Reversing a Bad Week (Or Two or Three...)

Here's a primer on how to reverse those bad habits that have crept back, the pounds that have slowly snuck back on, and the exercise plans that vanished or were severely limited.

I started my week at 150.6, after a solid few weeks of hardly working out, drinking, traveling, eating, lazying around and in general just not being very on top of things. That was a serious departure from what got me down to my all time lowest weight of 147.2 just at the end of June. I was pretty fed up with myself for letting it get to that point so I thought, what is the best way to fix it in a hurry?!?

Step 1: Get my butt to the gym! Or at least workout. No more "oh I'm a little tired, I'm taking a rest day" or "I don't feel like working out after grocery shopping on the way home". PUHLEEZZZZ... excuses excuses! Just get to the gym, do ANYTHING, it's better than nothing. And daily, I don't care if it's for 30 minutes, it's more than I was doing the last few weeks.

Step 2: Grocery shop for good, healthy food. I had to make a few stops to the store, but I got low sodium lunch meat, more yogurt, supplies for my protein fruit smoothies, and the fixings for healthy breakfast sandwiches. And that's all I ate! No fast food for lunch, no unhealthy snacks at work or after dinner. No alcohol (yeah, that's a hard one). After 4 days of that, things were looking better.

Step 3: Get moving on the water consumption. I was definitely slacking lately, and it's an excuse to get up from my desk, so I started drinking more water again. Definitely helps flush your system of sodium, and that was a major problem for me in the last few weeks.

Step 4: Relax! I've been pretty stressed out the last week with some other issues I've had going on. This week I just told myself to chill out, stop worrying about things I can't control, and focus better on one of the things that I can: my weight! So that's what I did this week. Workout every day, eat healthy food, get enough sleep.

Step 5: Watch the scale drop! Monday = 150.6, Tuesday = 149.6, Wednesday = 149.3, Thursday = 148.5, Friday (today) = 147.4!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a whopping 3.2 lbs in 5 days. And guess what I didn't do?

- Starve myself (look at my food diary, I was at 1500+ calories most days)
- Do any sort of wacky cleanse where I drank only juice or something
- Dehydrate myself
- Workout 3 hours a day (it was between 40-70 minutes each day)

So, there you have it. When you get off track, it's not impossible to get back on. It doesn't require any crash diets. Your body LOVES healthy food and some exercise, and it will reward you if you stick to it for a couple days. This is my motivation going into the weekend to keep myself in check. I will workout this weekend! I will enjoy myself and relax! And I will keep the restaurant food and beer to a minimum. A salad with dressing on the side won't kill me... in fact... that sounds delicious :)