March Healthy Living Update

As I look back on the past few weeks, I definitely see some improvements in my quest for a healthy lifestyle. I took time to exercise 3-5 times each week, mostly 30 minute rides on the stationary bike; however, I also added back in 1-2 sessions of strength training each week. My weight has remained the same, fluctuating a pound or two each week, which leaves me at a loss of 4 pounds since the beginning of the year. I had hoped to have a little more loss than that by the end of this first quarter of the year, but I feel good that I'm getting a handle on consistent exercise and haven't gained any additional weight (which was my pattern last year!). In April, I will be focusing on continuing consistent exercise and will begin tracking my food intake to help me better see where I need to make changes in my eating habits.

This month I also took time to review all the material in the BPC Move More, Eat Well workshop that started at the beginning of this year. I had hoped this workshop would provide motivation and camaraderie on my journey of healthy living changes.

The online classroom is updated at the beginning of each month, and Cathy Zielske presents a new theme with a video message and handout. January's emphasis was on recording our individual healthy living stories and choosing one thing to focus on for the month. February's material was all about time, looking for time stealers and solutions to help us in our goals to move more and eat well. The message for March was that change is hard but we can do it. Throughout the materials, Cathy continually stresses having a positive attitude and realistic outlook as we make changes, have setbacks, and refocus throughout this process. Overall this information is interesting to read on the first of each month and serves to reinforce many of the things I've learned and read over the past couple of years.

There is an ongoing project in the classroom also - creating an album to document the journey. There are a ton of downloads to help with this process, all of which come in psd, png & pdf formats. I have not been motivated to create an album for this class as I am documenting my journey here on my blog.

So, basically, the remainder of the month is all about the message boards. I have to admit that I normally enjoy the message boards in my online classes, and I read many of the boards and subscribed to the posts for a few weeks at the beginning of the year. However, what I discovered is that there are so many participants in this class at different levels of fitness and with so many different ideas about what is healthy that I felt keeping up with the boards was a waste of time. Honestly, there's probably some good stuff there, but I do not want to wade through the posts about how one participant's doctor told her it was healthy for her to only consume 800 calories a day (Seriously!) and about how another student is so discouraged because she can't lose that last 2 ounces to reach her goal weight while another still has over 100 pounds to to her goal weight and about how someone else's biggest achievement was getting out of the bed that day while the next post is from someone who just completed a Boot Camp class and then went for a 5 mile run before 9 am! And then there are the varied and contradictory recommendations for diets and supplements and workout DVDs and music and exercise gadgets.

This is a year-long workshop, so I'll continue to peruse the materials at the beginning of each month and glean what information and motivation I can from there, but otherwise I won't be spending much time in the classroom. Obviously this just wasn't what I needed right now in my journey to a healthier lifestyle, but I would be remiss not to mention that there are over 1200 students in that class and many of them are finding it truly informative and motivational.

How are y'all doing on your healthy living goals? Are any of you in the Move More, Eat Well workshop - please let me know what you think about it so far.