I used to dread Mondays. They meant back to work, loss of freedom, etc. Now I wish there were more. For some reason Mondays are motivating to me – a chance to start with a clean slate – refreshed goals, new determination.
I’m kind of frustrated right now with my efforts to lose the lard, so I am signing up with cronometer, a calorie counting website recommended by our son awhile back. I’m going to start fresh, log what I’m eating, log my exercising, etc. to give myself a fresh look. Then, based on what I’m seeing, I’ll make tweaks in what I’m doing and see if I can get back on track again and make some serious progress.
Lately, I have been letting my yard work stand for my time on the elliptical trainer, and just doing my yoga. I’ve sloughed off the exercise with weights, as well. I tell myself that I’m up, working hard in the yard, and that should count for something.
Maybe it DOES in the larger scheme of things, but I DO feel a difference. The yard work is good, but it really doesn’t make me feel like I do when I’ve spent 20 to 35 minutes on the elliptical or done my arm exercises with the weights.
I read about endorphins and the people who wax eloquent about how great they feel after exercise. They are energized, high on life, etc. Sadly, not so for me.
The yoga does stretch me out, something I need more and more as I age. I don’t fold myself into a paper airplane, pretzel shape, or stand on my head, but I DO go through a routine that stretches every part of me. It makes me more flexible. My pain diminishes. I feel good about my efforts and that’s good.
I realize that I may never actually feel an endorphin. Right now I don’t think I would know one if it slapped me in the face, but that’s okay. I would like to look forward to my exercise – at least a little bit – instead of doggedly adding it to my desk calendar and giving myself a gold star when I actually do what I should.
Each day is a new day, though – a new chance to eat right and make myself strong.
It’s difficult to stick to a diet when there is another person involved. I KNOW. I should be strong enough to make my own decisions and not eat even though my husband is, but it is what it is.
Saturday we were good. We didn’t do snacks and we both enjoyed less of a smirk from the scales. Sunday I was all set to continue that, but my husband asked me mid-afternoon if I would fix him a bagel with cream cheese. I did that, and, of COURSE I also had a snack….
Sometimes we enjoy no-sugar-added ice cream before bed. I was being strong, and then my husband was beside me with a chocolate ice cream bar…
AND – to top it all off – I was downstairs reading at 2:30 this morning, not able to sleep, and had a snack….
So the sweet animal in the picture above and I are both feeling stuffed and guilty this morning.
I am determined to make TODAY a good day, though, eating right and doing my exercises, drinking lots of water, etc. I will ask my husband to help me be strong – NOT bringing me things I shouldn’t be eating, and I will try to be sleepy enough to sleep through the night so I won’t be tempted by the fridge calling to me… :0)
My scales are laughing and me and smirking. I’m not getting on them every day, since I’m juggling two pounds back and forth over and over. I’m continuing to concentrate on one day at a time, watching what I’m eating and doing my exercises of weights and yoga MWF, and elliptical trainer and yoga T-Th-S.
I’m going back this morning to MyFitnessPal.com I had figured since we are eating mainly good, real food with portion control from Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’, I didn’t have to do that, but I’m going to start it again to find out for sure how many calories I’m eating.
Dieting with my husband complicates things. He is very happy with what we’re doing now, and that’s very important to me. If I were by myself, though, I would be doing keto.
The MyFitness Pal will give me a better idea of what I’m consuming versus my exercising, so hopefully that will help.
I’m doing exercises with weights 3 times a week. On M-W-F, I do one 3-minute session with Denise Austin online, and then two or three more short sessions during the day. I started out with 5-pound weights, then learned the obvious lesson that I should have started with lighter ones. I’m now using 3-lb weights. My arms tired VERY quickly, so my sessions are short, but I do multiple sessions, trying to making up for my pathetic-ness.
I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks now and am beginning to feel a difference. I’m beginning to have an easier time with the sessions. I am rebounding faster between sessions. I am now doing a session, then doing something else, then coming back and doing another doing exercises different than the ones online, over and over during the weight days. My arms are SO bad that it may never be that others notice any difference. I don’t care. I am feeling a bit stronger, so it feels as if my time is well spent.
Combined with my elliptical trainer on T-Th-S and my yoga stretches daily, I feel I’m doing a good thing for myself.
I’m keepin’ on keepin’ on regarding my efforts to lose the lard. My old body is stubborn, but I’m eating right, exercising, either going by my routine or working outside in the garden. I’m trying to drink all the water. My efforts vary, but yesterday was a 4-bottle day. Nothing exciting to report, but efforts continue.
This is my square foot garden. I finished the weeding of the six 4’x4′ foxes. The next step is to spray the soil alternative with EIGHT to kill the bugs and KILLzAll to take care of any weed roots I missed. Finally, I’ll cover the boxes with tarps to stay until the next planting time. The heat index today and tomorrow are supposed to be around 110 F., so I’ll do what I can in the mornings and then wait until the next day.
The onions are drying now. The sun, wind, and any rain will work together so I can put them in mesh bags and hang them on hooks in the pantry soon. I’ll check when we get back from doing errands to see if we have any ripe tomatoes to gather.
Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. As usual, I would appreciate a quiet day.
I’m a “Good Girl” this morning. This doesn’t happen often, so I have to pat myself on the back while telling you about it. :0)
I told you that my plan was to work in the garden this morning. Many times my plans go awry, I get distracted, my husband wants me to help him do something, or I’m just plain lazy. I have good INTENTIONS, but it just doesn’t get done.
I’ve just come back from working in the garden! I harvested as many onions as I could find and then weeded three of the six raised garden boxes. I did NOT get bitten/stung by a swarm of red ants! On the way back to the house, I spread the onions out on the trailer edge. I unhooked hoses. I am cooling off and glugging a bottle of cold water as I type.
I am substituting my work in the garden for the elliptical trainer exercise I was scheduled to do, and am putting a gold star on my calendar. I PLAN to do my yoga practice as usual this afternoon. :0)
So far, it looks like I won’t have to mix and spread Mel’s Mix. The three boxes I weeded today were fine on the amount of soil alternative.
The PLAN is to finish weeding tomorrow morning, harvesting any remaining onions. Then all I’ll need to do is cover the boxes with tarps and take down and store the irrigation control from the outdoor faucet.
Due to nothing that I can figure out, I GAINED 6/10ths of a pound yesterday. :0(
I ate as usual, drank three bottles of water, did 20 minutes on my elliptical trainer, and did my yoga practice.
Today we go to Lunch Bunch. As usual, I’ll eat HALF and bring the other half of my chicken strips home and use them in our chef salad dinner tonight. Exercise today is three short session with my weights and yoga.
I am being a “good girl” and that will have to be good enough.
Short answer: I lost an inch off my hips and a half inch off my thighs since the last time I measured, a bit over a month ago.
Total loss to date since my heaviest: 30 pounds and 28.7 inches.
Ongoing focus:
IF I eat in-between meals, have plenty of ‘approved’ snacks READY
Concentrate on my exercising, since it seems to be yielding results
Monitor scales, but don’t look to them for applause
General: We are eating carefully at lunch, and then eating a frozen meal from either Real Food or Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. We are happy with the variety, and we’re eating controlled portions.
I’m trying to do a session of yoga stretching daily, plus work with weights M-W-F, plus a session on the elliptical T-Th-S – unless I’ve been outside doing yard work. Then all bets are off.
One of my long-time friends came over yesterday for us to fax a document for her. When we finished, I walked her out to her car.
She said, “You’re looking good. What are you doing?”
I grinned from ear to ear because it felt GOOD to hear that. I KNEW I don’t look, “Good,” but comparatively speaking, maybe better. I told her about concentrating on my exercising rather than the scale.
She wouldn’t have told me I looked bad, but she didn’t have to say anything at ALL.
I’m managing to do a bit of exercising while also running out to the shop several times a day to check on my husband as he works on his beloved ‘Vette, armed with bottles of water, bandaids, etc.
I’m happy to be able to tell you that he has finished the hardest part of the project. He has the part out, after making no progress at all the first day. The part is out now. He will pry off the top (the manufacturers didn’t intend for someone to take it out and actually try to fix it) solder 4 wires, put it back in (he says this won’t be difficult) and test it. If it doesn’t work, he’ll order the replacement part he found on the net. If it works, he’ll zip things up and we’ll celebrate.
Service dept – two weeks – one call – if they could get the part – $1000+. They told us the part had been discontinued and they couldn’t get it. So we paid them $85.00 for them looking and the information.
My husband – three days. Either $0 or $148 plus shipping and tax. Quite a difference.
The only downside – my husband’s ‘fix it or die’ attitude, no matter what he promises. He is going to Lunch Bunch with me in about an hour. Both of his hands and one arm are really bruised, scraped, gouged, and pinched from his hard work to get the part out. It looks like he was in a bad accident or ran into spousal abuse. I’m glad we’re almost to the end of this.
Meanwhile, to maintain sanity, I have managed to do a session of yoga each day. I didn’t do my weights. I’ll pick them up again on Monday and see if I can do the exercises I found Monday, Wednesday, and Friday along with the yoga.
I’ve been gritching to my sister-in-law about the scales not being impressed with my efforts to lose my lard.
She made what I think might be a good suggestion – she said maybe a change of focus, to measuring tape, rather than scales, would help keep me on track.
I had already planned to measure at the end of the month, so I’ll focus on that as I do my daily yoga practice and my three days a week exercises with weights. I’ll continue with my present eating, watching my portions and continuing with my 3 bottles of water a day and see what happens.
I’m being a very good girl. I’m eating my raw veggies with a bit of dressing as my mid afternoon snack after taking my husband a bagel loaded with French Onion cream cheese and Chives.
I did my two sessions of exercises with weights yesterday and yoga, and will do my longer session of just yoga today. As I type, I’m drinking my second bottle of water. Since my eyeballs are floating with all the water, maybe I am just retaining water, though I’m definitely moving more, running to the bathroom particularly after the second bottle…
I’m much more motivated when the scales are looking impressed, but that hasn’t happened in several days. I’m determined to build good habits here, though, so I keep on keepin’ on.
I FINALLY got back to the 30-pounds-off-since-my-heaviest mark this morning! HOORAY!! Thanks again to Maria, who suggested in her blog – FlowingWatersArt.wordpress.com that big goals should be broken down into more doable chunks. I haven’t met my “doable chunk” goals for the three weeks I’ve been trying, but my motivation is high, and that’s the more important thing right now.
I’m building good habits – watching my portions, eating healthy snacks, drinking THREE to FOUR 17.9 oz bottles of water each day (my eyeballs are floating as I run to the bathroom), exercising, etc.
I’m doing yoga stretches and abdominal exercises every day.
This week I started exercising with 5-pound weights- Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do a pretty short session – enough so my arms are definitely feeling it, but I’m not incapacitated on doing my normal activities. Monday and Wednesday I did two short sessions with the weights during the day plus my yoga.
Yesterday I found a 3-minute video on the net. The lady was using 3-pound weights, so I switched to those and exercised along with her. She was doing different things than I was doing with the 5-pound weights. My arms felt pretty ‘used’ when I finished, but this is a good addition to what I’ve started to do. I plan to do a session with the 5-pound weights and another with the 3-pound weights with the nice lady MWF next week.
I feel good that I’m taking one day at a time, making short-term goals that seem more achievable, am moving and exercising more.
Short term goals are –
Work to try to lose 2 lbs in the coming week
Check off my exercises each day (giving myself gold stars :o) )
Drink 3 to 4 bottles of water daily
Work toward the idea of earning “Bear with ’40’ on his chest” in the near future.
Realize that I’m working to lose the lard and get stronger – that ANY progress toward that goal is a victory and should be celebrated.
I found more motivation for my efforts to lose my lard and get stronger from an unlikely source: Eve Dallas (NYC murder cop in the future) speaking to a young musician who had turned the corner on trying to stay straight from his drug and alcohol addiction – Dark in Death – J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts).
She said, “You know, it’s a long street after that corner’s turned. I hope you stay on it.” And the musician answered, “One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”
I’m feeling that way right now.
The weight is still clinging, down a bit one day, up a bit another, but I’m trying to concentrate on eating healthy, portion control, healthy snacks, drinking lots more water (up to THREE 17 oz bottles a day now) and exercising daily. I’m doing half an hour to 45 minutes of yoga stretches with abdominal exercises every day and then working with dumbbells (5 lbs) three times a week. Since my arms get tired pretty fast, I made it through my sets yesterday, then did some other things, then came back and did another session.. That seemed to work well. I can tell I worked my arms yesterday, but I’m not SORE.
I’m pleased that I’m TRYING to get stronger each day, that I’m trying to control my eating.
“One step, every day, the rest of my life. I like street. I like who I am when I’m walking it.”
Today is DAY 2 of working with weights in addition to doing my daily yoga practice. Monday went well, though I had to push myself to do 10 repetitions of each exercise on my list. I wasn’t sore yesterday, and that was encouraging.
Today I AM sore, and that shows me my body noticed I did something out of the ordinary. That also tells me I need it and will do it again this morning. I’m planning to do the weights (5 lb weights) 3 times a week, MW&F and see how I do with that. I will add more exercises and more reps as I can.
This was a classic book when I was a child. It’s all about striving – trying to reach a goal. The little engine kept striving, all the while saying, “I THINK I can, I THINK I can…” finally reaching the top of the hill due to never giving up and his fierce determination.
I’m ‘thinking I can’ now, on DAY 5 of my new regimen of eating right, raw veggies and a bit of dip for an afternoon snack, a bottle of water, and yoga each afternoon in an effort to lose my lard. I lost a bit yesterday, so that’s encouraging.
I also FEEL a bit better due to the yoga. Some of the positions are getting a bit easier. I’m able to slowly stretch a bit more. Some things will take some time. WHEN I make it to Monday of next week – with my daily yoga practice – I’m planning to add some work with dumbbells to my yoga practice Mon, Wed, and Fri.
Today is DAY 4 of my new motivation to lose my lard and increase my flexibility and stamina.
I’m feeling good about things, even though I didn’t shed any weight yesterday. I will ‘keep on keepin’ on,’ one day at a time, looking at each one as a day to maybe lose a bit and work on getting stronger.
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I’m doing my yoga-snack-water thing each afternoon. I have some sore stomach muscles in particular, a sign that my body recognizes a change. That’s GOOD. I’m finding it easier to get out of my chair, get my yoga mat and get started. Once I finish, I get my husband his bagel with cream cheese, chives, and onion, and I get MY snack of some raw veggies and a bit of dip, plus a bottle of water.
My husband, of course, isn’t even trying to lose weight at this point, or exercise, but is ahead of me on weight loss. I’m trying to be adult enough to realize that each person is different, that men seem to lose weight more easily than woman, and hitting him in the mouth won’t solve my problems. :0)
I have my desk calendar set up to get my stars for doing what I should today, and it makes me smile when I earn them.
I am feeling more in control of my habits and I’m pleased I’m doing some good things for my health.
I accomplished my goal of losing 2 lbs. last week. I am almost to my goal of reaching the 30-pounds-off-from-my-heaviest weight landmark. I am happy that I’m making some progress toward my goal of losing my lard and getting as strong and flexible as I can.
I did my second yoga practice yesterday. My husband was encouraging, though he has no appreciation for how stiff, sore, and inflexible this old lady can get. He asked me if I were having an easier time of it. I had to tell him that SOME of the positions were a bit better, but some were more difficult, because I hadn’t been practicing as I should – that it would probably be at least Sunday of THIS week before I felt much difference. He is encouraging me – as HE stretches out for a nap in his chair – :0) – and that is good motivation, too.
I feel calm, happy that I am now on the way to being healthier, am practicing good eating habits and exercising. One day at a time. Baby steps – in the right direction.
Thanks to a post by Maria of FlowingWatersArtBlog I’m feeling some new motivation on my weight loss goal. (Her good advice applies to any difficult goal, but I took it to heart since I’ve been having such mixed results.
I’ve set a goal for myself as to how much I would like to lose. I have an appointment with our primary doctor for a checkup in November, and I would like to be seeing some significant results by then. I have broken the goal up now into weeks, and it looks doable, even if I run into a plateau or two. I have used my desk calendar to remind myself what I’m trying to do and to hold myself accountable.
In the past, I had the amount of lard I wanted to shed, but no specific time frame, and no real plan for accountability. It was too easy to slide – one of my greatest skills. Breaking the goal up, I can SEE my plan is actually DOABLE, so I’ve planned things out on a weekly basis.
To this end, I made some changes that I initiated yesterday –
I’m drinking a bottle of water every afternoon to make sure I’m staying hydrated.
I’ve changed my afternoon snack to some raw veggies with a bit of dip. (If I start curling my lip at that, I’m not ‘hungry’, just looking for trouble)
I did a session of yoga yesterday afternoon. I was stiff, but I went though my routine slowly, doing the best I could. This will improve as I practice, and then I have some other poses I would like to add.
After doing yoga each day for the next week, I will add some other exercises, such as ones with some weights, aiming for twice a week to start.
Since I have never grown up, I’m still motivated by gold stars. Each day I will record my weight on my desk calendar, then give myself a star for a) doing my yoga, b) drinking my bottle of water, and c) eating my healthy snack.
Now that I’ve started and have a doable plan with guideposts and a deadline, I’m newly motivated. Thanks, Maria.
Maria wrote me recently to encourage me about my efforts to lose my lard, suggesting that I read her blog post the next day.
When I read it, I was re-motivated to follow her suggestions of handling goals, making the goals reality. You might find it interesting and motivational, too. FlowingWatersArtBlog
My husband, who paid no attention whatsoever to what he ate – including a bagel slathered with French Onion and Chives Cream Cheese – lost a full pound. Arrgh!
I finally had a bit of success on losing the lard. I’m almost back to 30 pounds down since my heaviest now – hoping to hit that officially in the next day or so. I’m learning once again how much easier it is to put it ON, rather than taking it OFF.
Yesterday I was moving most of the day. I was in the shop working on the refurb of our Box Turtle Yard art piece. It was hot in there, but I had a fan. I was up and down, pulling and hauling. After resting a bit, I weed whacked, doing two sessions that I had to stop when the weed eater started to smoke! My husband will look at that today to see if it is salvageable. Anyhow, it was a lot of work out in the hot, so I guess that helped finally shed a bit more of the lard.
Today I’m going to put the refurbed box turtle back where he lives in the yard, take pics to show you, start work on another piece, use the leaf blower to clean up the two sidewalks and garage pad, and then cut up lots of veggies for the “kielbasa and veggies” cookout for tonight.
My trying to lose the lard is sometimes like trying to swim though peanut butter – excruciatingly slow and a LOT of work.
I was really good yesterday, eating only HALF of the chicken ‘thingers’ is ordered at Lunch Bunch. I brought the other half home for another meal. I drank lots of water, kept moving a lot of the day, ate some raw veggies with a small amount of dip as a snack to tide me over until dinner.
The end result is .2 lb down. hooray. It’s definitely better than when the scale shows I’m hanging onto weight or even gaining, but no confetti is being tossed.
I’m going to just keep on keepin’ on, keeping all appendages crossed.
I have a yoga routine that I am trying to do every afternoon now. It’s “Old Lady” yoga, emphasizing good, long, slow stretches rather than asking me to fold my body into a paper airplane and then fly out the window.
I’m grateful to Kat Kabira for making a DVD that got me started several years ago now. She has given me the opportunity to get more flexible, strengthen my core muscles, lessen my pain, and learn to relax. (Of course, I actually have to DO the routine in order to reap its benefits. I am finally caught up enough from gremlins causing problems in our house that I am actively making time for my practice now.)
I’m also adding some positions to my core routine. Since it will be too hot, even with the fan on the all, to do my elliptical trainer out in the garage, a longer, richer yoga routine should take up some of the slack. I’m trying to add at least one new position to my routine each day.
I don’t want my body parts to fall off as I’m working in the garden. It’s good motivation to keep up the yoga…
I am practicing a number of things, trying to get the lard off.
For several years now I have tried to get taller. I figure that if I grew several inches, I wouldn’t have to be so concerned about my weight. As it is, even though my wonderful massage therapist has TRIED to help once a month by pulling on my appendages and head, it isn’t working. So the concern remains.
I fast between dinner the night before and lunch the next day
I eat very careful lunches and dinners. My husband and I fix the meals together so we can ‘watch’ each other and encourage each other. We eat a lot of healthy individual frozen food dinners from Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood.
I’m trying to move more and – if I eat between meals at all – I try to snack carefully.
My biggest problem times are about 4 in the afternoon and in the middle of the night if I’m having trouble sleeping.
We eat lunch at noon. We eat dinner around 7pm. Around 4 I am hungry. I’m really trying to have healthy snacks on hand and eat one of them carefully. In the middle of the night, all bets are off.
So, overall I’m losing some of the lard, albeit V-E-R-Y slowly. I yoyo a bit because of any extra eating I do. As long as the general trend is downward, I’m trying not to beat myself up too much about lapses.
I am FINALLY making a bit of progress on my efforts to lose the lard. My new goal is to try to lose 2.5 lbs each week. That should be doable. I am concentrating on eating controlled portions and not snacking in-between, drinking lots of water and staying active, moving as much as possible.
I was working a lot outside, trying to get my veggie garden going, so I haven’t been ‘exercising’ as I should. I will try now to get back into my yoga practice.
I’ll plan to bring you a ‘progress’ report or two. Fingers crossed.
All this activity of going through everything in our office and living room, moving things off the floor and out of furniture and taking it elsewhere for the laying of new carpet and flooring soon has increased my hunger. I feel I could eat the wall, giving a bit of cheese on it or some honey mustard.
I ordered some green tea extract and received it today. I’m supposed to take one capsule a day. I read a lot of reviews and decided that I would try it, hoping for some increased ability to NOT snack between meals, or to be able to choose HEALTHY snacks that will coordinate with my efforts to eat less.
We are continuing to empty furniture little by little – trying to find space ‘elsewhere’ for all the ‘STUFF’ we have in our office, foyer, and living room in our project to get ready for new carpet plus vinyl for the back porch.
We have plenty of time to get this done. The installation will be sometime the first week in May, but I may not have EMPHASIZED enough how much “STUFF” we have. We have built-in shelving on both sides of the doorway in the office and built-in drawers and counter-top around two sides of the rest of the room. We don’t have to do anything with those – just the furniture that needs to be moved. These have to be empty.
We have two 4-drawer file cabinets and one 2-drawer file cabinet. We have movable shelving – one 6-shelf piece, one 4-shelf piece, and two 2-shelf pieces. And the list goes on.
I’m trying to throw things out as I move things elsewhere. I am PROMISING myself, as I take things up and down the stairs to my art room or our guest room – that I will take just as much time putting things back together as I have taking things apart, go through and throw out MORE as I bring things from ‘elsewhere’ to back where they live.
One good thing I’m noticing is that, with all this activity, I’m getting a LOT of exercise, cleaning out, hauling up and down stairs or into another room – and that I’m dropping off to sleep like I’ve been hit with a sledge hammer. I just wish I had this cute little baby elephant with his purple ball to exercise with! :0)
This is me in a nutshell and my basic attitude toward the world.
I particularly felt this way this morning, when my scales greeted me with a big raspberry because SOMEHOW I gaine 1-1/2 lbs yesterday. I wasn’t aware that I ate lead, but apparently that is the case.
I have decided to ignore it, since I ate a normal lunch and will eat a normal dinner. I’m HOPING that I’m just retaining water and find it gone tomorrow….
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