There are a lot of New Years Resolution folks here who are both posting and lurking and I've been reading threads on several forums where people are sharing their new habits and goals.
Now I'm no expert - I've been on plan about 2 months now so I consider myself maybe just a little past newbie (or n00b as my gamer friends would say) but I had a couple thoughts I wanted to share.
1. Ok it's day 5 if you already feel like quitting that's normal - gut it out! Try to stick with your plan until the calendar says February. Even if you've completely gone off plan for the last two days just jump right back on.
2. If you are struggling with your plan it's probably too hard. The main motivation for this post was seeing people who were trying to change eating habits, sleeping habits, work out habits, smoking habits and more all at once. If your plan feels hard slow down because slow and steady is still better than giving up. Try changing one thing for a few days. Once you get a handle on that add in something else.
I know from my own experience that in the past I failed because I tried to do too many things at once. This time is a lot different and more motivating because I started slowly and I've seen greater progress than in times past when I tried to change it all at once.
3. Don't let the scale/measuring tape get you down. Yeah yeah we all say we know we will have ups and downs but when the scale goes up a lot of time we want to throw in the towel. DON'T. It's a blip. An anomaly. Going off plan or giving up is certainly not going to fix it.
Ok well that's the gist of what I was thinking.
Marine snipers have a saying: "Fast is smooth, smooth is slow, slow is fast." I think it has all kinds of applications to weight loss. The fastest way to lose weight is often to slow down and do one thing at a time, do it well, and not recklessly try to change everything all at once.
A suggestion
Whatever muscles are right below the breasts were hurting constantly and my legs were aching. I am just now pain-free, lol. I was out of town for the weekend and didn't do actual exercise, but I spent a lot of time shopping and walking through stores and malls. Today I am going to try the workout again, hopefully it won't hurt as bad. I'm wanting to get outside walking again, but I have a cold right now so I'm waiting until it clears up because it's so frigid outside.
