Another Monday

Monday, March 21, 2011

Weight Lost: 1 pound

Breakfast: Mix of cheerios and frosted flakes, milk.

Snack: none

Lunch: Rest of my Philly Cheesesteak from last night with sweet potato fries with dip. Propel water.

Snack: None

Dinner: Pasta with chicken

Exercise: It was raining like cats and dogs this morning. My DH might do the rain thing but not me. I don’t really have the proper raincoat but maybe I should get one. Right now it’s cold but the sky is blue and it’s very cloudy. If it stays this way, I will probably try to walk around 5 or this evening when we take the dog. I’ll just make it a longer walk. Don’t care if they like it or not. Yeah, team.

Thoughts: The rain made the roof leak again today and that bums me out a lot. The DH says that it will all be okay and that they might have to change the roof to something easier to maintain. I like the tiles but have always hated the color. This really isn’t a tile type house at all.

I also just found out that I won a spot in the NASA Tweetup competition. You compete for a slot at the shuttle launch. I thought I’d try since this is a historical event. The last of its kind. Gotta talk to the DH tonight and see what he thinks. I have until Friday to confirm one way or another. Still, whether I go or not, it is very, very exciting.

I’ve also decided that Monday is going to be weigh in day and will post my weight loss at the top of the post before breakfast is even listed. I figure that this will keep me honest and start my week off. Bad or good, it is something all of us who are losing weight needs to do. It will also give me a moment to reflect on what I’ve done good or bad to make it happen.

Well since I lost a pound, I know I’m going in the right direction. Still, I had days when I couldn’t exercise, like today, and for the first time in a long time felt guilty I couldn’t do my walk. Exercise needs to be a part of everyone’s everyday life. Walking is best for me with a little free weights and that’s something I haven’t added here. I hate my arms and every other day, lift five pounds weights or do a workout with a shake weight. Don’t laugh, they seem to be doing the job as my arms are the biggest regret I have. See, they used to be Angelina Jolie arms; firm, smooth, just the right amount of muscle. Then bang. I get fat and they get horrid. Sigh. At least this is helping.

Lynn

Made It A Full Week

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Breakfast: 3 bacon, 3 danish, 2 glasses of milk

Snack: none

Lunch: 2 pieces of cheese, 10 wheat thins, chips and salsa

Snack: none

Dinner: ½ of a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, sweet potato fries, cup of soup, coffee and water

Exercise: Day off and I felt bad about not exercising but everything I’ve read says when you’re overweight, you need to ease into it. The day was cold, dreary and raining at times. I don’t do well in any of those situations, so I decided to not do anything. If tomorrow is the same, tough because I will exercise anyway.

Thoughts: Well, yippee! I’ve actually made it a full week of writing down what I eat and posting all my exercise. This time should definitely be different, very different.

Today was an interesting day. My father asked me to change his airline ticket but I couldn’t. My husband wanted me to get the older one over early but I couldn’t. I finally had to remind everyone that I couldn’t control any of them as they would all do whatever they wanted. Not sure if they got it or not as there are days I swear they all think I’m a miracle worker.

Sure, I have been known to fix some things but I can’t fix everything. Heck, look at me...does anyone think I want to be overweight? No, I’ve tried to fix it over and over and over again. I’m not lazy. I don’t overeat by and large. I exercise a fair amount when compared to other people in my age group. Yet the scale remains unaffected for a long, long time. Then after a while, a pound or two will come off. Surely there is some way other than total starvation to get this weight off.

Yes, starvation works as that was pretty much what I was doing with HCG. Some would tell me to go down this path because at least I was getting results. Right. I just love a 500-800 calorie a day diet. Yes, I’ve proved that I can do it for a short amount of time and maybe doing that for a week would work. BUT...it is not...nor should it ever be considered a viable way to live the rest of my life.

The real key is moderation in everything and figuring out just what makes my metabolism work well, fast and efficient. I’ll be reading a few books here in the next couple of weeks and I’ll let you all know exactly what I’ve found out about metabolism in general. If I do run across any helpful hints, rest assured that I will be passing them along to you all as well.

Lynn

When You Eat Out

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Breakfast: Egg and cup of coffee.

Snack: Nothing.

Lunch: Chicken Tequila Fetticini with coffee and water. This was good and the portion just perfect, not too much, not too little. I’ll be full for a long, long time.

Snack: Nothing.

Dinner: This was actually broken down in two because I went to a movie. Had a bag of plain popcorn, a box of Skiddles and a large water. Once home, had a jr. bacon cheeseburger and bacon cheddar potato wedges from Jack. Probably more than I needed but good all the same.

Exercise: 50 minutes of a long walk. It was cold and dreary today. Hope it’s not that way tomorrow or worse, raining. I won’t miss any day but Wednesday. Sigh. I feel good and rejuvenated for once. The day doesn’t look so bad.

Thoughts: Early AM, like 12:30 AM - Today already has me bummed and it’s not really started yet. I have a conflict that must be resolved and it’s been eating me alive these past few days. Don’t know what else to say except that it will be finished one way or another today.

The walk in the morning helped me to focus my mind even though it was dreary and almost made me late for my meeting. They decided to start it early and I didn’t get notified until this morning as I refused to get down by looking at the emails. I don’t know what I was so worried about because everything turned out great. The speaker was wonderful and the issue worked itself out.

The movie was fantastic as well. Went with the youngest, my friend, my goddaughter and another kid who has been the youngest’s best friend since he was little. The movie was absolutely fantastic and can’t wait to go with another one.

Lynn

Day Five & I’m Still Going

Friday, March 18, 2011

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, ½ sausage, 2 pieces of toast with butter, coffee

Snack: none

Lunch: Big Mac, Fries and ice tea

Snack: none

Dinner: about 6 pieces of pizza, water

Exercise: Got up and walked with the DH today as he has it off. He went jogging first with the dog rested for about five minutes then we went. It was my normal walk I do with my iPod and took us about 47 minutes. There were moments I wish I ‘d gone myself but at least it’s done and I got home fine. Just some of those discussions we have, makes me wonder. Sigh.

Thoughts: I love Big Macs. When I was a teenager, they had the commercial on where you’d get a free one if you sang it when you ordered. I sang it so many times, they finally banned me getting them free at our local MacDonald’s. The thing is that I rarely eat them any more because they are a lot of calories. Tons matter of fact. But they remind me of such a happy time in my childhood, I can’t always resist them. When I grew up, we had Big Boy’s and the Big Mac’s were so similar to them when they came out, I gravitated to them. Reason: Nevada only had one Big Boy resturuant and we would only go about once a year when we first got out here. My substitute was the Big Mac.

Yes, I’ll have to walk a little further tomorrow morning but it will be worth it. LOL!

Lynn

What Am I Doing?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Breakfast: nothing

Snack: nothing

Lunch: Leftovers from anniversary dinner – penne pasta with chicken and a vodka cream sauce + can of diced tomatoes, salt & hot sauce

Snack: nothing

Dinner: Chicken 1800 – penne pasta with a cream sauce loaded with peppers, chicken and spices

Exercise: 45 minute walk with the DH through our little town. Little bit of a departure from usual walk but nice none the less. Showed me lots of places we could walk to uptown and eat or drink. The southwest comes alive in the spring as it’s a good time from outside dining.

Thoughts: It’s hard to articulate my thoughts today. I’m tired and have slept for most of the afternoon. The DH swears he tried to get me up for a walk this morning but I remember the conversation and I don’t think he tried hard enough. I should be getting up with him then doing my own thing but I can’t do it if I’m not gotten up. Yeah, I know the proper response would be that I should be setting my own alarm and it doing it on my own. Mornings have never been my thing and until we went to Europe together, I would have rebelled if he’d tried to get me up to exercise.

But Europe showed me a side of myself I hadn’t seen in years. I can get up early if I need to do so and apparently, I needed to start my day with exercise. Now it doesn’t really matter when I get up, I just need to make sure the exercise is done so I can enjoy my day. Enough said.

Lynn

Day Three & Still Going

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Breakfast: nothing

Snack: nothing

Lunch: 2 sirloin sliders from Jack, bacon-cheddar-potato wedges, and ice tea plus about 5 big fries. Couldn’t eat it all and put some away for dinner tonight. Lots of ice tea and water.

Snack: nothing

Dinner: 2 onion rings, last slider from Jack, about 25 fires and hot sauce. Lots of water and coffee.

Exercise: Today is Wednesday and I don’t exercise much at all today. Had to have one day off so I can recoup and since the DH and I walk together on the weekends, mid-week was the logical choice. I will walk around the block with the DH and the dog later tonight but nothing formal like I normally do.

Thoughts: I stayed up way too late last night to write and do my own thing but that’s why I like Wednesdays. It’s my day. Or at least it normally is. Sigh. College is having their spring break and my Dad is staying with us for a while. Normally, today was the day I did a lot of research for my books. Right. I don’t want them walking in on me and questioning why I’m doing what I’m doing. I question myself enough as it is. So, today really isn’t quite my day but I’ll make it work.

One thing I have noticed is that I’ll have a day where I eat a lot and then for the next few I’m barely hungry. Yesterday, my stomach growled morning till night. Each time it growled, I feed it, so it seemed as if I was eating all day. Now today, I didn’t have a growl or groan one and if the guys hadn’t wanted to eat, I probably wouldn’t have had anything until lunch. Go figure.

Also, the insomnia is killing me. I’ve got to get sleep if I’m exercising daily. Tonight this is being post when I’m going to bed. This is not good, 3 am is not a great time to just start sleeping. Last night, I didn’t get in bed until 4 am and then only slept around 6 hours. Sigh. I’ve got to get over this and it’s not because of what I’m eating or drinking. Personally, I think it’s all hormonal.

Lynn

A Silver Anniversary

Today is my silver anniversary and a very interesting day. The Ides of March. The day Caesar was killed but a very special day for me and my husband.

Lots of things went wrong that day. We forgot the license, I cussed in the church but overall it went off without a hitch and we’ve been blessed ever since.

Yes, he still does drive me crazy but considering the alternatives out there, I’d say I have a keeper. Need I say more?

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Breakfast: Piece of pepper jack cheese, bowl of honey nut cheerios and about a 1.5 c of milk. Yum. Large cup of coffee.

Snack: Geez. I had a whole other breakfast as I was starved. I had a scrambled egg bowl from Jack, 3 of the hash browns and an orange juice. I shouldn’t be hungry for hours. Sigh.

Lunch: Left over chicken salad from last night. Couldn’t eat but 2/3 of the stuff as some had gone bad.

Snack: None

Dinner: Baked Italian bread with oil and balsamic, sautéed mushrooms, pasta fagoli soup, penne with chicken and a vodka cream sauce. Again, I couldn’t finish all the dinner so I brought half of it home. Coffee and water to drink.

Exercise: The walk was a little long today than expected. I actually thought I would take less time but it seems like I took a little more. Or I didn’t start when I thought I did. Supposedly we started at 6:40 and I got back at 7:45. But the songs that played only tallied up to only 46:32, which means I must have left a lot later than my husband. Oops. LOL!

Thoughts: Felt terrible as Gordon came home earlier bearing gifts. For some reason, I didn’t even feel good enough to go out and get him a card today. Told him what I plan to do for his gift, fix his expensive watch, and get him a belated card. It was a wonderful day full of remembrances.

Lynn

Ugh – Here We Go Again

How many times have I talked on this blog about losing weight? How many times have I started and then stopped?

Well, last time, I was doing the HCG diet and I did really well on it. I lost over 30 pounds on the 30 days I was on the program. As of this date, I actually gained back almost 20 of those pounds. Why? I think it was a variety of things. One is that I got back to regular eating. For those who don’t remember, the HCG diet involves a very low calorie diet of about 500 calories a day. I would actually adjust mine is needed but stayed within the 500-800 calorie range.

It was a good thing for me to do as it got me to thinking about how I needed to really do the whole mind-body-spirit thing. Everything must be in sync for a program to work. Period. Eating very little isn’t necessarily in sync with world view. Don’t get me wrong, I have enough fat to sustain me for the short haul but over the long term, it probably isn’t a very good thing.

This time, I think it will be different. Again, you may ask why when you look at my history. Well fuck history. No, I’m not talking about history the big picture but history the personal picture. I know that those who disregard history are destined to repeat it. And that’s just it. I’m not disregarding it at all I’m embracing it.

Yes, I’m fat right now. Get over it. Yes, I want to lose weight starting right now. Get on with it. Yes, I’m basically a healthy person. Get on with improving that aspect. I need to do, not talk. I need to embrace that diets don’t really work and work on what works for me. I am a unique individual with unique needs. I know me and my body best. I know what works for me.

And some thing miraculous happened. Recently, I went on a trip to Vienna, Austria with my husband. Vienna works on the premise that most people use public transportation or their feet to get around. So every day I was walking to all my destinations or to the public transportation. Also, every morning, I got up with my husband and went down to the gym to walk 30 minutes on the treadmill.

I ate differently in Europe. For breakfast, I would have scrambled eggs, bacon, a small bowl of cereal and tons of water and juice. For lunch, if I ate it would be soup or a sandwich. When we’d go out to dinner, we’d walk to a resturuant and walk back. The only thing I wanted and didn’t get would be salad. I didn’t get as much as I wanted at all. Otherwise, I ate just until full and no more. I also ate anything and everything I wanted. Desserts were special while I was there. Most of the time I couldn’t finish it at all because the sweet stuff would get to me. But I would also trudge back to the hotel room once we were done.

It was amazing. Because of the change in diet and the added exercise, I lost about ten pounds. Right now, you can’t really tell because a lot of that was transferred into lean muscle mass and my body didn’t shift in how it looks very much. But it feels a heck of a lot better.

So what I’m going to do with this blog daily is include what I ate, estimate how much it was, how much I exercise and when, and maybe a paragraph or two on how I felt. We’ll see as one of my major, and I mean major, problems happen to be is I get bored. I get bored with most things I do, which is why I need to do a lot of things. That way, I can shift from one thing to another.

If I survive a week doing this, I really will have a great chance this time. Here goes:

Monday, March 14, 2011

Breakfast: Bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, 1.5 c of milk, coffee

Lunch: Chips & Dip, Taco Burrito with sauce and sour cream

Snack: Garlic Salsa & 1 serving of tortilla chips

Dinner: 1/3 of a chicken salad, dressing on the side, with avocado, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and olives.

Exercise: Today I walked 46 minutes along the streets of the town I live in. It was brutal in the beginning as it was uphill. Once at the top the rest was flat or downhill until the last block that had a gentle rise. I put on my wrist weights and iPod and off I went. Yeah.

Thoughts: I’ve said all I’m going to say above.

Lynn

Starting Anew

Okay...I haven’t blogged for two weeks...I know, I know. But with the holidays...who has time?

And as expected, I back slid a little bit and I’m not happy about it. I’ve gained an inch on my abdomen and gained a pound and depending what part of the day I weigh, it can be more. Sigh.

Holidays are hard and while it’s not an excuse it is a reason. I could have done what I’ve done in the past and gain half of what I lost before the season but this time I didn’t. I can contribute the whole gain to me eating more salt, more cookies than I did all year and the worst of all, NO EXERCISE. If I would have just kept up my walks, I would have probably kept the weight off.

Then there is the fact that we ate out this last two weeks more than normal since I had the husband and teenager home. Eating out can be just as hazardous as the holidays.

So, what am I doing to combat this sudden upward trend?

Well, the first thing is I stepped on the scale today. Horrid as it may seem, I did it and was immediately depressed. My fault totally. Then yesterday, I started again with the food diary as it is the main thing that will get me back on track.

And I was immediately shocked when a restaurant meal came up to a whopping 1500 calories. Heavens! The only good thing is that I did almost two hours of walking yesterday, first in the mall and during shopping, then another forty minutes in the evening to start my trend back up. I also lifted weights and did my crunches. I hate crunches. Sigh. A necessary evil if I want to get that flat belly once again.

Still, all in all, the holiday season was wonderful. I received great gifts and had a great time off from life. Now it’s time to get back to it.

See ya next week!

Lynn

The Numbers Game

Yeah, I know...it’s been two weeks...and I’m sure you’re wondering if I’ve lost my motivation.


Well, I almost did. See, two weeks ago I woke up and knew, just knew deep in my heart that I hadn’t lost one iota. Nada, zilch, nothing. At least, that’s what my body told me and as I have a good habit of listening to my body, I was really down in the dumps.

So I got up and put off eating as long as I could. I always get on the scales the first thing out of bed and compensate for the clothes I wear before getting on that scale. Now, some people are fanatics and weigh every day. I would be a basket case if I did something like that so I just weigh in weekly on Mondays when I get up.

It’s worked well over the years as it can bring a much needed boost to a weight loss program. Or it can be the start of a downward spiral. I always figured it better to start at the beginning of the week until waiting till the weekend to screw it up. I mean, who wants to go into a weekend knowing they can’t eat one darn thing.

So last week, I hopped on the scale and surprise of all surprises, I lost 1.1 pounds. Obviously, I didn’t feel different and I only lost a quarter of an inch off my belly, so I had to think really hard just where it might have gone. All I could think of is that I am finally replacing some of my fat with muscle because out of all the things I didn’t do that week, the one thing I did do every day was walk.

Yeah, I haven’t been very good in keeping the food diary which is par for the course this time of year as is a slide back. But this time, I was determined to move forward even though the season says we shouldn’t. The one thing I have done is to totally listen to my body signals about hunger, exercise and if I hurt anywhere or not. In the past, I’ve let real and imagined transgressions get in my way. But not this time.

In all honesty, the only thing I didn’t do was write this blog but when I finally realized I hadn’t, it was already Friday.

Now, onto this week. This week I had two, count them, two parties. One was my writers’ group Christmas party and the other was my daughter-in-law’s birthday. Now the birthday, I had more control over as we were going to one of my favorite restaurants. Here, I always order exactly what I want and take 75% of it home as the portions are huge. It’s just way too much food but since this is my normal routine, it wasn’t a problem and I didn’t overeat at all.

The Christmas party was another matter. It was potluck and while the dishes are always wonderful, you really have no control over what type of food is brought. While the variety was great, all the dishes were rich and luscious meaning not very good for a diet. Since I wanted to taste everything, I took a spoonful which would allow me to have at least one bite of each dish. I took a little more of the chili since that was my husband’s and my dish and I know exactly what went into it. The other thing, I had no dessert since nothing appealed to me. I didn’t go back for seconds then but did have some more chili when I got home as each of my meals were skimpy during the course of the day.

One thing to remember during this season or any other for that matter, always eat until you’re full. No more, no less. If you can remember this one simple rule, it will serve you well over the course of your weight loss program. Me, I didn’t listen to my own rule and ate about 5-6 smaller meals that day. Normally, I eat my biggest meal in the middle of the day and a lighter one in the evening. This past Saturday, I am sure I consumed much more than I needed to consume but obviously not enough to tip the scale in a negative way.

But again, I walked more days than not and that served me well with the weight loss. I also removed another .75 inches off my waist. And this is the measurement which really has me jazzed because belly size is one of those things health professionals look at when evaluating you from a health perspective. So far, I have lost 10.6 pounds and 5 inches off my waist. Those are incredible numbers for anyone.

I know I don’t talk much about the tools I use to track this part of my journey. I track my food intake not only on line but with a hard copy book from The Calorie King (www.thecalorieking.com) called the Food and Exercise Diary. This little book is very comprehensive with columns for calories, in and out as well as for carbs and fat if you are tracking those as well. Calories out is your exercise and these do come right off the top. At the bottom of the page, you record your fluid intake, the total number of steps for the day as well as any thoughts.

The reason I like this book is because it works on so many levels. No matter what you’re tracking, what diet you’re on, this book can record it. It is also a convenient size to be able to carry any where you go. It has useful tips and hints in the beginning. But the biggest reason I love this book, it goes strictly by the numbers: calories in – calories out = weight loss/gain. And since I’m a numbers kinda gal, it makes perfect sense to me.

Dieting is basically a numbers game, no ifs ands or buts. It takes 3500 more to add a pound, it takes 3500 calories less to remove a pound. What could be more simple than that? You must burn more calories than you take in to lose any weight. To lose a pound a week, you must reduce your calorie intake 500 points OR you must burn off 500 calories that you take in.

It’s not rocket science and most people can do the simple math. When we get rid of all the emotional baggage associated with that weight, the numbers become numbers again. Whether we want to believe it or not, our fat insulates us from things that scare us. Now, I’ve slowly gained the weight over the years but it wasn’t until I wrote the column on body image, that I really looked at the point I started my weight gain.

I had a great body and I wasn’t ugly, so what was the deal? I think part of it was I knew my husband loved me and I knew other men looked at me. I think I equated other men with temptation and decided I’d remove myself from that equation all together. Basically, I didn’t trust me nor didn’t trust my reactions to life at the time.

And to be honest, the only time in my life where I’ve ever had emotional eating was the year my youngest was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic. That year cost me another 40-50 pounds and I watched everyone of them go on and didn’t know how to stop it at all. I just kind retreated in my shell and ate everything he couldn’t any more. It was six months of stress before we found him a good doctor and before I started eating sanely again and food became food once again.

This is my last column before the holiday. May the season bring all the joys and none of the heartbreak to your weight loss journey. Have a great Christmas! Next week, I’ll talk more on the different tools I use as I’ve definitely got my motivation back. See you all then!


Lynn

A Great Monday

Okay, so I’m blogging on Tuesday. Shoot me already...LOL!

Yeah, I should have done it yesterday but after the writing binge and the fact we went away for the holiday, I just couldn’t sit in front of this machine any longer than I needed to do so. Once everything was done, I decided to just relax and promptly fell asleep on the couch.

Now, as far as weight loss, I had a wonderful weekend. Holidays are always so traumatic for most but this year I decided to temp it all with plenty of exercise. I also didn’t restrict myself from anything as we went to a posh buffet at my husband’s uncle’s golf club in San Francisco. When my daughter-in-law asked how much I though member ship was, I told her it was more than she wanted to think about. The look on her face was priceless as I don’t think until that moment she understood just how well off my husband’s family is. It took me many years to understand just which fork to use but eventually I got over it and started to enjoy myself.

And on that note, the food was fantastic. I loaded up on the greens and added a lot of veggies so I would be full before I went back for the main course. It works as I only had a little of the turkey, beef, small amount of the mash potatoes and more greens. I did save enough room for the tiniest sliver of pumpkin pie as for me it is a must at this holiday.

The way I compensated for this massive meal was I allowed, notice I say allowed, my husband and his family walk me to death before it happened. His parents walk 3-5 miles every day and I went with them on most of those walks this weekend. The only one I missed was the one in the pouring rain as it was a cool rain and I knew no shower would get the dampness out of my bones. Still, all those walks made up for eating more than normal, the drive through food eaten on the way up and back as well as the lack of exercise on travel days.

Was I rewarded for this diligent behavior this weekend? You bet I was! I lost 1.8 pounds and another .5 inches off my waist. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Hope you all have a great week! See you next one!

Lynn

Positive Small Changes

I am sitting here today wondering why I feel so horrible about what I did last week as far as my journey. I succeed in cutting another 50 calories a day off my totals as well as increase my daily steps. I also cut off another inch from my belly which is a big Yippee! for me.

Yet, the scale didn’t budge. Or at least, I don’t think it did. I just replaced the batteries in my old Weight Watcher one and decided to give it a try. And I hated the numbers. Hated it more than the fact I was allowing myself a handful of smarties a day because if I didn’t, the whole bag would be in my stomach by now. And that would do no one any good.

I need to revel in what I did do right, not wallow in the one thing that didn’t happen.

I did record all my food this week.

I did exercise every day except one.

I lifted weights three times this week.

I did reduce my waist by another inch.

I did reduce my average calorie intake by another 50 calories.

I did write this blog again even though I felt like I didn’t accomplish one thing.

When I list them all out like this, it makes me realize how silly it is for me being worried that the scale didn’t move this week. I’ll have lots of weeks where the scales won’t move and lots of weeks where I’m going to have to remind myself of all the positive things I have done.

It might be hard but I have to do this for myself. Forget about everything else, remember to do it for me.

Until next week.

Lynn

A Bad Case of Body Image

Okay, I’ve been fighting this battle of the bulge all my life and wondered just what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t lose weight. I had tried all sorts of methods, everything in the world to just get rid of enough of my excess weight to get to a point where I felt healthy, where I knew I wouldn’t keel over dead.

Now the keeling over dead can actually happen to you no matter how healthy you are, so I had to quickly knock that one off my list. See, I have a friend who is the healthiest person ever according to her lifestyle. She jogs two to three times a week, takes daily walks, swims, bikes, you name it in the area of exercise. And she eats right, always has by watching it and writing it down. It was her who reminded me the only time I had ever really lost weight was when I wrote it all down and exercised every day.

Then about four years ago, she had chest pain and went to the ER to find herself in a full blown heart attack. The next day she had open heart surgery and now she is almost back to where she was before the surgery. See, unbeknownst to her, her ancestors had heart disease so when her parents lived a healthy lifestyle and died in the eighties, she never thought it could hit her. But hit her it did with a sledgehammer.

So, I started looking at pictures and wondered just what type of body I really wanted. I thought if I could just some positive pictures in my mind of how I wanted to look, it would help me along this journey. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted a body similar to this:

Or this:

Why? Because in my mind, both these pictures represent what I thought was a positive body image. Both look healthy and trim and just a little bit sexy in my mind. In my books, I’m mainly thinking about women who look something like these pictures because I think they look good. And good is great where heroine are concerned.

Then just last week, I started looking at some old pictures of me that my husband had scanned in for my fiftieth birthday and my amazement of what I saw blindsided me. All my life I had thought I was a chubby fat girl even though I would tell everyone I was thin and I wore a size eleven. But the problem was even though I said these things, I didn’t believe them one little bit.

Now pictures don’t lie and as I flipped through the photos, I realized the body under the wedding dress looked just like the person’s body in picture number one. I saw that my legs and arms were just as skinny and firm as those I sought to use as my uplifting image. For more than a minute, I realized I had the body I wanted but like the old saying goes, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. See for yourself:

Why do we beat ourselves up on how we look, only to realize years later if we could just get back there, things would be better? I don’t know but it is something I’m going to work on in the coming weeks as I go from overweight to healthy. Yeah, the old terms, even though they may be the truth, don’t motivate me in the least.

And this week. I am definitely motivated. So how well on my goals did I do you many as? Well, I did very well and this is good. I managed to lose another 3/4 inch off my waist, walk at least 30 minutes a day and reduce my calore intake by 100 calories this week. The only place I didn’t do so well on was on my total step count. I was down a lot of steps even though I increased my walking time. I think the problem is the fact I got a new pedometer and it’s not quite as attuned to me as it should be. Sometimes the sensitivity isn’t set correctly and I do believe this is the problem. After all...how many people actually reduce the number of steps while increasing their walking time? LOL! Not very many I’m sure.

See you all next week!

Lynn