One More Time

 I first posted here over ten years ago, then again two years ago when I was heading to Sedona for my son's wedding. Each time it was to shed something, in these cases, pounds and also a kind of paralysis which takes hold sometimes alongside depression, sadness, anxiety, etc.

In that interregnum, I have had cancer, a broken leg, a broken foot, a badly sprained ankle, and three falls of substance, once after being garroted by a metal wire off my bike backwards and onto my back; once when I passed out and smashed my face on a metal object; and once when I fell face first onto concrete. 

So here I am again, not seeking to lose 20 pounds as I think it would be impossible, but close to it--16 would be ideal.

I am planning to use this blog (which took an amazing amount of time to find again) to chronicle my efforts in the hopes that this will result in success that occurred over a decade ago.

Over the last few days, I am already T-1, so I will start there to represent a successful start, attributable to more walking (including a bit of running) and various kinds of exercises (pilates, yoga, HIIT). I am recommitting to what I dedicated myself to before: six days a week of exercise.

I'm doing this as we have record heat and humidity, so I may not walk every day or as far, but my aim, let me say, my commitment is the following:

• Walk/run mornings or late day: 3-5 miles 5 days a week
• Add other exercise: yoga, pilates, P90, or other exercise I once did almost effortlessly and not tax me to various degrees): at least 3-4 days a week
• Strength training: HIIT class plus at least 2 more times/week (total 3 days a week)
• Whatever I do should total at least 45-60 minutes six days a week

My whys:

• I want to grow old in a more healthy way and avoid some of the negative consequences associated with being too sedentary ("sitting is the new smoking")
• Enjoy family and friends more and longer
• Live long enough to pursue goals and values 
• Health, health, and health (improving cardiovascular fitness and overall core strength and spinal integrity; also told by docs that it's good for cancer recovery)
• Reducing accidents (improving balance, strength, etc.)
• Feeling better in my skin (not a search for thinness for thinness sake, but to avoid the uncomfortable feelings of tightness in my joints, pulling along too much weight on hikes, etc.)
• Using clothes that I have stored for "the day I lose 10 pounds"

I think I've been sitting too long. That's it for now!

Sedona Bound

Since I'll be heading back to Sedona in just four weeks, I am going to use this blog for encouragement to get in just a tad more shape than I am now. No miracle diets or exercises that will somehow create a toned body by the wedding I will be attending, but just better.

I had a spell of anxiety a few weeks ago and went off what I thought was a good diet and exercise routine, so I want to get back on board along with more meditation and care of myself, starting now.

Partly that's organizing the world around me: today and tomorrow, finances. Tomorrow and Sunday my house including putting up drapery rods that includes re-drilling the supports for them. Along the way, some gentle reorganization around me so I can find what I need, and better daily organization so I can get done what I need each day so I can take off to Sedona without feeling as though I'm disordered and half-prepared.

On returning, I'll have another 14 weeks before I'm in the thick of readying for Fall classes. That's when I want to feel as though I have done a good job shaping my habits and myself so that I can continue to eat and live in a more healthy and mindful way.

So for four weeks that means walking almost every day which I've been doing; exercising at the Y at least 2 days a week and trying for 3. Exercising at least 3 additional days at home. Watching what I eat. Steering clear of alcohol and sweets. Not eating after 7. Having a fast for at least 12 hours (7-7). 

That's it! Old school stuff! I can do it blindfolded! (Though I should walk blindfolded, or I'll end up in traction before the wedding.)

My goal is to get back to the weight loss I'd managed which is five pounds (I think at least a couple of the "re-gain" is water weight, so it's probably just 3 pounds of "real" weight which should be manageable in 4 weeks.)

It also means feeling a bit more toned.

Along the way, putting aside exactly what I need for the trip, including clothes, "tools," and finding someone to watch Buddy.

Can I do this in 4 weeks? Yes. I. Can. 

To keep with the title of this blog, I can do it by trimming away what distracts me and doesn't add to my core goals. Less (stuff, distractions, empty activities, empty calories) is more (more accomplished, and more feeling at peace*). (*I hope!)

Full Circle

The beautiful location of Sedona is where one of my sons and his lovely fiance will be married this year in April. I am thrilled mainly because they care so much about each other and have created a life together, but I am also excited to come back to this lovely place. I look forward to watching their journey. 

In the meantime, since this was a blog about getting healthy, I'm back on that journey. Diagnosed with cancer more than 6 months ago, I am working again to eat well, lose weight, and stay in shape, this time because I want to decrease the chances of recurrence and increase the chances of being healthy enough to  enjoy the company of my family and friends for a long time to come and avoid as much as possible the problems that come with avoidable chronic illnesses. 

My successes on this blog were not lasting. I could see on a diet and wellness app I used that the work I did in the spring and summer months to get in shape were wiped out in the first three months of being back at work. Stress and sedentary behavior of being linked to my computer and, in general, failing to prioritize me and my health led to backsliding.

I am (re)committed to making a consistent and lifelong change of taking better care of myself, of saying no to those (and myself) who ask me to commit to what I think would be overcommitment, and to be in a place where I can use my self-care as a place to take care of others and work on taking care of the Earth. Again, an interesting way to circle back to this lovely, almost mystical, location.

June 17 2022

 Not much to say except to want to keep this blog alive for some reason I'm not sure about yet, but something akin to not burning or destroying journals. This is the register of my life, after all, for whatever it may be worth. It is not my life, but given my memory problems, it is a way to remember that life and try to hold its high points in my heart and learn and be humbled by the low points, of which there are enough for me to be humbled a number of times over . . . .

May Already!

Sunday, May 9

Uh-oh! Have not been doing the posting and it shows! What happened to being down two pounds? 

Back on track is what I have to say. A rainy day today and Mother's Day, nothing much is happening here, move on, move on. I plan on hanging loose until going over to my Father-in-law's around 5, but starting tomorrow, it's serious summer losing business! More to come . . . .

Tuesday, May 11--Hike in Ault Park with best buds--then lunch after! But the hike was a good workout as the off-trails were steep. Need to do more of that. 

Numbers are up again. Noticed that I blogged about my polycythemia back in 2015-2016. Numbers bumped up again in 2017-18 when I also wrote "troubled year" for 2017. Stress? Weight gain with stress? Determined to bring the weight down to see if numbers might go down as well. There may be a relationship, though whether it's due to the weight or the stress as a primary cause (or something else) is not clear. I had lost weight when my numbers came down initially as well.

It's time. Just wish I felt more energetic! Right now I want a nap!

The Big Commit--April 2021

Instead of posting my stats in the right hand "diary" portion, I will start posting in the blog section to even things up. I didn't realize how very long that had become because I was doing it for so long and so long ago. I started a decade ago. Ten years makes a big difference from one's 50s to 60s. Though one of my sons was kind enough to say about a picture from 8 years ago that I looked the same, but he had changed, whew! If only he looked a a bit closer. Not only physically, but in terms of strength, things have changed, and not for the better in all cases (there are benefits of aging, but . . . . ).

So here's my commitment:

1. Lose 18 pounds (my current numbers fluctuate by the day, so I'm erring on the higher side) before classes resume in the fall. Coincidentally, that is also the number of weeks before classes start again. Honestly, if I can't lose one stinking pound a week, I'm not trying hard enough. 

2. Gain strength--my arms are pitiful. My lower back needs support.

3. Gain flexibility--my neck cricks and cracks, my knee is starting to hurt again. 

I had to laugh that one of my concerns was pre-menopause effects on my attempts to lose weight. Ha! That paled compared to post-menopause, yet both are just hurdles that I would have at any time and any age. Maybe my metabolism and other issues are pressing back in ways I haven't had to deal with before. 

So I need to push harder.

SO TODAY IS T-18. I'll record the week's activities in this blog. Commitment is one thing, accountability is another.

WEEK OF APRIL 18

Sunday, April 18--P-90 Cardio. Standing at my desk right now. Will try to stand at least a portion of every day. Walked at Maple Knoll with my father-in-law.

Monday, April 19--long hike around Sharon Woods with backwoods trails. 3-5 miles. 

Dear Reader--I walked, and ate conservatively. It was also rainy and cloudy this week somedays I didn't walk. Which were which are exactly what I can't remember. 

My options: If I don't want to spend a lot of extra time in getting anywhere, I choose Sharon Woods, just across the street from me--lovely, areas of seclusion and back trails, sometimes rather crowded. My neighborhood. What I opted for twice this week--one son to me "you can just walk out the door, Mom." Wise son. So I do that sometimes, though the route I take (though I could retrace steps or go down roads I don't, typically) is only about 25 minutes. I can spend 90 in Sharon Woods.

I will try to do more to account for myself!

WEEK OF APRIL 25

Sunday, April 26--Walk at French Park--off main trails, lots of fallen trees and broken bushes across the path, but made. it interesting. Took trails I hadn't before. Over an hour. Strenuous at times. 

Also, slow-paced walk around Summit Park with father-in-law.

Monday, April 26--Weigh in. Down 2 pounds! Nice! Motivating. Today and tomorrow should be nice, so planning on a bike ride after my dentist appt tomorrow on a trail I haven't been on in awhile.

New Commitment (Who Needs New Year for Resolutions?)

Sunday, April 18--A new commitment

I looked at another diet community that promised that they and I would use psychology to lose weight. That I needed to think about food in a new way. 

No. I've done that. This blog reminds me that I've done it and can do it again. I paid attention to myself during this time and did what I knew I needed to do.

Fast (though in some ways it seem so slow and so long) forward, and here we are, perhaps on the cusp of the changing face of a pandemic, perhaps it's only an illusion. The fact is, we don't know. Could other versions of the coronavirus take hold strongly enough that even those of us who have vaxxed up with be subject to the deadly possibilities of essentially a new virus? I can't wait any longer in my house for the day when I'll have all the ways I can be active again, because I don't need to. I drove close to where my work location is to get my haircut, and during rush hour. I hated it, and I remembered that I could spend over an hour in the car to get to my office to sit to do work to go to a meeting where I would sit again, and so on. Yes I walked in between, but not so much that I can't do that at home as well if I incorporate more action, more cardio, and more avoidance of what I shouldn't do and shouldn't have.

I've stopped drinking more than one drink a week, mainly due to GI other medical concerns. It doesn't suit me anymore.

I don't bring in food to my house that I know I'll indulge in, like potato chips or ice cream. 

I eat a 90% vegetarian diet with 10% fish.

And today, I just recommitted to cardio. My one walk per day and a little gentle yoga just won't cut it. I know it. I have to do something about it.

I'm back to P-90 or my other exercise tapes in the morning, and plan to alternate cardio and strength. I will also walk and bike on weekends, but have to develop a workable plan for that. I send Sunday evenings with my 95 year-old father-in-law, so Sunday mornings I need to leave early if I'm going to bike. Soon, my Spring teaching term will end and I can bike weekday mornings. Once it's not 37 degrees when I wake up as it was this morning, that will be an encouraging time to bike 20 miles. 

It doesn't take more time either. I spend far too much time checking social media, or roaming around online, reading what I consider to be interesting things, but which are not helping AT ALL. They contribute to my spreading backside. I will also cancel a couple of streaming services and go back to contributing to PBS Passport and then one other--Netflix or HBO max. I don't spend much time watching television anyway, so I think it makes sense to cancel those things that I do on my butt.

Whew! Lots of commitments, but so far, the proof is yet to come. That's why I'm returning to this. It helped before--why not assume it can help again.