Goals!!

I've been thinking a LOT about this lately. What, exactly, am I trying to accomplish by ditching my family, my work, my pets, and my home for 4 weeks and heading off to fat camp?

What are reasonable goals? For weight loss? For fitness? For PERMANENT changes in my lifestyle and attitudes towards health and food and fitness?

I was watching the Biggest Loser last night. Now, I don't know exactly how similar the place I'm going will be to "the ranch" but I do know that they plan on making me work out 6 - 8 hours a day. I know that someone else will be preparing my food. I can assume that they won't be feeding me the same sort of high-calorie/low nutritional value crap I tend to gravitate towards at home. I know that they give me one of those Body Bugg thingies to wear so I can supposedly see how many calories I'm burning vs. how many calories I'm consuming. The math is easy: BURN 3500 calories = LOSE one pound. Can I do that every day for a month? Could I do that TWICE a day? What's reasonable? Possible? Former camp attendees say to shoot for around 10 percent loss (average of 2.5% week) over the 4 week period.

So, like I said, I've thought about it a lot...trying to be realistic and hopeful at the same time...and this is the list of things I'm going to try to accomplish:

1. I'm shooting for a loss of 15%...I know there's going to be fat loss/muscle gain stuff going on, but overall, 15% is my goal. I won't be totally bummed out if I only hit 10%, but with the tools they're giving me and the fact that my body has always responded very nicely to being given high quality fuel and lots of exercise, I think this is reasonable.

2. I want to NOT injure my ankle!! I know this is a negative and goals SHOULD be positive, BUT (big BUT...not big BUTT)...I've blown out my right ankle one too many times already. My podiatrist says the next time means surgery for certain. The surgery entails having the stringy torn mess that remains of my ligaments replaced with cadaver ligaments (gross!) and not being able to put an ounce of weight on my foot for three months or more. This would not be a good way to continue my fitness journey. It would be bad. Really, really, bad. I have to be careful with my ankle!

3. I want to be able to RUN! The last time I tried running/jogging (I'll call it running because that seems more cool) at the gym, I managed a huffing and puffing 5 minutes at 5 mph. I would like to be able to do at least 30 minutes at that speed without feeling like I was going to have a heart attack and die!

4. I want to learn some simple ways to feed myself and MY FAMILY things that aren't going to pack pounds on me. I don't want my husband to develop diabetes like his father...in spite of the fact he's not overweight. His "go to" meal is a giant bowl of cereal...the sweeter the better. I'm tired of seeing my younger son live on frozen waffles because I'm too tired in the evening to make dinner and he's too hungry to wait for me to order something (pizza?!). I'm tired of seeing the total lack of variety in my older son's diet. For the past month, I don't think he's eaten anything but lunch meat, bread, and yogurt. No vegetables. No fruit. Just dry sandwiches and yogurt....not good. My family counts on me to lead them and feed them. If I'm not doing it, they fend for themselves....just not very well. I need the ENERGY and the ideas to make it easier to do a better job...for all our sakes!

All in all, I'm hoping that after a month of eating right and working out 6 - 8 hours a day, that when I get home some of the things that seemed hard before won't seem quite so hard. I would think that after a month of camp, getting up in the morning and going to the gym for an hour won't be such a big deal. After a month of camp, stopping at the grocery store on the way home (instead of KFC!) to pick up something quick, easy, and HEALTHY to make for dinner won't be such a big deal. After a month of camp, continuing my journey with my Incredible Shrinking Ass so that I can be seen in the damn bikini in public again before I turn 40...not such a big deal!!