Lean Eating - one step at a time

So yesterday was our first lesson. We had to post a brief bio and our top 3 goals for the Lean Eating (LE) program. Here's mine:

1. Make cardio and strength training an integral part of my daily life--like taking a shower, brushing my teeth. I want to be at the point where it's part of my routine and that there's no decision to be made on a daily basis as to "do I" or "don't I" work out, which always gives me that chance to blow it off. I want it to be where I just get up in the morning and do it as part of my morning routine. I envy people who do that!
   
2. Get myself down to a healthy weight for me, with lower body fat and more lean muscle mass than I have now. Right now, my goal is 150 pounds by the end of this program. As soon as I know what my body fat percentage is, I can set a goal for that as well.
   
3. Get myself to the point where it doesn't matter what nutritional choices other people make, that I choose healthy foods and eat healthy meals automatically.

One of my biggest challenges is that I don't live alone, and my SO isn't exactly what I'd call a 100% healthy eater or regular exerciser (to his credit, he's on his feet, bending and lifting all day at his job). If I "lead by example" in my house and get my family to follow my lead with healthy eating and making time for exercise, it will foster a built-in support system for me at home--if I can get my SO to understand what I'm learning and practicing and see the benefits I'm reaping, it will be that much easier for us to keep the junk food out of the house and focus on preparing healthy meals, and to understand my need for a regular routine of exercise.

I'm committed to making good plans for each week, and want to make one or two "big meals" each Sunday, packaged in individual serving containers to grab on the go during the week. Eating 5 or 6 meals per day requires lots of forethought and planning!

I think my biggest challenge of all will be the amount of exercise required. A minimum of 5 hours per week of resistance, cardio, and recovery exercised will mean Sue has to get her ass out of bed an hour earlier each day to work out, otherwise it won't happen. If I can get up early 4 work days and do a long workout over the weekend, anything over and above that will be icing on the cake (lousy analogy...). I've got the fitness center at work where I can get a treadmill or elliptical workout in, so no doubt my morning workouts at home will be strength training.

We haven't gotten any info on eating yet, but I got the Precision Nutrition system the end of last week and have read through most of it. There are 10 "habits for success" in PN, and it involves having at least 5 or 6 "eating events" (EE) each day--every 2 to 4 hours, having both veggies and a complete protein at every EE, and only having non-veggie/non-fruit carbs in a post-workout (PW) meal. No workout, no carbs. There's a habit for fat intake, and one that requires zero-calorie beverages (except for protein shakes) in place of juice, soda, etc. We should target eating whole foods in as close-to-natural state as possible. The last habit is a fun one--break the rules 10% of the time. I'll be good at that one! :-)

So it looks like we'll be easing into the full program gradually, one step at a time. This will give us a day to digest (pun intended) each day's lesson before moving onto the next layer of the program. Today's lesson was an overview of exercise and what to expect with the program requirements. I'll probably start out with a mix of kettlebells and dumbells for resistance, and definitely treadmill intervals and possibly elliptical intervals for the high-intensity training (HIIT).

This is gonna shake up my world, for sure!!