What Do I Want In 2009?

2008 In Review~

• I'm feeing most proud that...  I lost my baby weight already.  When I had Tyler, he was 7 months before I got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight.  It only took 2 months with Bodhi.
• A great way I found to manage my emotions is...  talking to a friend instead of eating.
• I'm proud I handled setbacks by remembering...  to get back on the wagon.  Just because I blew one meal didn't mean the whole day was ruined.
• The most important thing I learned was...  doing it for myself.  In the past, I've made deals with people like "if you do this, I'll lose weight", or "as long as your doing this, I'll keep eating right".  I'm the one who needs to lose weight to make ME happy.  Who cares what everyone else is doing.
• I'm really glad I discovered...  water!  I knew that I needed to drink 8 glasses of water a day, so at the end of the day I would be gulping down 4 16oz bottles.  I've now substituted all drinks (except coffee) with water.  No more pop, no more juice, just water (sometimes with little calorie free flavor packets).
• My best strategy for successful dining out was...  looking up the restaurant's menu online and planning my meal in advance.  
• The helpful habit that I improved the most is...  planning out everything I will eat for the whole day ahead of time.  Then I would just check off things as I ate them.  

What do I want in 2009?

• What do I want to build on?  Pretty much everything.  I know how to eat good and I know what foods are good and which ones are bad.  But I need to just do it and quit saying "just this one time".  
• What would I like to change?  I want to cook more.  When I'm so busy with three little kids, it's very easy to just pop frozen meals in the microwave.  But those meals are so fattening and full of salt that if I feed them to my kids, they will fallow down the same overweight path that I've gone down.  I want to take the time to cook healthy meals and stop stopping at McDonald's for chicken nuggets and french fries for lunch on the way to take Reilly to school.  That has become a BAD BAD habit.
• What would I like more of?  I would like more free time without the kids.  I don't have any time to exercise during the day because the kids wont leave me alone.  And then by the time they go to bed, I'm already so tired, the last thing I want to do is exercise.  Maybe during nap time I could do some sort of exercise.  That can be my time to do whatever I want.  
• What helpful habits to I want to improve?  I need to drink a glass of water before I eat.  Sometimes when I do that, it satisfies me and I don't feel like I still need to eat. 
• What needs to happen for these things to become a reality in 2009?  I need to WANT it.  I need to SEE it.  I need to post a picture of myself on the fridge where I'm looking good so when I start to graze, I will see it.  Maybe that will motivate me.