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!!!

Oh no, she's going batty!

MY time of year is around the corner! I feel so jazzed! We have had a week of a fall weather teaser. The humidity is low, the temps are lower than the air conditioner setting and gasp...I have been able to open the windows! OH what joy and rapture that is!

I love fall. October is my birth month. The air is crisper. The kid is back in school. I am free to do things on my time line. I am pumped.

I am also a little batty. I changed my tracker at the beginning of my blog page to show some bats. I'd like to see if I can loose 25 pounds. I am not sure I can, but I am ready to make some changes to see what might happen. This is not an unreasonable goal. I just don't know for sure if I will do it. Stay tuned to find out!

The good news, to me anyway, is that I have the food part of the equation down. I have not been calorie counting for several months. My weight is staying pretty much the same. I have really slacked off on my exercise though. That is about to change. (insert eerie mysterious music here)

Speaking of changes, here is a shot of part of the trail I like going on, near my house:

 

Yesterday I took a different route home. It goes right by this area of my trail. 

I was shocked to see what happened to my beautiful trail when looking the other way:

It had been scalped!!! It used to be just as pretty as the first photo. The actual old trail bed is there in the center. On the left is Locust Street. There used to be trees and landscaping filling in the left side ditch. On the right side were trees with a pretty stream flowing through it. Now it is just ugly!

I am not sure if this means they will be paving this section or not. I know there was a lot of tree damage from the storms we had last winter, but I didn't think it warranted taking out all those trees! It hurts to think of the birds and other animals that were un-homed because this happened now...after many nests would have been established. And the pretty stream with the rock slab sides...it used to be so natural and serene looking!
Sigh....sometimes progress seems like such a bad thing.

I hope to be posting more again, as my life changes into fall/winter mode. Until next time, walk-on!!!

It feels like summer is more than half overwith!

I recently did a body fat test, using one of those gizmos that runs a current through your body. It doesn't hurt by the way. Now if you have a pacemaker, it could hurt you, so use with caution, if you do use such a tool. It showed I had a little over 38% body fat. I should be about 5% lower for my age.

According to the manual that came with it, I should weigh about 165 pounds. This new information gave me pause to consider setting that as a goal-weight to achieve. I would have 24-25 pounds to lose. Do I want to really put in the changes to achieve this? I honestly am not sure yet.

I saw this on FaceBook the other day and thought it worth sharing:

Clever!!!

Some of you know that I struggle with self perception. I found this photo of five women who all weigh 150 pounds:

I feel like I look like the second woman from the left. Today I am not so concerned with what I look like I weigh. I know, to most others, that I am at least a little overweight but not grossly so. I can live with that...for today. Tomorrow I might change my mind. I am female. I can do that if I want to...so there!

Have you ever wondered how some of those diet ads get their before and after photos? Take a look at this one:

Would it surprise you to know that this was a before and after that was stolen from someones blog? And that it took at least a year for her to lose her weight? She did not put the days on there, the ad-stealers did. Her name is Roni. I like her, and her blog, a lot! You should visit her blog that she calls Roni's Weigh. She shares so much information (and has two adorable little boys). She was none too pleased about her photo being used. Then, to add insult to injury, the FaceBook comments were not very nice either! Some of the comments were that she looked anorexic, had no fashion sense, and that she looked better in the first picture.

Why are fat people so despised? I've seen some really nasty comments on other blogs. I have not gotten any here yet. I say yet, and hope it never happens. Roni has a good attitude about this all and is attempting to get her photo taken off the pill pushing web site it appeared on. I don't blame her for being angry! I don't know if I could have been as gracious about it all.

Anyway, this goes to show, as if we didn't already know, that those miracle ads do not guarantee that the people in their photos are real representatives of users of their products. I hate, hate, hate, loath, detest, and despise those who exploit the fluffy among us and who to try to make a buck off of us and our vulnerability.

People, people, people...it is all about LIFESTYLE CHANGES!!! It is not going to be found in a miracle drug, a shot, a surgery, starvation, or without being able to move at least a little bit. It is not that hard! Really!

Ok, off my soapbox now.
I hope you are all having a wonderful end to the summer! School will soon be back in session and I hope to make a few changes to see what I might be able to do with those 25 pounds. Best of all, when the weather turns cooler I will again be able to.....

WALK ON

dear readers
walk on.....