Goal Update for January (Part 1)

It's the 31st.  It's time to give an update on the January goals I have set for myself.  But first, here's the list of the goal for this month.

January 2012

• Eat more real foods and take on a more concrete healthy diet plan
• Monitor my sodium intake
• Develop an exercise routine to jump start fitness activities
• Be consistent with at least one healthy habit this month

La Jolla Goal Wall, a photo by lululemon athletica on Flickr.

As I have previously said here, January is my damage control month, coming from the long holidays.  I hope this will be the last time I would call it that, or any month for that matter.  It's not a good name but at least there's the world "control."   

Okay, so let's see how I performed this month.



Eat more real foods and take on a more concrete healthy diet plan

Real foods could mean raw or something that didn't go through too much processing, therefore less food additives as well.  As I always say,  fruits and veggies are the best bets for these.  I have started and still trying to adhere to the DASH diet plan.  It's not that I am following it right to the dot but mainly doing the basic principle of eating the prescribed servings in each food group.  This diet plan is still a work in progress for me.  But I am very happy to say that I am enjoying eating more than ever because I know I am making healthier choices.  It helps to stick with the plan when you're not depriving yourself,  and yet, not also being very self indulgent.  Just the right balance and I know I can keep up with this. 

Monitor my sodium intake

I do this through the help of  My Fitness Pal, and proud to say that I have been consistent in doing so.  Monitoring has made me more aware of what types of food and food preparations to avoid.  

Develop an exercise routine to jump start fitness activities

I do the Burn More Fat Workout Plan I got from RealAge once in a while. I do the Tai ji routines on some days.  I don't have a definite workout routine yet but I started moving around more on a daily basis.  That translates to walking around at a moderate pace within the day.

Be consistent with at least one healthy habit this month

I was actually rooting for the water intake as the habit to develop because that seems to be an easy one.  I still backslide so that's not the one.  Serves me right for taking the easy route hahaha! What I did learn to do consistently for this month is keeping track of these things:

• blood pressure and pulse rate (I even have graphs to show trend lines)
• food intake including sodium level (using My Fitness Pal)
• exercise / activity level (also with My Fitness Pal)
• water intake (that's how I know I am not drinking enough on a daily basis)
• number of steps (with the help of the Pokewalker)

I suppose that's a good habit to start with, don't you think so?  Before, I never liked the idea of having to write these things down, but seeing how important it is to have some kind of a monitoring system changed my perspective.  It is still a chore sometimes, but when you see progress, you just can't help but continue with it and see where it goes.

Goal setting is more than just making a list and crossing out items on it like a to-do list.  I mentioned about progress and by that I mean benefits and those are what I'll be talking about later in Part 2 of this update (as this is already a very long post).  Suffice to say that I have a lot of reasons to smile about with the end results.