Another week, another chance

I learned to diet when I was 12 years old. That was when it was suddenly noticed that I was too heavy for my age (read no longer cute to be so chubby) and the pediatrician put me on a diet... that included diet pills... diet pills for a seventh grader, sheesh. It's been a life long struggle for me and sometimes I get so tired of having my entire life revolve around my weight. Due to this lifetime of dieting, I tend to evaluate my weight loss program and goals on Mondays. While I'm not gaining, let's say that I'm having limited success losing the 20 pounds that my sister and I are trying to lose together. She was the slim one in the family and doesn't have this particular life experience under her belt, but is now experiencing her own version of "the battle of the bulge". At the risk of sounding like I bounce from one plan (I have tried the above mentioned diet pills, OTC pills, Metracal, Ayds reducing candies, Slim Fast, WW, Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Addicts diet, the 7-up and nabs plan, the hamburger and egg diet, cabbage soup...just to name a few) to another, last week I participated in Karen's "ask the trainers" segment of her blog. Based on what I told them, they confirmed what I have known all along. Strength training. I need to add more strength training to my daily routine. When the experts tell you this, it's a bit different from already knowing what you need to do. Knowing what you need to do and doing it are two different things.

I am also doing some research on Web, MD that is quite motivating. You can get a personalized plan based on a series of questions that you answer. I know that you all must get bored of hearing me talk about losing weight and never losing any. It really is frustrating, especially when you "carry your weight" as well as I do. I am otherwise extremely healthy, take no meds and not to "toot my own horn" still look pretty good. All that being said, I do know I am really going to have to ramp things up a bit.

Wahhh, I want to wave a magic wand or snap my fingers and be slim again. Ahhh, well.

Self imposed rules

I did something yesterday. I broke one of my self imposed rules. For some reason, I have made it a hard and fast rule, that in order to walk on the treadmill, I have to have exercise pants on. Yesterday I decided to find out why I had made this rule. I am such a rebel...I just turned the machine on and walked in jeans and guess what? Nothing unusual happened. I didn't get too hot, or too tired or too anything.

So perhaps this weekend would be a good time to re-evaluate your rules. Are they legitimate or or they excuses?

Think about it and act on it. You'll be glad you did.

Have a great weekend.

Saturday's Child

Remember trying to figure out what day your were born, so you would understand this little poem?

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I'm a Saturdays child and I used to bemoan the fact that I would have to work for a living. As we know as adults, anything worth doing takes a little bit of work. I must say that I have done quite well this week "working" my Larry North plan. I am keeping a journal of everything I eat and I am learning that I need to be more consistent in the times that I eat, seems that I am not eating often enough and on week two I will be working more on that. I didn't lose a huge amount of water weight, like I used to back when I was younger, but I did lose two pounds and one inch from my waist.

The treadmill walking is working for me and since I have a radio/cd player close by, I am motivating myself with some peppy music. This week I'm listening to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers greatest hits and it's working really well, several fast songs followed by a slower ballad to catch my breath to. Twice this week I challenged myself to walk 60 minutes instead of 30 and while it really was a challenge, it felt good.

Well, that's it for me for today. I hope everyone is hanging in there and being good to themselves. Staying healthy, whether it is losing weight, exercising more, or eliminating negative influences, in the long run, is for you and you only. If you make choices that keep you from being the best you can be, while someone else may pout or fuss, it's actually you that suffers. So rethink some of the "not so great" choices you may have made recently and make some changes. You'll be glad. I always am.

And for all my friends that are celebrating Mother's Day this weekend, hope you have a great day. No moms left in our family, but we will be remembering them on Sunday, just as we do every day...fondly and with laughter and love.

Take care and have a great weekend.

May 1st

Well, my trip to Cali is over and I'm back in my old routine. That's not so good. For some reason that old routine has gradually come back to mindlessly eating peanuts by the handful for fiber. That old routine seems to think that when the hubby wants treats, that I need treats too. That old routine seems to include watching television during the day and sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time, when I could be up and puttering around.

When my sister and I were together, we were on the go. Now I know that we were trying to pack in all the sister goodness that we could in those three days, but it did get me thinking about how little I move on a daily basis. When I was going from one end of the airport to the other, I was moving like crazy. My two months of treadmill work really helped there. Man, it felt good, being able to move like that while carrying two shoulder bags. I was passing people like I was a young gal.

While out in California, I was surprised to see numerous real size ladies, as well as some quite obese folks. This is surprising because when I started going out to see my sister seven years ago, everywhere we went we were the only ones who weren't skinny minnies. I was glad to see the real size gals, but was thinking about the obese ones. Were these the real size gals from seven years ago. I'll bet so.

Thoughts like these, and the fact that I couldn't find any slacks that fit me exactly the way I wanted, led me to offering up a challenge to my sisters. We discussed that we thought realistically we could all lose twenty pounds by my next visit in October. Basically there are twenty or twenty 0ne weeks until my next trip and I know that you are supposed to be able to lose 1-2 pounds a week on a healthy plan. So that's the challenge. Lose twenty pounds by October. Can I do it this time? I'm praying that I can. I don't want to be one of the real size chicks that ends up being morbidly obese in five years.

For the first three weeks, I'm going to use Larry North's 21 day plan, Slim Down For Life. Although it is a ten year old publication, it's still a good guideline to get me back on portion control, as well as eating three meals and two snacks. I tend to either graze all day, or not eat at all and then overeat at dinner.

We all know that exercise is a great way to ramp up weight loss and good health in general and he lists lots of one minute exercises that almost anyone can do. I plan on adding these moves to my current program of treadmill walking and I'm sure as each day goes by, I'll have more energy and drive to continue.

So that's it for me today. The first of a new month, a great time to start getting healthy. My last treat was a strawberry shortcake with ice cream at the local Strawberry festival. Hey, it's to support the kids.

Look at the heart shape randomly formed by two strawberry slices, aww it loves me as much as I love it.

Have a great weekend and let me know if you are interested in cheering me on in my six month challenge. Join me if you want. Come on, it'll be fun!