It Feels Amazing!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Sigh! My daughter left to go home this afternoon. I miss her a lot but not the way I did the last time she visited. I expected to be a basket case but I wasn't. "Why?" I asked myself. The answer is surprising. I am eager to get back into my exercise routine (I only went to the gym once during her visit) . We did a lot of walking and shopping while she was here, as well as being active as we cleaned and put up our Christmas decorations. I confess that part of me liked the change but the other part of me missed my workout buddies and my exercise classes. My daughter was fighting the tail end of an illness for the first half of her visit, so the gym was not a good place for her. I had exercise withdrawal, so on Monday I got up early and went to the gym by myself. It felt good to do a regular workout.

I am also eager to get back to my regular eating style. I didn't really mess up the whole time she was here but I did have to struggle quite a bit to stay in my range. I know that the way that I currently eat is a bit regimented - especially for other people. My daughter was "on vacation" and thus allowing herself to indulge a lot more than I. This caused some friction between us as I am constantly counting Weight Watcher points. It was interesting that she started eating the same way I did, at meal time, by the end of the week. I think that she noticed that she felt better physically when she ate that way. She even liked my selection of healthy snacks.

I never would have thought that I would miss my normal eating plan more than I would miss eating "treats" but it's true. I think my new eating plan has become a habit (abet a good, healthy one) that makes me feel good. Eating "junk food" makes me feel sluggish and tired. Therefore, I choose to eat healthy and feel better.

Wow! I just read that again. Is this really me? I never would have thought this was possible. I used to eat processed foods without thought. I used to eat sweets without thought. I drank diet Coke without thought. I ate vegetables and fruits but not enough of them. I had cut out almost all fat from my diet due to the fear that I'd eat the wrong kind. Now I eat whole grains, fruit, vegetables, lean protein, healthy fats, low fat/ fat free dairy and drink water. Most of my meals are homemade, low fat, low sodium with as little processing as possible.

The good news is that over the course of time, I've stopped eating most sugary foods, processed foods, diet soda and unhealthy fats. I became very aware of these changes when I found myself silently (mentally) calculating the number of calories and Weight Watchers points in the food that was present during Thanksgiving dinner and during the rest of my daughter's visit. The great news is that it has happened gradually in baby steps so it wasn't overwhelming or painful. All I did was set up a plan for myself and hold myself accountable. I hope that I will continue with the success I've been able to achieve so far. It feels amazing!

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Shopping On Black Friday

Friday, November 23, 2012

Today, my daughter and I went out among the frenzied hoards and did some Christmas shopping. She mapped out our route last night and pulled the circulars, coupons and ads from the newspaper to take with us. We decided last night that we weren't going to get up too early but were going to maintain a relaxed pace. That is what we did. We decided to shop at the mall today and go out again tomorrow and shop at individual stand alone stores.

We left the house around 8 or 8:30a.m. and got back at 4:30p.m. Not the best choice but we got so involved in several projects along the way, that we lost track of time. We stopped for lunch around 12:15p.m. and had grilled chicken salads and diet cokes. We lingered at the table on purpose; working in a rest period. Once our batteries were re-charged, we mapped out our final plan of attack and struck out into the thrall.

One of the best projects of our day was adopting 3 Salvation Army Tree Angels. We have done this since my daughter was about 4 years old (She is now 32) and it helps us to feel the true meaning of Christmas. We use the Black Friday sales to help us select a larger quantity of clothing and toys for our "Angels". Hubby and I adopted a baby boy and a baby girl and my daughter adopted a baby girl as our "Angels". We had such fun going down the list of needed items and looking for bargains so we could get almost every item on the 3 lists. Yes, we were exhausted when we finished but there was an underlying excitement to our fatigue.

On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store to purchase a few items that we used up in making our Thanksgiving feast yesterday. My daughter carried in our shopping trip purchases and hubby carried in the groceries. Together we put everything away. I decided to take a brisk walk outdoors for around 15 minutes and then put my feet up. We had a delicious meal of leftovers (No turkey breast left now after tonight!) and spent the remainder of the evening cleaning up, going through our bargains and watching movies. What a fantastic day!!!

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My Thanksgiving Blessings

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Today I am thinking about all of the things for which I'm thankful. Here are some of them:

1. My hubby, daughter and extended family
2. My faith and God's forgiveness
3. That the pain from the injection in my arm has subsided
4. Good nourishing food, stimulating company/conversation, being together
5. The Spark People community, my Spark friends and a wonderful web site
6. Modern technology
7. A nice home with running water and electricity
8. My primary care doctor and my Tampa medical team
9. The YMCA - the ability to work out there in the pool and gym
10. Old friends and great neighbors
11. The beauty of nature
12. My health

To all of you go my wishes for a peaceful Thanksgiving filled with loving memories and blessings.

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Thanksgiving Company and Feeling Under the Weather

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

This morning, hubby and I drove to the airport to pick up my daughter who flew in to spend Thanksgiving with us. I was beyond excited to have her visit for a whole week! Usually I drive by myself to pick her up at the airport but I had an injection in my left elbow yesterday and am a hurting puppy today. Wouldn't you know it? I'm hurting like crazy on a holiday weekend. Bummer. It was so bad by the time we got home, that I had to take medication for it. Me, who hardly ever takes anything for pain, I hate pills, headed directly for the medicine cabinet as soon as we arrived home. I've been flattened all day and even called the doctor's office to let him know how severe my reaction was to the injection. Hubby got angry because he can't stand to see me in pain. I don't blame him. He asked me to never have a procedure on a holiday weekend again, please! I agree that it wasn't the smartest move on my part.

I didn't go to the doctor yesterday for an injection. I went to see him to discuss the MRI of my humerus bone and how to treat it. The doctor was surprised that nothing showed up on the humerus but a tear in my rotator cuff did partially show on the MRI. Since nerves don't show on an MRI, if the shot doesn't work, we will know that it is a nerve problem. I hate having to go through the "process of elimination" but I would rather do that than rush into something invasive like surgery. So, today I've been resting and praying for the extreme pain to pass. I'm thinking that I should have said no to the shot yesterday but I was hoping that it would help my pain level. Instead of helping, my level increased by about 500%.

Tomorrow I will bite the bullet and try to complete the preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner. Thank goodness my daughter is here to help me. She is such a treasure and so very attentive to me. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family!

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Making Real Measurable Progress!

Friday, November 16, 2012

Today after I did my morning workout, I drove to my WW meeting. I got on the scale at my weigh in, and held my breath. I lost 2.4 pounds this week and there was a song in my heart. I listened attentively at the meeting and found that I was doing many things correctly. I felt good. Since I was in the area,, I stopped at a large department store (yes, I had several coupons) and decided to try on several tops that were on the sale rack. Gasp! All of them were too big - even the smaller size!

Before I tried on the tops, I was strictly measuring my progress by the number on the scale. When I tried on new clothes, I got another measure of my progress. Tonight, I found a third measure of my progress. When I took off my ActiveLink and plugged it into my computer it registered 4 activity points. What that number means is that I achieved the level of my baseline activity, plus 4 additional activity points above my baseline. I was totally shocked! This is the level that I am trying to meet at the end of my 12 week challenge. It is only week 3 and I've already had a day where I've met the challenge! Wow!

How did I hit my goal of 4 activity points? I split up my activity over the course of my day and kept moving, all day long. I'm not sure that I could keep up that pace every day, but I was thrilled that I was able to do it today. Today, I didn't work out harder, I worked out smarter. I'm living proof that breaking your workouts up into workout sections, gives you just as great an overall workout as one long workout. In fact, for me, this worked out much better because I wasn't overly tired after my workout. This meant that I had energy left to do other things and was able to keep moving throughout my day. Today I feel like I'm making real, measurable progress!

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