Archive for the ‘Weight Loss’ Category
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Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Last weekend was so busy that I needed a weekend to recover from my weekend (you might have noticed that I haven’t posted in a week). Time has been flying past me as of late and I am definitely ready to feel the laziness of summer drift into my psyche to slow things down just a bit.
Paige is out on a 5 day backpacking trek to the Olympic Pennisula this week. And me? The visions I had of having a week filled with adult activity is completely lost on me. I wanted to go out to eat every night and sleep in every morning. Instead, I have been having trouble sleeping and feel completely wasted during the day. I am getting over it though. It’s just so quiet in the house without her.
Good news to report though, I’ve lost another 2 lbs and am kind of inspired by it. I actually think that I could be at the 20 lb loss marker by the end of the month. I might do a touchdown dance if that happens.
Er, maybe not.
**Quick update**
I thought it would be nice to remind you (and myself) where I started off this year:
Click here to see all of my weight loss photos on Flickr. Slow and steady wins the race.
Tags: cnn, ireport
Posted in Weight Loss, Weight Updates | 11 Comments »
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Summer in Seattle is so incredibly beautiful that it makes you wonder why you even consider living anywhere else but here. Though it isn’t summer yet, we have been blessed with such incredible weather this past week that I’ve had a hard time concentrating on doing anything else but marvel at that bright shiny orb in the middle of a sky.
I used to dread this time of year – mostly because it meant that I was going to be hot. Physically hot, not HAWT! If you are overweight, you know exactly what I mean. While the rest of the world is walking around in flouncy skirts and spaghetti strapped dresses, you are trying to figure out if your cap sleeves are strategically hitting your upper arms so that your bat-wings don’t look too menacing. You are miserable in your long sleeves and pants.
In years past I used to get completely self-conscious about summer. This year however, the hot weather is like a breath of fresh air. I think in part, because I am spending a lot of time working on my attitude. Instead of fantasizing about where I could be (if it were not for …) or how much time I’ve wasted over the years – I am now concentrating on what I can do to change things in the present. Not tomorrow, not 6 months from now, but what can I do right now to impact the things that I want to change?
I’ve spent a lot of the time playing out scenarios in my head, without ever accomplishing anything in “real” life. Nowadays the time spent imagining how life could be is being devoted to actually doing something instead. Goals used to look something like this: “I am going to lose 70 lbs by summer!” These days it’s more along the lines of: “I am going to lose 2 lbs this week.” I’ve found that the latter works much better for me and is way less intimidating than trying to tackle the big sweeping mandates I’ve created for myself in the past.
So this past week I’ve accomplished some small things to make my life a little better right now:
- Created a monthly budget (as a guide)
- Ditched Quicken and started using a simple check register again
- Reduced my exercise goals to 3 times a week (if I exercise more, then yay!)
- Went to bed on time
- Assembled a bookshelf that I bought for my living room
- Started drinking more water
- Planned out my meals for the week
- Took a glucose tolerance test
- Rode the bus into work more often than not
And although each one of those things are in and of itself small and seemingly inconsequential – together they amount to a series of tiny revolutions towards achieving those big expansive goals that I have for myself. All of those small actions subconsciously tells me that I am going somewhere. And for now, I won’t worry so much about the final destination. I am just going to work on the journey getting there.
And though I am not fond of poetry, lately I’ve been reciting this one in my head:
Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward
By Gwendolyn Brooks
Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
“even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night.”
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.
Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along.
Tags: cnn, ireport
Posted in Weight Loss, Weight Updates | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
The funny thing about losing weight this time around is that I now realize that it’s not about losing weight at all. It’s about self-worth and love. Knowing that you are worthy of achieving whatever your mind can manifest and loving yourself enough to take steps towards making it happen.
I took some time over the weekend to take inventory in all the things that I felt were wrong with my life. Actually, it all got started when I couldn’t find the battery charger for my camera (note no picture this week). I looked in the junk drawer, in the kitchen, under the couch – EVERYWHERE. I wasted an entire afternoon looking for it (still can’t find it) and came to the conclusion that my disorganized house is a reflection of my life – in disarray.
Though I have a lot of things that I am grateful for these days, I always have this nagging feeling that I am just shy of living the best version of my life. I feel good, but I want to feel great. My life is rich, but I want it to be extraordinary. It’s not that I am dissatisfied, but I know that things could be better. They should be better.
Instead of feeling down about it or like things were out of control, I decided to accept the situation for what it was and move on. I made a list of the things that I felt were really bothering me about my life:
- My home (which should be a sanctuary) is terribly uninspired. In fact, it has become that house on the block.
- My financial situation is messy – $22,000 in debt from credit cards and personal/auto loans. This does not feel good.
- Though I have friends, I sometimes feel lonely or without purpose.
- I am tired of supporting myself by working in a career that I am not passionate about.
- I am not in optimal health.
And most remarkably, instead of the 100 things that I pretend like there are, I could barely think of 5 things. Seriously, that’s all that I could think of.
Conquering this list seems completely doable. In fact it seems downright easy in comparison to things that are really hard like solving the climate crisis or figuring out how to bring medical care to rural areas of Africa. The last 3 items don’t even need any money, just resolve!
What it comes down to though, is that Ive been focusing on everything else but those goals. I’ve been a classic martyr and used to pride myself on the things that I would do for other people. Of course, I would then turn around and chide myself for not fixing the things that bothered me. But as long as everyone else was happy, I felt smug about it all. It’s really actually embarrassing to think about.
Over the weekend, I am happy to report that I spent two whole days cleaning my house purging the things that I have no use for. As a result, two trunkful of things went straight to goodwill. I already feel lighter. And actually, I am lighter … down a pound from last week. Maybe it wasn’t the most dramatic weight loss, but if you include the miscellaneous stuff I just got rid of, I actually lost 75 lbs.
Who knew that coming clean would make my spirit lighter?
Now if I could only find my battery charger …
Posted in Milestones, Weight Loss, Weight Updates | 16 Comments »
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