Oh Nuts! Bring on the Elephants!

Some friends took us out to eat at Texas Roadhouse tonight.  I had no problem resisting the lovely white, fresh, homemade rolls, since they are made from wheat flour and drenched in butter, as long as they kept them out from under my nose.  I had a small steak, most of my sweet potato, and picked at my applesauce.  So why do I feel so full?

Oh yeah, it might be the peanuts.  I will know next time to shell a little handful and then ignore the bucket of them sitting close by.  I don't know how many exactly I ate, but it was a lot.

I don't like feeling this full, but at least I decided the clean plate club is for the birds!  I left the uneaten parts of dinner sitting on my plate.  And I had lost a pound. Oh nuts!  I'll have to learn from this; even peanuts are filling if you eat enough of them!

Photo from: http://theheadnut.com/

You'll Be Better at.....

In one of Leslie's videos, she is talking about the benefits of fitness.  She says you'll be a better mother, a better wife, a few other things.  She says you'll be a better...whatever.

I found it amusing because in today's lingo, or maybe it's yesterday's now (by my age you find the decades running together) "whatever" means more like "I don't care."  "Get a life!" 

Well, I guess what it really means it that you'll be better at getting a life.  And she doesn't really care; it's a video, right?  But I care, and my husband cares. In fact he is walking with me on the days we can schedule it together.

Allergies? No, I just can't see or breathe or think...

I think I've always had allergies, but they are getting worse.  Or are they?

When I was a kid, I used to wake up with my eyes so gummed up I couldn't open them.  I had to wash them over and over with warm water to even be able to see.  This went away eventually, but as an adult we had a cat and I realized after a while that I am allergic to cats.

Oven cleaner...forget it.  Can't breathe.  Perfume? Gives me a headache.  Dust? sneeze and congestion.  Prairie wildflowers...yeah, I'm still barely over that one, from last Friday.  Luckily most domesticated flowers don't bother me. 

Today I had a little trouble finding a doctor's office, so I wandered around the complex a bit, and it smelled like weed killer/fertilizer chemicals.  That is one nasty smell, and this afternoon I got a headache.  While I can't say definitively that one caused the other, it's one more reason to do things as naturally as possible.  Meanwhile, my eyes itch again.

The sum of all this is that I am glad to have Leslie Sansone's program, a safe, low impact indoor workout.  At this time of the year, I am best off to be indoors, no matter how nice the weather.

I'm still walking to work, so far at least, and I hope I can keep that up.  The five or ten minutes of sunshine is worth it! 

You missed me, you missed me, now you gotta.....oh never mind that's a different post.

Yesterday I  missed a day of walking.  I had a killer headache so I figured I'd walk when it got better, which usually takes a couple of Excedrin, a good nap, a bunch of food, and a few hours. 

Finally it got better and I procrastinated an hour just to be sure.  Then I got called in to work.  I figured I'd be off by 8 pm and walk then.  Wouldn't you know it, I had to work until 11.

I was so tired and hungry by then I decided to skip it.  It's not a good idea to work out right before bed, right?  Especially after not sleeping well the night before.

So I missed a day already. 

The good news is that I decided to walk first thing this morning. I actually wanted to!  I got up just feeling like I wanted to walk, not like it was a chore I had to do or something I had to drag myself through. Hurray!  I just got up and walked and showered before breakfast.  So now I have walked four miles total.  Hey, it's a start!

Energetic Old Ladies

I want to be like the ladies I saw on a nature walk last Friday.  We went on a "Blue Moon" walk through the prairie.  As we gathered in a group, I just wanted to sit down and go home. It was the first day I started walking with Leslie again, and I didn't know if I could do a mile or so more.  I leaned against my husband's shoulder and sighed deeply, envious of these spry women who were there, seeming as chipper as could be, and they were at least twenty years older than me. 

I know the path is to keep up the exercise and not let things like moving, work, school, and weddings derail me.  They are all great excuses, and with my fibro, they do take a lot out of me.  The problem is that once I stop to rest, I don't get restarted for a year or two.  When we moved two years ago, it was a very emotional move away from most of my children and all my grandchildren, as well as being physically very trying.  One of my sons was actually moving away in the opposite direction at the same time, and that was very hard.  It took all I had just to cope, and somehow I lost my exercise habit along the way.

Believe it or not, two years later we moved again before I started up again.  This time it was just a cross-town move, but still very challenging.  My house is not fully unpacked yet, but I keep poking away at it.  I'm kind of embarrassed to ask my friend over, because she's kind of a neat freak and highly energetic, but I think she knows me well enough to be understanding of why I haven't gotten further.  I think she got hers all done in a weekend.

Anyway, I figure we move every two years or so, so I might as well not let it get in the way anymore. Just start working out, and keep it up for life so I can walk spryly through the prairie at 70, not just dragging through the field like I am now.  I did complete the walk because I didn't want to let my husband down, and I enjoyed parts of it.

In fact, parts of it were magical.  I felt like a teenager at camp again, walking through the dark on the way to campfire, holding hands with a boy I've just met, and all the possibilities of the world opening up to me.  Looking up at the clouds (the Blue Moon was hiding from us) and enjoying the trees, the breeze through the wildflowers, the very noisy insects (once the very noisy children quieted down) and the occasional train passing by.  For some reason I love trains.  The sound of a train whistle is comforting to me.  And the "boy I've just met" is my husband of 32 years, and that's a comfort too.  But sometimes we need magic and I found a bit of it that night out there on the prairie.

Integrity

I've been needing something, anything to motivate me.  Anything!  I set goals and give up, repeatedly.  So what would keep me on target?  I may have found it.

In our church, the young women have a little booklet called "Personal Progress."  It is filled with eight major categories, and you do small goals and then a large project for each category.  As a leader, I am working on the same goals.

One of the categories is Integrity.  I had a project in mind, sewing modest clothing, but it didn't seem quite right, though I do need to get them done.  Still, I don't want a lot of new things that will just discourage me from getting fit, since then my new things will be too big.  Then it hit me exactly what the project should be.

INTEGRITY.  What does it mean?  We usually think of good character, honesty, trustworthiness, etc.  But there are other definitions which I came across when studying the meanings (which is one of the smaller goals.)

INTEGRITY means:

 

1.    adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character;

       honesty.

2.    the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of

       the empire.

3.    a sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition: the integrity of a ship's hull.

 

(dictionary.reference.com)

 

Okay, so number one is what we usually think of, but what about 2 and 3?  

 

1--I haven't been fully committed in obeying the principles of getting enough sleep, enough exercise, and the right portions of food.

 

2--The state of being whole, entire, or undiminished....I need to restore, as much as possible, the integrity of my body. I have let my fitness diminish, languish, be distracted by other things.  I may never overcome the fibromyalgia, but I can at least do my part.  

 

3--A sound, unimpaired, or perfect condition?  Hardly!  fat and unhappy is not quite the same as sound and unimpaired. 

Now, part of 3 is not to confusion perfect with perfectionism.  I did a perfect job of walking yesterday and today.  I did not walk perfectly, or even early, or energetically, but I have a perfect record that I walked both days.  That's good enough for now. I did actually finish up a mile, though it was difficult and not high energy.

Synonyms:

Rectitude, probity, virtue, honor

Antonyms:  dishonesty

We could play thesaurus:  rectitude means

1.   rightness of principle or conduct; moral virtue: the rectitude of her motives.

2.   correctness: rectitude of judgment.

3.   straightness.

 

If I get in shape, I am following right principles of health.  Straightness...stand up straight, dive straight into it...rectitude makes me thinking of standing erect.

 

Probity:    integrity and uprightness; honesty. Not to be confused with propriety, which means: decency, modesty, etiquette, aptness, fitness, seemliness,  correctness.  (oh well, why not that too?  It fits with the theme.  Fitness!)  Am I fit for life?  Am I fit for the things I need to do?  Hardly, but I want to be.  

 

Straightness: (as an adverb) in a straight line: to walk straight; in an even form or position: in an erect posture: to stand up straight; directly: to go straight to a place.  I want to walk, straight to my fitness goal.  Not so much worried about form or position yet, as long as I don't hurt myself, just doing it, but knowing that it will help both my form and posture. 

 

As for my motives:  to honor God an myself by keeping my body as a temple, full of His honor and glory, able to serve Him faithfully in full health, to do my part in His kingdom, in my work, and in my household.

 

And, I admit, to get that purple Integrity ribbon, to complete the entire program and get my medallion.

Another Name Change Coming Up

A while back I changed the name of this blog to "Fit by 55."  The problem I have is that 55 is still a ways into the future, and doesn't do anything to motivate me now.  I am trying to think of a new name that is inspiring and unique.

I thought of Fabulous Fifties, but it's not unique, and it sounds like I am celebrating a retro decade--one I didn't even grow up in! 

Fat-Free Fifties?  I'm not going to go fat-free, and that sounds like a recipes page anyway.  Let's make over all the 50's food to be fat-free.

I have a pinterest board called "No Wheat, No Dairy" and that might work, but the focus isn't as much about the food limitations, though they are a big part of my life right now.  The focus of this page is supposed to be about fitness, but I'm not very fit lately. 

I originally called the board "No Wheat, No Cows"  and I think it's pretty funny--ties in with not looking like a cow either--but again the focus is not on the dietary restrictions so much as it is on taking care of myself in my 50's and not turning into an old lady prematurely.

"The Care and Feeding of a 50+ Body."  Maybe. I think I'm getting closer.  "Soon to Be Senior" brings high school into mind.  "Sexy Senior Citizen"  invites too much spam.  I just can't think of anything catchy.