My 2009 Goals, Weight-Wise that is...

1. Put myself first. Above anything or anyone else. That's the only way I'll be able to accomplish anything else on this list here. It's time to put myself at the top of that "to-do" list for a change.

2. Take my supplements. I have been pretty remiss with this the past couple of months so I want to get back into a routine with them. Here's what I take:

*A multivitamin/mineral supplement - since I don't always eat very balanced (even when I am trying!) a multi acts as insurance. I always feel better when I regularly take a daily vitamin supplement, without fail.

*Calcium, Magnesium & Zinc supplement - besides being a woman over the age of 50 and needing the calcium, I find that the magnesium helps tremendously with my sleep and also to keep things regular. 'Nuff said!

*Metamucil - for some reason us women especially seem to short ourselves with fiber. I like using Metamucil, which helps increase your fiber intake and that lowers your cholesterol so it's heart healthy and also, again, the psyllium in it promotes intestinal health and will help to keep you regular. Benefiber is another good one, but I prefer the psyllium in Metamucil over the guar gum that is in Benefiber. Course that means you can't dally in drinking it down because if you let psyllium sit, it'll turn into a thick sludge that, well wouldn't exactly be pleasant to try to drink. So I tend to just drink it straight down. (oh and see #9 below cuz you sure want to make sure that you're gettin' in your water when you add fiber, or you'll only clog up the pipes! NOT good.)

3. Eat more balanced meals. I want to get back to consuming a more balanced plate at my 3 major meals. This means I need to consume about 1/2 of my plate in the form of a salad, some good steamed veggies, or a piece of fruit, PLUS about 1/4 of my plate in a protein of eggs, beans or 3-4 ounces of chicken/fish/meat, PLUS 1/4 of my plate with a carb of 1/2 cup of a grain or pasta, potatoes, cereal or a slice of bread, PLUS one serving of fat such as a teaspoon of flax, olive oil, salad dressing, or butter - at all three primary meals of the day.

4. Eat a good balanced breakfast every day. Oatmeal and cereal are good choices, even pancakes, but I need to include whole eggs in combination with egg whites more often. Proteins are rated by their biovalue, based on their protein utilization and with a 100% biovalue, eggs are the big winner hands down! This means when you eat eggs, 100% can be used by your body for growth, repair and maintenance of muscle. 

5. Focus on portion control. Measuring food for the most part is the best way for me to keep tabs on portion control so I'll be weighing things out again and paying attention to portion sizes on packages. Up to 8 ounces of protein per day, up to 2 eggs per day, 2 servings of fruit, essentially unlimited veggies, plus 1 to 2 servings of the good fats (olive oil, canola, flaxseed) while minimizing those other fats to about 20 grams a day - that'd be the butter, cheese, fatty red meats, mayo and full fat salad dressings.

6. Get starch-heavy carbs in earlier in the day. For the most part, try to focus on the less starchy carbs in the latter parts of the day. And be mindful of the fats when consuming the starchy carbs.

7. Allow myself indulgences. Have a treat of some kind, in correct portion sizes (check the package!) every single evening, generally about 100 calories or less.  Plan for real life to happen with dinners out and celebrations by having a lower carb/lower calorie day the day after.

8. Get in some kind of physical movement for 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week. Primarily this will be treadmill walking, though I also have a Callanetics (focused muscle isolation exercises for toning) tape I'd like to get back to doing, several Leslie Sansone walk tapes (love those!) that I can alternate with the treadmill, plus I just ordered Lisa Rinna's new dance tape since I love dancing and have wanted to add a dance routine to my exercise ever since watching Dancin' with the Stars!  

I don't know why I get so remiss with exercise because it really does make a huge difference with me as far as toning my body and weight loss, and I always feel better, even if it's just simple walking on the treadmill.  Plus when I exercise I burn off calories better and faster when I'm not exercising (so I can eat more of those things I love).  And I sleep better, which at my age matters, trust me!  I've just never been much for deliberate exercise so I just dread it for some reason.  It bores me.  But, I usually watch a DVD, listen to a book on tape, the radio, or some kind of music my iPod to pass the time.  One of my most favorite walking albums for my iPod is Skinnysongs because it's really upbeat, but so funny too! It literally cracks me up when I listen to it and I find that the workout goes by much faster. I really also want to get hubs moving a bit too, so we may actually go and walk the new bridge a couple times a week.

9. Drink more water, less diet sodas. And consume more tea, especially green tea.  Besides antioxidants present in teas, I hear that green tea helps to burn fat.  My favorite green tea is Tazo Zen, though their Calm tea is pretty good too for that bubble bath or reading time just before bed.  I have been drinking FAR too many diet sodas for months now and much less water than I should have been, so I'll be picking that water habit back up.

10. Be diligent about recording all foods consumed. Definitely need to do this one, because when I don't write it down, I know I overeat on calories. Fortunately Weight Watchers has a built in tracker with their online membership and since I am already a member I'll be using that one, but you can track foods online for free at FitDay or other sites across the net.

11. Cook more Weight Watcher's friendly recipes. This means more lean meats, more chicken and fish, and yeah, much less fat (I'm really gonna miss my fat boo hoo....waaaaaaa) meaning I need to break out some of those cookbooks for a bit.

12. Weigh-in and take measurements once a week on Monday morning. I am more successful when I do this once a week. Not every day - weight just fluctuates too much to drive yourself crazy with daily weighing - but once a week, same day every week, first thing in the morning, preferably nude. One thing I always forget to do is measure myself though and inches are important so I need to remember to do this once a month, at the beginning of each month.

13. Get some healthy fats in at every meal. MUFAs - monounsaturated fatty acid - a heart healthy, disease fighting GOOD fat. One thing that Weight Watchers doesn't really take into account is the good fats; to WW fat is fat. Well, I know better - MUFAs have the exact opposite effect that the unhealthy saturated and trans fats have. MUFAs are found in a variety of nuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, nut butters, oils such as canola, flaxseed oil, sesame oil, olive oil, avocados, olives, and several other sources, even chocolate!

14. Eat fish at least twice a week. Fish is not only a lean (and delicious) protein source, many varieties such as sardines, tuna, oysters, trout and salmon are also a great source of polyunsaturated fats in the form of Omega-3s, another GOOD fat, which help to strengthen the heart, lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation in the body.

15. Incorporate some liver supporting foods and nutrients daily. According to Ann Louise Gittleman (of the Fat Flush fame), unsweetened cranberry juice added to your water intake, helps with water retention (a big problem with me) helps clean up cellulite and helps cleanse accumulated wastes from the lymphatic system. Also good are lemons, especially when added to a cup of hot water in the morning before breakfast, but lemon can be helpful too just simply added to enhance plain water through the day. I especially like the Fat Flush Long Life Cocktail Gittleman uses which she says help with hormone balancing and um, that elimination thing again! I'd just use the water with cranberry juice added and to that I'd add in my Metamucil (psyllium)- taken twice, once in the morning and last before bed. I think I'll add that in too.

Some foods that are good for the liver are the crucifers (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli), green leafy veggies (kale, chard, collards, mustard greens, escarole), and as mentioned above, citrus (orange, lime, lemon). Also garlic, onion, daikon radish, eggs, artichoke, asparagus, and celery are great for support of the liver.

16. Eat some yogurt every day. Some studies have shown that people who consume some source of dairy such as yogurt every day, tend to lose faster, and yogurt is especially good because it helps to restore friendly bacteria in the body. Use a plain yogurt and add your own fruit to avoid the added sugars in the fruit-added and fruit on the bottom yogurts. And you don't have to buy those fancy, high dollar pro-biotic yogurts to get this benefit either. Just look for a yogurt that has "active and live active cultures" on its label, like Dannon All Natural plain or vanilla flavored yogurt.

Well, if you've made it this far, I hope I haven't bored you to tears and that maybe there's something here in my goals that can help you along with yours. I'm sure there's other things I'll think of later on down the line, but these are some of the key areas I want to get back to focusing on.  It's good to see that all those diet books I've read in my lifetime have at least taught me a thing or two, if nothing else (though they do say a little knowledge is dangerous LOL).

~