Motivation & Goal Setting

I am at the end of my pregnancy, which means I am pretty much ready to just have this baby and move on with things.  Not that I have much to complain about; I'm just ready to be done with this phase and on to the next.  Does that make sense?

Anyway, one of the things I am most looking forward to is exercising  (for real) and getting back into shape.  Remember when I told you forever ago that my husband promised me a wonderful vacation should I reach my goal weight (you can read about it {here})?  Well I am SO ready to earn that vacation, and my goal is to reach my "end" weight by May of 2013.  That's 7 months post-baby to lose my pounds, and it would mean I'd earn my vacation just in time for my 6th anniversary.

However. I know it's going to take more than just working out to lose my weight.  I also need to do better at healthy meal planning for my family.  And thanks to Pinterest, I really have no excuse when it comes to meal planning anymore.

So here's my plan.  I have already started meal planning for November. (I'm starting with November because October will be full of having a baby/company in town/too much chaos to try and stick to a schedule)  Here's what it's looking like:

Most of the empty slots are just for leftovers, but I do have a few more to fill.  My goal was to have one major salad/week, eat more fish (which I don't like) and have everything made from scratch.  We'll see how that goes.

This is my fitness binder.  

Inside, I have collected a variety of quick workouts I can do at home.  They come from various fitness magazines or things I've found on-line and just printed off (again, Pinterest is a God-send for stuff like this!). I also have a deck of cards stored in there so I can do my own routine (I blogged about that workout {here}). I like that they're all right there together, so when I have a few extra minutes in my day, I can just open it up and find a fun workout.  It's perfect for those days when I can't seem to find the time for a full workout.

I have also set a few short term goals for myself.  Namely:

• Drink as close to a gallon of water each day as possible.
• No sweets during the week; only dessert on Sunday.
• Get moving!  Do something everyday as soon as I feel physically capable of doing so.

I had started training for a 5K a month before I found out I was pregnant.  I plan on re-starting the Couch to 5K program as soon as absolutely possible, and have already made plans with a couple of girlfriends and my sister to run this awesome race in January.

Hopefully that's enough time for this total NON-RUNNER to be ready for a 5K.

So there you go.  6 weeks and counting down.  Any advice?