March Is Here! Spring Clean Your Life

Aggghh it’s finally March and THE BEGINNING OF SPRING! What comes to mind when you hear the word spring? I imagine flowers, green grass, spring cleaning and the start of my own personal “bikini body ready” routine! Yep, shapeless tunics won’t cut it. I’m going to have to give in and show some skin.

I think you should read the health mags and blogs with their “bikini body ready” plans to get you in shape. But while reading, remember that no two people are the same. Motivation, taste buds, and “vices to adjust” are all personal. Read the articles with an open mind and always remember to adapt a program to you.

This year, I’m looking at my own bikini body ready prep as just a facet of the larger, overall spring cleaning of my current life. I think that winter naturally throws our lives out of balance due to poor eating, lack of sunshine, and the “laziness of a hibernating bear” that comes with darkness greeting us so early each evening. If you Spring Clean Your Life as a whole, I truly feel it is easier to lose weight and keep it off.

Here are some steps to Spring Clean Your Life (write these steps down and build your plan)

1). Choose your Motivation
2). Choose your Workout Plan
3). Change Your Eating Habits for the better
4). Healthy Habits that need to be priority
5). Organize Your Work Space

Please just use my personal plan below as a rough template to adapt to your own spring cleaning!

The 2010 Spring Cleaning of My Life

1). CHOOSE YOUR MOTIVATION (both “body” and “organization” motivation)

My Body Motivation! Hmmm… nice weather, my cousin Corey’s June wedding in Michigan, photo shoot in late April, and getting body “baby ready” for whatever may come my way in a year (or three).

My Organization Motivation! Everything is easier when you have a clean work space. Plus, being organized means feeling less scattered, which would make me way more apt to stick to my workout plan.

2). CHOOSE YOUR WORKOUT PLAN

My Workout Plan (I plan for six days a week, but if I only hit 5 because of a busy schedule, no problem). I’m a morning person, so if I don’t do it in the morning… it’s not happening):

– Monday: 30 minute treadmill and pilates with Crystal B
– Tuesday: Rest
– Wednesday: 30 minutes on treadmill and pilates with Crystal B
– Thursday: 30 minutes on treadmill and Tracey Anderson video
– Friday: 45 minutes on treadmill
– Saturday: 40 minutes mix on treadmill/elliptical + legs
– Sunday: 40 minutes mix on treadmill/elliptical + abs & arms

3). CLEAN UP YOUR EATING
My Clean Up! These are the personal “eating vices” I hope to address, as well as healthy foods that I enjoy and would like to add more of in my diet. Everyone’s tastes are different, so please insert your own. For some of the foods, I added my favorite brands and/or how I prepare. By the way, Count Me Healthy is great at tracking some of these bullet points!

– Ditch sweetener
– Reduce diet soda
– Ditch energy bars full of fake stuff because all they do is hurt my stomach
– Ditch soy crisps
– Reduce caffeine
– Reduce sodium
– Reduce I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (yes, I’m admitting that I spray it on everything)
– Drink more water

Foods I love and want to eat more of:
– Eggs
– Spinach
– Fish (love all white types)
– Brussel sprouts (broiled at 450 with olive oil spray, sea salt and pepper )
– Broccoli & cauliflower
– Sashimi (the salmon sashimi with chives from Whole Foods is AMAZING)
– salads
– Almonds and Unsweetened almond – milk (I am going to turn into an almond I eat so many. I need to watch my portion size)
– Green tea
– Stevia, (I prefer the liquid in the dropper)
– Decaf coffee (Newmann’s Own)
– Oatmeal with fiber (I mix 1/4 cup of the dry organic with almond milk, cinnamon, stevia and Renew Life Fiber Smart)
– Protein pancakes
– Kombucha (GT’s No. 9 is my fave and found at Whole Foods)
– Red grapefruit
– Hummus
– Kashi bars

4) Healthy Habits to Make and Break
Here are mine:
– Limit my drinking to one glass of wine a night (or not at all)
– Remember I owe it to myself. I AM WORTH IT.
– Stop eating snacks that are over 5 grams of sugar and don’t contain fiber
– If I want to snack late at night… go to bed
– Read more (book club bound)
– Get more sleep
– Take my Vitamins
– Schedule my health maintenance: Doctor, chiropractor, dentist, hypnotist (yes, I want to try a hypnotist… it worked for Fergie, enough said)

5) Organize Your Work Space

This means cleaning my office at ful (picture below is my purple office at ful) and my home office. This also includes backing up my Mac on my hard drive, shredding documents that I no longer need and organizing my notes.

Here’s to a healthy, fabulous spring. Remember, Balance=Beauty! As always, keep counting.