Non-negotiables

Well, as I near the finish line of my weight loss journey and have established excellent eating and exercise habits, I think it's a perfect time to formally decide and commit to what my non-negotiable behaviours are for living that healthy life indefinitely now. Switching from a weight loss mindset to a more relaxed, "this is just how I live my life" mindset will be a bit of a challenge for me. A pleasant one though!

One thing that has TOTALLY blown me away about this weight loss journey first though .. and I touched on it in my previous post. As a result of my regular exercise, my building up of muscle bulk and regularly eating those 5 meals a day has really had a huge impact on my metabolism. As I came within a few kgs of my goal (which is based on a bodyfat percentage, Mr Harper - before you say I wasn't listening when you answered my questions in your post recently!), my weight loss seemed to slow a bit .. and even getting REALLY sharp with the diet didn't help. What did though, was a little more cardio (just as a boost - not ongoing), and eating MORE .. including some naughty stuff!  Go figure. Last weekend really stunned me though.

I ate very little in 48hrs that was good.  And what I did eat included cheese, crackers, salami, cheesecake (several slices), mudcake (quite a few slices), bacon & eggs, chocolate, maltesers and chicken schnitzel, all washed down with large doses of white wine and coke!  I weighed myself the day after this, and was 1kg heavier than the day before I started my little pig-fest. Which at the time I was pretty damn pleased about ... very minimal damage, I thought. But what blew me away totally, was to get on the scales this morning and see my weight had dropped by over 1kg from last week, INCLUDING that big binge. And I only did about 1/3 of my normal exercise this week!  Very bizarre. But obviously the body likes to be totally shocked every now and then - inspires it to think that it has NO REASON to hang on to any fat if I'm going to feed it like that occasionally! (Something to keep in mind when you're close to your goal weight and getting frustrated at how it's slowed down.)

OK, so back to my non-negotiables:

• Eat 5 meals a day (including prior preparation when working again)
• Weigh myself and measure bodyfat once a fortnight (eventually once a month)
• Do strength training on each muscle group at least once per week
• Attend at least 2 karate classes per week
• Do at least one 30min run per week
• Do at least 2 x 25min interval training sessions on Stairmaster per week
• Get at least 8hrs sleep per night

They're a start and they're based on what I've been doing, so should be readily converted into my "normal" life, rather than being part of that dogged focus to achieve the weight-loss goals, if that makes sense. There are others that include reading, meditation and other internal self-development that I'd like to include, but not until I'm already doing them ... which will be part of my next phase of goals. (I don't see the point of setting up too many non-negotiables that I probably won't achieve and end up feeling like I'm failing. Rather, I'll call them non-negotiables when I've been doing them with focus, but it's time to do them just as part of normal life.)

Any thoughts? Have I missed any, do you think? Am I setting myself up for lifelong health and fitness well, or could I be doing somethings better? I'm always interested in others' perspectives and experiences. When it comes to improvement, steal shamelessly, I say!