The Gym

I joined a local gym.  I thought I might as well bite the bullet before I got out of the habit of exercising.  My neighborhood pool will close soon and the weather is turning.  The one time in my entire life I wanted it to stay hot....and we are having an early fall....you can feel it in the air.  Crisp nights that feel like football and hot chocolate.  With loads of whip cream...Ha!!! It is so obvious why my hips are the largest part of me.  Everything in my life seems to relate to or revolve around food.  I was at a wedding shower today and could not wait to eat the cake and I didn't even like the taste of it. I kept hearing the voice in my head say it would be rude not to have a piece.  Not a soul there would have noticed if I had politely declined.  After growing up in the home I did, I caught myself during my college years counting the number of drinks everyone had.  Today I caught myself watching other women at the party eat cake.  I am feeling seriously deranged.

Back to the topic of the gym.  I visited on Saturday and discovered they have a salt water pool.  I had swam there years ago and the amount of chlorine they used was sickening.  The place was clean, the music was not blaring and I discovered mostly old people.  70+ in the heated pool.  That works for me.  I'll miss my resplendent tan.   "My" gym is also opened 7 days a week.  I have already packed my morning workout bag with shampoo and such.  Cutting out all the excuses not to go.  I told one spry octogenarian that I was very achy and sore and hobbled and limped everywhere before I started exercising.  She described a horrible future for me if I were to ever stop. 

My husband is home now.  Gotta go.

Sincerely,

I'm so Not Oprah

Hippos

My exercise buddy suggested I call this blog hippos because of our last conversation in the pool.  It has become apparent of us why hippos spend so much time in the water.  I'm typing this as I slowly suck on 18 choc. malt balls( worth 180) calories which is pretty darn good for me.  Usually by this time I'm out of calories and over the daily limit I've set for myself.  I could probably eat 18 more and still be in good standing but 18 is honestly all I want. 

I'm exercising daily.  I read somewhere that three days a week of exercising maintains your weight, exercising four days a week you should lose weight.  Four days WAS NOT cutting the mustard.  So, I just said to myself , "better exercise today cause you never know what is going to happen to prevent it tomorrow."  So, it's been 8 weeks of exercising every day or nearly every day.  This morning when I weighed I was down the lowest since I started.  Remember when I say that, my scale measures by the ounce. So, I'm a few ounces smaller.  Very small daily victories. Yet, from my armpits to my knees I still look lumpy.  ARRGGGHHH. I would die if I had to be on the biggest loser and stand in front of the world in a bra and exercise shorts. 

Two things did happen today worth noting.  I saw someone I had not seen since last October.  A man that mowed our lawn when I was a child.  He has always been somewhat of a Casanova and good at it.  He did not recognize me in a restaurant today.  He winked at me.  I was taken aback and so was he when he realized who I was.  He told me how good I looked.  That is not normal for my daily life.  Hmmm
Plus, the deli man offered me free meat.  That does not happen in my daily life.  I thought the deli man was acting odd cause he kept asking me deli questions.  It's usually I want a pound of this or that, sliced thin, please.  Ok, here you go, thank you ma'am.  Today was different.  It's probably the tan. 

I'm happy I've graduated up to larger juice jugs in the pool.  The smaller Welch's jugs are no longer challenging.  My financial class is challenging.  I'm going to have to really like my TV and community pool for the next year or so while I'm paying off a wedding. 

Thank you to my friends that read this.  I'm not poor pitiful polly, I have more friends, but the ones that are particularly understanding and compassionate are the ones I have shared my blog with. Reshaping your life is difficult. I could not do this without you!

Too much sugar

I ate big red ice cream for dinner.  (audible sigh) so, I really didn't have much except a bunch of sugar.  I can't sleep and I'm up writing on the computer at 4:45 am. 

My husband has to go in front of our city council tonight to defend our community theater.  The council wants to charge more than our non-profit could afford for use of the newly built civic center.  I usually toss and turn in bed putting together speeches in my head and building arguments ( like debate class.) I think I have decided now since I have an empty nest,  just to get up and write things down.  So I did and emailed my thoughts to my husband, which sounds odd since I hear him snoring, but he'll get it at work.  It's basically just an intro and conclusion for whatever speech he is going to make.  He is a very capable public speaker, but I am a better writer.  We make a good team.  I really like the basis for the speech I wrote. My husband wrote a wonderful letter to the patrons in our season program tallying  30 years of community service hours given by volunteers at our theater.  I'll give him credit for that part of my speech.  I appealed to the community service aspect of being a council member.  I decided to approach them with the idea of charging them every time they sat in their seats, and then also charging them for every minute it took them to make a decision. And also point out the people charging them for their community service have no idea how a city council worked. Oh well, the speech I wrote was much more eloquent and tactful.

For a blog about diet and exercise I have really gotten off topic.  Except that all this extra energy must be from the sugar, yet my Dad would swear the less he ate, the less sleep he required. 

Lastly I signed up for Dave Ramsey's financial freedom thirteen week course at my church.  If I am going to be more disciplined in my eating and exercising I might as well throw in finances also!

I just figured out how to use the spell check.  Words misspelled show up in yellow.  I am way behind the curve ball in many aspects of my life. 

Sincerely,

I'm Not Oprah

Swimming

I took my menopot swimming today.  I could win a treading water contest.  I come complete with a ready made flotation device. Once again, exercise is easy.  My largest obstacle continues to be logging the food and calories that go through the lips.  If you don't log it immediately you forget.  Logging it as soon as you eat is important because my app records time also, so I can go back and see what time of day I eat the most. 

As with any addictive behavior, becoming AWARE of all aspects of the habit is one of the keys to changing the pattern.

Here is an aspect.  Take a look around at the patrons in the all-you-can-eat pizza place. There is one in my town.  I look around at the people eating the high-fat-extremely-awful for you food.  Depressing. 
That is not who I want to be. 

Sincerely and continuing to take my menopot swimming,

I'm Not Oprah



  

Cut Out the Excuses

I interviewed a man years ago (more than 20) for an article on exercise.  I was writing a promotional piece for a local fittness center.  (I worked for the parent company.) The man would get up at 4:30 every morning to exercise.  Personally I thought he was crazy, but he said something that stuck with me.  You know, one of those thoughts that just keeps floating around in your brain.  He said, "Cut out the excuses not to exercise."  I have thought recently of all the excuses I gave myself in the past 5 years while my muscles diminished and my thighs got larger.  All my excuses center around the weather.  Can't walk in the heat, can't walk in the cold, can't walk in the rain, can't walk in the wind cause my hat would blow off and heaven forbid I might get skin cancer blah, blah, blah. My excuses for not using the neighborhood pool were also endless.  The main one being I don't like chlorine.  If I ever had a pool I think I'd like a salt water pool. 

Excuses used by my friends also entertain me.  One friend would always say when I invited her to go walking,..."I just don't like to sweat."  All I can say to that excuse is Hello Menopot, stick around FOREVER.  And then she would say,"I just don't want to shower twice a day."  I showered twice yesterday which got me thinking about her.  Yes she's overweight and no she does not currently read this blog.  But she might one day and if she does she needs to know I am mad at her for her stupid excuses.  Hmmmmm I need to study the anger part of that.  Why would I get mad at someone for doing what I did for the last five years? 

I've been showering twice daily now for weeks.  It's irritating cause all  my hair color is washing out and I'm slathering on the lotion.  THAT being said.....I weighed this morning and I weigh the least I have since I started my journey.  I suppose my menopot is shrinking.  I certainly doesn't look like it. 

Sincerely trying to cut out alllllllll the excuses,

I'm Not Oprah

Dopamine

After watching a news program last night I learned that salt, fat and sugar trigger dopamine release in the brain.  Dopamine is the chemical in the brain that regulates emotion.  I feel I am doomed.  That sounds too dramatic.  I mentioned to my husband that I thought it was salt I craved.  Then I have honestly discovered that if I save my calories so that I could eat two hot dogs with chips, I really feel like crap afterwards. Well on top of the hot dogs I had lemon pie and banana pudding.  Those last two probably help contribute to the crappy feeling for seven hours afterward. 

The TV show featured a woman who had electrodes implanted in her brain to stop her cravings.  She would drink a liter of Pepsi a day, plus eat other things.  She went through gastric bypass and she was still morbidly obese.  She was my height and weighed exactly 100 pounds more than I do. With the new electrodes, her cravings dimished.  Scientists claim they have proved it's all about what's going on in your brain, not stomach.  Duh...... 

Yesterday was the first day I have not exercised.  A hurricane got in my way.  

I'm Not Oprah

Resplendent

It's official.  I weighed today.  Five pounds gone in one month.  Sounds so minuscule.  My sister would always say slow weight loss is MUCH better than slow weight gain.  Very easy at this point to just stop. The clothes in my closet fit better.  My knees feel better.  But, technically, I am still considered obese....or corpulent.  Why do the words associated with this struggle sound so .....ickey?

Here's a bright point I will focus on today and for as long as I can.  I have a lovely tan.  And it was free.  No tanning membership.  As a result of swimming everyday, I am golden.  HAH! That's a positive. My thesaurus gives resplendent as a synonoym for golden. 

Yes, I wear sunsreen and a huge hat.  I'm still resplendent. 

Sincerely,

I'm Not Oprah

Anything Different?

I casually ask my husband one day if he noticed anything different.  My husband is extremely kind and never in all the years of marriage, has he ever said I was fat.  But, the flip side of that is he does not comment on any weight loss either.  No, I do not live with a blind man.  I think I live with a very smart guy, who knows me very well.  But, my daughter and her fiancee thought my husband's response to the "anything different question, " was a classic answer. 

So I stood in front of him, with a towel wrapped around my @#%#@ menopot and ask, "DO you notice anything different?" He very seriously answered, "Less neck wrinkles?"

My daughter and her intended have adopted that phrase as their new standard answer when a spouse has no idea how to reply to a question. 

Still swimming.  Stopped weighing as often.  It's too depressing.  Did put on a pair of jeans that were previously tight and uncomfortable and had to wear a belt.  Yea!!!

Sincerely,

I'm Not Oprah