Our Guiding Principles to Get Fit

Separately and as a couple, Mr. and Mrs. have tried quite a few diets, lifestyles, changes--whatever you want to call them--in various attempts to get fit. They run the gamut from Weight Watchers to South Beach, professional nutritionists to trainers at the local Y, books and websites to just winging it.

This time, we've decided to create our own personal set of guiding principles to live by. We're cobbling them together from our personal experiences. Hopefully, these principles will be something we can stick to--and use to get fit. We'll list them here, and change or add to them as necessary. So without further ado, here they are:

1. Eat at least one or two fruits/vegetables at every meal. Fresh or frozen, cooked or raw. Just get those veggies and fruits in wherever we can.


2. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. On the stationary bike while watching TV or climbing stairs at the office. Doesn't matter. Just get off our butts and move.



3. Redefine "dessert." No more chocolate chip cookies after every lunch and bowls of ice cream after every dinner. Fatty, sugary sweet treats are for (rare) special occasions. Everyday desserts are apple slices or sugar-free popsicles.
   


4. Just say no to super-processed, refined, and high-fructose corn syrupy-type carbs whenever possible. Say yes to 100% whole grains and Colon Blow-type cereals!


5. Don't let ourselves get too hungry. Ravenous hunger leads to unhealthy choices. We will eat our three meals a day, plus power-snack in between on good things like nuts and veggies.


6. Drink low- or no-calorie beverages. Water, black coffee, and diet pop are the best standbys. Juice, regular pop, and frou-frou Starbucks drinks are just extra calories we don't need.


7. Go for lean protein, not saturated fatty stuff. Laura's Lean Beef, chicken breasts, and fish, here we come! And Morningstar Farms for delicious vegetarian options, too.


8. Pay attention to portion sizes. When we "eyeball" a cup of cereal, it tends to end up twice the serving size. For any questionable item (i.e., non-fruits and veggies), we will check the package for serving size and measure it out.
   


9. Encourage (or nag) each other to stick with it. Mr. and Mrs. can keep each other in check with gentle reminders ("Don't forget to work out") and questions like "Are you sure you want to eat that?" Better than staying silent and careening off course.


10. Think of food as fuel, not love and comfort. Like lots of people, we tend to eat out of sadness, boredom, happiness, or frustration. We have to remember what it's actually for--to keep us alive and moving. Some foods do that better than others.


11. Enjoy what we're eating and doing--most of the time. Sure, it's not always easy or fun to live healthy. But if we're consuming healthy foods we despise or doing exercises that make us totally miserable, we won't stick with this for the long haul. So we'll look for the nutritious foods we actually find tasty and physical activities we like to do. And discontinue the sucky ones.


12. Get used to saying "No, thank you." We will constantly be offered devilishly tempting things that could thwart our best efforts to get fit. We can't accept them out of politeness or because it's not fair that other people get to eat all the good stuff. We simply have to say no and move on. Frequently and without regret.
    


13. Plan to succeed. It's like the old adage says, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Planning ahead will help us get and stay fit. We can't come home from work to an empty fridge, go to work with no snacks or lunch, or show up to a party on an achingly empty stomach. Bad things will happen. We have to keep getting fit as a top priority, no matter how busy our schedules get. We will plan to eat right from morning to night, and work in that 30 minutes of exercise somewhere, somehow.


14. Be honest--with ourselves and each other. If we do something that's anti-fit--pig out on a pizza or skip a day's workout--we absolutely can't lie about it. Come clean. Admit straying from the path. Then get back on it. If we lie, we're only cheating ourselves.


15. Measure our progress and adjust accordingly. Each week, we'll weigh ourselves. Every other week, we'll re-take our body measurements. And each day, we'll see how our clothes are fitting, how we look in the mirror, and how we feel as we go about our lives. If the pounds are coming off, inches are shrinking, and clothes are feeling good, we know we're getting fit. If something seems out of whack, we'll re-examine what we're doing and make changes.

Our Fat Story

Every fat person has a story: when you first started getting fat, how bad it made you feel, how you tried every diet and nothing worked ... each one has its own unique twists, but they're all pretty much the same. You started eating too much, exercising too little, and there you are with excess weight and a ton of pressure to lose it.

We're a fat couple, so we each have our own stories, of course. But together, Mr. and Mrs. (Jay and Susan) took our own fat fork in the road when we started dating in 2001. Rather than introducing our healthier habits to each other, we infected each other with bad habits, such as eating ice cream every night (Susan's) and huge helpings of mac 'n' cheese (Jay's).

Plus, we both tended toward laziness--neither of us was particularly active or adventurous--so a couple at rest tends to stay at rest. On the couch. In front of the TV. It's a law of physics!

As we fell in love and eventually got married, we also packed on the pounds. Ordering pizza for delivery went from a special occasion to the weekly norm. Our membership to the YMCA went completely unused. Our waistlines expanded, and we felt bad about it--but didn't really do much to stop the growing trend.

Before our daughter came into the picture, we made one (temporarily) successful attempt to lose weight. In 2004, we adopted the South Beach Diet lifestyle for about 9 months and slimmed down for a while. But after Susan got pregnant in 2005, we both started gaining again in a major way. KFC for dinner--those darned cravings! Ice cream for a snack--the baby needs calcium.

After Cassie was born, we didn't have those excuses for overeating and being inactive. We had new ones, though. We were tired from working and taking care of her. Being working parents is stressful, and trying to be healthy on top of that is just too much. That's what we told ourselves.

Until lately. In the past few months, we've both been talking about how we need to make serious changes. Being fat is negatively affecting our lives in countless ways--which are clearly not outweighed by the fleeting enjoyment of eating brownies or lying on the couch.

Recognizing how difficult it will be for us to totally overhaul our lifestyle, we thought it might help to wait until after the gluttonous holidays (like the rest of America). But we also hoped writing a blog about our experience might be just the motivation we need to get through it.

Even if the only people who read Mr. and Mrs. Get Fit are our moms and close friends, we'll know people are paying attention to our progress. We can't easily slide back into our old ways, unnoticed except by each other. Plus, we might even gain a few supporters along the way. Maybe it will even be like a marathon, where cheers from the crowd help us float along to the finish line.

In any case, we hope this blog helps us and couples like us to live healthier. Stay tuned as the marathon begins...