High Five for Friday

Welcome back to your weekly installment of High Five for Friday, along with Lauren Elizabeth over on her blog.

This week, I'm doing something a little different and sharing something I found on Pinterest the other day. It's actually originally from Buzzfeed, which isn't normally where I go for great advice, especially for weight loss, but I think this one's a winner!

So, this week's High Five for Friday ...5 weeks to cleaning up your diet! I've never made it a secret from anyone about my weight loss issues and have previously posted about it here on the blog. After that "Weight Loss Woes" post, I thought I'd be more motivated to clean up my diet. Well, nope. I scheduled my knee surgery, then postponed it, and life has just gotten in the way. No excuses, that's just how it is. Knee surgery is now one month from yesterday, it's only seven and a half weeks until I head to Vermont for a week for vacation and one of my best friend's weddings, and summer is coming fast. Time to get real with my diet and exercise. My goal is to lose 15 pounds before Vermont, which is doable, but it's going to take real work.

Week 1. Add real fruits and real veggies to every meal. I believe in not starting a program by taking something away from yourself, but adding something in to the mix. This is also going to be a bit of a challenge for me for 2 reasons- 1) I'm a picky eater and 2) I have major texture issues with food. I started off this morning by having an apple. Then a doughnut. Whomp. But at least I tried? I'll try again at lunch. That's all I can do.

Week 2. No more fast foods. This is definitely going to be the most difficult step of all. I've always had a fast food addiction. I can talk myself out of it and go weeks without it, but then, I snap and have it once. Once turns into twice in one day. Then twice in one day becomes seven fast food runs in five days. That's going to stop. I'm going to modify this one from the get-go and not say no fast foods, but I'm saying only once a week. And I'm sticking to it.

Week 3. Give up white breads and grains. Switch to whole wheat bread, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta. Thankfully, this will not be the most difficult for me since I already use whole grain english muffins, breads, and pasta at home. But, it WILL definitely put me on the struggle bus when it comes to biscuits (y'all know this North Carolina girl loves biscuits), pizza crust, and general eating out. However, I know this is one thing I can conquer!

Week 4. Use a fruit or veggie as the base of every snack. Again, I'll be on the struggle bus, but I can handle some apple and peanut butter or carrots and ranch. YUM.

Week 5. No more soda or sugary drinks. This one will be a Coke walk through the park. Get it? Haha. Yes. I haven't been a "real" soda drinker in years, which is great. I only have a full sugar soda when I have a migraine from hell because the caffeine helps and the sugar does, too. I'm altering this week's challenge to include limiting myself to only one day of sweet tea a week, and limiting sweet treats to the same, just like during Lent.

I know this is ALL going to be hard, tough work. But no one else can do it for me. Week 1 officially starts on Monday and I will have an update post every Monday morning about how the previous week went. Feel free to join me on this journey and let me know how you're doing, as well! Here we go! Have a great weekend!

xoxo!