This past holiday season is behind us now. Don’t take the title wrong, I love the holidays and thoroughly enjoyed them. Perhaps a little too much. I am a little disappointed that I let myself slide like I did. I am only human after all and those pie’s were GOOD! Like most of you this created some new years goals based on health and fitness.

From the week before thanksgiving to two weeks after Christmas I managed to gain a little over 10 pounds. That was based on lots of cookies and pies and candy and eggnog and all kinds of things i could have been enjoying in moderation, but i let myself over indulge. Prior to the holidays i was definitely at a plateau which could have a lot to do with why I let myself slide. My sweet tooth IS OUT OF CONTROL!

That’s the past now. No use dwelling on it, time to focus on the present. My goal right now… get the abs out! That happens in the kitchen. Nutrition is hugely important and in cahoots with the workouts, it really is my nutrition that’s out of whack right now.

I am playing around with Noom (bought the trial) at the moment. Honestly, I am not that impressed so far. It seems like there is an automated attendant behind the scenes firing links to articles at you when you ask questions, not a real person. Another feature i am not a fan of is that it requires you to stare at your device more, like a lot more. I get it, they are trying to get you ‘on-roaded’ from a place of poor nutrition to a place with good nutrition and that is a daunting task, but we all spend too much time starting at our phones…. I don’t need another app that wants more screen time from me. I am probably more biased than the average user as i have experience with real human nutrition coaches and have been through the on road process previously.

My friend Kate Cretsinger is a health and fitness coach and is also hosting a wellness challenge. I joined that as well to help me get back on track. She is poking us with daily challenges that help build good habits like movement and hydration.

So far… down about a pound in two weeks. Its not going to be trivial to drop those holiday pounds. Think about it… to put those pounds on that quick i had to be over my normal caloric intake by 500-1000 calories a day. That’s actually low for some days, I know because I was tracking my bad decisions. I can’t have a 1000 calorie deficit every day to get back where i was. Well I could but that’s not healthy or sustainable. I know I need about 1600 calories a day to maintain my lifestyle. So I need to be in the 1500 calorie a day range to be in a caloric deficit and dropping pounds at a reasonable and healthy rate. My target is somewhere around a pound or two a week.

I GOT THIS!

If i can get rid of all the stockpiled candy and treats from the holidays without consuming it myself (**Put it in the break room at work**) and keep up the good foods, I’ll be back to normal in a few weeks. And hopefully I can take it a step further and get those abs out!