Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011 (Day 1)

Here's what I need to record for the daily food journal:

DATE:

BREAKFAST, 0 fat grams
Savory oatmeal, 0

LUNCH - 6
Salad with chickpeas/balsamic dressing

SNACK - 2
Chickpeas with dressing

DINNER - 14
Pasta with parsley/cilantro pesto, 12
Chai with creamer, 2

Did I meet current fitness goals for the day?
AM WALK - 45 minutes (slow)
Military presses with soup cans - 10

Back to basics fitness plan

So, I worked with this fabulous vegan trainer (henceforth to be known as "FVT") for a year or so, and he really is fabulous. I learned so much from him, but I have gotten VERY far away from where we left off, and now I want to try to recreate what he taught me... because of course I took notes on scraps of paper, backs of envelopes, and whatever was handy -- and I don't have them any more.

But it's IN me, I know it is. So I will start finding it by working from memory.

In the beginning, I was supposed to do three things:

• Walk 10-15 minutes in the morning, and 10-15 minutes after work.
• Get out of my chair at work at least once every hour, and move around whenever possible. Fidgeting, he called it.
• 10 military presses with one pound soup cans once a day.

Strap in, folks, there's a whole lot more to this than what's here.  But part of the brilliance of FVT's plan is that everything is incremental and strengthens what's to come, and at no point should one risk an injury.

So for the next few days, my food journal will also note whether or not I covered these three "back to basics" fitness steps.

It's all written down here, so tomorrow, when New Year's Day rolls around, all I have to do is log on and get going! Wish me luck, and wish me health. I wish the same for everyone else!

Getting started

Dec. 31, 2010

All I really wanted was a simple way to create a food journal. But after looking futilely at notebooks, blank books, expensive journals, Weight Watchers journals, online food diaries, and who knows what else, I find myself here. Online. Writing a blog, which isn't a blog. I just need a place to record what I eat and how much fat it contains.

I miss the printed food journals I once bought from Weight Watchers. They were the right size to fit in my purse, were set up sensibly to record what matters, and had enough room to write down what I ate in sufficient detail to make me happy. Of course, they don't print them like that any more.

And any way, I don't want to have to carry something around with me. I lose things. And I hate being weighed down.

Most days I am near enough a computer that I am hoping I can just log on and write down what I ate. Hopefully no one will ever stumble on this blog by mistake. If anyone does, I apologize in advance. All you're likely to see is a boring list of food and fat grams. Oh, and maybe an exercise list of some sort.

So it's New Year's Eve (actually the afternoon of New Year's Eve), and I am forcing myself to adopt some better habits -- one's I used to have -- in hopes of reclaiming how I live and how I feel.

Here's looking at you, kid!