Baby Steps to a Healthier Me

When it comes to health and fitness I have a lot of things working in my favor. The biggest thing is that I care. I care about health and fitness. I think it's important and I want to be fit and healthy. I think it's my responsibility to myself, my spouse, God, and others to take care of the body I have. I'm also not picky. I enjoy healthy food. I enjoy food in general (french fries and diet soda are major vices), but I also genuinely love salad, fresh juice, and water as well. I also gain weight slowly. I gain it, but it doesn't fluctuate drastically in short periods.

Then there's what I have working against me. I gain slowly and I lose slowly. Weight loss is a battle. I've never been the sort of person who can crash diet and lose 5-10 lbs really quickly. It takes time. I can maintain pretty easily (which is nice) but losing a significant amount of weight will take effort. However the biggest obstacle I have when it comes to getting healthy and fit is laziness. And I don't mean your run of the mill average level of laziness. I am lazy on a whole nother level. I enjoy cooking but the majority of the week I just don't feel like it. And exercise? Forget it. I'd much rather take a nap.

Up until now it hasn't mattered that much. I've never been overweight or had health problems so the fact that I was really out of shape (read: have never been able to run a mile or do a push-up) has done very little to motivate me. I guess I've always had the I'm young. I'll care and eat better when I have to. attitude (despite aforementioned positives)...sound familiar to anyone else???

Well guess what. I'm there. I may only be 25 but it's starting to show in my health and on my waistline. I have to care now---doctor's orders, literally.

So how does a person like me get in shape and maintain it. I've changed my shopping and eating habits before. I usually jumpstart my leap back into wellness with a challenge and go at it hard for a few weeks only to fall back into my old habits of eating take out and general inactivity. How do I get results and make them last?

Since drastic changes have failed me in the long run I've decided to try something new. Baby steps.

What I mean by that is that instead of going on a diet or a hardcore exercise routine that I'm probably going to quit after 3 weeks...I'm going to add in healthier habits and routines one at a time.

Yes...I will also be trying to cut out bad habits. I will tell myself...no fast food, no sweets, etc. and do my best to adhere to the "don'ts" but I will allow myself some flexibility while I transition. Instead of focusing on the "don'ts" I'm going to focus on the "do's". Adding new healthy habits into my life one at a time. I'd like to add at least one good habit per week and since blogging affords me at least a small amount of accountability...I'm going to blog about them. So here goes nothing.

Wish me luck!