Operation: Butterfly Meets Operation: Red Bikini

I'm sure many of you know about Operation: Red Bikini that is going on over at Southern Girl Gets Fit.  I've decided to merge my challenge with hers, seeing as I just posted my goal dress and jeans a couple posts ago!  This way I have a little more motivation and a way to stay accountable.

I also mentioned when I first unveiled the new blog design/domain that this site would be more than just diet and exercise and losing weight.  It's all about finding myself, and learning to be comfortable in my own skin, rather than depending on what others think or feel.  I've decided to take a different approach to my weight loss that will coincide with finding myself, and just enjoying myself and my life!

Calorie counting.  It's not fun.  We all know how important it is and has been for many people during their weight loss journeys.  And it's been a great tool for me to figure out how much I'm eating, and to see what it feels like at different calorie levels.  But it sucks.  It's time-consuming, and it literally makes me think about food all day long.  I feel like food is controlling my life; my feelings.  Everything.  It's time to stop.  I'm going to work my way to a more intuitive eating approach.  And I'm taking small steps toward a clean eating lifestyle.

First step?  I've already got a good grasp on a healthy breakfast.  Now I'm going to take it a step further and clean up my snacks.  A healthy combination of protein/carbs would be a good start.  No more chips.  No more vending machines.  That will be my focus for 21 days (experts say it takes 21 days to create a new habit).  After the 21 days is up, I'll add a new habit.

Another thing I'll be working on for my first 21 days is to eliminate my distractions at lunch.  No more eating at my desk.  I'm going to go to the lunch room to eat.  There's no reason to eat at my desk.  I sit at a computer all day long.  Enough of that....take a break from the computer, Heather!!

Yep, I said I won't be counting calories.  I'll be taking a new approach.  I'm going to start focusing on my feelings surrounding my meals, and where I'm at on the hunger scale.  I'll keep a non-detailed (meaning I won't list out every single food item in a recipe - PB&J Sandwich is good enough) diary of what I eat.  Then I'll write a brief summary of how I feel after the meal.  I'll also keep track of how I feel whenever I get the urge to eat at non-meal times.  Want a candy bar?  Open my journal first and figure out what I'm really feeling - because it's probably not hunger.  

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Pamper myself!!  This is part of my Operation: Butterfly plan that does not include dieting/exercising.  This is about me and treating myself good.  Because I deserve it.  I don't have to wait until I'm xxx pounds to treat myself.  I will dedicate 20 minutes/day to pamper myself.  I'm going to write each of the following things on sheets of paper, shuffle them up, and each day I'll pick a piece of paper out of the jar....

• Give myself a manicure
• Give myself a pedicure
• Give myself a facial
• Read a magazine
• Read a book
• Do a short yoga workout off Netflix
• Take a bath
• Take a walk while listening to a podcast or talk radio
• Movie night
• Zumba game on XBox

All of these will be done with my phone OFF, the TV off (with the exception of the movie night, Zumba, and Yoga), relaxing music ON, candles ON, etc.  You'll get more details about these as I draw something each day.  

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Yes, I'll still be doing my weekly weigh-ins (on Mondays) and such, but I'm taking a completely different approach to this weight loss thing.  This is Operation: Butterfly - it's time to work on ME, from the inside out.