3 are definitely good and helpful for that as well).  There's also the option to do the "Doubles Schedule" for P90X3, which is two of the workouts each day (or a few days a week), which I'm also considering.

4. Stress relief: Okay, so honestly, this was an afterthought for me. When I went back and re-read my post it struck me that I should probably put this in. Because stress is a big deal for a lot of reasons. And while I'm not under any traumatic sort of stress, I do have a lot of things going on this semester (lots of teaching and keeping up with the research at work, keeping up with things at home, etc).  So I should have some sort of stress relief plan, right? and that's where my brain fails. I'm bad at this part of it. I have a massage gift certificate (Thanks baby!!) that I need to use. And I need to just remember to take some time for me once or twice a week to "refresh." Maybe that's running time? or riding? But there has to be some sort of stress relief built in to my schedule.

So there. My less whiny, planning post. Now it's time to put it into action. And remind myself to stop comparing myself to others. Repeat after me: "n of 1, n of 1..."