In my 9th week of trying to keep up this exercise routine and it is getting more and more difficult. I don’t have a performance to look forward to and I just have to look at the overall goal of being fit and healthy.
I have to look for little signs that I am making progress. My clothes fit loosely, that is a big factor that helps in keeping my spirits up. Sure I really want a hamburger and soda, I have to remind myself how bad I will feel afterwards. The scale is not always my friend, so I give it a rest. I feel better eating well, that is my sign for the day.
People that haven’t seen me in a while let me know I look well. My eyes seem brighter and less bags around them, so they tell me. Good to know, another small sign, thank you for that.
In the mean time I also try to keep busy around the house. I have been selling off some of my Barbie’s on eBay. The house could be al little lighter as well. All the moving around doesn’t make me tired or sweat, so I feel better just doing my normal chores. I am able to move faster and that feels good as well.
The last month I used a drum solo CD to help with my work out. It has helped and I am still using it. It not as difficult to keep up with, it was before. I know I am making progress when something that was hard isn’t any more.
I only have three more weeks to go on my plan. I have made some great progress and I have lost some weight. After this I will try to keep up with just dancing in the mornings, since I am making it a habit. Having come this far I don’t want to mess it up by going back to old eating habits that got me into this spot in the first place. The things that have helped are a) planning meals b) keep eating salads c) keep using music that inspires me.
I have not had a couch to cheer me on. I have had no one telling me I need to get up and exercise, yet I have been able to do this. Why? I am afraid of having to use insulin in a needle, and I don’t want to be this heavy any more.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Change in the weather
It’s time again for me to get back out in the water, now that all the hot weather is gone and the entire tourist season is over.
I have been out for too long and I get edgy and grumpy when I can’t get back into the water. That’s not fun for my friends and family.
It doesn’t always have to be going off for me to get out there. I just need to feel the cold water around my hands and yes even taste some salt water.
The rest of the time on dry land has been nice now that it is fall again. I love baking and turning on the oven and getting all my cooking done on one afternoon. Also I look forward to snuggling up with my dogs. They always want to get in my lap and watch TV, it’s just hard when it’s really hot and I don’t feel like having my dog pant on me. They don’t seem to ever notice it might be a bother for us humans. Not that they don’t get walks in the summer and love to get out on a cool evening and check out what is going on in the neighborhood.
The pups have had a great time running around the back yard with mom. She teaches them what to bark at and the all follow her around. She sometimes gets tired and gets on top of the picnic table to avoid being trampled by her own pups. They like to run and jump on her; she is patent and nice about it. If they go overboard she lets them know with a little bite or growl. They get the point and stop.
Now that they are all in the house it can get a bit crowded. Not that we mind, it can get difficult when all the dogs want to sit with me, at the same time, since its cooler they help to warm me up.
The chickens are feeling this as well and have been going inside the coop more, at night. During the day they are more comfortable and not as hot, they have been laying eggs more regularly these days. When it’s hot they are too uncomfortable to brew up an egg every day. Too much work when it’s over 100. I can understand that.
After having such hot days, it has been nice to have this change in the weather. Sure I have to bring out the big down comforter, and it’s nice and cozy.
I have been out for too long and I get edgy and grumpy when I can’t get back into the water. That’s not fun for my friends and family.
It doesn’t always have to be going off for me to get out there. I just need to feel the cold water around my hands and yes even taste some salt water.
The rest of the time on dry land has been nice now that it is fall again. I love baking and turning on the oven and getting all my cooking done on one afternoon. Also I look forward to snuggling up with my dogs. They always want to get in my lap and watch TV, it’s just hard when it’s really hot and I don’t feel like having my dog pant on me. They don’t seem to ever notice it might be a bother for us humans. Not that they don’t get walks in the summer and love to get out on a cool evening and check out what is going on in the neighborhood.
The pups have had a great time running around the back yard with mom. She teaches them what to bark at and the all follow her around. She sometimes gets tired and gets on top of the picnic table to avoid being trampled by her own pups. They like to run and jump on her; she is patent and nice about it. If they go overboard she lets them know with a little bite or growl. They get the point and stop.
Now that they are all in the house it can get a bit crowded. Not that we mind, it can get difficult when all the dogs want to sit with me, at the same time, since its cooler they help to warm me up.
The chickens are feeling this as well and have been going inside the coop more, at night. During the day they are more comfortable and not as hot, they have been laying eggs more regularly these days. When it’s hot they are too uncomfortable to brew up an egg every day. Too much work when it’s over 100. I can understand that.
After having such hot days, it has been nice to have this change in the weather. Sure I have to bring out the big down comforter, and it’s nice and cozy.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Getting it out there
There are times we have to be quite and listen and other times we need to speak up. One thing that is hard for me to speak up when I need to, I have a tendency to keep things too much to myself.
I just don’t want to complain all the time. I would rather be peaceful; I just have to balance that with speaking up for what I want. There always seems to be one in the family that wants to throw things and the other that wants to collect things.
I have been thinning down my collection of Barbie’s. In the past I have enjoyed them and I love all the outfits. Now, I would rather have the nice outfits than just look at a plastic model show off all her cool outfits and bags.
It would also make me happy to get in and out of all of my rooms in the house and enjoy them. Rather than have all the clutter around. Once I get that done, I don’t want to fill it with and thing else and I need the rest of my family on board.
There are other things I need to get off my chest; I just can’t do it all at once. The one thing I can do is keep working towards my goal of losing weight and being healthier. I have lost two more pounds this week and feel so much better.
I am going to get back out on my surf board, losing all this weight will help me to be better out there. And I will get to relax more and get out of the house. I can’t afford to go out all the time but I can’t stay in all the time either. Low cost outings are the order of the day.
As for the rest, I will get it out in the open and get it off my chest. I need to in order to move on. Otherwise I will just end up holding on to all this toxic mess and that does no one any good. Losing two more pounds does me good, I have to say. Just getting it out there.
I just don’t want to complain all the time. I would rather be peaceful; I just have to balance that with speaking up for what I want. There always seems to be one in the family that wants to throw things and the other that wants to collect things.
I have been thinning down my collection of Barbie’s. In the past I have enjoyed them and I love all the outfits. Now, I would rather have the nice outfits than just look at a plastic model show off all her cool outfits and bags.
It would also make me happy to get in and out of all of my rooms in the house and enjoy them. Rather than have all the clutter around. Once I get that done, I don’t want to fill it with and thing else and I need the rest of my family on board.
There are other things I need to get off my chest; I just can’t do it all at once. The one thing I can do is keep working towards my goal of losing weight and being healthier. I have lost two more pounds this week and feel so much better.
I am going to get back out on my surf board, losing all this weight will help me to be better out there. And I will get to relax more and get out of the house. I can’t afford to go out all the time but I can’t stay in all the time either. Low cost outings are the order of the day.
As for the rest, I will get it out in the open and get it off my chest. I need to in order to move on. Otherwise I will just end up holding on to all this toxic mess and that does no one any good. Losing two more pounds does me good, I have to say. Just getting it out there.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Being good
When you are working towards a goal being good means sticking to the plans and keeping your nose to the grindstone.
Why does indulging always feel like you’re being bad? Is it old guilt trips from our parents, or is it our own feelings? It could be a combination of both. It could also be good old fashion American puritanical ideals. That being idea that when we have rich foods or a treat we are being bad.
It’s true we shouldn’t just reward ourselves with calorie laden goodies. If we deny ourselves too much we can end up binging as well. So what is the happy medium? How can we keep up with our goals and reach them, without getting there and then eating up a storm after losing weight.
Keeping active has been the key for me, not that I am obsessed with working out to just burn calories. I have been doing my belly dancing which is fun and makes me feel good. As a great out side benefit I have been losing weight.
We are being good when we make wise food choices and keep active. Once we try to put a lot of labels on it, then it can take away our sprite to keep trying.
Also we need to keep telling our friends when they are doing good and they are ‘being good’ with their goals. If we need to hear it, then so do they. It all helps out.
Have I been good? I have, with keeping active, not gaining any weight back and not binging on treats. Feeling better about my health has been its own reward. Everything else is…..well the icing on the cake. That I’m not eating.
Why does indulging always feel like you’re being bad? Is it old guilt trips from our parents, or is it our own feelings? It could be a combination of both. It could also be good old fashion American puritanical ideals. That being idea that when we have rich foods or a treat we are being bad.
It’s true we shouldn’t just reward ourselves with calorie laden goodies. If we deny ourselves too much we can end up binging as well. So what is the happy medium? How can we keep up with our goals and reach them, without getting there and then eating up a storm after losing weight.
Keeping active has been the key for me, not that I am obsessed with working out to just burn calories. I have been doing my belly dancing which is fun and makes me feel good. As a great out side benefit I have been losing weight.
We are being good when we make wise food choices and keep active. Once we try to put a lot of labels on it, then it can take away our sprite to keep trying.
Also we need to keep telling our friends when they are doing good and they are ‘being good’ with their goals. If we need to hear it, then so do they. It all helps out.
Have I been good? I have, with keeping active, not gaining any weight back and not binging on treats. Feeling better about my health has been its own reward. Everything else is…..well the icing on the cake. That I’m not eating.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Week 8
Yes, I am right in the middle of my 12 week program. I am counting down to the last week which will be week 1.
In the last few weeks things have been working well. I have been losing an average of two pounds per week. Never being one to whine endlessly, I started this before I told anyone about it.
Being strict with what I eat has not been easy. Some days and this week, I have had to indulge in a few carbs. If I don’t it will bother me too much and I will over indulge later. I made sure to keep the portions low, and not keep eating. Also making sure to keep up with supplements and drinking plenty of water.
The exercise has been coming along well. Already I am used to practicing for upcoming dances. I still have a performance to get ready for, and last week I was able to substitute for my belly dancing teacher when she needed the night off. That was change and gave me a new reason to keep going.
This week the reason to keep going is the countdown to my dance. It will again be at the Coffee Haven in Long Beach on the 27th of this month. For that evening I will be in a different costume that usual. At Cairo Caravan I picked up some new outfits, none of which I have used in an act yet, though I have used some of them in everyday life. It helps to have something different to wear that no one else has. Another challenge for this act will be dancing in heels something I have never done.
With all this it may seem easy to get going and some days it is. Others I really have to push myself to practice before work. In that I am really lucky, I have a job that starts late and I have time to dance and exercise before going into my office.
Keeping up with my routine is not just important for me, but others around me. If I am off my game the office, and the house all suffer. While that is a good thing, it can also seem like I can’t ever just be lazy and just say, “never mind”. It does make it demanding for me. I can honestly say, sometimes I feel like I am drowning in my own schedule, it passes. Once I get through the day and look back at all I was able to get done I feel so much better.
Karl Lagerfeild works so hard “To show the others how worthless they are.”
Working hard has its own rewards; I do not want to show others they are worthless, I just feel it’s better to lead by example. When I’m on my game others around me may be encouraged to do the same.
In the last few weeks things have been working well. I have been losing an average of two pounds per week. Never being one to whine endlessly, I started this before I told anyone about it.
Being strict with what I eat has not been easy. Some days and this week, I have had to indulge in a few carbs. If I don’t it will bother me too much and I will over indulge later. I made sure to keep the portions low, and not keep eating. Also making sure to keep up with supplements and drinking plenty of water.
The exercise has been coming along well. Already I am used to practicing for upcoming dances. I still have a performance to get ready for, and last week I was able to substitute for my belly dancing teacher when she needed the night off. That was change and gave me a new reason to keep going.
This week the reason to keep going is the countdown to my dance. It will again be at the Coffee Haven in Long Beach on the 27th of this month. For that evening I will be in a different costume that usual. At Cairo Caravan I picked up some new outfits, none of which I have used in an act yet, though I have used some of them in everyday life. It helps to have something different to wear that no one else has. Another challenge for this act will be dancing in heels something I have never done.
With all this it may seem easy to get going and some days it is. Others I really have to push myself to practice before work. In that I am really lucky, I have a job that starts late and I have time to dance and exercise before going into my office.
Keeping up with my routine is not just important for me, but others around me. If I am off my game the office, and the house all suffer. While that is a good thing, it can also seem like I can’t ever just be lazy and just say, “never mind”. It does make it demanding for me. I can honestly say, sometimes I feel like I am drowning in my own schedule, it passes. Once I get through the day and look back at all I was able to get done I feel so much better.
Karl Lagerfeild works so hard “To show the others how worthless they are.”
Working hard has its own rewards; I do not want to show others they are worthless, I just feel it’s better to lead by example. When I’m on my game others around me may be encouraged to do the same.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Keeping up
All my life I have been smaller. I was the smallest one in Kindergarten. It has never bothered me. Sure I need help getting things down off the top shelf at the super market. I have been known to climb up the shelves on occasions.
When it came to running for PE classes, I was a good sprinter, but it was harder for me to keep up with the others. They had longer strides and I never really did well in long distance running. I did run after school to keep my weight down. My mother and sister were always on me about my weight.
My sister is much taller and had a long stride. She would have been great in track and field. It was hard for me to keep up with her when we walked home from school since my legs just didn’t reach that far in one step. People that are taller soon realize, around me smaller steps. Otherwise I’m puffing to keep up with them and it takes me two steps to their one.
With my new exercise routine it’s not easy to keep up all the time. Today I will be teaching a belly dance class. I will be subbing for my teacher and that has helped me to keep going this week, I have been really tired. Yes, I take vitamins and then work out. The two together makes all the difference.
I am doing all this for myself and for my overall health. When I was working hard to please my family it worked for a while. The motivation was really fear, the fear of being called fat and looked down by them. It was too negative to keep up. In the end they were never pleased and I gave up. I would never hear my mother say I looked pretty or slim. She would always say I needed to lose more weight, even at a size 4 she said that.
At my age I have more realistic goals. I will never again be a size 4 and I only got there by hardly eating and it wasn’t healthy. If I can lose enough to be healthy I will be happy. I have old clothes I can almost get back into. That would be great. Keeping up with a healthy life style won’t always be easy, but it will be worth it in the end.
When it came to running for PE classes, I was a good sprinter, but it was harder for me to keep up with the others. They had longer strides and I never really did well in long distance running. I did run after school to keep my weight down. My mother and sister were always on me about my weight.
My sister is much taller and had a long stride. She would have been great in track and field. It was hard for me to keep up with her when we walked home from school since my legs just didn’t reach that far in one step. People that are taller soon realize, around me smaller steps. Otherwise I’m puffing to keep up with them and it takes me two steps to their one.
With my new exercise routine it’s not easy to keep up all the time. Today I will be teaching a belly dance class. I will be subbing for my teacher and that has helped me to keep going this week, I have been really tired. Yes, I take vitamins and then work out. The two together makes all the difference.
I am doing all this for myself and for my overall health. When I was working hard to please my family it worked for a while. The motivation was really fear, the fear of being called fat and looked down by them. It was too negative to keep up. In the end they were never pleased and I gave up. I would never hear my mother say I looked pretty or slim. She would always say I needed to lose more weight, even at a size 4 she said that.
At my age I have more realistic goals. I will never again be a size 4 and I only got there by hardly eating and it wasn’t healthy. If I can lose enough to be healthy I will be happy. I have old clothes I can almost get back into. That would be great. Keeping up with a healthy life style won’t always be easy, but it will be worth it in the end.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Planning
In the next few weeks I am planning on having another performance at Coffee Haven in Long Beach. As it turned out I was able to have a private session with my teacher and friend. She gave me tons of help to smooth out things in my routine.
I was so grateful to have some help. Not one to shy away from help in my dancing. Some never want instruction in their exercise routines and want to do it all themselves. I have found they are also people that never make any progress. I have a friend, I hadn’t talked to her in a year and we had the same conversation as the last year. I like getting correction in my Pilates class, just as I had enjoyed instruction in my ballet classes. She chafed at that kind of direct attention, she was still complaining about not losing weight while I had lost some weight and was feeling better.
I know, she could not see the connection of getting instruction and correction and progress. If she did accept help, maybe she would be doing her exercise correctly and getting the benefit from it. Needless to say, I have not brought up the subject to her since then.
In the last two weeks I have lost 6 pounds, yes I am very proud of that. Most of it had to do with getting ready for my performance last Sunday. I was going a lot of drum solo work, and it really helped to charge up my work out.
In planning for my next dances, I can see the format will not be as rigorous. Still trying to keep my goal in mind, I am still working out with the drum solo CD. The other part is diet. During the past few months I have changed a lot in that department, and just added the faster pace of the dance work out has made a big difference.
Why all this talk of dancing on my Surf blog? I have not made much progress in my surfing since I have been out of shape and very heavy in the middle. The more I loose on dry land the better I will be in the water. It will help me to float better and be more flexible to pop up on my board.
I had a long road to go on when I first started surfing again. Really I should have done all this work first then gotten back on the board. It was a bit premature. After getting out there and being winded I realized just how much work I was going to have to do. Surfing and ballet are things I really love. In order to get back to these activities I need to be much slimmer, which is why I spend all this effort to lose weight.
Sure it may seem like a long detour, but I still know what goal I am working towards. I am still planning on getting back on my board. It’s not all planning, it’s doing.
I was so grateful to have some help. Not one to shy away from help in my dancing. Some never want instruction in their exercise routines and want to do it all themselves. I have found they are also people that never make any progress. I have a friend, I hadn’t talked to her in a year and we had the same conversation as the last year. I like getting correction in my Pilates class, just as I had enjoyed instruction in my ballet classes. She chafed at that kind of direct attention, she was still complaining about not losing weight while I had lost some weight and was feeling better.
I know, she could not see the connection of getting instruction and correction and progress. If she did accept help, maybe she would be doing her exercise correctly and getting the benefit from it. Needless to say, I have not brought up the subject to her since then.
In the last two weeks I have lost 6 pounds, yes I am very proud of that. Most of it had to do with getting ready for my performance last Sunday. I was going a lot of drum solo work, and it really helped to charge up my work out.
In planning for my next dances, I can see the format will not be as rigorous. Still trying to keep my goal in mind, I am still working out with the drum solo CD. The other part is diet. During the past few months I have changed a lot in that department, and just added the faster pace of the dance work out has made a big difference.
Why all this talk of dancing on my Surf blog? I have not made much progress in my surfing since I have been out of shape and very heavy in the middle. The more I loose on dry land the better I will be in the water. It will help me to float better and be more flexible to pop up on my board.
I had a long road to go on when I first started surfing again. Really I should have done all this work first then gotten back on the board. It was a bit premature. After getting out there and being winded I realized just how much work I was going to have to do. Surfing and ballet are things I really love. In order to get back to these activities I need to be much slimmer, which is why I spend all this effort to lose weight.
Sure it may seem like a long detour, but I still know what goal I am working towards. I am still planning on getting back on my board. It’s not all planning, it’s doing.
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