The Great Feast

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  It was a great day in our family spent the day in Sanford, NC. My aunt, AKA the Southern Martha Stewart, had the house decorated beautifully with flowers and greenery, pumpkins, and turkey centerpieces made by the younger generation of our family.  And you should have seen the spread!  Aunt Kathy always manages to make sure to have everyone's favorite Southern dishes like dressing and gravy, collards, turkey, cranberry salad, creamed corn, pumpkin pie, peas, roasted veggies,spinach casserole, rice, pork roast and on and on.   As the littlest one of our family, two-year-old Maggie, said to me when we arrived today, "Welcome to the great feast!"

I couldn't resist the dressing (my favorite) but I managed to enjoy myself without gorging so I will call Turkey Day a success.  Then, instead of crashing on the couch in a lunch-induced food coma, the majority of us headed outside with the kids to play games.  The old me would have had a few more rounds at the lunch buffet then crashed out for a nap, but the new me wanted to go outside and move. That assures me that I have truly made a lifestyle change.

Three generations enjoyed the sunshine and good temps outside by starting off with a game of duck-duck-goose, and for some reason the kids kept picking me to be goose. They did me a favor for sure because hopping up from the ground time after time and chasing the kids around the yard got my heart rate up and my blood pumping. Want some cardio?  Challenge a two, three, and five year old to a game of duck-duck-duck goose.  You'll be sweating in no time!

Next up, putting the kids on our backs and running around playing horsey, then some yoga moves on the lawn before taking a ride out in the country air as my uncle pulled us along in a trailer with his tractor.  On the ride home tonight, I told my husband that I don't take anything for granted since changing my lifestyle.  If you've ever been overweight and felt held back due to it, you can appreciate the simple acts of being able to jump up and down off of the ground and run after a child or being able to hop up into a trailer.  For years, the old me sat on the porch, watching everyone else play and wishing for all the world that she could participate.   Today as I sat on the ground in a ring with my family, sweaty from being the "goose" yet again, I looked over to the porch and smiled to myself, thinking of all the many small things that I have to be thankful for.

With Maggie and Andi, love these girls!

Turkey Day

Turkey Day is fast approaching.  Some of us will be sitting down to one of the biggest meals of the year in thirteen hours or so.  With the average Thanksgiving plate totaling up to around 2,400 calories (eek!) how do we dieters survive not being stuffed like the big bird?

This is my second Thanksgiving on my health journey and last year I must admit that I did really good. So here are some of the strategies that worked for me:

• Concentrate on the lean meat and veggies.
• Allow yourself a small serving of that irresistible casserole or delicious dressing and gravy.  If you don't have a taste of it, you'll feel resentful and will end up binging on it (or something worse) later.
• Drink lots of water.
• Distract yourself with conversations with family members. Usually someone's got something crazy to talk about or some sort of news.
• Get up and do something active after the meal; in most families there are some kids running around.  There's nothing like chasing kids for cardio.
• Think about all the things you are thankful that your new body can do that your old body couldn't, and the struggle it took to get it there.  Nothing tastes better than that.
• Realize that Thanksgiving is just one meal and good, bad, or ugly, tomorrow is another day. 

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for everyone who took the time to read this. 

You'll Be Able to Tell When You Lift Your Arms up!

Millie and I had a locker room debate today on what kind of workout we wanted to do. Seeing as it was Monday, I was leaning towards cardio, but she wanted to do weights so that we can keep up these "guns" Jeff and Marisa helped us create.  Millie and I are both alpha females of sort and as we don't have our trainers working us out anymore, sometimes we have a friendly butting of heads when planning our workouts.

After Millie assured me that we'd still work up just as much sweat and raised heart rate with the pyramid workout she had from our archives, I gave in and decided to trust my friend. And whew, was she right.

It's a good thing there are no video cameras in the gym because we were making some crazy faces at each other.  Our reaction to the strain and pain was seriously youtube worthy.  In no time I was covered in sweat and my arms felt like jello.  That pyramid workout with free weights might look tame on paper but it was a killer in practice.

Looking satisfied as we headed into the locker room, Millie said, "I told you so!" and I admitted quickly that she was right.

We both headed into separate shower stalls and I heard her yelp from behind her shower curtain, saying, "You'll be able to tell when you lift your arms up."

"Ohhhhh!" I yelped from behind my shower curtain as I took my shirt off, "I'll never doubt you again!"

The Eatin' Season Approaches

We are getting ready to be right smack down in the middle of the Eatin' Season. That wonderful time of the year when we celebrate with family our favorite way: eating and making merry.   As Turkey Day approaches, I can already see the Southern feast laid out at my family's Thanksgiving meal and can almost taste that dressing and gravy in my mouth.   How will I make it past that calorie-laden feast unscathed and goals intact?  I'm going to try my best to focus not on what's to eat, but on what I'm thankful for and the many wonderful things that have come from making this change in my life:

• I'm thankful for every pound I have lost and for the future pounds lost to come, because by God that scale will come down.
• I'm thankful for my wonderful family and friends who have supported me so overwhelmingly on this journey.
• I'm thankful for an over abundance of food because there are many out there who don't have enough. That being said, I don't have to over eat it just because it is so available. 
• I'm thankful that even though my right leg is still kind of gimpy, I have full mobility of my body and can modify my exercises and move forward.
• I'm thankful for my awesome trainers and class instructors and every person who has worked out at my side.
• And most importantly, I'm thankful to God who has put me on this journey and who continues to bless me along each step of it.

 How is the Eatin' Season to be survived successfully? Maybe by putting it into perspective.

Putting The Band Back Together

My transformation program ended in October and I must admit that I've felt a little adrift since.  A pulled muscle took me out of 5K training with the rest of my group.  Even though I have been in the gym every day, I felt bummed out that I wasn't able to participate in the running program with the rest of my group because I was counting on that extra time with my trainers. A crazy work schedule kept me away from Step class with my girls so I've been mostly slugging it out in the gym, solo on the elliptical machine.

I've missed my girls and our locker room camaraderie.  I've missed the inside jokes shared pumping iron with them.  Even though it's only been a couple of weeks, my anxiety prone mind began to feel like we'd lost the special magic we conjured over this past year.   I've worried seriously about losing my resolve because the scale hasn't moved and I've had injuries that have forced me to change my workouts and not participate in group activities.

 Yesterday Jeff gave me a bonus workout and kicked my butt up and down the gym, old school style.  He also gave me a "talking to" about keeping up my motivation and tightening up, and it was just what I needed.  Turns out Marisa gave the same speech to the other girls in my group after Step class.  The consensus had been that we were all drifting a bit (no one has gained, but no one has lost either) and needed to pull things back together.

As I left the locker room yesterday, a sweaty mess but feeling awesome, I ran into Marisa who said, "You guys need to put the band back together. Make your schedules work, don't worry about who wants to do what workout, just be together."

And today we did just that.  Walking into the locker room to find them there (I'm always the last one in and am legendary to be the last one out of the locker room) was just what I needed, that and the kick-butt circuit Marisa had written for us.  We recommitted to making the time to put the band back together because we are stronger with each other than without.

Sometimes we drift off the path of our journey a little.  For a Type-A personality like me who is highly resistant to change, that drifting off means exercising every day but freaking out that things weren't as they used to be. Sometimes we are put to the test and forced to face challenges and one thing I've learned lately is that those challenges are much easier to bear with partners at your side to lift you up, inspire you, and push you farther that you are willing on your own to go.

A lot of people I've talked to have told me that they were most successful when they worked out with a buddy or a group, but stopped when that support system wasn't there for one reason or another.   To those folks I will pass on Marisa's wise advice to put the band back together.  And to those who find exercise a chore, I say put a band together, whether that's a neighbor to walk with or friends made at a Zumba class.  This is way to hard an endeavor to go at solo

Challenge: The Motivation To Start

In my "former life" how many times did I say, "Okay, for New Years I'm going to get started working out and watching what I eat"? Then it became, "Okay, January's shot so I'll start in February." That lead to "Well, February's shot, I'll start in May...that will give me enough time to get ready for summer." That became, "Okay well summer's here and I haven't started, and it's hot, and I'm busy, and it's Tuesday and nothing good starts on Tuesday, and now it's fall and it's getting cold, okay  it's the holidays so who can lose weight during the holidays so I'll just start for New Years."  Oh vicious cycle, I do know you well.

Getting started is hard.  Obstacles large and small present themselves, most prominent being the sheer motivation to get going.  We are more often than not our own biggest critic and nay-sayer and getting past the inner enemy is one of the hardest things you can do.  When I first started I thought I was much more likely to sprout wings and fly than be consistent in a workout program.  I had no hope that I would be successful, I had no cardio stamina, I had a bum knee that I never thought would support me, and the logistics of getting a workout in during my day and eating correctly overwhelmed me.

If you find yourself in this situation or in a hard one of your own, I say this: have hope and take things slow.  Don't make the mistake most of us do and decide to jump in hard core every day at the gym.  This is a recipe for disaster that in the past I was guilty of making over and over again.   Luckily my trainers are smarter than me and started our group out for the first few weeks working out twice a week and that was it.   For the first few weeks we didn't even change our eating.  Additional workouts and changes in nutrition were pieces of the puzzle that were gradually added on, and the funny thing that happened was that those two days a week working out were so invigorating that we were looking forward to adding on more days.  We started feeling great and wanted to feel better, so we were ready to eat right.

What worked for me to get started on that very first day was to shut off the mind that told me in every possible way it could that I couldn't do this, and just let my feet carry me to the gym.  And believe me when I say to you that if I could do it in the shape I was in, anyone can.  I'll leave you with some wise words by the immortal Dr. Seuss:

From "Oh! The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Suess

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go."

 

Challenge: The Food

Moving on down the list of the challenges in my poll...and this one's a doozy. 

• What is the thing that we use to celebrate every holiday, rite of passage, or celebration?  Food.
• What do we bring to people who've lost a loved one or gained a new baby in the family? Food.
• What is the factor that makes up 80% of whether we lose weight or not?  Food.
• What do we look forward to as comfort at the end of a hard day?  Food.
• If we feel we deserve a treat for one reason or another, what do we turn to most? Food.
• What is the centerpiece of our family traditions?  Food.

Hands down my biggest challenge, and the one that most of my friends say affects them the most, is making the right choices with food.   You can hit the gym every day and work yourself out till you're exhausted and dripping with sweat, but if you don't eat right, you won't lose weight. It takes a 3500 calorie deficit to lose just one pound, and unless you live in the gym, you have to modify your eating in order to play the numbers game right.

What's even more challenging is the fact that you can't get away from temptations.   They're everywhere from the commercials on TV for the $9.99 pizza deal, to the leftover Halloween candy that floods your office, to the family birthday dinner, to the sandwich artists at Subway who tell you for just a dollar more, you can upgrade to a five dollar footlong and look at you like you're crazy when you say "no thank you."

In fact, I can't think of any other addiction that you can't go cold turkey on because you must have food to live.  Imagine someone who is addicted to cocaine and gets clean, only they have to do a small amount of it three to five times a day in order to live.   Would they ever get clean?  But that is the challenge facing those of us who have food addiction.   We physically must have food to live so we can't put it down like an ex-smoker can put down the cigarettes and walk away forever.  The challenge that faces us is to learn how to modify our addiction and make it manageable to eat three to five times a day and not fall off the wagon.

I'm still working on it and probably will be the rest of my life.  It's been a year and I'm still finding out things about food I thought was "safe" but that turn into calorie traps. Just this morning I heard on the radio that a banana has just as many calories and sugar as a Snickers bar.  I haven't verified that but it stands to reason.  Now nutritionally, it's obvious what is the better choice.  But still, I don't think I'll be eating any more bananas anytime soon. 

I don't have any magic cures or surefire tricks to conquering the challenge that is food. It's been over a year and I am still learning to look at it as a source of energy, not reward or comfort.  There are still pitfalls that threaten to trip me up along the road of the journey every day.  The trick, as is the advice when kicking anything else, is to take things day by day and to forgive yourself and get back on track if you have a slip-up. And also know that this is a hard struggle, and it is commendable just to have decided to attempt it.