Who says New Year Resolutions have to start in January?

Sooo....I wasn't quite ready to start my "be healthier" resolution on January 1st.  For one thing, we went down to Florida for New Year's Eve and were traveling back to South Carolina with some serious hangovers, so stopping at McDonald's and ordering ten different things off the menu was a MUST.  Also, between friends visiting, football Sundays and it being cold outside, I simply was not ready.

I didn't really want to follow any of the popular "fad" diets, mostly because I did not want to spend the money to join, buy their food, commit to meetings, etc.  So I have to decided to do this a little like I follow (or do not follow) a recipe.  Luckily I have a lot of time on my hands so I've been gathering information all over the internet and in magazines and kind of putting together my own regimen.

Here are a few of the resources I am using:
-MyFitnessPal -I have this App on my Iphone. I input everything I eat and my exercises for the day to track calories in and calories out.  My target number of calories is 1200.
-All You- I was introduced to this magazine by a friend that has made a healthier lifestyle over the last year and lost quite a bit of weight.  I started buying this magazine for all the coupons and money saving tips, but I have found their Health & Fitness section to be very informative and useful.
-Anita's Tried and True Recipes- I found this website years ago and have tried several of the lowfat/ low calorie recipes from it and they are actually pretty good.
-Spark People- I also have this App on my Iphone and suprisingly I often look at the Vegetarian and Vegan recipes (my husband is unaware of this), not because I EVER have plans to become a Vegetarian or Vegan but eliminating meat from a few meals a week can not only cut on cost but also calories.

As for exercise I am doing a "Train for a 5K" workout plan that trains every other day.  I thought since I have not ran in awhile and just taking off and running sucks my will to live, I need to take this gradual approach.  For example, week one I do three repititions of walking five minutes and running two minutes on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.  Although it seems rather easy this week, I think this is a more attainable route.  On the days I don't run I am doing strength exercises at home.

I'm only on day 3 of this plan so we will see how this goes.  I think seeing that pool in our backyard is going to be quite a bit of motivation, I don't really want to blind the new neighbors come summertime!

Next step will be stocking up on healthier foods and snacks.....