Losing Half, Gaining More

I am majorly in need of more exercise in my life. I need it for weight loss, but I need it so much more for my mental health. Why is it that we spend so much time and energy on the things that aren’t good for us and avoiding the things that we know will make us feel good? Eating a bit less…getting out for a walk…Taking an extra 15 minutes to spending quietly…taking a few extra deep breaths…

I’m realizing more and more that so many things are tied to this all or nothing obsession with things being perfect. This applies so much to exercise. I have this idea in my mind that I need to run and I need to do intense workouts and it all just seems so overwhelming. So what do I do? Nothing! Literally. Yes, I do need the big workouts. But I also need ANY movement of my body!

So, as I was blog hopping, I found this post by simpledaisy and this quote really sparked something for me:

“A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.” ~ Paul Dudley White

SO TRUE. So so so true. I love the word “vigorous” in there. It conveys strength and energy and just taking a huge deep breath – all of the things that we need to gain from exercise and using our bodies. I spend my time not exercising and not just moving my body nearly enough out of the {ridiculous} fear of not being capable of doing the unrealistic goals I have in my mind when I could simply be taking a walk daily and doing something more than nothing!

So, I’m setting a goal of getting out for a walk every single day. Even if it’s 10 minutes to take my kids to the park and back or just go around the block, it will be fresh air and good for me mentally and physically. Plus, we all know that the biggest challenge is taking the first step. Getting out there every day inevitably leads to increasingly more steps and more energy and it can just potentially snowball from there into incredible workouts.

First, though, I just need to go for a walk. One step at a time.

We seriously need to do this more! It was a gorgeous fall day on Sunday and it was so nice to get outside together. This is my favorite sort of exercise and, sadly, I don’t even slightly do enough of it. It’s kind of sad, but during the week I’m always really hesitant to take the kids out by myself on a walk like this. The paths are desolate and I *know* nothing would happen, but it’s still sort of unnerving. I try really hard not to let anxiety get the best of my in parenting, but this is one instance where I can’t shake it, which is sad because increased exercise of any kind would be a huge improvement for me. For now, though, we’ll stick to walks in the neighborhood when we’re not all together – that’s definitely something more than nothing!

And we didn’t forget the little one – he was just in his own happy spot:

I posted yesterday that I was just feeling icky, unmotivated, like I was getting sick. I was – I have strep throat. I didn’t go to Weight Watchers to weigh in last night because I wanted to do nothing but lay in bed and stare at the wall by the time my husband got home and it was time for our meeting. I’m hoping that with antibiotics I’ll be feeling a lot better in a day or two and I will go to a Friday or Saturday morning meeting. Popsicles, gingerale and tea are all doing very little to help the pain that makes me wince every time I try to swallow, but it sure might help to move the scale a little bit this week;)

My body feels good. Well, actually, it hurts. That feels good. The kind of hurt that lets me know that I’m actually using my body again. Getting moving just feels so good. Achy good.

It’s amazing how the little changes fall in line together when you make a decision to commit to something. I’ve been telling myself that I need to get my rear in gear and get it moving regularly for what feels like years on end. It feels great to finally be doing something about it and have the motivation to want to continue feeling good about myself. Even with a number on the scale that I may not love, I know that I feel a ton better about myself in general when I am actually taking care of myself and prioritizing exercise and being healthy in general. I’m well aware that I won’t feel this way every day and every time I need to exercise, but I’ll take feel like this some of the time over doing nothing all of the time! Plus, it’s already making the day where I’m dragging a bit easier to just get myself up and moving.

At our Weight Watchers meeting this week, we discussed this and someone made a really fantastic point that resonated with me:

“At some point, someone was discussing weight loss with me and fitting time into your life for exercise, food planning, etc. and how it just seems so time consuming sometimes. But, it’s necessary. We make time to brush our teeth. We make time to shower ourselves. We take time to feed our families healthy, nutritious foods.We need to place the same priority and necessity on taking care of ourselves in relation to weight loss.”

It’s so true. I would never in a million years let my kids eat the way I have been eating. Never.   Diane pointed out to me in the comments of my first post that her youngest children don’t have any memory of her looking any different than she does today. I’m so thankful that my kids are young enough that they won’t ever know me like this and that they’re young enough that they won’t learn the bad habits I have been modeling for them.
p.s. Want to know how I know I’m changing bit by bit? I bought some Little Debbie 100 Cal packs at the store last night thinking that might be good for my husband to take to work or for me to grab as a snack. I don’t know what I ws thinking, I should have known better.

1. I can’t control myself with stuff like that. I’d eat the whole box in two seconds flat.
2. It’s still JUNK, even if it’s only 100 calories of junk instead of a few hundred calories of the regular size.

So, I opened the box and the “100 calories” is literally a maybe 1″X2″ tiny cake. TINY.  Not even slightly worth 100 calories and 2 WW points in my day that I could be using for something that will actually fill me up and make me feel good.

I threw the box away. In the outside gross, stinky trash can that goes to the curb. That’s how I know I’m changing.

Stats on the Progress page(I added measurements – should have started that when I initially started the info, but oh well!). I’m up 1.2lbs this week and I’m actually ok with it. I know that I wasn’t as careful as I need to be about my portions and keeping track of what I was eating. I’m also really proud of myself because although I didn’t lose on the scale, I have so many positives about the past week!

• I went to a wedding and actually made conscious decisions about the food I chose.
• I joined the gym and actually went!
• I didn’t eat fast food once. I don’t think I even went through a drive-thru window(except maybe Starbucks for a Sugar-Free/Fat-Free Cinnamon Dolce Latte;).
• I got myself a few new sports bras and t-shirts to stay motivated and not feel slobbish going to the gym(so that I can’t use that as an excuse!).
• Oh, yeah – and I started this blog!! Can I please just state for the record how much I can’t believe I was missing out on in the blogging world?? There are so so so many amazing and inspiring weight loss blogs out there and I am so glad I started searching around for them. It’s such incredible motivation and support to see how many other people are on a similar journey!
• I’m committing to signing up today for the FitBloggin Conference in March. I know I’ve just started with this blog, but this will be one more source of inspiration and something to look forward to. Anyone else already making plans to be there?

All of this and I don’t even feel completely overwhelmed – I call that a successful week!