Move more, eat less, document progress

New Years is a great time to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE and start anew. It doesn’t matter if you’ve crashed in the past, just reboot and start fresh. Millions of Americans are starting new diet and exercise plans today, including me.

Here’s my plan:

1. Move more  Nothing big or especially crazy at first, just movement every day. And no Kate, typing doesn’t count. My movement plan is yoga, swimming, or walking each day. I picked these activities because they’re joint friendly (I’m saving myself for my once a week indoor soccer game followed by Aleve).    
2. Eat less  The secret to losing weight isn’t really a secret. To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you consume. Simple. So why is it so difficult? <insert excuses here>. My plan is to drink more water, enjoy smaller portions, and eat whole foods as much as possible.
3. Document progress  Accountability is king. An exercise and eating log will help me stay on track and see my progress.

I’m steering clear of goals like must lose five pounds. Instead, success for me is exercising each day and eating whole foods.

Kaizen is the Japanese principle that focuses on continuous improvement. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, it’s the improvement that matters. Ah good! I will embrace my winter muffin top and begin my Muffin Top Reduction Program (MTRP) – aka “move more, eat less, document progress.”

How about you? What are your strategies for eating less and moving more?

Leo Babauta has created a new Web site to help people create new habits – check out 6changes.com.

Organic weed killer

I like to dig. However, I’ve been procrastinating weeding my full sun parking area. Til one evening, my excuses went on vacation and I got to work.

I remove weeds the old-fashioned chemical-free way; with a tool or my bare hands. In a world of quick fixes called weed killers, my approach may seem slow or old-fashioned.

Why not just grab a bottle and squirt? Because chemicals that go into the earth don’t magically disappear. They linger and make their way into our ground water. Also weed killers only kill weeds, they don’t remove them. Since I have to remove the weeds, I might as well kill and remove them in one swoop. 

I took a before picture of a small area, thinking I would just do a little bit.

I got carried away and weeded the whole parking strip (40 ft). Now I wish I had photographed the really ugly part - dandelion city. Oh well, trust me it was bad - just ask my neighbors.

And now? It’s beautimus (for a parking area). I killed weeds with a shovel, rake and my hands. Who needs a gym when you have a garden?

 

And as an added bonus, I slept well. I highly recommend organic or natural weed killing.

Organic weed killer: it’s good for you, our environment and your wallet.

How about you? Do you enjoy working out in your yard?