Keeping Promises

Today is the end of Day 5 of my personal 30-Day Challenge and it’s been a pretty good five days.  I have remembered to take my fish oil, Vitamin D, and half calcium tab every day, even if it is with a grimace.   Although it still isn’t enough, I’ve had more water to drink each day.  My best success, surprisingly, has been at sleeping!  I’ve been in bed at 9pm each night (except tonight as I write this) and the bedroom TV has uttered neither sound nor picture.  I’ve worked my way up to sleeping a full eight hours each night, but think I could feel more rested when I wake up!  I’m looking forward to that.  Nutrition has been easy, as long as I cook ahead and take my lunch to school.  As always when I’m minding my Ps and Qs strictly, I’ve been a little hungry at times, but satisfy it with a few almonds or bite of almond butter. 

Exercise is still a problem, especially with the days getting shorter (and hotter!)  I’ve gone on a couple of short bike rides, but mostly I run out of time and then don’t want to wind myself up just before bed.  I usually don’t get home until almost 6:30 and by the time I fix dinner and eat I’m just about ready for bed!  In trying to keep my promise to myself, I have at least managed to get down on the floor for a little scapula- and core work.  It’s definitely lightweight stuff, but it’s a start. 

This morning, though, I remembered Exercise TV and did a 10-minute workout.  Then, another and another...and by the way, that buns-and-thighs workout wasn’t exactly easy!!

So it was a good day, even if I did sit at the computer grading schoolwork for five hours today!  I had some hearty belly laughs earlier and am happy to be keeping promises to myself!   

My 30-Day Challenge: Pulling It All Together

Because my trainer has so many teacher clients, she has in the past offered a ‘Fall Challenge’ or as she started out calling it, Fall Lean Out (which I preferred) in September to help us get back on track after the summer.  However, there are changes afoot.  NorCal Strength and Conditioning, where I work out, has traditionally scheduled a Paleo Challenge after the holidays, but this year has changed the plan.  I found myself counting on these ‘opportunities’ to get myself refocused on this lifestyle that has been my lifeline for the past couple of years.

It has been an exceptionally stressful time.  I spent the entire summer moving my classroom—instead of walking, riding my bike, tending my garden, planning for my new classes and refreshing my outlook—and to make matters worse (way worse!) my little group of devoted Paleo followers has suddenly gone from four to two.  I’m pretty good about the Paleo nutrition...except for too many dark chocolate chips and occasional (occasionally more than occasional) wine.  What I have found difficult—and different from the previous summer—is getting enough water, quality sleep, and exercise outside of my workouts.

After a brief bout of disappointment with the changes I didn’t ask for and didn’t want (waah!) it occurred to me, why wait for an ‘official’ challenge?  I can issue my own personal challenge with all the pieces that are challenging for me, especially, enough water, quality sleep, and exercise outside of my workouts!

So, here I am, going public with my own 30-Day Challenge!  I am trying to happily, successfully, and with gusto, pull it all together:  Paleo nutrition, remembering to drink enough water, getting quality sleep (and that means no TV in the bedroom) and some regular exercise outside of my workouts, despite my busy schedule, and despite my disappointments, worries, time constraints, and all of the components of life that cause stress (because I really do believe all that cortisol stuff)!

Tomorrow is Day 1.  I have loaded up my pill-minder with fish oil, Vitamin D, and a half, icky tablet of calcium.   Even though I forget (and sometimes stare at it with willful disobedience) I will swallow them, one by boring one.  I will drink more water, maybe not enough, but more than I have been drinking...even if it means racing to the restroom while high school kids are streaming into the classroom, waiting for the bell to ring so they can get a pass to the restroom!  I will either walk to work, ride my bike, or use the On Demand exercise channel faithfully each day that I don’t go to the gym.  I will forgo wine and dark chocolate chips until my birthday... and then--the biggest challenge of all--look FORWARD to the day my challenge ‘ends’ with a promise to live and learn and not to snap back with a vengeance, like a rubber band infused with a boomerang’s resolve to revert to old habits.

My Challenge will be yet another step toward living in this lifestyle that has given me the chance to feel great!  I am bolstered by the entertaining (and persuasive) TedTalk that anyone can do anything for 30 days (or see the link under Inspirations).  Are you with me? 

Don't Let Your Body Down!

My father-in-law passed away recently at 95.  He was a remarkable man in many ways, sharp as a tack until the day he died, and I admired him a lot.  We had always shared artistic interests, and for the last couple of decades he’d been a prolific watercolorist, active in his local art club, with paintings much in demand.  I really thought he’d just never ‘quit’.  So when he died, I found myself thinking that his mind didn’t let him down, but his body did.

A part of me has always kept a vigilant eye on the future. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been the most disciplined part of me!  Watching parents age, though, combined with a mirror and strong light, should be all that’s needed to get some self-discipline into high gear!  And yet, it rarely is. 

Every adult in my family has at one time or another, waged battles against Overweight, with varying success, but most have lost the war.  So, what does it take—especially for all of us pacifists!—to beat down obesity, not to mention becoming fit?  The secret, like so many things in life, I think, is something you have to discover for yourself . . . and what it takes to get started, and what it takes to carry on, isn’t necessarily the same.

I know that giving my body ‘status’, enough to give it the attention it deserves, is tough.  I can spend a lot of time thinking about how to treat my body right and not let it down, but well, it’s tough to remember to do, it’s tough to make time to do, and it can be tough sometimes just to do it.  I’ve found that this is one place where it’s good not to ask questions!  “Do I feel like it today?” opens the door for inaction and isn’t very helpful for sustaining a commitment to taking care of myself.  I don’t ask anymore if I feel like it, I just do it.  So far, there hasn’t been a time when ‘I did it’ and wished I hadn’t! 

When it comes to making changes—or sustaining them—I know that a decision isn’t enough, but it’s a great start.  I know that desire isn’t enough, but it’s necessary.   I believe that, to a degree, ‘timing is everything in life,’ so to make the stars line up so that the illusive ingredients are there, not only to jumpstart the initial enthusiasm, but sustain life changes is THE challenge.

These days, I’m always looking for ways to find the fun in taking care of my body, so that we’re in mutual agreement not to let each other down! 

Talk With a Stranger

I was walking and talking with a friend recently.  I don’t see her very often and we were catching up.  Amidst the chirping of birds and other early morning sounds, we touched on challenges posed by lifelong personality traits.

A shy child, I think of myself as somewhat reclusive by choice.  As I get older, I realize how important social interactions are.  I’ve always led a fairly quiet life and I’ve liked it that way.  It has been my habit to avoid crowds, going places at times when I don’t have to stand in line, for example. 

It has dawned on me, lately, that I actually like people and enjoy being sociable!  Standing in line is a great way to meet and talk with people!   

Learning to find opportunities seems to mean being less compulsive about work and taking time out for the possibility of social serendipity.  It is a remarkably different way of approaching daily life and requires checking my perceptions and assumptions about who I am.

I was sharing this epiphany with my friend, who suggested taking it further than chancing social interaction.  She suggested seeking an adventure every day.  Then, she followed that advice with the directive, “Each day, talk with a stranger!” 


Well, I haven’t talked with a stranger each day, but I have talked with a few, and have (mostly) been delighted.  I have begun to rethink who I’ve always thought I was, especially about simply accepting those traits that are restrictive.  Sometimes it’s the tiniest bit scary to find I’m not who I thought I was, but I have found it’s more than the tiniest bit exciting to experience what a greater openness brings.

I think they call it personal growth, and it’s really kind of fun!  Have you talked with any strangers lately?



Comfortable out of my comfort zone!



Something In Common With The Elephants

I just got back from a visit with my 3-year old grandson and his parents!  Of course, there was lots of picture-taking and a trip to the zoo.  I couldn’t help but notice—as I have frequently these days—that I have something in common with the elephants...and I don’t mean weight!

Oh, the saggy, wrinkled skin on this newly fit body!  I have joked that “I should have done this sooner, while I still had some elasticity left.”  When in odd positions and gravity is being unkind, I have batted at it and flung it around.  In a stiff wind, I could be a sail!  (Well, it’s not quite that bad . . . yet!)  I need to drink more water!  Would a good skin cream help?  How about some vitamins to encourage some ‘shrink wrap’ action?!?

I am reminded that fat used to fill the space under my skin, but I am also reminded that I am getting older!   And just when I’m feeling so young!  How cruel!  Since I haven’t found a magic potion that will infuse my skin with the vitality I feel (or even something less than magic), I will have to rely on attitude and altering my perception.



I can bypass Vanity to get to how great it feels to keep up with my grandson for hours at the zoo, zooming up ramps and climbing tall steps, picking him up without thinking about it, and having the energy for his energy!  But, can I sidestep Appearance and just not see those wrinkles?  (I’m convinced that’s why eyesight diminishes as we age.)  Or can I see them differently?



Are wrinkles and baggy skin a testament to where I’ve been and how far I’ve come?  



I don’t want to have to gather up my skin so I don’t trip over it like a skirt that’s too long, but I don’t want to fill it up with fat again, either.  These days, I wouldn’t trade in my health for smooth skin:  it feels too good to run and jump and play!  So, if I have to have ‘elephant skin’, I wouldn’t mind having some grace in accepting it, too!

I’m working on it J

Taking Up Space

One day in a conversation with my trainer Natalie, I commented that I really had no idea that I’d been so fat...and felt like I should apologize!  We both chuckled and she replied, “For what, taking up space?”

It got me thinking about the ways we take up space, sometimes substituting a need for significance with a BIG presence and HUGE appetite, literally!  I was at my fattest when I felt myself ‘disappearing’ from my own life!  

I fed myself (those momentarily satisfying comfort foods) in the sorrow of too many losses, in the rush of trying to find success in my new career, in the uncertainty of life after divorce, even in the joy (and exhaustion) of trying to take care of others, always trying to ‘fill the space’.  Life was so . . . well, it was just how life is sometimes and I couldn’t find myself, no matter how much space I was taking up! 

It seems contradictory, but I suppose there is a logic to it:  the smaller I felt, the bigger I got!

  

So, one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn on this journey (except for eating breakfast every day!) is HOW to ‘take up space’.  It started with a commitment to make the time and spend the money on my health, and continues with the promise to care for my well-being as if I AM important, the most important person in my life!  That singular concept (and  practice) has changed my life.  I'm learning to feel the space I take up as the person I truly am, rather than trying to fill some ever-expanding, illusive void.

And what could be more important than a direct line to yourself?  At 58, I’ve rediscovered the fun I used to feel on the playground, challenging myself to master my universe (and no one else’s)!  I have fun working toward physical goals (see below).  I am getting better about setting interpersonal boundaries, am respectful of what is important to me, and look to myself to find what has meaning in life.  And I’m a much better person for it, for myself, but also for others.

Here’s my invitation to you:  set some goals, however ‘small’, that have personal significance, then spread your wings and take up some space!



original black-and-white photo by Lyle Krannichfeld, 2011
courtesy of NorCal Strength & Conditioning



It's Never Too Late!

It is my 2-year anniversary with Natalie at NorCal Strength & Conditioning! My journey actually started the previous summer (2008) when my weight was at an all-time high--194 lbs. the last time I had the courage to step on the scale--and my happiness was at an all-time low. In this photo, I am wearing the Mother-of-the-Bride ensemble, size 1x, that I bought at COSTCO for my youngest daughter's wedding.

Many things in my life then had been going awry and immediately after the wedding, I lost 10 lbs. (even though I'd tried so hard to lose weight BEFORE the wedding)--that's another story--then I made two significant changes in my life: I stopped drinking diet soda and I quit going to drive-throughs! I lost another 10 lbs. with those changes... 

Then in April of 2009, I was approached by Natalie, offering a deal on 12 one-on-one training sessions at the Crossfit gym. I had been laid off for the second year in a row and busy with end of the school year activities, but I had to do SOMETHING! I signed up to get started as soon as school was out and have been going ever since! 

By the way, as I write this, I am 58 years old and wear a size 2. Much more importantly, I feel GREAT: I'm getting stronger all the time and able to do things I haven't done since my 20s and 30s. I eat Paleo, take no medications, and at a recent annual exam, my doctor almost seemed disappointed that he couldn't find something to do or suggest for my health! ha ha