10 Day Healthy Eating Kick-Start

We're now in home stretch for the holidays.  I cannot believe in just a week and a half we'll be sitting down for our Thanksgiving meal.  Nothing excites me more than that meal, let me tell you.  Turkey, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls and gravy...lots and lots of gravy.  Ugh.

I have nothing against small food indulgences in life, but I am having trouble emphasizing the word SMALL in my diet lately.  Instead of maybe one weekly small indulgence, I seem to be working on a daily schedule, which has lead to some extra pounds I'm carrying around.  I've posted on this blog before about how I'm going to stop doing this and blah, blah, blah.  But do you know how HARD it is at my office?  We seem to have sweets and such up there ALL THE TIME!  They joke about the Insight 5 (or even 10) that every new person gets.  I'm definitely sensing I fell into that.  Where did my discipline go?  Where is that Amy who lost 70 lbs a few years ago?  I know she's still around...

I think where I've been coming up short is not having a plan.  When I had all that motivation and determination before, I had a really good plan in the works.  And I stuck to it.  After I reached my goal, I was all about maintaining for a while.  But then I let little things creep back into my diet and before I knew it, I'm where I'm at now.  I need to drop about 20 lbs.  Nowhere near my 70 before, but still a good amount that needs to come off.

I may seem a bit crazy to be starting a 10 Day Diet right before the holidays.  But honestly, I can't think of a better time to get a plan in the works BEFORE I'm bombarded with the food temptations coming my way pretty soon.  If I gather my discipline now and work up my will-power, I think I'll be set for making it through Christmas without gaining and preferably LOSING some pounds.

What worked really well for me before was the South Beach Diet.  I'm not going to sit here and advocate that you do this diet.  It worked for me and so I want to go back to it.  The first phase is rather strict, as it restricts you from eating fruits and breads for an entire 2 weeks and emphasizes lean proteins and lots of veggies.  I'm going to abide by this again, even though I really love fruit and will find it hard to refrain.  The reason why I'm doing this for 10 days instead of 2 weeks is that I know it will be really hard to resist a Thanksgiving meal. So I will allow myself that meal (in moderation of course...no stuffing myself), but after Thanksgiving, I'm going to start bringing fruits and whole grains back into my diet.  A while back I purchased the Eat Clean Diet book and that will be my new motivation after Thanksgiving....to eat clean.

Another thing I'm doing to help in the process is planning out my meals for an entire week ahead of time. If I have a plan, my discipline is much stronger.  I've noticed this about myself in the past.  If I don't set a goal, I have nothing I'm aiming towards.  It's hard to plan out one-person meals so most of the things I'll cook will be for 2 meals.  I plan on writing down my entire weekly plan on my blog for those interested in what I'm making.  I might also list some of the recipes I use.  Granted, these will be South Beach friendly recipes, so keep that in mind.

As far as exercise goes, I feel pretty solid in my plan already.  I have never had a hard time wanting to exercise or keeping up with it.  I go to Zumba at least 2-3 days a week and I'm at the gym on other nights. I feel if I just get my diet in gear, I'll start seeing some results on the scale.

So...here's to my 10 Day Healthy Eating Kick-Start!  And here's to making it through the holidays without gaining weight!!