9 days down | 21 days to go

I started my 30-Day Reset Challenge last Monday, and overall, things are going pretty well. As a reminder, here are the original guidelines:

1. There shall be no ordering in. I can dine out with friends, but must make good choices. I also can eat at Chipotle once a week; however, I must pass on the chips (God help me).
2. I will workout three times a week and go to yoga class once a week. I think this is manageable, but will definitely be challenging to work into my schedule.
3. I must meal prep on Sundays… I must, I must, I must.
4. While I do most of my reading on the train, I would like to spend more time reading at home and less time binging shows on Netflix. Planning for two hours of additional reading a week.
5. I am on a daily medication to replace the hormones that regulate the thyroid and am supposed to take additional supplements (vitamins D and B12 and calcium) as well. I forgot to take my vitamins every day last week—not ideal. So the final guideline is to get back on track.

I learned a few things over the past week:

• Planning is everything. I listened to another very helpful episode called “How to Get Sh*t Done” on UnF*ck Your Brain. In it, the host, Kara Loewentheil, talks through a task management system for optimizing efficiency. I thought I was good at time management, but after implementing the system, I realized I could be even more productive and organized. One of the things she suggests is becoming “very intimate” with your calendar, meaning that you should schedule every moment of your life from work to time with friends, etc. She also suggests planning your week out in advance. So, last Sunday, I spent 45 minutes planning the next week. I added reminders to my to-do lists and calendar notifications, and the pre-planning was game changing.
• Chips are just fine. I met with my dietician earlier this week. I shared the guidelines with her and she suggested some different ways of re-framing two of them. She let me know that there is nothing wrong with having tortilla chips and guacamole once a week. Of course, if it becomes more than once a week or leads you to eat other less healthy options, that is a problem. But to restrict the chips completely could trigger cravings or potentially lead to a binge. She used her own love of that illustrious temptress the NYC bagel as an example. Instead of cutting bagels out completely, she set a boundary of one bagel every Friday morning with whatever she wants on it. I like this once a week concept much better, so my guideline of no chips will shift: once a week, I can have chips and guac with my Chipotle.
• Gym time. My dietician also offered a different way of thinking about exercise. Instead of quantifying my guideline with a class count, she suggested considering a weekly fund of 150 minutes per week that I would spend down to 0 (side note: the figure reflects the American Heart Association’s weekly recommendation of 150 minutes of exercise at a moderate level). Her logic is that things will come up in my schedule. I may not be able to make it to the gym one night or have less time to exercise, but instead of skipping it completely, I could go for even just 15 minutes and still make progress. I agree that this spend down method will take away from the guilt of missing the gym, so I am adjusting this guideline too.

I think those are the main takeaways for now. I am also making great progress on guideline number 5—I haven’t forgotten to take my vitamins for over a week now.

Till next week,

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