whole-body detox

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas! I had fun seeing family and friends all week, and enjoying my first paid vacation of my lifetime. I got my own health insurance card in the mail today too... I feel like such a big girl.

So my new goal (not a resolution... a real goal) is to detox my body by February. I'm really happy that I lost some weight last year, don't get me wrong... I just think I can improve my health. Generally I've been feeling strung out, tired, bloated, and no-good. I blame it on bad food and bad habits. I'm not terrible: I do know to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, exercise, and sleep. But it doesn't seem like enough, and motivation is quite hard to come by some days. So I figure having a plan might help. I'm not posting the plan only for readership, but really just because I need to write it down somewhere and make it final. So here goes:

The Plan
I'm going to use this old Pilates video tape (yes, I still own a few video tapes) every day until I can move up to the intermediate class tape, which I might just splurge on and buy the DVD version of. (Kidding, I'm too embarrassed to get in a checkout line with VHS these days). But I started this tonight, and it was a good start.

I will hit the gym for some cardio at least three times a week, and I'm going to keep a record of it. I have a free mini-gym here, and I don't know why I don't use it more. Wait... maybe because my key didn't work when I tried to go tonight? I'll get that fixed. Or I'll save up for a membership to something with more than six machines.

I'm going to stop eating out for lunch at work, because that's been a huge source of oily Chinese food, processed meat, and sugar-loaded soda for months.

In addition, I'm going to do some better meal planning when I have time. Meal planning in the past has consisted of me getting hungry while working, deciding I'm going to stop by Food Lion on the way home, and grabbing random things to throw together. I have great cookbooks with low-fat options in them, and they are getting dusty... why not use them instead? I like to think the things I choose to have in my apartment all have some beneficial properties. (Whether they are actually useful may never be known until I move again and give away a third of my possessions like I did this summer).

One thing that I really don't know how to handle though is my coffee habit. Ever since I started full-time in the 9 to 5 industry, I've been drinking coffee to get going. I only drink one cup per day though. Any thoughts on whether this is detrimental to my health, or if only one is okay? I guess the main thing with me in the mornings is that my sinuses are usually stuffy, and as a result I'm hazy for a few hours after waking up.

Lastly I've promised myself that I will go get a physical with my new doctor, whenever I get that set up. It will just be good to know where I stand with everything health-wise, and maybe I won't worry so much.

So here's to 2008! (It's not so strange saying that this year because I have been entering these future dates into databases at work for months now. Ha!) I hope everyone else is having a great weekend.