How Your Friends Make It Easy to Be Healthy: Share & Tell

A Targeted Exercise Program and Lean Protein

This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month.

Since it takes 21-30 days to develop a new habit, making a goal for the month ahead is an effective strategy.

Chris and I agree that making these monthly goals together and posting our results here for you to see helps us to improve our health.  I’ve always found that if I say out loud to someone what I plan on doing, I’m more likely to do it.  Because if I said I would, I feel responsible to follow through. 

In January, my goal was to meet with a personal trainer to create a targeted exercise program.  Chris’ goal was to add more lean protein to his diet.

Chris’ Experience:

When Chris thought about whether he made his goal or not, he said, “Yes, I definitely ate more lean protein.  And Hello Fresh helped with that.  But in many cases, they were things that involved carbs, like a chicken sandwich or steak quesadilla.”

So, Chris decided that in February he’s cutting down on carbs.  He also wants to start boxing classes.  He took an introductory class and liked how it worked the whole body.  The cost of the class was expensive, though, so he’s looking for a place in his area that is affordable.

I had sent Chris a free box of Hello Fresh and he loved it.  One of the meals was steak and potatoes, another was a shrimp stir-fry.  The ingredients were fresh and healthy, and the taste was superb.  Experts provide healthy meal plans, so you have good food delivered to your home every week.

I told Chris that even though he said he indulged in a lot of food while in Europe for a few weeks before the holidays, when he returned he still looked like he was in really good shape.  I know he took a jump-rope with him and I assumed he was eating better food than he was saying.  But he said he basically walked a lot while sight-seeing and ran almost everywhere he went, except in Paris where it wasn’t easy to run.  He insisted he had a lot of food that he wouldn’t normally eat.

He said, “You can see a big difference in how defined you are when you change your diet, even if it’s only a week of eating right.  The exercise makes a big difference while you’re eating healthy.  It’s hard, but all it really takes is consistency” to get in shape and stay that way.

My Experience:

I’m sorry, I indulged over the holidays with too much to drink and too many sweets and didn’t go to the gym.  My bad!  🙁  It didn’t help that our friendly neighbors baked all sorts of cakes and pies and puddings for us in large amounts as gifts.  There was enough to last all through January.

My usual habit when I have two treats in one day is to follow it with a day of no treats at all.  But what happened in January was I counted two and a half weeks of extra treats since Thanksgiving.  While consuming all those gifted baked goods, I started thinking, “God, I’m going to have to go on a diet for two and a half weeks!”

I only gained a few pounds, though.  And after starting to get back to my regular exercise, I started trimming back down to normal.  But I didn’t make it to the gym.  I was walking at lunchtime and doing my at-home exercises.

At the end of January, I was talking to a co-worker about it.  Talking about it inspired me to check out the gym class schedules.  I mapped out the classes that fit into my schedule.  And then, I finally made it to a gym class:  Zumba dance.  Woohoo!

Okay, I promise I’ll get with a personal trainer in February!

Chris also suggested to me that if I want to burn fat I should include cardio in every exercise session, especially at a higher speed.  He said that getting the heart rate up to 130 starts burning fat, and that intervals are the best.  For instance, go into a full sprint for 30 seconds, then jog for 30 seconds, then walk briskly for 30 seconds, and repeat over and over.

I just retired from my day job at the end of January.  I took a break the first week of February, and will now work on my blog part-time while I catch up on other projects that are overdue.  So I’m changing my blog posting schedule from Mondays to:  Thursdays and Saturdays.

Please feel free to comment below about your experience with health goals. Share my health diary with your friends and family.  And, especially, sign up to get my posts the easy way — in your e-mail.  Otherwise, look for my new posts on Thursdays and Saturdays.  🙂  

Here’s to your health!

 —  Angie  

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Health Goal Diary, Lifelong Health