Week 1 #10morepounds
2008 saw me make a lot of changes in my life but the one thing I didn’t work on at all was health & fitness. I told myself I’d do that in 2009. And here we are, 3 months into 2009 and I’ve not done anything to change my health & fitness at all.
Jeremy over at Ensight.org started a community weightloss project via twitter last week and I’ve decided to join it starting today. After all. Misery does seem to love company
My goals are:
- lose 10-15 lbs over 3 months
- drink 8-10 glasses of water daily (up from zero water most of the time but way too much coffee)
- cut out the caffeine (a month ago was at 6-8 cups daily, now down to 1 very large mug)
- move! – I tend to sit all day – daily walking at the very least
- increase calcium – I’m a 40 yr old woman who drinks too much coffee and has little calcium in diet
- eat balanced meals – I tend to live on pasta & pizza and convenience foods lately
- eat! – I am one of those people who eat only once or twice a day and when I do it’s usually a convenience food. I know that I need to eat regularly but I never think about eating until the kids want supper most nights.
While I’m not going to tell you my current weight (I’ll tell you my age but never my weight!), according to the Body Mass Index Calculator I used I have a BMI of 24.4 which is in the high normal range for my height. According to this I’m not technically classed as overweight (BMI of 25 or higher) but I’m pretty close. I’ve been at this weight (give or take 2 lbs either way) for the last 5 years. I was 15 lbs less than this 10 years ago and I’m hoping to get back to that weight again.
I’m not a believer in diets but I am a believer in making some changes to my lifestyle to improve my overall health and fitness. Instead of living on cup after cup of coffee for the first 12 hours of my day, I’m going to make sure I drink lots of water throughout the day and eliminate the coffee once and for all.
Instead of sitting in front of my computer from 6am until 10pm with little break in between I will start going for a walk midway through my day.
Instead of my usual habit of not eating anything for the first 10 to 12 hours of my day I’m going to eat smallish meals/snacks every 3-4 hours and eat more balanced meals instead of the convenience foods, pasta and pizza I usually eat.
But… Rome wasn’t built in a day so I’m going to break this down with weekly goals.
My goals for week 1:
- Reduce the coffee intake, which is currently 1 really large mug a day to 1 medium sized mug a day
- Increase water from zero to 8 cups per day
- eat! I really need to eat more regularly and better things not just pasta/pizza/packaged foods
- move! I will walk for 20 minutes daily – at least the weather’s warming up – ice/snow is no longer an excuse
Now I need to go buy some groceries. And learn to eat. Maybe I’ll set some reminders in Remember the Milk – something like “EAT you fool EAT!“.

I’m pretty excited. This will be my first trip to SXSW interactive after watching the twitter stream jealously the last two years. I’ve been reading assorted posts and guides on how to make the most out of my week in Austin. I’ve been trying to maintain a flexible schedule while still making plans to meet with friends, colleagues and sponsors. I think I will need more hours in a day to just meet everyone in person that I want to meet. It truly will be like my twitter stream is coming to life. I’ll finally get to meet, in person, all of the amazing friends I’ve gotten to know over the past two years on twitter.







The old cliche goes “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”