Maintain, Don't Gain...

...That's my plan for the holidays. I know I've heard that slogan somewhere, and it seems like a good one. But I have to have some actual ways that I'm planning to do this. And I have to share them with you for there to be the slightest chance that I will follow them.

1. From now on, a minimum of 30 minutes of exercise SIX DAYS A WEEK, period. No matter what the weather is or how tired I am. I've been walking to work with Ben since August now, and that's been great, but I need to find some alternate plans for when it's too cold or rainy. I'm thinking we could go to the mall and walk. And I can try to do some exercise video stuff, although I'm limited to VHS because our DVD player broke....and all I have on VHS are extremely old and cheesy workouts like Paula Abdul. Probably I shouldn't have admitted that I own that on the internet. Oh well. Also, I need to work out at least one weekend day to keep the blood sugars down and the metabolism burning. Which brings me to:

2. At least 2 days a week, I need to do something more intense and longer-lasting. That could be my 40-minute yoga routine or a longer walk with Ben and James somewhere, or whatever. But at least one day on the weekend we can do something a little more active than the usual 30 minutes. I must have this to get somewhere with the weight issue. Maybe later I can think of more things I can do for this. Right now I'm limited to long walks and one yoga routine. I'm worried I'll get bored with that. Hm. Maybe I can also walk Ben home from work on those days. It'll still be boring, but at least it has a tangible reward!

3. As far as food goes...I will eat my vegetable portion first. I will NOT get seconds no matter how good the food is. I will remember that I can always have leftovers for another meal. I will eat slowly. I will remember to drink lots of water.

4. I will try to pay attention to the fact that I need less insulin when I've had extra exercise. For some reason, this is a hard one for me, and I often forget all about the exercise I've had when I'm calculating my insulin dose. Why is that? I'm definitely at the point where I'd rather take less insulin and go up a little, catch it, and take more insulin than take too much insulin and get low like I have been doing.

And if I can do all of THAT during the holiday season, when I am most likely to slack off on new routines and especially exercise because of the extra events we have to go to and all that, and because I'm tired and stressed anyway...then imagine what I can do AFTER the holidays!

I'll be posting on how this plan goes for me. Probably I'll do an update just after Thanksgiving to see how that went and looking ahead to Christmas. Wish me luck!