Put it on the list...: Such as it is...

I'll rarely admit this, but I stole one of my favorite lines from George Clooney.

It was the 1997 movie, "The Peacemaker", where he & Nicole Kidman have to escape the bad guys in a Mercedes. They are in a really tough spot, and when he tells her what he's going to try, she asks incredulously, "THAT's your plan???", to which he replies with aplomb, "That's… MY PLAN!".

In other words, it may not be a GOOD plan, but it's HIS plan, the best he could come up with on short notice.

So, what's MY latest plan, such as it is?

Well, I'm somewhat famous (infamous?) for always being able to distill my intentions down to a simple three point plan.

(Boom + Boom + Boom = Success)

I'm attempting the Whole 30, and that's no small undertaking. Regular readers of my material know I've been trying for a long time to eat better & become more fit. As tough & frystrating as that can be, I've been at it actively for almost 10 years, and I have yet to give up. I've been making better decisions regarding food & drink for awhile now, but I'm needing to kick into overdrive. I've not stepped foot into a gym since 2009, so I'm gonna fix that, too.

First Point – FOOD

Duh. 'It Starts With Food' isn't just the title of the book which is inspiring me. Food can either be the best medicine you ingest, or the greatest poison. I'm a recovering/ongoing Food Addict, and that is the crux of my being 'Fat Sick & Nearly Dead' (A great documentary which inspired me a year ago). If I'm going to be 'on-plan' for a full month, I need to do these three things:

- Try two new recipes every week. Boredom will eventually lead me down the path to bad decisions, and new recipes will add to my fund of easily made 'on-plan' meals. Two a week isn't an overload, and the program is only 4 weeks. This will give me a GREAT repository for easy 'on-plan' cooking AFTER my Whole 30. This isn't a 'one & done', this is slaying the Sugar Dragon & setting new habits for a lifetime of success.

- Two crock pot meals each week. These should be VERY easy for both prep & cooking, which will be a key factor of my success. Too much required effort will eventually lead to failure. Doubling the serving size will get me leftovers for easy on-plan snacking, too. Win/Win!

- The Daily Salad. My office has a lunchroom with a salad bar. This is an easy way to get my daily salad intake w/out buying a ton of individual ingredients.

Second Point –Activity

Again, Duh! Let's burn some calories! As my body slowly weans itself off the east sugar fuel, it'll have to re-learn how to burn fat. I want to turn that flame up, nice and bright!

- Gym x 3 per week. I have joined the LA Fitness near my house. Twice a week I want to do the Aqua Fit class (water aerobics), and once a week I want to lift weights to energize my fat-burning muscle.

- Activity x 3 per day. I have an excellent indoor perimeter hallway at work that is just about a half mile. A walk around my block with Clyde is just about a half a mile. One of these will get repeated, for a minimum of three per day.

- Sport Watch x daily. Let's track this, and document it.

Third Point – Posting

Another name for this would be 'Accountability'. By posting what I do – I'm accountable. I will document my success, failures, challenges, and triumphs.

- Daily Food Collage. I will take a picture of everything I eat, and post a picture-collage of it, every day.

- Daily re-cap. Every day I will post about how the previous day went. Good, Bad, Ugly.

- Weekly activity re-cap. Each week I'll post about that week's activity, with what went well, and what didn't.

You'll note that each of the three points has three sub-points. Symmetry! Will this work? As it stands, I doubt it. No plan ever survives implementation, but all great plans allow for being tweaked. I'm sure I'll do a TON of tweaking, but as I start, this is my best guess at what will bring success.

Check in on me, cheer for me as I overcome challenges, and call me out when I deserve it.