I suppose it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything. There were a lot of things going on, the details of which I will not bore you with. I have reached a point in my life where my path has diverged and I must choose which path to take.
This was not a major life event, it’s not my birthday, no one in my immediate family has died or otherwise suffered some devastating blow. This divergence is the result of my peering into the future and realizing what could be and what could not be.
One night, I lay back and closed my eyes and as usual, spent a great deal of time going over my past and tracing every outcome back to its initiating event and further back to the choice I made at the beginning of the sequence which led me to the event that led to the outcome and on and on. The summation of these thoughts was my realization that each outcome, bad or good, began with a single point in time during which a decision was made to act or to ignore or to run away entirely. Hindsight is 20/20 and as such, those crucial points in time are easy to spot.
Here in the present, such crucial points in time are easily missed. Decisions that have an enormous result over ones life pass us by as if they were no more important than which socks we chose to wear that morning. Not me, not this time. On this occasion, I was paying attention. I noticed the potential lifelong effects of my actions.
I do not exercise. I don’t eat badly but I wouldn’t say my diet is exceptional. It is average, healthwise. As I creep towards 40, I have noticed that I have gained around 20 lbs. Those 20 lbs didn’t appear overnight or even over a single year. Unfortunately, they will continue to pack on if I continue on in the lifestyle I have been living.
- I bought reputable books on healthy eating, power foods, nutrition, recipes and books on how to go about not just losing weight but becoming healthier and toner. Enough is enough. If I do not make the changes now, my metabolism will continue to slow and exercising will cease to be an option, I will begin to have more aches and pains in my joints, more muscle spasms in my back, the stones currently filling up both of my kidneys will get larger and begin passing.
- I made the choice. I decided to start immediately and change my diet. I bought all of the fresh veggies I needed to make some of the recipes in the books and for me to snack on. I stopped drinking sodas and sodas are one of my most favorite things in the world. I stopped drinking Red Bull. I stopped snacking on chips and Little Debbie snacks.
I now snack on berries – blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and yogurt. - I have reduced my calorie intake dramatically.
- I have begun lifting arm weights at home with the intention of toning my arm muscles so they don’t become flabby skin just hanging there.
- I was having trouble getting motivated to do any form of cardio because I can’t run due to the lack of cartilage in my knees. Most of the cardio programs I found were too high impact for my knees. Finally, I discovered a partner to do my cardio with and a fun way to do it. My youngest daughter loves playing Just Dance and always wants me to play. I have to say, playing Just Dance, after dancing to only four or five songs, feels like I’ve been at the gym for hours. Those dances are full body workouts and the best part is, they are fun and I get to do them with my daughters. The fun of it and having fun with them makes me want to do it.
I see many talk about turning away from toxic people in their lives. For me, I have chosen to turn away from all of my unhealthy habits. I have turned away from my favorite foods and drinks. I have turned away from my couch
What about everyone else? What have you turned away from in the interest of a better life?
Jcckeith 
I have just given myself a big kick up the backside, I piled on not pounds but stones due to two spinal ops, being unable to move followed by serious comfort eating due to pain and a series of personal issues, the final of which was my gran dying in January but I finally hit a wall where I realised that my options were limited I either lose the weight or risk more spinal ops, other health issues and a continuing circle of depression. I have always battled my weight but preferred extra exercise to dieting not I am combining both. I have rebooted my MyFitnessPal account and my daughter bought me a fit bit for mothers day so that is now fully charged and back in my wrist. I started this week weighing more than I ever have in my whole life but feeling like this time I am mentally ready to push through the pain and get there. I am aiming to lose 44lbs in before next new year 😀
That’s great Paula!!! It sounds like you have a lot of family support pushing you towards your goals as well. I think that is important to have support in addition to your own drive to succeed in weight loss and healthier habits.
I too have some support from a few but I don’t have the MyFitnessPal account or the FitBit.. I am just beginning this journey so I’m still working out how best to maintain my new healthy eating habits. As of right now, my house is filled with my farm fresh veggies and fruits and fresh salmon, lean grilled chicken and even some red meat with very little fat on it. My house is also filled with stacks upon stacks of chips, animal crackers, little debbie cakes like honeybuns, brownies, struessal cakes, crumb cakes, ice cream, frozen cheesy chicken nuggets, hamburgers, bacon and so much more stuff that everyone else eats.
That is the hardest part is going into to the kitchen for a snack and seeing the options and knowing I want them but deliberately and with difficulty, not taking those choices – not even taking ‘just one bite’ Every time I say no and then snack on carrots instead – that is a small victory for me and it increases my chances of a victory next time.
I find that change is deliberate. You don’t suddenly develop a healthy lifestyle by chance. No, you develop a healthy lifestyle through unwavering and daily commitment. To truly commit to anything, you can’t ignore that there are other options, you can’t pretend they don’t exist. A commitment means awareness of what you could be eating or doing and choosing instead to do eat what is healthy and do waht is healthy.
the MyFitnessPal app is great because you can put in the foods and it will find out not only the calories but everything else as well, I know from past experience it is about balance and a huge thing is portion control which I am also working on as plates these days keep getting bigger and unintentionally we fill them so I am starting to use a plate my gran had from the 70’s
What a great decision on your part! Think about the future it gives you with your daughters! For your knees, I recommend swimming – find a local pool and do laps. You can go with your children. Not a lot of weight bearing, but good cardio!
I used to swim when we had a membership to the YMCA but now the only pool I have acceess to is the one in our backyard. I do o.k. also on my bike and my ortho approved riding my bike so long as I don’t ride it up and down steep or even low hills because that would strain my knees too much.
Part of this is teaching my daughters about healthy portion sizes and which foods to eat and why that matters. I made a point of telling them that I have no problem with people who have a little extra weight on them, if that person is happy, then great. The reason I want to lose this extra weight is personal. I explained to them that having this extra twenty pounds was uncomfortable for me due to it adding stress to my joints and it makes it harder to be comfortable doing things sometimes like even walking because the extra tummy weight puts pressure on my diaphragm which puts pressure on my lungs and makes it harder to breath
I lost twenty pounds last year, and am trying for another 20 this year. Lifting weights reminds me of how much more I have to drag around!
Great news! Always good to get your body in gear. With a little help from dedicated friends it becomes automatic and subconcious, except that aging does throw up the odd wobbly which you will just have to cope with. When you feel fit and healthy it releases you to help others, and eventually your positive actions will help the planet.
I suppose I could settle for the good news given to my family that none of the women were stricken with breast cancer, brain cancer or uterine cancer.