Day Ten - Sort Of

Technically this is Day 10 since I started on Dec 21^st but let’s give me one more day. You might have noticed that I have not been going whoohoo the last couple of days. Yes, I had some upward mishaps but have since gone down but so far not beyond my 2.6 lbs that I worked my way towards. The good news, however, is that I have not tipped the scales upwards another 5 lbs over the holidays, as I have been wont to do the last 10 years. So that is a big plus. Three cheers for “watching what I eat”. Also, doing some workouts has helped quite a lot as well. [I am back down 2.4 lbs, which is a miracle].

I think key to losing weight or maintaining your weight is to be focused, to be determined and to not give up. It is easy to get discouraged, absolutely, but I hope that you have taken my lead and are taking a look at Richard Simmons’ blog every morning. He is so upbeat and encouraging he just can’t help but kick butt. Do yourself a favour, if you aren’t up to following two blogs, follow Richard first, me second. That is, if you are on a weight loss program. I am not here to do that, it’s just one of the things that a middle aged woman naturally has on her mind.

Menopause is brutal to women in so many aspects of our lives, but one of the biggest and most noticeable is weight gain. For women like me, who never had to think about diets until she got well into her forties, it is a struggle that I bitterly resent. But some 12 years later I think I finally have some solutions to my problem, and one of them is simply recognizing that I cannot eat without thinking. I have to pay attention to what I eat. If I don’t I am going to be really depressed when I get on that scale. The other thing is that I have to step up my exercise and/or activity regime. It is fatal to stay on the couch watching television. Most of the time I am not even really watching TV, I am just vegging. Since I started blogging at least I am sitting down with my hands busy on the keyboard so I don’t have to keep them busy stuffing food in my mouth. For a while when I first hit menopause I was cross-stitiching like mad and that kept my hands busy, but since my eyes (another issue I have with menopause, the eye thing) have deteriorated to such an extent that dim light (aka night time light) makes it impossible to do good work while cross stitiching, I’ve had to give that up as a nighttime hobby.

So Day 10 is a Victory Day for me. One of loss (the good kind), of recognition and of MINDFULNESS.

This picture is of me at Skagen, Denmark, with my feet in 2 oceans.