Stars stars everywhere: a plan for staying on track

Over the multitude of years on this healthy lifestyle journey I have changed my operating procedure quite a few times.  I have tried all sorts of things.  I have counted points with weight watchers and calculated calories with a variety of different websites and apps on my phone.  I have monitored exercise with stickers in 

my day planner and kept track of my running in a running journal.  I have swung wildly through various different means of organization as I work on this lifestyle. 

 There is no right way.  Something that works for someone may not work for someone else.  One of my friends shuts down if it becomes competitive….yet I thrive on competition.  Just look at   me a few years ago when Jason and I had a competition going with running. I worked to match him mile for mile because I was NOT going to let him get ahead.  I didn’t want to lose and I DEFINITELY wanted to gloat!   So competition works for me!   Sometimes though, what worked for me last month or last year  might no longer work for me.  It really is a constant adjustment to match our tactics and efforts to stay the course on this healthy lifestyle with up to date and current ideas, plans and goals.

A while back I was using a streak tracker.  I liked it, but it was hard to ‘live’ because if I fell off track one day it messed up my streak.   I stopped using it because it didn’t allow me to live and be healthy....it was too restrictive. 

So that brings me to my current thought.  I don’t know how well it will work and it may be gone by the end of the month,  but I’m going to give it a go.  I have seen something similar over the years and I have done versions of the same thing over the years, usually just for one aspect of my healthy living.  It just seemed like it was the right thing to do at this point in my life.  I quickly decided that I wanted simplicity.  I didn’t want an extra notebook or extra anything, it had to fit into my life…and any tracking had to fit into my current day planner.  So without further ado, I announce my star plan.

This is a very simple plan.  Every day in my day planner I will be giving myself a star for certain activities.  I am giving myself some ‘freebie’ activities that are easy to earn the star and some stars require more work.   So what can I do to earn a star?

1.        Track my food every day. (an easy star)

2.       Weigh myself every day .  (another easy star)

3.       Exercise at least 20 minutes, 4 days a week. It doesn’t matter if it’s walking, running, crawling or whatnot….exercise 20 minutes!  (not so easy star……well it’s easy to do….hard to get going to do it!)

4.       Keep my food level in my appropriate predetermined range….for me this is between 1200 calories and 1530 calories.  (why those calories?   1530 is the amount that myfitnesspal says I can eat and still lose 1.5 pounds a week….which is still a respectable figure).  I figure that this needs to be done 6 days a week.  (Ok, it should be 7… and most weeks I can manage that just fine, but I need to account for ‘life’ happening and embrace the fact that there will be failures!)

5.       Stay on the low end of my calorie goal 2 days a week.  This is 1300 calories or under.  Realistically, I would like this to be lower also….but once again….I’m embracing life and saying “I would rather lose slowly but in a healthy sustainable manner”

So what does this mean?  35 stars per week would be an absolutely perfect week.  It would mean that I tracked and kept my food at 1200-1300 each day, I weighted every day AND I exercised each day for 20 minutes.   Absolutely perfect!  But I’m not aiming for perfect.  I am aiming for   living life and making this work for me and allowing myself to have days where I stumble.  SO to have a win?  I am aiming for 26 stars each week!

26 stars each week.  

For the month of February (28 days) I need to accumulate 104 stars

For a month with 30 days, I need 108 stars

For a month with 31 days I need 110 stars.

Easy peasy!  It is a silly mind game….it is a stilly method to keep myself on track.  But guess what…every time I open my day planner, I’ll see those stars and know what I need to do!   It may be silly, but if it works….that’s all that that matters. 

Challenge accepted: and a rare Saturday post

Ahhh. A rare Saturday post!!!!  But I was reading fellow blogs today and couldn’t not post.  I wanted to get this info out there ASAP!!!

I have accepted two challenges.   They are both by fellow bloggers and they both start on Sunday the 27th!  (However if your reading this a bit later...feel free to join me...just adjust your numbers to accommodate the late start!!)  The first is through the blog mystalkerisfat .  This challenge sounds like something right up my alley!  There is no heavy tracking or anything like that.  It is nice and simple and allows some wiggle room for life that gets crazy!

How it works?  First decide how many days a week you want to be active.  (Ok not want...WILL be active). I am choosing 4.  Next how long will you be active those four days?  I am choosing 20 minutes.  (I was thinking 30...but I am woefully lame right now so I am starting small!).  This challenge goes to the end of February...which is 5 weeks.  Calculate how many minutes that is over the next five weeks.  So I took 4 days times my 20 minutes = 80 minute. Then I took the 80 minutes and multiplied that by 5 weeks =  600 minutes!    Boom!  I have my goal ...600 minutes!!!

It’s as easy as simply writing down my numbers of minutes in my dayplanner and adding them together however often I chose to add!  (Weekly?  Lol)

The second challenge... it is at spinningmywheels   It goes hand in hand with the first challenge...except that this is more food related. It is also a marvel in simplicity! Track your food daily....AND stay under your caloric goal every day except one cheat day (or I will add in , stay under you WW daily goal if you are WW) .  I like this...it still allows you one day to ‘mess up’ be it on purpose or accidental!   I have been preaching for a while that this is life and life is NOT perfect...so embrace and plan for the failure  because it will happen!  This challenge does just that by giving us that cheat day.   

So how this works?   In your day planner...or calendar or anywhere really...give yourself a point for each day you stay under your caloric goal!  Easy peasy!   I am going to give myself a star in my day planner!!  :-). 

Both are easy...both are super cool ways to challenge ourselves to stay the course and be healthy!!!!   

If you want, feel free to join in!  Mystalker...has set up a Facebook page (link in her comments) for her challenge  that I have asked to join...I don’t know how well it will take off...but it is another chance for support so I’m in!!!