Each year at the beginning of November, I start to feel a little bit sluggish.
Halloween is over and it usually involved some sort of over-indulging in the form of food and drink. This year was no exception! The sun also sets a bit earlier each night and it makes me want to hibernate. While the past month was an awesomely fun and busy month, it also resulted in some poor eating choices along the way:
- Lack of veggies and fruit
- Not taking time for sit down meals
- Not taking time to cook
- Too much night time snacking/mindless eating when not hungry
Last week Caitlin declared she was having a Back On Track month to get back into her healthy groove. It is an awesome idea to make sure that our healthy habits stick over the colder months! I am going to declare this week my Back On Track week and get into a good groove again.
Many of you on Twitter said that you want to get back on track too! The lovely ladies from Eating Bird Food, Happy Go Lucky, Balance Is Beauty, Daily Goods, Running Around Normal, @maurat, and Britney Cardona are all ready.
We are uniting with Caitlin’s Back On Track month to get back into our healthy groove and re-introduce the healthy habits back into our lives!!!
Here is my game plan:
FOOD
1) At least 5 servings of vegetable servings per day
2) Two servings of fruit per day
3) Lots of water in the form of Sencha green tea or lemon water
4) Two green monsters a day (one in the AM and one in the PM to beat night time snacking)
5) Devote time to Meal planning/cooking
6) Have sit down meals. No more eating on the fly simply because I am busy.
7) Vitamins
These are some of the wonderful foods I plan on making…
 
Eating fresh and natural foods makes me GLOW!
EXERCISE
I am also including an exercise component:
8.) Re-introduce cardio sweat sessions DAILY!
9) Rise early to get cardio in before work- stop leaving it for night time! Minimum 30 minutes
10) Lunch time yoga (either Crunch yoga or p90X) 20-40 minutes over lunch
11) Reintroduce resistance exercises like core work
It has been a while since I have had a really sweaty workout (since the half marathon 2 weeks ago!) and I am ready to get my heart pumping once again. As much as I have been enjoying the yoga videos (I did Crunch yoga twice on the weekend), I am the type of person who requires my endorphins each day. I just haven’t felt myself since the half, but at the same time I realize that rest is necessary.
This weekend will bring a challenge. I am going to my brother’s for a get together. These get togethers always involve lots of food and drink. I am going to do my best to consume these things in a moderate manner and not over-do it. :) I have decided to not completely abstain from alcohol all together on Saturday night because I believe most things in moderation.
This morning the challenge started off great!
I was going to hit the treadmill, but it was so sunny out I decided to bundle up for Project Snow and get out there! I was warm in only a couple minutes. I walked for 30 minutes at a fast pace and I feel so good now. I also came back and did some core work (side planks and front planks)….WOW have I ever lost my groove with these!!!!! I haven’t been doing them on a regular basis since Summer Glow Boot Camp, so it is time to get my tight abs back!
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Does your eating and exercise routine tend to get a bit wonky during this time of the year?
Would you like to join us?
Agreed…back on track. This month has been a trainwreck or excuses and overindulgences!! Started off on the right foot today with a solid 50 minutes of cardio :) and a healthy breakfast.
Haha! I think we’ve all been thinking the same thing, especially after Halloween! I was up late last night, writing out my game plan. Lots of veggies, fruits, water, sweating and perhaps a yoga class for the first time! I am definitely IN! :)
Oh you know I’m totally with you!! I’m dreading another New Brunswick winter and I do NOT want to lose my motivation so early in the winter season! One thing that really helped me the last holiday season was giving myself THREE days of excess – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Day. The gym was closed those days, and I enjoyed all the food that was around me with my family. All the other days were business as usual! :)
Im in with ya!! Ive been mindlessly snacking recently and Im ready to get back on track! I hit the gym this weekend, had some maazing workouts, cooked up some super healthy fabulous food and Im ready to rock!!! Im ready to a healthy clean fabulous November!=)
YES I totally need to get back into gear with this!! After this past weekend i DEF need a boost!
Yes and yes. My eating and exercise could definitely be better (and were in the summer). So yes, I’m in! :)
Your challenge came at the same time I decided to stir thing s up a bit-I am commiting to my health, not the scale-I planed out my exercise 5-6 days of running/weight workouts-I ma going to do a 1/2 marathon in May. I am moving toward a more plant based diet and clean eating. I already choose 10 days in the next 2 months that I will indulge more. I would like to be a vegan soon, but every time a labelmyself , I don’t fail. So, I amchanging my thinking to moving toward a plant based diet. My biggest biggest change is not to step on the scale until 2010 maybe lol-I don’t know if I can throw out the scale yet-but I am moing toward it- I am already a green monster fan-tx for all the inspiration!!!!!
Angela – I love this blog and your suggestions. I do feel like I give in and let my healthy habit slip during the holiday season. So I just joined a challenge called T’appy Holidays, which is a great way to be consistent with workouts and healthy eating through the holiday season.
I definitely have a hard time when it starts to get cold and dark out. I think it’s especially difficult in the north where we get really cold. I’m in Wisconsin, but I’m betting you probably get even colder in Canada. I seem to crave lots of comfort foods that are high in carbs. (Pasta, rice…) I think it would be a good time to try cooking the seasonal fall veggies. It seems like a perfect time to get back on track before the holidays really get kicked into gear. Thanks for a great post!
I ate more candy than I gave out on Saturday night – I felt so gross afterward. I wrote in my journal last night that I want to make exercise a priority and stop letting my school work get in the way.
Its so awesome that I look at your blog today and you have READ MY MIND!
I am joining you!!
I’ve been doing a challenge to eat the gold standard of 9 servings of fruits and veggies daily..it takes a lot of planning but has been so good for me!! My goal is to keep it up during the holidays which is when I find myself falling off a bit…though with the move we won’t be enjoying a lot of the standard family get togethers.
Definitely on board!! My plan might be a bit different, but with the same goals in mind. :) Great timing on this–the holidays are the worst time for me from a health perspective.
Oh, I am so in – my regular sunny hiking season is over, so I’ve been feeling sluggish. I’m in the Seattle area, so with the monsoon coming up it will be Project Rain (and snow in the mountains).
A big part for me will be to work on getting a regular sleeping pattern so I can get up earlier and start my day with a walk.
I’m in – add me to the list :) I’ll do a post about it tomorrow or later today.
Ohhh Ange. I so want to commit but I am afraid to fail! Oh boy, negative self-talk is first to go! I am game..I will work on my list this week! Love it, we need accountability to help each other! :)
Yeah, I really need to get my butt into gear this time of year. The cold weather instantly means cravings for heavier foods (which is already happening…eeps)…and the want to just crawl under the covers. The endorphins from working out will def help my mindset, too, as the days get shorter and shorter.
What a great idea – thanks Caitlin for the inspiration and Angela for the encouragement.
I always lose it with my exercise routine in the Winter. It’s going into Summer down here in Australia but I still seem to be stuck in my sluggish, lazy Winter groove so you can count me in on the back on track month.
I’m sure that you Canadians would think our Winters are a bit lame though – I think the coldest it’s got here where I live is about 2 degrees celcius. No snow, no ice, but it’s all relative I guess. I have thought about buying a treadmill to combat my Winter lazies – anys recommendations? There’s so many on the market and the price really varies.
For my plan I want to focus on yoga and meditation. I want to become more ZEN!!! :)
i am trying to get back on track too!!! hubby and i are in the process of trying to make a baby :) and i keep saying that “when i get pregnant, i really want to eat healthy and stay active so i don’t gain a lot of weight and give birth to a baby addicted to junk food”…. well why wait until i’m pregnant?? the last couple weeks i think i’ve been eating all the bad stuff i dont want to eat when i’m pregnant, but i need to stop that and get healthy NOW! i was doing so good for so long, but i have really lost track and focus. i went to the store this morning and bought a TON of veggies and a bag of apples and oranges, so there’s no excuses! now i need to get the exercise going again too and i will be back on track in no time :)
glad to know i’m not alone!!! hehe
I’m joining. lol.
In fact I recently posted about this on my own blog….
Do I ever need to get back on track!!! Count me in!
Count me in too! I have a few other changes going on in my life, but in the health category I want to get back to the basics – planning all my meals for the week in advance, and getting in 30 minutes of any type of cardio 4 times a week. That may not sound like a lot, but I am working to set realistic goals for myself intead of feeling guilty because I overscheduled myself.
I am so in! I just bought tons of yummy, healthy groceries tonight and am planning out meals and workouts for the rest of the week.
My routine totally gets wonky in the winter … but I am going to try my best to get workouts in, and maintain my healthy eating :-)
I really needed to see this. I keep saying I need to get back on track but never do. Seeing it in black and white makes is more surreal. I feel that I do put in the effort towards exercise but not always the diet.
Your site has been fun and educational for me. I have been pretty faithful with a green monster every day for the past 2 weeks and feel great because of it. There has been a few days where I did not make the time to get to the store so I could make my green monster and those were not my better days.
Thanks for all your words of encouragement and motivation! I have been reading your blog for about a month now and look forward to your posts. Thank you!
For sure! My routine gets a little whacked right around now – the official beginning of SUGAR SEASON! We begin with Halloween candy, then continue with Thanksgiving pies, Christmas cookies, New Years Eve cocktails, Valentines day chocolates, right on up to Easter jelly beans. It’s CRAZY! I find it’s really helpful to focus on making 1-2 small changes at a time – baby steps toward where I want to be. So a few weeks ago I tried eating one apple every day. I’m happy to say I’m still doing it! This motivated me to take on more, so this week I’m committed to trying FIVE new-to-me fruits and veggies. I find that if I ADD healthy food into my diet, the sugar gets pushed out. The key is to stick with it :)
I LOVED Caitlin’s Back On Track idea and I love yours too! I’m going to join 100%. I had actually already started mine, I wrote out a list of things that were the issue and then positive steps I could take to help counter that :)
Already I’m feeling amazing!
Congratulations to you for starting to get back on track and being immediately successful!
I definitely need more vegetables… I don’t eat NEARLY as much as I should. It’s bad :(