Healthy Competition

Health and fitness have long been interests of mine. Growing up as a gymnast running around in a leotard half of the time, it was very apparent if I gained any weight. At times I had coaches that bullied me and my team mates into losing weight through whatever means necessary. Luckily this sparked my desire to learn more about nutrition, as opposed to some of my friends who became anorexic or bulimic. I know what I need to do in order to lose the rest of my "baby weight", but so far I have been more interested in playing with the adorable Sweetpea than in taking her to the YMCA daycare and running myself through the paces. Since I work outside the home, I want to spend my evenings with my family. Sweetpea has been struggling with sleep lately due to a few pesky molars. Her return to night waking has temporarily halted what had become my routine of working out after she went to bed. I'm not nursing as often now that she is drinking whole milk at daycare. My waistband has started to shrink...or my mommy belly to pooch...sigh.

What we all need when we want to start a new habit, or return to an old one, is incentive. I found mine in a friendly weight loss competition with my coworkers - I hate to lose...except in this case, (the weight) right? In order to further amp up the incentive factor, I thought I would mention my goal here so I have some added accountability. I will be checking in with updates on how I'm doing and I'll include some tips that work for me. Do you have weight loss or improved nutritional goals this summer? I think the summer is the best time to lose weight and improve my diet because of all the wonderful local produce that is available and the excessive heat that tempers my appetite.

The competition is based on average % of body weight lost, and we are on teams of 2. My goal is 10% weight loss, which luckily appears to be the general consensus. At the moment I am most focused on increasing my activity level and improving my food choices. I am going to start a food diary in hopes of finding something easy that I can eliminate to reduce calories. After that, I'll focus on portion control...saving the best for last-HA!

Have a great weekend!