A third of the way through Month One

If beginning my health-and-fitness plan the day after Christmas puts me ahead of everyone who started this week, then SO BE IT. Heh.

Making December 26 my Day One of Month One might have been the smartest thing I did last year. I'm feeling very in the groove as I begin the 10th day of the umpteenth diet-and-exercise makeover. Today is a walk-and-yoga day, and I did indeed find a beginner routine for the sun salutation. I haven't tried it yet, so can't personally recommend it. This is one of many on YouTube; if it's not what I need, I'll certainly keep looking.

I haven't mentioned knitting around these parts lately. I'm still working on the endless blue-and-white garter stitch scarf. Pretty soon it'll be spring and I won't need a scarf.

My husband found a piece of paper with an outline of the five-year-old granddaughter's foot, which I thought I'd lost. She and I made the outline so I could make her a pair of slippers that actually fit. So next in the queue is a pair of child-sized Duffers.

(Mine, which I've been wearing since November 21, are already beginning to show some wear. There's a tiny hole developing in the toe of the right one. I'll probably do a quick mend until I have time to make another pair. Or until I make a pair of felted clogs, which last a very long time.)

What else, what else … I backed up my hard drive yesterday, something I hadn't done since July, according to Time Machine. Tsk, tsk. This was in preparation for purging some space-hogging tunes from said hard drive. What's stopping me from ditching all the music (since it's backed up on the external drive) is this: How would I go about loading the iPod again? I'm not done buying music or audiobooks. My laptop (a MacBook Air) only has one USB port, so I'd have to download music from the external back to the computer and then hook the iPod up to load anything new onto it.

I don't dare mention this dilemma to my husband. He would simply tell me to listen to the radio. My solution, as I mentioned a few days ago, is to delete those free-songs-I'll-never-listen-to. That should free up plenty of space. But if any of you have other ideas …

Finally, check out the new widget over in the right sidebar. DailyMile keeps a running mileage total for you, as long as you remember to log your activity. DM doesn't have an Android app, but there's an app called Daily Distance that simply and easily uploads your stats to the website. I use an Android app called Skimble to track my time-and-distance when I walk. (Skimble can track just about any fitness activity you can think of, actually, I just now looked and I can also record elliptical sessions. Yay!)

I just wish downloading and using apps burned calories like walking and yoga do.  (I'm a geek and I know it.) Maybe someone is working on that.

Dumbbells

DONE!

Proof that I CAN put one foot in front of the other

I bet from that title you think I'm going to write about walking. Well, I'm not. I hope to walk outdoors today. It's supposed to be sunny but c-c-cold this afternoon and a friend and I are going to bundle up and and make the effort.

Yesterday morning I cleaned off a tall, heavy, wooden bookshelf that was stored in the garage and carried it from there to the house, installing it in our tiny little TV room. It's kind of overwhelming in there, and it might go back to the garage. However, as I was reaching and stretching to get a pile of notebooks off the tippy top, I strained my neck.

Not a big deal. I've done stuff like that before. But by the time I got the thing moved, I decided to rest, postponing the planned elliptical workout from noon until "later."

Now later could be an hour or two or even a day hence. But here's how I know my plan is working. I didn't want to break the week-long streak. I wanted to keep my commitment to myself more than I wanted to give in to a neck strain.

At 3:05 I was done with the elliptical and moving on to some very gentle yoga poses. I've no illusions about yoga being "exercise" at this point. But I'm making the effort, in the hope that I'll begin feeling the benefits and eventually want to make it a longer and – maybe – more frequent practice.

Today is a short dumbbell workout, along with the walking. Again, not really exercise, in that I don't sweat or grunt or hurt. I just want to get used to lifting something heavier than my morning coffee. All-or-nothing is my usual modus operandi, but that obviously hasn't worked in the past, or I wouldn't be here in the present, beginning anew. WOULD I?

I also think I'll try cutting the lower ribbing off one of my sweatshirts, as Jen suggested. I don't need the side vents, just a straight hem (which should tame the curling, which is what Denise experienced when she chopped the ribbing off one of hers). That experiment would make this day very productive indeed.

Image from http://www.FB.com/TributetoStephenCovey

Finally, I shared this graphic on Facebook this morning, and then snagged the image to post here. (I think if you click it it will get big enough to actually read. Or you can go to my Facebook page, link is in the right sidebar of the blog.) Apologies if you're seeing it twice. No, wait, I take that apology back – if I saw this every day it still wouldn't be enough. I'm going to print it and put it on the inside of the medicine chest.

Much of this "headwork" is stuff I've done before. I even live by some of it (thank you, Alcoholics Anonymous!), especially the second and fifth ones. I still think too much and I could certainly get out of my own way and be more compassionate and empathetic when I see others suffering. None of us is perfect and there's always room for improvement. I see these "rules" more as principles or guidelines or even suggestions which would add some peace and serenity to my sometimes over-emotional life.

It's worth a shot, anyway.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for helping me be accountable. If I hadn't announced my plan here, I might have rested all day yesterday. My neck is fine this morning. Whether you would judge me or not, I appreciate that you're out there, reading this, helping me add another day of success to this new year.

Home again, for the moment

Well, last week's travel took its toll. I did well on drive day and for the first three days I was gone. I didn't completely fall off the wagon, but the only goal I was able to maintain all week long was the no-snacking one. I didn't even have time to blog, which reinforced the accountability aspect of this experiment. It wasn't that I went crazy and ate stupid stuff. But I definitely slacked off on the days I didn't blog, in all areas but snacking.

The walks got shorter as the week went by. My grandson and I took four-mile walks Monday through Thursday. We went 2.75 miles Friday, promising each other we'd make up the difference later in the day but it never happened. And Saturday we only did 2.25 miles, but I was leaving that day and needed to get on the road.

He joined me in the no-snacks-between-meals zone, and we agreed that on the days he had Tae Kwon Do he could have a piece of fruit or a yogurt before his class, which lasts 90 minutes. He really needs a little boost between the end of the school day and dinner. He's pretty big for his age (he's 10 and outweighs his 14-year-old sister by at least 20 pounds), and not happy about it, so I'm glad to be his cheerleader, and I need to be a good example. It made perfect sense to him that it's okay to be hungry, and it also made perfect sense to him that food tastes better when you're hungry.

I did the upper- and lower-body strength training every day until Friday. Friday was super busy, but it's not like I didn't have 20 minutes to myself. I just didn't use them very well. And I did great with water early in the week, but that, too, was an afterthought by the end of the week. And I stopped journaling my food (although I ate fairly healthfully) on Wednesday.

I got home Saturday evening, exhausted, and took yesterday off. All I did was laundry and cook dinner. No walking, no strength training.

The result is predictable. I wasn't surprised to see that the scale god took back two of the pounds I lost last week. That makes it four pounds lost in three weeks, which – considering my weight-loss history – is still something to cheer about.

But I don't feel much like cheering.

I'm leaving again this coming Saturday for a shorter visit; maybe I can stay on track this time. I'll be handing out candy for trick-or-treaters in my son's neighborhood a week from tonight. It will be vital to follow the no-snack rule then. I need to remind myself that candy will always be around, it's not like it's going to become extinct just because I'm not eating it.

(Look at alcohol – I stopped drinking almost 21 years ago, but they've come out with all kinds of new concoctions since I gave it up! The most exotic thing I ever ordered at a bar was a Long Island Iced Tea. All these new martini drinks sound like way more fun. Heh.)

It really is a combination of things that creates success, not just in weight loss but, I would presume, in the achievement of any goal. If you're in business, you can't just focus on customer service, you also have to have a good product. In all things health-related, one success builds on the next to achieve optimum results.

With that, I'll get back on the horse, so to speak, and do my best. I won't do a weigh-in next Monday, since I won't be home. Maybe two weeks of healthy behaviors will yield good results next month.

Anne asked how I manage the water drinking. I realized sometime this week that I've reported drinking a gallon of water daily, when I have, in fact, been drinking half that amount. I fill a half-gallon Brita pitcher in the morning and keep it on the counter. (Room-temperature water works better for me.) When it's empty, I'm done drinking water, although I usually have an extra glass with dinner. I drink from a 16-ounce cup and I start early in the day. The rule is I can't have the first cup of coffee until the first 16 ounces of water is gone.

I hope you will join me, Anne and whoever else is interested, in continuing to work on these few simple (but not easy) changes. Our health depends on it!

Moving right along

Thanks for your comment, Mindy, it was just what I needed to read to stay on track yesterday. I was beginning to hit the slippery slope of habit-making, so getting an attagirl – and knowing that what I'm doing is inspiring you – kept me on the beam.

I wrote a fairly long, somewhat coherent post on August 1, that was sort of a manifesto for doing what I need to do to lose some of this weight. I then proceeded to blow August and September off like a bad date.

My apologies to the late summer months.

My five missions (the link takes you to the post where I declared the original four, I've since added journaling), which I committed to last week, are working well. Okay, maybe not well, since I haven't technically lost any weight, but I'm noticing changes in my attitude, if not my waistline. (And, weirdly, my wedding ring is so loose it keeps twisting around so the blingy part is on the palm side of my hand. Progress? Who knows?)

• I make time for a walk every day. It's important. (I'm important.)
• No snacking is not killing me.
• It's okay to be hungry.
• I'm not too tired to do those baby strength-training exercises every day.
• I'd almost rather drink water than coffee. And I haven't had a diet soda since I started this, this, whatever it is. (Soda is not off-limits, I'm just drinking water instead.)

I'm at the very, very beginning of accepting that if I want to be able to play for a few more years, I'm going to have to do this work now. Otherwise, I'm going to end up on my ass or bedridden for the rest of my life, having other people take care of me.

It's that serious.

Today will be a bit of a challenge

But nothing like yesterday. It's raining today, so I might have to use the elliptical instead of walking outdoors. Everything else is manageable, just as it was yesterday. Amazing how things work when you have both priorities and accountability. Thanks to both of you for being my conscience!

Ta da! Here's the bridal gown. The photo, of course, doesn't do it justice. You can barely see the layers of tulle overskirt. But I had to get it to the post office by 2 p.m. in order for it to begin its trip south yesterday, and I wanted to walk to the post office. Thus, the crappy photo.

Can you believe I wanted to walk?

I started sewing at about 6:15 a.m. and took this photo at 1:23 p.m. I then carefully wrapped it stuffed it in a Priority box, changed shoes, grabbed the Garmin and started walking. Fast. The post office is eight-tenths of a mile from our house. I made it with plenty of time to spare.

The veil was supposed to be a couple layers of gathered tulle glued to a purchased, padded headband. My fabric glue wasn't sticking and I couldn't find the glue gun (the search used up a precious 20 minutes!), so I ended up hand-sewing it at the very last minute. The veil was the first thing I started on, thinking it would take all day for the glue to dry. It would have taken a week; I think my glue must be 10 years old. (So why did I put it back in the craft closet? Why didn't I throw it away? Hmmm.)

And speaking of the veil … a quick-and-dirty picture. My husband refused to model it, but the chair didn't mind.

In spite of spending most of the day in a sweatshop-like setting, I managed to

• drink a gallon of water (supplemented with lots of coffee),
• eat breakfast and dinner (lunch went by the wayside, but I had an apple and peanut butter mid-afternoon),
• walk five and a half miles (went ahead and walked my usual four-miler after I walked to the post office and back),
• do my upper-body strength-training (squeezed it in before dinner), and
• journaled my food (right after dinner)

And then I went to a meeting last night. When I got home at about 8:45 I went straight to bed, did not pass GO, did not collect $200. I did read the paper on the Nook before I went to sleep. I love the Nook.

What I did collect was a good, good feeling about how I managed to stick with the program yesterday when it would have been so, so easy to cut myself some slack. It helped that I had leftovers in the freezer, and thus didn't have to prepare an evening meal. Believe it or not, it helped to have that water pitcher on the kitchen counter, as a visual cue to take care of myself amidst my self-imposed chaos.

It helped that my husband was gone most of the day. Heh. It also helped that when I got back from the post-office portion of the walk, I could see him walking about a quarter-mile ahead of me on the road. I decided instead of turning into the driveway and saying 1.6 miles was enough, I'd just try to catch up with him, which I did about a mile later.

It actually helped to have this last-minute deadline, as the rest of this week is pretty full and I might be going out of town next week. I guess, in the end, it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

As it always does.

Friday Quote Day

The impossible can always

be broken down into possibilities.

~ Author Unknown

What a week. I'm busy all day long, every day, and it seems like something needs attention every time I turn around. I don't even have a written-out to-do list, I just know that when one thing gets done, something else is right behind it.

I didn't used to feel like this. There was a time when I would plop down on the couch with a book or a magazine and read – guilt-free – all afternoon. I'm not sure when things changed, or why. I still read, but now it's only a couple pages right before I go to sleep. I have three months' worth of magazines to go through and quite a collection of books on the Nook, all waiting for their fifteen minutes at the end of the day.

My plan to drink more water, cut out snacks, start a strength-training program and take a daily four-mile walk has worked out well so far, and the accountability part of it – the daily Stats post – has been very helpful. I'm sure it bores you, if you even read it. And I'm sure you're not going to beat me up or make fun of me if I sputter or falter.

Yesterday proved to me how valuable that post is. I was very tired after a morning in the garden and could easily have justified that work as at least as valuable as a walk. I was smart enough to do the lower-body workout before I went out to the garden, I can almost guarantee I wouldn't have done any squats or lunges afterward.

The impossible (referred to in today's quote) is, of course, getting back to a somewhat normal weight for a woman my age and height. The possibilities are working well. If it's true that it takes 21 days to create a new habit, then I've given myself a bit of extra insurance by promising to "report in" for a month. I wish I didn't have to resort to little tricks like this. I'm a grown-up, I shouldn't have to. I should want to do these things because they make me feel good and because they're good for me.

My husband is a little worried that I'm doing too much. All I have to say to allay his concerns is this:

I don't want to end up like my dad.