New Years Challenge!

I have a Challenge, not only for myself but for all my readers, whoever you may be.

When you think about a task you want or have to do, what is it that determines your success or failure? It's your willpower. Also I think the size of that goal determines your willpower. I can say that next year I'm going to be fit and eating healthy and I'll barely sit down. But that's a lifestyle change and it's a really huge step. I'd fail right away because I'm trying to accomplish too much at the one time.

Let me give you an example. My fiancé had read a diet book and we decided to try it because apparently it was "easy". They said to cut out all sugar and carbohydrates from your diet. So, all eager with our newfound goal, my fiancé and I headed bravely into the cupboards and got rid of everything with sugar and carbohydrates. We had barely anything left but meat and chicken. It was depressing but we trudged on, determined to make a go at it. We took about 5 cloth shopping bags full of food and handed it out to the homeless people around town. We got our new food and tried new recipes. They weren't very good, and let's just say that both my fiancé and I have been put off of cauliflower for a long time. It didn't even last a week. That's because we tried too much at the one time. Mind you the rare few are good at such a drastic lifestyle change, but the rest of us find it hard.

I usually eat a lot healthier when I'm working my 6 day cycle because I have to plan my meals. But on my days off my fiancé and I go crazy cause it feels as if we are free to eat whatever we want. Not good cause I'm confusing my system.

My Challenge to myself and my readers is this: avoid eating fast food for as long as you can. Anything that you can order over the phone or get passed to you through a window is off limits. My fiancé and I are prepared to see how long we can last and I had the idea to challenge my readers to do the same.

I will be avoiding all that I had mentioned before and the only food I will be having that isn't cooked at my home will be from a restaurant where they serve you such things as steaks and are properly proportioned. I will keep my progress posted on this and how long I last. I encourage YOU to do the same, I want to hear your progress as well.

It's small changes like this that need to be overcomed first. Like I said in the beginning it took me a while to get used to going to the gym all the time. It's the same thing, you have to adjust your body to something new. Im keeping chips and very little pop at home and junk food and stuff, but that will all go away in time. Like I said, take small steps. I barely eat chips and pop at home anyways, but chocolate? That's a different story. Hahhahahaha.

Good luck to anyone else who is brave enough to try this with me.

Merry Christmas

I don't know if anyone is still reading my blog, or I've just gotten lost in the black hole of the Internet. But to whoever is out there, even if it's only my fiancé Raychel, then Merry Christmas.

Indulge over the holidays and come back right afterwards. Cause I've got a special announcement and a challenge for my readers, whoever you may be.

Health Regime

Everyone's got some type of health regime, whether it be just brushing your teeth, or something that takes two hours to do. I'm not one of those people that it takes two hours to do. Too much time for someone like me who isn't much of a morning person. The last few weeks I have been mulling over my future and where it's taking me. In the next year I'll be going into real estate and starting my future career, this is one reason why I'm trying to get a better health regime into my life. It's not easy, but one step at a time. When I think of the possibility that my face could be on a billboard, that scares me a bit because I'm not exactly the best at taking care of my face, and I should be when I'm in that type of business. If you're face is the size of a building, would you want to look your best, or mediocre? Also with my fiance and I going forward in our lives, hopefully kids will come into the mix in the next few years, and that comes along with another poke in the back. Everyone wants to set a good example for their kids, and like I had said before, I want to get in shape to hopefully inspire them to lead a healthy lifestyle as well, but along with that comes taking care of yourself. So not only would a good body, and eating right help them lead a healthy lifestyle, but having a health regime and taking care of yourself helps them along that road to a healthy lifestyle. So, I just thought that I would share some of the things that I use all the time, and stuff that I'm working into my health regime. I'm going to start off with the basics and I'll give some explanations why I use them. First off on the docket!

Good old toothpaste. I love this one especially because just after a couple uses you can already notice you're teeth getting whiter and I also love the taste of it.

There's may a debate of what type of toothbrush to use and why to use it. I've tried the normal, non battery, non sonic, non pulsating, non-whatever, and I don't find they get my teeth clean. I like this one by Colgate because it has a sonic head and it seems to get my teeth cleaner.

Gilette shaving foam. I've tried the gel style, but I don't find it lathers up the same and it doesn't seem to lift the hairs like the foam kind does. Also you'll notice that I have the one for sensitive skin. I find that this one is so nice that I don't need aftershave.

I have been using this Gilette Fusion razer since it first came out. Before that I had the mach turbo, then it went out of commission and now I have this one. I find it even better than the last one. This has four blades, gets nice and close, and the best part about it, is it has that green strip where the blades are and when the green strip goes white, you have to replace the blade. Nice and easy for the lazy people like me who forget when to change the blade.

Dental floss sticks. Great for the way I live my life now because I can just grab one when I wake up half dead in the morning, and I can floss my teeth on the way to the bus stop. Also when I'm at work I have some of these in my bag and when I get something stuck in my teeth I just get one of these out.

This is where my health regime all started. I started taking multi vitamins, I think it was about back in march. I started getting used to taking these things everyday and then once I got into the system of taking them everyday and not forgetting, that's when I slowly started incorporating everything into the mix. I didn't brush my teeth on a daily basis, but once I had this down pat and I was taking them everyday, I moved them into the bathroom, and then got into doing my teeth everyday, and flossing, etc.... Anyways, the one on the left is called Coenzyme q10, great for anyone who has low energy levels like me. I'm not the most energetic person, but these have seemed to help get my energy up, and the ones on the right are multi vitamins from Costco, which is a bulk place to buy anything you can find in a grocery store. Love this store, big sized stuff, lower prices, except be careful what you buy as some of the stuff isn't the best. Now onto the stuff that I'm going to be trying to work into my new health regime.

This is called Clarisonic, by a company called Maia. My fiance started using this about the beginning of the year or late last year, and it helps exfoliate your skin. She bought me the funky looking brush in the lower picture so I could do my face too. Believe me, it wasn't by choice that I started using this, but it does start to work, I'll admit that. With a 750 square foot (roughly) apartment, there's not much room to hide from someone who wants to use new things on you. Another thing too that I forgot to put in a picture of is a moisturizing lotion. One thing I use sometimes is Johnsons baby lotion. Soon I'm going to try that new lotion by Dove for Men, and see if that's any good. Up here in the winters it gets really dry and I find that if I don't use something to moisturize my face starts to hurt bad from being so dry. There are some people I know at work who get really bad hands from the dry winters up here and they have deep cracks and scars from not using a moisturizing lotion. Now mind you, I don't shave everyday cause I don't have to, I shave about every second day. But everything else is kind of basic, I think anyways. What health regime products do you find help you and why? Be interesting to hear.