Taking Charge, Taking Control

Often our lives can spiral out of control and before we know it, we have backslid into something we don't like, or are doing something that is not good for us. When this happens we need to become aware of it. Then we need to change the problem and take control. It is better for us to dictate where we are headed rather than outside influences dictating and pushing us where we shouldn't be.

This has all happened to me recently. I've been on a slow spiral that has slid down to where I don't want to be. I am dangerously close to gaining too much weight back and letting that dictate how my life is going. I tried to deny there was a problem. I didn't want to say anything because I always think I have to be so perfect in order for people to believe in me and therefore believe in themselves that they (and I) CAN make this new lifestyle work!

That is the key word, isn't it? Work. It really is not laborious work, but since we learned that the way we used to live does NOT work, we DO have to learn how to make things work, in the healthier way. We have to be more mindful than the naturally thin folks that we imagine are out there. You know those folks, don't you? They eat everything and don't have a care in the world. We hate them. We imagine every skinny person we see has some sort of advantage over us. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Maybe they do and maybe they don't. One thing is for sure though, WE are not THEM. WE have to work at learning how to live the life we want to live. What works for them, doesn't necessarily work for us.

My excuses for spiraling backasswards are that summer was not conducive to my normal exercise routine. I was sick for a few weeks and that slowed me down. I was distracted by outside stress factors. I didn't feel like it. I thought I could live with being 20+ pounds overweight as long as I kept that initial 100 pounds off. I am too old. I am tired.

I realize this is not going to serve me well...this train of thought of just accepting this is the new me and it is good enough. It is not good enough. I know it. I feel it. I need to own it. The old me would have gained all the weight back and just have had a major pity party about it. The new me is stubbornly refusing to give in. I am not where I would like to be, and I plan to do something about it.

How do I do this? The first thing is to do more than yoga twice a week. That is the ONLY exercising I have been doing....twice a week, yoga class. Good for me for doing that much! Bad for me to not be doing the strength training that I preach and preach and preach to the folks in the support group. How can I be a leader and not do what I say? It really IS good advice!!!

So I plan to do some goal setting in the classes and to set myself up as a model goal maker. Then I plan...I WILL work on achieving those goals. I know I can do this. I have just gotten lazy. My first goal is to incorporate two days a week of strength training. Today was the first day for this week. I plan to do it again on Thursday.

A note about goal setting. What I have in mind will be to commit to two 30 minute strength training sessions per week. Now I CAN do more, but I do not want to do less. That is the secret to successful goals...set them up so that you can easily achieve them. You can increase your goals later, but to start with, make it easy! Then build on that. Remember, when I started my journey, I could only commit to ten minutes a day! Even now I am still committed to two days a week of yoga classes. I need to add the strength training though, so two 30 minutes sessions per week should be quite doable!

I can hardly wait till this current oppressive heat wave is gone! I think that getting back to walking the trails again will help everything too. I miss being able to walk-on!!!

Till next time...just do something!!!