HEALTHY_CATH's SparkPeople Blog

Putting it all in context - Story setup

Mon, 1 Aug 2011 13:19:45 EST

Hello. I'm blogging again, so I can get a hold of my own story. I'm not going to explain everything I write in the blog. Meanwhile if it feels like some of it applies to your life, all the better! What follows is the setup, or at least some of it, for my health journey.
------------------------------
Here I am again, back at Spark People. I have been absent from the community, but not from messing around with diet and fitness. It’s a journey towards freedom with many side road...

Reality-based Me Instead of Fear-based Me: Strength of Spirit

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:57:17 EST

How do I tell the difference between legitimate challenges I have to deal with and unhelpful wimpiness that holds me back?

I'm going to call it the difference between compassionate, realistic "reality-based me" and scared, beaten-down, "fear-based me." And make the decision that reality-based me is the real me and the one who is in charge.

I find that sometimes fear-based me brings up legitimate issues. For example, "my knee hurts when I do squats, even with proper for...

Belated 4 x 5 Challenge Update: I focus on the process, not just the numbers

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:29:59 EST

I was frustrated in June and the first half of July with pursuing my 4 x 5 challenge. The 4 x 5 was to attempt to lose 5 pounds a month for 4 months. Two areas were frustrating me: problems with exercising and minimal weight loss even with significant focus on healthy eating. Even though I don't follow a "diet" per se, this started to feel like diet frustration: "I can't keep this up!"

Another side to this frustration was that the focus on eating and exercise was sucking time...

Dancing Queen, I Hope You Dance

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:18:16 EST

On one of my Spark teams someone mentioned the song "Dancing Queen" in the movie Mama Mia today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXCnv
ROuv2s I've never seen Mama Mia and I never even knew most of the lyrics to this song, but the discussion touched something deep in me. One lady - or, I'll say, one dancer said something like "In Mama Mia this song reminds me that that time of my life is past." Which is an understandable comment, and it was generous of her to share her feel...

4x5 Challenge - May progress

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 08:19:31 EST

At the end of April 2010, a friend from the gym and I decided to be intentional about getting more exercise and losing weight for May, June, July, and August. Coincidentally, one of my Spark friends, Kim, had decided to do the same thing. Dee, the friend from the gym and I, as well as Kim, all decided to make a goal of losing 5 pounds a month for 4 months. Kim named her goal either 5 x 4 or 4 x 5 - (forget which). In a similar manner, I'm calling mine the 4 x 5 challenge.

It se...

Mental Toughness - It's Time to Go There

Tue, 25 May 2010 07:51:55 EST

One of my Spark friends wrote a blog on Mental Toughness, referencing a book by Steven Siebold. She gave a link that contains more information than her blog: www.mentaltoughnesssecrets.com/ . I have heard of this book before and I think I need to work through it.

I just left an extensive comment on her blog and decided to re-post it here to let you all know where I want to head in terms of approach to health. I'm just going to copy it without much editing; it re...

Being at Peace with Food

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 20:39:33 EST

Yesterday around 6 p.m. I was so tired that I didn't think I'd be able to stay awake. But I did manage to stay awake for a while and realized at maybe 7:30 p.m. that I was hungry. And so I had a snack.

Well, 20 minutes or so after the snack I felt a normal amount of energy. I just mean I could stay awake and move without it being a major ordeal.

This made me realize that the killer fatigue was at least partially a blood sugar effect. I thought I was so tired because ...

Stages of Change Model (also called Transtheoretical Approach)

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:02:58 EST

I have a book called "Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward" by James O. Prochaska and co-authors. They studied how people who had successfully quit smoking on their own did it, and found that change comes in stages.

I find thinking about and working with these "stages of change" useful in keeping myself motivated and moving forward with things like exercise and improving my food choices, and in under...

Exercise is Starting to Make Me Feel Better

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 22:34:43 EST

Please see the related blog entry, "Resisting My Resistance to Exercise - Embracing My Inner Turtle" to understand the background to this blog.

237 134 237 134 237 134
I am SO excited after pushing through many aches and pains and much fatigue to report: exercise is starting to make me FEEL BETTER! Which is the point, right?

I still have pain, especially when doing strength training exercises. But the p...

Resisting my Resistance to Exercise - Embracing My Inner Turtle

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 22:13:47 EST

216 134 216 134 216 134 134
I will be writing another blog entry to be titled, "Exercise is Starting to Make Me Feel Better," but I need to put that in context and explain what I've been doing in terms of mental preparation to create momentum for exercising.

The background is that because of various health issues, I had very little energy and lots of pain. And when I tried to exercise I would hurt. Which ...

I joined a gym, and it has water aerobics!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:34:21 EST

I'm very excited because I joined a gym tonight that has a pool.

The last time I did well with regular exercise was when water aerobics was the anchor exercise, so to speak.

I'm sure it will still be a process to find an effective way to re-condition without overdoing. That's o.k.

Anyway - I'm excited!

Exercise Catch 22's: Re-conditioning with Fibromyalgia

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:32:45 EST

I started out this blog ready to describe my dilemma with re-conditioning with fibromyalgia. The essence is, I don't know ahead of time what will happen when I try to increase my activity, including walking and all types of exercise. When I most recently tried (by walking a little more) it dramatically increased my pain and left me really depleted.

People who are unaware of fibromyalgia - this is not typical exercise whining, you will have to trust me, or do some research on your...

Quotes I like

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 10:46:42 EST

I'm finding a lot of great quotes and saying here on SP. People have interesting stuff in their signatures and in posts. Sometimes I find good quotes elsewhere. So I'm using this blog entry as a place to compile them for myself and anyone who wants to read them. Feel free to add quotes you like in comments as well.

67 186 67 186 67 186 67 186 67

Discipline is remembering what y...

Minimization, Whining and Solution-Seeking

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:53:07 EST

I've been thinking about challenges I face in getting healthier, whether it's temptation, fatigue, pain, whatever.

I don't like whining and I don't want to whine. On the other hand, there is a need to acknowledge challenges and deal with them.

I've decided I'm anti-minimization, anti-whining, and pro-solution seeking. What's the difference?

227
Minimization says "your challenges are trivial, you don't need to pay attention to them." ...

Starting September 2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:39:22 EST

My "before video" as I start the health journey in September 2009