The Rules

Sunday afternoon/evening I realized I didn't like where my body was going. Not as in where my being was traveling but literally the path down which my physical body was headed. I am not fat by any worldly standards (except perhaps Hollywood) and I'm decently healthy (other than a childish tummy that's been throwing a tantrum lately).
But I don't feel good in where my weight is going. It's partly because I'm insecure, but I also enjoy the feeling of being fit and slim. I say 'slim' because I have no dreams of being "skinny". I won't ever be "skinny". I don't have the build and I actually thoroughly enjoyed lifting weights in our basement during my early teens so that bulked my muscle up quite a bit. I'm dense. I won't ever be a contender on ANTM. Unless they do an "America's Next Top Dense Model" cycle then I am all over dat. I'll tooch dat booty like you never seen, miss Tyra.
Not really. Ain't got no booty to tooch.
In any case, I have some fat I could stand to lose and by thunder I'm gunna try! It happened the same way when I was in junior high. I just suddenly found that I'd decided to eat better and lose weight. It's not something I can plan to do or motivate myself to do, it just...happens. And on sunday, it happened.
Without telling my husband, I told myself I'd get to work an hour early in the morning so I can get off earlier and hit the gym at 4 instead of 5. He was exceedingly perplexed the next morning when I was up and getting dressed when usually I stay sprawled in bed, completely content to repeatedly bonk the snooze button. I did that for 3 days until today when I learned apparently I can't just decide to come to work an hour earlier. I'm stuck at 8-5 it seems.
But Mark and I talked it over and that might work to our advantage anyway, because he can go to work later in the morning and hit the tail end of all the horrible traffic and I can take the 5-6 hour and workout and come home right as our A/C is turning back on. Our unit is set to a timer that between 3 and 6 pm it isn't running, so we save quite a bit on our bills that way. But it's kind of miserable to be here in the apartment anywhere between 3 and 6 pm.
I'm finally able to run on the elliptical for a half hour straight without needing to quit or pathetically wheeze at a pace only excusable for a terminally ill grandpa with a wooden leg, courtesy of the landmine he encountered in WWII. I use the "fat burn" program which from what I gather is supposed to be a quick incline into 'hard' mode and stay there for the majority of the run and then work back down into cool-down the last 4 minutes. But I run the whole time. Finally remembered my headphones today so I could listen to my 'Shakira' station on pandora and it almost like she was there as my personal cheerleader. Talk about fitsperation.
After that warmup, I've been mainly focusing on upper body strength and building up my core. I think I'll throw in one day a week as completely a leg day. Probably around the weekend so I won't have to be driving stick shift to work the next morning.
I can't believe I've spend this long blabbing about my piddly workout routine.
The purpose of this post was and is to publicly declare the rules we have made (my husband and myself) in the realm of eating.
Food.
A real achilles' heel to my desire to be trim.

SOML. Srsly.
And Mark is no better than I am. We're foodies. We love it. We love cooking together and we make some scrumptious stuff. But usually it involves frying, grilling, baking, and lots of condiments. Not to mention Circle K is the perfect fight reprieve. DrP, I will always love you. Always.
But on to the rules! We've been discussing and coming up with little ways and ideas to keep the munching down to a minimal and cut back on all the processed junk we usually inhale.

• You're allowed seconds at dinner but it must be at most half the size of your first helping.
• If you're still hungry, eat a piece of fruit (i.e. orange, apple, bunch of grapes, etc)
• If you're still hungry, drink a whole glass of water.
• If you're STILL hungry...."you're lying" --Mark Douglass
• Serving of fruit and/or veggies in every meal of the day.
• Water before any other beverage.
• Eating lavishly is a social thing. If you're at a party or something, enjoy the food! But enjoy it in sample sizes. And really enjoy the hosts' water supply.
• Think out of the "box" when it comes to dinners.
• Leftovers are a marvelous thing. Just remember to take them to work. Bad leftovers are nobody's favorite thing.

That's really all I have for now. Mostly we just need to work on portion control and clean eating and hydration. The usual.
I feel really good about these goals and hope that we can stick with it for as long as possible. I'd love to see both of us get to comfortable weights and be really proud of ourselves.

Here's hoping...