Some good clean exercise...

We have a friend who is an older man.  He has a rental house that was damaged when our city had a big flood a few years back.  He has been working away at the repairs, and is almost ready for final inspection.

We went over to the house with him and helped clean the basement.  It has rock and brick walls with peeling paint, and it was filthy!  We dry-brushed it first, and I think I will be coughing for days.  Thank goodness it is fairly small, and our friend went and got dust masks at my first cough.

After brushing it all down, we scrubbed it with the brushes and then pressure-sprayed it to rinse it.  Fortunately for our poor aching bodies, but  not so fortunately for our friend, the drain wasn't working properly so we stopped partway through.

My husband stepped right in the huge puddle around the drain, splashing both of us.  I wanted to grab the hose and start a water-fight, but it wouldn't have drained, and our friend was wearing a white shirt. I have no idea why.  I think he always wears one.

I can't tell you how good a hot shower felt after all that fun!  We get to go back in two weeks and finish the job.  I'll be sure to do the walks with strength training for the upper body in the meantime--and watch for an opportunity to get a good shot at with my husband with the hose!

Not so Tops today but I'll keep going back anyway for the support

I regained the 7 sticks of butter.  A little is water retention but not all.  I can be glad I stopped there and didn't gain any more than what I lost last week.  This weight loss is tricky.

The people at TOPS are so friendly!  I sit and knit and visit for a while; then the meeting starts and we all have to report in.  There was a lot of gaining this week.  I wonder if the weather has anything to do with it.

My husband and I are sharing a car at the moment, so he dropped  me off and headed off to a doctor appointment.  He wasn't back by the time I was done so I called and started walking to meet him.  I walked for 21 minutes, probably just about a mile. It's fun to walk along, actually looking at the houses and yards as I walk by.  Today was the perfect day for it; warm fall day with just a little breeze to keep me cool.

Memo to self:  next week wear shoes, not flip-flops if there's any chance of walking.

As a consequence to myself for the gain, I get to use a food chart this week and actually record what I eat.  I hate doing that, but it is a good habit to get into.  A couple of the gals said they go through their food charts and circle, in red, all the problem areas.  That sounds like a good idea.

Disclaimer:
the pictures are not from today's walk.  They are just random fall pictures from here and there, which I took over the last two years.

I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more, if I could just get past the first mile.

Today was the day!  I managed to walk my first two miler!  And you know what? It was easy!  Of course it helped that I deliberately picked the one dvd I knew to be the absolutely easiest of all the ones I own.  I figured that if I started with a success, I would be more likely to do another two miles one of these days.

In Search of the Perfect Workout....Perfectionism takes its toll on the walk.

One thing Leslie Sansone stresses in her videos is that you don't have to do it perfectly. If you're moving, that's good enough.

The first couple of weeks, especially, I was just kind of going through the motions, definitely not "perfectly."  I reminded myself that was okay, and I don't have to be such a perfectionist.  I'm in my own living room, and nobody's watching but Anthony, and that's okay because he's not doing it perfectly either, and he loves me anyway, and he is never critical...so I let go of all that perfectionism.  I'm doing just fine; I'm working out in the best way for my body right now as a beginner, so good for me!  I can do this.

Then I turn to my husband and I ask him,  "Did you remember to pull in your abs before you started kicking?" 

Obesity is cramping my style.

Not only do clothes not flatter me, but I get literal cramps when I exercise. That's what being out of shape does to a person, and I know there's only one way to get past it.

Still working out with Leslie, but I sure have to take it slower than I did when I was younger/skinnier.  When I do too many knee lifts in a row, my hip cramps.  I spent a whole night barely sleeping because of shin splints. (I stretch more after a workout now.)

I intend to keep persisting--cramps and all--until I can do a whole mile with no pain.  This may take longer than originally anticipated, but I've got plenty of time.

The Roaring Twenties

I had a less than happy surprise a couple of weeks ago, when I noticed my size 18 jeans are getting snug.


We had a "give and take" swap at our church not long after that, and I picked up a brand-new pair of nice black jeans. 

I put them on after I washed them, and they fit snugly, beautifully, comfortably, and I wore them almost happily. So what's the rub? They are a 20! A 20! I have never before crossed that divide and I am not happy about it. 


The good news is that I lost 1.75 pounds this week. That's 7--count them--7 sticks of butter! It's a fun way to look at it.

 

 Any way you stack it, that's a nice loss of fat. 

It's a good start!

I missed, I missed, I missed like this....

No excuses! I missed a few days but I am back on it now.

Last weekend we drove to Missouri to do some sightseeing. It was beautiful, late summer weather.

We got in too late to swim, so we got up the next morning and went for a swim before we went touring. I had made sure we had a hotel with a pool, so it seemed like we ought to use it. I do find it relaxes me and helps me limber up. Followed by the hot tub, I was ready for the day.

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.