Putting my money where my mouth is

Since I was feeling moderately well this morning I decided to go ahead and get started on this Boot Camp thing by tracking down info on Bob Greene.  He's Oprah's personal trainer and the one that she created her Boot Camp around.  His book will be the "bible" for the next 12 weeks so I wanted to see what everything was all about.

Interestingly enough he's hooked up with ediets.com, and you can sign up for his program for a weekly fee.  I thought, I'm worth a $20 a month investment, and went ahead and signed up.

What I found, his program is way more lenient than Oprah's.  In fact, he has me on a 3 day workout schedule with no diet needed until week 6. 

I'm liking the sound of that!

This is what I need, the focus on being fit rather than just losing the weight.  He even stated that I may not lose weight initially because of the way the body changes when you add exercise. 

I feel really positive about this, I have to say.  In fact, when I started this I decided to lower my goal weight to 250.  Not 150; 250.  When I hit 250, then I'll give myself a goal of 200.  Smaller, more manageable goals is the order of the day. 

Just like working out 3 times a week instead of 8.  Maybe by making gradual changes I'll see more long term success than going gung ho and burning out within a week.

So here's the contract I'm signing with myself.  I'm sharing it with all of y'all because I share everything in my journey with all of y'all.  This contract is about accountability, as is this journal. 

This is my promise to myself:

I hereby commit to 12 weeks of Basic Training. This includes learning to perform a variety of exercises and performing these exercises daily, completing Written Exercises and Required Reading and demonstrating self-control when it comes to my eating. It also means limiting my consumption of alcoholic beverages and terminating my consumption of food at least two hours prior to bedtime. I will endeavor to be conscious of when and why I eat, and I will, to the best of my ability, simply eat to satisfy my nutritional needs as opposed to my emotional needs. I will do my best to make healthful food choices, too.

By signing below, I am further committing to challenging my abilities to elevate myself both physically and emotionally.

I realize that this contract is solely with myself and carries no rewards, penalties or punishments other than those associated with the reflection of the strength of my character.

25th Day of February 2005

Ginger Voight

Even though I'm not required to change the way I eat just yet, I'm going to make a more concentrated effort to ditch the extra sugar in my diet, replacing it with fresh fruit.

This morning I had a grapefruit with my breakfast.  This is a big deal, I'm not a fan of grapefruit.  Fortunately my taste buds still have the flu so it tasted okay.  That and I used Splenda to ease off of the bitter quotient.  It was actually pleasant.  Progress!

I'm supposed to exercise today.  Bob has given me a 60 minute exercise requirement this week.  So I figure I can work that out, no problem.  I'll put on some music and get on the bike and ride. 

I'm excited that I can start my program finally. 

Hear that gunshot?  I'm over the line and well on my way!!

Here is the ticker I created for my newest goal of 250lbs.  I'm using my home scale, which is slightly more than the GNC scale I was using.  But I figure, a pound is a pound no matter where I start, so we'll use it for the time being: