Well, I made it through the first week of Active August (Twitter) without killing myself. In my first Active August post I outlined my goals and I'll recap here.
- Reduce portions at meals - I've actually done okay at this. How can I tell? I'm hungry almost all the time! I assume it is just my body adjusting to the reduced intake.
- Healthier snacks - This is a hard one for me, but I have done well, mainly because my wife hasn't made or bought sweets in the last week. I mentioned in the original post that I wanted to replace my nighttime junk food with healthy food, but as I thought about I decided it would be better to eliminate snacking after supper. I estimate that I would eat 250-500 calories of junk every night, which is about a pound a week. If I can eliminate that along with more activity I should lose a couple of pounds a week fairly easily to start.
- At least 20 minutes of purposeful activity 6 days a week. I made 5 the first week. One day I played basketball, but didn't do the extra 20 minutes, and 1 day I was sick. Pretty good, although I need the 6th day to be honest. I either swam or walked. The swimming is a real workout.
- Sit-ups and push-ups every day adding 10 to my beginning total. Believe it or not I made this one. I started at 25 sit-ups and 15 push-ups to start and ended with 35 and 25, so my goal for next Saturday is to be up to 45 sit-ups and 35 push-ups.
I have to admit to feeling a bit more energy and sleeping better due to the increased activity. It also has been easier because I have seen other people's activity on Twitter and have been challenged to continue by them. Thanks to Mike Walsh for getting this thing started and for the others involved. Oh yeah, my starting weight was 184.5, and my weight this morning was 182. Pretty good week as my goal is more of a change in lifestyle than just weight loss. I'll be happy with that many pounds lost each week of the month.