As 2013 is closely coming to an end I’ve realized that it’s been almost 10 years since I started my weight loss journey.  I say journey because it’s been a roller coaster ride and I still feel in many ways that I’m still on it. This past year has been especially difficult for me to stay focused on my health and fitness….I could blame a lot of things. Work, social life, getting older….but at the end of the day the buck stops here and it lies with me.

So while I know January is the big month to go on a health kick, I’ve decided to do a challenge the month before the holiday craziness. Some may say this is futile….that I’ll reverse it at the holidays. But the goal is really to take a month to get focused so I can keep myself in check DURING the holidays. Plus I started my weight loss journey sometime in the first month of December, so I know it’s possible.

So here it is; my 30 day challenge. I choose to hold myself to the following because I do better with some sense of structure when it comes to weight loss.

• Whole, healthy eating for 6 of 7 days a week

Look, eating well all the time is hard. Plus it’s unrealistic. I am allowing myself one day per week to stray from my chosen diet so that I don’t go crazy and  throw it out the window.

• Work out 4 days a week

This may not seem like a challenge for many people, and if I manage to work out more, even better! But I want to hold myself accountable to at least 4 days in a week.

• 1 alcoholic beverage per day

You may think alcohol is cheating. And to be honest, I barely drank when I first lost my big chunk of weight. But the reality is, some nights I just want a beer or a glass of wine. Especially if I’m going out to be social with friends. The reality is that I won’t even have one per day, but I’m setting that as the expectation that when I go out (minus my cheat day) I’m allowed one drink.

• Track food and exercise 6 of 7 days

This will honestly be the most difficult for me to accomplish. Despite having tools (I use weightwatchers.com) to help track, it’s very easy to get lazy. So this is a stretch goal for me and I’m going to do my best to stick to it.

• Post updates here every day on how I did the previous day

I’m not going to share the tracker information, but I will share how I felt I did, temptations that I overcame (hopefully!) and how I’m feeling in general. They will be short updates. And once a week I’ll update on pounds and inches lost. For purposes of this challenge, the week will be Monday through Sunday. So even though I’m starting on a Tuesday, I’ll consider my cheat day for this next week has already happened. So no cheat days until Monday, November 4th.

I’m doing this publicly to hold myself accountable. It’s very easy to SAY you’re going to do something, but if no one is holding you accountable, it’s even easier to stop. SO dear friends (and strangers who may happen upon this) I’m asking you to share words of encouragement from time to time. I’ll be posting the link to Twitter and Facebook in hopes that the more people who know, the easier it will be to keep myself accountable. I’ll be starting this challenge on October 29th (30 days before Thanksgiving) so check back in on the 30th (where I’ll post about day 1). And if you feel so inclined, start your own challenge with me. It doesn’t have to mirror mine, but hey, it’s ONLY 30 days. This is doable.

Melanie.