Last Updated on May 21, 2023 by Michael Brockbank
Sunday begins another year. How ready are you to start your goals and put plans of action into your resolutions? Personally, I’ve been waiting for this moment since November. Then again, I often start my plans for the next year a couple of months beforehand.
It’s kind of like a shakedown cruise to make sure everything is working properly before the main event. In this case, it’s making sure that all of my ducks are in a row such as a viable work schedule and adequate exercise time.
In fact, the schedule I have now gives me plenty of time to make sure I can add some physical activity. The real trick is making sure I follow my schedule and quit working when my alarms go off throughout the day.
I’ve spent the last few weeks “practicing” and am getting into the habit of stepping away from work every two hours.
12-Week Fitness Challenge – Round 7
This Sunday, I am starting yet another round of my 12-week fitness challenge. This will be the 7th attempt, I think. However, I feel incredibly good about this attempt and have been jazzed about it for the past couple of weeks.
I know, I keep saying that. And I know I keep saying that this time feels different. In this case, though, it truly does. In fact, everything feels different. Especially after fine-tuning my new work schedule.
To be perfectly honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve ever felt this good about starting a new year. I dialed my excitement up to 11 and can’t wait until the calendar rolls over.
This is even after the car was almost stolen on Christmas Eve! I live in chaos but still keep a positive attitude.
So, what’s the plan this time around? Pretty much the same as before.
Net 600 Calorie Diet
I know my Net 600 Calorie Diet works for me. Remember, it’s what contributed to losing the majority of the last 80 pounds. It’s based on making sure I stay active enough to eat the goodies I want.
As long as I stay vigilant about recording everything I eat and make sure I get off my butt and move around, I should drop between three and five pounds per week. Probably more if I decrease the carb intake to less than 100 grams.
But the point of this diet is to show that I can eat virtually anything I want and still lose weight. It comes down to portion control and physical activity.
Burn 3500 Calories Monday through Friday
The plan is to burn 3500+ calories per day, Monday through Friday, according to the Fitbit’s calories burned data. I know this data is relatively accurate for me thanks to the painstaking case study I did a few years ago.
Of course, it’s been a couple of years. Part of this particular challenge is to see if the calories burned are still accurate in terms of intake vs output.
In any case, I want to take Saturday and Sunday off to recuperate. But I’ll still maintain my diet during the weekends. It just means I’ll eat far less unless I get moving on those two days.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the Gym
I’m excited to get back to the gym. It’s been a bit over a month, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be a hurtin’ unit for the first week.
Part of why I haven’t been going to the gym regularly is because of time. However, I’ve decided to start waking up at 5 am to make sure I can get to the gym and back before my friend needs her car back.
As long as I get to bed at a reasonable time, it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. It’s just getting a bit too cold to walk to the gym and back before I have to start working for the day.
8500 Steps Per Day Average
Currently, the tentative plan is an average of 8500 steps per day. Though, I am going to aim for more than 10,000 per day during the week. If I actually take weekends off, I probably won’t get a lot of steps.
The overall idea is to get 60,000 steps per week. This is estimating 10k Monday through Friday with 5k per day on the weekend. Though, I’m sure I’ll increase this as the weeks continue.
Ideally, I would love to hit around 13,000 every day. That’s what I was getting before I bought this house. Of course, I wasn’t nearly as busy back then as I am today.
Sunday Updates and Biweekly Photos
I am scheduling a weekly update for the blog to help me stay the course. Then, I’ll post biweekly photo comparisons. I was initially thinking of doing weekly photos, but I doubt you would see a significant difference over a 7-day period.
I’m not even sure if you’ll see a significant difference over two weeks, but there might be something visible.
As I’ll schedule these updates immediately after my Buy Me a Coffee supporter content, I’ll be more likely to remember to write about my progress. It’s all about positioning things in a way to help me remember.
Still Working on Recipes for the Ninja CREAMi
We’re still working out the logistics for posting recipes for the Ninja CREAMi. The orange creamsicle I was working on kind of backfired, so I am working on a new iteration of that.
I think I was closer with the first attempt.
The idea is to give you a recipe that tastes good while being lower in calories and carbs compared to store-bought ice cream. The last thing I want to do is give you a recipe for something that is lackluster and blah.
Recently, we made a few tweaks that greatly increased the protein count while having super low calories and carbs. The problem was that it didn’t taste quite right and wasn’t as creamy as I wanted.
On the upside, I think I know how to fix the recipe. With any luck, I’ll have it posted in the next week or so.
Fixing Up the Homepage Next Week – Maybe
Something else I’ve been threatening to do is fix the homepage of this website. I’m still not sure if I am going to get rid of this theme altogether or just make alterations to it using SiteOrigin’s Page Builder.
I scheduled a 2-hour block of time next week to specifically work on the homepage. So, there might be a new look for the site starting next Friday.
If I didn’t schedule it as part of my normal workday, I know I would have forgotten yet again. Now that I’ve been adding virtually everything to Asana, it’s been so much easier to remember to do certain things. Not to mention how I’ve been able to get so much more done throughout the day.
While I do kind of like the magazine-like appearance of the site, I want it to be more obviously geared toward health and fitness. Though, I’m going to wait on reworking the header image until I hit my goal weight. I have a few ideas for what I want to do with that in the future.
I also plan on reworking the categories a bit to coincide with how I’m designing the homepage. Things should be a bit easier to find without it seeming like a cluttered mess.
Let’s Make 2023 Something Epic!
I’m feeling incredibly good about the new year and am eager to start. Between my writing and my fitness journey, I think things are going to fall into place quite well in 2023.
It’s amazing how focused you can be when you embrace the positive things and quit dwelling on the negative. The last couple of weeks have been stellar, and I’m just going to carry that attitude into the new year.
What are you doing to make your 2023 one of the most epic years to date?