As many of you know, I’m taking part in a 6-week mental and physical health challenge with some wonderful ladies via Facebook. This week’s challenge was to identify your bad habits and make steps forward to change them.

One of my biggest unhealthy habits: Overeating or eating the wrong things at dinner.

Basically what happens is I get bored and hungry after work (I get off at 2 pm) and I start thinking about dinner. Often I have too much time to rationalize making something unhealthy. Such as: I’ll make this pasta side tonight, but I’ll only eat one serving of it so I won’t go over my calories for the day. Or: I’ll make fajitas tonight, but I’ll only eat one tortilla and then eat the rest plain. Cut to: I’ve eaten the whole box of pasta or 3 tortillas.

So this week’s challenge was to identify the cue, behavior, and reward. I think in this case, my cue is hunger and/or boredom. This leads to rationalizing of unhealthy habit, and cooking of unhealthy foods (the behavior). And my reward is a full belly and carb coma, which is my comfort zone and I use this as a distraction from other, harder goals like eating healthy and exercising.

This article was posted in the challenge group and this note really spoke to me:

22. Not One Puff Ever (in other words, no exceptions). This seems harsh, but it’s a necessity: when you’re trying to break the bonds between an old habit and a trigger, and form a new bond between the trigger and a new habit, you need to be really consistent. You can’t do it sometimes, or there will be no new bond, or at least it will take a really really long time to form. So, at least for the first 30 days (and preferably 60), you need to have no exceptions. Each time a trigger happens, you need to do the new habit and not the old one. No exceptions, or you’ll have a backslide. If you do mess up, regroup, learn from your mistake, plan for your success, and try again (see the last item on this list).

To me, this would mean no cooking of unhealthy food EVER. So, no tortillas in the house because I know I’ll never have just one. Or no cooking of pasta, because I know I’m not capable of eating a healthy serving.

A couple of the ladies in the challenge group suggested that I use zoodles (zucchini noodles) or other spiralized veggies in place of pasta so that I can still stick to my health goals while not feeling deprived.

This is going to be so tough, but I HAVE to break these habits!

We all know that feeling. We start a new diet or workout routine. We’re excited to get fit, healthy, and skinny! Then a week or two down the line, it starts to feel more like work than a fun new thing.

So how do we “fight that fizzle?” I recently asked that question to a fitness/weight loss Facebook group that I’m a part of. Here are some of their answers:

• Don’t set goals that are too out there. Baby steps become habits and THAT’S when it’s time to add more.
• I think it’s about finding something that works for your body and in the time frame you can commit!
• I think making realistic goals helps…like if haven’t worked out in forever and then all of a sudden I try to go to the gym every day, I will fizzle out easier.
• Do what makes your heart sings!!! If it’s fun and you love it, it becomes addicting.

So how am I setting myself up for success? I’m starting out small. Small, reachable goals: 1,500 calories limit 5x/week, 20 minutes of cardio 5x/week, walking the dogs in the morning twice a week, etc. Manageable. Workable. Doable. I’m going to do this!

So I did a thing today. I made myself accountable to me. I had been searching for an “accountability buddy.” Someone to keep me honest and force me to do all the things that I should be doing. I realized that person is me. If I don’t hold myself accountable, I’ll never conquer my demons, I’ll never truly be healthy, and I’ll never lose an ounce of real weight.

Back when I was super active and was tracking my daily steps, I had jars that said “Miles to Rock” and “Miles Rocked” with little glass stones in them that I would move to and fro to track my progress. So today, I repurposed them into “Pounds to Crush” and “Pounds Crushed” jars! They look a little janky, but I give zero effs about that.

I also weighed myself and set a goal. I want to lose 50 lbs by my sister’s wedding at the end of October. I wrote the goals down and stuck them to my mirror along with other motivational quotes and mini-goals.

No one is going to lose this weight for me. No one is going to smack the food out of my hands. No one is going to force me to get off my ass and move. No one will hold me accountable but me.