Week 3 Update

I am well into Body for LIFE and will be making some changes to the goals because some aren't really "goals" in the sense that they have measurable results. Anyway, the book presents several questions you have to answer before starting the program:

What are your reasons for making the decision to change?
I've felt the desire to change for years. I want to be a healthy person and I want to turn things around while I am still young. I want to feel good about myself and my well-being. I want to feel more confident and more energetic.

Five goals to achieve within 12 weeks:

1. Lose 30 pounds of fat.
2. Gain strength and muscle to where I can do 25 real push-ups.
3. Gain stamina to where I can actually do 300 jumping jacks in a row.
4. Have a healthy, defined eating routine that limits eating out to twice a week.
5. Earn my senior red belt.

Three unauthorized patterns of action:

1. Eating out all the damn time! Not cooking dinner.
2. Going to bed too late and then not getting up to do exercise.
3. Doing negative self-talk instead of having compassion for my feelings.

Three new patterns of action to help me reach my goals:

1. Get up each day and do a workout.
2. Establish a regular pattern of sleep - this includes weekends.
3. Meditate daily to increase self-awareness.

So, I am pretty stoked to get started on this 12 week program. I hope to finish reading the book this week. It recommends reading and reviewing these goals and statements every morning and every evening during the 12 weeks. It also recommends taking a "before" picture and I'm pretty uneasy about doing that; I know it will be bad. But I suppose that's the point.

I did finish up The Depression Book (that's one goal accomplished this month) and am now re-reading it aloud. I am practicing awareness of my feelings to start breaking down some of those automatic behaviors and reactions to them. I want to start recognizing feelings for feelings and not making judgments on them.