The Challenge

Happy New Year!! I have a feeling 2009 is going to be a good year for me. 2007 was very hard for me, 2008 felt like my turnaround year, so I am looking forward to what 2009 has in store.

I frequently post on a fitness message board, and they have decided to do a 2009 Fitness Challenge. Entry is only $5 and there are some pretty cool prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The challenge starts on January 5th and ends April 3rd. In an earlier post of mine http://becomingyummymommy.blogspot.com/2008/12/process-details-and-fog.html I mentioned that during a presentation from Simon Whitfield, he said that many athletes are satisfied to just compete in the Olympics games, because to actually say they will try to win would be setting yourself up for failure. I realize that this is something I do, often. I am afraid to put a serious effort towards something, because I might fail. Instead, I go about it with half the effort then I know I could, because then I would have an excuse as to why I wasn't successful. So, I decided to join the challenge and instead of focusing on winning, I will focus on the process and details that are required to win. So, I plan to take this day by day, and everyday focus on the things I need to do THAT day to be successful. I am looking forward to the challenge and I think it will help keep me motivated and accountable. It is only 3 months, and this time of year is pretty low key as far as outings etc. No real temptations around, unlike Christmas, summer, or even the fall with Halloween. The only obstacle I can foresee is my visit to my sisters at the end of the month. BUT, her family all eats gluten free, so I am pretty sure I should be able to keep my diet from falling off the deep end, and as long as the weather there still stays decent, I can do hikes etc for exercise. So, all in all, I am feeling good about this. Yesterday, I spent the majority of the afternoon packaging all the soup and porridge I made into 1/2 cup serving sizes, to be put in the freezer. I ended up with 21 servings of the soup and 10 of the porridge. I am going to cook up some chicken tonight and I might pick up some ground bison as well and cook some of that up too. Over the weekend, I plan to get as prepared as possible and cook and package up some food into individual serving sizes. That should help me stay on track. At least I hope.