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Get healthy one month at a time
Military spouse
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This time last year, Josh and I started making some changes to our lifestyle to become healthier people.

Little did we know that I'd become pregnant just weeks later and soon would discover that hot dogs and biscuits and gravy were the only things my new pregnant body would let me keep down - not the most healthful meal choices.

Needless to say, our lifestyle change was more of a brief fad that quickly faded into the background of the game-changer that is our daughter, Anastasia. And while she's been worth every pound gained and every gym date missed, I think we've both probably used her as a bit of a crutch to keep us from feeling guilty about our Saturdays spent on the couch and our Chinese delivery suppers.

After talking with my family in Iowa over Christmas, we've decided to take on the challenge of becoming healthier in 2012, one step at a time.

We decided we would make one healthy change in our life each month, then continue with that change while adding the next month's change. By the end of the year, we will have integrated 12 healthy habits into our lifestyle.

The idea was for this plan to be flexible enough to fit a new mom (me), a college student (my brother), a woman who recently had neck surgery (my mom) and a junk-food-aholic police officer (my dad), not to mention my military husband.

In case you're interested, here's the plan:

January: Drink at least 80 ounces of water each day.

February: Eat a fruit and a vegetable each day.

March: Limit junk food to only one time per week.

April: Exercise for 30 minutes every day.

May: Stop drinking all carbonated beverages.

June: Cut back on breads and pastas.

July: Eat a healthy breakfast each day.

August: Don't eat anything two hours before bedtime.

September: Add 20 minutes of cardio exercise two days a week.

October: Start taking a multivitamin.

November: Incorporate strength training.

December: Give up gluttony (overeating.

That's the plan, and I'm sticking to it. The key, I think, is to make a plan that's right for your lifestyle and stick with it. Still, trying and failing is better than never trying at all.

 

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