Choose to Move: Journal #1
July 30, 2002

Colleen Passalacqua Colleen is the Observer-Dispatch features editor. E-mail her at: cpassala@utica.gannett.com.

When I decided to put myself in the public eye and write about my progress in the Choose to Move — Energy for a Better Life program, I knew the only way it would work is if I was really honest with the readers.

Well, here goes my first dose of honesty ... I didn’t move this weekend. I’m not going to make excuses. I made a conscious decision to take this final weekend and just eat and drink whatever I wanted without thinking about eating healthy and without guilt.

So as a new week begins and the first official meeting approaches (we meet at 6 p.m. Wednesdays), I am making a serious effort to eat better and start moving. Monday night I went for my first walk, nothing too long, just 20 minutes at my own pace. That’s better than doing nothing.

My next step will be to go grocery shopping, which is a rare occurrence for me. Usually, I just show up at my parents’ house and eat whatever they had for dinner. If I don’t have time get to their house, I end up eating fast food or something from the closest pizza parlor.

I know, not exactly a model diet. That’s exactly why I’m attending this program.

There are a couple of helpful hints I have learned since I got started. If you don’t want to drink alcoholic beverages when you go out, drink club soda with a splash of cranberry juice. I hate club soda, so the cranberry juice makes it much more palatable. You can substitute any juice you’d like just to give it some taste. Make sure it’s just a splash though, because fruit juices have a lot of sugar.

Also, the president of the Utica Roadrunners, Mary MacEnroe, told me to take my weight and divide it in half to figure out how many ounces of water I should be drinking per day. I better get drinking!