Power of One

There’s a new challenge starting today at the Sisterhood — The Power of One!

This challenge is a great one for me, focusing on — wait for it — ME.  I spend so much of my life, as we all do, in mom-mode, wife-mode, student-mode, housecleaning-mode.  But not in me-mode.  It’s nice to have it be acceptable, even required, to focus on myself and my needs.  It also comes at a fantastic time.  The winter months are bleary ones for me, January and February being the worst.  The weather outside is frightful, it’s dark by 4PM, and I seem to lose my spark. The Power of One Challenge lasts for 8 whopping weeks — it will see me through the worst of the winter blues and keep me focused on my goals!

Goals: The SJ team wants us to list our healthy living goals, for this challenge and for the new year.  LOVE calling them “healthy living goals” instead of resolutions.  Why?  Because I’ve never once kept a New Year’s Resolution.  But a goal?  Something to strive for?  That suits me to a T.

Goals for this challenge:

1. 147.  Why that specific number?  It’s what I weighed after completing a 12-week BFL program about five years ago.  That’s the lowest I have been since getting pregnant with Liam back in 2004.  I remember the huge sense of accomplishment I had when I hit that low, and how I felt in my body.  I’m within striking distance, both of that number and the custom-made jeans that I bought as a reward for completing the 12 weeks.  I want them both, badly.
2. Complete stage one of New Rules of Lifting for Women (and begin stage 2).  I’m side-lined from the cardio right now, so I decided it was the perfect time to jump back into the weights.  This is week one for me, and I’m sore in all the right places – now to just keep moving forward.
3. Keep my head screwed on straight!  This is the thing I am most proud of from the last challenge.  I jumped back into the weight loss arena, but I didn’t jump back into old, dangerous, self-sabotaging habits.  I did it all in a healthy, self-affirming way.  My goal is to continue along that trajectory – no detours into fad diets, crazy schemes, and the like!

Goals for 2011:

1. Fit back into my wedding dress by our ten year anniversary on September 10th.
2. Start biking.  Biking is HUGE in Belgium!  And I want to be a part of it.  There are local clubs, both English- and French-speaking if I want to join and be part of a group.  But I really just want to start something new and fun and different this year!
3. Complete all seven stages of NROLFW.  It should take roughly six months, and I will be smoking hawt by the end of it!

I have NO idea where we’ll be four months from now, let alone by summer or year end.  I can’t talk about planning race A, or event B.  But I can eat well anywhere.  We have dumbbells and a bench – I can weight train anywhere.  And, once I buy a bike that isn’t rusting into pieces, I can bike anywhere.  No excuses.  Just determination.  I’m really excited for this challenge, and for the upcoming year!

Challenge Starting Weight: 155.0