Today I start a new journey. A journey into a healthier me. It’s something that I’ve thought about for a long time and debated the best way to implement. Then the other day the final motivation came about.
Today, April 26 2012 I am starting something I’ve never really done before, and that is to diet. One of the main reasons for this is that six months from today, my wife and I will be taking our first missions trip. We will be traveling with a team from our church to South Africa. Obviously, over the next few months you will hear a lot more about the trip, and I am actually going to set up a full blow website for the journey.
With this trip, one of the things I realized is that I am heading to an area of the world where air conditioning is not very accesible. So, less of me to take on the journey should help to make the trip more pleasant. In addition, I want to be a healthier Dad to my children and set a better example for them to follow in life.
With all that being said, today started the diet. My goal is to lose 50lbs by October 26, 2012. Now, I am not going to set an unrealistic action plan in place for me or the family and say we are going to eat less than 1,500 calories a day, work out for 2 hours each day & cut out every unhealthy piece of food. For someone like me that has never really dieted, that would not be a very realistic type of goal. Instead, I’ve set forth what I feel is an attainable action plan for the near future that hopefully both myself & the family can abide to. Who knows, once we get moving forward we may add more things into the plan.
But as for now, here is the action plan to start us on the right track with these 5 things:
1. Bye Bye Dew- As many who know me, one of the things that I love and would drink on an almost daily basis was Mtn Dew. Some days there would be multiple servings consumed. Those days are going to change from regular occurrences to very few & very far between. Instead I am replacing that and increasing my consumption of water. I know that there are times I would snack on something when in reality, I was just thirsty and needing some water. From the best calculations, I need to consume about ten 16 ounce glasses of water a day right now. Halfway through my first day of accomplishing this and I am right on track. One moment, time to drink some more.
2. Change The Breakfast Menu. The normal menu at our house for a breakfast includes some sort of combination of bacon, sausage, pancakes, or eggs. One of those four makes it into almost breakfast at our home almost every day. Instead of having these daily, they will become more of a special occasion meal and be replaced by healthy cereals, oatmeals, and ever a fruity protein shake like the one I had this morning.
3. Grill It Baby!- A lot of the things that we make in our house over the past few months has been either pan fried or sauteed in a pan with some sort of oil or butter. I’ve had a wonderful grill that my wife bought me several years ago that simply sits out back of the house on the patio. I used to grill on a regular basis, but over the past few months have become rather lax and just using oil and a pan. Instead from now on, the goal is flip it to where most our meals are cooked over the flame and not in oil.
4. Portion It- Instead of just scooping onto the plate whatever I feel like, we are going to pay much closer attention to more realistic portion sizes. In the beginning I see this being pretty difficult, but I think if I stick to it, my apetite will adjust rather quickly. Instead of just eating till full, we will create smaller portions and eat slower to allow the body to digest things. If I’m still hungry, the goto will be a glass of water, not a second helping.
5. Healthier Snacks- Around our house, when we want a snack, it has normally been filled by either potato chips, a piece of candy, or something else that isn’t as healthy. Instead, the fried & sugared snacks will be phasing those out and being replaced by things healthier.
6. Become More Active- As someone who works in an office all day sitting behind a computer for anywhere from 10-17 hours in a day, this is something that I know I must do more of. I need to take breaks throughout the day to get up and move around. One thing I’ve already done to help a little is re-organize my office. I used to have little to no space to move in my office. Now after rearranging things, I have a rather large space to use.
So, now when I am on business calls which sometimes take up over half of my day, instead of just sitting back in my chair relaxing, I’ll be taking that time and walking around the office, even if it is just in a small circle. Who knows, I might wear the carpet out, but at least I will be active. In addition, I hope to spend more time doing active things with the children and around the house. We have a good sized back yard and I plan to take much more advantage of it. I know being more active and exercising is key to better health.
So, that’s the game plan. It won’t be easy and I know there will still be some consumption of the things that aren’t always the healthiest for our body. I’m as human as the next. The big key to this being successful will be to have those things in moderation, and not as the norm. I am sure over the next few months you will see more about this both on here, possibly my main business blog, and possibly even on the missions site once it is completed.
Special thanks to my friend Brian Copeland that really motivated me a few weeks back to finally make a change. I saw him recently at a conference after almost a year’s time and barely recognized him. Brian made the decision to make his health a priority and seeing the results in his life made a huge impact on me and has motivated me to do the same so that I can spend many many more years with my wife and family.
At lunch Daniel brought his wife & daughter affectionately known as 
