Week Two: Wrap up

Better late than never! I haven’t been updating, but I have been following this program! I thought I would go ahead and post for the past weeks. Starting with…

THE NUMBERS GAME

• September 5th: 137.6lbs
• October 12th: 138.8lbs
• Weekly Loss: +1.2lbs
• Total Loss: 0.8lbs

ACTION STEPS SUMMARY

Eating Well

I did manage to shop for a healthy pantry, keep my food journal, and practice mindful eating in that second week. However, I didn’t always eat what I should have.

Getting Fit

I didn’t workout at all. I know I should have, but I really couldn’t find my motivation at all. Which is most likely why I had a gain. Normally I work out enough to counter-balance my less than perfect eating habits.

Feeling Good

This I managed to do! The 5 minute breather and practicing mindfulness each day kept me sane and focused even when I wasn’t doing everything else I should have been doing.

Recharged: It's All New Again!

It’s so funny. I used to have a very contentious relationship (in my head) with WW.  There were times when I loved it (actually, this was wayyyy back in the beginnning, when I first joined in 1997), times when I felt “eh” and other times when I was outright angry. I was one of Those Members who sat in the back row, arms folded, with an “I dare you to tell me what to do” look on my face. There were times when I paid to go to meetings for three or four months and my weight never budged. Or it went up and down the same two pounds over and over. I just was not ready (or willing, at ALL) to do the program. I’ve never had any doubt in my mind that if you do the WW program, it will work. The problem is all the junk in the way of DOING it.

Yesterday I received my leader prep materials for November, plus a preview package of some things that are new to the program for 2010. I got so excited! I pored over every single piece of paper, word, drawing with huge eyes. WOWEE! I kept nodding my head, saying, “Yeah, that’s right!”

But I remember getting those weekly booklets and just tossing them into the recycling. At one point, it was just all “blah blah blah blah” like Charlie Brown’s teacher. There was just no reception for it.

Last night I did a little practice bit of a meeting, no more than two minutes, at my regular meeting. We are supposed to share something about our own personal WW journey. As I talked, I was surprised (no? should I be surprised? Ha) that I got a little emotional about it.

I talked about how I first joined WW in 1997 when I was preparing to go to a high school reunion. I wanted to look good, or at least decent. I probably was 25-30 lbs over my high school days at that point. So, I got allllllmmmmmmmmost to my goal weight, but not quite. I was about 4-5 lbs shy at the reunion. Then it was over. I went home. All my incentive had evaporated. I stopped being “OP” (on plan). All that weight (plus more) boomeranged right back at me. That was my first mistake: to have a specific goal, and then not replacing it with a new goal right away. Oops.

Thus began my in-and-out, love-hate relationship with WW. I came and went many times more over the next several years, but never really had the same enthusiasm as my first time. Then it was replaced with dread and hatred as I failed over and over again. Until this last January, when I was in such a state of desperation with my diabetes diagnosis. Even then, I sort of slunk in to the meeting. I sort of did the program.

It wasn’t until I was within fingers’ reach of my goal that I woke up and realized what it had all done for me. And then I started maintenance, which is a whole ‘nother ball of wax, as they say. It’s then that I started really paying attention, and really complying. Really reading the materials and seeing what value they had for me. Really GETTING IT.

I don’t want to get all WW-evangelical on y’all, but this training has really opened my eyes even MORE to what a good, solid, comprehensive program this is. And if people engage with it, and really take in everything it has to offer, it’s such good stuff. Truly.

I Got My Swine Flu Shot Today (and Albert Camus Would Have Gotten His Swine Flu Shot Too)

“No man is an island. Each is a part of the main.”

This afternoon my wife, my three and five year old daughters, and I all went to the doctor to get our swine flu shots. We got our regular flu shots and our pneumonia vaccinations last month. How about you? Will you be protecting yourself, your family, and your community from the spread of a global pandemic (which hits pregnant women and children hardest)? Will you rise to the existential occasion?

A few months back, Obsidian Wings invited a guest blog post on swine flu, co-written by an immunologist and bioethicist. The advice that they offered on swine flu amounted to a list of Albert Camus-like existential responsibilities that we have to one another in the midst of a potential pandemic. I couldn’t help but think of Camus’s novel, The Plague, and the novel’s protagonist (the good Dr. Rieux) as being akin to the two doctors who wrote the post. Here’s one of their recommendations:

One possible social distancing measure that public health authorities could ask us to undertake is to stay at home for a period of time. A basic principle of emergency preparedness is that each of us should have sufficient food and water in our homes to last our families in such an eventuality. Now is the time to make sure that your family is well provisioned, not only to protect yourselves but also out of recognition that some families do not have the money or stable housing required to stockpile food. If those of us who have the means take care of our own needs, it will be easier for the government and community organizations to take care of those who do not.

And another:

If you haven’t done so already, now is a good time to get to know your neighbors. Find out if any of them may need a little extra help dealing with this public health threat. People who live alone, for example, may appreciate your checking in with them from time to time, and elderly neighbors may need your help stocking up on food.

Read their full post here.

Rest week fail

I woke up this morning full of nervous energy about starting my job tomorrow.  I took Milhouse for a walk and realized that it was an absolutely gorgeous day out, and my legs were finally starting to feel normal again.  So I decided to run just for the fun of it.  I mean, look at this–blue skies, green grass, pretty leaves, 55 degrees.  I couldn’t ask for nicer running weather.

I decided to keep it short and keep it in the neighborhood, where the hills aren’t very steep.  I ran about 2 miles in 20:00 and then did a short cool-down walk.  Unfortunately, the run wasn’t as enjoyable as I had hoped–my lungs just do not like chilly weather.

Rewind: when I was little, I had REALLY bad asthma.  I couldn’t go outside in the fall (I’m incredibly allergic to most trees and dead leaves are the worst), and I couldn’t do any physical activity.  Gym class was miserable for me–I remember having to run “THE MILE” twice a year and just wanting to die.  I would get so nervous about it because I KNEW I was going to fail.  I would try to run with my friends but I just couldn’t.  I’d fall back and be embarrassed and try to push and wind up coming in last and having to go to the school nurse for my inhaler.  I don’t doubt that this is part of the reason I avoided exercise growing up.  By junior high, I was starting to outgrow it, and now, until I recently started running outside, I haven’t had trouble with it since then.  I went off my asthma medications, and I can do just about everything without having breathing trouble.

Except run outside.  Today, I got home, and for about half an hour, I felt like I was being absolutely strangled.  Now I’m coughing and wheezing.  It’s the scariest feeling.  I hate to admit it’s back, but I think it is, and I think I need to go back to the doctor for some kind of treatment.  I can’t let this stop me–I’ve got a half marathon to run!

What are your physical challenges?  How have you overcome them?

Let Me Back Up A Little

I had threatened to leave my ex-husband when our son was just a few months old.

I was already very dismayed by the game of golf. The infatuation was growing and the game was taking on a new role in his life. Everything he did, he did so that he would have more time to play golf and then he would always say that it was never interfering with family time.

He owned and operated an auto detailing business and he eventually found employees to work the business for him. He would leave for the day and play golf while his workers stayed and worked.

I threatened to leave and take our children with me because of this event I am writing of next.

He had planned a golf overnighter with a buddy of his that took him three hours away from home.

First understand that golf is always a preplanned event and usually is not something that is ever cancelled. Second, and this became a joke that wasn’t so funny after a while, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

So he has a golf trip planned that is in fact a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” In the morning, before he leaves, our daughter wakes up not feeling well and has a fever so I can not take her to day care.

Because I am so easy going I say that I will cancel all my appointments at the salon and see if they want to come to the house.

This, mind you, I have wanted to stop working and my husband keeps telling me no, that it isn’t time yet for me to quit.

So I Have clients come to the house that day.

After the day is done and my children are in bed sleeping I became extremely mad and angry. I couldn’t believe what I had allowed to happen. I began to write a letter to my husband. I wrote down many things and then I pieced it all together.

When my husband returned from his “once in a lifetime opportunity” I was waiting for him with the letter. I handed it to him as he walked in the door and I asked him to read it and when he was done he had some thinking to do because I was very serious. I told him things had to change.

Honestly, I’m really not sure how things really changed or if they did.

I had told him in the letter that I could not believe how completely convenient I had made his life for him.

I was never the wife who told him he could or could not do something. I let him go, do and be. He was very blessed because all I ever heard from his friends was “I wish my wife was like you.”

Four years later we moved to Arizona. To a golf resort. We built custom spec home for a living and we were very successful. We had purchased two lots sight unseen in Arizona and we finally sold out of Colorado and made the move. I was excited because I wanted warm weather.

Things went pretty good although before our first year was up I flipped a gasket one night. I actually threw something at him. I do not recall what I threw. I had never done anything like that before. I was enraged. Definitely something I don’t enjoy remembering. There I am completely enraged and he LAUGHS at me.

That hurt. As I look back on it and writing about it now. He just didn’t care. He was going to do whatever he wanted anyway. The pattern was already set in place. He could go, do and be.

I obviously just lived with it. I just played along like I had the perfect husband and the perfect marriage. And to tell you the truth, I don’t think I played as in pretended, it’s just the way it was.

He still to this day says “you shouldn’t have let us move to a golf community resort then.” “You knew where we were going.”

Yes, that’s all fine and true. We were moving here to make a living building custom spec homes. So once again while he was out playing golf. “I’m doing business.” “Tell people when they call that I’m in my office.”  And, I did. And when my husband called so I could send faxes, look up papers etc… I was the mom, the wife, the business worker and then I was expected to go “out” and I did all those things. We had babysitters constantly. I played along. This isn’t the family life I wanted. This was so out of control.

We had it made. We had a great marriage, two beautiful children, a great place to live, and money. We didn’t have to worry about anything.

so I tried

Okay, I set out today to work out to the 30 minute shred on exercise TV on OnDemand.  I already knew I was out of shape but I realized I have a bigger and more uncomfortable issues. I am lets say a big chested girl of the G cup variety. even with a supportive bra on it was actually painful to do jumping jacks or anything that caused the boobs to bounce. I don’t think I can do this program.

I’m going to find another mix of exercise programs and walking to help me get fit and toned.

The Benefits of Core Strength

Everybody wants a flat, toned stomach (or maybe even six-pack abs!), but what is so important about core exercises?  At FusionSouth, we stress core exercises in almost every training session we put clients through. We all know that core exercises are important from a superficial standpoint as well as from a physiological standpoint, but what makes that so? In this post, we will discuss why core strength is so important to the daily life (and looks) of every person interested in living a healthier lifestyle.

The Physiological Benefits of Core Strength
Abdominal exercises are crucial aspects of any health and fitness regimen for those who are suffering from back problems. If you are a back pain sufferer, then you must start doing proper abdominal exercises to take pain and pressure away from the problem areas. Abdominal exercises strengthen the muscles around the back and help ameliorate pain and discomfort around those problem areas; by doing proper abdominal exercise, people with back problems can avoid future back issues, as well as improve their pre-existing condition through better posture, stamina, and back strength.

The Superficial Benefits of Core Strength
Everyone wants to look trim, fit, and healthy, and most people want their clothes to fit and look better. The best way to look and feel trim, fit, and healthy is through proper body posture and tone. Regular abdominal exercises are essential to maintaining proper body tone and posture, and are crucial to help prevent excess fat, bulkiness and bloating around the stomach and waistline. By maintaining your waistline, stomach, and hips, core strengthening exercises help in posture, which in turn helps your clothes to fit and look better, and makes your time in a swimsuit at the beach that much more enjoyable.

So remember – core strength is important for all athletes to possess. Treat your body and your lower back well in the future by building a strong, flexible and fit core starting today! Be well!